Whose school board is it?

Today's Nashville Scene has several important things to consider in their most recent article about the Nashville School Board.

According to this Scene article David A. Fox , founder of the NashvillePost has picked up papers to run for the 8th District seat currently held by Kathleen Harkey.

For a few months, a loose-knit group that includes wealthy megabusinessmen Orrin Ingram and Tom Cigarran, Adventure Science Center CEO Ralph Schulz, union leader Don Driscoll and Sperling, among others, has met informally to contemplate the future of public education in Nashville.
(snip)
“This isn’t anything yet,” says Driscoll, president of SEIU Local 205, who refers to the group as “some guys who have had coffee on Friday mornings to talk about elections.” “What we’re all concerned about is that we have a strong school board and that we do some work in the community that is good for schools…. People have had some discussions about working together and identifying good school board candidates in the election.”

Seems to me that Mr. Driscoll's biggest concern not long ago was increasing the sales tax in Nashville so his union members could obtain raises. Now he's concerned enough about who is on the board to be actively advocating for candidates. Candidates that may be more willing to provide those raises and benefits?

And also from Bruce's article [Correction--John Spragens is actually the author.]

Others would say an effective board did try to take care of that, only to be undermined by Garcia apologists—many of whom hail from the business community, Williamson County ZIP codes and private schools, and who run in the same social circles as the party-hopping schools director. “It really doesn’t affect them if school starts on the 17th, or if a principal is transferred midyear; they haven’t really experienced it,” says one Harkey supporter.

I'll beat this drum one more time. If you're not from the neighborhood, if they're not your children, if it's not your money going to pay for all of this, you need to sit down and be quiet.

If out of towners and union heads crafting the schools we pay for and our children attend bothers you...it's time to step up. Bob Krumm is more blunt about it and the folks commenting on his blog entry have some great insights.

Finally, if you haven't read the Bruce Berry's [Correction--Bruce's last name is actually spelled Barry] blog entry "Shilling for Pedro" you may want to catch up.

UPDATE: 5/24/06--It's been brought to my attention that there were some errors in this post. I'm happy to make the corrections as noted in the text above. My apologies to both gentlemen.