First Candidate Forum for Bd of Ed Candidates

Last night (Sept 29) we had what I think is the first candidates forum for Board of Education candidates on the November 2014 ballot. All 8 candidates showed up for the forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the MoCo Council of PTA's.

While it was interesting to see and hear all the candidates, I doubt that anyone in the audience or those who will see a rebroadcast on Channel 21 will find this forum helpful in assisting them to decide for which candidates to vote.

In my opinion some candidate forums are too rigidly controlled. All the questions were prepared in advance by the forum organizers, or selected from written questions submitted by the audience. Unless I missed it, there were no controversial questions. For example, all responded to, "What will you do about diversity in MCPS (MoCo Public Schools)? by saying, "I support more diversity but no one should lose a job."

I suggest that organizers of future candidate forums allow and encourage questions directly from the audience, and not allow every candidate to answer every question. That will make forums more interesting and will give voters a clearer indication of which candidates they wish to support.