In this week's school board elections, union-backed candidates battled against conservatives in districts across the state. Editor Lance Benzel with The Colorado Sun joined us to talk about the results and what they mean.
“Generally speaking, candidates for school board who were backed by the teachers union made a really strong showing all across the state," Benzel told KUNC. “Analysis that The Colorado Sun did found that roughly two-thirds of the 80 candidates endorsed by the Colorado Education Association won their contests.”
There are exceptions to that trend, most notably in Denver, where voters rejected all three union-backed candidates. They opted for candidates who had significant financial backing from organizations linked to charter schools and education reform.
Benzel told KUNC this election debated big partisan issues that the state hasn't seen as much in previous votes.
“Debates over how race and gender are taught in schools, about what books are in the library, how schools should handle kids’ pronouns” Benzel said. “These are issues that we saw sort of begin to crop up in earnest during the pandemic, and they really dominated this year.”
An example of this politicization is Woodland Park’s adoption of the American Birthright Standard for curriculum, leading educators and other school staff to write a letter to the community decrying what they called a “culture of fear and silence” in the school district.
“But despite that, two of the three conservative candidates won, and conservatives retained majority control of the board in Woodland Park, albeit with really slender margins,” Benzel said.
School districts where conservatives prevailed include District 11 and Academy School District 20 in Colorado Springs, as well as in Woodland Park. Union-supported candidates held their ground in the Aurora, Adams 12, and Cherry Creek districts.
