Tim your statement on who @triciacotham is and her education qualifications needed some edits--hope you don't mind! 🧵 #nced #ncpol
Tim your statement on who @triciacotham is and her education qualifications needed some edits--hope you don't mind! 🧵 #nced #ncpol https://t.co/6exWEKrep8
Tricia Cotham is a former teacher and assistant principal from Mecklenburg County whose service in education was commendable but expired many years ago along with her license and her concern for public schools.
After a failed 2016 run for Congress as a Democrat, Cotham got into the lobbying game. It appears that's when her affinity for charter schools, privatization and the confluence between education and sacks of dough began. alternet.org/tricia-cotham-… h/t @jeffbcdm
Fast forward to 2022. Cotham decided to come back to the #NCGA, ran on a progressive platform as she always had and won handily.
In 2022 Democrats managed to avoid a supermajority by one seat in the House, preserving Governor Cooper's power to veto terrible policy. Cotham waited a few months, then switched parties--giving Republicans the supermajority they were salivating over. nytimes.com/2023/07/30/us/…
Cotham then sponsored various privatization bills including one that took approval power over charter schools away from the State Board of Education and made it easier for bad charters to get approved. ncnewsline.com/2023/08/31/new…
But the biggie that she presided over was tripling state funding of school vouchers and eliminating the income eligibility cap so that now NC taxpayers have to subsidize wealthy families' private school tuition. wfae.org/2023-09-20/202…
Moore giving Cotham authority over education appropriations is a twist of the knife, but it's not at all surprising.
The good news is Cotham is facing a strong challenger in @nicolefornc who can help send Cotham back to the private sector where she can't create policies that eviscerate the public schools she used to work in and support many years ago. #nced #ncpol nicolefornc.com
@JustinParmenter @nicolefornc Its worth pointing out her failed charter op, and the loss in a legal dispute between her non-profit and the Board of Ed over an ISD school. Apply that failure to turn one school around to her vision for schools statewide and it’s not such a rosy picture. ncspin.com/tricia-cotham-…