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美国国家公共电台 NPR--Progressives take a leaf out of the conservative playbook to target school boards

时间:2023-06-25 06:19:56

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(单词翻译)

Progressives take a leaf out of the conservative playbook to target school boards

Transcript1

A lot of people who run for school board are parents or teachers; 19-year-old Maryam Zafar is neither.

"I have a lot of like, really close experience to a big chunk2 of the people that we are supposed to be serving as a school board," she said. "And just because of my age, people automatically know that I have a unique perspective, whether they've heard it or not."

Zafar is a student at the University of Texas-Austin, and also a 2020 graduate of McNeil High School, in the Austin, Texas, suburb of Round Rock.

"I am really privileged to have gone here; it gave me a lot of opportunities, but it wasn't always a healthy or safe space for me and my friends, especially in regards to sexual harassment3 and assault," she said in the courtyard of Round Rock High School on a recent spring afternoon, as students left school for the day. "I was in ROTC, which was the Air Force program in my high school. And so one big part of my job that I kind of undertook as my responsibility, was in trying to handle any sort of harassment case that came up."

That experience, she says, made her want to be a school board member in that district. To prepare for her run, Zafar has done trainings with the progressive group Run for Something.

How to run for office

LIFE KIT4

How to run for office

The group has for years recruited people to run for many different offices, but cofounder Amanda Litman says they are putting new effort into school boards.

"One of the things we realized after 2020 was we have to focus in on these local positions like school boards," Litman said. "There is such a need for broad progressive focusing on these local positions. There are more than 80,000 elected school board positions across the country. About 21,000 of them are up this year."

A spike5 in attention on school boards

Interest in running for school board is up nationwide. Only 25% of school board races are unopposed this year, down from 35% last year and 40% in 2018, according to Ballotpedia.

Because school board elections are overwhelmingly nonpartisan, it's hard to quantify who or what is behind all that energy.

But then, there has been an undeniable groundswell of conservative enthusiasm around school politics in the last few years, most notably7 around national issues like race, LGBTQ issues, and COVID. Groups like Moms for Liberty and No Left Turn in Education are among the groups working to harness parents' frustration8.

Progressives like Litman, at Run for Something, are hoping to make sure they have their own source of organization — not to mention funding — to counter the enthusiasm from the right.

"The far right is investing a ton in outside PAC spending. We have seen that the Leadership Institute, which is the Koch Brothers-funded nonprofit that does conservative training for operatives and activists9, has been running for programming on school boards all year long," Litman said. "Moms for Liberty is focusing hard on school board positions and candidate support. So they're doubling and tripling down. Here we have to as well."

School board politics get more partisan6

It's not totally new for national-level politics to become a part of school board elections — in the '90s, conservative parents targeted the teaching of sex education and evolution. Likewise, opposition10 to the No Child Left Behind policy galvanized some parents during the George W. Bush presidency11.

But the political landscape has vastly changed.

"What's different this time is the coordination12, the financing and then social media really being able to spread a very consistent message to so many school districts so quickly," said Rebecca Jacobsen, professor of educational policy at Michigan State University, "whereas in previous eras, before internet and social media, these things happened, but at much slower paces. And in some ways, that slower pace gave rise to alternative voices, voices that maybe moderated the discussion."

And she says she fears that that kind of polarization at the local level could have worrying long-term effects for the public school system.

"Schools really are sort of the last holdout in our support for a big public institution, "Jacobsen said. "And so I think that that is maybe the more important impact of this than anything else, whether the policy becomes X or Y. I think whether we continue to believe that our local schools are good for all kids and that I want to continue sending my children there and supporting taxes. That, to me, is the bigger question."

Round Rock has seen national-level tensions play out locally – one turbulent September meeting, where parents and board members clashed over masking, culminated13 in two arrests.

Zafar says that she's worried about meetings having been politicized.

"I have definitely seen that here," she said. "We've had a lot of disruption in our school board around mask mandates14, and it's there has been a lot of legal action taken about that, and it's been a disruption to focusing on student outcomes and on the health and wellness of students."

At a Board of Trustees meeting this spring, Christy Slape said that social media and YouTube have helped galvanize area parents like her. She came to the meeting to speak about books she thought were, in her words, too sexual. She had first heard about the books when a fellow parent complained to the school.

"That just launched a whole basically like a snowball of parents wanting to know more about what books were in the classroom, and then other books being available in the libraries," she said. "And so across the country, there has been just a snowball effect of parents wanting to check their libraries and see what books are available in their libraries."

