How education will shape 2022’s midterm elections

START YOUR ENGINES — The race is on for control of the nation’s schools.

— Next year’s midterm election season will include campaigns for state school board seats and elected superintendents in more than a dozen areas. Scores of gubernatorial and legislative races will also take on added importance for teachers and students, as the power centers of local government flex new influence over classroom practices.

— The outcome of these races could lie in the hands of voting parents who are fired up over school safety measures, debates about how to teach the nation’s history and the role parents play in shaping the decisions schools make for students.

— Meanwhile, a new and concerning Covid-19 variant has been spotted overseas. An emergence in the United States could change government guidelines and recommendations for schools, colleges and childcare facilities as scientists learn more about the strain. That would add to an already intense political environment.

— “I think it’s time for our leaders to tone the rhetoric down,” said Molly Spearman, South Carolina’s elected state education superintendent and president of the Council of Chief State School Officers’ board. “But unfortunately, we’re going into a major election cycle in ‘22 — and rhetoric prevails.”

IT’S MONDAY, NOV. 29. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. Vaccinating children and adolescents against Covid-19 may help reduce virus transmission and cut down the need for protective measures in schools, the World Health Organization declared. But the global health agency said officials should first consider getting shots and boosters to the world’s highest-risk groups.

“As children and adolescents tend to have milder disease compared to adults, unless they are in a group at higher risk of severe Covid-19, it is less urgent to vaccinate them than older people, those with chronic health conditions and health workers,” the WHO said in a recent, 3300-word statement.

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Midterms Watch

A NEW KIND OF EDUCATION POLITICS — State school superintendents and education board members aren’t universally elected throughout the country; they’re often appointed by governors. No matter how they take office, these officials play a key role in establishing policies dictated by state law while overseeing academic testing, teacher certification and education budgets.

— They’re also now part of the frontline response to an array of political flashpoints, including parental frustration over Covid-19’s impact on classroom instruction and history lessons about race.

— “I don’t think there’s a single elected position that has more impact on the future of our nation than those that are elected to an education position,” said Kirsten Baesler, North Dakota’s elected state school superintendent.

— “School boards have always been political,” she said. “It’s now just exacerbated by social media. It’s become not just a local conversation, it’s a national conversation.”

— Governors and lawmakers also play an overriding role in these officials’ decisions, given their ability to sign executive orders or pass laws that dictate what schools can and can’t do.

— It’s not unusual for social issues to find their way to the schoolhouse door, said Robert Hull, the retiring president and CEO of the National Association of State Boards of Education. “But this year, there seems to be a predominance of interest in a more conservative movement in educational circles,” he said. “I think it’s going to play itself out in lots of ways.”

— Plus, Spearman notes the grim tone of the debate is taking a toll on her fellow education officials, many of whom are former teachers.

— “The chaos, the high emotions and obvious mistrust with some of the decisions that we were making as educators has been challenged by many parents,” said Spearman, who is not running for re-election in South Carolina. “Rebuilding trust is on everybody’s mind. And this polarization across the country is of great concern for everyone.”

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Edu-pinion

VIRGINIA’S IMPLICATIONS FOR 2022, AND BEYOND — Seventy percent of Virginia voters who ranked education as a top issue in the state’s gubernatorial race this month voted for Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin, according to polling commissioned by the Democrats for Education Reform’s political affiliate and the Emma Bloomberg-backed Murmuration outfit.

— DFER says such numbers underscore how Democrats have lost ground to Republicans on education issues and how school-related concerns helped drive conservative voters to Virginia polling booths. Nearly two-thirds of voters who ranked education as their top issue were Republican, according to DFER’s polling, and education ranked highest for voters who did not vote in 2017.

— That data shows there’s an abundance at stake for Democrats, organization President Shavar Jeffries told Weekly Education. The party’s messaging on public education will be tied to its ability to control power in state governments, he said — perhaps even in Congress and the White House.

— “I think the November race is really a call to action for Democrats to listen to parents, and to embrace an education agenda that reflects what parents want,” Jeffries told your host. “As a party, if we aren’t more effective in both our messaging and our ability to deliver results for parents and families, the political power that we built over the last year-and-a-half is in jeopardy.”

— ALG Research, the Democratic pollster and consulting firm that conducted DFER’s polling, reached similar conclusions after separate focus group work on Virginia Biden supporters who either swung to Youngkin or considered doing so. Education “dominated” the Virginia governor’s race with these voters, ALG’s researchers wrote in a Nov. 15 memo. School closures and Covid-19 policy were bigger factors than debates over critical race theory with focus group members, though divisive debates over the role of race in American institutions also tapped into their frustrations.

