Three people in the last 10 days have filed with the city Ethics Commission an intent to raise money to challenge Monica Garcia for school board in District 2, and one person has entered the race for the vacant seat in District 6, which is held by Monica Ratliff, who is running for City Council.
Manuel Aldana Jr., Walter R. Bannister and Berny Motto have joined Carl Petersen in challenging Garcia.
Araz Parseghian will run in District 6 and is the only candidate to declare an intent to do so.
Campaign finance reports show Garcia dominating in early fundraising. She raised about $120,000 in the first six months of this year. Petersen, who ran unsuccessfully in 2015 for the District 3 seat, raised $805 in the same period.
Unfortunately, Madison’s non-diverse K-12 system has lacked governance competition for a number of years. This, despite our tolerance of long term, disastrous reading results.