SIREN: Politico sounds the alarm over Republicans across the country turning 'typically sleepy school board races into politicized, partisan elections'

Things are happening in school board races across the country, and Politico is on it:

Republicans across America are pressing local jurisdictions and state lawmakers to make typically sleepy school board races into politicized, partisan elections in an attempt to gain more statewide control and swing them to victory in the 2022 midterms https://t.co/CkWkQE32BY

— POLITICO (@politico) December 29, 2021

This headline is really something:

“New front.” Because Republicans and conservative parents are deciding to speak up instead of just sit back and take public schools’ and teachers’ unions’ crap, now suddenly school board races are partisan. As if they weren’t partisan when Democrats were calling most of the shots.

More from Politico:

The latest attempts for making school board races partisan affairs come as education has been thrust into the spotlight amid the pandemic and the high profile victory of Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin in Virginia, who campaigned on a promise to give parents more say in their kids’ education. It also comes as other crucial battleground issues are bubbling up in education, including classroom lessons on history and race — a subject that has emerged as a boogeyman for GOP policymakers in numerous states who are condemning efforts to teach young people about the nation’s history of discrimination.

With all of these policies converging, there have been clear disconnects among state and local leaders, and even parents, over how to educate their children. Republicans are openly embracing parental rights as a key factor shaping policy in D.C. and many statehouses — seen in proposals to strengthen protections for parents against schools.

“There’s a major underestimation nationwide, even on the political side, that these parents are really frustrated,” said Bridget Ziegler, a Sarasota County school board member who is also the wife of the Florida GOP vice chair.

Campaign contributions from the American Federation of Teachers to Democrats (%):

1990: 97.9%
1992: 98.5%
1994: 99.4%
1996: 99.1%
1998: 98.9%
2000: 99.2%
2002: 99.3%
2004: 98.0%
2006: 99.1%
2008: 99.1%
2010: 99.4%
2012: 99.4%
2014: 99.0%
2016: 99.7%
2018: 99.8%
2020: 99.6%

— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) December 29, 2021

https://t.co/wDRaea8Y9E

— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) December 29, 2021

The Left is starting to lose their grip on schools and that scares the crap out of them. And Politico, it would seem.

Can someone please send me the link to Politico's concern piece over progressive activists pressing local jurisdictions to politicize typically sleepy District Attorney races and making them into politicized, partisan elections? https://t.co/zuWq1lzyn6

— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) December 29, 2021

Sorry … we’ll have to get back to you on that.

You dont like it when people wake up and figure out that real power lies in the local elections do you?

— 1000th Ghost (@1000thghostauto) December 29, 2021

What ever happened to defending democracy, I wonder, when Democrats are held accountable for unpopular policies and have to campaign against critics?

“Democracy for me, and not for thee” isn’t democracy at all. It’s a ruse for one-party rule. https://t.co/RDk94hsSCv

— J.P. Freire (@JPFreire) December 29, 2021

everyone loves democracy until it doesn't go their way

— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) December 29, 2021

Republicans and conservatives aren’t going to sit this stuff out anymore. They’re ready to make the Dems take their medicine.

Whether Politico likes it or not.

The concerns of parents are downplayed as boring and unneccessary

Play this message on repeat Dems, all through the midterms…. The cat lady who agrees with this in her NYC apartment isnt going to be the swing vote https://t.co/skR93BvKS0

— Ahmed Al Assliken (@assliken) December 29, 2021

As they should. School boards are out of control, and the activists who have been running them have been wreaking havoc on kids' educations and general well-being.

— Brian Knotts (@brianknotts) December 29, 2021