MATT DRISCOLL: TACOMA SCHOOL BOARD RACE HEATS UP >>>

Perhaps, lost in the hype of City Council elections and Tacoma’s Mayoral race â€" not to mention the latest season of American Idol â€" the campaigning now underway for two seats on the Tacoma Public School Board has missed your radar. Perhaps you’ve been too busy to pay attention, or too overwhelmed to take note, or too unemployed to care, or too drunk to know any better ...

All reasonable excuses, really, but in a world as topsy-turvy and seemingly doomed as our current one, there may not be a more important battle.

The children, after all, are our future. If we teach them well, someday they’ll lead the way â€" and hopefully clean up the gawdawful mess we’ve made for them. (I believe Whitney Houston left that last part out because she was high on crack.)

The Tacoma School Board has five positions. All five spots are elected at large in Tacoma, to six-year terms. The board is responsible for, among other things, reviewing and adopting school district policy, choosing superintendents and ensuring that the goals of the district are met â€" which include making sure that “underperforming subgroups” (which is PC speak for minorities, the poor and all those other children the district may have ignored in the past) make strides toward reaching to district average for performance.

This year, in November’s election, two Tacoma School Board seats will be up for grabs â€" kind of. Incumbent Connie Rickman currently holds seat 2, and if she announces intentions to run for reelection (which she hasn’t done yet) she’ll be fending off promising fresh faces including Chris Van Vechten â€" he of Pierce County Arts Commission and The Melon fame (among other things) â€" and Catherine Ushka-Hall, a more established (dare I say old school) candidate that recently announced her own candidacy and has already garnered endorsements from the Tacoma City Council’s Julie Anderson, Spiro Manthou and Connie Ladenburg â€" not to mention the Pierce County Council’s Tim Farrell. Deb Blakeslee is also in the mix for seat two.

Then there’s Kurt Miller’s seat, which will also be available for the taking come November, though currently no one has filed to run for it. However, Miller is expected to announce candidacy for school board reelection by the June 5 filing deadline, and it wouldn’t be at all surprising if he ends up running unchallenged. Miller is popular and well respected.

As November draws nearer, these are names you’ll want to know â€" that is, if you care about the children. At least now you’re up to date. Go back to American Idol at your own risk.