City Council Independent Candidate Targets Republicans

KRISTIN COMBS … says poverty is key problem in Phila. schools.

Kristin Combs is a schoolteacher on a mission. That mission crystallized when, in 2013, a public school at which she was teaching was closed.

Vaux HS, 23rd & Master, was the target of the School Reform Commission which labeled it as “failing”.

“We had actually turned around the school climate, but unfortunately we bit the bullet,” she recalls ruefully.

She was then transferred to another school, only to see it fall victim to budget cuts as well.

That’s when she understood the core of the problem was poverty. The poorer the school population, the less emphasis on serving that population and giving its fair funding, she saw.

“City Council can change that, but it presently isn’t. We have a crisis in priorities,” Combs noted. “Eliminating tax loop holes and subsidies to major corporations and developers could provide the money needed without raising property/rental taxes on the average citizen. There presently is no majority representing this view in the present Council, which is why I am running as an independent on the Green Party ticket.”

She turned in over 2,000 signatures on her nomination papers, which she says, “should send a message that there is huge discontent in what Council has allowed to happen to our public-school system.”

A Texan by birth and a six-year resident of Philadelphia, Combs knows her race will be a steep uphill battle all the way, but she feels, “My primary targets are the Republicans running for this office. I believe I’m in target range with the reception I have been getting.”

She says she is getting growing support from progressives and union workers, drawing from many union teachers. She also has the endorsement of DC33.

Combs is confident of the growing awareness among unions that either or both of the Republicans running will not join in efforts to end the role of poverty determining school policies.

“If the turnout is the same as it was four years ago, though predictions are it will be lower, I need about 50,000 to bump at least one of them off their goal,” she stated.

“If Democrats and progressives adhere to my message to split their vote to give me one of their five votes, I’m a winner,” she believes. Her campaign, as a result, has taken her to speak to community groups, unions, and activists.

Combs’ undergraduate degree was in physics with a minor in math at Baylor University. She got her Masters’ degree in secondary education at University of Pennsylvania. She added, “The more I learned, the more I became aware the current political machinery was not serving the poorer population in this city.” If you’re interested in getting a physics degree like her, then check here.

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