SEIDMAN SAYS: State meddling in school board elections undermines public education
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Many moons ago, when I was barely in elementary school, my mother ran for the local school board. She didn’t have a political bone in her body, but with five children of her own (and one yet to come), she was pretty sure she knew a thing or two about kids and how best to support their growth.
If anyone in town thought they knew her political affiliation, it would only have been because she was the wife of a prominent certified public accountant who had recently been asked by then-Michigan Gov. George Romney, to run on the 1962 state Republican ticket for the position of auditor general.
Though he would go on to play a role in two different Republican administrations in Washington, D.C., at the time my father’s political leanings were unknown – even to him. When Romney first approached him, my father expressed reluctance.
“Why?” the governor inquired. “Are you a Democrat?” No, my father assured him. “Then you must be a Republican?” Not exactly, my father countered. “Well, then, what are you?” Romney asked. “I’m an accountant,” my dad replied.
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As for my mother, she’d cancelled out my father’s vote for Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election in favor of John F. Kennedy, a vote which she, an otherwise traditionally “obedient” spouse, remained proud of to her dying day. But none of that mattered, to them or anyone else. She was elected to the school board based not upon party affiliation or political platform, but because she was determined that art and music (which had been eradicated in favor of more “academic” subjects) be returned to the curriculum.
I thought about those simpler times when the news broke this week that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had sent questionnaires to local school board candidates across the state to assess their alignment with his educational “agenda” in order to make personal endorsements. It was his latest effort to meddle in local arenas and undermine public education.
If the adage “all politics are local” is true, DeSantis is giving it new meaning. Gone is even the pretense of a school board election being nonpartisan.
Just because there is no “R” or “D” after a candidate’s name doesn’t mean that dark money and political maneuvering aren’t as much of the process as in a congressional race. After ramming through legislation like the Stop WOKE Act, the Parental Rights in Education Act and measures giving the state control over charter school approvals and textbook selections, I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that hand-picking local school board members would be the governor's next step in educational overreach.
“We need strong local school board members who are committed to advancing our agenda to put students first and protect parents’ rights,” DeSantis said in releasing the survey.
“Our” agenda?
The governor’s reelection campaign website says that agenda is “to ensure our children are educated and not indoctrinated.” But haven’t his actions done just the opposite? Selectively editing what information students receive through censorship and forcing through legislation the acceptance of conservative talking points that are not universally embraced seems to accurately fit the definition of indoctrination – “the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically.”
Some might argue (me for one) that there should be no other agenda in public schooling than ensuring students’ receive a well-rounded, unbiased age- appropriate education, including the social and emotional skills that will facilitate their future success. Oh, and also supporting the teachers DeSantis has vilified, who work harder than anyone I know to make that happen.
A school board election should not be about pandering to voters to bolster your political aspirations or pad the pockets of the for-profit charter schools that are undermining public education.
Yet the “DeSantis Education Agenda” survey openly encourages respondents to submit video testimonials to be used in his campaign ads and materials. It suggests parents use survey responses as a guide to casting their own votes in order to “combat the woke agenda from infiltrating public schools” -- a fabricated threat that he invented.
Clearly there was no need for candidates who already had the governor’s stamp of approval to respond. Because within 24 hours of the survey’s release, 10 candidates had earned his endorsement – including Sarasota incumbent Bridget Ziegler, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty and wife of Christian Ziegler, vice chair of the Florida GOP; and Timothy Enos, a first-time candidate with no experience who relinquished his former position as chief of the Sarasota County Schools’ internal police force to pursue policing students in a different way. (DeSantis didn’t endorse conservative candidate Robyn Marinelli, whose alleged connection to the right-wing Proud Boys might have been a step too far even for him.)
If nothing else, the Aug. 23 Sarasota County School Board election gives voters a clear choice. If you’re in favor of acceding local control to the state, limiting students’ freedom of expression and access to information and promoting school privatization, the governor has done the research for you.
If, on the other hand, you believe in local control over local decisions, the free exchange of ideas and information, equitable opportunities for all children and saving an educational system that has served this country well for centuries, you can do your own research.
Fortunately, there’s an excellent slate of candidates who still believe in public education and putting kids first.
Contact columnist Carrie Seidman at carrie.seidman@gmail.com or (505) 238-0392.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Carrie Seidman: DeSantis shouldn't be meddling in school board races
