The Irony: “Outrageous Spending” in School Board Elections
EIA Intercept’s Mike Antonucci’s blog post today calls out the irony in a Washington Post letter to the editor written by Elizabeth Davis, president of the Washington Teachers Union (an AFT affiliate), and Delvone Michael, director of DC Working Families. The letter has a problem with the fact that an outside group spent more than $31,000 to “elect its candidate of choice” for a special election to fill a school board seat in DC’s Ward 8.
The letter starts out saying, “Across the country, wealthy business interests and conservative political operatives are buying up local boards of education. And if we don’t stand up and say no, D.C. will be the next notch on their belt.”
Antonucci’s reaction to the letter says it best, saying “Wow. $31,000 of outside money for a school board seat is outrageous. What adjective, then, should we use for this October 28 story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune?”
The October 28th story notes how the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) spent almost $450,000 on local school board elections.
Read the full EIA Intercept blog post here.
