May 15, 2009

Democracy, aborted

Written by Jennifer @ 11:08 am
   

How gerrymandered can an election get? Parents inquiring why the Community Education Council advisory vote results were not yet posted have discovered — once again — that the Department of Education has unilaterally decided to change the rules of CEC elections midstream.

Originally, the result of the parent advisory vote was to be posted publicly on the powertotheparents website in early May, according to that site’s home page. Instead, last week the DOE instructed the election vendor to withhold results of the parent advisory “straw poll” vote, which was intended to guide the real vote, until after the official selectors cast their votes, according to a Power to the Parents staffer.

The official CEC voting process is already convoluted: three PTA officials from each school each cast only two votes for candidates for the 12-member CECs. Deadlines for candidate sign-up, the straw poll, and the official voting have all been changed repeatedly this year at the DOE’s direction. In the latest change, the CEC voting deadline was extended to midnight tonight.

Still, I look forward to finding out who will be elected to my CEC for the coming two-year term. As the new mayoral control law is considered, it will be up to next year’s crew to promote parents’ voices in the system. Preventing the DOE from manipulating community elections is one of many reasons why parent advocates would like to see administration of the CECs be made independent from the DOE — perhaps placed under the Public Advocate’s office.

As part of the rewrite of mayoral control legislation, CEC3 supports a public November CEC election held alongside other public elections. The current system is devised, controlled, and constantly changed in a murky and undemocratic manner by DOE. “Power to the parents,” it’s not.

EDITOR’S UPDATE: Representatives of other CEC’s are also speaking out about issues surrounding the election. Here is a letter sent on May 19 from the District 31 CEC to Jacqui Lipson, the CEC administrative coordinator at the DOE, raising concerns similar to those Jennifer wrote about in this post:

Dear Ms. Lipson:CEC 31 is interested in obtaining the results of the District 31 “straw poll” for CEC candidates – as well as the CEC Candidates’ election results – which we were told would be released prior to the onset of PTA elections tomorrow (May 20th). Results from the straw vote were promised in “early May” but never received here in District 31 and since PTA elections begin tomorrow, results from the official selector voting were supposed to be released by today.CEC 31 requests answers to the following questions:

1. Why was the original “Advisory Straw Vote” voting deadline posted online at PowerToTheParents.org extended?

2. Why were PTA selectors allowed to cast their votes in the “Official Selector Vote” past the deadline of May 15th? In both cases, voting was supposed to end by a particular date but it was still possible to cast votes online past the originally posted deadlines, which were subsequently altered to later dates on the website.3. Why were PTA officers who wished to run for a CEC seat required to resign their PTA positions, yet CEC candidates are being told that if they wish to run for a PTA officers’ position now they may do so?

Should a CEC candidate also run for PTA office and win both elections he/she would be forced to make a decision regarding whether they wish to resign from consideration for the CEC or the PTA. This resignation will force one of the bodies (CEC or PTA) to replace the candidate and will cause undue hardship to both of these parent organizations. All of which can be prevented by simply having the CEC election results released today as promised. We hereby request those results for District 31.

4. We wish clarification regarding a CEC candidate who has children in multiple public schools. Chancellor’s Regulation D-140 (Section V, A.3) states: When ballots are tallied, the nine nominees receiving the highest number of votes will be deemed conditionally selected. However, no school may have more than one parent representative on the CEC. If more than one nominee from the same school is selected, the nominee with the highest number of votes will be deemed selected. Other nominees from the school with fewer votes will be removed from consideration and replaced by the person with the next highest number of votes from a school not already represented on the CEC. This restriction shall not apply to situations where fewer than nine parents would be selected if the restriction were enforced.In past CEC elections, a candidate who has children in multiple schools was allowed to represent any one of those schools as a CEC member, and if another candidate had a child in one of those same schools, the candidate with the multiple schools could be considered as representing a school other than the duplicate one. In this way both CEC candidates could be allowed to be seated on the same Council. Has this precedent changed?

5. Do CEC candidates with children in multiple schools now have to choose in advance which school they wish to represent, thereby possibly disqualifying any other CEC candidate unlucky enough to be from that same school?

6. We would like a copy of the guidelines and operating procedures followed by PowerToTheParents.org, the independent agent managing the CEC elections.We formally request an expedited response with answers to all the questions stated above.Thank you

6 Comments »

  1. Jennifer,

    Thank you for the coverage, on behalf of CECD2. I think CEC3 has the correct idea.

    This just reinforces the complete disregard,and disrespect on the part of the DOE, for the CECs and all parents. They cannot cut the vocal cords. The wasteful spending and, once again, lack of professional planning, will not go by quietly.

    What are these people being paid for? Would the mayor like his election to be held like this? No he knew how to work that out as well.

    Rebecca Daniels
    President CECD2

    Comment by Rebecca Daniels — May 18, 2009 @ 11:07 am

  2. “It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”
    – Joseph Stalin

    Personally, I would like to see staggered 2-year terms, with annual elections, and half the panel turning over each year. The learning curve is steep, and yet continuity is important.

    Also note that despite my repeated requests over the past two months or so, DOE (OFEA) refused to disclose candidates’ schools.

    This may yet prove pivotal in districts with more than nine candidates, some with multiple candidates from a particular school, such as D2, given that the pertinent Chancellor’s Reg precludes more than one CEC member being elected from any one school. Not that you could glean that from the PTTP website, nor was it in the “everything you need to know” mailing to selectors.

    Anything to randomize — and therefore undermine — the will of the parents.

    Comment by Michael M — May 18, 2009 @ 6:43 pm

  3. The DOE also decided after the straw vote was completed that the selectors would only receive the straw vote results of parents from their school; they did not get the full results.

    Comment by Kim Landsman — May 19, 2009 @ 5:29 pm

  4. I would be very interested in learning how much money was spent on what struck me as the rather extravagant design, production, and distribution of the mailings, flyers, ads, online presence and “robo-calls” to promote participation in this questionable straw poll process.

    Comment by Hayley — May 19, 2009 @ 8:43 pm

  5. I remember in the beginning of this whole mess that the reps from PTTP said that this was going to be less costly and, because it was electronic, the results would be availalbe in a timely manner. REALLY? And, then there was only one forum for each district for the PTA members to attend? It is as if the DOE is, once again, purposefully demeaning the CEC and its power. DOE’s handling, looks to outsiders, as if the CEC really isn’t an important body. Whoever gets on the CEC I hope that they can muster the strength to fight back.

    Comment by CA — May 20, 2009 @ 3:35 pm

  6. I love conspiracy theories as much as the next parent but I think there’s a less glamourous rational behind delaying the straw vote results.

    No, I don’t know what it is but frankly I find it hard to believe that the DOE has put together several hundred Manchurian candidates to run for the CECs nor do they have the vast majority of executive boards in their pocket.

    In any event, I think we’re doing good work here. If we keep digging we’ll probably find indications that the Chancellor orchestrated the swine flu pandemic in order to justify opening sterile charter schools.

    Finally, Jennifer, an answer to your question, “How gerrymandered can an election get?” Elections can’t be gerrymandered, districts can… in order to rig elections. And so if you want to know how gerrymandered a [district] can get - its Eldridge Gerry’s salamander shaped district in Massachusetts.

    Comment by Joe S. — May 21, 2009 @ 9:00 am

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