Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Radhika Nath
From Ballotpedia
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Radhika Nath ran for election to the Denver Board of Education to represent District 1 in Colorado. Nath lost in the general election on November 5, 2019.
Nath completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Nath received a Ph.D. in Public Administration from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, SUNY, in 2004. Her professional history includes working as an analytics consultant, a healthcare compliance consultant, data strategy and technology coordinator, and a director of analytics. Nath has been associated with Colorado Disabilities Partners, Action For Healthy Kids, Colorado Foundation For Universal Health Care, the Colorado State Board Of Pharmacy, and the Data Review & Release Committee Of The Center For Improving Values In Healthcare.[1]
Elections
2019
See also: Denver Public Schools, Colorado, elections (2019)
General election
General election for Denver Public Schools Board of Education District 1
Scott Baldermann defeated Diana Romero Campbell and Radhika Nath in the general election for Denver Public Schools Board of Education District 1 on November 5, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Scott Baldermann (Nonpartisan)  | 47.2 | 16,307 |
 | Diana Romero Campbell (Nonpartisan) | 31.1 | 10,747 | |
 | Radhika Nath (Nonpartisan) | 21.7 | 7,509 | |
| Total votes: 34,563 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
A list of endorsements for Radhika Nath may be found here.
Campaign themes
2019
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Radhika Nath completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Nath's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
I am a parent, a policy expert, a grassroots activist and a disability rights advocate. I came to this country as an immigrant and earned a doctorate in public policy. I am running for office because high-quality public education is our common legacy underlying our democracy and needs to be strengthened. My husband and I chose to become parents by adopting locally. Our sons are beautiful and talented, but also atypical children. My journey made me realize that as a society we need more inclusion. ALL of our children deserve the opportunities that a high-quality education provides. In DPS, we have many high-poverty schools. Despite having a system of choice, segregation (by race, class, ability, language...) has increased. We need our most at-need students to be resourced equitably and to have smaller class sizes. When we serve the most vulnerable, every child benefits. We need to elevate the profession of teaching and pay teachers better. Teachers should be able to live in the communities they serve. They need the autonomy to teach our kids to be curious learners rather than test-takers. We need an enriched curriculum rather than a narrow focus driven by high-stakes standardized testing. We need to ensure that spending in DPS is transparent and that our tax dollars are reaching our children's classrooms. $0.62 of every property tax dollar goes to fund DPS and yet, many of our schools are not subject to full board oversight. If it is a Public School and receives Public Dollars then it must be fully subject to Public Oversight. Imagine a school system where all of our children have the joy of learning and are excited to go to school. Imagine a school system where teachers feel respected and accomplished at the end of the day. Imagine communities thriving around vibrant neighborhood schools. Support us in creating a high-quality educational system in DPS that is a ramp to the American dream for all of our children.
- Our most under-resourced children are being failed by our schools. We need equity, smaller class sizes, culturally responsive staff and a joyful learning environment for our children.
- We need licensed teachers to be paid better- we need all teachers to be profesionally trained. We need to bring back an enriched curricula and allow teachers to nurture curious, creative thinkers.
- We need financial transparency from DPS. If it is Public School and receives Public Dollars, it must be answerable to Public Oversight.
I am passionate about healthcare, education and the environment. Healthcare, education and clean environment/water/air are some of the most basic needs our children face. We need comprehensive health care coverage for all of our families. We also need schools that provide free and appropriate public education to our children regardless of their family background, race, zip code, disabilities, trauma, and language. With clean air, water and land, we are able to nourish and nurture our children to greater health. Public policy is about serving the greater good and creating sustainable systems.
An elected official is first and foremost a public servant. As stewards of the public's trust, we must ensure that the public purse is managed to serve our constituents- our constituents are our children, families and our communities. The goal of DPS is to be the provider of high-quality education to our children and it is the job of the Board to craft nuanced, thoughtful and sustainable policies in the service of this goal. A good public servant is ethical, principled and has courage. Ethics are important in a public servant because to be successful, one must put the public interest first and always be unquestionably honest. Principles are where different Board members distinguish themselves as they bring different values and approaches to their work n behalf of the public. Lastly, overseeing the state's largest school district and one that has seen as many changes as DPS has seen in the past decade will take someone with the courage to ask difficult questions and follow-through on tough choices. I bring all of these qualities and have demonstrated these abilities throughout my career.
