News stories warned that a national movement was afoot.
Medford school voters said "No" to it.
New York Times:
"The Conservative School Board Strategy. Republicans are trying to use suburban fights over critical race theory and pandemic restrictions to energize their voters."
USC School of Public Policy:
"The next battleground in U.S. politics? School boards"
NPR:
"A coordinated nationwide agenda dominated local school board elections last year."
Southern Oregon voters on Tuesday voted to fill local offices for districts providing water, fire, libraries, and schools. Typically these are non-political, non-partisan, non-controversial offices. Citizens with a public-spirited cast of mind and a willingness to volunteer put themselves forward to stand for election. The office are unpaid and thankless. Voter turnout is typically low, and it was again this week. Statewide turnout was 25.3%. Locally it was 22%.
Something interesting happened locally. Two incumbent school board members lost. There were four election winners.
I was happy to see the results.
Voters rejected candidates whose campaigns hinted at bringing the culture wars here to local schools. There is plenty of opportunity for controversy in K-12 education, going beyond the regular ones of teacher pay and benefits, school calendars, facilities, budgets, and educational programs to grow or shrink. Nationalized culture war battles have gone local over issues of Covid, vaccinations, library books, sex education, bathrooms, and curriculum. Current and likely GOP presidential candidates are sounding the alarm that schools are teaching that slavery and Jim Crow were racist and that European settlement and removal of Indians was genocidal, positions that reflect badly on Whites. They argue that elements of Critical Race Theory are sneaking into the K-12 curriculum, presenting American history as a series of challenges, which they consider unpatriotic. They argue that gender is binary, full stop, and that schools should reflect that in their bathrooms, pronouns, and libraries. They argue that "critical thinking" teaches children to question American history, not recognize its achievements. They argue that what political conservatives see and dislike in the progressive university settings are infecting our K-12 schools. They have a plan of action: Get onto local school boards to protect our children from liberals.
Local voters needed to feel their way in dim light to discern which candidates for school board were directly or indirectly part of that agenda. Yet they did so.
Candidates who lost their elections had lawn signs posted in familiar places where Trump signs went up in 2016 and 2020. The local Republican Party establishment works to assist favored candidates in non-partisan races. The local GOP leadership has a reputation for being hyper-extreme, a hotbed of MAGA 2020 election denialism. Maybe voters saw the connection between nonpartisan candidates and the local GOP activists, and rejected them.
An incumbent school board member lost his election. He put this statement in his school board biography:
To best prepare students for a successful, independent and responsible adulthood, he strongly believes that public education should focus primarily on pure academic pursuits like reading and math and avoid curricula that promotes divisive, politically charged social issues. The tax-payer funded schools should concentrate on fact-based academic curriculum that promotes education, not indoctrination.
Maybe voters read between the lines and considered this a hint of future MAGA troublemaking drama, and rejected that and him with it.
Candidates whose Voters Pamphlet statements mentioned religious affiliations and support by right wing faith advocates lost their elections. Candidates whose Voters Pamphlet statement mentioned support by Medford teachers won. Maybe people made a choice.
Maybe it was campaign quality. Maybe the people who won had better campaigns, and I just didn't see them, since I don't spend much time with Facebook and no time at all on Instagram, and that is where campaigns take place now. Or maybe the winners knocked on more doors. Maybe they had bigger networks of friends.
It is hard to know. But for some reason, in a low turnout election, the people whose campaigns seemed to indicate that their primary interest was the ongoing non-political operation of the schools won their elections. And the people whose campaigns hinted at a culture war agenda lost.
Fine with me.
The same thing happened in almost all of the suburban communities in Clackamas County. Openly progressive and/or "support what schools are supposed to do" candidates won in 31 of 34 school board races. Those include now nationally infamous Newberg, Wilsonville-West Linn, Lake Oswego, Canby, Oregon City, Gladstone and North Clackamas Districts. All now have a liberal-progressive majority.
I’m so relieved to read this!! Congratulations to the winners- I couldn’t vote in Medford- but was watching- I think they now have a good, diverse and strong board- in an area where the MAGA flags fly- enough people cared about the quality of education and the board to do their homework and reject those with the wrong personal agendas. I only know Kendall- and am grateful she chose to take on the task- she’ll be attentive and fair.