An unusual coalition is emerging in California’s school-board fights
Republicans promoting policies that might seem more at home in Florida have won victories on school boards in California. They are part of a pushback by parents, especially on issues around sex and gender, that makes for an unusual coalition, including some Democrats, immigrants, evangelicals and gay people. What unites them is a shared view that schools should not be allowed to keep a child’s declared gender identity secret from their parents. Hundreds of districts already have policies saying schools must do so.
School boards began taking issues into their own hands after a bill proposed by Bill Essayli, a Republican state legislator, that would have ordered schools to inform parents in such cases, did not even achieve a hearing in Sacramento in April. On July 20th, Chino Valley, a small school district 35 miles east of Los Angeles, became the first in California to pass a motion mandating that parents must be notified in such cases. On August 10th Murrieta Valley school board passed a similar motion, followed by the Anderson Unified school board. Others may follow.
Chino’s new president, Sonja Shaw, was already angry about the state’s handling of lockdown for schools, but only stood for the board last year when she was told that boys who identify as girls were allowed into her daughters’ locker room. When she objected, she says, she was shocked to learn this was permitted by law in California. Ms Shaw says she is typical of many soccer moms who were not politically engaged (“I didn’t even know what a school board was,” she adds). Republican leaders in California, sniffing an opportunity, recruited her into the party’s “Trailblazers” programme, which helps train-up newcomers. California’s superintendent of education, Tony Thurmond, attended the chaotic July board meeting in Chino to argue against the parental pushback. When he tried to speak for more than his…
2023-09-07 09:20:20
Article from www.economist.com
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