There will be a school board election tomorrow in which voters will choose three board members from a slate of eight candidates for four-year terms to the Grand Rapids school board. Not surprisingly, there has been little media coverage of the school board election, a fact that likely exacerbates the problem of low voter turnout that is frequently the focus of articles on local elections. Moreover, what coverage there has been has focused primarily on mentioning the fact that there is an election without giving any information about who the candidates are or what their positions will be on the issues facing the Grand Rapids school board.
While it is no substitute for the type of coverage that the local media should be doing, the spring 2005 issue of the Grand Rapids Public Schools Highlights magazine has profiles of each of the eight candidates and their positions on some of the issues facing the board. Voters can find a list of polling places on the Kent County web site.
