Education Reform Archives

Stacey Seaman (left), a music educator, hopes to bring the love of community fostered through her creative work to representing Arizona's 16th State Senate district. (Credit: Stacey Seaman's campaign) If there’s one thing Stacey Seaman knows, it’s how to be a team player. After all, she’s an alto. For the uninitiated, people who sing alto voice parts in choral ensembles are often assigned, shall we say, less than thrilling lines to perform – as the 51-year-old Casa Grande, Arizona, resident explains, “I’ll sing the same thing for three minutes.” But she approaches her music the way she’s approaching her current run for office: By appreciating the importance of being part of a team. “When you’re a musician, you see things from a more holistic view,” she says. “I’m a cog in a bigger wheel – you want to blend, and compromise.” And actually, Seaman adds, “if every politician was a musician, it would solve the world’s problems.” Well, congressional sessions would certainly sound better, anyway. But it is with this energy and spirit that Seaman, a longtime music educator and church musician, is vying to represent Arizona’s 16th State Senate district, a decidedly purple portion of the Grand Canyon State. She’s running as a Democrat to unseat incumbent Republican T.J. Shope. She knows him through her education work – and she has her qualms about what he’s done with his time in office. Her former educator father, Keith, “would go to meetings at night make decisions that were best for students – then go back to the legislature the next day and vote for policies that weren’t.” For example, he has voted against vaccine requirements for students, and against allowing teachers to refer to students by their preferred pronouns without parental consent. He’s also co-sponsored several anti-abortion bills, she adds – though he did ultimately vote to repeal the especially regressive abortion law that temporarily took hold in Arizona earlier this year. “It’s really frustrating to me that we wouldn’t have been in that situation, if it hadn’t been for his former votes. He just saw the writing on the wall, and tried to play both sides.” Ultimately, “people in this district deserve better than that, better than career politicians trying to figure out how to hold on to power.” Seaman, meanwhile, has been endorsed by pro-choice PAC Emily’s List and the National Organization for Women, as well as the Arizona Education Association, climate-focused PAC Climate Cabinet, and several statewide workers’ unions. It’s all a result of her increasingly outspoken work in support of students’ and women’s rights. “This whole process of finding my voice… It’s not that I’ve ever been a shrinking violet, but being an educator, being a church musician, being from a small town, you don’t find yourself on the front lines” of many progressive battles – “you keep your opinions to yourself,” she says. “But when you’re running,” Seaman adds, “you can’t do that.” Teaching – and Learning – From Example Seaman was inspired to get into service-oriented work by her father and healthcare worker mother. “I won the parent lottery,” she says. “The number one rule in the house was: If you can help, then help.” She has applied that mentality to her longtime job teaching music to K-12 students in southwestern Arizona, as well as performing and volunteering at a nearby church. But then her father ran for office in 2022 – a successful bid for a seat in the Arizona State House. “I saw him and thought, ‘This is my dad. An average person.’ And I realized that literally anybody can do this. We’re a government by the people, for the people – and, I’m people.” Education reform would be a top priority if elected herself, she says – starting with an educational voucher program in desperate need of reform. “It started out as a good thing,” but spending on the program is now approaching the billion-dollar mark due to a woeful dearth of oversight. “It’s being used by parents who have maybe never even had students in public schools, for buying LEGOs and ski trips” – an especially galling situation in a state that ranks 49th in the nation in per-student spending, Seaman adds. She also wants to see abortion protections and reproductive rights enshrined in Arizona’s constitution, and to address myriad infrastructure concerns plaguing her district. As she runs to assume these and other responsibilities, she thinks often of the intersection between music and public service. “There’s something so elemental about the act of creating something from yourself. Whether doing it as a soloist or in a group … it’s an incredible spiral of beauty and giving,” she says. “And I feel very much like it has prepared me for jumping into this crazy political arena.”

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