Will Newtown Get A Choice For School Board?

Newtown’s political town committees are currently coming up with the lists of candidates they intend to recommend to the party caucuses later this month. And once again we wait to see if the town’s Republican and Democratic party leaders have decided to give voters no choice of candidates for the Board of Education.

In the past, party leaders, and quite often school board members themselves, have defended the system of allowing a small number of people on the executive and nominating committees of the two town committees to hand pick candidates to run without opposition. They say they want to keep the school board “non-political.” This rationale suggests that contested school board elections would somehow be tainted by the argument and discord of an election campaign. Everyone should pull together in unanimity for something as precious as the education of our children, the argument goes.

Let’s not fool ourselves. This kind of unanimity is not far from the kind of unanimous acclamation the old-style Soviet leaders used to accord themselves on behalf of the populace. It’s bogus.

This year, the Board of Education’s budget is $42.4 million, or 58 percent of the town’s total spending. By no means has the current school board been negligent in its duty to reconcile educational excellence with fiscal responsibility. Board members have worked hard to maintain a reputable school district in the face of shrinking state support and tough budget restrictions imposed by the Legislative Council. Each of the three board members up for reelection this year has a good record to run on. But that does not mean they should be absolved of having to debate important issues, such as class size, or the new extended class schedule at the high school, or spending priorities at each of the town’s six public schools.

A biennial airing of issues affecting public education in Newtown in the context of a local election would be healthy exercise and would ultimately benefit our schools. If we are going to settle for anything short of that, we should simply make the school board an appointed board and be done with the charade that it is a democratically elected representative body.

Democratic Town Committee Chairman Earl J. Smith said this week that he prefers not to contest seats on the school board for fear of pitting Democrats against Democrats. To her credit, the chairman of both the Republican Town Committee. Marie Sturdevant, said that she is not averse to running more than one candidate for each seat up for election this year, provided the committee can find qualified candidates. It is that proviso, however, that has screened out everyone but incumbents and party selections for vacancies for the past eight years. That excuse, while it may sound like political cover for a desire to give party incumbents a free ride, is probably becoming increasingly valid. Finding good candidates is a tough job.

The proportionate pool of prospective candidates for both the Republican and Democratic parties has been shrinking year after year as more and more voters register without party affiliation. And party leaders are loath to reward people who have snubbed them in the registrars’ office with a party-endorsed spot on the local ballot.  If the trend continues, however, they may have to reach out to unaffiliated voters and nominate them if they are interested and qualified. They may find that the best way to win converts is to be the party that best represents the interests of the voters. And the best way to do that is to respect the voters enough to give them a choice on Election Day.