The comfortable majority that Dr. Eugene White has enjoyed in his tenure as IPS superintendent has disappeared. White’s two most stalwart supporters, Dr. Mary Busch and Marianna Zaphirou aren’t running for re-election. And the prospects of White gaining a majority from the four board members to be elected Nov. 6 are slim.
The biggest race shapes up as the quietest. Just two are running for the At-Large IPS Board seat – business and civic leader Sam Odle and community activist/gadfly Larry Vaughn.
Odle is the first major candidate from Indianapolis’ business community to run for the IPS Board since Andre Lacy served in the 1980s. You can’t pigeonhole Odle as someone who’d blindly follow the business community’s bidding. Mentored by the legendary Dr. Frank Lloyd, Odle passionately cares about public education and the quality or lack of it African-Americans have been receiving.
But Odle’s business background could hurt him in parts of our community suspicious of efforts to erode public education and IPS.
That gives a slight opening to Vaughn, who regularly protests at the City-County Building and the Statehouse. He’s also the “Larry” who regularly calls Indy’s radio talkshows.
Vaughn tells me his campaign will warn against attempts to weaken public education in general and IPS in particular. That could garner him more votes than expected.
District 2 is the seat held for 36 years by Busch. Incumbent Board member Elizabeth Gore, who lives in the district, will run for Busch’s seat. This is the big battleground election among our community as District 2 is 67.7 percent Black. Gore, a supporter of Dr. White, is facing an opponent of White in Gayle Cosby and two others, Sharon Dunston and Alvin Esper, who haven’t made their views known on any issue facing IPS.
District 1 includes some of Indy’s tonier neighborhoods like Irvington and downtown, along with some of the poorest areas on the East and Southeast sides. The district’s 21.3 percent Black, so Black voters can play a key part in the contest between front runner Caitlin Hannon, James Nixon and Larry Whiteman.
In IPS District 4 on the South and Southwest sides of the district, Diane Arnold, a frequent White critic, is running unopposed.
Last week the group (white) Democrats for Education Reform sent out ideas they want IPS Board candidates to concentrate on, some taken straight from the Mind Trust’s IPS reform plan. A plan that’s gained no traction within our African-American community.
I used the adjective “white” to denote Democrats for Education Reform because that’s all you ever see representing the group here. If the group has African-American leaders, they’ve been invisible.
You’d think a group of Democrats advocating reform would support education issues of great concern to African-American parents, students and voters.
Like reducing the disproportionate number of Black males classified in special education in IPS and township schools.
Reducing the communications and cultural competency barrier between Black parents and educators.
Advocating training for school staff in cultural understanding and bridge building instead of educators’ our way or the highway philosophy.
Advocating strategies for increasing Black teachers and staff, especially in townships and suburban schools.
Advocating new workable strategies for reducing the achievement gap between Black and white students.
And get engaged in improving all public education, not just in IPS.
IPS isn’t the only big school election Nov. 6. Take a new battleground – Warren Township, which now has the second largest number of Black students enrolled in any township or suburban district.
Blacks now comprise 29.9 percent of the total and 26.5 percent of voting population in Warren.
In Warren Township, 11 persons are running for four board seats. Currently, the one Black on the Warren board represents the neighborhood where kids were bused from IPS. But that seat phases out this year.
With 11 candidates, and at least two Blacks running (a couple named Wendall and Tonya Wallace), it could be very difficult for an African-American to be elected to the board of a school system where African-American students comprise the largest race/ethnic group.
Pike has the same system and it took years for Blacks to achieve decent representation on the Pike board.
I’ve said for years that the at-large system of electing school board members in Indy’s townships is a Voting Rights Act accident waiting to happen.
Though I will say Pike Township, as the most racially diverse township, where no race/ethnicity has a majority of the population or votes, the at-large system now produces a diverse board.
And there’ll be another board donnybrook in Pike where nine are running for four seats, including Black incumbent Ricky Hence. Currently, three of the seven Pike members are Black.
What I’m hearing in the streets
My new favorite pen pal, Andrea Newsom, the city’s Chief Deputy Corporation Counsel, didn’t quite reject my request for electronic copies of all contracts issued during the Ballard administration. Newsom countered saying I could use the city’s “searchable” contract database.
But the link Newsom included in her latest note repeatedly didn’t work.
Meanwhile last week testifying before a City-County Council committee, Office of Minority Business head Greg Wilson was asked by Councilwoman Pam Hickman about the city’s failure to track spending with Black, Hispanic and Asian-owned businesses.
Wilson said the city’s “old system” didn’t do that, but their new system would. Wilson also said the current system was “just following the (city) ordinance.”
So, to clean this up, Councilwoman Hickman and her Democratic council colleagues should introduce ASAP a new city ordinance that requires the city to track MBE spending by the official federal and race/ethnicity categories and require that tracking back to at least the middle of the last administration (2005).
It seems that legislation is the only thing the Ballard/Nixon administration understands to end their stonewalling.
See ‘ya next week.
You can email comments to acbrown@aol.com
