JPEF is too rife with conflicts of interest to host School Board Forums

Right now, JPEF is the only school board forum game in town and that should make us all troubled for many reasons.

First the forums are being held downtown, not in the districts the elections are taking place and only 30 people can attend. Now they do say they will be live streamed but color me not very confident.

If that wasn't bad enough, they are rife with conflicts of interests too.

Several members of JPEF’s board of directors have picked candidates in each race to support. Nick Howland in 2, David Chauncey in 6 and Daryl Willie in district 4, sending these preferred candidates thousands of dollars. 

Then both Willie and Howland are closely related to Teach for America and five of the ten staff members at JPEF have TFA in their bios.

I believe these things create both an insurmountable conflict of interest and at the very least present the appearance of impropriety.

We need organizations like WJCT, the Times Union, The NAACP and the League of Women Voters to step up and make sure the community is informed about the SB candidates and the issues because I have serious reservations that is JPEF's intent.