Winning school board seats and playing hard politics, four Teach For America alumni are pioneering a new pathway to education reform.
From political advisers to advocates, these three alumni are shaping education policy
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Bella Desai (Bay Area '98)
Winning school board seats and playing hard politics, four Teach For America alumni are pioneering a new pathway to education reform
Photographs by Jean-Christian Bourcart
Deep in the heart of Patriots country on Super Bowl Sunday, four Teach For America alumni from all parts of the country convened at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government to share their personal stories of entering the political arena. Layla Avila (L.A. ’97), Sekou Biddle (N.Y.C. ’93), Natasha Kamrani (Houston ’91), and Tina Hone (Bay Area ’92) come from vastly different backgrounds and electoral realities but hold many of the same convictions. All four are serving their first terms on school boards or boards of education in California, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. They are, as Hone notes, among “the vanguard” of seven Teach For America alumni who hold elected office. (The others are Nicholas Krump [Metro D.C. ’97], Jennifer Miller-Arsenault [R.G.V. ’92], and Drew Elliott Smith [Bay Area ’99]. Previously, ten other alumni have held elected office.) In a conversation moderated by David Gergen, professor of public service at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and former adviser to four presidents, they spoke candidly about their reasons for running, the challenges of public office, and what inspires them to serve.
David Gergen: Let’s start with you, Layla. How did you come to this path of running for office?
LA: Three years ago I moved from innercity L.A., where I was born and raised, to this area called Whittier, about 30 minutes southeast of L.A. I thought, moving to the suburbs, schools must be great. I started to do some research into the local schools and found that was not the case. I was within the boundaries of the lowest-income area in Whittier, [with] primarily low-income English language learners in the district. I had no interest in going onto the school board, had no interest in politics. I always thought that reform comes from outside of the system, which is why I was in nonprofit work. But as I started becoming involved with local groups, they said, “You should consider running for the school board.” There was a vacant seat, so I went through the process, but we sort of knew I wasn’t going to get it. But I went through the whole process and learned a lot more about the school district. And through the process, a lot more people learned who I was and learned about my background, so when the elections came two years later, I was approached by people in the community. As I got more involved in the school district, I found appalling what I heard coming from the leadership of the district. There was one school board meeting where parents said, “Why don’t we have an AVID program [which offers academic support to prepare students for college]?” And the response was, “We don’t have funding, but we’re creating a partnership with Wal-Mart.” That’s not what parents want for their kids. They’re asking for access to college.
DG: How long have you been on the school board?
LA: This is my third year.
DG: You said you thought change came from the outside—have you modified that view at all?
LA: I have.
DG: Why?
LA: When I first came onto the school board, I was adamant that we had to have an evaluation for the superintendent. This hadn’t happened in years. Accountability starts at the top, and if the superintendent is not going to be accountable, then no one else is going to be. At every single board meeting, I said, “We need an evaluation.” Finally we got to a point where we could get three [out of five] people on the board to agree to the evaluation. Two people were kicking and screaming the whole time, but they were forced to [go along]. We were able to hire a new superintendent, who is so far doing a great job. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I feel I’ve been able to see evidence of change.
DG: Tina, how did you get your start?
TH: I was a lawyer before I came to TFA, and I had worked for three years in private practice. I joined TFA on the heels of the Rodney King verdict. I grew up in the inner city. My mother didn’t finish high school. My father came to this country as a political refugee from the former Yugoslavia. My mom is black, my father’s Serbian. My father believed a great deal in America and democracy and equal opportunity. My mother believed in it but didn’t believe it actually happened, because she was black in America. I actually believe that one of the mistakes our founding fathers made was not to include education in the Bill of Rights. I think one of the principles of this nation, if you’re going to have equality of opportunity, which is the hallmark of our nation, is you will make sure that every child has the opportunity to succeed. After the corps, I felt there was more that I could do if I could get to Washington. I got here, and I couldn’t get a job at the Department of Education, and the Democrats lost control of Congress for the first time in 40 years—both houses. But I eventually landed on my feet. I worked for Congressman Watt of North Carolina as legislative assistant on Capitol Hill. Then I went to work for the American Legacy Foundation. The fight for kids has been my recurring thing, because I always felt there was nobody fighting for me.
DG: That’s your passion.
TH: Yeah, I wanted to be a voice for the kid who didn’t have a voice, because I was always my own voice.
