I strongly encourage everyone to watch the replay of the Board of Education candidate debate. It is replaying at 8am and 8pm on local access cable (channel 20 on Comcast). Here is my opening statement:
Good evening. My name is Brendan Walsh. I am a parent volunteer who has served the community for five years on the Board of Education.
I am a lifelong Grosse Pointe Park resident, taxpayer and homeowner. I am a Grosse Pointe South and Michigan graduate, married for 16 years, and father of three children who attend Defer, Pierce and South.
I thank the League of Women Voters for organizing this event and thank my opponent for participating.
School district governance is a zero sum game. As state and federal authority has grown, local school board authority has shrunk. Voters, board members, and candidates need to understand this.
In 1995 Michigan voters gave school financing authority to the state in the form of Proposal A. Voters traded local control for tax relief. Meanwhile state and federal law now dictate large portions of educational content, curriculum, graduation requirements, and assessments. No Child Left Behind, Common Core standards, and Race to the Top are more than slogans – these are state and national laws that locally we must adhere to.
What does this mean? Locally our professional educators recommend how to allocate limited resources provided by the state to fulfill national and state laws, and, to the extent possible, local desires for the ideal educational experience.
The challenge in my five years on the Board is that the resources available have gone down by $9 million – nearly 10% of our budget. This has been the case for most Michigan schools.
In debates tonight in Birmingham incumbents will be challenged about a decision to outsource custodians. In Farmington Hills, about the four elementary schools they closed. In Rochester about the tripling of their athletic participation fees. The teacher picket lines will certainly be an issue in West Bloomfield’s debate. In Bloomfield Hills they are debating their Board’s decision to merge their two high schools just a year after they closed three elementary schools. Think of the districts I just mentioned. These are not Detroit Public Schools, but rather the wealthiest districts in the state.
Our debate tonight will be about none of those things – despite $9 million worth of forced reductions in five years. My contribution has been to establish an organized methodology to execute this difficult task in a transparent manner, creating tools and reports to both educate and facilitate difficult decision making among the Board, Administration, and community.
I have fully understood and accepted my responsibilities as a Board member. I never run from difficult decisions and willingly contribute ideas and solutions. I don’t pander to voters. I tell it like it is – always willing to face the music. To me that’s what leadership is all about. That is what I offer the community.
Thank you and I look forward to answering your questions.