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A recent survey sent to candidates for Charleston County school board has drawn shock and backlash for its line of questioning, including three questions that mention white supremacy. File/Gavin McIntyre/Staff
Charleston County GOP Chairman Maurice Washington
A recent survey sent to candidates for Charleston County school board has drawn shock and backlash for its line of questioning, including three questions that mention white supremacy. File/Gavin McIntyre/Staff
A Charleston County Republican Party survey is being criticized as an attempt to turn a nonpartisan local school board race into a divisive culture war clash, with some candidates questioning what the party wants to gain by asking them about white supremacy.
The questionnaire bills itself as a "school board candidate interview" and focuses on a hodgepodge of hot-button issues that have galvanized conservative parents across the country in recent years, from how children are taught about racism to whether transgender girls should be allowed to play in school sports.
But the survey leaves no room for candidates to explain their answers, as they would in a traditional interview. Instead, they are asked to check one of five boxes to convey the extent to which they agree or disagree with each of the 19 queries.
"America is a racist country built on white supremacy," one statement in the survey reads.
"The education system is institutionally and systemically racist and designed to promote white supremacy," another says, followed by, "All white people are racist due to their unconscious white supremacy bias."
Candidates can respond by checking a box denoting whether they strongly agree, somewhat agree, have no opinion, somewhat disagree or strongly disagree.
At the bottom of the two-page survey, the party says it reserves the right to disseminate the answers as its leaders see fit, while also alerting the candidates that their answers are "binding."
The questionnaire illustrates how Republicans are setting their sights on often bottom-of-the-ballot school board races as the next battleground, and as a way to energize their conservative voting base ahead of the November midterm elections.
It also comes amidst a broader national push by Republicans to transform these nonpartisan school board contests into politicized, partisan fights.
Currently, just two South Carolina districts — Lee and Horry counties — conduct partisan school board elections, although officials in those districts have been unable to find documentation allowing the races to be run that way.
But Republicans are trying to gauge whether there is voter interest in making school board races political contests. An advisory question on the June GOP primary ballot asked S.C. Republican voters if school board candidates should be able to run as the candidate of the political party of their choice. About 76 percent voted in favor of it.
Maurice Washington, chairman of the Charleston County GOP, said no election on this year's November ballot is more important than the race for local school board, which is why the party decided to create the candidate questionnaire.
Washington, who is Black, said he stands by the survey in its entirety, saying it is a good-faith effort to help the party's Republican membership get a better understanding of what these candidates stand for in a nonpartisan race that has drawn 35 candidates for nine seats.
"It's straightforward. It's blunt. It’s not politically correct, but that's what we need more of: Candid discussions about sensitive issues rather than suppression of thought and speech," Washington said.
"Do you want someone on the school board that believes America is a systemically racist country?" Washington asked, when questioned about the focus on white supremacy in the survey. "I think liberals and conservatives would say 'no' to that, just as most liberals and conservatives would say no to having a white nationalist serving on our school board."
The survey was not approved by the S.C. Republican Party or conducted at the request of state party leaders, according to party spokeswoman Claire Brady, who reiterated, "That came entirely from the county party. We didn't have anything to do with that."
But S.C. Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick agreed education is "one of the more motivating issues we have behind the economy and inflation" this election cycle.
"Education is high on the list," he said. "It touches on so many issues that affects so many families."
It's also been a winning issue for Republicans, too.
Last year, in the Virginia governor's race, Republican Glenn Youngkin won his election largely by harnessing the anger suburban parents had toward local school boards, running on a message that advocated for more parental control and against topics like critical race theory.
Critical race theory is an academic framework that has been around since the 1970s. It holds that racism is baked into America’s political, legal and social institutions.
State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman has said repeatedly that the theory is not being taught in the South Carolina's K-12 schools.
Despite that, Washington said the survey was designed to discover the positions school board candidates hold on critical race theory, parents' rights in education, trades and technical skills as an alternative to higher education, the role of teachers in the education process and how much parents should know about what is being taught to their children.
Among the other prompts included in the survey, candidates are asked if "biological boys who identify as girls should not be allowed to compete against biological girls or participate in girls' sports" as well as if "required reading for teachers or students should be shared with parents."
In back-to-back queries, the survey asks candidates if "Critical Race Theory, its concepts of racism and American History, should not be taught in K-12 classrooms or schools" and if "We should strive for a colorblind society." It also seeks their thoughts on whether South Carolina should increase its number of charter schools, and if civics should be taught to all high school students in order to graduate.
