Brandon Swearengin
Elections and appointments
Personal
Contact
Brandon Swearengin ran for election to the Union Public Schools Board of Education to represent Zone 5 in Oklahoma. He lost in the general election on June 30, 2020.
Swearengin completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. Click here to read the survey answers.
Elections
2020
See also: Union Public Schools, Oklahoma, elections (2020)
General election
Nonpartisan primary election
The primary election was canceled. Incumbent Kenneth Kinnear II and Brandon Swearengin advanced from the primary for Union Public Schools Board of Education Zone 5.
2020
On May 17, 2020, Swearengin submitted the following responses via email to Ballotpedia:[1]
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Who are you? Tell us about yourself in 300 words or less.
My name is Brandon Swearengin, and I am a candidate for the District 5 Board of Education seat with Union Public Schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I am a graduate of the University of Oklahoma where I earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Accountancy. Additionally, I have worked as a tax preparer at a leading financial firm in Tulsa, DP Financial & Tax Inc., for several years, and I have worked as a private policy consultant to a representative at the State Capitol to pass sensible legislation in education, infrastructure, and other policy areas. Having spent all of K-12 in the Union district, I am a proud product of public education and am very passionate about the power vested in our public school systems to sow the seeds of tomorrow for our state and nation. I seek to be an advocate for you and your family as well as a steward of the taxpayers' public education system. I further seek to be a listener who conveys the voices of constituents, students, faculty, and staff in our district.
Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?
1. Oklahomans First. The Union School Board must regularly engage constituents in budgeting decisions and keep school district contracts in-state to boost our economy and workers.
2. Increase Achievement & Reduce Overhead. 62% of all Union students score below state targets while our Superintendent is paid nearly $100,000 more than the Governor and justices of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
3. Prioritize Meaningful Education. Establish a "life skills" course at the high school level to teach subjects not normally taught in school like filing tax returns and balancing checkbooks.[2]
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| —Brandon Swearengin[1]
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Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Brandon Swearengin completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Swearengin's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I have always been fascinated with state and local politics. It's important to stay apprised of federal and international affairs as part of being a well-informed citizen, but I'm particularly fond of state and local politics because a single person can have a significant, positive impact in the lives of others through the formulation of responsible public policy. As a private policy consultant working at the State Capitol for State Rep. Daniel Pae (R-Lawton) in the spring of 2019, I found myself developing expertise in the areas of education, infrastructure, and electoral policies. In fact, I played a key role in the writing and passage of HB 1071 in 2019 which raised our maximum speed limits to 80-mph on turnpikes when safe and feasible. As a member of the Union Board of Education, most of my responsibilities will revolve around managing the school district's budget, establishing administrative policies, and developing curriculum guidelines within the strict scope of the law. However, I believe that the relationships I've developed at the State Capitol will be beneficial to advancing the interests of Union and public education at-large.
Elected officials should always bear in mind who they work for. Too often, it feels like politicians often work for themselves or special interest groups. And in cases with school board members across the state, it feels like some school board members act as if they work for the school district instead of acting as the publicly elected independent overseers that they are supposed to be. I will seek to be a independent listener who is open to constructive input from anyone and everyone who wishes to opine or advise.
I fully understand that I am a 21 year old college student seeking elected office. Despite my age, I have spent virtually my entire time as an undergraduate and graduate business student eating, breathing, and sleeping government. I have drafted hundreds of legislative bills with several becoming introduced into the State Legislature and one (HB 1071 - 2019) becoming law. I have negotiated legislation with state legislators, cabinet members, and agency staff. I have worked on numerous political campaigns. If you asked me to quote specific articles of the Oklahoma Constitution, you might be surprised at how accurately I recite it. I spend about 30-45 minutes every morning reading the Tulsa World, Oklahoma Watch, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and BBC News. I do my very best to stay up-to-date on the world's affairs, and I firmly believe that I am well-educated on governmental and political affairs.
