The right-wing school board candidates flying under the radar in Carmel

When driving through Carmel, delivering DoorDash orders  (my adjunct-writing-instructor-side-hustle), I’ve noticed in recent weeks campaign signs in many yards in support of Carmel Clay School Board candidates Jenny Brake, Greg Brown, and Adam Sharp. The predominant sign has white lettering, a red backdrop, and lists the names of all three candidates. Seeing signs for school board candidates in an election year isn’t unusual, of course. But, this time around, the numbers of this one sign seemed to dwarf the numbers of those for other candidates.

Usually, I don’t think much about school board candidates during election season. But the signs got my attention. It could be a sign—ha ha—that the school board races are unusually competitive this year. Consider that Hamilton County leans overwhelmingly Republican and that the Republicans are heavily favored to win the county up and down the ballot. School board elections, however, are non-partisan. The candidates are not affiliated by party. So if you’re like me, and don’t want the school board candidate who wants to ban books in the school library, you can’t rely on party affiliation to guide you. You have to do research before you cast your ballot.

Doing this research, I found almost immediately that this trio of school board candidates is endorsed not only by Attorney General Todd Rokita and by the Hamilton County Republicans—over two active GOP-affiliated members—but also by Moms 4Liberty. Per Wikipedia, this so-called “Moms” group is a national 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for parental rights in schools. But that definition, I knew, doesn’t begin to cover it.

Having attended the inaugural meeting of the Hamilton County affiliate of Moms for Liberty this past February, I knew that these “Moms” had much in mind than supporting parents. The featured speaker during that gathering was Tony Kinnett, the former science coordinator for Indianapolis Public Schools and executive director of Chalkboard Review. During his 40 minutes at the podium, he inveighed against diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in public schools. He took particular aim at Critical Race Theory (CRT) which posits the existence of systemic racism in the United States. Scholars use this theory as a critical lens to show how racism is embedded in American political and economic systems.

But the term “Critical Race Theory” has no fixed meaning any more. It has been co-opted by right wing demagogues to become a bogeyman catch-all phrase that could encompass any discussion of race in schools whatsoever. The term was repeated ad infinitum in social media, in podcasts, and in other right wing platforms during the summer and fall of 2020. During the backlash against Black Lives Matter, politicians got in the act. Including Donald Trump, of course.  In April, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida signed a bill (HB7) that drastically limited discussion of race-related subject matter in the classroom and could cause a teacher to be charged with discrimination for leading a discussion of slavery in the classroom.  He wasn’t the only governor to go down this path. So far, similar efforts in the Indiana General Assembly have failed.

I found it particularly interesting that, when Kinnett was talking about CRT,  he took issue with how most African Americans choose to speak about, and to, their own history. It was a fascinating display of pseudo-intellectualism. The most chilling moment of the entire evening for me, however, was when Moms 4 Liberty of Hamilton County board chair Paige Miller, a former Carmel public school teacher, called for an “exodus” from Hamilton County public schools.

But I wasn’t about to spend 40 years in the Sinai, as it were, for Paige Miller. I had seen my daughter Naomi make her way through Carmel Public Schools, where she had a positive experience overall and was taught by many dedicated and passionate teachers. For the record, my daughter saw no evidence whatsoever of alleged student indoctrination that was supposedly taking place in Carmel High School. (This was an allegation by another group, Unify Carmel, which Miller co-founded.) So, naturally, I took issue with her call to eviscerate public education in Carmel and presumably everywhere else in America. I even wrote a blog post on the Moms 4Liberty inaugural meeting not just from the perspective of a concerned citizen, but as a concerned father.

Miller is not alone, because Moms 4Liberty is just about everywhere in the United States.  In July 2022, at their first national conference, the group claimed nearly 100,000 members, with 195 chapters in 37 states.  In other words, it’s about as grassroots an organization as McDonalds. A report in Media Matters for America cited instances where Moms 4Liberty received significant funding from right wing donors—and not just from the T-shirt sales to concerned moms in the hinterland. In addition to opposing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, the group has also battled vaccine and mask mandates.  

I’ve surely delivered DoorDash orders to some concerned mothers who have joined this organization. Perhaps they whetted their appetites on Fox News.

But I was trying to not get whipped up into a frenzy, as far as national politics is concerned, as of late. I didn’t want to feel compelled to blog about national politics again when I receive no compensation for it whatsoever for it. I’ve been trying to keep my head down. I’ve got a lot of things on my plate; a daughter in college and a mortgage, in addition to various literary endeavors that I hope some day will pay off.  (Not just by writing beautiful and pungent poetry but by making actual money with it. Call me delusional. Call me crass.)

On the evening of Oct. 28, I saw something that made me change my mind. I was returning an overdue library book at Carmel Clay Public Library when I looked up and saw a plane. It was a propeller plane flying loops around and around downtown Carmel with the banner “Brake, Brown, & Sharp for School Board.”

I wondered how many voters in Carmel knew about these candidates and their far-right support. According to the Indy Star, money from national political action committees has been pouring into Central Indiana school board races. This includes the New Tomorrow PAC, which is tied to the group Miller co-founded, Unify Carmel.

Well, now you know.    

The circling plane also made me think of the oft-quoted line "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity," by W.B. Yeats. The quote comes from his poem “The Second Coming.”  The Irish poet wrote these lines in the wake of World War I, which was a dispiriting time in Europe, to say the least. I suspect Yeats wouldn’t feel any better now, if he were still alive. Because of Global Warming. The War in Ukraine. Trump. But I don’t want to give up hope.

The least I could do, I figured, is write this blog.