The Tribune’s editors continue in their dreary analysis and endorsements. Rosie Loeffler-Kemp who was a major reason for the ugliness that cost me an endorsement is apparently not to be faulted. That’s not all the Trib’s editors are turning a blind eye to. They faulted the DFL for endorsing candidates but they have so far endorsed all the same candidates for the School Board endorsed by the DFL. They faulted Rosie for refusing to sell Central but that doesn’t trouble them in this endorsement.
What they hang their hat on is an impressive resume that has never managed to obscure Rosie’s limited ability to demonstrate a deep understanding of educational issues. A reporter once told me that Rosie is never quoted in news stories because she never has anything to say.
My irritation must be obvious. Rosie led the charge to remove Art Johnston then she made both Art and I charter members of the Censure of the Month club when she saw to it that we were both censured for dubious reasons.
She ducked out of recent school board forums quite possibly because someone warned her she is a poor public speaker. That did not stop the Trib’s editors from granting her the only private interview with the Editorial Board of the four District School Board candidates. Such favoritism is hard to swallow but what they said of Rosie’s challenger Kurt Kuehn could also have been applied to the two at-large candidates the Trib’s editors did endorse. What did they say of Kurt? Just this:
“Kuehn’s commitment appears genuine and well-placed, but his knowledge of the district and promise of effective representation for District 1 don’t match Loeffler-Kemp’s.”
That goes ditto for their at-large endorsees.
There is one Trib endorsement left and that one is easy to call. It won’t be Art Johnston who did not assault anyone, never had a conflict of interest, never said anything racist, and who defeated all these scurrilous charges in Federal Court while the Trib sulked because Art wouldn’t simply quit the Board and then voted the way the Trib wanted us all to regarding the sale of Central High School. The Trib prefers public officials to be more like Senator Mitch McConnell even as they refused to oppose Donald Trump.
What a think tank. They couldn’t see the Red Plan con and now prefer that no one points out that we traded 200 desperately needed teachers for new schools so cramped that we can’t add many more children to the buildings despite what appears to be a growing elementary school population. Sheesh!
