Skinner: Not much to newspaper story on school election
Posted
By Scott Skinner
I caught with some amusement the tiny little two-paragraph afterthought that the Apache Junction Unified School District override failed.
It was tucked away at the bottom-left corner of page 22. It didn't even mention the final totals.
Apparently, the election result is so unimportant, that even this letter to the editor will get more prominent placement --- and be longer to boot.
One wonders what sort of victory lap, victory dance, champagne spraying, spike-the-football sort of article would have been written if the override had passed.
Would it, too, have been banished to the bottom-left corner of page 22? No totals? No post-election opinions and analysis? No quotes from the majority of citizens who rejected it?
Good or bad, I think the fact that the override was one of just four that failed, while so many other Arizona school overrides passed, says something about our community, culture and values. It's worth exploring. It’s worth more than the cursory pro forma mention that it received.
Somewhat related, I find that all the facts suddenly emerging regarding Mesa Public Schools Superintendent Ember Conley’s dismissal telling, as it’s all coming out immediately after their override passed.
It’s quite clear that Mesa Public Schools sought to hide details of executive bonuses from voters until after the election. The press --- for its part --- obliged. For me, the real crime here was the conspiracy to keep relevant facts from voters. This should be the focus of the Attorney General’s investigation.
