The New Political Battleground

School board elections, the new venue for fighting the culture wars, are getting more attention from political action groups.

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Michelle Wong makes a sign during a rally in support of the San Francisco School Board recall in February. (Stephen Lam/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

ASHBURN, Va.—Loudoun County’s K-12 curriculum and instruction meeting kicked off last Thursday as a snapshot of the mundane: a laundry list of policies involving family life education, whether to charge families for music books, and how to prioritize American Sign Language for high school students.

Then came the culture war update: A brief primer on a draft policy that, beginning January 1, requires schools to notify parents when students are to be taught sexually explicit material in school.  “We have teams of teachers right now kind of crowdsourcing titles of book club books,” a visibly uncomfortable Neil Slevin, executive director of the county’s Division of Teaching and Learning, said to the small crowd. “They’re working together to try to screen the books.”

The new policy was drafted in response to a Virginia Senate bill signed by GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin in April. It represents a big win for Republicans nationwide who see local school board races as venues for culture war fights, including pandemic-related school closures and mask mandates, plus the roles race and gender identity should play in K-12 education.

Even though they don’t attract the same level of media attention as politicians running for higher office, school board candidates across the country are being boosted by conservative-leaning political action committees. Many PACs align closely with Youngkin, whose outsize focus on critical race theory and school closures on the campaign trail last year re-upped K-12 education as a winning issue for the GOP across the country.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    So I hate the fact that culture wars are now fought in schools. But I’ve got to say, if we’re going to have public education, then the public has an interest in the education that goes on in schools. I’m not a fan of banning books but I don’t see it as a valuable use of my taxpayer dollars or students and teachers’ time to be reading Gender Queer or Antiracist Baby. Have they read all of Dickens yet? How about Milton? Chaucer? Shakespeare? No? Then sounds like they’ve got plenty of better material to read.

    If a student has read the collected works of Poe, Austen, Twain, Faulkner, Homer, Morrison, Woolf, Hemingway, Joyce, Yeats, Melville, Brontë (both of them), O’Connor, Orwell, London, Pynchon, Vonnegut, McCarthy, Fitzgerald, Wharton, Wordsworth, Thoreau, Coleridge, Emerson, and Plato, then if they want to read woke garbage they’ve probably earned the right to. Likewise, I doubt as many parents would be upset if American students were killing it in calculus and physics and poetry and writing and philosophy. But we just had the worst ACT scores ever and some statistics claim American kids have potentially lost up to one year (permanently) in some cases of schooling due to COVID (meaning they’re behind one grade level). So schools should be prioritizing the three Rs (along with some hard science and history), rather than culture war garbage.

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    Will Heffron

    This is all so exhausting. The best thing we can be teaching and modeling for our kids in this day and age is how to talk to and get along with people they disagree with. How to (gasp!) compromise.

    Instead, we’re teaching/forcing them to be a part of our insane culture wars and that the only way for everything to be ok is for “our side” to get all of the power so we can just roll over the people who disagree.

    It’s also very rich to hear people who have been complaining for decades about public schools to claim “no one has been paying attention until now.”

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    Tammydd

    School board races in my suburban California district have become a living nightmare. There is a slate of candidates financed almost entirely by a local church that is itself financed by Texas Christian nationalists and tightly bound to Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA. A few parents who support those candidates and a LOT of out-of-district people show up for school board meetings and scream and yell through the public comments about the supposed "grooming" of children and how parents MUST know what's happening in our schools, but they all leave as soon as public comment time is over and the superintendent or board members get up to actually address what is happening in the district.

    They post misleadingly edited videos to conservative media sites where they get millions of views and go on Fox News or OAN shows and spread further lies. While campaigning for their candidates, they pass out fliers of what they say is the sex ed curriculum being taught in our schools -- plastered with explicit images taken from a Canadian website that have zero to do with what is actually taught in our district when all of our district's sex ed curriculum is freely available on the district's website. They doctor campaign signs of a local candidate to include hateful messages about her and then plant those campaign signs all around the elementary school where her children attend.

    And they have no idea how anyone could suggest that their rhetoric and actions could possibly be linked to the explicit death threat against the district superintendent or the huge-red graffiti message about "pervs" that got plastered across the front of an elementary school that had just been targeted by the "newspaper" sponsored by the same local church.

    Leaders in the church supporting these candidates are staunch supporters to "public school exit" groups and they frequently host seminars on how to pull kids out of public schools to home school or set up small private schools. It seems clear to me that they are backing these kinds of candidates and sowing so much distrust in our schools because their ultimate goal is to destroy our community's highly regarded public schools so they can then declare the need for vouchers for "alternatives" to our failing schools.

