42 Vie for Nine Board Seats in Atlanta Free-For-All

By Peter Schmidt

ATLANTA--When school board candidates gathered for a forum here last week, their sheer numbers prompted the event's organizers to call for a "jump-ball format,'' letting questions be answered by those who leaped first to respond.

It seemed fitting, for this year the entire Atlanta school board may be up for grabs.

Frustrated with a board they view as acrimonious, fiscally irresponsible, and unconcerned with education, business, civic, and labor groups have mobilized to recruit and back slates of candidates and to get city...