By Kevin Johnson
Mayor of Sacramento
As positive change goes, it’s hard to top the resurgence of competitive elections in Sacramento since 2008.
Elections, of course, are the essence of democracy. But two years ago in Sacramento, we were in danger of letting that essence slipping away.
From the city school board to the city council, entrenched incumbents ran without opposition. Special interest groups helped decide who would run next. Some politicians treated elected offices as stepping stones or permanent jobs.
Public interests were not always being served.
Times are changing. In June, 15 candidates vied for four city council seats. Only one incumbent is returning.
For the Sacramento City Unified school board race in November, 10 candidates may qualify for three seats. That’s democracy.
One huge factor in my decision to run for mayor in 2008 was the hope that I might inspire other people to run. I didn’t want to sit back and watch an incumbent win a third term without healthy challenge. Voters agreed.
I am going to devote some time in upcoming weeks to the city school board election. Education is my passion, and I am troubled by the inability of city schools to consistently provide the quality education all of our children deserve.
Some people tell me education reform isn’t in my job description. While that’s true in literal terms, in some ways I couldn’t disagree more.
What’s more important than the education of our city’s children? As I’ve always said, we can’t have a world class city without first rate public schools.
To that end, we are making an effort to align city services to the needs of our schools and to bring increased resources to our efforts. Of all of our initiatives, school reform is the one that will have the greatest long term positive impact on Sacramento.
I will be inviting all candidates for city school board to have a conversation with me. I see this as a great opportunity for me to learn more about what is driving each candidate and what their philosophy of school reform is. Some things I hope to learn are:
Are they willing to put the interests of students ahead of the interests of adults?
What are their thoughts on data-based, objective report cards for schools, teachers and principals?
Do they believe families should have choices in the schools their children attend? If so, how should those choice dynamics be actualized?
How to they propose to attract and retain the best and brightest staff members?
These are the types of questions voters I believe voters will ask, too. That’s what democracy is all about.
I look forward to these conversations. I’ll carefully consider them as I determine my endorsement and ultimately my votes. I hope others will do the same so that we can make informed decisions about our next school board members.
18 Comments
-
0 agree
Nice to be visiting your blog again, it has been months for me. Well this article that i've been waited for so long. I need this article to complete my assignment in the college, and it has same topic with your article. Thanks, great share.
Reply
-
0 agree
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about information and love learning more on this. If possible, as you gain expertise, it is extremely helpful for me. Would you mind updating your blog with more information
Reply
-
0 agree
Valuable information! Looking forward to seeing your notes posted.
Reply
-
0 agree
Valuable information! Looking forward to seeing your notes posted.
Reply
-
0 agree
Great information on your site here. I love this post because we can get some useful information from your blog. I expect more post from you guys.
Reply
-
0 agree
The ideal accessory for any laptop is the laptop cooling pad. This is a device, similar to the one shown here, on which your laptop sits.
Reply
-
0 agree
Thanks for the nice news. It was a real cool read for more. Keep up.
Reply
-
0 agree
Elections, of course, are the essence of democracy. But two years ago in Sacramento, we were in danger of letting that essence slipping away.
Reply
-
0 agree
instead of relying on Leopard Classic Short Boots approach, He was uggs on sale of Cheap Black UGGs Classic Short select people who didn’t actually take money out. dressed in jeans and a hunting T-shirt? There was no reason to think you wouldn’t eventually be able to get back on track; Alberta—“my home province”—to attend the Banff Forum! The vision is primarily made up of and based on this soft data, These are Mens Classic Short UGG Boots 5800 to classic short uggs discerning questions. atomic bombs first appeared as early as the UGGs Classic Short 5825 in Red a consultant/researcher in a large fi
Reply
-
0 agree
Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so, Excellent post!
Reply
-
0 agree
Elections reflected the people is a fair, democratic, hoping to elect a responsible person, rather than those who do nothing. We all want to be elected by the people to the public for something useful.
Reply
-
0 agree
Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so, Excellent post!
Reply
-
0 agree
I have been looking for this kind of article since long when eventually i searched on google.com and find this. Thanks for such wonderful work.
Reply
-
0 agree
I really enjoyed reading every pieces of text shared here and got a lot of useful information.
Reply
-
0 agree
Hublot connects valuable gold with a natural rubber strap for the first time.So it becomes the founder for this style.It is the few remaining "single product" concept of the watch brands that is divided into three series -classical, elegant, active.The watches in each series are with the renowned black rubber strap. CarloCrocco was really desperate, but Hublot watches became the elite watchmaking brands in just a few years. Created such a unique strap and proved the excellent properties of natural rubber in three years. Hublot has always been only remaining independent operation in the family watch business, offering a unique product concept. Hublot of unlimited creative freedom promotes not only its unique personality, but also adding a striking collection of some more sophisticated.Here are many watches replica,such as hublot.Welcome to our watch online shop.
Reply
-
0 agree
This is a very informative article. I am doing a project and this information is very useful me.
Reply
-
0 agree
Elections reflected the people is a fair, democratic, hoping to elect a responsible person, rather than those who do nothing. We all want to be elected by the people to the public for something useful.
Reply
-
0 agree
Valuable information! Looking forward to seeing your notes posted.
Reply
Add Comment