Hello, friends.
I have decided to run for the same seat in District 2 that I previously occupied from 2012-2016.
This time around, I am much wiser. I have decided to engage my campaign differently, based on what I know now.
When I ran for school board the first time, in 2011, I was heavily funded by several special interest groups that had recently set up shop in Indianapolis. What are ‘special interest groups’ you may ask?
According to Cambridge Dictionary:
In 2011, local special interest groups such as: The Mind Trust, Stand for Children, and Democrats for Education Reform were established locally with the intent of privatizing the Indianapolis education scene. This has been accomplished in every IPS election since 2012. They are able to accomplish this by taking money from from the elite 1% – see: Bill and Melinda Gates, Laura and John Arnold, Reed Hastings, The Walton (Walmart) Family. If you want to read more about the rich people funding charter schools and vouchers nationally, click here. The local groups mentioned above use billionaires’ money to fund IPS board candidates who will promote charter school advancement in the city.
Charter schools advertise themselves as “public”, but a more apt description is that they are PUBLICLY FUNDED (with your tax dollars) yet PRIVATELY RUN (they aren’t accountable to you, taxpayer – they have their own board of directors). The money is also used to elect politicians that are in support of these measures at all levels of government. Ask me how I know. They tried to buy my vote the first time around. Now I know better.
Here is something important I learned: Billionaires don’t generally actually care about the quality of education in urban areas, or people who aren’t like them. The billionaires who send Indy’s local special interest groups (RISE, The Mind Trust, and Stand for Children) their money, don’t do it our of the goodness of their hearts. There IS actually something in it for them. If you’d like a comprehensive, historical view: read this article. In sum, Education in America is estimated at $850 billion in spending from federal, state, and local governments. Look at Education in America from a Billionaire/Businessperson’s perspective and outsource as many sectors of that $850bn as you can (transportation, food service, janitorial, substitute teaching, to name a few) and you’re getting a nice piece of the public pie.
Now that I know what I know, I cannot and did not seek the endorsement of any of the special interest groups that supported me during the 2012 campaign (nor RISE Indy, which was established later). Why – because I know that I view Education differently than these groups. I share the belief that Education is a “basic human right that works to raise men and women out of poverty, level inequalities and ensure sustainable development” (UNESCO, 2024). Obviously, billionaires (and the local special interest orgs they fund) don’t really want anyone to rise out of poverty…their wealth depends on the vast inequity in income distribution in the U.S.
For this reason, I see the need to support IPS’s Rebuilding Stronger plan, to ensure greater equity in our changing city. In fact, this is one of the main reasons why I chose to run for re-election to the IPS board. No special interest group, in good conscience, should take money from IPS’s public coffers to promote a revolving door of charter schools that offer nothing exceptional to Indianapolis students in terms of curricular focus, extracurricular activities, or quality of education. As a professor of Education, I personally don’t put much stock in test results, but there’s not much difference in charter schools vs. traditional IPS schools, if you even think that standardized test results are a good measure of a school (which, again, I don’t). Most (not all, but most) charter schools fall short in areas that I actually deem important to successful schools; stability for families and communities (staying power instead of opening/closing cycles); respect and value for their teaching staff (the intentional lack of unions offering teacher protections says a lot); and value, respect, and a sense of community for their students and families.
I learned so much from my previous tenure on the IPS Board. Because now I know better, I am doing better…and I am asking you to vote better.
In 2024, a vote for me is a vote for a true grassroots candidate, not ‘astroturf’ special interest groups spending the billionaires’ money and doing their bidding to kill off true public education, piece by piece, dollar by dollar, building by building. A vote for me ensures a commitment to seeing the Rebuilding Stronger plan achieve its full potential to deliver equitable opportunities for public education in ALL Indianapolis neighborhoods. A vote for me will result in data collection to determine exactly how many schools we need in Indianapolis to prevent further over-saturation and half-empty school buildings. A vote for me ensures that scrutiny will be applied to the Innovation Network process, which potentially allocates precious IPS resources to charter school partnerships. A vote for me puts an educational expert in a position of district oversight. A vote for me is a vote for critical thinking and transparency in politics.
There are other ways to help beyond giving me your vote. Since this is a true grassroots campaign, you may not see as many ads and publicity as you would from opponents funded by billionaires. I need your help in spreading the word – share this blog, share my website gaylecosby.com, and follow me on Facebook. I need donations of any size, I need volunteers! Volunteers willing to talk to their neighbors, pass out literature, have me speak to their groups, and work the polling sites on election day. This is the work. Thank you in advance for your support, and I am looking forward to serving our community as a passionate advocate for Indianapolis PUBLIC Schools.
Photo: Signs for Gayle Cosby and Hasaan Rashid, candidates for the District 2 seat on the Indianapolis Public Schools board, sit off Tenth Street in Indianapolis. Rashid has raised roughly $43,110, with Cosby at $31,475. (Amelia Pak-Harvey for Chalkbeat)