{"id":545,"date":"2026-06-05T13:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=545"},"modified":"2026-06-05T13:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:12:07","slug":"school-board-culture-wars-caused-the-most-upheaval-in-purple-districts-a-new-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=545","title":{"rendered":"School board culture wars caused the most upheaval in purple districts, a new study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div><audio><\/audio><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>From debates over mask mandates to fights oversexual content in library books, the Central Bucks School District became a poster child for school boards embroiled in culture-war fights in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=543\">\ud83d\udc15 A day out of the shelter | Morning Newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>But it was far from the only district facing conflict. A new national study analyzed how common school-board battles were during the pandemic and the years since \u2014 and found they were widespread, particularly in politically divided districts like Central Bucks.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The study, released Friday by the Brookings Institution, also found school boards in 2023 and 2024 were still experiencing higher levels of conflict than they were pre-pandemic.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s been a long tail coming out of the school pandemic conflicts,\u201d said Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings. \u201cWe\u2019re going to look back at this period of time as being a historically significant one.\u201d<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Here are takeaways from the report, and what the fights around school boards could mean for the nation\u2019s education system:<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Nearly half of U.S. students attended schools with \u2018a lot\u2019 of pandemic-era conflict<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Brookings analyzed school board conflicts in two ways: media reports, and surveys of school board members.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Looking at media coverage of a random sampling of more than 2,300 school districts from urban, suburban, and rural communities, Brookings found that between 2018 and 2024, 10% of districts \u2014 enrolling 30% of students nationally \u2014 had at least one report of a conflict related to masking policies, critical race theory, book bans, or issues involving transgender students.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Based on a survey of school board members from those same districts, however, 47% of students nationally attended districts where board members reported \u201ca lot\u201d of conflict with their communities during 2020-2022, compared to just 8% in the years leading up to the pandemic.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>More than 60% of students attended districts where board members reported incidents during the pandemic years \u2014 including protests, threats, harassment, or violent outbursts.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>That share was higher for politically mixed \u201cpurple\u201d districts, which the study found experienced the most unrest: 73% of students in those communities attended districts where board members reported incidents.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>School board members in districts representing 43% of students said they had increased security at meetings between 2020-2022; in purple districts, board members representing 62% of students said they had increased security.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The tensions didn\u2019t immediately subside in the wake of the pandemic. In 2023-2024, 18% of students attended districts where school board members reported a lot of conflict \u2014 10 percentage points higher than before the pandemic.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>School boards are \u201creally accessible institutions\u201d \u2014providing a forum for public debates around topics like race, gender, and sexuality, Valant said.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=542\">\ud83c\udf3a Build a tropical garden | Outdoorsy Newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>The \u2018loudest voices\u2019 didn\u2019t translate to more voter turnout<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The conflicts, however, didn\u2019t necessarily translate to increases in voter turnout or the number or candidates running for office.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>In Florida, an epicenter of school culture-war battles under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Brookings found voter turnout in board elections remained steady during and after the pandemic, even as DeSantis endorsed board candidates and the state passed the \u201cStop WOKE Act\u201d restricting the discussion of race and gender in schools.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>And the share of contested school board races in Florida increased \u201conly slightly, if at all,\u201d Brookings found, despite the presence of parental rights groups like Moms for Liberty, which started in Florida.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Though angry parents confronting school boards were featured in news coverage during the pandemic, some polling has found parents were largely satisfied with their schools\u2019 handling of the crisis, Valant said.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe can overstate how the public is responding to something when we only hear the loudest voices,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>School board members are nervous about partisan politics<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>That doesn\u2019t mean recent cultural conflicts haven\u2019t had a lasting impact on school boards, however \u2014 or the students they serve.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Board members representing 25% of students reported removing books due to objectionable content, according to Brookings. Those representing 12% of students said they had changed curricula due to objectionable content.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Board members were more likely to report controversy around issues affecting transgender students, like bathroom use and sports participation, than actual policy changes.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Beyond policy, school board members representing 28% of students said culture-war conflicts had impaired their ability to govern, requiring added time and resources, Brookings found.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Most board members surveyed strongly opposed having party affiliations on the ballot, Brookings found. Pennsylvania is one of four states with laws providing for partisan school board elections, according to Ballotpedia.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>They also described concern around the impact of divisive national politics on schools, Valant said.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe heard very clearly from local school board members, they are nervous how much more it\u2019s entering in their work,\u201d Valant said. \u201cAnything we can do to shield school boards and schools from the worst of American politics is a healthy thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=540\">The LGBTQ Spirit of 1776 could show the way for this year\u2019s celebrations of freedom<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Central Bucks School District has become a poster child for culture-war fights in recent years as it debated mask mandates, sexual content in library books, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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