Size, Of Gift The Issue

SchooT board candidates Tanya Israel and Will Simpson were quite right, of course, to return, with appropriate expressions of gratitude, the very large sums of money proferred their respective campaign. coffers by the Ann Arbor Education Association: But it is the size, not the source, that should be at issue. I am troubled, for instance, by the implications of an inherent conflict in the educators' interest in educational policymaking. I would find a lack of such interest f ar more worrisome. Even as you and I, professional educators are entitled to pass judgment on school board., candi■ dates, and then to lend active support to those they deem most qualified. Indeed, one might cogently argue that the voting public has a right to know, for whatever it's worth, of any clear preferences among those who must help implement the policies that are to be laid down by the board. The teachers and school board are not entitled to a compíetely adversary rëlationship. They are partners in an immensely important project: the education of our kids, whatever that.means or I may come to mean. Only in the occasion: I al circumstance of contract negotiations I do opposition roles become temporarily I appropriate - and even then not entireI ly. For at no time should they abandon I the joint search for the elusive and everI changing answers to the question of how to equip today's youth to cope with the I k.mystery of tomorrow. , I am not suggesting that educators I have some kind of pipeline to the wisdom I of the angels; only that they have a very I specialized and justifiably intense I est in education. It cannot be argued, for I example, that large property holders I ven't an even greater potential for I est conflict, nor can it be said that they I ;tend to travel in graphically seraphic I traffic. Yet, complete disclosure would I jsurely reveal that, over the years, some I candidates have received substantial I sums from just such vested interests, I and apparently without censure. Once I again, it is the size of contribution, not I the source, that should be at issue. Too I , much of any campaign should obviously I not be financed by a single source. An extremely important point appears I ■to have been missed, however, in thel current case_of the teachers: Never be-1 fore'have fïïey moved "so decisively'bTífffn the election battleground. Apparently I ly a small handful of teachers failed to I contribute to this year's campaign fund. They are clearly unhappy, and it would behoove us to find out why. See - the stakes are kind of high.