JOIN BRENDAN
WHO I AM
- An experienced public educator.
- A dedicated Baton Rouge community organizer.
- A voice for families and children in local issues.
- A bold, progressive leader.
- A passionate, engaged advocate.
Key Local Endorsements
EBR DPEC Baton Rouge AFL-CIO Local 21LA SEIU Our Revolution
Key National Endorsements
Run for Something The LGBT Victory Fund
WHY I'M RUNNING
As a ten-year veteran educator, I started my post-college career right here in Baton Rouge. During that time, I’ve grown to embrace this city as my home. From crawfish boils to LSU tailgates, and Spanish Town Mardi Gras to Live After Five, our city has so much to offer and constantly brings our community together. Luckily for me, the city has embraced me right back, allowing me to feel welcomed and included as a member of the community.
Our city offers a vibrant social scene and rich culture to its citizens, but we have work to do to extend that same acceptance and inclusion to all our residents. Each day, LGBTQ people go to work knowing that they can be fired, without recourse, based on their identity. Despite marijuana decriminalization legislation passed last year, the SPLC found that Baton Rouge continues to jail people of color at a rate six times higher than their peers for petty drug crimes. In our District particularly, where floodwaters filled many of our homes in 2016, little has been done to prevent a repeat of the Great Flood. And each year, rather than invest in businesses here in our own community, our leaders give millions of dollars in tax breaks to multibillion dollar corporations.
For the past 3 years, I have been a college mentor to local high school seniors applying to college, some of the best and brightest we have to offer. Each year, we start our conversation with a simple question: “What do you want in a college?” and each year, I inevitably get the response: “I want a school somewhere far away from here.” In digging deeper, I realized that this is because our youth see these same issues, and they don’t think that our city can change. I know, however that this is not true. We can work together to make our city a more welcoming and inclusive place, where everyone has a shot at success.
To address these issues, there are some basic policy items we need to enact:
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We need comprehensive civil rights protections for jobs and housing, with enforcement provisions, for LGBTQ folks living in our parish.
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We need to examine our policing policies and determine why, despite decriminalization, we consider to over-jail certain groups of people when prosecution is optional.
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We need to create criteria for what responsible development looks like in our District, so that our homes and businesses can be kept safe from flooding.
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We need to find ways to invest the money we save on big tax breaks into homegrown businesses, so that we can all continue to thrive, together.
I am running for Metro Council because I want to ensure that our city welcomes and celebrates every facet of diversity that makes us unique. Together, we can work towards a stronger, more resilient, more inclusive Baton Rouge. On March 30th, I hope I can count on your vote at the ballot box.
OUR KEY ISSUES
Infrastructure Improvement
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In 2016, much of District 8 was flooded.
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Since then, not enough has been done to update our infrastructure.
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By investing in better flood control, our homes will be better protected.
Civil Rights Protections
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Currently, Baton Rouge has no non-discrimination protection for LGBT people.
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We are one of only a handful of major Southern cities lacking these laws.
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Enacting these policies will help make our city more economically competitive, and more equitable.
Criminal Justice Reform
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In 2018, Baton Rouge decriminalized marijuana, but not fully.
- People of color are still charged for this at a rate six times higher than white folks.
- By enacting uniform decriminalization, we can fix this.
Small Business Investment
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A healthy, vibrant economy requires all sizes of business.
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We need to spend our time and energy on building up small business owners.
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Our District will benefit from having a wider variety of business owners.
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To address this, let's make concrete investments in programs to teach startups and small businesses the skills they need to be successful, and offer seed funding to brand new small business owners that meet stringent criteria for viability.
MEET BRENDAN
Brendan Csaposs is a Principal-in-Residence with IDEA Public Schools in Baton Rouge, LA. Currently in his 10th year in public education, he helped found a new public school serving historically underserved students in 2018.
Brendan grew up in upstate New York, to two loving parents, Joan & Don, who instilled in him the value of service to others. From a young age he dedicated himself to service to others, starting with community service leadership in high school, and leading on to working with children at a local Headstart program in college.
As a passionate advocate for equity, Brendan has been working vigorously since moving to Baton Rouge in 2009 to support the right of all students to an excellent, college-preparatory education, regardless of their race, class, or geography. Despite being a transplant, he quickly fell in love with the people, culture and food of Southern Louisiana, and decided to make the state his long-term home.
After just four years in the classroom as a special educator, during which time his students saw significant gains year over year, Brendan became an Assistant Principal, so he could expand his impact on students. Just a year later, he was promoted to the principalship at the age of 25. Seeing the challenges his students continued to face, however, he decided to seek out ways to improve quality of life for all in our state beyond the classroom and the school building.
As a local education leader, Brendan is committed to doing whatever it takes to make sure Baton Rouge thrives, and is a community where our children want to stay long term.
