ALBANY — The parents’ rights movement, a push back last year on diversity and inclusion in public schools, failed to get 35 candidates elected in Capital Region school board races.
And after that resounding defeat, it appears there were no efforts to breathe life back into the ideology for this year’s school elections set for Tuesday, May 16. Most Capital Region school board races are not even contested this year.
The Times Union did not find any candidates running on local ballots embracing the 2022 national phenomenon to “take back our schools.” Many of those candidates wanted to end efforts to encourage diversity, remove books that referenced LGBTQ characters, or allow parents to view teachers’ lesson plans in advance to root out references to what was described as Critical Race Theory.
A national group called Moms for Liberty tried to build chapters in the Capital Region this year. But that also failed to materialize.
Co-founder Tina Descovic, who came to Albany six weeks ago, said then that she expected Moms for Liberty chapters to endorse twice as many school board candidates nationwide this year. They got as far as creating a Facebook page last year for a Schenectady County chapter, but then it went quiet, with no posts in the last two months despite it being the busiest time of year for school board races.
Descovic said she had interest from Saratoga County residents for a chapter there, but that didn’t come together.
However, Moms for Liberty and the parents’ rights movement is growing in other parts of the country, with Florida and other states passing laws targeting discussion of gender and excluding certain books in school libraries.
Despite a lack of organized campaigns locally this year, parents are still raising concerns about mentioning transgender people or non-straight sexuality in school. At…
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