By Francis Marion Beylotte III, Honor Marks and Sydney van Bulck
Anyone paying attention can see that our school board in Charleston County is dysfunctional. While four members try to focus on student outcomes, the five who make up the majority push chaotic political agendas. How did we get here? The Oct. 13 cover story in the Charleston City Paper about money in school board elections brought up an important question: How were Moms for Liberty (MFL) candidates able to get elected while spending so little?
If we’re going to talk about money in our school board races, we cannot neglect to mention another group that ran a slate of candidates — Charleston Coalition for Kids (CFK). These two groups, MFL and CFK, are both 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations that can spend unlimited amounts of money on campaigns without disclosing their donors. 501(c)(4)s are also called “dark money” groups.
It’s hard to nail down an exact amount that CFK spent in 2022, but we can point to substantial, and unprecedented, amounts paid for consulting, staff, and advertising advocating for a slate of candidates.
According to our research, CFK has spent $50,297 on Facebook ads since 2018 and ran 84 ads in the 2022 campaign. Much more expensive were multiple 8.5 x 11” glossy color flyers that were mailed throughout Charleston County (estimated at least $7,000 per mailer), yard signs that flooded the streets, $20-an-hour canvassers, and a Washington, D.C., consulting team that set up an office in Charleston to manage canvassing.
CFK enabled, and in some races directly contributed to, MFL wins by splitting the base for moderate-to-left-leaning pro-public education candidates. Grassroots candidates were swamped by professional consultant-driven tactics.
In District 2 in Mount Pleasant, for example, current MFL-backed trustee Ed Kelley won with 32% of the vote while unknown CFK candidate Grace Cowan’s 20.7% of the vote ate into the moderate pro-public education base of Sarah Shad Johnson, a former constituent board chair. Together Cowan and Johnson got 42.5% of the vote in District 2.
In West Ashley’s District 7, two grassroots candidates known for supporting public schools — one a CCSD educator with 10 years of classroom experience and the other a sitting constituent board member — were overpowered by dark money-backed tactics supporting CFK candidate Jen Mieres. This split the vote allowing right-wing MFL candidate Leah Whatley to win with 32% of the vote.
In District 9, CFK ran Lee Atwater-style attack ads against seasoned educator and community activist Carol Tempel of James Island. “I was appalled that an organization supposedly advocating for equitable education would resort to base attack ads and manipulation of issues. I ran on my educational experience and principles to serve the students, teachers, parents and the community. As long as I am a trustee, I will work for educational justice and support our public schools,” Tempel told us recently.
One more example: A former constituent board member, who asked to remain anonymous, shared an email approach by a Florida consultant: “I immediately recognized this as a solicitation to run as a Coalition for Kids candidate. During our meeting, [he] made it very clear that if I had the will to run, he had the means to make me win. ‘If you want to run, I guarantee you will win.’”
How much money is needed to guarantee winning? With dark money, we may never know. Should our local elected offices be for sale? And why should a consultant from Florida be allowed to recruit the trustees for our school district?
We must ensure that dark money-backed candidates are exposed and not supported. There are no “good” dark money groups. They all undermine democracy. Our public schools and our democracy should not be for sale.
West Ashley residents Francis Marion Beylotte III and Sydney van Bulck are past CCSD school board candidates. Honor Marks of West Ashley is a concerned CCSD parent and public school advocate.
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