Candidates affiliated with the so-called parents’ rights movement ran for school boards around the state on Tuesday. These are people who feel strongly that the societal impact of systemic racism shouldn’t be taught in schools, or that LGBTQ+ issues shouldn’t be raised in early grades. 

The Albany Times Union reported Wednesday that these candidates did not do well in the Capital Region. However, Robert Schneider, executive director of the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA), told Capital Tonight that in other areas of the state, “they have made it to the school board.”

Fifty-eight percent of incumbent school board members retained their seats, according to NYSSBA. 

“Forty-two percent were new school board members,” Schneider said. “Within that 42%, there is a subset of individuals that were supported by outside groups.”

According to Schneider, activist board members aren’t new, and he pointed to parental outrage over the Common Core. 

“This year, though, we did see a lot more of that, to your point, in pockets of the state. They were supported by certain groups with single agendas,” Schneider said. “But once they come on that school board July 1, they have to understand, being a school board member, there’s a lot of things you can do, and you have to work as a collaborative team with the superintendent and the rest of the board.” 

Schneider continued.

“A single-agenda item individual hopefully will convert and understand that they have a lot of other things to do on that school board,” he explained.

According to the New York State School Boards Association, 99.2% of school budgets were passed by voters. 

“It means that most of the [budgets] stayed under the tax cap, which is important that we see that consistent high 90s approval rate,” said Schneider. “We did see a small percentage of school districts, 17 of them, that had to pierce that 2% cap.”

These are called override districts because they have to get a vote of 60% or more from the local community to pass their budgets.