Sean Kirst weblog, columnist for the Post-Standard
I did a column today on Howie Hawkins, Green Party candidate for mayor. Hawkins has run many times on a shoestring for many different positions, but he is in an extraordinary position this year: In a race at least one pollster says is razor-close, whatever support he gets could swing the thing.
That means Hawkins will get an unusual amount of attention, which he deserves. He works nights unloading trucks for FedEx, and he does much of his own petitioning, and most important he has plenty of provocative ideas.
Hawkins says a third party candidate without much money gets into the same quandary in any race for mayor. The major party candidates buy television ads, and they fire accusations back and forth, and those accusations become the news of the day. The real issues - policy - are often overwhelmed.
One of Hawkins' most intriguing contentions, for instance, is that the major reason for the high dropout rate in city high schools is simple economics: If a teenager coming out of a fractured home realizes how easy it is to make money at the corner - a kid who survives day-to-day without much guidance - then the kid is going to leave school and cash in. That is a reality, Hawkins says, that has to be addressed.
He also says he has close friends who teach in the city schools. In their estimate, Hawkins maintains, about two-thirds of administrators and teachers are passionate and focused, and the other third has lost its driving fire. That's too big a proportion at a time of monumental struggle, Hawkins contends, and he says that a big reason he wants to be the mayor is to reignite a sense of shared mission in the schools.
He also argues it would make a difference if more administrators and teachers lived in the community where they work.
You can respond on the forum, or by e-mailing me at skirst@syracuse.com.
- Sean Kirst
skirst@syracuse.com