Incumbent Karen Rose has been outraised by her challenger, Liz Barker.
By Florence Fahringer
Original Air Date: July 26, 2024
Host: In this Sarasota School Board race, the incumbent downplays her culture war credentials. And the challenger wants school politics to be boring again. Florence Fahringer describes how Karen Rose and Liz Barker are positioning themselves.
Florence Fahringer: While August 20 is nominally the primary election date, some final elections will be taking place open to all Sarasota County residents, regardless of party affiliation. One such election is for the county school board, where county residents will decide whether to pick Karen Rose or challenger Liz Barker. Though this race is for district two of the county school board, all of Sarasota County will be allowed to vote, regardless of their district of residence.
Karen Rose is the current chair of the School Board. She’s been a member of the board since 2020, and is now approaching the end of her first term. Per her campaign website, she wants to make Sarasota County the number-one school district in Florida in her second term, as well as keeping campuses safe and secure, and embedding accountability in the budgeting process.
Karen Rose
So, does her record live up to the promises? Her website lists a number of achievements from the past four years, including expanding Pre-K programs, $30 million teacher raises, budget reforms, plans for new schools in North Port and Lakewood Ranch, and expanded safety and security protocols. One of her most prominent actions as a board member, and perhaps most controversial, is absent from the list: her successful effort to oust former superintendent Brennan Asplen. She spearheaded the effort in the wake of the election victory of three conservatives.
Rose’s finances run parallel to a number of other local candidates here in Sarasota County. She’s taken dozens of thousand dollar donations from developers, Tallahassee based PACs such as the “Sarasota Manatee Defense Fund,” and even the accounting firm Robinson Gruters — Robinson as in Eric Robinson, challenger to Tom Edwards back in 2020. Karen Rose’s biggest supporter turns out to be Rose herself, as she’s taken nearly $50,000 out of her own pocket to fund this campaign — that’s over one-third of all of her money raised. Beside monetary contributions, many notable Republicans have given Rose their official endorsement, chief among them Governor Ron DeSantis.
Liz Barker, Rose’s challenger, is explicitly running against culture war. A billboard she recently posted in Nokomis reads “Kids Over Chaos”. She decries the politicization of the school board, saying school board meetings should return to their “boring” roots. From her campaign website:
Liz Barker
“The School Board should be boring. It used to be boring. There was a time very few people, myself included, paid attention to the day-to-day work of the school board. No one felt like they needed to. […] that’s all changed. School Board elections are hotly contested, and sadly, incredibly political. They’re also expensive. Now, instead of the community quietly choosing someone who has the best ideas, we have to communicate with as many voters as we can so they know the stakes in our current elections. It’s become readily apparent that not everyone running for School Boards is doing it because they believe in public education and want the best for our kids. They have political agendas, and are beholden to the politicians who help them get elected. They might run a campaign as an educator, and talk about prioritizing academic achievement, while simultaneously advocating for dangerous ideology and playing every dirty political trick in the book (yes, I’m looking at you, Karen Rose).”
When it comes to who’s paying for Barker’s campaign, her fundraising strategy offers a sharp riposte to Rose’s financial formula. With developer donations absent, thousand-dollar donations rare, and self-donations amounting to a total of one hundred dollars (as opposed to nearly fifty thousand), Barker’s campaign boasts well over 1,000 donations from individuals, the majority of which do not exceed $100. And as it turns out, hundreds upon hundreds of small donations from individual donors can actually outraise a handful of giant donations from monied interests; Barker’s campaign has amassed $60,000 more than Rose’s campaign.
A majority is not up for grabs this election cycle. Only two of the five seats on the school board are available, and one of those seats is Tom Edward’s, the lone non-conservative member of the board. What is up for grabs is the size of the conservative majority. If the current incumbents — Karen Rose and Tom Edwards — retain their seats, then the four-to-one conservative majority continues. If just one of the incumbents is ousted, the dynamic shifts — either to a smaller 3-2 conservative majority, or to a 5-0 absolute conservative majority. The trajectory of the school board for the next two years will in large part be determined on August 20, where voters will decide whether or not absolute conservative dominance of the school board will be in the cards come November.
This is Florence Fahringer, reporting for WSLR News.
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