State Senator Clint Penzo (R) filed SB206 which if passed would change school board elections from nonpartisan elections to partisan elections. It would mean candidates would be allowed to run as a Republican or Democrat. Having partisan school board races doesn’t make anyone run with a party affiliation since they may run as an Independent.
Do we need to allow partisan elections in school board races? Absolutely! You should have a right to know.
The left has made public schools its target for injecting radical views into society. It seems every day there is another news article bringing shocking news of leftist indoctrination and sexualization of children in schools and of school boards defending school actions despite the outrage of parents. We have all read in the news about school boards trying to keep parents from finding out what is going on in the schools, or even worse targeting parents who want to know what their children are being taught.
Having partisan elections will pretty much tell voters where the candidates stand on leftist ideology, with most Democrats embracing it and Republicans pushing back against it. A candidate could still run as an Independent; and, if so, you would have to work quite a bit harder to find out what the candidate stands for, if anything.
The education of our children is too important for you to have no information other than a friend’s friend’s thinks the candidate is a nice person.
Knowing that the candidate filed as a Republican, Democrat, or Independent won’t tell you everything you need to know about the candidate, but it is a good start.
SB206 was approved by the Senate Committee on Education and was headed to the Senate floor for a vote, but the bill was sent back to committee on February 16 and there it remains. This could be a very bad sign. Many educators don’t want you to know where the candidates stand.
Every vote in committee is crucial. If two Republican members of the committee either fail to support the bill or fail to attend the committee meeting, the bill may die in committee. (In Senate committees, bills need five “yes” votes. There are six Republicans and two Democrats on the Education committee. The Democrats are expected to vote against the bill if it gets heard again.)
Here are the members of the Senate Education Committee
- Chair – Senator Jane English (R)
- Vice-Chair – Senator Linda Chesterfield (D)
- Senator Joshua Bryant (R)
- Senator Breanne Davis (R)
- Senator Jim Dotson (R)
- Senator Kim Hammer (R)
- Senator Greg Leding (D)
- Senator Matt Stone (R)
