What do school board results say about the future of diversity debates in Cincinnati?
Two of the eight school board candidates Moms for Liberty endorsed in Hamilton County won seats Tuesday night. Another two candidates endorsed by Ohio Value Voters won school board seats, too.
The dark money groups support parents’ rights and protest school curriculum that discusses diversity and the LGBTQ+ community.
Recently labeled an “anti-government extremist group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Moms for Liberty is based in Florida and has local chapters across the country. Ohio Value Voters controls the Protect Ohio Children Coalition, which collects evidence from mostly anonymous tipsters that Ohio schools are indoctrinating kids on critical race theory, comprehensive sex education and social and emotional learning.
The communities where candidates endorsed by Moms for Liberty and Ohio Value Voters lost − Forest Hills, Loveland and Madeira − bore the brunt of the culture wars throughout this election cycle.
In the communities where those candidates won − Northwest Local Schools, Oak Hills School District, Little Miami Local Schools and Lebanon City Schools − those battles are likely to ramp up now that the election is over. We've seen it before: the story played out in Forest Hills School District and Lakota Local Schools after the 2021 school board elections.
From 'small fry' to culture war epicenters
Families in neighboring communities watched as anti-diversity school board members in Forest Hills banned Diversity Day at a local high school and painted over a mural celebrating racial diversity and the LGBTQ+ community at a middle school. In Lakota, outspoken anti-diversity school board member Darbi Boddy trespassed into school buildings to take photos of student projects and teacher decorations that support race and gender diversity. She also compared suicide prevention lessons to Nazism.
"School boards used to be small fry," Ohio University Professor of Leadership and Public Service Anirudh V. S. Ruhil said.
Not anymore − not since school boards have become the battleground for national politics. He said school board races this year will show us if the country as a whole is leaning toward more conservative values or not, especially as the country heads into a presidential race. From Tuesday's results, it looks like a mixed bag.
But school board politics aren't supposed to be partisan, Ruhil said. And divisiveness in school boards brought on by members who "won't budge" have created a situation where school board business doesn't get done because everyone is arguing. That behavior doesn't bode well for any elected governing body, he said.
Lakota, Forest Hills voters stray from anti-diversity path
In Lakota, Boddy consistently spurs debates about diversity and gender policies that typically don't go anywhere with the rest of the school board. But those conversations have taken up hours of the board's meeting time in the last two years. On Tuesday, voters elected one of Boddy's loudest opponents: parent Douglas Horton.
Horton said election results "reflect Lakota families taking back control of their district from outside forces and political influences."
"Lakota families consistently ask for board leadership that will focus on the urgent needs of our district instead of the political attacks of late. Even more, they want leadership unafraid to protect teachers and students from those same forces," Horton said.
In Forest Hills, too, voters came out Tuesday with a strong message against the conservative, anti-diversity values of their current school board. Jason Simmons and Wendy Strickler Biederman ran together on campaigns that embraced diversity.
"This win sends a message that our community wants Forest Hills to focus on the true strengths and needs that exist in our schools," Biederman said.
Simmons said he looks forward to reestablishing trust with the Forest Hills community, "resetting the tone" of the district and reducing the political split in Anderson Township. He said he's talked with some of the current board members already about how they can work together.
"There is more that we agree on than we disagree on," Simmons said.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio School board election results: What's next in the culture wars?