While I certainly acknowledge being 21 has not afforded me the opportunity to experience everything that life has to offer, I firmly believe that I am a well-qualified candidate who is capable of using his accounting education and political experience to make intelligent decisions in the running of our school board. I sincerely hope that the voters of Union's Fifth Board District are willing to take a chance on me; I will do my very best to not let you down.
From a young age, I recall working in various capacities in my mother's company, DP Financial & Tax, Inc., that she and her business partner started from scratch when I was three years old. From shredding documents, to scanning papers, to filing folders, and beyond, I was taught the value of a dollar by learning what it makes to earn a dollar. Even as a graduate student, I still find myself helping out at the family company which has now grown to over twenty employees.
As a member of the Union Board of Education, most of my responsibilities will revolve around managing the school district's budget, establishing administrative policies, and developing curriculum guidelines within the strict scope of the law. However, performing these actions also requires board members to actively engage with the community and ask tough questions of the district's hard-working administrators. Union's school board has developed a culture of passing multi-million dollar budget appropriations with no questions asked. In fact, not a single question was asked, nor debate point raised, on any budget item or policy point in the entire calendar year of 2019. A school board is a governmental entity, and it must exercise its authority to govern in order to represent the needs, and convey the desires, of the taxpaying public.
My constituents are the People of Union's Fifth Board District. I will work for you and be your representative. School board members do not work for the school district nor are they allowed to receive any remuneration pursuant to state law. While it will be my firm objective to advocate for budgets and policies that are in the best interest of the students, faculty, and staff of the district, I will ultimately answer to my constituents. In the event that the interests of school district administrators differ from the best interests of my constituents and their children, then my vote will always be cast in favor of the People of Union's Fifth Board District.
I believe that the first step to effective representation is listening. Student, parents, employees, and the general taxpaying public all have unique concerns and ideas, and I want to be the one school board member who will listen to each of them. I do not believe that the current school board does nearly enough to play an active role in the lives of those whom they serve, and I seek to be a liaison between the public and their government. I firmly believe that we were given two ears and one mouth for a reason, and I intend to use them in those proportions.
It's important to recognize that all taxpayers - not just those with children or grandchildren in the public schools - receive value out of having a strong school district. A flourishing school district is attractive to home-buyers which in turn increases property values. While taxes levied by public school districts are a notoriously tricky matter (largely due to very strict limits placed on school boards by the State Legislature), I seek to engage all members of the public in school district decisions considering that all members of the public are impacted by such decisions.
I'm a firm believer in local control. The school district is required to follow the laws and regulations of both the state and federal governments, but school boards have a considerable degree of jurisdiction, that often goes unused, in terms of how educational requirements are fulfilled. I want Union's school board to exercise its degree of authority, when possible, to have some amount of say in how course curricula are developed and executed.
First and foremost, I generally do not support standardized examinations. When instructors are forced to teach to a test, they often rush material to ensure that all learning objectives have been "taught." However, squeezing large amounts of material into a short amount of time benefits no student and is stressful to the teacher. Faculty lose the freedom to slow down and reteach material when students get lost, and students become frustrated when they aren't learning and retaining material as quickly as they are told they're supposed to. This is why I do not support state-mandated examinations and why I am skeptical of the supposed benefits of Advanced Placement (AP) coursework.
With AP specifically, the school district invests a significant amount of money ($50,000 in 2019 for testing alone) to give high-performing students the ability to take a year's worth of challenging coursework in exchange for the opportunity to take a spring examination which may or may not lead to college credit and will never count for college GPA quality points. While students going out-of-state, or going into an engineering or pre-med degree track, for college may receive some value out of this program, I believe the better, and less expensive, option for the majority of students is to encourage dual-credit enrollment with Tulsa Community College (TCC). TCC places less workload on school faculty, results in guaranteed college credit and college GPA development for students, and results in less tuition when the student goes on to college because they may enter university having completed most of their freshman prerequisite courses.
