One never knows whether a politician will do what they say they will do — that much is clear. But the Change for Children slate has been pretty clear about their views and priorities in the debate and in their Reddit AMAs. So I do feel I have a sense of what their approach is, and that they are serious about making it "work." I went into all of this with a very open mind, but I need to be convinced. I don't take for granted that a union-backed candidate actually cares about educational outcomes more than anyone else, anymore than I would take for granted that a member of the Teamsters' would have a passion for moving freight.

I don't expect miracles. The Change for Children would be, at best, a component of the BOE, which itself is embedded in a much bigger system. I agree with you on that. If you think that three skeptical seats on the BOE would somehow unseat the union, I think you're the one being speculative. At most I would expect them to make it harder for things to be done without some better explanation. Is the money going to the places that it should? That's the question that I don't get any the sense the union-backed candidates care about.

But the opposing slate has said, essentially, that they don't really think the budget should be a major consideration, that they have no problem with raising taxes, and that they don't really believe in any measure of accountability.

So given the two options (plus the independent candidates, who don't seem all that serious), I think the chance is there that the Change for Children slate is more likely to produce accountability and oversight than the other one. I also have just not been impressed with the other slate explaining to me how we would not end up in a situation where our property taxes would go up 4X in one quarter again. That is just not a livable situation; things need to be run better.

I don't love developers, don't get me wrong. But I have not had anyone explain to me what evil developer agenda is going to be enacted here (other than, maybe, the ideal of not just endlessly raising the property taxes — which is not just a developer agenda).

I'm an educator myself (a history professor who teaches in Hoboken), and my wife is a high school teacher in NYC, and we are both products of public schools, for whatever that is worth. I am pro-union when they are in a position to help workers have a voice, but my experience is that when they have unchecked power (whether in education, labor, policing, etc.) then it easily becomes abused, like all unchecked power. So I would prefer a BOE that was not entirely union, for their own sake — if an all-union BOE keeps raising taxes without accountability or showing results, it will ultimately lead to a real anti-union backlash, and that isn't good for anyone.