Sirota Enters My Friend’s School Board Race - Loaded With Whoppers - UPDATED
Although I’m a resident of Denver normally I wouldn’t bother to write about local issues, such as a school board race, as this is not a blog focused on any particular geographic location and frankly school board elections are pretty much snooooze newzzz. However one of the candidates for the Denver School Board in the current election, Emily Sirota, happens to be married to David Sirota. And on Friday he just put up a piece about the election at Salon titled “W enters my wife’s school board race”. Yes, “that” W.
He then goes on to conclude that local politics have been totally hijacked by large Republican, corporate interests and that his wife, just trying to run a little neighborhood campaign, is a victim of these nefarious forces. Well, if Sirota thinks this is worthy of a piece in Salon then I guess it should at least merit a reference at Rumproast, especially since I actually happen to reside in the school district in question, have four kids who’ve graduated from Denver Public Schools and follow DPS issues closely, and have known Sirota’s opponent, Anne Rowe, for years since our kids were in the same elementary school.
Therefore I consider myself uniquely qualified to fact check this pack of lies that Sirota attempts to pass off as some sort of responsible journalism. Which starts off with the title. George Bush has, in fact, nothing to do with the school board elections. He did happen to be in town the other day for a roundtable discussion on education but did not make any reference to the Sirota/Rowe race or the school board election in general.
Sirota begins by whining about Emily’s opponent “attacking” her and their 11 month old son with a “a slickly produced, oil-CEO-financed flier”. He then goes on to bemoan the lost innocence of local school board politics.:
Six months ago, when my wife, Emily, decided to run for a school board seat here in Southeast Denver, I was (perhaps naively) expecting what we used to get from the most local of local races for such part-time, unpaid positions: lots of door knocking, a few yard signs, maybe a barbecue or two — all the wholesome activities that were once staples of local political Americana.
Emily knew it would be a tough race against her opponent, a deep-pocketed investment banker, but she felt confident she could run a solid campaign.
So early into the piece and so chock full of juicy lying goodness.
The “slickly produced flier” points out the difference between Anne’s extensive experience volunteering both in her/our local school, volunteering for the school district as a whole including serving on advisory boards to the district and her experience as a community volunteer and foundation board member in general. Emily, she points out, does not have anywhere close to this level of involvement in school and local politics and is, in fact, a relatively recent resident of the area. Attack? You decide. Relevant information to decide which candidate possesses a better skill set for the job? I think so.
And the Sirotas were naive indeed in believing that running for the DPS board would consist of backyard barbecues and schmoozing their neighbors. Politics in DPS have been highly rancorous in recent years due to the reform programs that were initiated by former superintendent Michael Bennet (now our Senator) and carried on by his hand-picked successor. Reform=change and many people fight change tooth and nail. But it is hard to argue that DPS is not badly in need of change with graduation rates only slightly above 50% district wide and thousands of kids lagging several grade levels behind. Currently the 7 member board is split 4-3 in favor of the reforms which consist of re-designing failing schools to emulate successful models both within and without the district. As a result of the split many board meetings have been marked with open dissension, fighting and recriminations. Anyone following DPS politics even moderately closely would be aware of this and recognize that being on the board would be a tough job.
Wait, you may be saying. How has Anne Rowe been able to rack up all this volunteer and board experience while raising three kids and carving out a career as a “deep-pocketed investment banker”? Perhaps because she is, in fact, not an investment banker. This is one of the most glaring lies of all in a piece riddled with lies and insinuations. Anne’s biography, as listed on her website, notes that she was in investment banking for a few years after college but has been a small business owner for the last 20 years or so. This is someone that I have known, remember, for the last 15 years. As far as I can tell he pulled “deep-pocketed investment banker” straight out of his butt. Or he was misinformed but could not be bothered to check the details on her website in the interests of accurate reporting. Did he deliberately misstate her current profession and make up the “deep-pocketed” part or was he misinformed and didn’t bother to check into it? I report, you decide.
He then goes on to bemoan that our naif Emily thought that $500 scraped together by a group of friends was a WONDERFUL huge contribution to her campaign only to be crushed by the news that Anne was being showered with BIG money. I guess Emily fainted dead away when the Denver Classroom Teachers Association gave her $22,500 as well as pledging another $10,000-20,000 in in-kind assistance. There is no question that Rowe is outperforming Sirota overall in fund raising but David’s contention that the donations are coming from big out of state investors is simply not borne out by the facts as outlined in the linked Denver Post article.
It is also relevant that Emily has received signficant assistance from DCTA. As I mentioned earlier many people strongly oppose change. The Denver teacher’s union leadership can be counted in that category. The union has fought the reforms tooth and nail in every way they could. A big part of this is that the reform schools are applying for a Colorado Board of Education “innovation schools” status. Being an innovation school means that the teachers can agree to work a slighly longer day and a few more days in the school year* without agreement from the union. In addition principals have much greater autonomy in hiring and firing decisions. Note that the teachers at the school must agree to this status and that they do not give up any other union protections such as pay, benefits, seniority, grievance resolution, etc.**
Anne Rowe has been outspoken that she supports innovation schools and the reforms. This is why she’s been endorsed not only by the mayor (who made DPS reform a hallmark of his campaign and has his kids in DPS) but also by the Denver Post as well as business and community leaders. Everyone in the community benefits when you have a strong successful school district.
Sirota then goes on to begin juggling apples,oranges and shiny objects. One thing that has never entered the campaign is the subject of vouchers. I mean, the voter make-up of Denver is about 83% Democratic. This is not a town that even wants to begin a voucher discussion. It ain’t gonna happen. Yet he links at least two articles referencing voucher issues in red counties surrounding Denver. He also points to cases of Republicans infiltrating school boards in other areas - presumably to start funneling vouchers out to the population. Remember that 83% Democratic statistic up there? Good luck with that here Rethugs. The greater point here is that these are not issues being discussed at all in this campaign by anyone except Sirota who seems to be dragging them in mainly for dramatic effect.
The real fight going on in Denver is for the minds and futures of Denver’s children. The status quo is not working for them. Sure, my kids got a good eduction in our southeast Denver schools that overflow with heavy parental involvement. But thousands of kids are not getting that and positive change needs to happen. As the saying goes, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. And we all know what the definition of insanity is. Portraying the reformers as Republican stooges who are trying to sneak vouchers in the back door is foolish and irresponsible. Sorry Emily. My vote’s with Anne.
*We’re not talking sweat shop stuff here either. I believe the average is 1/2 hour longer school day and about 5-6 more school days per year.
**I should also make it clear that I’m not criticizing Denver teachers in any way. All my kids have gone through Denver schools and I have been nothing but grateful for the many highly dedicated, talented and all around wonderful teachers that we have encountered in their schools. The union leadership? Not so much. Sorry.
UPDATED: Edited somewhat to correct the fact that Anne Rowe was an investment banker for a few years after she graduated from college but is not NOW and has not been for at least 20 years. Sorry I missed that piece when I looked at her bio. Thanks to commenters for pointing this out.
Posted by marindenver on 10/23/11 at 04:45 PM • Permalink
Categories: Messylaneous • Politics • Manic Progressives •
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