By Rebecca Gaunt

Two former Democratic candidates for the Cobb County Board of Education are launching a podcast called “Not Bored of Education” that will dig into local and national education issues.

Laura Judge, the owner of a marketing agency, ran for the Post 5 position on the school board last year and lost to Republican candidate John Cristadoro. That seat had been occupied by Republican David Banks since 2009. Andrew Cole, a medical device project manager, unsuccessfully challenged Republican incumbent Brad Wheeler for the Post 7 seat in the same election.

“We both realized running for office that there were people who weren’t really aware of what was happening at the board level vs. what was happening at our schools,” Judge said.

The first full episode will be published Thursday on the podcast’s YouTube channel. Judge said they also plan to make it available on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast networks.

Both are regular speakers during the school board’s public comment portion of its meetings and have been critical of decisions made by Superintendent Chris Ragsdale and the board’s Republican majority. Those meetings have been a magnet for culture wars related to the COVID-19 pandemic, book removals, and critical race theory.

The duo plan to publish two episodes a month: one focused on the monthly board meeting and a second to focus on broader education issues.

The first episode will focus on February’s board meeting and the major agenda items discussed, including the superintendent’s purchase of two police dogs trained in Vapor Wake (weapons detection), the new Cobb Innovations and Technology Academy (CITA) coming to Acworth, and Ragsdale’s contract extension.

“Andrew and I have really great chemistry off each other and how we approach our kids [attending school] in the district,” Judge said.

Ultimately, she hopes the podcast will help get people involved at the board level.

She also said they’d welcome having the board members as guests on the show.

“We’re more of what I like to call moderate Democrats, and we’d like to work with everyone,” she said.

Rebecca Gaunt earned a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in education from Oglethorpe University. After teaching elementary school for several years, she returned to writing. She lives in Marietta with her husband, son, two cats, and a dog. In her spare time, she loves to read, binge Netflix and travel.