(2023-05-07) Barrington How A School Board Race In The Blue State Of Illinois Became A Nationally Funded Cage Match

How a school board race in the blue state of Illinois became a nationally funded cage match. BARRINGTON, Il — This leafy, affluent village outside Chicago is known for its suburban amenities.

The outlines of the conflict were clear one gray April day at the intersection of Main Street and Route 59 in the heart of downtown. On one corner, braving the chill, was a cluster of about a dozen residents urging voters to reelect incumbents, including Leah Collister-Lazzari, to the School Board. They toted signs with a hint of the election’s driving controversy: “No book bans” and “For all the books” — a reference to an effort to ban certain books from the school library. (cf (2023-03-21) Local Barrington IL elections)

But this low-key crew had competition gathering across the street. That well-dressed crowd, with balloons and American flags and “Born in the USA” as their soundtrack, was louder, more numerous, and soon had taken over the other three corners of the intersection.

What had come to Barrington was a local extension of a well-funded effort by national political operatives to reshape American politics at its most fundamental level: control over how children are educated in public schools. It is a smartly chosen battlefield, rich with dividing lines including how to accommodate — or not — trans and queer students and their needs, which version of American history should be told, and what books students should be allowed to read.

Around the country, conservative-aligned groups have harnessed parental angst, already at a high pitch amid the pandemic, to gain seats on school boards. Now, those groups are fueling more contentious races with cable TV-amplified controversies, candidate training, and a flood of campaign money beyond what many municipalities have ever known.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. As American life ground to a halt, school shutdowns nationwide stretched from weeks to months.

At school board meetings, frustration and anger boiled into the open, and conservatives were soon the loudest voices demanding that schools reopen. They also demanded that when children returned to classrooms, masks should be optional — a notion that sparked deep divides among parents.

the 1776 Project PAC, formed in early 2021 with a mission of supporting local board candidates taking on school programs supporting diversity and inclusion. (DEI)

Since 2021, the PAC has expanded its push to move school boards to the right and has spent nearly $4 million to support local candidates, with nearly $1 million of it coming from one Illinois-based megadonor, Richard Uihlein. (of ULine)

Other like-minded groups have grown nationwide including Moms for Liberty, a parent-driven advocacy organization that was formed in opposition to school mask mandates and COVID-related closures but now focuses on defeating trans- and LGBTQ-inclusive school policies. Moms for America Action, which has an antifeminist mission, also makes school board candidate endorsements.

“We used to say all politics is local,” Quigley said. “All politics is national now.”

Motivated by the growing clash of values, a group of conservative parents formed a political action committee to support candidates in local races in late 2020, calling themselves Action PAC. In 2021, two of its candidates won Barrington School Board seats.

By summer 2022, board meetings were still explosive, but with new topics. Books, largely those with LGBT content, dominated a series of summer meetings.

At one, Nelda Munoz joined a parade of parents as she spoke of her dismay when she learned that her middle schooler had been given a summer reading list that included “Gender Queer,” a graphic novel of the author’s exploration of their gender and sexuality that includes some explicit scenes. The superintendent explained that the summer reading e-mail received by parents did not specifically recommend “Gender Queer,” but that the novel had been included in external book award lists provided to middle schoolers. That explanation did nothing to tamp down the controversy, which continued online and in person all summer.

In the end, the existing board narrowly voted to keep the disputed books in the high school library

Action PAC presented a slate of local parents for the three open seats: Leonard Munson, a local businessman; Katey Baldassano, a business owner and longtime education professional; and Matt Sheriff, a sales professional

They explicitly denied supporting book bans, though all were in favor of greater restrictions on some books, including “Gender Queer.” (censorship)

the three board challengers rejected the notion that they had national or political ties, arguing they were the victims of a left-driven smear campaign to paint them as “extremists”.

*Conservatives said they were also being smeared and caricatured, lamenting mailers and comments that painted them as extremists.

“Our competitors … they are controlled by unions,” Sheriff said.*

On election day, the inflamed local politics yielded higher-than-usual turnout in the School Board race

In the end, a campaign marked by sound and fury yielded little in the way of change.

Ultimately, Collister-Lazzari and Altshuler and another like-minded candidate held on, winning their seats by a few hundred votes.