DG: Did someone persuade you to run for office?
TH: I had thought about running four years ago, because I believed that my background and experience with kids would make me a worthwhile member of the school board. So I approached the gatekeepers, as I call them, about running.
DG: What do you mean “the gatekeepers”?
TH: The people who decide whether or not you’re qualified to run for office. In Fairfax County, it was the Fairfax Democratic Committee.
DG: Did you have to interview with them?
TH: No, it was very informal. They knew me because I’d been volunteering, cochairing the diversity committee. At the end of the day, the local committee makes the decision whether or not you can pass that gate. They said no. At the time, I was making great money at my job, and I was like, forget about it. Then [No Child Left Behind] became the law, and Fairfax County, one of the best public school systems in the country, had to release the [poor] academic data on black and Latino kids. Then I felt a moral obligation that somebody of color had to be on the school board.
DG: So the gatekeepers said yes?
TH: The second time, this time, when I decided to run, I told them I was running. They said, “Well, there’s an endorsement process.” And I said, “Uhhuh,” and I went out and I got 350 signatures.
DG: What about money?
TH: Money was hard. I raised $30,000. I put $6,000 of my own in at the beginning as a marker, because I wanted people to know that if I had to self-finance, I would self-finance. I was a little bit of a rebel pushing in. You know, I don’t have kids. I wasn’t a part of the PTA movement. When you’re not part of the PTA, people look at you like, “Why do you care?” Teach For America gave me the credibility: Look, I paid my dues, I did TFA.
DG: What would you say to alumni considering this path?
TH: Know that there are gatekeepers and decide if you have the will to get past them. Because “no” is so easy to say to people.
DG: Are you glad you did?
TH: I’m glad because by being there, I think I’ve changed the debate. People know that they can’t get away with stuff. We had an incident where they were showing the achievement goal for fifth grade social studies, and it showed that the achievement gap wouldn’t close for seven years. And people were just nodding their heads. Finally, I just snapped and said, “Time out. You don’t have seven years to close this gap. Who told you that was okay?” That’s when I think having a different set of eyes is changing the way the entire machine works.
DG: You said your Teach For America experience gave you the credibility and conviction to run.
TH: Absolutely. My kids had the highest scores in reading and writing in the school, and it’s not because I did anything special or magnificent except expect that they could do it. That’s what I bring to this school board. When they say, “Well, it’s not reasonable to ask them to close the achievement gap in less than seven years.” Well, I’m not reasonable. I’m Teach For America—we’re completely unreasonable. [laughs]
DG: Sekou, let’s hear your story.
SB: I was a school board fellow with a board member in Atlanta Public Schools, for the Center for Reform of School Systems. So I shadowed him for a year, went to board meetings. The most striking thing was, in talking to other board members, often it was someone they knew who told them they should run. Their education experience was little to none, and they were now in charge of the school system without any perspective on how things should be done. [My wife and I] have two sons now, and relocated back to D.C., where we both grew up… I took a job teaching eighth grade at KIPP D.C. One of the problems in ed reform is that people are always talking about how we can have better schools, but there are so few examples of what an excellent school in a low-income neighborhood really is. So I said, “I’ll do this—I’ll work my tail off and learn what an excellent school is.” After that, I took a job doing community outreach for starting a new KIPP school… Ward 7 was a neighborhood I hadn’t spent much time in, didn’t know anyone out there. I just started going to every community meeting. If 15 people were getting together somewhere, I’d just go. I’d see a flyer, go out, meet people, tell them what I’m doing, and tell them about the school. That’s what I did for months, just going out and meeting people. Soon people began to come to me asking about the school. I asked people on the ground what they needed to know to support it, and they did [support it]. When a school board seat in my ward came open, several people said, “Why don’t you run?” My wife said, “You’ve got to put your money where your mouth is.” I didn’t know the first thing about running a campaign. So I talked to some people in local politics, and they just laid it out for me. They said, “You’ve got to raise this much money, you’ve got to get this many people, and this is what it takes to win.” I thought, that’s it? There isn’t any magic? I didn’t ask anyone anything. I said, “I’m going to run for school board, and I’m going to win.”
DG: How much did you raise?
SB: We raised a little over $30,000. We did signs, a mailing, and handouts. . . The mailing was interesting. This guy said, “You’ve got to do a small number of people and hit them three times. If you mail once to 9,000, it could go in the trash. But if you mail three times to 3,000, by the time we’re done, they’ll think they grew up with you.”
