Jackie Green
Go Green Campaign NewsManual Student Groups Host Forum For Mayoral CandidatesLouisville MojoBy John LaFollette; March 18, 2010Nine of the candidates for Louisville Mayor met at duPont Manual High School this afternoon for another forum on the issues, this one sponsored by Manual's Young Democrats, Teen Republicans, and Independent Students Association and cheerfully dubbed “Apathy is Death.” All the questions were submitted by students, then prescreened and chosen to be asked of the candidates. It seems that the original questioners or/and the prescreeners didn't do their homework (school pun count: 1), because two of the four questions asked (“Do you support the fairness ordinance?” and “What's your position on the bridges project?”) have already been addressed ad nauseam by everyone in the race. The two new ones asked whether the candidates thought, almost eight years later, if the city-county merger was a good idea, and what their positions are on the JCPS student assignment plan and its associated system of busing, which the board of education now says needs changing. None of the candidates could really give a grade-A answer to this one (school pun count: 2), but the one who explained himself the best was Jackie Green. He contended that the diversity achieved by busing isn't genuine diversity. “Tell me which has more integrity,” Green asked. “Diversity created with a false transportation plan, or diversity created through having diverse neighborhoods?” In an answer that ran almost five minutes (compared with two to three minutes for everyone else), Green explained how diversity, housing, education, transportation, fuel costs, and sustainability are all connected when it comes to the school system, and did so pretty persuasively. All of the candidates who have so far appeared publicly showed up to today's forum, except for Democrats Connie Marshall and Jim King (who missed his second forum in a row). Here are some other highlights: ....
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