James Howard voted in favor of Madison Prep. I moved to approve the proposal, but delay opening until September 2013. The current plan to open Madison Prep in September, 2012 on a smaller scale and as a private school is consistent with the approach I advocated. If the two Board members elected in April support Madison Prep as well, that seems like four votes to me.

I'd have a difficult time supporting someone who was a single-issue candidate, but it appears he has a surrogate from the Urban league to run for the board. One thing I firmly believe is that Board members really don't have that much influence on how the district is managed. I wonder if Board members feel they do have a lot of influence in this arena?

I agree with dadanonymous that the board has little or no management influence, nor leadership influence. Though I see enough frustration with the lack of progress that a takeover of the board by the Urban League and others, especially if SB22 or similar bill is passed, will occur and MMSD will be converted into all charter district. That may be a better solution than sucking the money out of the public schools, slowly, to fund for-profits and general corporate takeover.

That said, such a takeover may not be undeserved. The diddling with one program or another and expecting major improvements is unrealistic, as is the seriousness of "long term" thinking, when kids do not have, and cannot afford, to wait "long term" to get the necessary education; once a kid is lost, they are lost forever.

I certainly don't see the result of charter schools as being positive for students overall (there will be no positive change), but the excitement and promises will liven up the debate. Charters as well as public schools fail because both the educational establishment, as well as the society as a whole work against becoming educated.

How can a society be successful when 100% of the people with influence (journalists, politicians, CEOs, tv personalities) are wrong 100% of the time about 100% of the issues?

A heavy dose of tongue-in-cheek but the Onion ran with the best story of 2011 that sums up the state of this country: "Steve Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple Computers and the only American in the country who had any clue what the f**k he was doing, died Wednesday at the age of 56. "

I find it interesting that Nichelle Nichols is being portrayed as a "surrogate" for Kaleem Caire and a single issue candidate before she has said one thing about her platform or position. Really?

Are we back to the character assassination mode of vetting candidates that I went through when I first ran (and perpetrated by the same folks)? How about we let EACH candidate explain their positions and pick the ones that we think will do the best job?

There is an opportunity to learn about how the district is functioning and consider how we think it should function. But the opportunity is wasted if we allow this election to devolve into simplistic statements that cannot be supported by evidence or fact.