OUR OPINION: Kirsten Baesler for state superintendent in N.D.
October 25, 2012 at 4:30 pm in Grand Forks Herald
Mandan has made remarkable progress, and the fact that Kirsten Baesler’s fellow school-board members kept electing her as president speaks volumes for her leadership skill. Continue Reading
Tracy Potter will be an even better superintendent. Vote for Tracy Potter.
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Another Repub…
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Rugbyreader and Devilschild, besides party affiliation, what does Potter have to offer? In looking at their respective backgrounds it appears that Baesler has significant experience in K-12 education including serving on the Mandan School Board, as an assistant principal, teacher, a B.S. in education and a M.A. in education. Potter has experience teaching in post-secondary education and a degrees in history, but he seems to have little connection to K-12 education. There was some reference somewhere to Potter having taught in high school but I suspect that was decades ago; he has been Executive Director of the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation since 1993. I’ll be the first to champion someone outside of the educational community providing leadership (for example I don’t think you need to be an academic to be a University President). What does Potter bring to the table that is better than what Braesler has to offer? I am not trying to be argumentative, I am just wondering if the basis for your comments is driven exclusively by party affiliation.
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The Forum appears to be backing mainly Repubs this election year. I find that to be interesting. I wonder if it is because they have the best candidates or the newspaper is biased.
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Baesler doesn’t have real experience in a classroom as far as the record shows (or doesn’t). Her education experience has been almost entirely titular in nature. Nothing really dealing with students as a teacher. Which I think is a must have for the head of the DPI. How can you work for the end user if you’ve never had experience with them? On the other hand, Potter did have some teaching experience, with actual students, long ago.
My concern is that Baesler has little experience in a real classroom, and is in the debt of the Republican heads of state who have shown her campaign great financial generosity. And has built a campaign on others’ ideas and party favorites (local control, less interference from the state office) Whereas Potter has only slightly more classroom experience, but has spent his campaign claiming the DPI should not be a partisan office.
I absolutely do not think Baesler should be Superintendent, not just because of her poor platform and history, but because the DPI is the last office that’s not under control of the Right. It’s never a good thing when one party has total control. I also don’t think Potter is the best choice for DPI, but is in this case, the lesser of two evils.
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The Forum has convinced me that I WILL NOT be voting for Baesler now.
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