Silveira is right choice for School Board

A letter to the editor
Dear Editor: For years I have been fairly passive about working on local campaigns, but this year the School Board election has me so alarmed that I feel I have to do more than just vote or put up a yard sign.

Anyone who has attended recent forums has seen Arlene Silveira continually giving superior answers to all questions because she is much more familiar with the issues schools face today. Arlene has gained her information through experience and study. She has put in her time supporting our schools and not attacking them.

While some think her opponent is a nice person, I have never seen any sense of depth on educational matters coming from her; in fact, most of her answers at forums are non-answers, attacks on school administrators or worse, naive and unrealistic proposals to save money.

I have not heard one positive statement about our schools made by those candidates endorsed by the people behind the "school info systems" blog.

We have one candidate who states that parents of younger children haven't been "tainted" by our schools yet and who has called Fitchburg parents "whiners" because they didn't get a school. A second candidate promises we can have all the programs we want if we just get rid of more administrators. Since these people have no trust in our schools and believe every bit of information given to them is flawed, how are we possibly going to get a positive dialogue going on the real, substantive issues facing our schools? Frankly, the incessant attacks on our schools are beginning to wear thin.

For honest answers to our problems I suggest going to two Web sites:

1) www.mmsd.org. Read under "Hot Topics - Recently Answered Questions" and discover, among other things, that school administrators have been reduced by 28.4 percent over the last six years with four more administrators up for elimination in next year's budget. This means that the remaining administrators are doubling, tripling and even quadrupling their responsibilities.

2) www.arleneforschoolboard.com for a truly reasonable discussion of issues characterized by good judgment and sound thinking.

Personally, I don't want angry, negative people running our schools, and so this is not an election to be neutral about. It is time for the press and our entire community to support a candidate who wants to take an already great school system and make it even better. It is Arlene Silveira's confidence in our schools as well as her quiet dignity and intelligence that we need on our School Board.

Marjorie Passman
Madison

The Capital Times
Published: March 15, 2006

Posted by at March 15, 2006 8:26 PM
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