The League of Women Voters recently hosted a school director candidate forum in West Chester. As a community, we are incredibly fortunate to have the LWV putting in the hard work to provide us with opportunities like this. We do not usually have the opportunity to hear board members talk outside of the confines of a board meeting, or hear from prospective board members unless they happen to knock on our door. Two of the most illuminating moments came during prepared comments.
First, Katy Frey (Region 1) shared that as a member of Generation Z, her K-12 education included active-shooter drills. This is a poignant reminder that schools have changed a lot over the last few decades. It is important that we have some school directors who have first-hand experience with some of the most intense things that are happening in schools right now, and that is a rare kind of experience that does not come with age.
Second, Peggy Schmitt (Region 2) twice mentioned being a Libertarian. I believe that our two-party system is broken, and I support her for looking for a third party to help shake things up. However, Libertarians have some pretty extreme views. For instance, they believe that there should be no public parks and no zoning or environmental controls on land, putting their faith in the free market to take care of it. I am not sure that will work (for reference, see the EPA’s list of Superfund Sites, there are 11 in Chester County).
More importantly, the last time I checked the Libertarian Party’s official platform (which was just now), it included the repeal of all taxes. Now I understand that no one likes taxes, but taxes pay for things that we do like: roads, defense, courts, police, parks, and, yes, public schools. Libertarians believe that these things should be funded by voluntary payments from the citizens. I do not see how a Libertarian can square their anti-tax platform with overseeing a tax-funded school system. It would be like having an atheist appointed to the Papacy.
I would have liked the League to ask candidate Alain Oliver (Region 3) to explain this quote from a piece he wrote for shorecatholics.com:
“Some are quick to assert that since women today can access education, start a career, and have financial freedom in such large numbers, we should unequivocally celebrate this new development. After all, why is it a problem that women are overtaking men academically? The problem is that in an economy where specialists and managers are valued above tradesman, men who do not gravitate towards a college education have fewer work opportunities where they might be reasonably compensated, and this bodes badly for women and their children. Future generations will suffer if men lose work opportunities and women forgo marriage in record numbers, resulting in a dearth of healthy male role models absent from all children’s lives.”
If I am reading this right — and since it relies on neither facts nor logic, it is tough to tell if I am — he believes that girls receiving an education is bad because men will have trouble competing with women for high-paying jobs. He thinks that women will only want to be in lasting relationships with men who outearn them. So he concludes that women taking these jobs will lead to a lack of strong male role models.
And his solution is to publicly whine about it. I think this is maybe a him problem, not an us problem. But at least now we know that, to protect his fragile sense of what it means to be a man, he would prioritize the education of 50% of the students in the WCASD over the other 50%.
Surprisingly, all of the candidates agreed upon one major thing: the process used to hire Dr. David Christopher as the next superintendent was very successful. The incumbents should draw a lot of strength from overseeing that process and take pride in knowing that even their opponents approve of how it was handled.
So I am pulling for the incumbents, Gary Bevilaqua (Region 3), Alex Christy (Region 1), Daryl Durnell (Region 2), and Karen Herrmann (Region 2) to return to the board to continue the good work they have been doing. To replace the outgoing Sue Tiernan, I think Katy Frey would bring an outstanding new perspective to the board.
Will Wood is a small business owner, veteran, and half-decent runner. He lives, works, and writes in West Chester.
