The Sconi

Ballotpedia recently conducted a study of November 2021 school board members on hot-button topics, like the teaching of critical race theory (CRT), and a Wisconsin district was among those areas surveyed.

The Ballotpedia website is home to 330,000 pages covering all aspects of American Politics at the federal, state and local levels. The study identified candidates according to their position on race in education/critical race theory (CRT); responses to the coronavirus pandemic (mask/vaccine requirements); and sex and gender in schools (curriculum/facilities). This study reached 96 school districts across 16 states, with a total of 302 seats, to analyze the statistics. The districts were chosen because a conflict over CRT, COVID-19 decisions or gender had been identified.

The data shows that, nationwide, 27% of successful candidates opposed CRT being part of the curriculum, while 53% did not oppose it and 13% were not sure. In the remaining 7% of seats in the study, results were still pending. The research notes that districts that elected at least one candidate opposed to CRT were likely to elect multiple members with that stance. 

One of the districts studied was Mequon-Thiensville in suburban Milwaukee. None of the four winners there were opposed to the teaching of CRT.

The research also found that 45% of school board seats were open in 2021, up from 26% in 2018, meaning that the number of incumbents deciding not to run for re-elections increased. Ballotpedia discovered that incumbents lost their races on 33% of occasions, which is nearly double the average loss rate for an incumbent from 2018-2020.

In July, an Association of American Educators survey of more than 1,000 teachers across the country found that K-12 schools are not generally requiring CRT to be taught, NBC News reports. NBC noted that CRT is generally being taught at the collegiate level.