Incumbent Korn has the experience the Broward School Board needs

It’s a tough time to be an incumbent Broward School Board member. Residents are asking questions about leadership after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tragedy. Many already were concerned about the physical condition of the county’s public schools and the education going on inside them.

In this race for the District 8 at-large seat, the incumbent is Donna Korn, a board member since 2010. She is facing a formidable challenge from Ryan Petty, whose 14-year-old daughter, Alaina, was one of the 17 people killed inside the Parkland school. Elijah Manley, 19, is the third candidate.

It’s tempting to say “throw the bums out” and oust the current board members, but that would be a mistake in this contest. Voters should re-elect Korn.

Korn, 46, is smart, focused and takes an independent view of issues that can divide today’s board members. She has three children attending district schools. She is proud of the academic gains the district has achieved during her tenure. Education in district schools “is better than it has ever been,” she said during the Sun Sentinel endorsement interview.

Korn is not a Pollyanna about how the school system works. She recognizes the district needs to better deliver on its 2014 bond issue promises, that it communicates poorly and that it doesn’t have enough money to attract and keep quality teachers.

Like most board members, Korn blames the Florida Legislature for many of the problems. The Legislature must “make education funding a priority and fund education so that we can attract and retain the best teachers for our kids,” she said in her questionnaire.

Korn is not a tax-and-spend liberal. She has worked in the real estate industry for 20 years and for a long time was a registered Republican. She recently registered as No Party Affiliate.

Manley is an interesting candidate, but lacks his opponents’ depth of experience. He said he used to skip school to attend School Board meetings. He said a Barack Obama comment prompted him to enter the race. “He said if you don’t like what is going on, grab a clipboard and get out there and run for office.”

Manley is dubious about the academic progress the district says it is making. He said he knows students who graduated without being able to read or write. He said some school principals and adminis- trators are pushing students through the system to improve graduation rates and other metrics. He speaks with the authenticity of someone who’s recently served on the front lines.

Petty, 48, has been scrutinizing the district in great detail since the Feb. 14 killings. A telecom executive, he said the attack made him realize that district policies and how they’re implemented “are life-and-death matters.” He said he wants to “change the culture” in a district he says tends to “circle the wagons” when problems arise.

Petty has worked with other parents to create a political action committee called Broward Parents for Better and Safer Schools and is serving on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission, which is investigating the attack. From what he now knows, he said the district did “almost everything wrong that you could do wrong.”

Petty’s campaign suffered a blow in late July when the Sun Sentinel reported that his Twitter account contained jokes and comments about guns, public education, gays, minorities, unions, Jews, Muslims and liberals.

After the Sentinel learned about the tweets, Petty asked to address the editorial board again. He explained that most of the posts, written between 2008 and 2013, were meant in jest.

He said he regrets writing some of them, but most don’t reflect his feelings and attitudes about minorities, Jews, Muslims or other topics he tweeted about. He seemed sincere.

The Twitter controversy also revealed that Petty, a Republican and Mormon who grew up in Utah, supports the manufacture and sale of assault-style guns. He said that he and Alaina loved going to the gun range together. Her favorite gun was the AR-15. He still owns one. He said he considers ownership of assault-style weapons a protected right under the Second Amendment.

Petty is a smart and honest candidate, but there are consequences to offensive comments made on social media. And his comments don’t reflect the kind of culture change needed on the board.

Petty should continue to work on committees and commissions devoted to improving public schools. He certainly can own an assault rifle if he wants. But our School Board members should be supporting laws and policies that make it difficult for anyone to own a weapon designed to kill as many enemy soldiers as efficiently as possible.

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