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Seven Coral Gables area schools are coming together to sponsor the City Beautiful’s first candidate debate ahead of April elections for mayor and two commission seats.
The virtual candidate forum will take place Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. via Zoom.
This is the third straight grassroots forum organized by parent-teacher organizations. The first one, in 2021, was attended by 250 families and contributed to the highest voter turnout in Coral Gables elections in 20 years.
The goal is to encourage informed voting as a means of helping every child reach their potential, the long-standing mission of PTA. Gables resident Samuel Joseph, an education, museums and political affairs consultant, will moderate again.
“It’s never been more important to teach our children how to become skilled citizens,” said Joshua Goodman, a PTA vice president for advocacy at G.W. Carver Elementary and Middle Schools. “This forum is an opportunity for kids to ask smart questions, evaluate candidates’ responses and see for themselves how politics works in practice.”
For candidates, the forum is a rare opportunity to provide their vision on what Coral Gables can do to promote and better support its public schools. Students from the seven sponsoring schools will be asking the bulk of the questions.
Education is rising to the top of residents’ priorities in Coral Gables as more families and businesses relocate to south Florida.
At the end of 2023, the City Commission voted unanimously to add education to its 2026-2029 strategic plan. The School Community Relations Committee, a citizen advisory board, has been working for months on a new educational compact between Coral Gables and Miami-Dade County Public Schools to promote educational excellence, recruit and retain talented teachers and expand arts and language instruction, among other goals.
The organizers of next month’s candidate forum want to go even further with the creation of a full-time Chief Education Officer to advocate for children, schools and education from inside City Hall. Such a position has already existed for decades in the City of Miami Beach, which spends about $2 million annually from its operating budget supporting public schools.
The forum’s sponsoring parent-teacher organizations represent the following schools: Coral Gables Prep Academy, G.W. Carver Elementary School, G.W. Carver Middle School, Gables Senior High, International Studies Preparatory Academy, Ponce de Leon Middle School, Sunset Elementary.
To register for the forum: http://bit.ly/4jayBs1
Questions: cg.ptsa.candidate.forum@gmail.
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