Tay Anderson
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Kansas City, Kansas, U.S.
Auon’tai Anderson | |
|---|---|
| Director of the Denver Public Schools Board of Education | |
| In office December 4, 2019 – November 28, 2023 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | July 5, 1998 Kansas City, Kansas, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
Auon'tai M. Anderson (born July 5, 1998) is an American politician and community organizer from Denver, Colorado.[1] A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a director of the Denver Public Schools Board of Education from 2019 to 2023.[2] In September 2021, he was censured by the board for "behavior unbecoming of a board member" following an investigation of allegations against him.[3] Anderson was not charged as the original claims made against him were found to be unsubstantiated and the individual that was responsible for these allegations was deemed not be credible per investigators. Anderson was subsequently elected the Vice President of the Board of Education and elected the statewide President of the Colorado Black Caucus of School Board Members. After Anderson's term he became an educator in Denver Public Schools.
Anderson was born to Mia Anderson, a single mother who was a teenager when he was born.[1][4] He grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, and moved to Denver to attend high school.[5] He attended two other schools before settling on Manual High School, where he later became student body president. While at Manual, he decided to run to become a director of the Denver Public Schools Board of Education. At the time he was 19 years old, thus becoming the second youngest person to date to run for a Denver school board. (In 1977, Meyer Persow, ne Kadovitz, was 18 years old when he ran for the Denver School Board, finishing 11th out of 18 candidates).
Anderson lost that election, and instead enrolled at Metropolitan State University of Denver to study education and also began working in restorative justice within Denver Public Schools.[6] He decided to run for the Board of Education again in 2019, campaigning on supporting low-performance schools, putting a pause on approving new charter schools, and reforming how punishment was conducted at schools. Anderson decisively won this election, and doing so ushered in Denver's first anti-reform, pro-union school board in over a decade.[7] In a three-way race, he won about 51% of the total vote.[8] He is one of the youngest elected officials in Colorado history, being just 21 at the time of his inauguration.[9]