DG: Did you go door-to-door?
SB: A lot. We walked every day. I wore out two pairs of shoes.
DG: Did you have a job during this time?
SB: I was going to work with KIPP, but in January it became clear to me that there weren’t enough hours in the day to do everything. So I took an unpaid leave of absence and had some personal savings that I knew could get me through several months of the campaign.
DG: How much did you win by?
SB: Two or three percent. The two other people had run for that seat before. It was very close. That’s why I had to outwalk them.
DG: Are you glad you did this?
SB: I’m glad I’m on the board. One of the things I thought early on was that the campaign was an opportunity to really push part of the public [to be] involved in public education. I told people, “If you want someone who’s going to stand here and say, ‘I can fix your problems,’ then I’m not your guy. If you want someone who’s going to help get us an excellent school system and you want to be a part of that work, then I’m the guy you want because I’m going to pull you in to make this happen.”
DG: Why do you think it’s important for alumni to be on school boards?
SB: You’ve got to have the people who are making the policies really fundamentally believe that every single child is capable of learning and performing at a very high level. Because if you don’t believe that—if you start with some model that [only] some or most or a subset of the kids can do very well—you start getting in silly arguments. What is “some”? Is it 50 percent? Is it 70 percent? I think it’s hard to really, truly believe that unless you’ve actually been there and done it. Then you can also appreciate what we need to be doing to support educators at the school and classroom level.
DG: Would you say that you have to run with the same kind of conviction with which you entered the corps?
SB: That was a lot different. When I was a [program director at Teach For America], my corps members would always say, “Do you think I’m ready?” And I would say, “You’re not ready, but you’re willing, and right now that’s what’s more important. You’ll get ready along the way—it’s being willing to go in and do it that’s actually more important.”
DG: But with this, there has to be more of a sense of conviction—in running for office?
SB: Yes, because of the nature of politics—having to answer questions and sit in front of editorial boards, having your name in the paper, having people say things about you that are not true. Then there’s a lot of people coming and saying, “We’d like to help you out, but we might need you to back off this.” And I’m not backing off anything. This is what I’m about, and this is how we’re going to do things. If you’re running and asking for permission, then everything is negotiable.
DG: And Natasha, finally.
NK: I joined the corps and was sent to Houston, where I was teaching English as a second language to kids who were recently brought to this country from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras. I had an incredibly satisfying experience teaching. I’m Iranian and had come to the U.S. in the sixth grade. I happened to be teaching sixth graders who had recently come to the U.S. There was such a kinship in their world, my world. I spent the subsequent years as the executive director of Teach For America in Houston. It’s the best way to learn a new city, to teach in the inner city and then spend four years doing fundraising. I was a dear friend with some of the poorest people living in Houston, and I was a dear friend with some of the wealthiest, most wellconnected people in Houston. I loved Houston as a result, because of this very interesting, curious interaction I had with my new homeland. I went to law school after that. I went to work for a firm as a civil litigator, then [my husband and I] decided to have children. Then an interesting thing happened. I got a phone call from the woman who represents [my district on] the [Houston Independent School District] board. Her name is Carla Cisneros, a non-Hispanic white who had held the position for four years as an elected official. She invited me out to breakfast, and she said, “I’m not going to run for reelection, and I think it’d be really interesting for you to take a run at this. We need another reformer on the school board.” I said, “That sounds terrific. I’m a full-time lawyer, I have a 3-year-old and a 1½-year-old. I would be happy to help you find somebody else to do this, but it’s certainly not me.” Then I would wake up in the middle of the night and sit straight up and go, “Oh my goodness! That’s exactly what I need to do! It is so foolhardy for me not to pursue this, because I care about this.” I decided to run. I started meeting with the gatekeepers and they kept saying, “There are nine seats on the school board. The districts have been drawn to yield three Caucasian non-Hispanics, three Hispanics, three African Americans. Your seat is a Hispanic seat, and your district is 66 percent Hispanic.” I assumed that I was supposed to feel bad that this was a seat that was supposed to be filled by someone, regardless of quality, who just met the racial profile. But I didn’t feel bad, because I didn’t believe that I wouldn’t be able to represent any particular group of people simply because I was not of their race. There was just a general sense that there was an entitlement to this seat, and that’s a lot of what I was fighting— less about a particular agenda and more about the issue that both of my opponents had graduated from high schools in the district. I, of course, was a transplant from Cincinnati, Ohio. The endorsements were lining up behind the other people.
