A conservative political action committee wants to flip school board seats across the country, part of a recent trend of school board elections becoming more overtly political battles.
In Wisconsin, 20 school board candidates endorsed by the 1776 Project Political Action Committee (PAC) won their races this year and “flipped two seats,” the organization claimed. Wisconsin’s school board elections are nonpartisan, meaning they don’t display party labels on school board candidates.
The Watertown Unified School District and Burlington Area School District were flipped with conservative candidates.
The PAC was launched in 2020 by Ryan Girdusky during the coronavirus pandemic to combat progressive-led efforts in the education system. Its mission is to reform school boards across the country by supporting conservative school board candidates.
Ryan James Girdusky, founder of the 1776 Project PAC. (Photo: 1776 Project PAC.)
What is the 1776 Project PAC?
1776 Project PAC Executive Director Steven Forte told Fox News Digital that Girdusky was alarmed by the books being used in the classroom that he and other parents deemed too inappropriate for children.
“He got this idea of, well, if this is happening here, this is probably happening elsewhere throughout the country, we should start going and getting school board candidates elected that would be able to fight these things,” Forte said.
Forte explained further that the 1776 Project PAC, which was founded in 2021, noticed the learning loss incurred from COVID-induced school lockdowns, declining grades, and eroded standards in the classroom.
“The 1776 Project PAC is really focused on making sure that academic merit, academic achievement, and academic standards are upheld in schools, as well as making sure that there is no indoctrination in schools as well,” Forte said.
“What we do is, sometimes, we’ll donate directly to the candidates and other times we do it in tandem campaigns, meaning we do mailers, we do digital advertisements, text messages—We run the gamut on what we do for our candidates and what works best for them,” Forte said.
The 1776 Project PAC says it has backed 352 school board races and won more than 200 school board seats across the country.
More parents are getting involved in school board races in their communities. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
While school board members are elected directly by voters, most school board races are technically nonpartisan. Some school districts appoint school board members or have a combination of both.
Parental uprising in education
The victories in Wisconsin underscore the phenomenon of parents across the country paying closer attention to school boards by challenging progressive curricula and lashing out at sexually explicit and LGBTQ-related books being used in the classroom.
There has been an uptick in conservative groups backing school board candidates since 2022. The American Principles Project (APP), based in Virginia, first got involved in school board races in Florida in 2022. The group poured money and aired attack ads against Democrats, criticizing critical race theory and gender ideology.
The APP and 1776 Project PAC are among several conservative groups seeking to shape education in the U.S.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, school board meetings have at times become contentious clashes between parents and school board officials, sparking a debate about how much control parents have over their children’s education.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order “ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling.” (Donald Trump 2024 campaign)
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At the federal level, President Donald Trump is weighing into culture war issues. The commander-in-chief issued an executive order this year staying any school districts receiving federal funding must comply with anti-discrimination mandates, as well as a slew of other mandates to combat diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in schools.
“In recent years, however, parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight,” the White House announced.