Mark Johnson (North Carolina politician)

Mark Johnson is an American attorney and politician who is currently North Carolina's Superintendent of Public Instruction. A Republican, he was first elected in 2016, narrowly defeating incumbent June Atkinson. Prior to his election as state superintendent, Johnson served for two years on the Forsyth County School Board while working as a lawyer in Winston-Salem. Prior to attending law school, Johnson taught at West Charlotte High School for two years with Teach for America. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for Republican nomination for North Carolina lieutenant governor in 2020.

Mark Johnson
22nd North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction
Assumed office
January 1, 2017
GovernorRoy Cooper
Preceded byJune Atkinson
Personal details
Born1982/1983 (age 36–37)[1]
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Rachel Johnson
EducationEmory University (BA)
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (JD)

Early life, education, and career before politics

Johnson grew up in Covington, Louisiana,[2] the oldest of four sons.[3] He graduated from the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts and then Emory University in Atlanta,[3] receiving a bachelor's degree in environmental studies and political science.[2] From 2006 to 2008,[2] he taught science at West Charlotte High School, a high-poverty high school, through the Teach for America (TFA) program.[1][2][3] He then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Law.[3] Johnson became a technology lawyer in Winston-Salem,[3] working as corporate counsel for international technology company Inmar.[2]

Political career
Johnson greeting students

He was elected in 2014 to an at-large seat on Forsyth County School Board[2] and spent two years on the board.[3] In August 2015, Johnson filed papers to run for the position of North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2016.[2] In the November 2016 election, Johnson won with 50.6% of the vote, narrowly defeating the Democratic incumbent June Atkinson.[1][4] Atkinson had served 11 years in the post and had worked for the department for about 28 years before becoming superintendent.[1][3] She was the longest-serving state superintendent in the nation.[1] Johnson became the first Republican to win the position in more than a hundred years.[5]

Johnson has opposed the idea of arming North Carolina teachers with guns, an idea promoted by Donald Trump and others. However, Johnson does favor more funding for school resource officers.[6] In 2019, Johnson supported a 5% salary increase for North Carolina teachers by 2030, which would allow the average teacher salary in North Carolina to approach the median 2019 household income in North Carolina. He also proposed to increase funding for textbooks and digital media.[7]

As state superintendent, Johnson had a combative style;[2] when he later announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, he described himself as "in the trenches fighting the deep state in state bureaucracy."[8][9] Johnson's relationship with the North Carolina State Board of Education has been often tumultuous.[2][10][11] In 2016, shortly after Johnson's election, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted legislation in a special session to shift power from the State Board of Education to the state superintendent, granting Johnson power over the $10 billion North Carolina education budget.[10] This prompted a legal battle,[2] culminating in a North Carolina Supreme Court decision, in which both sides claimed a partial victory.[12]

In January 2020, Johnson and the board clashed over Johnson's signing of a $930,000 "emergency contract" for a Web-based reading assessment tool designed for kindergartens through 3rd graders in support of the state's "Read To Achieve" program.[13][14][15] The value of the emergency contract was just below the dollar threshold requiring board approval,[14] and a rival company that lost the contract subsequently filed a bid protest, contending that the software selected did not meet state requirements.[15]

In February 2020, Johnson used a state database to send 540,000 text messages and 800,000 emails to parents and teachers, polling them about Common Core.[16] The text message read, "NC Superintendent Johnson wants to remove Common Core from NC schools. Do you? Complete this survey to guide our work."[16] The mass text prompted a number of teachers and parents to file complaints against Johnson with the State Ethics Commission, alleging a politically motivated use of state resources to send a campaign-style message[17][18] that coincided with the beginning of early voting in the North Carolina primary elections, in which Johnson was on the ballot in the race for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor.[18] Johnson's department defended the use of a state database to send the texts and emails.[16][18]

Johnson was state superintendent during the COVID-19 pandemic in North Carolina, when schools were closed to control the spread of the virus.[19][20]

Johnson chose not to seek reelection as state superintendent,[10] instead filing papers in December 2019 to seek the Republican nomination for North Carolina lieutenant governor in 2020.[21] In the March 3, 2020 Republican primary, Johnson lost, coming in third place.[22]

