Midtown alum and recent Emory graduate Royce Mann is channeling his passion for education reform into a campaign for the Atlanta Board of Education At-Large Seat 8, inspiring student and community support across a scope of perspectives.

Mann said his dedication to education stems from a long family history of advocacy in the field.

“I come from a family of educators,” Mann said. “My dad is an arts educator. He works in public schools, in libraries and works with teachers to integrate arts across curriculum areas. Seeing the work that he’s done has been an inspiration, and seeing my grandmother’s work; my grandmother spent her entire life in education, largely in education policy, and she actually helped to create the U.S. Department of Education.”

Mann said that his grandmother’s legacy and belief in the power of education continue to influence his own values and political goals.

“What guided her work was the belief that public education can be that great equalizer, that it can provide economic mobility for folks regardless of their background, and that’s a promise that we’re still working towards,” Mann said. “But right now, the efforts that we are taking to get there are under threat, and that’s why I’m running because we need a really strong first line of defense for our public schools and for public education in this moment.” 

Campaign and Goals

Midtown junior and March for Our Lives member Asher Lieb became involved in the campaign after learning about the candidate through his school’s chapter of the organization.

“I first heard about him through Midtown March for Our Lives,” Lieb said. “I did some research into him and his campaign, and I really liked the programs he was running on. He is also very young and graduated from Midtown, which makes me feel more inclined to be involved with his campaign.”

After learning more about Mann, Lieb began to volunteer on the campaign.

“I canvassed for him, and when people heard his age, they were generally very receptive,” Lieb said. “Both young and old people I talked to were very enthusiastic to see a young, educated person trying to get a foothold in politics. One of his main objectives is to double the number of counselors in schools, and I had multiple people seem excited when I mentioned that.” 

Bryce Berry is a state representative for District 56 and an APS teacher. Berry officially endorsed Mann in October and has known him since 2021. Berry and Mann worked on advocacy together in the past, and Berry sees the same goals reflected in Mann’s campaign.

“When I first met Royce, we were advocating for some of the same things that he’s advocating for his own campaign,” Berry said. “That time it was a tax on education when it comes to [diversity, equity and inclusion] and critical race theory and supporting our LGBTQ-plus students. We worked on those critical issues down at the Statehouse, and so that’s when I 1st got to know Royce and see his passion when we were lobbying and working and organizing against those bad bills.”

Lieb said he noticed that the candidate’s youth was a unifying factor among voters of all ages.

“Both young and old people that I talked to seem to agree that being a younger candidate boosts his campaign,” Lieb said. “Being a recent APS alumnus also makes him seem more in touch with what is going on in APS schools.” 

Berry said he endorsed Mann because he knows he will fight for the students and teachers of APS.

“Knowing Royce and knowing his passion for education, knowing him as a person, I know he has the right tools and resources and the brains and the guts and the toughness to get the job done,” Berry said. “So my biggest thing was, like, not only is Royce a friend of mine, but I know Royce. I know his ethics, I know his work. I know his fight. I know when he says what he says, he truly means it and he truly cares as well.” 

Berry says Mann has true intentions for running and will fight for APS.

“He has the heart,” Berry said. “For him it’s not a title, he cares about Atlanta Public Schools in a way that he wants to serve it any way he can. And so he’s coming back. He would be coming back to APS to serve and to be that servant leader that he has always been.”

Mann’s platform is based on literacy, career readiness, expanding fine arts, supporting over suspensions and classroom funding. Berry said Mann’s goals will help push APS forward. 

“This is truly a 21st-century model,” Berry said. “Right now, we have a lot of antiquated ideas that are patrolling our classroom. But when Royce talks about things like career readiness and classroom funding, that’s bringing us to the 21st century in a real way. It’s not just that, but also other states are doing this. They’re leading the pack on this, and Georgia can fall behind. I know I’ll be helped as a teacher from these policies. When he talks about classroom funding, he talks about supporting our student disabilities, he talks about career readiness. I know that my students will be directly helped and benefit from this.” 

Berry said that, if elected, he believes Mann will be an important partner in the Statehouse in addition to the benefit his policies will have on APS.

“As a state legislator, I know that I can count on Royce as a partner on these issues that I’m already doing in the Statehouse,” Berry said. “When Royce talks about these things, that’s another partner that I have. And it’s important for us elected officials to have good partners. Going back to why I endorsed Royce – it is important to have partners on these critical issues, because we’re in the same mission. We all see the writing on the wall. We all see the low literacy rates. We see historic underfunding. We all see that, and so it’s up to us to come together and work together on these critical issues.”

Time at Midtown

During his time as a student at Midtown, Mann said he developed a deep understanding of the gaps between students’ experiences and district-level decision-making.

“When I was at Grady, I served in SGA, served on the governance team, served on a district wide Task Force and even interned for the Board of Education, as well as helped to lead the effort to change the school’s name,” Mann said. “Through all that work, I saw the disconnect between those on the board making decisions that impact students every day and the experiences of those students every day. I want to bridge that disconnect and bring the voice of someone who has been in our schools recently to the Board of Education. 

During Mann’s senior year at Midtown, he took social studies teacher Susan Salvesen’s Advanced Placement Government class. Salvesen said she could tell Mann had a passion for politics. 

“Royce was an excellent student, but he was quiet,”  Salvesen said. “He was new to Midtown when I had him, and that was his senior year, and so he was still getting to know everyone. I knew he loved politics, and I thought that he would go into politics. Sometimes, you can kind of just tell.”

Salvesen said she is excited for the campaign since politics has always been a passion of Mann. 

“I was surprised, just because he was so young, but I knew that that was kind of what he wanted to do once I started to get to know him better and know him as a student,” Salvesen said. “That was definitely something that he was very interested in, and equality and rights for everyone was something that he really advocated for in class discussion. So I wasn’t surprised, but I still think he’s really young, and it’s exciting to watch.”

Mann credits much of his personal and academic success to educators who believed in him during challenging moments in high school.

“Mr. Young, may he rest in peace, was such an influential role in my experience,” Mann said. “I was actually suspended when I was at Grady. Because of that suspension, I was asked to meet with my counselor every day for a semester, and he encouraged me constantly to apply for a scholarship that I ended up applying for and getting to go to Emory on a full ride. So without his investment of time and energy, I wouldn’t have been able to complete my college education debt-free.”

Salvesen believes Mann’s age is beneficial for making change within the city.

“I like the fact that he hasn’t graduated from high school that long ago,” Salvesen said. ”I think he brings an interesting student perspective that will be beneficial for the board members to hear and for the superintendent.”

Berry agrees with Salvesen’s perspective, adding that Mann’s track record also adds to why he should be elected.

“We need more APS perspective, student perspectives, and a recent APS student as well,” Berry said. “He just recently graduated. He has the heart. He has connections with many of the teachers. His background, the fact that he has the proven record of fighting for educational issues such as protecting LGBTQ-plus students, or raising teacher pay, or ensuring your students with disabilities are taken care of – he has a record of fighting for those issues.”