Curriculum warriors brace for round two - controversial New York, New York school board elections

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 17, 1993 | by Brian Robertson

The incumbents have a good chance of being reelected, but the complicated "preferential" system of voting makes it difficult to predict any outcome with certainty. Voters list candidates in order of preference, and once the candidate listed in first place has received 10 percent of the total vote, his or her votes go to the next candidate listed on the ballot. Rumor has it that the system was devised by American Communists in the 1930s who wished to maximize their chances of representation in local elections, a rumor that most candidates who have tried to understand how the elections work don't hesitate to believe. Since the system puts a premium on mobilizing small groups to vote for "slates" of candidates, hopefuls canvass the neighborhood asking registered voters to support their slate.

Heading several slates of opposition candidates in Cummins's district is Patricia Hayes, a supporter of the Rainbow curriculum and the Fernandez sex-ed agenda. "I'm running because I think there have been a lot of lies told about the curriculum and what's happening in the schools," says Hayes. "The reaction to Rainbow made me see how tenuous the position of gays and lesbians really is. I wanted open-minded people to have a voice in this community." Some incumbents on the board have speculated that Hayes was recruited from Manhattan by activist groups to establish residency in the Woodside area of Queens so that pro-gay forces would have a presence in the district. "That's idiotic," says Hayes. "I moved to the area two years ago to take care of my sick mother. It's amazing the things these people come up with."

Amazing though it may be for such a parochial event, accusations of "stealth candidacies" and "hidden agendas" have abounded on both sides in recent weeks. Most have focused on the agenda of the so-called religious right, and candidates who, if elected, would impose some sort of Christian regime in the schools. "The idea is ludicrous," says Richard Vigilante, a New York writer who is an expert on local politics. "It's perfectly true that the Christian Coalition is trying to organize candidates, but they are only involved because there is a genuine popular revolt at the grass roots level which they want to exploit. Despite the attempt to paint this as the dark conspiring of the religious right, it's really very simple: Parents are trying to take back their schools."

Although Fernandez and his supporters in the media initially attempted to write off hostility to the "multicultural" curriculum as the bigoted homophobia of a white, Irish Catholic board, the charge was put to rest when other boards made up of minorities -- such as the all-black board in District 29 -- followed the lead of Cummins in rejecting the Rainbow curriculum. And the chancellor's defeat only became certain when thousands of black and Hispanic parents marched on Board of Education headquarters demanding Fernandez's resignation, making clear that opposition to his educational agenda crossed racial lines. The real lines of political division over the curriculum weren't racial. They were the boundaries that divide Manhattan from the outer boroughs.