Sezin Palmer is an unsuitable candidate to represent District 4 on the Board of Education in Howard County. This is the final post in a multi-part series discussing the reasons why.
In parts 1 and 2 of this series, I presented Sezin’s own words and behaviors as evidence that she is not the benevolent, non-partisan candidate she makes herself out to be. This evidence revealed her to be a right-wing, conservative candidate, fueled by anti-redistricting sentiment, who has zero interest in addressing racial and socioeconomic inequities in our school system. In this final post, I will be addressing what is arguably the most important evidence that Sezin Palmer is a bad choice for District 4: her platform.
In February, Sezin appeared on the Forward Maryland podcast to discuss her candidacy with hosts Bill Woodcock and Jason Booms. During the interview, she described herself as a fiscally conservative Libertarian who decided to run for office in response to the 2019 redistricting process. That was concerning enough for me; Libertarians are notorious for their anti-public-education stances. However, I broke out in a cold sweat when I heard her use the terms “choice” and “charter schools,” words that immediately conjured up images of Betsy DeVos standing with Donald Trump as he announced her appointment as Education Secretary.
The beauty of our public school system is that it is a public service, in which we are all invested, that must provide an education to all. Public schools are regulated; they are subject to oversight by elected officials; and they may not turn away any student. Charter schools, in contrast, are privately owned and operated; are not subject to public oversight, including accountability and transparency laws; and they are adept at shaping their student populations to eschew certain groups, such as English language learners, low-income students, or students with special needs or disabilities. While the notion of school choice sounds like a great idea in theory, in practice what it amounts to is private and charter schools picking and choosing certain students while siphoning money away from public school districts. The net result is that lower-income minorities and students with disabilities are left with no choice but to face worsening segregation in public schools that are being starved of resources. That Sezin would support a paradigm shift that would deepen educational inequities in Howard County is deeply concerning.
During the most recent HCPSS budget cycle, Sezin testified before the BOE that from a fiscal responsibility standpoint, she saw no evidence of the benefit of additional funding for Student Access and Achievement (which includes the Black Student Achievement Program and the Hispanic Achievement Program) and additional Diversity, Equity & Inclusion staff. To push back on funding programs and positions whose purpose is to support minority students and marginalized groups, given that the topics of equity and racial achievement gaps were front and center during last fall’s redistricting process, is tone deaf at best, but unsurprisingly on-brand.
Lastly, a quick scan of Sezin’s platform on her campaign website shows that while she has plenty to say on what equity isn’t, along with some snark directed at the Superintendent, she does not articulate what equity is – or how she will advocate for it. There is no strategy, no plan, not one iota of concern for the stark inequities and disparities not just across HCPSS, but within District 4. When combined with her stated support for charter schools and her questioning the value of additional supports for underserved groups, it’s quite clear that Sezin has no interest in equity. At all.
To recap, I’ve presented clear evidence that Sezin Palmer is a conservative candidate with extreme right-wing views on public education. We’ve seen that she is not interested in advancing equity, but rather in maintaining a status quo of white privilege, inequity, and segregation in our schools where low-income minorities are redlined out of schools. Sezin may present herself to be an evidence-based, data-driven decision maker, but all the evidence and data point to the same conclusion: she is the wrong choice for District 4.