Maybe I’m Not A Unicorn

In case you didn’t know, in my “spare time” I am an elected member of the Monroe County School Board and, unless expressly stated, the views stated here reflect my own opinions and should not be construed to represent the views of the Monroe County School Board.

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I have been told that I am a unicorn: a registered Democrat who has repeatedly won countywide in an increasingly Republican county.

I was first elected to the Monroe County School Board without opposition in 2018. By then, I was already well known in my district as a passionate advocate for our public schools. Before filing to run, I reached out to virtually everyone I thought might be interested in the seat, told them I planned to run and asked for their support. One by one, I received it. In the end, no one filed to run against me.

In 2022, that support was tested at the ballot box. I faced a well-financed, politically savvy Republican opponent who had been recruited and endorsed by Moms for Liberty and Gov. Ron DeSantis.

I didn’t respond by running away from public education or by trying to out-partisan my opponent. I ran on my record and on my belief that strong public schools are essential to strong communities.

I won.

This year, the partisan question became even more explicit.

My opponent prominently displayed the word “CONSERVATIVE” on her campaign signs and made her political and religious identity an important part of her campaign. She attended churches encouraging voters to support a candidate who shared their Conservative Christian values and promoted publicly funded homeschooling and tuition vouchers. She even accused me of “hiding behind the nonpartisan label.”

But nonpartisan wasn’t a label I chose. Florida school board elections are nonpartisan by law.

And I wasn’t hiding.

People knew I was a Democrat.

So rather than fight an election over partisan identity, I made a different bet. I trusted voters to care more about what I stood for than the letter next to my name in other elections.

And I made what I stood for unmistakable.

I ran unabashedly for public education.

I talked about our successful schools and the extraordinary people who work in them. I talked about putting great teachers in every classroom—and paying and supporting them well enough that they can afford to stay. I talked about expanding opportunities for students through the arts, athletics, career and technical education, advanced academics, dual enrollment and field trips.

I talked about responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars and protecting classrooms when budgets get tight.

Most of all, I refused to accept the premise that our public schools are failing institutions from which children need to escape. I talked about them as valuable community institutions worth protecting, investing in and making even better.

The voters responded.

I received 64 percent of the vote and won every precinct in Monroe County—including precincts that had voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump just two years earlier.

The voters didn’t suddenly become Democrats.

They knew I was a Democrat, and they voted for me anyway.

They chose a public education advocate for School Board.

And that makes me wonder whether the real lesson of this election has much to do with unicorns at all.

For years, education politics has been dominated by the language of “school choice”—vouchers, education savings accounts, publicly funded homeschooling and the growing movement of public dollars into private education. Advocates for public schools have too often allowed themselves to be put on the defensive, as though supporting the public system that educates the overwhelming majority of American children is somehow the politically risky position.

Maybe we have that backward.

My election certainly doesn’t prove that every person who voted for me opposes vouchers or publicly funded homeschooling. Elections aren’t referenda on a single issue. Many people who strongly support public schools also support a parent’s right to choose another option for their own child.

But there is an important difference between respecting individual choice and abandoning our collective commitment to public education.

And perhaps candidates have underestimated how many voters understand that distinction.

Supporting public schools is popular.

Supporting teachers is popular.

Giving children more opportunities is popular.

Believing every community should have an excellent public school is popular.

Those aren’t Democratic values or Republican values. They are community values.

So perhaps I’m not a unicorn after all.

Perhaps candidates don’t need to attack school choice to win the education debate.

Perhaps they simply need to stop being afraid to champion public schools.