Lee County School Board, District 4
School board members set the district budget and school-tax rate, hire the superintendent (where appointed), approve school boundaries, curriculum policy and construction, and set district policies. Nonpartisan. Term: 4 years.
Partly verified. Either the November opponent could not be confirmed from available sources, or only a few positions are documented. Confirm the full candidate list on your county sample ballot; unknown positions are shown as such.
How we verified who is on the ballot
Candidate list taken from the Florida Division of Elections, 2026 general election candidate list on 2026-09-18 ; both candidates are marked Qualified, which for a nonpartisan seat means the August vote did not produce a majority winner (or the seat is decided only in November). Check the county Supervisor of Elections sample ballot.
Debates and forums
- 2026-10-03 — Held · League of Women Voters of Lee County
tony_beougher,debbie_jordan
Candidates
Report an error ↗Tony Beougher
Beougher is a Fort Myers High School graduate with an economics degree from Wake Forest University who works as a vice president of sales at the research firm Gartner. He is a father of six, a foster parent and a church leader active in youth mentoring. He led the District 4 field in fundraising with about $53,000 rai…
Debbie Jordan
Jordan has represented District 4 on the Lee County School Board since 2019 and is seeking a third and final term. She is a longtime Lee County resident with children and grandchildren in district schools. The race takes place as the district absorbs a proposed $47 million budget reduction and declining enrollment, wi…
Side-by-side on the major issues
Each row is a statement. The chips show how each candidate's stated positions or record relate to that statement. Expand a row to read the evidence and sources. "No public position found" means we could not find a statement or record on the topic, not that the candidate has none.
| Issue | Tony Beougher Nonpartisan | Debbie Jordan Nonpartisan |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Beougher says tax dollars should go to classrooms rather than bureaucracy and emphasizes efficiency and cutting waste, and at a candidate forum stressed accountability and transparency; he has not proposed cutting taxes or the school millage. Sources: Tony Beougher - Priorities (2026-09) | Leans disagree· stated position In a Sept. 28, 2026 WGCU interview Jordan said she opposed the district's budget because of the scale of the cuts in it. She described herself as fiscally conservative but independent of the superintendent and the rest of the board, and said she decides each question on what is best for students and on what parents tell her. |
| Property taxesFlorida should eliminate or sharply reduce homestead property taxes, even if local governments must cut services or find other revenue. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Education & school choicePublic money should follow students to private, charter or home schools (universal school vouchers). | Strongly agrees· stated position Beougher's campaign priorities page says parents must have the freedom to choose their child's educational environment because every child learns differently, and expresses support for charter schools and competitive options. Sources: Tony Beougher - Priorities (2026-09) | Leans disagree· stated position Jordan promotes the district's career academies as an advantage public schools hold over private schools, framing them as a reason families should stay in the district rather than take their funding elsewhere. |
| Gender identity lawsFlorida's laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors and classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity should remain in place. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Library and classroom materialsParents' objections should be enough to pull a book or lesson from a school, even when other families want it kept. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Teacher and staff payRaising teacher and staff pay should be the district's top budget priority, even if other spending has to be cut. | Leans agree· stated position Says the district must keep finding ways to raise teacher pay across the board and would review the operating budget for redundancies. | Leans agree· stated position Jordan objected to how the district described staff reductions during its budget cuts and said problems should be addressed 'at the top' so schools keep the resources they need. She also said the district should use its own experienced teachers to train colleagues rather than pay outside trainers. |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | Leans agree· stated position His priorities page calls for strong discipline, enforcement of accountability and stronger school security, saying students cannot thrive amid chaos or fear. It does not mention counselors or mental-health staffing. Sources: Tony Beougher - Priorities (2026-09) | No public position found |
Where they sit on the map
Each candidate is placed by the average of their documented stances. It is a summary of the table above, not an extra judgment.
Debbie JordanHow the axes are computed
Each axis is the average of a candidate's coded stances (+2 to −2) on a fixed set of statements, so it comes straight from the documented positions and nothing else. A candidate needs at least three documented statements on an axis to be placed.
Economic issues (toward "Smaller government (lower taxes, less spending)"): Taxes & spending (agree), Property taxes (agree), Health care (disagree), Housing affordability (disagree), Property insurance (disagree), Energy & utilities (disagree), Social Security & Medicare (disagree), Teacher and staff pay (disagree).
Social & legal issues (toward "Conservative side of the statements"): Immigration (agree), Abortion (disagree), Guns (disagree), Education & school choice (agree), Elections & voting (disagree), Crime & policing (agree), Gender identity laws (agree), Marijuana (disagree), Environment & water (disagree), Trump administration (agree), Library and classroom materials (agree), School safety approach (agree).
| Candidate | Economic issues | Social & legal issues |
|---|---|---|
| Tony Beougher | not enough data | not enough data |
| Debbie Jordan | not enough data | not enough data |
Other issues the candidates have raised
Priorities each candidate has brought up on their own, beyond the major-issue list above.
Tony Beougher
- Parental rights and curriculum transparency — He pledges transparency in curriculum and says families should have a voice in decisions affecting their children, calling parents 'the first and most important teachers in a child's life.'Sources: Tony Beougher - Priorities (2026-09)
- Career and technical education — He supports expanding vocational programs and partnerships with local businesses.Sources: Tony Beougher - Priorities (2026-09)
- Business experience, vocational training and board endorsements — Beougher, a businessman running for office for the first time, told WGCU he would apply business experience to a constrained district budget and would promote vocational training: "I feel like I can apply some of that business expertise to help with a constrained budget." He has endorsements from sitting board members and from the superintendent and says he would still decide questions independently. WGCU reported he had raised about $83,000.
Debbie Jordan
- Record and campaign finance — Jordan, a retired nonprofit professional, has served nearly eight years on the Lee County School Board. WGCU reported she took about 35 percent of the August primary vote to challenger Tony Beougher's 28 percent, and had raised about $32,000 to his roughly $83,000.