Ashley Vann

 

Ms. Vann's financial contributors in the 2014 School Board Election are:  Judith Vann $300.00, Stephanie Unger $100.00, Debbie Kallina  $100.00, Debbie Kallina  $50.00, Carrie Patton, $100.00, Douglass Diehl $10,000 loan until 2/7/15, Steve and Mollie Reichardt  $100.00, Robert Cortez  $100.00 for a total of $850.00 plus a $10,000 loan.  On her final report on July 15, 2014, Vann lists additional campaign contributions from Robert Carpenter $100.00 -no date reported, Joe Adams  $100.00 on May 6, 2014, and Linebarger, Goggan, Blair and Simpson of $250.00 on June 2, 2014.

 

Ashley Vann, as reported in an article in The Rancher, is a local Katy person.  She went to Taylor High School (doesn't say if she graduated or if she went to college) (another issue later said she went to SMU--sorry I didn't see that sooner)when Taylor High School was still not encumbered by curriculum management systems, teachers who were only "facilitators," and academics and ability grouping were still OK.  Chances are she got a pretty good education in a Katy public school in the 1980's.

 

The question is, is she smart enough to have spotted all the changes for the worse that have occurred since she went to Taylor High School? 

 

The answer is, probably not, for her comments indicate that she has swallowed the "restructured education" model hook line and sinker, and has become just another Katy ISD "cheerleader."

 

Her resume' suggests to me that her claim to fame is that she's been the PTA president everywhere she's had a child in a KISD school.  She's in favor of a new bond attempt--before it's even decided upon as to what's in it; she believes the enrollment numbers that the superintendent tosses about suggesting that we need new schools all over the place;  and she apparently thinks that being in a "leadership" role at an elementary, junior high or high school campus has made some kind of an impact on those schools in such a way that she is now eminently qualified to take on a bigger role in our KISD schools.

 

Her reason for running, she says, is not to run against the incumbent, Bill Proctor, but to pursue her "personal goal of giving back to the community." 

 

I would like to suggest to Ms. Vann that board service is quite a bit more than "giving back to the community."  It has to do with providing oversight of such quality that one is able to be discerning enough about governmental and educational  issues that are plaguing our public schools to a degree that shows that one has some grasp of those issues and will be therefore capable of casting reasoned votes! Or in simpler terms, it means that as a school board member, she would not just vote for everything put in front of her because the superintendent told her to do so!

 

IF one is running for the school board AGAINST an incumbent, one should believe that the incumbent didn't do a good job, or has other qualities that need to be opposed.  Ms. Vann sees no problem with Dr. Proctor.  By saying that, she also tells us that she hasn't a clue about all the things that Dr. Proctor has said and voted on in the last three years!  That's truly incredible. Why would we want to vote out an incumbent that his opponent finds totally acceptable?

 

So what we have here, is a woman who has convinced herself that she is qualified to be on the school board, and who has, as her only qualification, that she's been a perennial PTA president. That's just what we need--another Rebecca Fox. 

 

(Please go to "Parent Teacher Association (PTA)" elsewhere on this web site to see the connections between the PTA and the NEA, which is a labor union.  They are joined at the hip.)