Wait til the jocks find out about this!
They teach you in "How-To-Be-A-Candidate" school never, repeat,
never answer a hypothetical question. Only two things can happen and
they're both bad.
Apparently the four majority party candidates running for the
State Board of Education flunked the course, slept through it, or
simply ignored the advice because they waded into a battle that could
cost them votes.
The hypo-question was: You are friends with a local school
superintendent who calls for advice. He has to cut the football program
to save the band or cut the band to save the football program. What's
your advice?
In the biz, you call that a loaded question.
"I'd eliminate football and keep the music program," opined Liz
Bauer, the Democratic incumbent seeking reelection to another eight
year term.
"I'd say eliminate the football program," echoed Dr. Richard
Zeile, a Republican running for a second time for the SBE post.
Making it three for three was Democrat Lupe Ramos-Montigny who
advised the audience at the Macomb County Intermediate District forum,
"I would cut football."
And making it unanimous was the GOP candidate and ex-SBE member
with a Master's Degree in piano Eileen Weiser…she really had no choice
given her background.
Once the shock wore off for the moderator, who is a former
clarinet player, Dr. Zeile asserted that the teams would be OK because
the booster club could go to the corporate community for the money and
"they would be eager to slap their logos" all over the field.
Weiser agreed. "I think the football team would do fine with
corporate support."
The question is will this pro-music quartet of politicians do
well with the jocks once they find out about this…assuming, of course,
they pay any attention to this stuff?