School Board Candidate Guide
1ST EDITION • 2025
RESEARCHING THE OPPOSITION
You need to know who you are running against, what their positions are, and any issues related to them that would matter in an election.
- Are they associated with Moms for Liberty or any other group that has more extreme positions on public education?
- Get copies of their financial report to see who is funding their campaign? For example, are they receiving money from PACs associated with supporting vouchers for private schools?
- Someone should regularly monitor your opponents’ website and social media pages to see what they are saying and how members of the public react.
- Google each candidate and see if any insights related to public education appear. Have they written letters to the editor or posted public comments that could be construed as discriminatory to a diverse student population? If there isn’t a lot of information to be found, but the positions being advocated are more extreme, you can use what has happened at school districts taken over by extremists to share what might happen in your school district.
If the opposition are the incumbents, one can use what has happened in onerous policies, book banning, budgeting, or interference in curriculum development. The intent is to reflect on how public education in your community is being harmed. Has the district lost a superintendent or is the district’s teacher turnover higher than surrounding districts? These are all issues that can be used to reflect on harm to the schools. Ultimately, it is important to present the difference in visions for public education within your community so that voters have a clear understanding of your positive, pro-public education vision.
Checklist:
- Social media
- Brand your opposition before they can brand you
- This can be specific to what has happened in your district regarding “culture wars,” or use surrounding or nearby districts to reflect what happens when boards are not focused on student academic needs