NC schools superintendent texted a half million parents and teachers to get feedback on Common Core

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson used a state database of parent and teacher cellphones to send out a survey Tuesday on a key issue in his campaign to become lieutenant governor: Common Core standards.

The text went to 540,000 numbers, and a similar email went to roughly 800,000 addresses, Johnson's spokesman said Tuesday afternoon.

"NC Superintendent Johnson wants to remove Common Core from NC schools," the text says. "Do you? Complete this survey to guide our work."

The text, and the lengthier email, link to an online survey with half a dozen questions on Common Core, history and civics lessons and financial literacy, all issues Johnson has highlighted in recent weeks.

The phone numbers and email addresses were "provided by parents to school districts and stored electronically for parent information and outreach," Johnson spokesman Graham Wilson said. The emails went out from this address: NCSuperintendent@public.govdelivery.com.

Johnson had said previously that the Department of Public Instruction would survey parents on these issues, and the survey promises results will be given to the State Board of Education.

Asked whether it's appropriate to send out a poll that would be at home in a campaign email using information Johnson has access to because of his job with the state, Wilson said the campaign "doesn't mean that his duty to the people to improve our public school system stops."

"Seeking greater parental engagement on eliminating Common Core is part of his job, no matter the election date," Wilson said.

Early voting in the lieutenant governor's primary and other races on the ballot this year starts Thursday, and Election Day is March 3. Johnson is one of nine Republicans running for lieutenant governor.

Common Core is a set of educational standards North Carolina adopted in 2010, and though Johnson has opposed it in the past, he's raised the volume significantly in the last week, saying he hopes to drop Common Core in North Carolina.

The superintendent has been criticized in the past for emailing materials to parents and teachers, but this appears to be the first mass text he's sent.

Gov. Roy Cooper also reached out to educators last year via official email accounts, sending emails to principals and asking them to forward to teachers. Lt. Gov. Dan Forest followed that with his own email direct to teachers.