Latest contest in school culture wars: Minnesota school board election endorsements

For a handful of school board candidates across the state, the final weeks of campaigning have included an effort to lose support — or at least distance themselves ― from an organization known for backing conservative candidates and wading into local culture wars.

At least four candidates have stated publicly that they had not connected with or sought support from the Minnesota Parents Alliance before seeing their name appear on the group’s online voter guide. Some candidates said they were not aware of such an endorsement until voters reached out to them with questions about it.

“Without my knowledge or consent, I was added to the Minnesota Parents Alliance recommended candidate list,” Todd Haugen, a candidate for the Bemidji school board, wrote on his campaign’s Facebook page. “I did not seek this endorsement, and I have now requested more than once to be taken off of the list.”

The Minnesota Parents Alliance bills its voter guide as a nonpartisan resource, though the group lists several conservative groups, including the think tank Center of the American Experiment, on its list of resources for candidates.

The organization’s executive director, Cristine Trooien, said the voter guide recommendations are based on an independent evaluation of candidates’ campaigns, public engagement, and input received from parents and community members. Trooien launched the group in 2022 as a response to equity efforts in schools. Its initial goal included recruiting and supporting school board candidates who would champion “parents’ rights” in education.

The group, and several others like it — on both sides of the political spectrum — cropped up during the pandemic, when tensions flared in school board rooms across the country as parents fought over mask mandates, curriculum and policies involving gender and race. Increasingly, school board races are drawing more money than ever — largely a result of outside groups lobbying amid those ongoing culture wars.

In general, endorsements aren’t new to school board races. Political parties, teachers unions and other educational organizations have long declared their support for candidates that align with their missions.

Minnesota Parents Alliance, Trooien said, does not coordinate its voter guide recommendations with candidates or require them to pledge their allegiance to the organization. She sees that as the antidote to what she called a “quid pro quo endorsement process” by teachers unions and interest groups, which offer support in “exchange for prioritizing that organization’s agenda at the board table,” she said.

The School Board Integrity Project launched last year in response to the work of groups like the Minnesota Parents Alliance, but bills itself as nonpartisan, said Kyrstin Schuette, the founder and executive director.

The organization doesn’t offer endorsements, but candidates can take its pledge and choose to be included on the group’s website for doing so.

“It’s entirely opt-in,” said Schuette. She said she heard from about a half-dozen candidates this year asking her group for advice about how to remove their names from the Minnesota Parents Alliance site.

“Voters need to make sure they are diving deep and asking questions of their candidates to make sure they do align with their values,” Schuette said.

Shayla Owodunni, a candidate for an at-large seat on the Minneapolis school board, said her first direct communication with the Minnesota Parents Alliance came when the group emailed her congratulating her for being a recommended candidate. She only read that email after digging through her inbox to find out why she was getting so many phone calls from constituents asking her about the endorsement.

Owodunni then researched the group and emailed Trooien requesting to be removed from its voter guide.

Trooien responded in an email, writing: “I completely understand some candidates’ aversion to being featured in our Voter Guide, especially if they are rejecting questionnaires and endorsement processes and interviews from other entities. However, we cannot and do not coordinate our recommendation with candidates and/or alter our recommendations to suit the individual preferences and campaign strategy.”

Trooien went on to say that if Owodunni’s top priorities did not include student achievement and safety and improved accountability and transparency in the district, “let us know and we can communicate that to voters asap. We do not want to mislead anyone.”

Owodunni said she felt like she was being asked to abandon her platform. “I don’t think a school board race should be this political,” she said.

Haugen, the Bemidji candidate, agreed. It’s why he hasn’t sought support from any interest group, asked to be removed from the Minnesota Parents Alliance list and declined to be added to the School Board Integrity Project’s site.

He wants to be clear: That doesn’t mean he disagrees with the general goals of either of those groups.

“I just want to be my own advocate,” he said. “If I’m elected to the board, I want to know that I’m not answerable to anybody except for voters and the kids.”