On Wednesday, January 25, the Southeast League of Women Voters hosted its first Community Forum, featuring the area’s new representative on the State Board of Education, Tom Jackson. The forum was co-sponsored by the Twinsburg League of Women Voters, Friends of the Bedford Library, and the Bedford Council of PTAs.
Jackson, of Solon, was elected in November in the newly-defined District 10, which for the first time includes all four municipalities within the Bedford City School District. Four members of the local school board attended the forum, which drew residents of the Bedford, Brecksville-Broadview Heights, Solon, and Twinsburg school districts.
The Southeast Chapter, formally organized in 2020, is used to sponsoring voter forums, where voters meet candidates for election. For the chapter’s first community forum, the meeting followed the same procedure used at voter forums, in which attendees submit written questions to be put to the speaker by a moderator.
The dialogue covered a range of topics including student testing, the ongoing search for a State Superintendent to fill a two-year vacancy, attempts to reduce the authority of the mostly-elected State Board of Education, school vouchers, and pressures on local school boards.
Attendees indicated that this sort of meeting was valuable for the community and that the chapter should consider hosting similar forums in the future.
The Southeast Chapter is a nonpartisan resource for voters in the southeastern Cuyahoga County communities of Bedford, Bedford Heights, Oakwood Village, and Walton Hills, which together make up the Bedford City School District.
The national League (LWVUS) is one of the most prominent voter rights organizations in the United States. The League traces its roots to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, which was instrumental in the 1920 ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, granting voting rights to women. Although its name continues the League’s link to its historic origins, the League welcomes both men and women as members and leaders.
Residents interested in membership or more information are encouraged to email the Southeast Chapter at southeast@lwvgreatercleveland.org.
