Lorenzo Garcia Shares Why He's Running for APS Board

Blogger's Note:  APS District 3 Board incumbent and candidate Lorenzo Garcia sent me this statement for my "consideration," and I am passing it on here.  Its sincere and progressive tone speaks to his character, which is why I am supporting him for APS School Board for the North Valley area in the Feb. 5 election.  Early voting is going on now at APS headquarters at 6400 Uptown Blvd. NE. Here's his picture and his statement, below:

 

    My time on the Board has given me an opportunity to learn a great deal. I continue to learn. From one point of view, it has been an incredible experience. To say the very least, this has been a steep learning curve, or as I like to say “for me, a learning cliff”. I am not a former educator, nor did I start out with knowledge about the kind of multi-layered and multi-dimension complex issues that I would encounter. Generally, I feel pleased with my initial term. Of course there are regrets. And now my time could end when I feel more committed, more resolved, and more determined to continue a number of the initiatives and relationships of this very quick four-year period. Public education has become one of the essential and critical crossroad battlegrounds for social justice issues in our nation; all directly impacting our children, families and communities. As such, it is critical that we work collectively when possible to "keep the public in public education so every student counts".  

 

In my opinion, it is particularly true in regards to our teachers, staff and administrators and public employees in general. Do we want a nation of students who are capable as critical thinkers who are active in their communities? Or, do we settle for a nation of “haves and have-nots” where the democratic process becomes a reflection of a process of sophisticated manipulation, of chronic compliance and successful standardized test takers?

 

In the recent period, teachers, unions and public employees in general are targeted on almost a daily basis in our national and local newspapers and media. This has created an unhealthy atmosphere in our communities. Combined with the economic downturn, and an unruly ideological posturing by politicians, this has made an atmosphere nothing short of volatile. Any attempt at a meaningful discussion of the issues is often shortchanged.

 

Public schools and public education are bombarded with an unrelenting onslaught of manipulated half-truths and outright lies reflecting the ideological war fare that is occuring. For the most part, largely reactive and opportunistic ideologues; political and community leaders, school board members appear to be driven by this sunammi of social and economic forces without the benefit of solid analysis.

 

No Child Left Behind through the last period of the ESEA, became a wedge and a sledge-hammer to malign teachers and our public education system as a kind of pretext for unleashing unbridled opportunism at the expense of dedicated teachers, and staff.

 

Often extreme examples in the media used to shame, blame, and demand for “accountability”, while at the same time the pseudo dialogue has been poisoning our climate and discouraging our community members. This ideological posturing gives a pseudo lip service about our nation’s risk, while holding healthy public dialogue hostage, and many legislators wont even consider adequately and sufficiently funding our public schools or recognizing that these issues are part of a larger set of challenges for us all, within our collapsing international economic and social order.

 

As such, it is due to this unhealthy atmosphere that I have decided to stay the course, and run again. My challenge is that for me, it would be unconsionable for us as community leaders to back away at a time like this.

 

I think I have and can continue to play a useful role. I can be a thoughtful member of the Board team. My hope and struggle has been to work to insure that communities, families, and those who are committed to working together find common ground and support a different model, where there's dialogue, and openness, and a willingness to create platforms for both discussion and action based upon sound reasoning, not propaganda. This of course is in my experience a very difficult thing. It only happens if we work at it. And, this means both using a rigorous disciplined effort modeling a mutual respect and commitment to building the kind of democratic process that so far has been less than satisfactory, to me. 

Lorenzo L. Garcia 
Incumbent Candidate, District 3