The Caucus IS a political “party,” except without any real platform or principles. The closest it comes is some go-along-to-get-along stuff titled “Qualities of an Effective School Board Member” that it claims to have borrowed from an article published in the magazine of the National School Boards Association.

The Caucus format enables a relatively small group of semi-knowledgeable people to manipulate a group of largely ignorant “community organization” representatives into endorsing a slate of candidates that is usually recruited by the semi-knowledgeables.

Anybody who runs without Caucus endorsement ends up being portrayed as running against the candidates chosen by all of these community organizations, which is a real disadvantage in a small town like this. And if somebody does challenge its slate, the Caucus also provides a ready-made campaign organization to raise funds and campaign for its slate. And then, if the challenger wins, he or she faces the prospect of being a minority of one among a majority of Caucus members.

That pretty much explains why over the past 15-20 years, the District 64 board had so few contested races.

I do not disagree with anything you have said but…..you knew there was a but….as I understand it, there are no barriers to entry. Anyone can follow the process and run. You do not need to be caucus endorsed. If things are as bad as many protray, and with megaphones such as the blogs, it would seem to me that a successful campaign could be waged. While such a campaign might have a hill to climb, this is a local election. It is not like our two party system at a national level where the money keeps any legitimate “other guy” out.

The caucus is far from perfect but blaming it on the cuacus downplays the real issue – apathy. It is easy and fun to come to a blog and bitch but how many actually step up to run (school board, alderman, mayor etc). Just so you don’t thing this is a lecture, I am as guilty as anyone. I have no interest in running for any of those positions.

As this blog has pointed out, and as I was able to confirm by my own memory and going to the Cook County Clerk’s election website, District 64 has had the least number of contested elections of any of our three main Park Ridge units of government. To me, that is not a good thing, nor is it an endorsement of the Caucus system of fielding candidates.

And when you look at how poorly those Caucus candidates managed the District’s finances during the first half of this decade, that is also not an endorsement of the Caucus system.

Finally, look at the quality of education as measured by test scores, and I don’t see the Caucus system having distinguished itself on that front, either.

If the Caucus was putting up good candidates who were producing excellent results, that would be one thing. But I have been singularly unimpressed with the vast majority of the Caucus’ candidates, and the results show why. “Previous community involvement” is a really weak standard for soliciting school board candidates – or any other public office.

Any citizen can collect petition signatures and file as a candidate for the School Board.

But if that candidate is not endorsed by the “District 64 and 207 General Caucus” – a quasi-official “organization” that re-forms every two years to hand-pick and endorse a slate of candidates – he/she can expect strong opposition from the Caucus and its supporters; which is why only two candidates have challenged a Caucus slate since 1997, with only one prevailing.

But since the Caucus candidates tend to be decent people but extremely uninformed with no real grasp of educational policy, we believe any knowledgable challenger could give their slate a run for its money. 

For years that was just for the Junior Highs and Hiigh Schools.