An open letter to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
It is deeply frustrating to open the Journal Sentinel on the day before an important election to an article that distorts the impact of political money in the Milwaukee area school board races.
As a candidate who has been strategically targeted by the Republican Party of Waukesha’s WisRed PAC as well as the New York-based, alt-right run 1776 Project PAC, I can tell you it has been difficult to address the real issues of public education amid the noise created by flavor-of-the-month topics intended to elicit knee-jerk reactions from the electorate. And once again, the provocative headline in today’s Journal Sentinel overshadows the really critical issues.
School board elections are not “technically” nonpartisan. They are by necessity nonpartisan. In a public school system, it is our obligation to throw the doors wide open and welcome every child who enters with the support necessary to travel through their education on the road to healthy adulthood and responsible citizenship. All candidates should recognize that as a nonpartisan reality. To trivialize this important mission does a disservice not only to candidates who maintain their nonpartisan beliefs, but also to every child in our system.
Sure, local political parties may wish to drive up voter turnout by riling up voters with emotionally charged language, but the assumption that these are local issues is inaccurate. So many of these issues come from a national ultraconservative playbook and not from the actual issues in our local schools and community. Check in with the Moms for Liberty, the Leadership Institute, or the 1776 Project PAC to verify that they make no secret of their attempts to, in their own words, “change education one school district at a time,” a mission founded on the false reality that public schools are failing. That is not the case in the Elmbrook School District. So, what is the real agenda?
The Elmbrook School District has been named best district in the state of Wisconsin for the past five years. I would suggest that the true radicals in this race are those who seek radical changes to a district that is leading the way in Wisconsin with fiscal responsibility, student success, and leaders who are recognized as the best.
The JS story states that incumbent candidate Jean Lambert and I, “haven’t reported any financial aid from the Democrats.” Correct! That is because we have been intentional in our decision to stay free of any political money and the commitment to ideologies that such donations suggest as harbingers of future decision-making.
The Journal Sentinel reports that WisRed backed members hold just two school board seats in Elmbrook, but they actually hold three. WisRed is supporting two candidates this election cycle, and the Republican Party of Waukesha County has very explicitly stated that they are out to flip the last board in Waukesha County that they do not currently control.
Finally, the JS article underrepresents the enormous impact of the community-wide invasive partisanship of outside politics via the 1776 Project PAC. A recent mailing in Elmbrook called me and candidate Jean Lambert, “radical democrats” bent on promoting “CRT” and “woke ideology.” This unresearched, untrue, and incendiary language is not meant to strengthen or improve our public schools. It is meant to enrage, and to create distractions that make it increasingly difficult to conduct the real business of public education. Fortunately, many in our community are aware of our records of public and volunteer service, know these claims to be lies, and have spoken out publicly. The Journal Sentinel, however, has not contacted me or Ms. Lambert, nor has there been any factual coverage of the real campaign issues in our community.
It is not just possible, it is necessary to be a nonpartisan leader on the school board. It is time to call out the damage done in the name of partisan meddling in public education, before we drive reasonable, responsible educators, leaders, and public servants out of the vital work of public education and public service.