Education Matters US

A forum was held for the Grayslake District 46 school board candidates this past Monday night. It was sponsored by the PTO and moderated by one of its members. I know the moderator was changed to try and make the forum more unbiased, expecially since one of the candidates belongs to the PTO. However, it appears that there was still some bias present. How do I know that. Simple, my wife attended and provided the moderator with several quetions in writing as requested. The forum ended nearly 20 minutes early and yet not a single one of those questions were asked. It seems the PTO wanted to make sure only fluff questions were asked instead of some more detailed and direct questions.

The Daily Herald has published it Q&A with the candidates along with an article about the forum Monday night. You can find plenty of Q&A at the following links:

• Q&A: Grayslake Elementary District 46
• Dist. 46 hopefuls speak up at forum
• Candidates address District 46 challenges
• School Board Candidate Responses

Please take the time to read the above articles. It will lead you to the best candidates that will serve the children of this district and the taxpayers.

I am not endorsing candidates this election cycle, but I will tell you which candidates I like/don’t like and why.

• Mike Linder (Like)
  • Real world business experience
  • Retired so he has time to research and become knowledgable about many topics
  • Won’t be bullied
• Aaron Bernau (Like)
  • Financial/budgetary experience
  • Public service experience and transparency with community
  • New to schools distticts and has a lot to learn is main drawback, but can be overcome
• Sue Facklam (Like)
  • Financial experience within the district
  • Very good work ethic in researching issues most of the time
  • Could be more transparent with community however
• Nadia Shams-Ahmed (Don’t Like)
  • Too focused on helping the kids in here school instead of the entire district
  • Too willing to blindly follw the education establishment wishes and not the wishes of the community
• Mary Garcia (Don’t Like)
  • Teacher Union Vice President – Would you want a union rep helping to negotiate a contract for the board? Not me. It’s a complete conflict of interest.