Ched MacQuigg
I promise to tell you the truth about the public interests and about my public service.
Or I will resign.
Honesty in government could not possibly be more fundamental.
How can you have government of the people, by the people and for the people if the government is not honest with the people? The truth about how our power and resources are spent belongs to us.
If there is any confusion at all about where the line is between the truth we should be told and the truth that we should not be told, that confusion must end now.
However transparent government will ever be is how transparent government should be right now. However accountable to the people politicians and public servants will ever be is how accountable they should be right now. However high the standards of conduct and competence will ever be is how high they should be right now.
Why make one more decision, why spend one more dime, before government is made as open and accountable as it will ever be?
However meaningful the participation of teachers and parents in the decision-making process is how meaningful their participation should be right now.
There is no one of us more qualified to fix our schools than all of us. In particular, the 100,000 years of teaching experience in the APS have a right to a seat at the table where decisions are made. The people have a seat at that table as well.
Voters in APS District 4 have a rather unique opportunity to regain control over power and resources that are fundamentally their own. All they have to do is demand the truth.
When the question is whether you will tell the truth, any answer except “yes” means “no.”
Demand that candidates look you in the eye, raise their right arms and promise to tell the truth about the public interests and about their public service.
I offer my public service, everything that I can do, to carry these issues the table. There will be open and honest public discussions of standards and accountability, transparency and role modeling. We will decide as a community whether or not character counts.
If you can manage to elect me to your seat on the APS Board of Education in District 4.
MacQuigg is a retired teacher, having spent 25 years teaching in the APS. He is running for the board to institutionalize high standards, honest accountability, transparency limited only by the law, and a seat for teachers at the table where decisions are made.