One refrain you hear over and over from all of the Democrat candidates for School Board is “Transparency and Accountability.” It permeates their writings and is always a bullet point in their speeches before the school board.
Since this is such an important issue to them, the candidates should be eager to answer the following questions:
Will you be transparent with your social media?
In the weeks following their qualification for the school board race the Democrat candidates were caught furiously scrubbing their Facebook and TikTok posts. The Republicans did not remove any posts, and one sitting member was even criticized for something he wrote before he was elected. Will you agree to release those postings that you are trying to hide from the public?
Tarece Johnson even removes any hard questions from her Facebook page. If you ask her a question about allowing boys in girls bathrooms, about her failure to file a financial disclosure statement, her illegal campaign donations, or any difficult question she will a) Not answer and b) remove it from her feed. I wonder if she will do the same if she wins the election?
Will you be transparent with your campaign contributions?
NONE of the Democrat candidates has filed a Financial Disclosure statement (each of the Republicans did). Additionally, on February 1, 2020 all three of the Democrats made personal loans to their own campaigns:
| Karen Watkins | $2,282.95 |
| Tanisha Banks | $2,914.40 |
| Tarece Johnson | $1,518.61 |
Candidates loan their accounts money all the time, and there is nothing wrong with this. The two unusual facts about these are that they were all made on the same day, and in such odd amounts. Most candidates make simple loans of $1,000, $2,000, etc. Since a loan is money the candidate can remove from the campaign account, they want to make accounting as simple as possible. If this money actually came from donations, however, then they have an issue. Maybe this is why they refuse to let us see their financial disclosures.
Will you be transparent in telling people that you are not on the school board?
Back in July Tarece Johnson gave an interview with the Atlanta Jewish Times. The title of the story was “Gwinnett’s New Jewish School Board Member – Tarece Johnson is on the school board of the rapidly growing and ethnically diverse county.” The headline is not just misleading, it is actually wrong. Ms. Johnson didn’t make an effort to correct it. What is worse is that the next month, in August, she updated her LinkedIn profile to list her current position as “Board of Education at Gwinnett Count Public Schools.” We wonder how many other people she has represented herself to as a member of the school board?
Below are posts Johnson put on her Facebook page
Will you be transparent with the number of students in the school system that are in our country illegally?
For years Gwinnett County has been spending taxpayer funds to educate children who are in our country illegally. It is the law, and the majority of residents are behind this effort. But to understand the impact these kids have on our school system, and to be transparent with taxpayer money, the school system should release the information.