 |
| Photo Credit: AP. |
(AP) - As Republicans and Democrats fight for control of Congress this fall, a growing collection of conservative political action groups is targeting its efforts closer to home: at local school boards.
Their aim is
to gain control of more school systems and push back against what they see as a
liberal tide in public education classrooms, libraries, sports fields, even
building plans.
Once seen as
sleepy affairs with little interest outside their communities, school board
elections started to heat up last year as parents aired frustrations with
pandemic policies. As those issues fade, right-leaning groups are spending
millions on candidates who promise to scale back teachings on race and
sexuality, remove offending books from libraries and nix plans for
gender-neutral bathrooms or transgender-inclusive sports teams.
Democrats
have countered with their own campaigns portraying Republicans as extremists
who want to ban books and rewrite history.
At the
center of the conservative effort is the 1776 Project PAC, which formed last
year to push back against the New York Times’ 1619 Project, which provides free
lesson plans that center U.S. history around slavery and its lasting impacts.
Last fall and this spring, the 1776 group succeeded in elevating conservative
majorities to office in dozens of school districts across the U.S., propelling
candidates who have gone on to fire superintendents and enact sweeping “bills
of rights” for parents.
In the wake
of recent victories in Texas and Pennsylvania — and having spent $2 million
between April 2021 and this August, according to campaign finance filings — the
group is campaigning for dozens of candidates this fall. It’s supporting
candidates in Maryland’s Frederick and Carroll counties, in Bentonville,
Arkansas, and 20 candidates across southern Michigan.
Its
candidates have won not only in deeply red locales but also in districts near liberal
strongholds, including Philadelphia and Minneapolis. And after this November,
the group hopes to expand further.
“Places
we’re not supposed to typically win, we’ve won in,” said Ryan Girdusky, founder
of the group. “I think we can do it again.”
In Florida,
recent school board races saw an influx of attention — and money — from
conservative groups, including some that had never gotten involved in school
races.
The American
Principles Project, a Washington think tank, put a combined $25,000 behind four
candidates for the Polk County board. The group made its first foray into
school boards at the behest of local activists, its leader said, and it’s
weighing whether to continue elsewhere. The group’s fundraising average surged
from under $50,000 the year before the pandemic to about $2 million now.
“We lean heavily into retaking federal power,”
said Terry Schilling, the think tank’s president. “But if you don’t also take
over the local school boards, you’re not going to have local allies there to
actually reverse the policies that these guys have been implementing.”
In a move
never before seen in the state, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed a slate
of school board candidates, putting his weight behind conservatives who share
his opposition to lessons on sexuality and what he deems critical race theory.
Most of the DeSantis-backed candidates won in their August races, in some cases
replacing conservative members who had more moderate views than the firebrand
governor.
The movement
claims to be an opposing force to left-leaning teachers unions. They see the
unions as a well-funded enemy that promotes radical classroom lessons on race
and sexuality — a favorite smear is to call the unions “groomers.” The unions,
which also support candidates, have called it a fiction meant to stoke distrust
in public schools.
In
Maryland’s Frederick County, the 1776 group is backing three school board
candidates against four endorsed by education unions. The conservatives are
running as the “Education Not Indoctrination” slate, with a digital ad saying
children are being “held captive” by schools. The ad shows a picture of stacked
books bearing the words “equity,” “grooming,” “indoctrination” and “critical
race theory.”
Karen Yoho,
a board member running for re-election, said outside figures have stoked fears
about critical race theory and other lessons that aren’t taught in Frederick
County.
The
discourse has mostly stayed civil in her area, but Yoho takes exception to the
accusation that teachers are “grooming” children.
“I find it
disgusting,” said Yoho, a retired teacher whose children went through the
district. “It makes my heart hurt. And then I kind of get mad and I get
defensive.”
In Texas,
Patriot Mobile — a wireless company that promotes conservative causes — has
emerged as a political force in school board races. Earlier this year, its
political arm spent more than $400,000 out of $800,000 raised to boost
candidates in a handful of races in the northern Texas county where the company
is based. All of its favored candidates won, putting conservatives in control
of four districts.
The group
did not respond to requests for comment, but a statement released after the spring
victories said Texas was “just the beginning.”
Some GOP
strategists have cautioned against the focus on education, saying it could
backfire with more moderate voters. Results so far have been mixed — the 1776
Project claims a 70% win rate, but conservative candidates in some areas have fallen
flat in recent elections.
Still, the
number of groups that have banded together under the umbrella of parental
rights seems only to be growing. It includes national organizations such as
Moms for Liberty, along with smaller grassroots groups.
“There is a very stiff resistance to the
concerted and intentional effort to make radical ideas about race and gender
part of the school day. Parents don’t like it,” said Jonathan Butcher, an
education fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The
foundation and its political wing have been hosting training sessions
encouraging parents to run for school boards, teaching them the basics about
budgeting but also about the perceived dangers of what the group deems critical
race theory.
For decades,
education was seen as its “own little game” that was buffered from national
politics, said Jeffrey Henig, a political science and education professor at
Columbia University’s Teachers College who has written about outside funding in
school board elections. Now, he said, local races are becoming battlegrounds
for broader debates.
He said
education is unlikely to be a decisive issue in the November election — it’s
overshadowed by abortion and the economy — but it can still be wielded to
“amplify local discontent” and push more voters to the polls.
Republicans
are using the tactic this fall as they look to unseat Democrats at all levels
of government.
In Michigan,
the American Principles Project is paying for TV ads against the Democratic
governor where a narrator reads sexually explicit passages from the graphic
novel “Gender Queer.” It claims that “this is the kind of literature that
Gretchen Whitmer wants your kids exposed to,” while giant red letters appear
saying “stop grooming our kids.”
Similar TV
ads are being aired in Arizona to attack Sen. Mark Kelly, and in Maine against
Gov. Janet Mills, both Democrats.
The
Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation
of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.