MIAMI – High school English teacher Will Cohen and his fellow educators in Miami-Dade public schools know it’s important to keep politically charged material out of the classroom, and their personal political beliefs out of their lessons.

It’s a basic principle that’s repeatedly emphasized by school officials in Miami and districts across the country.

That’s why a recent email Cohen received from Joe Garcia, Democratic candidate for Florida’s 26th congressional district, really got under his skin.

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The Garcia campaign message, sent to the publicly funded email accounts of numerous Miami teachers, not only espoused the benefits of electing him to office, but also included a direct solicitation for campaign funds – something that Cohen said offended him and his fellow colleagues on multiple levels.

“In schools we’re always talking about how we’re not supposed to be political, and then these people send political solicitations to our school email accounts,” Cohen told EAGnews.org. “I think it is inappropriate, and to be honest it’s an abuse of public resources.”

Cohen believes politicking through teachers’ emails violates the district’s school board policy, and he forwarded the Garcia solicitation to school officials with his concerns. He also wrote a letter of complaint to his local teachers union, the United Teachers of Dade, because the UTD has endorsed Garcia in the congressional race.

“I was just like, ‘This is ridiculous. How can they be sending this out to teachers?’” he said.

Cohen has since learned that it’s very easy to collect teacher email addresses through existing public information laws, which leaves the door wide open for politicians or others to use the publicly-funded communication systems for their own political or financial gain.

Despite efforts by school officials to screen out email spam, politicians like Garcia are getting their message across, though it may not be as well received as they’d like.

“My issue isn’t with the school system, it’s with the politicians,” Cohen said. “We have to be able to trust politicians not to abuse public resources.”

Teacher emails are open targets

In an email sent to teachers in June, Garcia explained that Florida redistricting created a new congressional district, and his campaign is “hitting high gear as we ramp up our efforts to take back our community.”

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The email prompted readers to visit his campaign website, stressed his message of “bringing jobs back to South Florida,” and solicited help to “push us over the finish line in November.”

The email closed with a request for “$10 or more today,” because “every dollar raised brings us closer (to) sending (incumbent) David Rivera packing in November.”

Shortly after receiving Garcia’s email, Cohen voiced his concerns in an email to Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho:

“(Public) resources should under no circumstances be expended in pursuit of political goals. That is why I was so deeply disappointed recently to receive, on our taxpayer-funded email accounts, not just an email from a political candidate … but a direct solicitation for campaign funds,” Cohen wrote.

“I oppose our emails being shared for a purpose so inconsistent with the non-political nature of our work in Miami-Dade public schools, and respectfully request that Joe Garcia’s campaign is instructed to stop using the … (teacher) email list. In addition, I also request that the school board investigate the source of this transgression to ensure no taxpayer funds are used to promote political candidates.

“While our curriculum and our work is often the subject of political debate, individual teachers and public resources we depend on should not become a part of this discourse. Just as we are instructed to keep politics and political preferences out of the classroom, I believe that political candidates should not be able to use taxpayer resources to advance their campaigns,” he wrote.

Superintendent Carvalho responded to Cohen’s concerns through an email from the district’s chief information officer, Deborah Karcher:

“M-DCPS does not condone the use of our District email systems for political purposes. This activity is, in fact, prohibited by our Staff Electronic Email Policy,” Karcher wrote, and went on to explain how politicians like Garcia are able to get around the rules.

“The fact that District email addresses are actually considered ‘public information’ greatly exacerbates the issue,” Karcher wrote. “This means that companies can actually purchase certain email information from the District by submitting a public information request and paying a nominal fee.

“Many of the ‘purchasers’ of these lists work for companies trying to sell education-related products or services or have a political motivation, such as the emails you have recently received. Despite objections from (school technology staff) regarding this activity, this is an unfortunate reality due to the District’s nature as a public entity and the requirement by law to provide certain requested information.”

Nobody claims responsibility

Spam emails may simply be a hazard of doing business in the Internet age, and public information laws obviously make it easy for unscrupulous messengers to gain access to a large audience of public employees. But the underlying issue involving spammers’ abuse of public email addresses is that it erodes the creditability of their message, and raises questions about their character.

EAGnews.org is not familiar with Garcia’s education policies, but his campaign manager made it clear that he views mass emails sent to public employees as standard practice.

“We get email addresses from databases that come from the state and county elections office,” John Estes, Garcia’s campaign manager, told EAGnews.org.

“I haven’t bought any email addresses” specifically to target teachers, he said. “We’re not trying to spam people.”

Karyn Cunningham, government action specialist for United Teachers of Dade – which represents Cohen as a teacher/union member and backs Garcia’s bid for Congress – had no comment when contacted about whether the union believes politically charged emails are appropriate to send to teachers.

Cunningham pointed out that “teachers email addresses are public record,” but said the union doesn’t provide personal contact information for members and the “union had no involvement” in Garcia’s solicitations.

The union’s shoulder shrug, and the district’s inability to vet all incoming emails, leaves the decision to target teachers’ public email accounts mostly up to the politicians themselves.

Estes said “if someone has a problem with us sending them emails, they are free to reply to the one they received,” and request to opt out of the campaign’s list. That would put the onus on already overburdened teachers to police their own accounts for partisan political messages that have no place in public schools.

Cohen has an even better idea.

“The bottom line is we shouldn’t be getting any (political) emails … and this guy should know this,” Cohen said. “He should know better.”