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      Linda Beggs

      This sounds horrible. I wish we could learn to advocate, negotiate, and problem-solve instead this incessant 'fighting.' It's discouraging and exhausting.

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        Tammydd

        So exhausting. And such disregard for the children in the middle of it all. Do you really think you're "protecting" children when your public antics require extra security on their elementary school campus every day?

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  4. Scianti7

    Thank you for this article.

    I think the end quote is a bit ridiculous though. We should all know that public education is publicly funded everywhere in the U.S.A.! It isn't a secret.

    If you (went to public school or) are paying attention, & care about there being police, EMTs, nurses, doctors & store clerks when you are old, you want the kids to be educated & ought to be willing to spend the money!!! I could care less if they are gay or trans or totally straight as long as they are able to do their jobs & contribute to society, hopefully leading what are fulfilling lives for themselves how they define it & not harming others. I think they'll need to read & do math for that.

    It'd be super awesome if sensible people in the middle took the reigns from culture warriors & we all focused on the point of public education, which is getting the next generation to a place where they know how to learn, & are employable. I'm not going to spend a lot of time worried about the life style of the person shocking me back to breathing in the middle of a heart attack. Maybe lets focus on stuff that 1. We actually have control over (like focus on reading, math, & learning skills). And 2. Are pretty easy to agree on (I'd like correct change & professionalism as I also try to treat others with respect & professionalism). 3. If you've got kids in school make sure you're doing everything you can to make sure they are reading & doing math & garnering learning skills (big hint reading is required for learning most other things, at least it makes it so much easier to function in the world & to learn).

    Have we lost our minds? It just seems like folks on the ends are making it this so much harder than it needs to be because they are trying to gain control of things they can't actually control (other people's personal choices) & political power to try & assert that control (it is futile).

    Furthermore, it behoves education elections to be when only the people who have skin in the game, parents & teachers, will vote. Why? Because apparently most other people at this point in American society have absolutely failed to realize that if they don't fund schools they won't have educated people running things in 10-20 years when they may not have as much choices, power, or money. I understood before having children so I took the time to vote & pay attention. I'd rather have a school fully funded so the graduate can be the cop instead of my mugger. It's easier for me to put it this starkly.

    Sorry to sound exasperated, but I am. I feel like this stuff is super obvious. I don't think other people are foolish, but they do seem to operating out of a Spirit of Fear, & have a misunderstanding of proper weights & balances, & possibly misinformed, & very distracted from what is most important to a functioning society (being able to work together to solve problems, & the kids not dying from highly contagious diseases that we didn't know enough about & that are always changing-- we can't fix dead).

    I realize I'm starting to lose my emotional detachment, bear with me & understand my desire is not to offend anyone but to speak the truth at least from my point of view. Though again, I feel it's pretty obvious if there's a problem with our future workers & leaders being able to read & do math that should be EVERYONE'S priority, right now. Because that is the problem in front of us to solve. It will absolutely be EVERYONE'S problem if we don't.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Cogitatio

      The issue is not whether people realize schools are funded, but how that money is spent, and what the schools are focused on. For example:

      1) My children are grown, and I never particularly cared about the sex, race, etc., of the teacher. I did care about what was being taught, and school boards regularly make decisions without real parent input -- unless the parents make a large effort to be involved. I still remember when the school board tried to ban Tom Sawyer when my children were in school. If I and another parent had not happened to attend the meeting, it would have happened without objection.

      2) School boards also make funding decisions without taxpayer input. Public unions are masters of the art of avoiding voter participation. They put all their issues up for votes in off cycle or special elections, where turnout is minimal. This allows them and their union members to represent a vastly disproportionate share of the electorate, passing most items with ease.

      3) School boards in Texas are independent taxing entities. My local school district granted the district's teachers a 12% pay raise, because of "inflation." I understand the concern, but the rest of us are dealing with inflation as well, and none of us are receiving a giant pay raise of that nature. Instead, we shall receive a massive property tax increase on top of inflation.
      Why did the school board feel they can get away with it? Their elections are always off cycle, and the constituency they have to mollify is the teacher's union. They vote in force in the off cycle election for the school board, and the school board knows it.

