WESTCHASE, Fla. — For decades now, school board races in Florida have been nonpartisan, but that’s stopped those with influence, political parties, unions and more from weighing on which candidates have their support.
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This election, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried are facing off again---in a way. As more focus is given to down-ballot races, the governor has endorsed 23 school board candidates statewide, the Florida Democratic Party has endorsed 11, and in some cases they are facing off head-to-head on Tuesday.
In the race for the seat in Hillsborough County’s District 1, incumbent board member Nadia Combs, endorsed by Florida Dems is facing a challenge from Julie Magill, and DeSantis-endorsed Layla Collins.
The wife of state senator Jay Collins (R-Tampa) has raised more money than any school board candidate running in Hillsborough this cycle.
Combs says her reelection bid has nothing to do with politics, she’s focused on what’s best for schools and the community.
“If you watch me on the school board, and you'll see the decisions I made, they've always been nonpartisan, just like when I was a social studies teacher. I taught for 12 years, and my students never knew if I was a Democrat or Republican,” Combs said.
Collins meantime says the board needs a new perspective and politics in these races are nothing new.
“This has been going on for decades. Last cycle, the Governor did endorse, and it was the first time, so it's gotten more attention,” Collins said. “The decisions you make on a school board should be nonpartisan. It should be about what is best for your community.”
In District 3, incumbent Vice-Chair Jessica Vaughn has been endorsed by the Florida Democratic Party as well. She’s going up against DeSantis-endorsed newcomer Myosha Powell. Vaughn says she doesn’t view her board seat with a partisan lens.
“I don't just represent one party. I'm here to represent everybody,” Vaughn said. “I know that me and my fellow board members, we make ourselves accessible to everybody. We don't just represent anyone. We're here because we care about all kids, I think we should keep politics out of education.
Powell says the governor’s endorsement of her is because she’s pushing for more transparency.
“He has children that are going through the educational system as well, and I'm sure he doesn't want for any educational institution, any teacher, anyone to undermine any of the values that he's instilling in his child or his children,” Powell said.
School board races may not be nonpartisan forever. In November, Florida voters will weigh-in on Amendment 1, which if passed would make school board races partisan. 60% of voters would need to approve of the measure to pass.
We asked the four candidates about their goals for the future of HCPS and where they stand on the referendum, these were video-recorded responses.
ON THE FUTURE:
Combs (D1): Working on things that I’ve done, going from 33 DNF schools to eight schools, making sure we have fiscal responsibility and making sure that parents that whatever choice they choose, every school is a great school, and that they can make sure that their child gets a great education. It's not about being a Republican or Democrat. It's about how do we strengthen and make sure that regardless if a child goes to college, the military, technical vocational programs, which I've been a huge advocate for, regardless, is, how do we make sure that we have really functional and kids that can do well in life?
Collins (D1): You've got to change the mindset and change leadership. You need someone that understands the way that the government should function, what the roles and responsibility are of a board which is really three things, hire and supervise the superintendent, create local policy based on law. It is not a legislative body, and you create the budget, which should mean adhere to the budget. And through that, we build relationships with our wonderful, generous community, and we work together. And when you do that, a lot of the other issues are going to become less of an obstruction, and you can work together to fix them.
Vaughn (D3): We have to make sure that we're addressing our teacher shortage, right, and that we have trained professionals in front of our kids who are there to support them. Number two, we need to make sure we're working on our reading readiness and we're making sure that our kids can absolutely read, and then just making sure that our classrooms are inclusive, supportive environments, not just for our students, but also for our employees, and that they have a livable wage, and that we're just the best district. I mean, we're the seventh largest district. There's no reason why we shouldn't be the best district in Florida
Powell (D3): My vision really is for a healthy educational system. There's a lot of things that are going on in our schools that I'm not sure that everybody realizes. From the inside, I'm hearing about how teachers don't feel supported. They try to get things done. They try to do things in the best interest of their chill of the children, and a lot of times, you know, they're pushed back. Sometimes I've even heard from a union rep when it's time to discipline and it's time to bring correction from students who are, for lack of a better term, unruly, they're often met with a stone wall. They're often met with prevented from being able to bring about that correction.
ON THE REFERENDUM:
Combs (D1): I think what's important is allowing voters to vote on how they feel. If they have a very fixed income, and they don't have that money and they're not able to do it, then maybe they'd vote against it. Or if they feel like they want to make sure that their schools are strong so their property values go up, or they're they have families who are educators. I mean, all I know is that we do have 500 vacancies, and at one of my schools there's, you know, 12 vacancies. So compound that over years where children don't get an education. What does that leave us in society? It's going to leave us high crime, social welfare systems and individuals not being able to get an education. But I think it's an individual vote.
Collins (D1): Before we can even talk about the referendum, we need to understand and be clear about what it really is. Everyone keeps talking about a teacher pay, raise. Well, it's really not. It's a one-time bonus. A one-time bonus is going to be taxed at a higher rate. Well, once you raise people's property taxes, you're going to raise the mortgage, which raises the rent. When you raise the rent, you raise the cost of running a business, which is going to increase the cost of product, so you're increasing the cost of living for something that's a oneitime bonus. And then I think the unique perspective I have as someone that has led, what happens next year, next year, if we're not able to give that bonus again, when we have told people it's a raise, what happens to the morale of our staff? So we need to be open, honest and transparent about what the money will be for before we can evaluate, do we support it or not?
Vaughn (D3): I would vote yes. But you know, I understand how crucial it is for our education system here in our district, and when we talk about success, we can't not equate it to making sure that we have adequate funding. I know it's hard to ask people for an extra tax right now, especially with inflation and people on fixed income, so I wish we were not put in a position where we actually had to ask for that, but when we have every surrounding county that's able to offer this and we can't, there's no way we can keep our teachers and our educators in our district. So unfortunately it's not my preference, but I would absolutely vote yes to support our education system,
Powell (D3): In terms of the referendum, I struggle to appreciate how the school board had a budget of over $4 billion and didn't budget for the $6,000 bonuses prior to so they have the $4 billion they have another one and a quarter that DeSantis is going to give them specifically earmarked for the teachers, and to say that they only way that they can pay these bonuses right now is if they pass this tax referendum, which will ultimately increase teachers, increase their mortgages, their property tax, which will hit their mortgage or their rent, as well as the rest of the community, in a climate such as this is unfair.