In 2021 candidates supported by Moms for Liberty and the 1776 Project PAC took over several school boards in Kansas and wreaked havoc until the next election cycles when voters rejected extremists and restored order to their boards. Now we have a full slate of candidates supported by those organizations running for the State Board of Education, including in the Republican primaries in Districts 5 and 9. We support Jean Clifford and Destry Brown in those races. We are re-sharing this post to remind voters what’s at risk.
Posted on November 2023: School board elections are so important! Vote today! In 2021, we saw extremists working to take over school boards in Kansas, sometimes with help from national organizations. We’ve seen multiple districts deal with the repercussions of having their boards taken over. We asked patrons of a few of them to explain what it’s been like. We hope it will remind our team members how important it is for them and their friends to vote. As one patron stated, “Let us be your cautionary tale. Do what you can to keep radicals off of your school boards.”
In one district, an extremist 4-person majority has wreaked havoc for 2 years. They passed a Parents’ Bill of Rights, denied the need for social emotional learning training, led a curriculum challenge resulting in a social justice theme ban and title removal from a senior composition course against the recommendation of a review board. They also passed a classroom displays policy that bans safe space stickers and other personal decorations. They welcomed people from the Koch-funded Kansas Policy Institute to criticize student achievement. They also removed two women who were active in a grassroots organization pushing back against the board from the substitute list. One of those teachers was a former district Teacher of the Year. They removed titles from school libraries dealing with gender identity. They also recently voted against the recommendation of a newly-hired superintendent on the revenue neutral issue thus imposing a functional funding cut on their district. Each of these actions has created division between parents and teachers. Morale is low. One district patron stated, “Let us be your cautionary tale. Do what you can to keep radicals off of your school boards.”
In another district, an extreme majority has micro-managed administrators, held up curriculum adoption and participated in removing books from the curriculum as well as the library. After the administration painstakingly put together a representative steering committee for the strategic planning process, the board voted to remove two community members who had pushed back against the board me and replaced them with more like-minded people. They objected to DEI and mental health concerns raised by the Steering Committee. Many committee members have expressed their dismay at having their work totally ignored.
An esteemed high school principal and his entire administrative staff resigned because they could not take the pressure brought to bear by this board majority. The board has ignored proper procedure and encouraged citizens to bring their grievances directly to them. When it came time to renew the superintendent’s contract, they voted to renew it for only one year. The board only reversed their decision when the community demonstrated their support for the superintendent.
In a third district, an experienced superintendent who had served the district for over 25 years “retired” after only a few months of the new board being in office. Instead of hiring the highly qualified assistant superintendent, the new board hired someone whose only experience was with an extremely small community in Texas. They also had to buy out the assistant superintendent’s contract. There have been multiple instances of questionable decisions, controversy and confrontation. Several teachers have experienced frustration and quit under the new leadership.
This is a club you don’t want to join.
Originally posted on facebook November 7, 2023
Reposted on facebook July 29, 2026