School board hopefuls were asked multiple questions about the extent of their support for privately-run charters at Thursday night’s forum hosted by Project Renaissance.
This was a charter-friendly crowd, and lawyer Miranda Christy was happy to share her views.
“I’m overwhelmingly the candidate in this race that will treat charters fairly, put aside the double-standards and restore focus on all kids,” she said to applause.
“I was going to crack a joke and say, ‘oh, I hate them,'” said candidate Erica Lanier, who sends her youngest daughter to a charter school. She says no school should be demonized.
“Regardless of the name of the school, all 87,000 of these kids are our students,” she said.
Everyone on stage seemed to agree that the debate should be toned down.
“I think we should not play school politics in charter versus public schools,” pharmacist Corey Gathings said.
Former teacher Christiane Buggs, who has taught at a district and a charter school, said she sees opportunity for teaming up.
“I want to make sure that we ignore ideologies and we focus on the good things that are happening and try to provide a platform for collaboration,” she said.
These four candidates are all running for the same seat, representing East Nashville, which has no incumbent in the race. At this forum, only one candidate showed up in each of the other races. That’s because three sitting school board members boycotted the event, accusing the host group — founded by former Mayor Karl Dean — of having a pro-charter agenda.
Election Day for the school board races is August 4
th. Early voting begins July 15.