The GOP’s School Board Carnival: Unlimited Game Play for $500 a Candidate

The GOP has really outdone itself again, breaking the law without any fear of consequences. Heh, tell me something I don’t know, right? This time? The Pinal County Republican Committee LLC made illegal campaign contributions to several nonpartisan school board candidates in Arizona. My goodness! Isn’t the GOP and its offshoots gifted at devising these devilish little schemes of theirs? They are masters of undermining the principles of fairness and transparency that are essential to a functioning democracy. Okay, okay. Let’s get right down to the legal issues behind my latest rant.

According to Arizona Revised Statute § 16-915(C), political parties are prohibited from contributing to candidate committees other than their nominees. But that didn’t stop the Pinal County Republican Committee LLC from making donations to the tune of $5,500 divided among several nonpartisan school board candidates who were not the Republican Party’s nominee.

Let’s take a look at a few examples found in the complaint filed by the Pinal County Democratic Party:

• Daniel Brown, a school board candidate in Casa Grande, received an illegal $500 contribution from the Pinal County Republican Committee LLC, even though he was not the Republican Party’s nominee.
• Deena Kimble, a school board candidate in Apache Junction Unified School District, also received an illegal $500 contribution from the Pinal County Republican Committee LLC, even though she was not the Republican Party’s nominee.
• Lorenza Martinez, a school board candidate in Casa Grande Elementary School Board District, received an illegal $500 contribution from the Pinal County Republican Committee LLC, even though they misspelled his name.

And the list goes on. Basically, the Pinal County Republican Committee LLC is trying to weasel (spelled B-U-Y) its way into children’s education. Gawd, it never ceases to amaze me how there’s no bottom to the GOP’s corruption.

So, if you’re anything like me, you are a bear who is very protective of your cub. Mess with education? Not on my watch. And since school board races are supposed to be nonpartisan, we’re justified in getting outraged while the GOP keeps turning these races into bloody battlefields all over the country. We know this Pinal County corruption will lead to more politicizing in Arizona of education where it’s “more about teaching an ideology in schools and classrooms, than it is about ensuring that children receive a high quality education,” warns Dr. Dana Thompson-Dorsey, associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies, University of South Florida. On the subject of ideology, I’m still shaking my head about that ridiculous K-12 hotline meant to intimidate educators, created by Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne.

This isn’t fear-mongering. It’s a fact. In Arizona, we’ve already seen how the previous state governor (Douche-y, was it?) spent more time miscategorizing administrator decisions and penalizing school districts by withholding funds than he ever spent on adequately funding public schools to improve educational outcomes. (Oh, wait! Does the GOP actually spend any time improving outcomes for anybody other than themselves and their oligarchic overlords? Yeah, no.)

It’s plain and simple: the politicization of education–especially school board races–too often leads to negative consequences for both students and educators. As Arizona parents, we must defend against the forces that would have our schools become pawns for the GOP’s fact-free, privileged, discriminatory societal blueprint.

It’s up to every one of us in Arizona to call out and stop both school board illicit donors and their slimy, partisan candidates who willingly accept this interference. It’s one of the many ways we can ensure Arizona schools can provide the best possible education–and the best possible future–for our children and our communities.