Electoral history
North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Election, 2016[23]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Mark Johnson 2,285,783 50.60
Democratic June Atkinson (incumbent) 2,231,903 49.40
North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Republican Primary, 2020[22]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Mark Robinson 240,843 32.52
Republican Andy Wells 107,824 14.56
Republican Mark Johnson 89,200 12.04
Republican John L. Ritter 85,023 11.48
Republican Renee Ellmers 50,526 6.82
Republican Greg Gebhardt 50,474 6.81
Republican Deborah Cochran 48,234 6.51
Republican Scott Stone 48,193 6.51
Republican Buddy Bengel 20,395 2.75
Total votes 740,712 100.0%
gollark: Firecubez isn't very good *either* so I should be fine possibly.
gollark: Now that cyber has mentioned this, though, I *will* turn my highly limited reverse engineering skills toward haxxing their thing.
gollark: However, if I had just never mentioned it, potatOS's lack of (at that time) version control means nobody would actually notice until someone checked for whatever reason, and it would not have been reverse-engineered very fast.
gollark: When I said this, people immediately began to decompile and reverse engineer it.
gollark: For a few versions potatOS contained a DRMish blob hooked to incident reports, for example.

References
  1. Hinchcliffe, Kelly (November 21, 2016). "Ousted NC superintendent on 33-year-old successor: 'How do I help an infant in public education?'". WRAL.
  2. Kelly Hinchcliffe, Travis Fain, & Alex Granados, 'Fighting the status quo': Inside the combative world of NC's new public schools chief, WRAL/EducationNC (September 27, 2017).
  3. Lynn Bonner (November 15, 2016). "Next NC superintendent's Charlotte experience was foundation for education views". News & Observer.
  4. "North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Results: Mark Johnson Wins". The New York Times. December 13, 2016.
  5. Brian Gordon, NC superintendent Johnson talks teacher anger, performance grades, rural funds, and more, Asheville Citizen Times (January 25, 2020).
  6. Liz Schlemmer, Poll Finds Most NC Teachers Don't Want To Carry Guns, WUMC (March 2, 2018).
  7. "#NC2030: NC Superintendent Mark Johnson proposes 5% increase for teachers". WNCT. February 20, 2019.
  8. State Superintendent Mark Johnson announces candidacy for lieutenant governor, WITN (November 12, 2019).
  9. Jamey Cross, State Superintendent Mark Johnson announces run for lieutenant governor, Daily Tar Heel (November 12, 2019).
  10. Lindsay Marchello, Bad blood: The sometimes rocky relationship between the N.C. State Board of Education and Superintendent Mark Johnson, Carolina Journal (May 7, 2020).
  11. Alex Granados, Superintendent Mark Johnson challenges State Board contract with SREB, EdNC (March 4, 2020).
  12. Alex Granados, Strife between state board, Superintendent Mark Johnson continues, WRAL (July 2, 2018).
  13. Jeff Tiberii, State Superintendent Makes Istation Purchase, Billionaire Candidates Spend Big, January 10, 2020).
  14. Cole del Charco, SBE and State Superintendent Clash Over Reading Tool Contract, WUMC (January 9, 2020).
  15. Cole del Charco, Company That Lost NC's K-3 Reading Assessment Contract Files Protest, WUNC (June 25, 2019).
  16. Travis Fain, NC schools superintendent texted a half million parents and teachers to get feedback on Common Core, WRAL (February 11, 2020).
  17. T. Keung Hui (February 13, 2020). "Ethics complaints filed against NC schools chief for mass text to parents and teachers". News & Observer.
  18. Ethics complaints filed against N.C. schools chief for mass text to parents and teachers, Tribune News Service (February 14, 2020).
  19. Matthew Burns, Cooper: Some businesses must remain closed so schools can begin to reopen, WRAL (July 13, 2020).
  20. COVID-19 NC: School reopening guidance coming June 11, News & Observer (June 4, 2020).
  21. Journal, Wesley Young Winston-Salem. "SPI Mark Johnson, former Forsyth school board member, files for lieutenant governor". Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
  22. "03/03/2020 OFFICIAL LOCAL ELECTION RESULTS - STATEWIDE". North Carolina State Board of Elections.
  23. "11/08/2016 OFFICIAL GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS – STATEWIDE". North Carolina State Board of Elections & Ethics Enforcement.
Political offices
Preceded by
June Atkinson		 North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction
2017–present		 Incumbent
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