All this month, WHQR is joining Port City Daily, WECT, and UNCW’s The Seahawk to hold candidates forums for local, state, and congressional candidates representing the Cape Fear region.
On today’s show, our forum for candidates running for New Hanover County’s Board of Education. We’ve got eight candidates running for four seats: Republican incumbents Josie Barnhart and Pat Bradford, Republican challengers Dr. Amy Dunning and Chris Sutton, and Democratic challengers Wendy Dale, Margie Gewirtzman, Jerry Jones, Jr., and Brittnei La Rue.
Our MC for the night was the venerable Jon Evans from WECT. Questions were asked by Connor Smith from WECT, Brenna Flanagan from Port City Daily, Sophie Barton from The Seahawk, and my colleague Rachel Keith for WHQR.
This forum was recorded live at the UNCW Burney Center on Wednesday, October 7th. This online and podcast version has not been edited aside from some audio levels, but I do want to make a note about the lightning round – where candidates responded with a show of hands. Since that’s not ideal for radio, we’ll include a summary of their responses on the show page, where you can also find the full audio and video versions.
For our lighting-round questions, candidates responded by raising their hand (or not) to indicate their position on a number of policy issues. They were given the chance to add nuance or context to their yes-or–no responses in their closing remarks.
- Support the $320.5 million school bond on the November ballot? All supported.
- Think the per-pupil allotment formula as dictated by the state legislature is sufficient? None agreed it was sufficient.
- Would vote to approve a local resolution to ask the state legislature to suspend the Opportunity Scholarship program? All Democrats agreed (Dale, La Rue, Jones, and Gerwirtzman)
- Agree that parents/community members should remain anonymous if they are challenging books in the district’s schools? Dunning said yes.
- Support the legislature’s new rules on allowing up to four hours a week of exempted class time for religious studies? Barnhart, Bradford, and Dunning said yes.
- Are satisfied with the current level of funding that comes from The Endowment to the public school system? None were satisfied.
- Want the legislature to reinstate compensation for Master’s pay? All agreed.
- Want the Trump administration to abolish the U.S. Department of Education? None agreed that they wanted to abolish it.
- Support the current model of going to the school closest to the student’s neighborhood? Barnhart, Bradford, and Dunning said they supported it.
- Support a change in the way the state evaluates schools? All but Dale said yes.
WHQR is working on a fact-check article to confirm both how and why candidates voted on some of these issues, and to explore disparities between their ‘votes’ during the lightning round and past statements.
Below: Video of the forum courtesy of WECT
