Richmond Public Schools (RPS) Superintendent Jason Kamras is writing official public letters advocating a political bias, according to Mike Dickinson, candidate for Richmond’s 1st Council District.
Dickinson told The Virginia Star, “Our testing scores are well below the state average, our drop out rates are much higher than the state average, and even recently we had a shortage when schools reopened, we were 10,000 laptops short. So it seems to me that those should be the pressing problems that the schools Superintendent Jason Kamras would focus on.”
NBC 12 reports that in the latest data, Richmond’s high school graduation rate has dropped to 70 percent.
In an August email, Kamras said that although the district had anticipated in June a need for more laptops, supply chain problems delayed the shipment. “Well, the global supply chain is extremely tight right now and our country’s current trade tensions with China have created all sorts of delays. To learn more about this, I encourage you to read this article from The Washington Post and this one from The Wall Street Journal,” Kamras wrote.
Dickinson summarized Kamras’ message: “He linked to two articles that basically blame President Trump for irritating China and that’s impacting our laptops chain.”
Dickinson said another email shows the superintendent’s distrust in the judicial system. In response to the Breonna Taylor grand jury verdict, Kamras wrote, “I’d like to begin this evening by acknowledging the pain coursing through our community yet again in the wake of the decision yesterday by a Kentucky grand jury not to charge any of the officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor with homicide or manslaughter. Outcomes like this only tear at the unhealed wounds borne by so many within the RPS family. Please check on your colleagues, friends, and loved ones this evening. Please recognize that they may need extra time and space to process this latest injustice.”
Dickinson said the emails were sent to him by an RPS employee. “The way I see it is, if [Kamras] is out here, and he’s sending these emails out to teachers, I guess, if I was a conservative teacher in Richmond, I would be afraid to speak out, because it’s very obvious where the Superintendent falls on all of these issues.”
After a student was shot in August, Kamras wrote in an RPS update, “I beg of you, regardless of which political party you call home, please support candidates this November who will enact common sense gun control legislation.”
“I didn’t know it was [Kamras’] job as the public school superintendent to lobby for or against political candidates, ” Dickinson said. “I didn’t know that was his job.”
Kamras did not respond to a request for comment.
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and the Star News Digital Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Jason Kamras” by Richmond Public Schools.
