Citizens' Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools

CANDIDATE RATINGS
The CCCS invited all Seattle School Board candidates to complete our 20-item questionnaire on commercialism. Before the Primary, we did one round of ratings, resulting in endorsements for Sally Soriano and Dana Twight. Neither made it past the Primary. We then invited finalists who had not completed our questionnaire to do so, with a new deadline. Our team of 7 rated the candidates on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best (anti-commercialism in schools). SB Results are as follows:

• Pos. 4
  Dick Lilly RATING 2.9
  Pat Griffith RATING 1.8
  Position 4 candidate responses.

• Pos. 5
  Mary Bass RATING 3.3
  Juan Cotto RATING 1.9
  Position 5 candidate responses.

• Pos. 7
  Jan Kumasaka
  Gary Breitstein
  (Neither candidate for Pos. #7 responded to the questionnaire. The CCCS rating team recommends voting against incumbent Jan Kumasaka, however, based on her track record on this issue for the past 4 years, including her vote to approve the Coke Contract).

We also invited all candidates for City Council to give us a 50-word statement on commercialism in schools. Several did not respond, but here are the quotes of all who did, for your information:

"I oppose all advertising in schools, including all 'donated' resources such as Channel One and textbooks with pro-corporate agendas. Children's minds should not be a place for ad campaigns to do their ugly business. Neither should adults', but that's another story...."
--Grant Cogswell for City Council Pos. # 8

NO RESPONSE
--Richard McIver For City Council Pos. #8

"Corporate advertising has no place in the education environment. Public and private education is critical in shaping the personality and knowledge base of our youth. Our youth should graduate with open, curious minds free to pursue all levels of choice. School based commercials are contrary to that goal".
--Curt Firestone for City Council Pos. #4

NO REPONSE
--Jan Drago for City Council Pos. #4

[Michael Preston did not respond to our request for a statement, but as a 20-year school board member, he has been an outspoken advocate of commercial-free schools. He voted against the Coke contract and against the original policy of selling paid ads on the walls. Currently he is speaking out in favor of getting rid of Channel One immediately, including logos to identify corp. sponsors as prohibited forms of advertising, and getting rid of Coke ads and logos on the vending machines.]
--Michael Preston for City Coucil Pos. #2

NO RESPONSE
--Richard Conlin for City Council Pos. #2

[No response from Nick Licata or his opponent. Nick Licata did endorse the CCCS letter to the School Board a year ago.]