Past school board chair wants to serve Manatee County School District again

James T. Golden, 78, wants voters in the school board election to remember the goal of public education — to transform a child totally dependent on their home environment to become a productive member of the community.

He said it should not be a process that is revisited every four years during election season, but that people continually visit every year for that “12-year transformational process.”

“I am disturbed by the toxic attitudes that many people have about public education,” he said. “I am disturbed about the lack of unity in our community about the purpose.” 

Golden, who previously served on the School District of Manatee County school board from 2018 to 2022 as the District 5 representative, is now running once again to represent District 2. He has lived in Braden River Lakes since 1993, but the district lines have changed since he was on the board. 

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“District Two has been chronically underserved in every aspect of quality public education,” Golden said. “I am honored to have the opportunity to change that.”

Golden said the number of Title 1 schools, higher poverty levels, fewer amenities, higher dropout, suspension and expulsion rates are what makes District 2 particularly in need of a turnaround.

“Until and unless a majority of the elected school board decides to make these issues a top priority and put adequate funding to overcome them, then no meaningful changes will occur in public education in this county,” Golden said. “My election to the school board will be a step toward ending these disparities.”

It has been four years since Golden served, and in his last year he was elected chair. He said that although there have been changes in technique, methodology, personnel and resources, the goal of the board is the same — to serve the students and the community. 

“Public education must meet each child where that child is and not expect every child to live up to the generalized expectation of the public school system,” Golden said.

He described himself as an ordained retired minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a 50-year member of the Florida Bar, husband, father, grandfather and stepfather. 

“The one thing that I came away from my first term was trying to make sure that our children and our grandchildren were better citizens than we turned out to be, because they got a better public education than we got,” Golden said.

Golden’s parents planted a love of education within him from an early age. His father, Rev. James C. Golden, Jr., was a public school teacher and pastor. His mother, Vivian, was a high school guidance counselor. 

Golden never pursued being a full-time teacher like them, but he has been a substitute teacher of multiple grade levels in Manatee County. 

Due to his “lifetime of community service,” Golden said he is the right candidate for the position. He served on Bradenton City Council for two terms after being elected in 1999 and reelected in 2003.

He has also run for other positions, including the school board (1998, 2014 and 2022), Congress in 2010, Manatee County Commission in 2012 and the District 73 Florida House seat in 2016.

“I only ran because each campaign provided me a unique opportunity to offer to serve the community,” Golden said. “The campaigns that were not won taught me that the only sure way to not serve was to not keep trying.”