To the editor: \u00a0<\/p>\n
The upcoming School Board election is nonpartisan which means that candidates by law are not affiliated with, nor should they make decisions based on, any political party\u2019s platform or beliefs. Nonpartisan school board members are elected to make educationally sound, not politically motivated, \u00a0decisions for the students, teachers and parents in the district. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The primary on Aug. 18 will probably decide the make-up of next school board. \u00a0Want to learn more about where the School Board candidates stand on the important educational issues facing our Lee County schools? \u00a0<\/p>\n
Good luck! \u00a0An inquiring voter has a lot of leg work to do. \u00a0Voters are basically on their own. \u00a0<\/p>\n
What about a district-wide candidate forum where each candidate answers the same set of questions? \u00a0It\u2019s interesting how the same question prompts very different and revealing information.\u00a0However,\u00a0surprisingly not one of the self-proclaimed \u201cconservative\u201d incumbent school board members running for re-election or a new candidate who says he is \u201cconservative\u201d showed up to answer questions at the WGCU\/League of Women Voters candidate forum on July 9. Responses from those who attended could have been viewed in real time, but if you missed it, view it now on each organization\u2019s YouTube channel. \u00a0<\/p>\n
What about \u00a0Vote411.org \u00a0the League of Women Voters candidate information site? \u00a0Find candidate answers to thought-provoking questions. \u00a0And, find out which candidates don\u2019t even bother to respond.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Check out Lee.Vote to learn who finances and manages each candidate? \u00a0As always it\u2019s instructive to \u201cfollow the money.\u201d \u00a0Check out the candidate\u2019s website for more about their educational approach, but, guess what, not all candidates even list a website. \u00a0Facebook? \u00a0Well some have a page, but as we know what you proclaim about yourself is not as educational as hearing responses to hard questions in real time. \u00a0There used to be a spot on Lee.Vote for the candidates to upload a photo and a bio. Not any more \u2014 apparently the software wasn\u2019t working properly \u2014 so voters no longer have that source of information. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I think I see a pattern emerging. \u00a0\u00a0What\u2019s a voter to do in this critical important primary election? \u00a0Why won\u2019t some of the candidates show up and show us \u2014 the voters \u2014\u00a0the respect our democracy requires by answering hard questions?<\/p>\n
Madelon V. Stewart, Ed.D<\/p>\n
Samuel B. Stewart, Ed.D<\/p>\n
Fort Myers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: \u00a0 The upcoming School Board election is nonpartisan which means that candidates by law are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-351500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}