At the Tate Lecture on March 28, the speaker was Juan Enriquez. He is a bestselling author, businessman, and academic and is currently Chairman and CEO of Biotechonomy LLC, a life sciences research and investment firm. He was the Founding Director of the Harvard Business School Life Sciences Project, and author of the global bestseller As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth. In a wide ranging talk, he placed a great deal of emphasis on the fact that education in this country is lagging behind the rest of the world.

The part of his talk that should have embarrassed the audience was when he several times made reference to the fact that there was only one candidate for the Dallas School Board, and that the candidate would not discuss his agenda or perspective on the issues facing the school board. Enriquez was as critical of Dallas’ Mexican-American community as he was of the community in general. As a Mexican citizen, he said that the Mexican- American community should be embarrassed to only be able to come up with one candidate.

The fact that Adam Medrano, age 30, is from a well connected Mexican-American family does not in any way qualify him for service on the board of the Dallas Independent School District. The Dallas Morning News said that he runs a city after-school program, coaches youth soccer and volleyball teams and substitute teaches at a program for juvenile delinquents. All of that is commendable, but does not begin to give him the expertise one would expect a candidate for the school board to have.

Presumably, the district that Mr. Medrano will represent (since there was no opposition, and the election was cancelled) is strongly Mexican-American. There are a great many leaders of that community who are active in civic and business affairs. Could they not have found at least one other person who could be elected in the district? Mr. Medrano may well have won a contested election; but, in a two way race, his views and goals for the district would have been aired. Winning such a contest would have given Mr. Medrano credibility on the school board.

A group of the city’s Hispanic leaders recruited Mr. Medrano. As reported in The Dallas Morning News, "We were all very insistent that whoever represented District 8 of the school board had to be someone from the community, not someone imposed from above," Mr. Loza said. "I think we're in the same mindset that Adam was a bright young man, and we thought he deserved a chance." This is former City Councilman John Loza, who should know the importance of the school district to the overall health of the City of Dallas.

It is inexcusable to turn over a seat on the school board to someone who "deserves a chance." Surely the DISD students, a large percentage of which are Hispanic, deserve a chance to have a school board made up of knowledgeable members, with public records on the many and important issues facing the DISD. It is not the place for on the job training!

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