There’s a neighborhood house that often sports “Don’t Tread on Me” signs and other MAGA-type symbols. The owners put up yard signs for a specific school board candidate. That motivated me to do research.
Here in Missouri (St. Louis County), the state branch of the NEA puts out recommendations for school board candidates. Here’s the page for the recent April 4 election.
My school district, Parkway, also hosts candidate forums, and broadcasts them on Youtube.
One of the candidates made big news when a video rant came to light in which he repeatedly called an Asian acquaintance a Panda. And generally acted like an ass.
I watched the forum and the NEA candidates won me over. The big issues discussed were the high numbers of suspensions involving certain (Black) students, trans restrooms and other trans issues, and controversial library books.
The woman from the right-wing yard signs was smooth, well-spoken and had a fine resume. Her League of Women Voters statement mentioned that there were over 1600 characteristics defining the difference between women and men. I had some hope that meant that if just a few of those traits were missing or unusual then clear demarcation was impossible. But no. At the forum, she railed against the CDC’s encouragement of trans youth.
And FWIW, the NEA-endorsed candidates won — possibly because many of the polling places were schools, which made it very easy for teachers to vote.