— “Our polling really speaks to the fact that most parents are really focused on bread and butter issues,” Jeffries said. Those issues include parents’ role in conversations about how schools are run, plus their concerns about students’ learning amid the pandemic and the broader American economy.

— DFER’s poll was conducted Nov. 10-15, and based on live phone and web surveys of 500 Virginia 2021 general election voters. The margin of error was plus-or-minus 4.4 percent.

In the States

RACES TO WATCH — As 2022’s crucial elections play out, 15 states and the District of Columbia will hold elections for either their state school boards or education chiefs. Here’s a sample of races to keep an eye on.

Arizona — Democrat Kathy Hoffman has garnered attention in her conservative-led state for criticizing Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s pandemic-era school policies. When Ducey launched two multimillion-dollar school grant programs that discourage mask and vaccine mandates in August, Hoffman called the measures “an outrageous attack on public education”. But as Arizona takes a central role in Democrats’ strategy for the 2022 midterms, a suite of Republicans are preparing to challenge her. At least six Republicans, and two other Democrats, have formally filed statements of interest in running for state superintendent and their intent to collect enough petition signatures to get on the ballot for the party primary next year.

California — Tony Thurmond, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, has picked up major endorsements for his 2022 campaign. The California Federation of Teachers labor group in May said Thurmond was an “unwavering fighter for students, teachers, and classified professionals during the Covid-19 pandemic.” The California Teachers Association followed up with its own endorsement last month. But Thurmond’s campaign isn’t yet making much noise ahead of next June’s primary. His agency has also seen a string of staff hitting the exits amid toxic workplace allegations first reported by POLITICO’s Mackenzie Mays in September. Still, Thurmond’s 2022 campaign fund has already brought in nearly $1.5 million.

Ohio — This swing state’s board of education is confronting the fallout of an October vote to repeal a 2020 anti-racism resolution and replace it with one that condemns standards or curriculum “that seek to divide or to ascribe circumstances or qualities, such as collective guilt, moral deficiency, or racial bias, to a whole race or group of people.” Two members who voted against repealing the original resolution have since resigned and been replaced with new appointments from Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. The seats of five other members, all of whom voted to repeal the anti-racism resolution, are up for grabs in 2022. Ohio’s 19-member education board is composed of both elected members and gubernatorial appointments.

MORE BOOK BATTLES TO COME — There’s another theme to watch as statehouses reconvene and local legislative elections take place: Republican state lawmakers are looking to harness local outrage over books on race, gender identity and sexual orientation by floating ideas for new legislation in the coming year.

— Battles over curriculum and Covid-19 precautions have extended into books about marginalized groups like people of color or those who identify as LGBTQ, POLITICO’s Bianca Quilantan reports.

— There is no current state legislation regarding banning books in classrooms, according to the Education Commission of the States. But parents and conservative leaders this fall called for the removal of books they considered “obscene” or “pornography,” and some lawmakers are announcing plans to bring forward book-related bills when their sessions resume.

Report Roundup

WATCHDOG EXAMINES SCHOOL SAFETY — Hostile behavior in public schools including bullying, hate speech and sexual misconduct increased in the 2017-18 school year, the Government Accountability Office determined as part of a new report delivered to House Education and Labor Chair Bobby Scott (D-Va.).

— The GAO said hate crimes — which most commonly targeted students because of their race and national origin — and physical attacks with a weapon nearly doubled between the 2015-16 and 2017-18 school years. Sexual assaults also increased during the same period, according to the GAO, which based its findings on an analysis of the latest data available from federal student and school surveys.

— Investigators also found the Department of Education has resolved civil rights complaints over hostile behaviors faster than it has in past years. But the GAO discovered two key reasons behind the speedier processing times: The department’s civil rights office has simply dismissed more complaints during the past decade, and there’s been a more recent decline in the number of complaints filed with the office.

Syllabus

— In Minneapolis schools, white families are asked to help do the integrating: New York Times

— From slavery to Jim Crow to George Floyd: Virginia universities face a long racial reckoning: Washington Post

— Massive Covid outbreaks occurred at Seattle-area schools with lax protocols: KUOW

— Arizona’s anti-mask school voucher plan faces tough start: Associated Press