In Orange County, opposition to COVID safety protocols converged with advocacy for charter schools. The Orange County Board of Education drew public attention during the pandemic when it sued Gov. Gavin Newsom for mandating masks on campuses.
“They were saying, ‘I don’t want my kids vaccinated and I don’t want my kids masked,’” said former board president Mari Barke. “I think this is going to be the year of the parent.”
Barke was mentioned in a Salon article in March that pointed out that her husband, Jeff Barke, a physician who denied the severity of COVID-19, had founded a charter school that uses curriculum provided by a Christian college. Barke said she recused herself when the county board voted to approve the charter school. But her opponents remain critical.
In June, Barke was up for reelection, a race that was characterized as a referendum on her leadership. Barke defeated Martha Fluor, a former board member at Newport-Mesa Unified. Fluor ran with the teachers union endorsement and lost with 32% of the vote to Barke’s 59%. Barke said she wanted to run to protect the rights of “mama bears and papa bears.”
“I think just naturally, if you are uncomfortable with the mandates at your local district, then you might want more options, whether that’s to attend a virtual school or a charter school in the area,” Barke said. “When people feel their parental rights are being diminished to a degree, I think they want more options.”
Fluor, a former Republican who left the party after the Jan. 6 insurrection, said she ran to defeat what she called an extremist coalition subjecting schools to its political agenda. Fluor said the county board would often pray before meetings and opposed masks and vaccines. She said she and other like-minded candidates would have won if the election had been held in November, when more people are likely to vote.
“This race was really about political, ultraconservative ideology versus what’s in the best interest of kids,” Fluor said. “The low voter turnout was our downfall.”
Political scientists have long suspected that the parents who show up at board meetings don’t necessarily represent the majority of their communities.
“It’s probably the case that the most vocal people on both sides are really the vocal minority, and they’re not speaking for most parents,” said Kogan, the political science professor. “That’s especially going to be true in urban districts serving the most disadvantaged students.”
One of the most vocal organizations has been Let Them Breathe, which started as a group of parents opposing mask mandates at school districts in Southern California. Sharon McKeeman, founder of the group, is now running for the Carlsbad Unified school board in northern San Diego County. In 2021, Let Them Breathe sued San Diego Unified, the second-largest district in the state, over its vaccine mandate.
McKeeman said she’s seeking office after witnessing teachers unions using students as a “bargaining chip” and delaying the reopening of schools after they were shut down in the early days of the pandemic. She said she’ll refuse to reinstate any mask mandates, even if teachers unions push for them.
“We will provide them with the resources so they can focus on teaching,” she said. “I’m just not going to bow to union interests.”