Hello, friends!
It's been a bit, and there's not too much for me to say at this time, but I did want to put what tiny extra light I can on an upcoming Board Of Education and School Budget vote on May 17th, plus provide a short editorial about school board elections in general, nationwide, and not specific to Freeport.
There are, as far as I am aware, two "slates" of candidates that are being voted for. As always, The Weekly Freeporter is a non-partisan endeavor and we will not be publishing any endorsements on the subject. I will link to their respective Facebook pages so you may read more about their perspectives and qualifications.
First up is the tag-team of BoE incumbent Maria Jordan-Awalom, who is running for (what I believe to be) her second term, and first-time candidate Shuron Jackson, himself an educator.
Next up, we've got the team of Ben Jackson (no relation to Shuron, I'm sure), President of the Freeport Chamber of Commerce, and Jacques Butler, Vice-President of Freeport PAL.
Voter turnout in school board elections is typically low. For example, it's hard to pin down exactly how many people voted in the 2019-2020 elections, since votes are permitted for any two candidates they choose, but the winning candidates had 659 and 714 votes, respectively. Freeport is a Village with over 40,000 residents, but it took the collective votes of less than 1/40th of that to win the election. The budget vote is rarely close, but I remember back when I was in elementary school that wasn't the case and the district went on an austerity budget that was impactful enough on my education that I remember it.
I highly encourage you to get out and vote in your School Board election, wherever you live.
Now for a brief editorial you may, or may not, want to read.
A Note On Creeping Fascism In School Board Elections
As I've stressed, school board elections are important. Right now, they are a significant "culture war" battleground. While The Weekly Freeporter is non-partisan, it is very Anti-Fascist. Let me stress up front that to my knowledge, none of the candidates running for election have tripped any of the red flags I'm about to point out, but I have seen some shameful Facebook comments that have helped inspire this commentary.
To that end, please be wary any time commentators (and especially candidates!) start talking about things like, for example, "We shouldn't be teaching students CRT" and "We shouldn't be teaching little kids about sexuality."
Those lines of "inquiry" are substantial red flags that the person in question is aligned with Fascist ideology, and they should immediately be challenged to explain what they are talking about, with evidence. These are dog-whistles (more like megaphones) for racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other bigotries of-that-like
There is no chance that these are things which are being taught in the way Fascists portray.
If you would like more education on these topics, or just if you've got about an hour to kill (Maybe you have some commuting to do, and you could use something to listen to?), I would recommend starting with Some More News' take on the so-called "CRT issue." Yes, it's halfway to being a comedy show, and halfway to being a tragedy as it covers real-life events quite accurately.
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