Race theory battle heads to ballot box
Republicans seize on issue in Connecticut school board elections
The conflict over critical race theory in Connecticut is shifting from arguments on Facebook to activism in the political sphere as social conservatives seek to seize control of school boards around the state.
Rebelling against the establishment and determined to remake the curriculum, Republican activists have won nominating contests in New Canaan, Glastonbury and several other wealthy, predominantly white communities.
Most of the new candidates are parents or grandparents and almost none have run for office before. But their message has been guided by national groups and amplified by right-wing media, which has turned opposition to teaching students about concepts such as race and privilege into a conservative cause.
The furor has gained an unlikely foothold in Guilford, a shoreline enclave known for its charming town center and strong school system, where Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by a 2-1 margin.
On July 22, five Republican activists secured spots on the November ballot after sweeping the party’s nominating caucus. They pushed out three establishment Republicans, two of whom have served on the board since 2013.
The newly nominated candidates are part of Truth in Education, a local organization opposed to “critical race theory indoctrination” in Guilford schools. The group is affiliated with No Left Turn, a growing national movement that views diversity and inclusion initiatives as divisive and harmful.
“There’s a famous saying by Tip O’Neill that all politics is local,” said Sean Scanlon, a Democrat who grew up in Guilford and now represents the town in the legislature. “The reality we live in now is that all politics is national. There are people on Fox News and other right-leaning outlets that talk about this every single day, all day, and people who get their news
from those places are constantly getting information on this from national groups that are really bent on making this an issue all across America.”
Local school officials defended their focus on equity and said they are not teaching critical race theory, a legal framework used by academics to explore the pervasive impact of racism on American institutions.
Nick Cusano, one of the endorsed Republicans running for the board of education, is skeptical. “They say they’re not teaching it in Guilford, they’re teaching ‘inclusiveness’ or some other buzzword, but it’s the same thing,’’ he said.
A 52-year-old father of two teenage boys, Cusano said he grew alarmed by what his older son was learning about World War II.
“I said ‘oh so you learned about D-Day, and you learned about the atomic bomb’ and he ‘we didn’t talk about any of that,’ “Cusano said. Instead, his son told him, the lesson focused on the Tuskegee Airmen, Black aviators who fought during the war; the Code Talkers, Navajo men who developed an unbreakable code; and the role of women, whose work in the defense industry was crucial to the Allies’ victory.
To Cusano, the omissions — along with his belief that the curriculum is leading some white children to absorb a message that they are racist — prompted him to run for office for the first time. “Teachers are there to teach, not to make students feel bad about themselves because of the color of their skin,” he said.
Cusano and the other board of education candidates agitated about critical race theory have already made their Fox News debut.
“I believe we won simply because we are fighting for our children,” Danielle Scarpellino, another Republican running for the Guilford school board, said during an interview Wednesday on Fox & Friends. “They’re being used as political pawns.”
Critical race theory ‘a buzzword’
Guilford isn’t the only town in Connecticut where concerns about critical race theory have propelled candidates onto the November ballot. In New Canaan, one of the state’s wealthiest communities, nearly 1,000 Republicans came out recently to endorse three candidates who ran on an anti-critical race theory platform. Social conservatives were also nominated to run for the Region 17 school board, which serves the towns of Haddam and Killingworth.
And in Glastonbury, one of the endorsed Republicans running for the school board decried the presence of “Black Lives Matter” signs in the town’s schools even as she avoided the term critical race theory.
George Norman, the chairman of the Glastonbury Republican Town Committee, said he can’t remember a time when members of the party were this fired up about serving on the school board.
It’s not just critical race theory, he said. Other issues, from the pandemic to transparency to “rushing through” a change in the high school mascot from the Tomahawks to the Guardians “without much public comment” have also energized Republicans.
“I don’t like the term ‘culture war,’ ” Norman said. “I would say there’s an increased willingness to say our education system should be focused on academic excellence. That’s been the history in Glastonbury.”
Similar battles are playing out across the nation. Some Republican-led state legislatures have passed bills barring school districts from teaching about race. (Connecticut moved in the opposite direction: In 2020, it became the first state in the nation to pass a law requiring school districts to offer courses on Black and Latino studies.)
