Advocates on the right and left say this year鈥檚 school board campaigns will be ground zero in America鈥檚 culture wars. The conservative prepared people for that battle this week by holding training sessions for prospective school board candidates in Raleigh and Mooresville.
Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the Raleigh-based group, says the issues that have led to heated protests at board meetings are fueling intense interest in running for office.
鈥淧arents are upset about what their kids have been learning in school,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e upset about the mask mandates that still perpetuate around the state. And it just seems like there鈥檚 been a great awakening among parents.鈥�
Reporters weren鈥檛 allowed into the 鈥渟chool board boot camps.鈥� In an interview after Thursday鈥檚 session at Trinity Baptist Church in Mooresville, Fitzgerald said attendance for the two sessions was about 200, with about 100 saying they plan to run. In the Charlotte area, she said Mecklenburg, Union and Iredell counties had strong participation.
Participants heard from current board members, including Union County school board Chair Melissa Merrell. The sessions dealt with challenging the way racism and gender issues are discussed in schools and the presence of what some call pornographic books available to students.
Fitzgerald said concerns have been building for several years.
鈥淎 lot of the people who have been calling NC Values Coalition over the last four or five years are concerned about critical race theory. They are concerned about gender ideology in the schools. They鈥檙e concerned about pornographic books that are being kept in the libraries,鈥� she said.
Part of a national trend
The forum was co-sponsored by the , which is based in Washington, D.C. The council has been by the Southern Poverty Law Center based on what the law center calls anti-LGBTQ positions.
Fitzgerald said her group partnered with the council because it had hosted this summer.
The North Carolina sessions echo themes that have been , such as the value of using so-called critical race theory as a political rallying cry. Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon used his in May to urge parents to take over school boards and 鈥渢hrow the bums out.鈥�
鈥淚f they鈥檙e going to sit there and approve critical race theory and all this nonsense, boom! You鈥檙e gone!鈥� Bannon said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to show up. We鈥檙e going to vote you out. Boom. Next! And we鈥檙e going to put moms in there.鈥�
In Virginia, Republican Glenn Youngkin won the governorship in November with a . He opposed teaching critical race theory and requiring children to wear masks in schools.
is a national group of suburban women who organized to counter that kind of approach. Janet Robinson, the group鈥檚 North Carolina program director, says right-wing groups are using scare tactics.
鈥淪o they鈥檙e going to use the latest bogeyman 鈥� which they鈥檝e made CRT a bogeyman, they鈥檝e made the issues around the LGBT community a bogeyman 鈥� to get people to vote for their candidates,鈥� Robinson said. 鈥淪o the school board is going to be ground zero.鈥�
A big election year
Most of North Carolina鈥檚 115 school districts are holding elections this year 鈥� including Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, which normally holds elections in odd-numbered years. But delayed 2020 Census data pushed back the election so the board could redraw voting districts based on the latest population counts.
The off-year CMS elections, which coincide with municipal races, traditionally draw turnout well below 20%. But this year鈥檚 CMS board elections, along with those in Cabarrus, Catawba, Gaston, Iredell-Statesville, Lincoln and Union counties, will be on the ballot with state and national races that draw more interest.
Red Wine & Blue鈥檚 Robinson is a from Charlotte. She says she hasn鈥檛 heard of any similar school board training sessions organized by left-leaning groups but hopes to see some.
鈥淲e are going to be supporting and we are encouraging the women in our organization and our groups in our network to run for school board,鈥� she said.
The impact of candidate recruitment efforts and school board controversy won鈥檛 be clear until filing for school board seats ends later this year.
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