One bright note

The fascists seem to have given up on taking over the school boards! 

(By the way, ballots in Oregon are due on May 20th. We just turned ours in to the dropbox today.)

Things had seemed pretty quiet, but I actually did not start checking on it until a few days ago. That could easily have not worked out, but when you have that kind of organized takeover attempt, there are stirrings that are hard to ignore.

The first thing I checked was https://communitiesforsensibleschools.org/, previously the home of the Hillsboro school board fascists:

"Future home of something quite cool."

I guess it could be; the domain name is kind of limiting. 

Regardless, the site is not being used at this time to try and stack the Hillsboro schoolboard with racist, classist, homophobic COVID deniers, and that is progress.

My next step was to see what was new with Scott Presler. He seems to be focusing on voter registration in Pennsylvania, though apparently one of the January 6th guys has turned against him which has caused a little polarization among various Trumpers.

I don't think that will be that disruptive. A movement built on grievance is going to regularly have personal blow-ups and the don't affect the momentum like you would hope. Frankly, Presler's homosexuality makes him an easy target for his side. Regardless, neither of them appears to be organizing candidates in Oregon, and I appreciate that.

Also, where there did seem to be something weird going on last time with attempts to organize candidates for the fire and water district, that appears to have fizzled out.

It was time to look at the candidates.

There were several uncontested seats, does not guarantee there is no nefarious organization but seemed comforting.

Reminder: I vote for Beaverton School District, but look at Hillsboro as well because they're our neighbors and I know a lot of people there.

For the contested races, the options are overall good. There were two where it was a hard choice between two very good candidates. Because of that, I am not going to give specific endorsements.

I will note two concerns. 

One of the races with two very good candidates had a third candidate who wants to improve relationships with school resource officers and seems to have a lot of police support. Please remember that having police in schools does not make schools safer and creates worse conditions for students of color. 

I ask you to remember that, because it is very easy for white people to not notice. 

Also, in the Hillsboro races, one of the candidates has an endorsement from Joe Everton, who was one of the original Communities for Sensible Schools candidates.

Everton is a Hillsboro resident and could be connected to lots of people, so it doesn't automatically mean anything. It does make me a little suspicious, and I would have extra skepticism toward that particular candidate.

The most obvious point may be that with control of all three branches of the federal government and the placement of an even worse Education Secretary than DeVos (which would have recently seemed so improbable), like, maybe they aren't even bothering with school boards anymore.

Maybe, but that doesn't change that school boards still matter. 

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2023/05/school-board-elections-dont-let.html 

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2021/05/some-people-behind-campaigns.html