      4) One last item: I agree completely that good instruction is critical for our students, and for the future of our nation. Unfortunately, that is not what is happening in many classrooms. The unions protect the teachers, whether they are good teachers or bad ones. We spend the fifth most per student out of all the OECD countries. The four above us are Luxembourg, Norway, Austria, and Iceland, all of which are much smaller and compact. Out of major nations, we spend the most.
      But our results are not in the top five, not remotely. Part of our problem is that the school districts have
      had a huge increase in the number of administrators, most of whom are payed much better than the teachers themselves. When I attended school, lo those many years ago, we had a VP. When I recruited for the Army, the school had 3 VPs.
      So why are teachers not paid as well as they would like? Why are textbooks and classroom technology outdated, facilities poor, etc.? I submit it is primarily because your (and mine, and all the others) school district is spending its ample money on things that do not contribute to quality instruction. And teachers' unions are not focused on the good of the students, they are focused on the good of their members, which include all of those administrators.

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      1. Scianti7

        I guess it depends on the school district. I think your assessment of "not happening in many classrooms" may be flawed, my guess is neither of us have comprehensive information on that. People said that about my school district but I learned more about the Constitution in 8th grade than apparently many people in a particular party in 2000 when they all thought the President made Constitutional ammendments, because their party (&religious leaders) said that, though we all learned that is *not* how it works (if you passed the Constitution part of history class). Maybe they forgot?

        My expectations for our district were low because of the zillow score when we bought the house. However, I've been thoroughly impressed. My child started Kindergarten in Fall of 2020. Because of a technology levy passed before, every kid had an assigned Ipad, which we were given at the beginning of the year (now they stay at the school). My kid goes to the dual language school in our district that we opted into because more parents are involved & in many ways it's like a private school but it's public. She has a technology specialist that teaches programing starting in Kindergarten, as well as PE, Art, Music, & Library specialists that started in Kindergarten. In art they were learning perspective in K or 1st (my only art class was 8th grade).

        Yes, our levies are pricey, but well worth it. Our school is focused on preparing students for University education, which I feel isn't required for everyone but I like that they care.

        I think we lucked out. I was planning on just teaching my kid to jump through the hoops then go to the Library to get a more thorough education. We still go to the Library, & talk about being able to learn about whatever you want to when homework is done.

        I just think there are people trying to make money & gain power by spreading fear & make the situation sound dire when it isn't, & very strangely people seemed to fall for it! There are still folks more concerned about decisions made 2 years ago with limited available information & an out of control situation, than they are concerned about solving the problem in front of us--the learning gap. The gap isn't surprising & might have happened due to the situation regardless of the attempts we made in the midst of things we couldn't control.

        I lived in Texas, & what struck me, or rather my husbands car, were the potholes in the freeway. I imagine that like Arizona, this is due to the reticence of residents to pay taxes for road maintenance, which is expensive, but so is a new set of rims. My current state has road contruction fairly constantly, but good roads!

        Teachers shouldn't have to get a second job after working 60 hours a week to make ends meet. I think that story was from Missouri but still. If there are more problems in education that need to be solved I think cool heads working together to openly & honestly evaluate *everything* & come up with viable solutions is the answer. Not coming to the table with predecided conclusions & partisan talking points that tend to be one dimensional, & soaked in emotions & fear. You may have a good point of the administration getting bigger, at the same time I would have to know what the justifications for that are, as well as a fair assessment of what the actual needs are. It's a complicated thing & it needs a nuanced approach that desires to be as informed as possible. And perhaps it should be smaller scale, due to the complexity, rather than one size fits all nationwide. One size rarely fits all.

        Instead people just scream at each other about stuff that doesn't really matter in the bigger picture, at least to me--& maybe more importantly--that they can't control anyway. Kids learn all sorts of stuff all sorts of places. It's easier if you teach them yourself first or are at least a person they trust to be honest with them, & accepting, & willing to listen & learn too. As far as the concern about gender & sex, I've tried to prepare my kid with boundaries & her questions honestly answered by me. Hopefully she'll bring anything wierd or whatever to me so I can assist her. However, after doing everything I can, I realize that she's likely to learn stuff from her peers or possibly school or places I'm not even aware of & all I can do is be there for her. In the end she'll learn all that stuff anyway, hopefully at age appropriate times but I'm not chaining her up in the closet to make sure (there actual cases...).

        As far as her learning about race, I'm not worried. If she learns something flawed, she'll have abundant opportunities to learn more & change her mind. We're always learning & growing. There's no limit on learning different points of view & coming up with her own, which I expect & know I won't be disappointed. I figure most of our information is limited & will grow & change in our lifetimes, as it already has for me. She's not stuck forever thinking the same thing, unless that is what she chooses. Hopefully, she's learned better than that from me.