Intensely local fights

Slape did speak, but books were not on the agenda that night. Overwhelmingly, this board meeting was not about cultural flashpoints but instead, district concerns like student recognition and staff pay increases. That's a point that can be obscured by viral video clips of rowdy school board meetings: local school-board politics are very often not about national cultural conversations but instead, more mundane15 yet vital local topics, like bond issues.

Along those lines, Litman says she advises candidates to stick to concrete local fixes, as opposed to debates over things like critical race theory.

"You want to, like, really get to the heart of the matter, which is people are anxious about the quality of the school. What can you do to solve for that?" she said. "And usually it's quite boring. But it's also the things that are very specific and tangible16 that you can fix."

But then, school board members may confront problems they can't fix. The school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, has put gun violence top of mind for Zafar, who grew up in the era of school lockdowns.

"It's been a really important issue to me since I was a kid – I used to have nightmares about being shot," she said.

But she's also realistic about how much a school board member can do about shootings.

"I don't think we can do much about guns themselves," she said. "I think all we do is safety policies and locking people down and making sure people have the education to know what to do in a lockdown."

Meanwhile, Litman says she hopes members can have influence beyond their schools.

"I really think in many cases, the place for school board members is what can they do to push state legislators? How can school board members use their political platform and their bully17 pulpit to help advocate for broader statewide change?" she said.

While national politics have filtered down to school boards, in other words, her hope is that some members' political views will filter upward.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 transcript JgpzUp     
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书
参考例句:
  • A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
  • They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。
2 chunk Kqwzz     
n.厚片,大块,相当大的部分(数量)
参考例句:
  • They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
  • The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。
3 harassment weNxI     
n.骚扰,扰乱,烦恼,烦乱
参考例句:
  • She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
  • The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。
4 kit D2Rxp     
n.用具包,成套工具;随身携带物
参考例句:
  • The kit consisted of about twenty cosmetic items.整套工具包括大约20种化妆用品。
  • The captain wants to inspect your kit.船长想检查你的行装。
5 spike lTNzO     
n.长钉,钉鞋;v.以大钉钉牢,使...失效
参考例句:
  • The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
  • They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。
6 partisan w4ZzY     
adj.党派性的;游击队的;n.游击队员;党徒
参考例句:
  • In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中,他们忘掉一切党派之争。
  • The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。
7 notably 1HEx9     
adv.值得注意地,显著地,尤其地,特别地
参考例句:
  • Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席,特别是连班长也没来。
  • A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小,一头银发,每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。
8 frustration 4hTxj     
n.挫折,失败,失效,落空
参考例句:
  • He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
  • He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
9 activists 90fd83cc3f53a40df93866d9c91bcca4     
n.(政治活动的)积极分子,活动家( activist的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
  • Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
10 opposition eIUxU     
n.反对,敌对
参考例句:
  • The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
  • The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。
11 presidency J1HzD     
n.总统(校长,总经理)的职位(任期)
参考例句:
  • Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
  • Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。
12 coordination Ho8zt     
n.协调,协作
参考例句:
  • Gymnastics is a sport that requires a considerable level of coordination.体操是一项需要高协调性的运动。
  • The perfect coordination of the dancers and singers added a rhythmic charm to the performance.舞蹈演员和歌手们配合得很好,使演出更具魅力。
13 culminated 2d1e3f978078666a2282742e3d1ca461     
v.达到极点( culminate的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • a gun battle which culminated in the death of two police officers 一场造成两名警察死亡的枪战
  • The gala culminated in a firework display. 晚会以大放烟火告终。 来自《简明英汉词典》
14 mandates 2acac1276dba74275e1c7c1a20146ad9     
托管(mandate的第三人称单数形式)
参考例句:
  • Individual mandates would require all people to purchase health insurance. 个人托管要求所有人都要购买健康保险。
  • While I agree with those benefits, I'm not a supporter of mandates. 我同意上述好处,我不是授权软件的支持者。
15 mundane F6NzJ     
adj.平凡的;尘世的;宇宙的
参考例句:
  • I hope I can get an interesting job and not something mundane.我希望我可以得到的是一份有趣的工作,而不是一份平凡无奇的。
  • I find it humorous sometimes that even the most mundane occurrences can have an impact on our awareness.我发现生活有时挺诙谐的,即使是最平凡的事情也能影响我们的感知。
16 tangible 4IHzo     
adj.有形的,可触摸的,确凿的,实际的
参考例句:
  • The policy has not yet brought any tangible benefits.这项政策还没有带来任何实质性的好处。
  • There is no tangible proof.没有确凿的证据。
17 bully bully     
n.恃强欺弱者,小流氓;vt.威胁,欺侮
参考例句:
  • A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
  • The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。

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