What do we see?

Is this a child who is struggling to keep up with his peers?

Or is this a child who is "on the right path, and moving in the right direction"?

Both could be true, of course. These are not mutually exclusive perspectives.

But the folks who believe students are on the right track and are headed in the right direct have very little incentive to think very hard, or change very much, or care very passionately.

Folks who worry that a child IS being left behind will be trying hard to change a great deal. And they care -- a lot.

Lancaster has six candidates competing for three seats on the school board.

We have nearly 300 students graduating High School within weeks of the election. They, too, will be competing for a limited number of seats -- in college classrooms, at desks in offices, behind steering wheels -- competition for a good seat is a constant.

I'm taking comments. Which of the trustee candidates do you think is most likely to help the kid catch the bus?

I see we have no less than three real estate agents running for school board this spring. Cynthia Corbin (also an accountant, and neo-journalist/blogger) primarily makes her living in Lancaster real estate. Marion Hamilton is, apparently, a part time homeseller. But the "big gun" in the real estate market is Historic Town Square's very own Ellen Clark.

I'm somewhat skeptical of the temptations brokers may suffer when dealing with a school district. There was, after all, the proposal to turn the empty lot near the High School into a casino hotel -- which proposal was, according to Larry Lewis, endorsed by former mayor, and property broker, Margie Waldrop. Former trustee Sue Mendoza some what famously was recommended by the superintendent as a property mortgage broker to any new LISD teacher, or at least those getting Dr Lewis's emails. And the district is always in need of help selling distressed properties, taken over for failure to pay taxes.

So it's nice to see at least one of the three realty agents taking the pledge I pledge that I and my immediate family, including parents, children, grandchildren and cousins, will not do business in any way, shape, fashion or form, directly or indirectly, with the school district and/or its vendors during my tenure.

I think, though, I'll let the readers figure out which of the three challengers is foregoing the profit and self-dealing opportunities.

So far as I can tell, none of the incumbents has come out against doing business with the district they govern.

It's liable to be an interesting campaign.