MINNESOTA, USA — In less than a week, some voters will head to polls to cast a ballot in Minnesota.
Throughout the state are several competitive races for city councils and school boards. In fact, the Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA) said 50 districts have about 100 empty seats with 200 people vying to fill them. That's a drastic change from a couple of years ago when more school board members were calling it quits.
The MSBA reported that 64 resignations occurred between August 2020 and August 2021 when there were just 15 the year before, including one member from southeast Minnesota who wishes to stay anonymous.
"I thought I could make a difference," he said, after resigning less than a year into the position. "I was completely ineffective and the rest of the board was pretty much at odds against what I thought. I just don't want to relive that."
Now, there's a more organized effort to endorse school board candidates, according to the MSBA's Executive Director Kirk Schneidawind.
"The interest level in our school boards certainly has ticked up," said Schneidawind about what was historically a non-partisan, problem-solving position.
Schneidawind says while the work to provide a district direction hasn't changed, the people in the seats have.
"It's never become more important for the citizens in your school community to understand who is running for those school board seats and their vision for the public schools," said Schneidawind.
Of all the candidates, data from the MSBA shows 41 of them are endorsed by Minnesota Parents Alliance, a conservative group that formed just last year. There are similar other groups that also give candidates money and training for backing specific ideological beliefs that didn't use to exist.
"We can't think of anything more non-partisan than the importance and value of your public school student's education and that part of it is something we're still trying to wrap our head around," said Schneidawind who believes school boards are still effective.
"I think one of the misperceptions is that this is happening in every district in our state," said Schneidawind.
In South Washington County there are 11 candidates and the Parents Alliance is backing three of them. That's a race that our news partners at Minnesota Public Radio say is one of six to watch. It also completed a survey that found the top issues include curriculum selection and student discipline.
"Not every member is going to see eye to eye, exactly the same on every issue and that is the challenge of governing," said Schneidawind who hopes high-performing boards can move past disagreements - and the former board member agrees.
"I just wish school board members would take a step back, look at what needs to be accomplished, look at how they work with teachers, with administrators, with the public and get a consensus," he said.
Some of the other competitive races are happening in the Anoka-Hennepin, Minnetonka and Hastings school districts. Combined, they have 11 candidates backed by the Parents Alliance group.
The union that, in part, represents teachers, Education Minnesota, said it's seeing an unprecedented amount of outside spending on these races. It released a statement, writing: "The Freedom Club of Minnesota, American Majority Action, the Minnesota Parents Alliance, the Minnesota Child Protection League, Restore Minnesota and other groups are working, directly and indirectly, on behalf of candidates who often oppose inclusive education and the labor movement. What has not been reported in the news media is the involvement of Free to Learn Action, which is linked to the national network of advocacy organizations led by conservative strategist Leonard Leo.
The Free to Learn Action program is operating websites for three open seats on the school board of the Anoka-Hennepin Public schools, the state’s largest district. The sites are here, here and here. Voters in the district received texts to persuade them to visit the sites. Free to Learn Action is the advocacy arm of the national Free to Learn coalition.
Free to Learn Action is part of the Concord Fund, which the New York Times has described as a funding hub “to a broader coalition, disseminating tens of millions of dollars in grants to allied nonprofits, and serving as incubators for in-house projects, including one highlighting critical race theory in schools and another fighting Democratic efforts to expand voter access.” The Concord Fund is part of Leo’s network."
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