Doings Western Spring Endorsement for Pera
Pera, who is president of the Lyons Township High School District 204 Board, provides needed vision for the district. While all four candidates say they oppose the war in Iraq, Pera is prepared to use congressional funding authority to force a change. While all four pledge to get transportation dollars to the district, Pera acknowledges the inevitability of funding in such a busy transportation hub, and sees support of larger ideas such as the 2016 Olympics in Chicago as a way to spark new projects for the region.
He believes in securing the borders and requiring illegal immigrants to go through a process in order to stay, but recognizes reform can’t come by making 12 million people felons or keeping them as a permanent underclass.
Pera’s school governance background provides needed reality for federal mandates on education, notably the No Child Left Behind Act, which he rightly notes puts too many penalties on high-performing schools. The federal government helps funds local schools and should offer some standards, but Pera sees heavy-handed government intervention in local schools as a detriment to success.
Lipinski was elected in 2004, inheriting his father’s seat through political maneuvering. He suggests too much was expected of the Democratic majority this past year, going up against an incumbent president and commander-in-chief. But he acknowledges not enough was done by Democratic leadership to push the party’s agenda.
Mark Pera is the type of candidate who will spur party leadership, and eventually move to the top tier himself. He deserves the Democratic nomination on Feb. 5.
January 11th, 2008 at
I’m familiar with this community paper, and read it weekly. It gets a good deal of readership locally; I’d guess more so than most of these types of weekly papers. This is a good endorsement.