PEA Employees' Political Donations Examined
Writers: Tucker Gibbs, Minseo Kim, Marina Avilova
Photo Credits: Thomas Wang
Due to its early primary parties, New Hampshire has long been a popular state for political candidates. This year, New Hampshire citizens will vote for the Democratic and Republican Parties’ presidential on Tuesday, Feb. 11. Like most New Hampshire residents, Academy teachers navigate their own political identities. Frequently, these identities manifest in the form of donations, and at times, the intersection of their political beliefs with teaching.
New Hampshire voters are said to have 20 times the influence than later voting states, a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research reported. With the 2020 presidential election in sight, political discourse is frequent in both the town of Exeter and at PEA. Student discussion about politics often takes place in the classroom, leading students to wonder what impact political perspectives have when they enter the classroom environment and how they influence education at Exeter.
The Federal Elections Commission keeps a database of individual political donations, both to political organizations and candidates themselves. Data obtained by The Exonian from this database shows 97 political donations from 19 Academy employees between January 1, 2019 and present. In all, there are approximately 250 faculty members at Exeter.
All 97 donations faculty made were to candidates, organizations and institutions affiliated with the Democratic Party. The FEC is required by law to publish the names and employers of anyone who donates to a political candidate.
According to the FEC database, 46.39% of donations came from faculty of the English Department, the most represented department of PEA in donations by almost 25%. The next most represented department was the Music Department, comprising 21.65% of the donations. Other departments that had teachers who donated include the Theatre, History and Classics departments. There have also been donations from staff in Standardized Testing, Information Technology, the Children’s Center, the College Counseling Office, Exeter Summer and administrators. Only 4.12% of donations made overall were from faculty in the Mathematics Department, and none came from the faculty in the Science Department.
There were a wide range of recipient candidates and organizations on this donations list. Among the candidates (many of whom received donations in the time frame of their 2020 presidential election campaigns), Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders were the most popular, comprising 18.52%, 18.52% and 14.82% respectively. Kamala Harris has suspended her campaign at the time of publication.
Additional donations have gone to organizations supporting the Democratic Party, such as the Real Justice Political Action Committee (PAC), Color of Change PAC and the two Congressional Hill committees: the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Staff members donated different amounts of money to organizations and candidates—some ranging as low as $1, one as high as $100. The Exonian found that the most frequent amount donated was between $41 and $50, comprising 18.6% of donations made. The average donation amount was $26.45.
There are various levels of political participation amongst school faculty and students. Those who tend to be politically active often do so through donations, attending political events and volunteering. “I donate money to my party, and I try to support their candidates. I've given money to two candidates in seven different states this year alone,” English Instructor Lundy Smith said. “I send money to people that I think need my support and are doing the best thing for our country.”
Other instructors advise or support political clubs such as the Young Democratic Socialists, Democrat Club, Republican Club and the Exeter Political Union. “I volunteered to drive students to a rally in Exeter Exeter High School last month,” Classics Department Chair Matthew Hartnett said. “And the candidate that I drove the students to happened to be one I was sympathetic with, but I would hope and like to think that I would be just as willing to take kids to a candidate that wasn't one that I particularly support.”
While many teachers are politically active, many also do not see the need to share their political views in the classroom or feel it might alienate students. “I don't hide that from students… I have a bumper sticker on my car, so it wouldn't be hard to find out where I stand on things, but I don't announce it in the classroom for the most part,” History Instructor William Jordan said. “Every once in a while, it comes out, for whatever reason. Last fall, I revealed it because there was a purpose for me to tell the students what I thought.”
Many are in agreement about the place that political discussion and texts have in humanities classes. “I think what we should be trying to do is to foster open and informed discussion as much as possible,” Music Instructor Rohan Smith said. “I think it's essential that people of [high school] age, who are just coming out into the world, so to speak, in many ways, and making decisions about life absolutely should be exposed to every possible kind of political discussion.”
“I do not think, as teachers, we should be steering students in a particular political direction,” Hartnett said. “I think our job as educators should be to inculcate critical thinking and facilitate students to have a robust dialogue in which both sides or more than one side of an issue can be presented, articulated and defended and leave it up to individual students to decide where they come down on different issues.”
“It's important to have a forum for dialogue [at Exeter] and make sure that it is actually dialogue and not just a platform for propaganda,” Music Instructor Charles Jennison said.
Some teachers have policies against political debates in class. “Current events and politics necessarily come up in some religion courses, and they would be addressed, but not as a debate between the actual positions students hold,” Dean of Summer School Russell Weatherspoon said.
In some of the teachers’ classes, politics do not come into instruction. “Only If there's some big event in the world, or maybe sometimes a speaker, who's spoken at assembly, people might be talking about it,” Smith said.
In other departments such as history, it is seen as integral to the course. “Right now, I'm teaching American history. In the middle term, which I think is one of the most important parts of that course, is the development of political parties and political ideology,” Jordan said. “I think it's really important that we look carefully at that and see how [political events] happen, and how [they] evolve.”
Some students have experienced teachers who have brought their political views into the classroom outside of History courses. “[My Health teacher] canceled class so that they could protest the grill workers. Now, if there's ever a conservative protest, then she wouldn't have given that class off,” prep Rohan Modi said. “If you want to give class off so the student can protest, that's fine, but she has to make it the standard that ‘If you protest, whatever side, then I won't dick you for it. But if she's only doing it for one protest for one side, then that's really unfair to the students who don't believe in what she's protesting against or in what she's protesting for.”
Other students praise how Academy faculty handle political discussions in the classroom. “In my experience, it's mainly been, if they have political views, they're completely backed up by facts, and they're not just like throwing stuff at us and telling us you have to agree with me,” lower Lekha Masoudi said. “Their political views are not always evident.”
“Should teachers tell students their own political views? Should they advocate for certain political viewpoints?” Smith asked. “In general, I would say no, I think they should not… But we can’t participate in a political world unless we're informed.”