Grapevine-Colleyville ISD needs reset on debt, culture. Here’s our board endorsement | Opinion
Matt Foust is as sick as we are of the culture-war crossfire that the Grapevine-Colleyville school district’s extremist-PAC dominated board has brought to its community. Voters should elect the serious-minded candidate to the Place 3 seat.
Foust, 40, takes the nonpartisan aspect of the role seriously, insisting in an interview that he would never use political party lines to analyze decisions and promising to “eliminate distractions to focus on solutions.”
The attorney and GCISD parent stressed the importance of his mother and his wife, both teachers, in instilling the value of public education and how valuing the labor of teachers is crucial to lifting students. Foust had sharp ideas about promoting GCISD’s value to families who may have more choices if the Legislature enacts a school-voucher program. He displayed a keen sense of what makes public education worthwhile and foresight to keep enrollment high in a changing landscape — crucial planning for a district with a mounting budget deficit.
Endorsing Foust would be easy on his own merits, but it’s obvious considering who he’s facing.
Incumbent Tammy Nakamura has pursued many of the most divisive battles on social issues. And in 2020, she infamously posed with a man flaunting a Confederate flag. The flag is at the dead center of the photo, unambiguous and impossible to miss.
Rather than apologize, Nakamura continues to feature the photo from her Facebook account, flaunting one of the most prominent symbols of racist violence. Someone with as little sense of academic history or decency should be nowhere near decisions about children’s education.
Foust is the obvious choice, for both his qualities and Nakamura’s deficiencies.
GCISD covers the cities of Grapevine and Colleyville, as well as portions of Euless and Hurst. Members are elected at-large and represent the entire district for a three-year term. Early voting begins on April 22, and Election Day is on May 3.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHey, who is behind these endorsements?
Members of the Editorial Board, which serves as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s institutional voice, decide candidates and positions to recommend to voters. The members of the board are: Cynthia M. Allen, columnist; Steve Coffman, editor and president; Bradford William Davis, columnist and editorial writer; Bud Kennedy, columnist; and Ryan J. Rusak, opinion editor.
Read more by clicking the arrow in the upper right.
How does the process work?
The Editorial Board interviews candidates, asking about positions on issues, experience and qualifications, and how they would approach holding the office for which they are running. Board members do additional research on candidates’ backgrounds and the issues at hand. After that, members discuss the candidates and generally aim to arrive at a consensus, though not necessarily unanimity. All members contribute observations and ideas, so the resulting editorials represent the board’s view, not a particular writer.
How do partisanship and ideology factor in?
We’re not tied to one party or the other, and our positions on issues range across the ideological spectrum. We tend to prefer candidates who align with our previously stated positions, but qualifications, temperament and experience are important, too.