School board elections have far-reaching consequences

The Mid-hudson region, where I live, bears the unfortunate distinction of currently being the only section of New York where school boards have voted to ban books from public school curricula and libraries, according to PEN

▶ Sandi Sonnenfeld of Poughkeepsie is the author of “This Is How I Speak” and more than 30 published short stories and personal essays. She serves on the board of the Mid-hudson Arts Education Alliance.

America’s Freedom to Write Index.

Yorktown School District in Putnam County has banned 10 books; Wappingers Central School District in Dutchess County has banned one book; and Marlboro School District in Ulster County has banned two.

In two of the three districts, the books — which all have received one or more national awards for literary merit and were deemed appropriate for teens by the American Library Association — were banned after a member of the Floridabased “parental rights” group Moms for Liberty, which recently opened chapters in Putnam, Dutchess and Orange counties, demanded their removal.

That organization’s website reveals that its members deliberately target local school districts. If school board members fail to do what they want, these activists make clear they will

Even voters without school-age children are vested in who gets elected to school boards.

seek to replace them with their own candidates.

While calls to censor certain concepts in public schools and ban books that even peripherally touch on those ideas is just the latest tactic conservatives have embraced to energize the far right, school boards are meant to be nonpartisan, focusing solely on serving the best interests of all students and not on advancing a political agenda. Local voters can help ensure that school board members remain nonpartisan by carefully reviewing each candidate’s statement on their school district’s website before voting, or attending candidates’ forums held in their district.

While parents have the right to determine what values they instill in their children, they do not have the right to dictate or impose those values on other parents’ children. If a parent objects to a specific text her child is to read for class, teachers and school librarians possess the training and expertise to suggest a comparable alternative. That’s a far more equitable solution than prohibiting all other students from benefiting from the assigned book.

Of course, fairness doesn’t seem to hold much interest for parents involved with Moms for Liberty and similar organizations. How else can one explain that of the 1,145 novels and nonfiction books currently banned in one or more public schools in the United States, 74 percent of them feature protagonists of color or LGBTQ protagonists? Another 22 percent examine racism and other forms of social injustice.

According to the National School Boards Association, voter turnout for school board elections often runs as low as five percent. That means that a tiny number of voters determine the composition and direction of New York’s 731 school districts, affecting the future of more than 2.5 million students. However, the quality of the curriculum and the critical intellectual and emotional skills that public school students master affect all our futures, as today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders and innovators. Thus, even voters without school-age children are vested in who gets elected to school boards.

Finally, far too many K-12 students have been struggling to get back on track academically after the disruption of the pandemic. Therefore, public school teachers, administrators, and school boards need our support more than ever. That alone should be the reason you vote on May 17.