As if Texas' State Board of Education was wanting for excitement: perennial-candidate-in-the-making Josiah Ingalls has announced he’s making a bid for the SBOE’s District Five seat.

Ingalls was last seen as a candidate in May’s mayoral election, where finished last in a five-way race, garnering just .69 percent of the vote. (Notably, fourth place finisher David Buttross became the single-largest funder to Ingall’s shoestring campaign, with his donation of a few hundred dollars.) Considering Ingalls relative lack of political and policy experience, it’s arguable whether he’s qualified for a slot on the SBOE, but the board’s current abundance of shameful rightwing bozos has certainly set the bar rather low. Really, it’s hard to see Ingalls doing worse than this.

Plus, the SBOE dovetails with Ingalls’ primary area of interest: education, and standards for homeschooling. Ingalls has repeatedly spoke of the trauma he endured from poor, inadequate homeschooling; to that end, he’s president of the School For All Children Act, a group he founded himself. Ingalls’ full press release is below, along with an interview we conducted with the candidate during his mayoral bid this spring.

Josiah James Ingalls is Running for the State Board of Education

Josiah James Ingalls is announcing his candidacy for the Texas State Board of Education for District 5.

Josiah James Ingalls promotes awareness of the many forms of child abuse and neglect, understands the biased division of educational funding and has dedicated himself to helping improve all areas of Texas education. He is also the President of the School For All Children Act, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of educational neglect.

Josiah James Ingalls sees the lack of a right to an education as well as the need for medically accurate sex education programs as motivations to run for office.

According to Josiah James Ingalls, “A protectable right to an education in Texas is my top priority." He adds, “I feel that one of the biggest problems within Texas education is that the State needs to adopt legislation that would guarantee a legal, protectable right to an education for all children from first grade until the age of 18.” Josiah James Ingalls has also spoken out on the fact that there is no oversight and regulations to ensure that homeschoolers are indeed being educated due to Texas versus Leeper, a poorly written law that gives no consideration to educational neglect or consideration to the best education possible for the child.

More information about Josiah James Ingalls and his campaign can be found on his website, www.josiahingalls.com. This site includes biographical information about Josiah and a calendar of upcoming events, as well as his position on many of the important issues affecting education in Texas.

The Hustle for Mayor: Josiah Ingalls, April 24, 2009