Jim Davis, 73, of Leonardtown is a candidate for a 2nd District seat on the St. Mary’s County Board of Education. He is facing three-term incumbent Cathy Allen in the November 6th general election. The following is an interview with the candidate by Bay Net Editor Dick Myers. It was edited slightly for space considerations.

The Bay Net (TBN): Are you running specifically against three-term incumbent Cathy Allen? Are you running against her specifically?

Jim Davis: As I said before, I am really not running against her, I am running for a seat on the school board. Cathy has been a three-term incumbent. She has asked the voters to put her in for a fourth term. I think she has done a good job. I just think it is time for a change. I have weighed very heavily what the school board is doing.  I think they can do a better job. Some people will argue that whatever the superintendent wants the school board gives them. I have a lot of respect for the superintendent but as a member I would work very hard to oversee all of the expenditures that the school board is making right now. I will not accept anything as the status quo. My background is well suited to be a member of the school board. I have been teaching on and off for 40 some years. I am a college professor. I have taught the last five years as assistant professor at the College of Southern Maryland. I have owned four businesses. I am a Vietnam War-era veteran. I know how to read a balance sheet. Approximately 42-44 percent of the county budget is in education, I feel very strongly about the children. I think they should get the best value for the dollar that we are spending. And as a fiscal conservative I can take full measure to make sure they can get the value for education/

TBN: Some people believe there is a direct correlation between the amount you spend on education and the quality of education.

Davis: No. I think it can be but on balance it is not necessarily true. I’ll give you an example. Five years when I was working at the General Service Administration I worked directly with the D.C. Public Schools. They were so dysfunctional that they had to ask the federal government to come in and run their renovation of many of their schools. They are spending over $21,000 a student. I am not sure exactly what the number is here but I think it is around $12-13,000 per student. D.C. Public schools are spending almost twice as much money and they rank, I think, last in the country in terms of academic achievement.

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