I also believe good teaching requires regular review of instructors in the classroom. One complaint I have heard repeatedly from college students around Oklahoma is that government, history, and other social science courses at the high school level are frequently taught by academically disengaged coaching staff. We must strive for academic excellence. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In order to compete in the global economy as a state and country, we need more individuals who are trained in technology and the hard sciences. I believe that we have a responsibility to encourage students to pursue challenging career fields by giving them opportunities to interact with these subjects.
However, I also believe that we are failing students by sending them out into the real-world without having learned critical life skills. I frequently hear from college students and recent college graduates that they might not know how to file a tax return or balance a checkbook but at least they know that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. While I certainly encourage the learning and teaching of important science subjects, I think this observation goes to show flaws in our current educational system.
Currently, state law only requires three years of social science coursework. Via school board policy enactment, I would like to see this expanded within Union to incorporate a mandatory fourth year to teach life skills. Such a course would include everything from how our tax systems work, to personal finance, to basic home DIY, to the fundamentals of cooking. This course would essentially incorporate everything a student needs to know as an adult that also isn't presently taught in our schools. As much emphasis as we place on getting students ready for college, we must also recognize that our universities are flooded with students who might possess talents that aren't best suited to spending three to five years on a university campus. Instead, we must encourage such students to pursue technical study with an institution like Tulsa Tech. Not every student can - or should - go to college. As a society, we are in short supply of well-qualified plumbers, electricians, mechanics, carpenters, handymen, and pilots who all can earn very sizable salaries and be just as well off, or better, than their bachelor's degree counterparts. The school district must work to identify students who may be better suited to learning a trade and encourage them to enroll in a dual-credit program with Tulsa Tech.
I would also like to be working with local companies to establish internships for high school juniors and seniors. Whether or not we could offer such internship programs for credit, I believe that expanded working opportunities for dedicated high school students can give the student a better idea of where their interests lie thereby allowing them to better identify what line of work they may wish to pursue out in the real-world.
As part of my appreciation for local control, I believe that the State Legislature should give school districts greater control over taxation. Presently under state law, the state takes away one dollar in appropriation to a school district for every additional dollar, beyond a certain threshold, that a school district levies in taxes. While I view additional taxes as a last resort to cover funding, I do believe that this situation can lead to a zero-sum game in which certain critical resources, like faculty and staff remuneration or textbook purchases, are reduced or postponed until other critical resources are fulfilled. Though we can't always have everything that we want at any given moment in time, I will be an advocate for enhanced local control as well as for city, county, and private financial assistance when possible.
Every student, parent, and employee deserves to feel safe while at school. While I firmly respect the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, I acknowledge that weapons can pose a danger in schools despite state law prohibiting firearms on school grounds. I am opposed to metal detectors in our schools because I don't believe that they contribute to a welcoming atmosphere that is conducive to education. However, I am not opposed to establishing expanded bag and locker checks in our middle and high schools to ensure that students are not in possession of dangerous weapons or controlled substances.
It is important that school officials create an atmosphere in which mental health is discussed in a friendly, non-stigmatizing manner. Suicide and depression rates among young people are dangerously high, and we have a responsibility to ensure that students, as well as faculty and staff, have access to potentially life-saving mental health resources.
Union is currently expanding access to technology in the classroom by offering students access to laptop and tablet devices on a regular basis. The district is also expanding its offering of online coursework. I believe that increased technology in the classroom is absolutely a positive and will reflect what a student will experience if they decide to attend a university, but we must exercise caution that these devices are not distracting our students. Many universities, for example, require that freshmen enrolled in first-year courses attend class with only pencil and paper to ensure that students are focused on what is being taught in the classroom. I additionally believe that we should exercise caution with online courses to ensure that the academic rigor for these courses is no less than what would be expected of a student in the classroom.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
External links
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Email from Brandon Swearengin via Ballotpedia's error reporting system. Error dated May 17, 2020.
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
