School board elections are coming up.
You may want to educate yourself about the candidates, because chances are you’ll be voting for or against masks, and you vote for an anti-masker you’re probably also voting against “critical race theory” — a poorly defined term that can mean whatever its speaker wants it to, but basically represents assorted targets of white backlash against racial equity in a culture war now being fought out in school board meetings, often raucously and sometimes violently.
(“Critical race theory,” strictly speaking, is an elective academic subject only taught in graduate schools; but conservatives have expanded the definition to include, well, you’ll have to ask them what it currently includes, because their hit list is evolving and changing.)
In short, school board elections have become carnivals and freak shows, reflecting what school board meetings have become — contests between rational thinkers and screaming mobs.
They’re also becoming very partisan and very expensive. If we can use Spokane, Washington, as a laboratory of sorts this article from a local newspaper illustrates what’s going on there and in many other places. (NBC News describes what’s happening nationally here.)
A companion article says it used to be that “school board races often [went] begging for candidates, with matchups tending toward relatively civil disagreements about local issues or funding,” but now they’re hotly contested and “reflect … national issues in which conservatives and liberals clash,” with a focus on Covid-19 related issues.
In such an election, even though the candidates appear on the ballot as nonpartisan, you’re almost certainly voting for either a Democrat or a Trumper Republican, and quite possibly choosing between fact-based or conspiracy-theory-based arguments and policies. So you want to know who and what you’re voting for. The “nonpartisan” labels obscure that, so read the freakin’ voter pamphlet and check your local party organization’s endorsements and what local media says. You’re looking for obvious red flags and more subtle warning signs.
Nowadays candidates running for school board positions may know little about education policies, care less, and intend to use a school board seat as a gun-platform from which to wage political and cultural warfare against not only ideas they don’t like, but also people they don’t like, who may include everybody who isn’t exactly like them.
The kids and the quality of their education are getting caught in the middle of these crazy adult fights, when the focus of school boards ought to be on giving them an education that adequately prepares them for adult responsibilities, working in the adult economy, and being informed and thoughtful citizens. You don’t want to vote for people with other agendas, but to avoid doing so inadvertently, you have to pay attention to who’s running in these races and what their motives are.
Related story: Can you believe it? An Idaho school board actually affirms a mandatory mask policy in its local schools. In Idaho! Read story here. But not all Idaho school boards are going along with sound medical advice and common sense; see another story here.
Somewhat related story: Does Idaho need better school boards and schools? Only 38% of its high school graduates are going to college, and that number is declining. See story here.
Photo below: A parent at a Spokane school board meeting that was converted to a Zoom conference because some people refused wear masks.
