Tuesday will see the end of the 2006 election season, when
either longtime incumbent Carl Johnson or challenger Sharon Webb wins the runoff
election for the District 6 Memphis school board position.
In a joint appearance before attendees at Saturday’s
monthly Dutch Treat Luncheon, the two candidates took markedly different
positions on a number of issues.
On discipline in the classroom, for example, Johnson, who
finished just short of an absolute majority on November 7th, argued
for “temperate” behavior on the part of faculty, maintaining, “If you
precipitate a fight, you’ll get a fight….Our business is teaching.” He saw
little use for “reform schools” as such.
Webb saw things totally otherwise, making the case for what
she called “alternative boarding schools” because too many students in the
Memphis system “don’t know discipline.”
And, while Johnson insisted that Memphis’ was “the best
school system in the country,” Webb’s response was, “If our system is the best
in the nation, our nation is in trouble.”
Beyond their differences of opinion are other issues. While
Johnson has his admirers, he has had occasional clashes with colleagues over the
years and is considered inflexible and pedantic by some. Webb, a
Whitehaven-based minister and member of the newly elected Charter Commission,
has critics who have challenged the validity of her academic credentials and
question her commitment to the separation of church and state.
