It’s come to light that the Hillsborough County School District has an open file on Mark Danish, a science teacher at Benito Middle School–who’s also the Democratic state representative from northern Hillsborough’s District 63. The thinking is that it may be the District’s way of making sure that church and state stay separate. It has a strict anti-political campaign policy.
Danish, who will face a formidable challenge next year from Republican Shawn Harrison, says he has been a stickler about keeping all things political, including signs, leaflets and bumper stickers, separate from his Benito duties. He points to the fact that he even took a leave of absence last fall to campaign. Danish, who enjoys the support of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association, also took leaves to attend committee weeks and the two-month legislative session in the spring. A co-teacher and a long-term sub filled in. In 2014, he plans to take the spring semester off to focus on the upcoming campaign.
But the most probing questions about Danish’s dual–but not overlapping–roles may not come from voters or the School District. They may come from Benito parents. Regardless of qualified coverage, that’s a lot of Danish’s time away from students. The teacher-student relationship, as we well know, is a critical learning component, especially in middle school. The better the teacher, the more important that variable.