Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 May 2000 — Page 9

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FRIDAY, MAY 12,2000

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

Despite school board loss, Rush vows to stay active

By BARATO BRITT Recorder Correspondent Elder Lionel Rush, who made a ftiled attempt to gain a seat on the Indianapolis Public School’s Board of School Commissioners last week, believes that the issue of the children was lost in a school board election that turned ugly in the fi-

nal week.

"Rush was among 10 candidates vying for the at-large seat, which was eventually won by Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Clarke Campbell., the endorsed candidate of the local teacher’s union and Parents for Public Education. But, for Rush, who received 3,337 votes, defeat was in fact a significant victory in that he garnered a large percentage of the votedespite raising a mere fraction of what Campbell gained in camjuign dollars. “You go into these things and you hear Black people say they ‘want someone who will operate '^ith integrity. I turned down °ifhoney, particularly money from ^toups that told me to say what ''mey wanted. For me, the cause was Always the children,” said Rush. , While Rush congratulated Campbell on a solid campaign, the ^hinister added that a crucial issue * was lost in an election that he said ''focused too much on school choice initiatives. i Ironically, Rush’s defeat has 9 been billed locally as the public’s ’‘desire for the maintenance of sta-

tus quo.

“A lot of people were talking 'libout what they were for and 'Against; but the most repugnant ing is that no one talked about i00 seniors failing," he said. “I never saw anyone get angry about that. We argued about teachers, ‘ magnets and vouchers. That’s the most ridiculous thing about this

‘whole process.

“The process is clearly flawed,” Bush added. “It says that if you ‘ have money and support of a certain interest group, you can win by siyiWg ‘Mary had a tittle lamb.’ ' The interests of the 90 percent white

teacher population were served last week; the 41,000 students’ interests may or may not have been served.” Rush said the school board race, coupled with his initiative for Black empowerment, the State of Black Indianapolis, have shown him how deep political baggage has been engrained into the Black community. Originally designed to provide the local Black community a blueprint with which to advocate an agenda. Rush, in partnership with Congresswoman JuliaCarson, collected the perceived local Black leadership together to gain the community’s pulse on a variety of topics. The agenda was also supposed to be nonpartisan, and appeared so unti I Rush openly said that it would not endorse any candidate, rather the agenda itself. Since that proclamation was made, several leaders, including the congresswoman herself, have washed their hands not only of the agenda, but also of the man who created it. Rush would not confirm reports that the rift was due to his reluctance to endorse Democrat Mayor Bart Peterson in last November’s election, saying only that “my job in this is to help heal the family, not beat upon it.” With the release of the Blackburn Group’s study on the Indianapolis Black cpmmunity, a study commissioned by the State of Black Indianapolis, that agenda for advocacy was supposed to be made plain. The study polled some 702 Af-rican-American citizens to gain their opinions on a wealth of issues, including education and city services. However, since the report was released, a significant faction of the Black community’s leadership have questioned it, some have even argued that the findings are invalid. In what may be an attempt to suppress the findings, which indicated a high level of satisfaction with law enforcement and overwhelming support of school choice.

there is a concern that some local leader’s loyalties have been redirected away from the community. No one would comment for the record on this perceived rift between Black leadership, however. “The State of Black Indianapolis endorsed the Black community,” Rush said. “It was designed to be issues oriented, but it has been difficult.” Toby Miller, principal consultant for the Blackburn Group, said that the group is not aware of any attempt to suppress the repoit; how- | ever, its findings have raised several eyebrows in the perceived leadership. “We’re aware that the information in the study has generated a lot of interest, some pro and some con,” Miller said. “The purpose of the study is to generate that dialogue and to spark change. If there is an attempt to suppress tiiis, Blackburn hasn’t concerned itself with that. “Some of the information challenges the political line and the philosophies of some,” Miller added. “For those that it threatens, they would not want people to have that. It would be an imposition to them and so they may want to discredit or suppress it.” Rush concurred, adding that the goal of the report was not served because of the dissension that has resulted from it. “One of the things I tried to do with the State of Black Indianapolis was to take very seriously the notion that we are a family. Dysfunctional yes, but still a family. This was supposed to be a time where all of us came together. In many ways, I feel I have been hurt trying to get everyone to come to the table. “There is still resistance, but I still insist that if we extricate ourselves from the situation, we will have to come together and set our own agenda; one that is not bound by Democrats or Republicans, because both have contributed to our divisiveness,” Rush said. rt/Htil , t ',1.' rr. ||

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