People are fed up. And parents, in particular, are frustrated with school boards across the state. Now, they are starting to speak up. But it’s not just with their voices at local school board meetings. Last week, they spoke up at the ballot box.
Across Maricopa County, multiple bond and override elections were held affecting various school districts. And in a year that didn’t include a midterm or presidential election, you would expect a low-turnout election like this one to benefit the funding proponents.
But the results were very telling.
Most of the bonds and overrides affecting school districts in suburban areas failed. And in many cases, they weren’t even close.
Override continuations were voted down in the Buckeye, Agua Fria, Liberty, and Litchfield school districts while bonds went unapproved in the Higley, Cave Creek, and Queen Creek school districts. A budget increase for the school district in Fountain Hills also failed.
The only suburban areas that were exceptions were Kyrene and Chandler. This must have the left in a tizzy.
For years, teachers’ unions and corporate media, like AZ Central, have pushed the narrative that voters share their belief that schools are underfunded. But this is not true. The Arizona Supreme Court even blew the “underfunded” narrative to pieces in a ruling against Prop 208 back in August. Now, voters appear to be on to their game.
After all, it’s hard to get voters to buy in to more funding when a former superintendent is indicted on 18 counts related to procurement fraud, misuse of public monies, fraudulent schemes and practices, and more. That all happened in Higley—and it went largely ignored by the media. Interestingly enough, Higley had one of the largest gaps in this election, voting down the bond 55% to 45%.
But make no mistake. This election wasn’t just about funding. Parents have gotten sick and tired of school closures, masks on kids, and the way school districts turned their backs on them and their children during the pandemic.
They’re frustrated with school districts that are hiding curriculum while remaining committed to Critical Race Theory and all the rest of the woke culture that has taken over many public schools. And they’re outraged about being labeled “domestic terrorists” just because they pushback on concerns they have with their children’s schools.
While the bond and override elections often get ignored, they should serve as a wake-up call for Red for Ed and the teachers’ unions. But given the echo chamber they operate in—along with the endless cheerleading they get from the media—don’t expect them to make any changes to their radical strategy.
In fact, if the response here is anything like the response to the election in Virginia, they’ll probably just double down on labeling anyone who doesn’t vote the way they want them to as a racist. But that hasn’t proven to be a winning strategy. And if the left doesn’t want to wake up to that reality, maybe more voters will.
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