DG: So what happened?
NK: I just worked. I worked like mad. I raised $100,000, which is basically city council money.
DG: That’s the level you would need to run for city council—more than you would need for the school board.
NK: Right. I walked and walked. I pounded pavement like nobody’s business. I just said, “Whatever happens, whatever event is going on, I’ll show up early and stay later than everybody. I will do it. When everybody is gone, I’ll be the last person who leaves.” I got sort of crazy about this. I went to one civic association meeting and there were all these people. I was there with my two opponents. I knew I was the pacesetter, because I was working harder than anybody. We’re all sitting around waiting to shake people’s hands. The meeting gets under way and they’re engaged in some discussion about sewage systems or something, and I grab my T-shirts and signs, put them in my car and drive out of the parking lot. I watch my opponents go and do the same. They’ve gone home because they think I have. I go around the block and repark my car and go back in that meeting. I thought, you know what, this is what I have to do. Everything is really seemingly stacked up against me, and this is just how hard I have to play this one. Then, in the November election, the votes were split between me, the top vote getter at around 36 percent, then [each of my opponents got] 32 percent. But, in this particular race you had to have 50 percent to win.
DG: So you had to go another round.
NK: I stuck with this theme through all of it—the assumption that all our children can perform at very high levels. Let’s not make assumptions on the front end that our children have to follow this path or this path—that simply because of their race they’re going to be underperformers. That really resonated with people.
DG: When was this election?
NK: I ran in 2005, and it’s a four-year term.
DG: So you’re all still in your first term?
All: Yes.
TH: We’re the vanguard.
DG:
So all of you have to decide whether to run for reelection?
SB: Yes... and I’m going to win.
DG:
Layla? Tina?
LA: I don’t know.
TH: I’ll be honest. I think if I ran for office again, I would run for a different office.
DG:
And Natasha, do you have reservations about running again?
NK: Yes. It’s awfully hard with a fouryear term. It’s very, very hard to say if the personal sacrifice has been equal or greater to what I have and will have achieved. It’s very difficult.
DG:
Are you weighing personal sacrifice in terms of family or your energy and what you had to put up with?
NK: In terms of what I can accomplish or have accomplished.
DG: Let’s talk about that. How much impact do each of you think you’re having?
TH: This is actually where I said I would run for something else. I am not a consensus builder; that’s not my strength. I think that’s what’s attractive about TFA. It’s for people who want change and are willing to stick out their necks to have the change. In order to have success on our 12-member school board, I’ve got to figure out how to build consensus.
NK: You’ve got to figure out how to build consensus and be okay with the watertorture pace of this.
TH: Exactly. Exactly.
DG:
On the other hand, no one said it was going to be easy. It takes time... So, is it a good idea for Teach For America alumni to run for school board?
LA: It absolutely is. What I always come back to is that if I were not at the table, the kind of conversations that would be happening about what the kids can achieve would be completely different. Where you come back and. . .
DG: And they would set expectations very low.
LA: Exactly. I had the former superintendent say, “We are a wonderful school district, we are doing great. Our student scores and achievement increased by 2 percent.” Then followed that statement by saying, “And this is with Latinos!” No one around the table blinked, and I felt myself be horrified. Those are the kinds of conversations I know would be happening, and no one would challenge them if I were not at the table. It’s a moral imperative for me—it is about social justice. I think that is ultimately keeping me on the school board.
DG:
Even though you have to take a lot of guff for it and you had to make personal sacrifices.
LA: That’s right. And granted, I have not had the experiences that some of these folks have had.
DG:
Natasha had a very, very tough race.
LA: Exactly, she had a very tough race. I’m in a much smaller school district. I didn’t have to raise any money. It’s a very small race, and I financed it myself, had a lot of people helping me within my organization.
DG:
How much did you put in?
LA: $1,000.
DG: That’s all?
LA: Yes. I did a lot of walking, so I didn’t have lawn signs. I had a really good adviser that said, “Lawn signs don’t vote. Get out there and pound the pavement.” That’s what you have to do—get in front of people.
DG: Tina, you’re thinking you may run for a different office next time?