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    2. MathewA

      The problem isn't funding. For example, Illinois is spending $16k a year per student. That's $320,000 for a classroom of 20, and yet

      "Statewide, in 2019, 36% of all third grade students could read at grade level. That’s an F, and that’s the good news. That number drops to 27% for Hispanic students and 22% for black students statewide. In certain public school systems, the numbers plummet to single digits. In Decatur, 2% of black third-graders are reading at grade level and only 1% are doing math at grade level."

      https://www.wsj.com/articles/illinois-shocking-report-card-reading-math-grade-level-decatur-teachers-school-board-11664722519?st=dr4sehmx979zrif&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink


      Most of us are happy to pay for public schools we just want them to actually educate the kids. But vested interests don't want that

      https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/econtalk/id135066958?i=1000582135196

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      1. Scianti7

        I sincerely doubt there are people that don't want kids to be educated. They may not be doing it as effectively or efficiently as we would like, that doesn't mean their purpose is to thwart the education of children. Come on now. When we assume motives & talk like that we are taking away our ability to investigate the actual cause of inefficiency & address issues together with all the others involved.

        It is self-sabottage to assume evil motives in others. Particularly people who work a 60 hour a week job that is not much appreciated by either parents or students. I know teachers, they care about students learning & sacrifice a lot for their students. If there are things that aren't working or can be improved why not look into it & figure it out together? Parents have responsibility too, as well as students. As parents we have to teach our kids to take responsibility for themselves, it is our *main* job. Our kids are responsible to learn this stuff, for their benefit. It is a major privilege to be educated.

        You know, without assuming the teachers or administrators are twirling their mustaches & rubbing their hands together, with no real benefit to themselves.

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  5. MathewA

    Econ Talk has an excellent interview with Roland Fryer on the subject of fixing public schools
    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/econtalk/id135066958?i=1000582135196

    Short answer:

    More time in school (I would love to switch from say 180ish days in school each year to like 240 or so)

    Frequent testing used to adjust the curriculum. IE if you teach a subject then test of the subject and a large portion of the class doesn't get it, then cover the topic again. If a small portion doesn't get it, then get the smaller portion extra tutoring help

    High expectations

    Quality staff (They fired 19 or 20 principles, and 50% of teachers in a demonstration project)

    Small group tutoring help


    And of course school choice would just accelerate this, because competition makes us all better

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  6. Avatar photo
    Mudskipper

    This is not a new political battleground in the culture war. Back in the late 1990s and early 2000, district school boards and state education boards were pretty hot battlegrounds in the culture wars. Back then, the primary battle was over teaching evolution, but there also fights about history curriculum (the right wanted essentially a Christian Nationalist version of American history taught in school), and over sex education (the right was pushing strongly for abstinence-only education). The difference, though, is I don't remember many threats of violence.

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  7. Campyman99

    Thanks to the culture war I now know the names of super wealthy school districts and elite magnet high schools in Virginia and San Francisco. Sometimes I wonder if this is a battle between elites. I live in a more working class suburban city and the schools seem to reflect this. No International Baccalaureate programs but there's a culinary arts program and a nursing program connected to the local community college. We also have a lot of both working class and professional class immigration here from Latin America and Asia and Indian subcontinent. I just get the sense that the average family with school age kids have practical concerns about education. I mean, I'm sure there's stuff happening I wouldn't like but I just have to trust that the core function is being done. I do have some evidence of that - the other day my son and I discussed Animal Farm and he understood it as an allegory about Russian communism. So somebody is doing something right at that school.

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  8. Avatar photo
    DougAz

    My Education platform:

    A. All public education is 100% funded by the Federal government.
    B. No more Property taxes used
    C. More fair as renters now contribute
    D. Emphasis on reading, writing, math, basic chemistry, physics, biology. Labs. Team class projects. Orchestra as well as band. Choir, after school of course.
    E. New large 1000/ grade 3-4,000 student campuses.
    F. Vocational education: electronic assembly, machining, computer design, electrician, plumber, elemental nursing, EMT, Veterinary Technician l, carpenter skills up to qualified when graduated.
    G. Unions are eliminated.
    H. Federal pay scale and benefits. Must pay competitive for talent with business.
    I. Merit hiring and firing of teachers

    Current US Expenditures on K-12 education are $800 billion annually.
    https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp

    The advantage of large campuses is in significant reduction in redundant overhead.

    That's my platform. And you can still choose to send your children to a private school. But now the public education will be closer on par.

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      Shaunakay

      Is this DougAZ from Ricochet?

