Marylee Shrider: Thank God that Vegas is running again
| Friday, Aug 08 2008 05:39 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 06:09 PM
Images
Chad Vegas
Here’s a bit of sunshine for those of you who think we in the media only write about bad news.
Chad Vegas, pastor, educator and rabble-rouser, will run for another term on the Kern High School District board of trustees.
I can just hear the separation-of-church-and-state folks retching over their Corn Flakes, but Vegas’ decision to run again is good news for a lot of reasons.
It’s good news for Vegas’ fellow board members, some of whom tell me the Vegas frequently vilified in the opinion page is not the man they work well with on education reform.
It’s good news for our high school students, particularly those struggling to meet basic academic standards and for whom college is not an option.
And it’s really good news for the local media, whose obsession with Vegas may be second only to The Canyons project and the Hillside Ordinance.
It’s good news that almost didn’t happen. Until recently, Vegas was convinced he would not run again, telling his 150 or so church members “my life would be far easier, my schedule less cluttered, my emotional energies stronger and my reputation far less under attack if I dropped out of politics all together.”
Then came the California Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage and Vegas was back in the battle. After considerable prayer and the ardent support of his family, he’s decided to run again and on the same “platform of moral responsibility” that got him elected the first time around.
“As much as I want to focus on just the education issues, the onslaught of garbage coming from the California legislature is going to require a pushback on morality issues,” he says.
Legislation passed just this week, he says, include only the most recent examples of the onslaught.
No kidding. On Tuesday, the Senate approved a bill that would establish May 22 as Harvey Milk Day. The bill, now awaiting the governor’s signature, seeks to honor the assassinated San Francisco supervisor with a special day during which, among other things, public schools would be encouraged to “conduct suitable commemorative exercises.”
Just who decides which “exercises” are “suitable,” I’m not sure, but I’m betting it won’t be the parents of the participating students.
Also on Tuesday, the Senate passed another astonishing bit of legislation that, should Schwarzenegger sign it, will no longer allow schools to fire teachers for belonging to the Communist Party and will allow Communists to use public school property for their meetings.
You know, just as long as they’re not plotting to overthrow the U.S. government or anything.
Even with the judicial high jinks, Vegas promises he will focus most of his time on education reform — just as he always has.
“The media gave excessive attention to In God We Trust, but very little to the fact we put in place freshman retention,” he says. “There’s been lot of press over my homosexual comments, but very little over the boot camps we started to help incoming freshmen get up to grade level.”
Fellow trustee Joel Heinrichs says Vegas can, at times, be divisive, but typically agrees with his fellow board members on most “education reform-type issues.”
“We do spend some amount of time on these social issues at the board meetings, but rarely, frankly, outside of them,” Heinrichs says.
Vegas makes no predictions on the outcome of the election, but says he felt led by God to run again. And if he loses?
“It’s because God wants me to,” he says.
Win or lose. For Vegas, it’s all good news.
Opinions expressed in this column are those of Marylee Shrider, not The Californian. Reach her at mshrider@bakersfield.comor 395-7474.