TH: As hard as it was to win school board, it would have been easier to run for Congress, I kid you not. I ran countywide; I had to touch 1.1 million people and cover 400 square miles. I did not get the major endorsement. You’re basically running by yourself. It’s not a sexy race. I ran because I also believe in public service, and the ultimate skin in the game for public service is standing for office. We have to stop being embarrassed of saying, “We want to run.” Especially for women. And school board is a natural entry point for women who are interested in public service. We can win in school board races because we raise the kids, we’ve been the teachers. I ended up the top vote getter. It gave me the confidence to run for [another] office. It’s given me the footing to go higher. Because I think what we have to do ultimately is make public education, and keep public education, highlighted at the national level. The experiences that make us great school board members are the experiences that would make us great governors, great members of Congress, and great members of who knows what else.
DG: It’s been my theory for some time that the work that’s going on with Teach For America and other nonprofits and social entrepreneurs is very, very meaningful but would have far more impact if public policies were more aligned with what they’re trying to accomplish. The way to get public policy change is to change the people who are making the public policy.
NK: My involvement on the school board is definitely changing the dialogue. My involvement on the school board has created a very different dynamic, and a positive one. But am I effective at changing policy? At the end of the day, if there’s not something that’s sitting there that has a longer life than my physical attachment on that board seat, then I’m not effective.
DG: Sekou, it must be different in D.C., with a mayor and a superintendent [Michelle Rhee (Baltimore ’92)] who share, or seemingly share, your outlook.
SB: Yes, because we are now seeing the top policymakers all very aligned on a very progressive reform agenda. So we’ve got a much more progressive board than we’ve ever had. We’re about to have elections for the entire board, so the entire nine-member board will be elected this fall. We have a mayor who’s pushing very hard and very fast; we have a chance where we can do the same. I think that we will see, in terms of the races for city council and school board, that people will have to establish that they are about fast-moving, hardhitting, real, substantive change in education, or they’re not going to even be viable candidates.
| WE ASKED YOU |
What is the greatest obstacle to effecting education reform through politics? |
| 37% Not enough politicians who champion educational equity |
| 22% Lack of voter awareness on education issues |
| 18% Partisanship and/or special interests |
| 17% Too few innovative, practical solutions |
| 6% Other |
DG: Where have others found inspiration?
TH: The big thing that is very satisfying to me is that my short term on the school board has taught me one thing over and over again, which is, “My God, it’s not about the kids, it’s about the system.”
DG:
What do you mean?
TH: The system is broken, and my God, if you could fix the system, the kids are showing up ready to take full advantage of it.
DG:
So how do we fix it?
NK: There are a couple of things. Organizing a real parent union. Getting a critical mass of moderateto low-income Hispanics and African Americans who are well educated with data, with accountability, and who are driving for the sorts of reforms that I think can really make change. That is something huge, outside of the system.
DG:
Let me ask all of you one last question. To alumni, as well as corps members, what is your advice to those considering politics?
TH: Know why you are doing it. Know who you are. Know where your due north is, because you get shaken. Then do it. Don’t ask permission, do it.
LA: Absolutely. If you’ve been a Teach For America corps member and you have demonstrated evidence of the dramatic gains that you can see in your classroom, that’s the voice that you need on these school boards, so that you can show all the naysayers what is actually possible and what our kids can achieve.
SB: Know why it’s personal for you. Know that it’s a significant sacrifice— it’s a lot of time, a lot of money, [and there’s] the opportunity cost. I’m spending a lot of time doing this that I could be pushing things along at work, which would mean that I’m only going to go so far in my professional life because I’m working two jobs and there’s only 24 hours a day. Realize that you’re making this sacrifice for service.
NK: Ask yourself, what is it after your two years of teaching that you think really is in the way of seeing gains in student achievement on a broader level? If you can pinpoint it to policy and you believe you most directly impact it by running for school board, then do it. The most important thing is to take this knowledge that we have, figure out what it is that is missing in this system, and figure out the very best way, using your particular set of skills, to make it happen. Right now, I’m still very much in the process of figuring out if my skill set and my position are best aligned toward being effective, but I’m certainly far smarter about diagnosing problems and coming up with creative solutions than I ever was without this experience.
If you are considering running for office, contact Jen Bluestein (jen.bluestein@ teachforamerica.org), vice president of the political leadership initiative, to find out more about opportunities and resources.
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