As Ronald Reagan would say, “There he goes, again.” Spence does another flip flop that would make an Olympic gold metalist in gymnastics proud. Or, is this a case of Spence not paying attention to his elected duties?
If you look at the record you will quickly notice the answer is both. Not only does he not pay attention to his elected duties, he changes his position more often then a person changes lanes during a televised high speed chase on Los Angeles freeways.
Recently, Mike “I was against it, before I was for it” Spence and the WCUSD Board decided to eliminate a class which taught life styles. The class did not meet local or state curriculum requirements. Also, anyone who knows Spence knows he does not want “public” educators to teach about life styles. In Spence’s mind teaching “life styles” is a code word for something un-American.
Guess what Mike “John Kerry West” Spence did at a school board meeting. Spence changed his mind, again. This “conservative” leader in the Republican Party has spoken out in favor of public schools teaching “Psychology of Family Lifestyles.” Spence fought to keep this “lifestyles” class after receiving letters from students stating how they appreciated the sections on how to prevent pregnancy when they have sex. This class has children pretend they are having babies to learn how to take care of those children. The same subject matter Spence objects to when taught in Health classes.
As a side note, Spence fought to have the health book changed because it referred to “partners”, not married couples. District staff spent weeks looking for the book Spence claimed Texas used during the George W. Bush administration. Turns out Texas did not use the book while Bush was Governor.
Under the “Does he pay attention” section, a couple of years ago, Mike Spence wanted a special class to teach students how to balance a check book, compute APR, and other basic math skills needed in life – good idea if you do not pay attention. Some board members pointed out the need to add a class did not exist as they already had those type of classes. The classes were called basic math taught from the first grade through high school in every school in, not only West Covina, but the country. It seems that after 16 years on the school board, Spence would know this by now.
Here is another example of not paying attention. Spence wanted Fashion Design brought back to WCUSD. Only problem with bringing it back – it is already taught in the ROP school for students. Thus, two governmental entities serving the same population would have the same class. I thought Spence would call this a waste? Spence must think ideas that duplicate programs are wasteful spending, unless he comes up with them.
What makes this the most amazing, Spence is not only a member of the Board of Education for WCUSD and does not know what they teach, but Spence represents WCUSD on the ROP Board. So, does he just ignore everything related to education?
Mike Spence has more knowledge of the workings of the City of Claremont than he does of the school district he has represented for the last 16 years. Spence also appears to have more concern about nail and tanning salons in the City of Claremont than he does for the education of the children in his district.
http://www.flashreport.org/blog0a.php?postID=2008033112292551&post_offsetP=0&authID=2005091915442370
Mike Spence needs to start, after 16 years, paying attention to his duties as member of the school board or get off of the school board. Spence has a responsibility to the people who elected him to the school board. If he wants to spend all his time writing about Supreme Court nominees, Presidential nominees, California State Budget, and nail salons in Clarement, then resign from the school board. It is painfully obvious he does not care about his school board job.
But, then again, I am not sure which thought is more horrifiying. Mike Spence not paying attention to his school board duties or Mike Spence actually paying attention to his school board duties.
