He’s become a frequent target of criticism from political opponents and some school parents, but veteran Cobb Board of Education member David Banks has proven difficult to dislodge.
The Republican who represents Post 5 (the Pope and Lassiter clusters plus part of the Walton and Wheeler attendance zones) defeated two primary opponents without a runoff in June as he seeks a fourth term.
A retired computer and technology consultant and business owner, Banks said that given the dramatic change that’s underway in a very different school year, retaining an experienced school board voice is important.
“I’ve been on the board long enough to know how to get things done,” Banks said, citing his push for a concert hall at Lassiter High School and support for expanding STEM instruction at the middle- and grade-school level.
Banks does not have a campaign website; here’s his school board biography page.
His opponent in the Nov. 3 general election, Democrat Julia Hurtado, said Cobb County has “outgrown” Banks in a number of respects, especially in response to growing calls for equity.
She’s calling for a more “inclusive” advocacy for the school board that oversees Georgia’s second-largest school district, which effectively has a majority-minority enrollment.
Banks said he’s not concerned he collected only 543 more votes in the primary than Hurtado in what’s been a strongly Republican area, and that he’ll soon send out campaign materials to identified Republican voters.
Banks is the board’s vice chairman this year, and opposed language in a proposed anti-racism resolution that acknowledged “systemic racism” within the Cobb County School District.
The board, which has four white Republicans and three black Democrats, couldn’t come to a consensus on any resolution after several tries this summer.
Banks said the Cobb school district doesn’t have the racial issues that two of his colleagues and others have alleged.
Those board members, first-term Democrats Charisse Davis of the Walton and Wheeler clusters and Jaha Howard of the Smyrna area, have pressed the Cobb school district to hire an equity officer.
Howard also has scrutinized district school disciplinary data along racial lines, and Davis supports changing the name of Wheeler High School, named after a Confederate Civil War general.
They would not support an anti-racism resolution without the “systemic racism” reference.
Banks said they “are trying to make race an issue where it has never been before. . . . I think they feel like they can get votes that way.”
Banks contends there are “black-on-black” racial problems in the south Cobb area, and that it’s really “a cultural thing. When 70 percent don’t have fathers in the house, that’s a problem.”
When asked if he could understand why some might consider those racist remarks, Banks said, “no, that’s not true. It’s more of a socioeconomic situation” that’s beyond the limits of what a school system can address.
In August, Banks came under fire for referring to COVID-19 as the “China virus” in his e-mail newsletter, including a parent in the Lassiter area.
Banks did not respond to a request for comment from East Cobb News before publication, and afterward sent a note saying those who criticized him are Democrats who “are racists and you carried their water.”
Hurtado also supports an equity officer position and school name changes at Walton and Wheeler. In an online advertisement, Banks claims that’s part of Hurtado’s “radical” and “left-wing agenda” and that “Democrat school candidates put our Community at GREAT Risk.”
Among those issues is Hurtado’s support of revisiting the Cobb school district’s senior property tax exemption. Banks, who takes the exemption that’s available for homeowners aged 62 and over, said he still pays for schools through sales taxes.
He advocates a local education sales tax (LEST) to provide additional revenues, and said changing the exemption would require a constitutional amendment.
“It’s not going to happen,” Banks said. “I don’t know a legislator who would commit political suicide.”
Banks also took issue with Hurtado’s claim that the Cobb school district could be doing more for special-education students.
He said the Cobb school district “has one of the best special-needs programs in the country and “we have allocated more money than a lot of other districts have.”
Banks also downplayed criticism that the school board is out of touch with parents and constituencies in the school district pining for change.
“I would prefer to concentrate on doing things to make the educational process better for all students,” he said.
Continuing the extension of STEM programs into grade schools is one of those priorities, as is addressing what could be an evolving learning environment.
Roughly 60 percent of Cobb elementary students returned to campuses this week while the rest are learning remotely. Middle school and high school students whose parents chose the classroom option will be coming back over the next three weeks.
“This has been a real learning curve,” said Banks, who commended the district’s handling of reopening. “It’s how we’re going to define education in the future.
“I think you’re going to have a hybrid [model], but we don’t yet really know what it’s going to look like.”
Banks said the most significant challenge for the Cobb school district in the long run is for it “not to become a school system like Atlanta, DeKalb and Clayton” that he says have declined due to “white flight.” He said he thinks similar trends are taking place in Gwinnett and Henry.
Banks said if Democrats gain control of the Cobb school board, among other priorities there would be an effort to force teachers to transfer to underperforming schools.
That’s another charge he has leveled at Hurtado, and Banks is unflinching in making that claim.
“I can back up everything I’ve said,” he said.
He chuckles at other criticism that he occasionally falls asleep during school board meetings.
“People like to make fun of that, and that’s okay,” he said. “I can take a picture of you and tell you the same thing.
“I don’t fall asleep. I’m wide awake.”
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The Cobb County School District has issued specifics on face masks that will be required for everyone when students begin returning to classrooms on Oct. 5.
