You don’t hear much about it (unless the superintendent brings the drama), but the Miami-Dade County School Board runs our public schools, deciding everything from curriculum to teacher pay, who serves as superintendent and even what goes into school lunches (props for those super soft chocolate chip 🍪 that made us beg our parents for extra lunch money).

And the Board decides all that for the fourth largest school district in the U.S., which makes it a very important body – especially when you consider the fact that the kids in our schools today will become the adults who run our city in a couple decades.

If you live in District 2 or District 4, you have a decision to make on Aug. 28, and we have Q&As with the candidates to help you make the call.

• District 2: Brandon Alfred and Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall (the incumbent)
• District 4: Perla Tabares Hantman (the incumbent) and Irene Torroella-Garcia (Hantman did not respond to our requests to participate in the questionnaire, but we provided some basic biographical info.)

Thanks to Christine Cuesta, Rebecca Willett, and Chris Caines for sending along their questions for the candidates! District 6 and 8 are also on the ballot, but those races are uncontested. The other districts will be up in either two or four years.

Want to know more? Seventeen local organizations have teamed up to host this election’s only school board forum tonight at 6:30 p.m., and we’ll be livestreaming it. Tune in on our Facebook page to hear more about how education decisions get made in the 305. There’s also a U.S. Congress District 27 forum tonight, if that’s your kind of double header.

We’ll be adding to our Aug. 28 voter guide all week as we head into early voting on Aug. 13. Stay tuned for a rundown of the major county, state, and national races on your ballot. Yesterday we broke down the referenda for Miami and Miami Beach residents.

Editor’s note: The District 27 forum is Tuesday night, not Wednesday night, as we originally said.

Can’t hide it. More details continue to emerge about the Broward school district’s failure to give Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz the counseling and services he needed before February’s massacre at Stoneman Douglas. A new report from the school district shows that he requested to transfer to a school for special education students, but the school district didn’t follow up. The latest information was only released after several newspapers sued for the release of the report. (Sun Sentinel)

The latest stop on “The Road.” One of Silicon Valley’s biggest funds, 500 Startups, is bringing a major opportunity to the Magic City with their “Road to Series A” program, which launches in September. The 10-week initiative is designed to help growing tech startups get to solid growth. Apply if you think your startup fits the bill. (Miami Herald)

Seeking some relief. Driving on the MacArthur Causeway will remain a pain for a few months as construction to repair corroded beams and columns continues, but Miami Beach officials are trying to open up an alternative. Mayor Dan Gelber told residents in an email that the city is working with Miami-Dade County to get tolls lifted on the Venetian Causeway while the work on the MacArthur continues. (RE:Miami Beach)

Prison fight. A new report from the Sentencing Project shows that the population of inmates in Florida’s private prisons jumped more than 200 percent – from 3,912 to more than 12,176 – between 2000 to 2016.  Activist groups, including the Dream Defenders, plan to protest outside the Boca Raton headquarters of the GEO Group, one of the biggest private-prison companies in the country, and also a major political donor. The GEO Group sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Dream Defenders in an attempt to squash the protest. (Miami New Times)

Not a new problem. As green algae continues to spread through multiple Florida waterways, critics are pointing to a key moment as the start of the problem. Shortly after Gov. Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam took office in November 2010, the trio sent a letter to Lisa Jackson, then head of the EPA, arguing that putting pollution limits on things like sewage runoff would cost Floridians too much money and added up to too much government interference. Now the state is scrambling to deal with the toxic slime. (Florida Phoenix)

The lowkey incumbent. Election campaigns for incumbents are usually a breeze, especially when they’ve held their seat for multiple terms. But for Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who’s running against the high-profile Republican Gov. Rick Scott, it’s looking like a tough battle as he fights to remind people that he’s held the job for more than decade. He’s also fighting to keep a key position for the Democratic party in a state dominated by GOP representation in D.C. (New York Times)

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY.

But don’t forget about that school board forum tonight. If you can’t make it in person we’ll see you on Facebook.

– The New Tropic