Brady Quirk-Garvan, a former chairman of the Charleston County Democratic Party working as a political consultant for three school board candidates, called the survey his candidates received "wild."
"By wild I mean: bigoted, racist, insane, and not based in reality," he wrote on Twitter.
In a statement, he called for the Charleston County Republican Party to "drop this insane questionnaire."
"It appears the Republicans have decided to replace reading, writing and arithmetic with race-baiting, fear of others and revisionist history,” said Quirk-Garvan, who is working as a consultant for Grace Bouldin Cowan, Ashley Peele and Eric Thome. “This is exactly why the school board should remain nonpartisan.”
Charleston County GOP Chairman Maurice Washington
Washington said the questionnaire was drafted by a nine-member committee, which included two African Americans. He defended the questions, even as he acknowledged that they did have a bit of "shock value" to them.
"I've seen some of the Loony Tunes reactions to this from the left, and I'm not at all surprised by that," he said. "They don't want these kinds of tough questions and discussions to be held because they are more interested in keeping people divided, rather than bringing people together."
But shortly after the survey was released, Charleston County Democratic Party Chairman Greg Perry said he was getting a lot of calls from "concerned candidates."
"If the purpose of the questionnaire is to identify highly qualified candidates, that purpose isn't being served with the questionnaire that they put out," Perry said.
Of the question asking if candidates believe all White people are racist, Perry, who is Black, said, "It didn't make any sense to me. I think what they're trying to do is identify all their far-right Republicans to endorse for the school board race."
Perry confirmed the Charleston County Democratic Party will also send a school board questionnaire to candidates. "But this questionnaire will allow individuals to write out their responses — not tick off a box," he said.
Washington said the survey by the Charleston GOP is not the be-all, end-all of their candidate vetting process. An accompanying cover letter was emailed to all 35 candidates running for the nine seats on Charleston County School Board and invited them to be interviewed.
In the letter Washington acknowledged of the survey, "many of these issues are complicated and nuanced."
He encouraged candidates to meet with the party's candidate vetting committee for an interview if they wish to be considered for an endorsement, or to discuss the questionnaire in further detail.
Candidates, he wrote, will also be given a chance at that time to clarify their "thoughts on one or more of these topics — as well as to make clear what you see as the biggest issue or issues at stake in this upcoming election."
The Post and Courier reached out to all 35 candidates for Charleston County School Board to ask their thoughts on the survey. The newspaper received 18 replies, which ranged in their response from outrage to indifference. Of the 18 candidates who responded, 10 said they received the survey and eight said they had not.
A spokesman for the Charleston County Republican Party said he later discovered a technical glitch had only sent the survey to 25 of the 35 candidates. As of Aug. 19, the party has sent the cover letter and survey to the remaining candidates.
Three candidates — Cowan, Pam McKinney and Jen Mieras — said they would not be filling out the questionnaire, saying they would not be participating in any questionnaires from political parties because they are running in a nonpartisan race.
Sydney van Bulck, a former teacher, said she planned to respond to the survey via essay instead of filling out the form because she found the questions "insulting to educators."
"The point of that questionnaire was to get people on the record saying that they’re pro-CRT so that they can run all kinds of ads against us. That’s ridiculous," van Bulck said. "School board races are not partisan for a reason. This level of intentional division is dangerous."
Lee Runyon, a former principal, had no issue with the survey or with fielding questions from a political party.
"They reflect pertinent topics relative to education today," Runyon said. "I don’t think it is the role of candidates to gerrymander survey questions by any organization. Rather, I believe we are obliged to answer the questions based on our beliefs and platforms."
Others, like Joy Brown, planned to submit the survey but also expressed concerns about the questionnaire.
"There were some questions that I expected to see, though there are some questions that I found troublesome, oddly worded, and leading," Brown said. "If I fill out the survey, there are some questions that I won’t be able to answer because I believe they focus on hot-button politics instead of education."
Washington said the replies to the questionnaire will "certainly" be shared within the local party membership.
"Other sharing options are TBD," he said.
Devna Bose contributed to this report.
Reach Caitlin Byrd at 843-998-5404 and follow her on Twitter @MaryCaitlinByrd.
Caitlin Byrd is the senior politics reporter at The Post and Courier. An award-winning reporter, Byrd previously worked as an enterprise reporter for The State newspaper, where she covered the Charleston region and South Carolina politics.
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