School Committee

I thought this was going to be a School Committee free day—I was assuming Jennifer Myers had a day off on Saturday.  Then I read "The Column."  A lot of detail there.

Dr Victoria Fahlberg, of ONE Lowell, had an opinion piece in the "Focus" section of The Lowell Sun.  She does a good job of laying out why Lowell would benefit from changing how we elect people to the City Council and the School Committee.  She recommends going back to the way we did it from 1943 to 1957.

Two key factors stand out for me. One is the steady decline in voter turnout.  The second is a lack of competition for City Council and School Committee.  Both are bad trends.

That said, the fact that 42% of City Council winners from 1995 to date have come from the "right side" of Lowell is not, per se, a problem to me—the folks in the Belvidere turn out to vote and are rewarded.  However, I am smart enough to know that other areas of our city are thus underrepresented.  And don't give me the Chelmsford "four reps are better than one" angle.  That is not a rational argument.  The problem is a sense that one can't win and that leads to less candidates and lower voting.  Having run twice for State Rep, I know that it can appear to be an impossible and thankless task.  We need to work to change that by improving the voting system.

This change, even if it is only the Hawthorne Effect, is worth trying. Democracy needs to be nurtured.

The good doctor has a good idea here.  It is time to jump back so we can move forward.  So, if someone asks you to sign a petition to put this idea on the ballot, please sign it so we can generate a full and open debate.

Sadly, the graphics for the article are not on the web page for the article.  On the other hand, at least in my copy of the paper, they were a little smeared.  Readable, but not easily readable.

Regards  —  Cliff