It’s not a surprise at all.
In fact, it was expected and it helps to set up what happens after her term expires.
That press release reads:
Rep. Tricia Cotham has been appointed chair of the House Education Appropriations Committee to oversee education appropriations, the largest area of the state budget. This esteemed leadership position is a testament to her dedication, expertise, and unwavering commitment to enhancing education in our state.
Rep. Cotham is a former teacher and assistant principal of East Mecklenburg and Independence High Schools and Northeast Middle School. Her experience and her recognition as “CMS Teacher of the Year” demonstrate her exceptional dedication to the field of education. She was also honored Most Outstanding Alumna by the University of Chapel Hill and was named a 2023 “Champion for Charters” by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
NC House Speaker Tim Moore said, “Throughout her distinguished career, Rep. Cotham has demonstrated a profound understanding of the importance of quality education and its impact on the future of our communities. Furthermore, she has championed school choice as the sponsor of House Bill 823, “Choose Your School, Choose Your Future,” which expanded the Opportunity Scholarship Program to all North Carolina students.”
When Cotham switched parties last year, she commented in an interview concerning the switch with abc11.com:
“The party wants to villainize anyone who has free thought, free judgement, has solutions and wants to get to work to better our state. Not just sit in a meeting and have a workshop after a workshop, but really work with individuals to get things done. Because that is what real public servants do. If you don’t do exactly what the Democrats want you to do they will try to bully you. They will try to cast you aside.”
Bullying?
Look with whom she is standing in the press conference in her affiliation switch.
That’s Tim Moore – who will be going to Washington in a gerrymandered district drawn for him.
It’s almost as if this post was promised to her by Moore when she agreed to convert to the other side to give them a supermajority and pass the voucher expansion bill. That conversion must have involved her soul as she had run on a platform that was very much pro public education.
This appointment allows Cotham to possibly help transition to a role after her term expires as she is very likely to not be re-elected to her seat because she literally betrayed her constituents by switching partied to give the GOP supermajority.
That transition would be going to work for the charter school industry after her term expires in a professional capacity or as a lobbyist. Not surprisingly, that’s not a role she is unfamiliar with.
Remember the Innovative School District, that miserable failure of a reform that wasted money?
But before Cotham has a chance to rake in money in the “private” sector to “privatize” public education, she gets a few months to be a puppet for Moore in her newly assigned chair.
And she could do some more damage there like expand vouchers even more (Moore).
caffeinated rage 