Wilmington’s Leadership and Education
It is pretty normal to go to any Wilmington civic meeting and have at least part of that meeting focused on a discussion of improving educational opportunities for kids in the city. This is a good thing, because it is pretty clear that residents know that education is important for this kids; they know that the city is full of kids who need some additional help here and they know that it will be easier for the city to stabilize if it has great schools available to all of its kids. City Leadership from both the Administration and the City Council enthusiastically join in these discussions, carving out their own place in the Amen Corner here and showing themselves as on the same page with what their constituents want. It is a bad thing because none of these meetings is a school board meeting and I have never witnessed one of these discussions where any government official: 1) explained that the City of Wilmington has no authority over the schools in the city; 2) encouraged people to actually take all of this energy to a school board meeting where something could be done to address those concerns or 3) encouraged people to get out to vote in a school district referendum.
Yesterday, the Christina referendum to fund their operations failed at the ballot box. (Pandora may have more on this.) You’d think that if the City’s Leadership was actually concerned about this issue, they would have been out in front to get the voices concerned with education out to the polls yesterday. I didn’t see any effort here — did you? Theo Gregory put on a day long education seminar about education issues some weeks back, but where was the effort to get Wilmingonians out to the polls to support the referendum?
Theo Gregory is not the only offender here. The last Town Hall meeting Mayor Williams did had Bebe Coker and the Mayor’s Strategy Chief (?) having on at some length about education. Everyone pretty much as the same spiel of the importance of education to our kids, but no one tells anyone that this conversation is pretty useless unless it happens at a schoolboard meeting. It is always disappointing to be in a meeting that diverts participants from the issues that the City can actually help resolve (trash, crime, economic development) to education issues — issues that the city has little power or leverage to address. The city’s real leverage is in constituents who are interested in improvements, so putting some elbow grease into a GOTV for a referendum or even to get people to school board meetings seems to be the only way to try to help people get the changes they need. It is time to start asking these folks what their commitment to education is when they are happy to join in the complaints but won’t use their leadership positions to get folks engaged where the desired change can actually happen.
Tags: Bamboozled!, City of Wilmington, Mayor Dennis Williams, Wilmington City Council
AMEN and ALLELUIA!!!
Cassandra for Council President in 2016.
Unofficial results of Christina Referendum here:
http://electionsncc.delaware.gov/Christina/2015/ch_ref15a.shtml
By my count there were 7 places within the boundaries of the City of Wilmington where one could vote on the referendum. At those 7 places a total of 464 votes were cast.
Criteria to vote:
– You may vote in this election if you:
Show proof of identity and address;
Are a U.S. and Delaware citizen;
Are at least 18 years old; and
Live in the Christina School District
People may vote at any Polling Place on the below list from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. on the day of the election.
Enough talk, you must ACT to influence change.
Now see, why wouldn’t the City’s leadership at least try to GOTV for this referendum? At least it would give all of the folks who want to address education issues a place to start. Thanks for that data, AGovernor.
Before moving to Wilmington a little over two years ago, my spouse and I both had histories of significant activism and engagement in support of public schools. Our respective kids all went to public schools and we were both very involved in support. We are also political junkies so you’d think this stuff would come easy for us. But it took us two years here to: l. Learn which of the myriad of school districts we live in. (we rent and are retired so we don’t receive a tax bill that might be a clue). 2. When the board elections are. 3. Where to vote. There is virtually no promotion of school board, bond issue or tax issue elections in this area of what, 9 school districts? It seems hidden and silent. Though espousing support for public ed, the Democratic party is silent on these matters locally, not even publishing upcoming school elections. the NJ hardly covers except after the fact and we read it voraciously. Finally, with this recent failed tax vote for Christina, we searched for information on voting places. Us fairly savvy internet and social media users and driven political junkies took about 1/2 hour to find a voting place near us online. Then, discovered the polls were open 10 to 8. After driving there at 8:30. My spouse was leaving town so couldn’t wait till 10 am; I found the place which had one sign, and at noon, my second trip there this a.m. And you had to ring a bell for someone to unlock the front door and wait for response. I was the second person to vote. The group promoting the tax increase emailed me after I conveyed to them my outrage about their inept promotion, that the polls opened at 10 because that was what the Election Dept. allowed. Talk about voter suppression ! The boards either don’t want voter participation or don’t have a clue as to how to promote and communicate about elections. I suspect the former.