Democracy is on trial once again in Orange County. This time it’s about whether the boundaries of the five seats on the Orange County Board of Education are drawn in a fair, equitable and democratic manner – or are rigged against democracy by an obscure and biased entity with the unwieldy title of the Orange County Committee on School District Organization.
And this time it isn’t just a typical fight over a city council or sanitation district. It’s about our kids.
It’s about whether Critical Race Theory and other racist doctrines are shoved down schoolchildrens’ throats. It’s about whether charter schools, which especially help minority students exit underperforming schools, can continue to expand and give parents more choices. It’s whether parents control the schools – or unelected, antidemocratic teachers unions do.
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The obscure OCCSDO – even its acronym is ugly – is trying every trick in the book to seize power from the people. The problem is OCCSDO’s members are appointed by local school boards, whose members commonly are selected through strong pressure and campaign contributions by the powerful teachers unions. The unions use the parents’ tax money against them in funding anti-parent, anti-democracy local boards.
The latest trick involves a Feb. 14 deadline for candidates for the June 7 primary election to file their election papers. Three of five trustee seats are up for contention. Trustee Area 2 currently is held by Mari Barke; Trustee Area 4 (short term) by Tim Shaw; and Trustee Area 5 by Lisa Sparks. All three are running for re-election.
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The controversy involves the redrawing of district maps as required every 10 years after the U.S. Census. As in the past, the Board of Education, which is responsible for education in Orange County, has redrawn the maps to take into account the county’s diversity and to meticulously follow federal Voting Rights Act and the California Voting Rights Act.
The OCCSDO in the past has given pro forma approval. According to its own website, the OCCDSO “studies and makes recommendations in the areas of (a) the organization and reorganization of school districts; (b) changes in school district boundaries; and (c) the number of trustees and the manner by which they are elected.”
Note the phrase “makes recommendations.”
In 2022, the Board of Education performed its duties so well, each of the five new districts was within one vote of all the others. And two districts were crafted to give majority voter registration to the county’s largest ethnic groups, one each for Latinos and Asians. Totally fair. Couldn’t do better.
But this time, OCCSDO’s members decided to sabotage the normal process and substitute its own, biased map. Even though the trustee post is a nonpartisan office, the new maps were based on party registration. That way, the maps could be gerrymandered toward union-backed candidates.
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The Board of Education objected, and sued. It won an early round when it made sure a biased judge was not assigned to the case. On Friday, Feb. 10, the new judge unfortunately was bounced by the OCCSDO because each side can reject one judge.
OCCSDO’s plan obviously is to just run out the clock until Monday. That’s because Orange County Registrar of voters Neal Kelley has said that’s his deadline. And if no judicial decision is forthcoming, he’ll just go with OCCSDO’s anti-democratic map – which, remember, according to the OCCDSO’s own website, is only a “recommendation.”
The best thing would be for Kelley to postpone the filing deadline a couple of days until the court matter can be sorted out. In addition, the Orange County Board of Supervisors, Kelley’s boss, voted 3-2 in favor of keeping the good maps by the Board of Education.
Even if the biased OCCDSO maps were imposed, that would not be the end of it. Because a further court review is scheduled for May, which would affect elections in future years, although probably not the one in June.
Monday is coming up and we’ll soon see whether parents and democracy win – or the battle continues against the unions’ anti-democratic power.
OC Independent Contributing Editor John Seiler has written on Orange County education for 35 years.
