Maya Cole is best for School Board

Jim Zellmer:

Dear Editor: The election of Maya Cole to the Madison School Board is the best choice for Madison's future generations.

Our public schools face a number of challenges, including flat or declining enrollment (despite a growing metropolitan area), providing our children with a world-class curriculum and significantly improving taxpayer confidence in the budget process so that referendums pass.

Maya's advocacy for much stronger school district interactions with the city and local community groups, of which Madison has many, is a smart approach to increasing parent and public support (and therefore enrollment and resources) for the school district. The district has, under some current board members, declined community opportunities, such as Fitchburg biotech powerhouse Promega's offer of free land for a school in the mid-1990s. That land became Eagle School.

Maya has extensively discussed improving the district's curriculum by working closely with local world-class resources, such as the University of Wisconsin and adjacent higher education institutions. Maya's words stand in stark contrast to the district's current efforts to reduce curriculum choices and quality for our next generation.

Maya notes that many school districts provide taxpayers with a detailed school-by-school budget and a long-term forecast. Transparency and long-term budget information are critical to taxpayer support for future referendums.

I'm supporting Maya Cole, a Madison parent of three young children who attend our public schools, for Seat 1, and I hope you do as well.

Jim Zellmer
Madison

Published: February 17, 2006

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 18, 2006 12:36 PM
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