The Daily Herald has retreated from its temporary position as champion of the taxpayer and advocate for open, transparent school board governance, by endorsing Chapmand Ekeberg and Seiffert.
As recently as last October, the daily Herald urged voters to vote “No” to the $27 million bond issue, stating “the whole project seemed like a rush job to cash in on federal dollars”. Back in July, the editorial board scolded the school board for signing a deal with former Superintendent Dan Lukich which contained a gag order, going so far as to write “It’s the taxpayers who are left gagging.” Yes, indeed, we are all left gagging today by the Herald’s incredibly stupid, hypocritical endorsement of the very people who brought us the ill-conceived bond issue and the secret Lukich deal.
Apparently the Daily Herald editorial board just fell off the turnip truck on the way into the big city from Podunk IL, (it’s a good thing too, because they could never survive in the big city) and they believe that Chapman and Ekeberg are born again fiscal conservatives who “share the challengers’ sense of urgency on financial matters and many of their best ideas on the district’s educational needs”. More accurately, Chapman and Ekeberg are pretending to share that sense of urgency, pretending to be serious about re-opening the teacher’s union contract, and pretending to care about what our kids learn in school. Remember, Chapman and Ekeberg voted against making strengthening the curriculum a core goal of our district. I think they voted “aye” to “ensuring that every member thinks the same thoughts, votes the same way as Chapman, and keeps their mouths shut in public” as a core District 15 goal. As for Dave Seiffert, the man can’t construct a simple grammatically correct sentence (see his Daily Herald candidate profile) – but then I suppose he will fit right in with a crew that doesn’t care about curriculum.
Maybe the Herald wants to keep the incumbents in power so that they can scold them in future editorials, make themselves look like champions of open government, and sell more newspapers. I can’t think of any other reason why the Herald would endorse the very people who are dragging District 15 into financial ruin. Can you?
Read the full endorsement here:
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110316/discuss/703169847/
