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Douglas County School Board's revolutionary times
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School Board Winners Benevento, Silverthorn, Chris Holbert, Carson and Gerken
There is a saying, “give the people what they want, and they'll come out for it.” It appears the citizens of Douglas County, CO wanted to see Big Labor’s hand picked school board candidates kicked out of office and that’s just what the citizens delivered this 2009 election year. The 2009 race saw a 72% increase in voter turnout over the last school board election. A total of 45,180 voters cast mail-in ballots this year. When the ballots were counted, the GOP backed candidates ran the table.
In most election years, our local economy has been healthy and school money issues take a back seat. This past year, the school district had a significant drop off in revenues. Instead of making any significant cuts in areas that affect Union workers, the board decided to make cuts in services to school children and their parents. The board cut school bus routes, putting the onus on parents to get their kids to school and sparing the Union workers from any significant hardship. It appears that this decision to cut bus routes was the last straw for many of the voters in the 2009 election. It’s not like the American Federation of Teachers has a good track record concerning school kids. See this quote: “When school children start paying union dues, that 's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.” Albert Shanker, AFT President, Congressional Record, August 1985.
The GOP candidates held a victory party on election night at the home of one of the candidates. It goes without saying that they were in a good mood.
DCGOP Chairman John Ransom said “We did something for the kids in the County and that’s neat. Our children’s education is too important to be left to the Union.”
Dan Gerken the winner in District D said “I look forward to following through on what we ran on in choice in education, pay for performance and transparency.
Doug Benevento the winner in District E stated “I am honored that the people of Douglas County chose me.”
Meghann Silverthorn, the winner in District G said “I am humbled by the support the voters have shown me and I truly look forward to delivering outstanding education to Douglas County.”
Meghann’s Husband, Jeff, called in from out of state to say how proud he is of his wife. Mr. Silverthorn is preparing for a deployment to Iraq.
All indications are that John Carson, the winner in District B, will be the new President of the Douglas County School Board. Carlson stated his goals for this term. He wants to implement more parental choice and to have parents have more say in their child’s educations. At one of the debates in the runup to the election, Carson was paired with Sue Catterall. She got some of her facts reversed and a lesser opponent would have pounced on her error, especially in this election cycle where the Union people challenged the GOP endorsed candidates for competence. Carson deftly fixed Ms. Catterall’s error and made it sound like she was merely making a new point. This kindness and understanding shown by Mr. Carson will serve him well in his new role as President of the School Board.
It only took defeated DC School Board President Kristine Turner a New York Minute to do her Dede Scozzafava impression: “I am planning to switch my party affiliation to an unaffiliated voter, as I don’t want to be associated with the foul type of behavior that the Douglas County Republicans have displayed,” Kristine Turner wrote in an email to the Colorado Independent.
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