Critical race theory “has become a buzzword that people’s fears about a whole lot of issues have become attached to,” said Patrice McCarthy, the deputy director and general counsel for the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education.
The pushback against teaching about racism is part of a larger cultural fight in education that touches on everything from civil rights for transgender students to debates over the use of Native American mascots to mask mandates.
“The pandemic has probably exacerbated the fears people have about their children’s well-being, whether it’s what they think their children are being taught or whether their children should be vaccinated or whether their children are going to have to wear masks when they go back to school,” McCarthy said.
Ben Proto, the chairman of the state Republican Party, said he understands why some parents are apprehensive about the curriculum.
“Whenever people start talking about how others are going to make a decision on how your children are educated, or anything having to do with your children, parents are going to be attuned to that,” Proto said. “When you have folks talking about looking at curriculum changes, at the way classes are taught, parents are going to ask, ‘how does that impact my child’s ability to excel?’ “
Trump wing in control of GOP
Jessica Herrington, a Black woman married to a white man, moved to Guilford a few years ago, drawn by the town’s excellent schools and strong sense of community. She recalled taking her two young sons to a fair on the historic Guilford Green and feeling immediately welcome.
“I didn’t feel like people were judging me or staring at me or wondering if I lived in town,” Herrington said.
Lately, though, she has sensed a shift. “When I drive downtown to get a cup of coffee, sometimes I just turn around and leave because I don’t feel comfortable. I know there are five people in this town and their supporters and I don’t know if I’m going to run into them,” she said, referring to the Republican school board candidates.
Guilford, a town of about 22,000, is 92% white, according to U.S. Census estimates from 2019. The median income was $111,870, far surpassing the state median of $78,444.
“Part of what a lot of people are missing or are ignoring or have glossed over is that systemic racism still exists,” Herrington added. “As a Black woman living in Guilford, I run into issues other people aren’t even thinking about.”
Herrington traces some of the strife to last fall’s debate over changing the name of the high school mascot, from the Indians to the Grizzlies.
“There was a lot of public comment, a lot of debate and ultimately the decision was made,’’ she said, “and there is still some tension in the town related to that.”
Ted Sands, a retired investment banker who lost his bid for reelection to the school board when Republicans did not endorse him at last month’s nominating caucus, agrees that the tone of political discourse in town has changed.
Politics in Guilford is generally a genteel process. Even this year, despite all the controversy over the school board election, other candidates are running unopposed: Republicans did not even nominate a candidate to run against the incumbent Democratic first selectman.
To Sands, the school board campaign and his ouster from the Republican ticket is proof that the Trump wing remains in control of the local GOP.
“There are two contending groups: there are the Trump people and there are the Republicans,” said Sands, who began identifying as a Republican at age 7, when he handed out “I like Ike” buttons in support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
“Our Republican town committee has been taken over by the Trump group,” Sands said. “They buy into [the false assertion that] the election was stolen from him, all the conspiracy theories ... they love it.”
Republicans, he said, have traditionally stood for fiscal restraint. “Now they want to make a big deal out of transgender students using which bathroom and that kind of stuff. These are really not earth-shaking, critical issues but they are brought up as part of this culture war,” he said.
But Sands noted that less than 200 Republicans — out of roughly 3,200 town residents who are registered with the party — voted in the caucus that led to the shake-up on the party’s slate.
“One hundred and eighty seven registered Republicans came to the caucus and 120 were with this group that’s fired up to change everything,” he said. “There’s no question they carried the caucus by a substantial margin but 120 out of 3,200 doesn’t look like a mandate to me.”
Earlier this week, a new player entered the race: The Guilford Independent Party nominated three unaffiliated candidates and cross-endorsed two Democrats for the board of education in an attempt to defeat the Republican slate.
“The sudden rise in aggressive, false claims against our curriculum and the malice with which members of our community are being attacked is unacceptable,’’ said Kristy Faulkner, a molecular biologist and mother of three who is one of the endorsed Independent Party candidates. “We must protect Guilford’s board of education and continue to work constructively across party lines.”