Tea Partyers Do Homework, Then Take on School Budgets

Tea party groups around the country are wading into school district budget negotiations and opposing efforts to raise local taxes to finance more education spending, The Wall Street Journal reports. These campaigns are beginning to make an impact on school budgets and on the makeup of elected school boards.

“If you don’t starve the system, you won’t make it change,” said Nick Pandelidis, a Pennsylvania tea partyer who is campaigning against a 1.4 percent property tax increase for the York Suburban School District.

Pandelidis also is trying to get tea party candidates elected to that school district’s nine-member board, a grass-roots approach borrowed from issue-oriented groups such as the Christian Coalition.

Tea partyers continue to focus on federal spending, but many are adding school-district finances to their portfolios. The Peoples Tea Party of Jacksonville, Fla., recently persuaded the local school board to vote down a proposed pay hike for teachers.