How To Oust a Right-Wing School Board
Jefferson County election workers count and stamp recall petitions collected by parents and educators to remove anti-public education school board members. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)
Let’s rewind two years to Election Day 2013, in Jefferson County, Colorado, when it became quite clear that educators, parents, and students had lost — and lost big in a school board race that ushered in a three-person majority with an extreme anti-public education agenda.
“When those results came in, I would say we were completely deflated. There is no other word for it. We had hit rock bottom,” said John Ford, Jefferson County Education Association (JCEA) president.
Fast forward to Election Day 2015: “At 7 p.m., there was a collective gasp in the [hotel] ballroom that we could hear from the lobby. As the results came in, people just started screaming with joy,” said Jefferson County teacher Paula Reed, also a JCEA board of directors’ member.
The three right-wing board members—despite their deep-pocketed backing by Koch Brothers’ affiliated political organizations—had lost overwhelmingly in the community-led recall election.
The turnaround begs the question: What happened here between November 2013 and 2015? The answer is nothing short of an organizing marvel.
Over just 17 days this summer, the parents, students, teachers and education support professionals (ESPs) of Jefferson County gathered more than 110,000 signatures on petitions to hold a recall election. Then, in six weeks this fall, they knocked on more than 175,000 doors across 778 square miles, from the mountainous towns of the county’s south to the sprawling suburbs of the north, in an all-out effort to get voters to the polls.
“My members talked to their neighbors, and to their families, because this is where they live. They talked to the people at their bowling league, at their church, at their kids’ sporting events. At my grocery store, they just called me ‘Ms. Recall,’” said Nancy McCanless, president of the county’s Classified School Employees Association (CSEA).
“And we told everybody, ‘this is about what is best for our 81,000 kids and 12,000 employees, and the health and economy of the community where we live,” said McCanless.
“It’s about students, and it’s about public education.”
Before it Got Better, It Got Worse
If we start the story in 2013, when the “reformers” took office, we will miss the How To Oust a Right-Wing School Board - NEA Today:
