Movement sees few winners
Only 6 of 35 “Take back our schools” candidates elected to office in Capital Region. Now what?
With most of the candidates allied with the “Take back our schools” movement in the Capital Region soundly defeated in Tuesday night’s elections, the few winners are taking a realistic look at their next steps.
Only six out of 35 prospective school board members backed by the movement — which was embraced by candidates across the nation — won in the region: in Schenectady, Saratoga Springs, Stillwater, Ichabod Crane and Duanesburg school elections.
“It’s a nine-member board, I’m just one member,” said Robert Mccoy, who won in Stillwater. “In no way, shape and form am I going to be able to make drastic
changes.”
True to his, and many members of the movement’s, platform he goes into his new post with “reservations” about the diversity, equity and inclusion program being encouraged by the state. Such candidates often also ran under the banner of “parents rights” or “parent choice.”
“Stillwater’s a small community. I don’t feel it’s something that would be beneficial to Stillwater students,” he said, but added that he had a lot of homework to do to learn about the program. Currently, the board has tabled a vote on whether to adopt the program in Stillwater.
Duanesburg was the only district where all of the seats up for a vote went to members of the movement. There, the two candidates who won posted that they are “opposed to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (aka Critical Race Theory).”
Turnout was big in Duanesburg, a rural community on the edge of Schenectady County, with more than three times as many voters as last year. But Superintendent James Niedermeier said the voter input won’t change how the district is run.
“The school district has not been, nor will it ever be, opposed to diversity, equity and inclusion,” he said. “I do feel that people are approaching this with genuine concern and we do have honest engagement in a subject that’s very important. “
Still, they may not realize that DEI involves more than just teaching the predominantly white student population about racism, he added.
“Focus on the issues of diversity we know we do have, like our special ed community, and that boys and girls have equal encouragement to participate in activities. Making sure students who are academically disadvantaged have the opportunity to participate fully in all the opportunities,” he said.
Some voters the Times Union talked to outside polling locations Tuesday said they supported the candidates in the movement because they worry that white children are being pushed aside. One cited the addition of nonchristian religious holidays to the school calendar, alleging that Christians don’t get all their religious days off.
Another voter said her district focused on Black History Month but did not plan events for Presidents Day, which is usually a school holiday.
“When you’re being diverse,” she said, you should be “all-diverse.” “Things are going on the parents aren’t aware of. Things are being said in the name of equity that are making more inequity.”
However, school officials and voters noted that huge turnouts in many districts Tuesday were likely because candidates pushing back against diversity training and discussion of sexuality and gender in schools ignited interest in voting — particularly for other candidates.
In Averill Park, almost 2,900 voters participated, up from 875 voters last year. There, the candidates supported by the movement got half as many votes as the winners. There were so many voters that the district ran out of computer-readable ballots and had to print about 900 more ballots. Those had to be counted by hand, which took hours after the polls closed.
“I think children should learn about the history of our country. The real history. We don’t want to ban books and all that baloney,” said North Colonie voter John Razzano.
Others said there’s no place for culture wars in school, noting that CRT is a law school topic that has been conflated with teaching children about racism.
“There’s a lot of misinformation from the people who seem to be leading the charge with that movement,” Bethlehem voter Nell Ball said. “They’re trying to make this something about race and culture.”
A few older voters said they were taken aback to discover they had to vote, in essence, on whether to let children learn about racism. One couple hadn’t voted in decades, since their children graduated but said it was too important to skip this year.
A few said they couldn’t believe it had gone this far.
“I think people have really gone overboard,” said North Colonie voter Mary Ellis.
Most candidates supported by the movement were not in a position to take over large voting blocs on boards because there weren’t enough seat vacancies per district to do so.
Theirs was an effort to introduce their ideals, in hopes they could win other elections in the future. But voter Stephen Mawn in North Colonie thought that this year’s “enthusiasm” would be a flash in the pan, and burn out long before next year’s vote.
It would be better if all the suddenly energized voters got involved in the school district instead, Mawn said.
“Some parents are complaining on social media they don’t have a voice. It’s important parents get involved — in PTAS, volunteer — but so few people do that.”