Denver school board candidate Kwame Spearman and the city’s teachers union, which endorsed the former Tattered Cover CEO in his bid for an at-large seat, denounced as racist an election mailer attacking him as a bully.
The mailer was sent to Denver residents by an independent expenditure committee called Better Leaders, Stronger Schools, which has spent at least $1 million on advertising in the race for three seats on Denver Public Schools’ Board of Education. The election is on Nov. 7.
“I think that is some nasty personal attacks that are coming out,” said Rob Gould, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association.
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He said he feels the mailer is racist because it features an upset white child on one side and calls Spearman a bully on the other side, implying that Spearman, who is Black, is bullying the kid. Gould called the advertisement “pretty gross.”
Spearman, in a news release, called the mailer “a ‘dog whistle’ to fuel racial divisions.”
Better Leaders, Stronger Schools is largely funded by Denver Families Action, a deep-pocketed political group with charter school ties, according to Chalkbeat Colorado.
Denver Families has endorsed three candidates: John Youngquist, who is running against Spearman in the at-large race; Kimberlee Sia in District 1; and Marlene De La Rosa in District 5.
Better Leaders, Stronger Schools has paid for mailers and other advertisements to support those three candidates. But it also sent out mailers attacking the three candidates with union support, including Spearman and incumbent board members Scott Baldermann and Charmaine Lindsay.
The mailer attacking Spearman says he “has a record of being a bully.” It mentioned he stepped down as chief executive officer of the bankrupt Tattered Cover bookstore chain after employees accused Spearman of sexism and abusive language.
The Denver Post reported last year that the Tattered Cover hired a third-party investigator to look into workplace bullying and ageism allegations, both of which Spearman fervently denied. The book chain’s board did not take action after the investigation was complete, and neither the board nor Spearman made the final report public.
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The mailer also said Spearman has embraced right-winged policies, such as calling on federal immigration officials to deport undocumented workers, and that in college he wrote newspaper articles that “objectified” women.
“It literally was just a personal attack going back to my days in college writing a satirical column,” Spearman said in an interview about the mailer.
When asked about criticism that the mailer is racist, Daniel Aschkinasi, the registered agent for Better Leaders, Stronger Schools, did not directly address the issue.
“What the piece highlights are statements that Kwame has made,” he said. “I thought that it’s very important for voters to read and hear his words. He’s running for public office.”
Clarence Burton Jr, chief executive of Denver Families for Public Schools, said he could not comment on any spending by an independent expenditure committee in the race.
Despite the money flowing into the election, the messaging this cycle has focused on school safety and board dysfunction more so than traditional focal points of education reform policies or charter schools.
Spearman has previously questioned the intention of Denver Families Action and its parent organization Denver Families for Public Schools. He noted that the latter is partly funded by The City Fund, a national organization that supports charter schools and school reform.
“The reason why they are doing that… (is) they can’t talk about the issues they actually want to implement,” Spearman said of the focus on school safety. “They can’t talk about privatizing our schools, so they are going to talk about other issues.”
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