A Big Election Coming!
It's Not the One You Think
There’s a crucial, essential election coming up. It will have a huge impact on our future. Billions of dollars are at stake. And ninety-five percent of Americans won’t vote in it.
No, not the midterms. Or the Presidential election. It’s one of the “little” ones: the local school board election. Voting on such dull local issues as the school budget, school board candidates, and funding for public libraries. Pretty unexciting stuff.
But these “little” elections aren’t so little. Across the nation, almost 100,000 school board members oversee the education of 50 million of our children, allocating some $600 billion in expenditures. It’s literally our future on the line.
But this election goes unnoticed by all but a tiny percentage of voters. Participation in school board elections is usually in single digits. One problem is that in most states it’s untethered to any other election and like most special elections only brings out the die-hards—too often, people pissed off about high taxes who vote the budget down. In New York State, it’s the third Tuesday in the busy month of May, a date that’s very easy to miss.
Also, no one ever knows who the heck to vote for. There aren’t political parties listed. How to evaluate school board candidates, who are often just a bewildering string of names on the ballot? How can you tell if someone is truly concerned with the welfare of the students, or looking to push their own agenda?
One way is to look for someone with a strong track record of volunteer service, especially with children. Are they a former teacher, aide, coach? Or if they’re a business owner, does their business have a track record of supporting the school? Are they solely focused on curriculum policing and book bans, or do they show an interest in other issues? Are they making provocative statements to rile up emotions?
Few people want to be on a school board. A 2023 Ballotpedia study found that more than half of school board seats are uncontested. It’s a time-consuming, thankless, demanding, usually unpaid job. You’re ignored when things are going well, and get all the blame when there’s a disaster. I’m ashamed to say that I can’t name a single person on my local school board. Can you?
Few people want to be on a school board, that is, except the folks who call themselves Moms for Liberty.
You’ve heard of them, I’m sure. They’re a grassroots “parental rights” organization. They suffered some losses in the last few elections, but they haven’t gone away by any means. The Southern Poverty Law Center put the group on its list of anti-government extremist entities in 2023.
In case that seems like overreacting, Moms For Liberty literally quoted Hitler in one of their newsletters. (A journalist named William K. Wolfrum once remarked “The road to fascism is paved with people telling you to stop overreacting.”) These militant moms are adamant about “protecting children,” “restoring parental rights,” and banning books too dangerous for children to be exposed to. Books like And Tango Makes Three.
In case you’ve never read this wonderful children’s story, it’s the true tale of two male chinstrap penguins in the Central Park Zoo. The penguins worked together to build a nest, and tried to hatch a rock. An intrigued zookeeper gave them a fertile egg, and they successfully hatched a chick, named Tango. Human sexual preferences are mentioned nowhere in the text. But it’s one of the most frequently challenged books in the country.
And of course, it’s not just about Tango. So many potentially life-saving books are quietly being pulled from shelves. PEN America, an organization that fights book banning, found that 6,870 book bans were enacted during the 2024-25 school year, across 23 states and 87 public school districts.
I first heard of Moms for Liberty a while ago, but they seemed like a distant threat, like a storm cloud low on the horizon. Surely they were only in Texas, Florida, places like that, not here in blue New York State. Until a few years ago, when they mounted a nasty, hard-fought, vitriolic campaign to take over my local school board. They were eventually defeated, but the victory was narrow. They’ll be back.
So, anyway. Note the date of your local school board election. Fellow New Yorkers. it’s May 19. Mark it on your calendars.
And then be the town crier, letting everyone know. Post it on social media. Spread the word in every way you can think of, to all your neighbors, that this election is worth showing up for. That’s what we can do, spread the word, amplify the message.
Don’t wait to read in the papers the next morning that the school budget failed …
…or your public library is cutting staff and hours…
…or Moms for Liberty have come to your town.
Dear Friends,
Are you furious about the state of the world and wondering what to do about it? I hope you’ll continue to check out The Optimistic Activist.
Every now and then I post some ideas for doing something. How to get out the vote, spread the word, and support progressive candidates. Ideas for simple but effective activism. As easy, as practical, as do-able as I can make them.
Together, I think, we can really make a difference.
“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future.”
--Noam Chomsky
