She's Right Goes Fair and Balanced

Today I received an e-mail from none other than Jim Condos, the Chittenden County State Senate candidate I urged people to not vote for yesterday.

I had a bout of guilty conscience over singling poor Jim out, so I thought I would share with you what he had to say, in the interest of fairness.

To refresh your memory, here is what I wrote about him yesterday:

The one candidate I would not vote for is Democrat Jim Condos. He has been perhaps the biggest proponent of extending the already financially-strapped public education system to include pre-school for 3- and 4-year-olds. This is a move that the state cannot afford, will harm small day-care providers and raise the cost of infant childcare, and will discourage parents from staying at home with their pre-schoolers.

And here is what Jim Condos himself had to say:

Rob Roper, Sheldon Katz, John McLaughry and Frank Mazur have consistently misrepresented the early ed legislation - in fact, public funding WAS allowed as of 1987 and confirmed by rule by the State Board of Ed in 1998. Auditor Randy Brock earlier this year asked for a ruling from the Attorney General's office and they came back with a very clear position that public funding of early ed was the intention of the legislature - long before I became a legislator in 2001. My legislation was to clarify and provide specific criteria to include community needs analysis and quality standards and yes to encourage involvement of the private providers much like the collaborative here in Chittenden County that includes Burlington, South Burlington, and Colchester.

I support providing opportunities for Vermont's kids to become productive citizens.

He added in another e-mail that "It was deliberately not mandatory and totally up to the parents."

It should come as no surprise that Senator Condos and I do not have the same views on education funding, but since he was on the Senate Education Committee, I asked him some questions about the new home study law that just went into effect. He was very helpful and offered to help in the future, if he could.

I think it speaks volumes about his character that even after I singled him out as the one candidate out of 12 that you should not vote for, he was still helpful and amiable to me.

Perhaps a vote for Jim Condos would not be so misplaced after all.