I bring a strong skill set for serving in this role. I am a successful, working professional with a doctorate in public policy. I am a parent of two DPS children with a high investment in seeing DPS provide quality education to all our children. I am a disability rights advocate that wants to see inclusion for all children and that they are served equitably in DPS. I am a former foster parent, who recognizes the unique challenges children with destabilized lives face in our educational system- this experience also drove home to me our responsibility as a society to care for ou most vulnerable children. I am an American who recognizes the unique stresses that immigrant families face in a new system. I am multi-lingual and recognize the importance of all children, regardless of linguistic background, receiving a quality education. I am a woman of color who wants every child to be accorded dignity and for the playing field to be leveled so that all kids have access to the opportunity that school represents. I am a progressive who wants our society to thrive by providing every child the opportunities of a high-quality education. I have strong ties within the community. I have worked hard on issues of equity and social justice.
My very first job after completing my PhD was as a postdoctoral scholar in England in the United Kingdom. I worked there at a school of medicine and had such lovely adventures in my two years there. Two things about my time there stuck with me. The first was that I voted there for the very first time in my life because the laws of the UK permitted non-citizens to vote in particular municipal elections which affected their welfare! The second was that in the UK, anyone on the 'soil of the nation' could get healthcare without worrying about how they were going to pay for it. Universal healthcare is so freeing. When we pay taxes that create a universal, cradle-to-grave coverage for everyone, we all benefit as a society. Privatizing public goods like healthcare and education are not good ideas. We need both of these in order to keep progressing as a society.
I was recently playing the music of The Cranberries and humming along to one of my favorite songs- Zombies. Halloween being a favorite time for my sons and with all of us excited about it, they have also taken to humming this song with me because of the 'zombies'. So for the past week, we have been breaking into this song. The kids and I do the refrain from the song with aplomb. Our other seasonal favorite is, of course, Thriller and we turn off the lights and dance to that one.
I would like to see a faculty, staff, and administration that is a reflection of our communities and brings a diversity of experience, outlook and background to their work. All district employees should be well-trained, well-remunerated and well-resourced. Teachers should be able to have a meaningful and rewarding career, teaching engaged students with smaller classrooms of children. DPS falls short in addressing many aspects of a teacher's job that contributes to retaining and recruiting a diverse faculty. This is true for staff and administrators, as well. If DPS is to attract diverse employees, they must improve the working conditions in our schools. As evidence of the stress imposed by the district, DPS has lost 6,000 teachers over the past 13 years. Recruiting new employees is made even more difficult when the evidence is overwhelming that experience and career dedication are not valued. We need to fix the 'horse' prior to trying to fill the 'cart!'
The DPS 'choice' portfolio model has resulted in the removal of funds needed to support traditional, neighborhood schools. Tax dollars should strengthen public schools first, before being spent on non-public school models. Non-public schools include all those schools that do not have direct oversight of the publicly elected board of education. I will work to bring the non-public schools under the control of the board. Under the influence of 'reform' entities, DPS too often follows those who promote and stand to benefit financially from initiatives that are mandated for implementation upon the school community. Relying less on the 'reformers' and more on educators and community members for input will be a priority for me. Debt has grown substantially over the past decades. A concerted effort needs to be put forth to tackle this obstacle. Monies being diverted to banks as interest payments, as one example, cripples DPS's ability to funnel dollars into the classroom where it is needed to improve resource availability and student outcomes.
Public education serves many roles in our society, with the primary one being to prepare our children to function fully as a citizen in our democracy. In order to do that, school success, to me, means that all students are given the opportunity to explore as many avenues as possible to allow them to identify their special talents and focus their career choices on an area that will ensure they can best utilize those talents. Narrow curriculum offerings and limited electives are not only punitive but also restrict our students' opportunity to explore and discover their passion. A nurturing education is essential if we expect our students to succeed in life.
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
2019 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 13, 2019
