Copyright Mechanicsburg Patriot News
The recent editorial, “Local elections matter more than you think,” holds significant truth. School boards are at risk of outside influence. When I ran for school board, few people cared about party or political objectives, with nearly everyone cross-filing and board members working with colleagues regardless of party affiliation. Board elections cost only the price of signs and poll handouts. Local decision-making focused on children, schools, and taxpayers. Out-of-state dark money now influences our school board elections. National agendas are formulated by far away funders such as the 1776 Project PAC, which exerts control over school boards, hijacking their attention and focus away from students. Endorsed candidates often champion prepackaged culture-war policies crafted far from our communities. Local control becomes an illusion. Ultimately, as in our case, boards conduct business primarily with their ideological allies, and, as a lawsuit alleged, sometimes out of the public view. Open discussion at candidate town halls is replaced with board member videos on social media with viewer comments limited or disabled. Board members silence citizens making comments at meetings during their allotted time to speak and refer to people who speak at meetings in disparaging terms from the dais during meetings. Meanwhile, local citizens’ input is devalued, and local control is further eroded. This saddens me on many levels, but especially for our students, who deserve better role modeling. Outside funding has no place in school board elections. Let’s keep our schools, and their governing boards, truly local.
