“My entire junior year of high school was defined by protests, student walkouts and weekend picket lines downtown,” Hailey Battrik, UO sophomore, said recalling her experience at Newberg High School.
In 2021, the Newberg School Board passed a policy banning pride flags and Black Lives Matter banners on school premises, sparking massive demonstrations among concerned students and community members. This was later ruled unconstitutional.
“The voters were the adults in our community, many of whom didn’t have children in the school system,” Battrik explained. “I think it’s important for myself as a student who went through Newberg’s adversity to be involved in those elections.”
The concept of “culture wars” can most visibly be spotted through heated debates in school board settings over “Diversity, equity and inclusion” policies, book banning initiatives, the concept of “parental rights” and advocating for homeschooling or private schooling vouchers.
The National Education Association conducted a survey in 2022 regarding how culture wars have shifted the general debate of school board elections and their use as a popular tactic to divide the community. The polling showed that communities overall still have a strong support for the core functions of public education and attacks on fringe theories such as critical race theory and identity politics did not compel massive voter turnout — rather, it served as a diversionary tactic within the community to discourage shared interests around education funding and student safety.
Michael Vasquez, a UO class of 2020 graduate, is running for position one for the Woodburn School Board. He ran for position two on the same board in 2021 and recalled a new wave of interest for school board elections, with new organizations and candidates advocating for conservative beliefs.
“It’s part of the reason why I’m running to ensure that local elections, at the end of the day, have real consequences, and we have a voice that’s representative of the people that have attended the schools and understand it, and not represent(ing) outside interests,” Vasquez elaborates.
He had mentioned how the platforms traditionally associated with culture wars have been used as a deliberate strategy to divide communities, instead of focusing on shared problems such as underfunded classrooms, teacher shortages, allocating resources and being able to meet an influx of different interests.
Vasquez explained how the politics of culture, such as book bannings, “divide the community and deflect the real issues” such as underfunded classrooms and teacher shortages.
He continues saying how the culture wars waged in the Newberg School District in 2021 took a toll on the district and the impact those conversations had on the students isn’t something he wants to see in Woodburn.
David Jaimes, the current vice chair of the Tigard-Tualatin School District, is also running for re-election to continue fighting for the Latino community in the district and to continue to focus on equitable outcomes for all students.
One of the main ways Jaimes has noticed identity politics take a toll on TTSD is through the conversation of providing vouchers for home-schooling and private schooling students in the conversation of “school choice.” This tactic would make sure that the money allocated for each student in public education would follow them into other school settings.
“This has played a role in elections, as well as the budgeting committee meetings,” Jaimes explained. “Right now we are facing a decrease in revenue (from the state) because our attendance has decreased, which is a product of students moving out of state or going to private school … which would lead to an overall decrease in public school funding and the services we are able to provide for our students.”
These culture wars have had tangible negative impacts on students within the communities and real consequences on how boards function themselves.