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        DougAz

        No. I have no idea what Ricochet is actually. I'm and Eisenhower kid.

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      Pat @ Tavi Hall

      Sorry I'm not coming close to buying a large school like that for elementary. If anything smaller is better for young children.

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        DougAz

        Of course. I was focused on 9-12. Smaller schools for 1-6 is more valuable for parents to be close.

        We used to walk to all grades..but I guess that time has largely passed.

        7 8 9 are often in larger middle schools pr junior high.

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          Pat @ Tavi Hall

          Thanks for providing new information to your first post. While you may have intended your post only for for high schools, I can tell you that in the early 90s my local school board tried putting jumbo sized elementary schools into place.

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    3. MathewA

      I think I'm for most of that, but I would want full school choice.

      Make the public schools actually compete for the students

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        DougAz

        Thanks. I agree with full school choice. I believe in competition. Which is why I want competitive wages, hire at will so teachers also compete.

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    4. Cantbreakpar

      Interesting...regarding redundant overhead. Even in a moderately populated region of California our county has individual school districts(with full admin support staff) for schools with a single site, and in some cases, just a few students. Not sure about E, support the larger school idea but not sure about 3-4k kids per.

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        DougAz

        Thanks
        My amazing HS had 1,000 per grade 10, 11 amd 12th.

        That scale is the key to having all the activities I mentioned to provide great opportunities for kids to participate

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        1. Scianti7

          My county growing up would only have had 1 or 2 schools. It's a fairly large area.

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    5. Avatar photo
      Kwasi_Broni

      A. Completely Unconstitutional
      B. Renters do pay property taxes (as part of their rent)
      C. So, yeah, the Federal government has shown itself to be so competent and efficient with our tax dollars?

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        DougAz

        A. Wrong. And solvable
        B. Not enough by far
        C. Yea actually pretty good

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    6. Ann Knowles

      You have my vote....except if you're going to have such large campuses, kids have to walk or take the bus. No huge lines of parents picking up or dropping off that impedes traffic for everyone else.

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        DougAz

        Awesome

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      Kmregan7

      I agree with most of this. I'd definitely want to get rid of property tax funding. I'd add arts IN the curriculum. I want smaller schools that go up to 8th grade, not huge schools. But I understand your argument against that. I wouldn't eliminate unions. Not sure about how to get rid of "bad" teachers.

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      1. MathewA

        You can't get rid of bad teachers if you don't get rid of unions

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          Kmregan7

          Well you CAN, it's just much more difficult. On the other hand, without unions, teacher could be fired for anything or nothing. Unions helped make a strong middle class. They have a place. Surely there's some middle ground.

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          1. MathewA

            "without unions, teacher could be fired for anything or nothing"

            Wait you mean an at will work place like literally almost everyone else?

            I do agree that at one time unions provided a valuable service at making more humane workplaces. But now they seem more interested in protecting bad employees.

            Note I'm not as opposed in the private sector because there you have a true adversarial process. Unlike in the public sector where unions help elect the politicians than then give the raises to the public sector employees who then give more donations to the politicians.

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        DougAz

        My wife would kill me if she knew I left out the Arts! She has been invited more than a few times to teach creative art to 1-6 graders. No mistakes in art...all goodness and positive feedback.

        Well, my political theory is that a grand bargain is needed. The teacher unions go as part and parcel of the whole deal. And to get conservatives on board. For teachers, they get maybe a 2x salary increase, smaller classroom sizes, more in class supplies and facilities. And a more positive work environment.

        In any organization culture, people are disenchanted with management allowing poor performers and below expectations contributors to hang around. People want a fair play and fair assessments

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          Kmregan7

          I agree with that...I think it would depend on the assessments. The best teacher in the world can't always get through to some students. I would hate for them to be penalized because of that. And I am very down on standardized testing - though my husband is more so - so I'd hate to tie performance to THAT (or only that, I suppose, there might be a place) So I guess I'd hold my nose and vote for a grand compromise....???

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            DougAz

            Such a huge change would need a leader I don't see. Probably a moderate Republican President who also saw National Education as a vital foundation for National Security.

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  9. Jim S

    My local school board offices are technically ‘non-partisan’ which is of course laughable in the current political climate, I had to dig pretty deep to figure out exactly what the agendas of the candidates appear to be. I don’t think most voters will put in the effort.

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  10. Vbbark

    I see more conservatives running for school board this year and more lawn signs promoting them than in years past. I am hopeful they will push out the incumbents and we will have a balanced board instead of the entirely far left crew (and all that comes with it).

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