Community members are at each other's throats after the Madison school board catastrophe

Ruth Conniff:

Sarah Manski did a lot of damage to Madison on her way out of town.

When she won the school board primary, sucking up endorsements from prominent local officials -- apparently knowing all the while that she might not be hanging around to sit on the board -- she did a major disservice to our community. As Madison Times editor A. David Dahmer observed, her highhanded use of the school board seat as a "backup plan" smacks of contempt for the people who care deeply about what is happening in our schools. Those people happen to include both of Manski's opponents: school-policy blogger and educator TJ Mertz and Ananda Mirilli, a longtime advocate for Madison youth who's on the board of the Spanish immersion charter school Nuestro Mundo.

Since Manski withdrew after she won the primary, her name -- and not third-place finisher Mirilli's -- will appear on the ballot. That has convinced a lot of people of color that white liberals, including school board member Marj Passman, deliberately colluded to keep a woman of color off the board.

Much more on the 2013 Madison School Board Election, here.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 8, 2013 7:19 AM
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