They say the devil is in the details. And buried in Orange Unified School District Board of Education agendas, it seems.
The OUSD Board of Education has quietly amended its bylaws to open the door to taxpayer funding for school board candidates’ campaigns.
Currently, funding for school board campaigns is voluntary. Like candidates for any other office, school board candidates ask individuals and entities for campaign contributions, and those individuals and entities can say “yes” or “no.” This is intrinsic to free political speech.
What the OUSD Board has done is lay the legal groundwork for using district monies to fund school board candidates. District revenues come from taxation, and taxation is coercive, not voluntary.
Here is the language of the new bylaw:
“However, the District may establish a dedicated fund for those seeking election to the Board, provided that the funds are available to all candidate who ae qualified pursuant to Education Code 35107 without regard to incumbency or political preference.”
A “qualified” candidate is anyone who is at least 18 years old, a citizen of California who lives in OUSD of age or older, registered to vote and not legally disqualified from holding office. That’s a low bar.
Any nut or extremist who meets that minimal threshold could run for school board using the tax dollars of district taxpayers – even if the politics of those candidates contravene the beliefs of those taxpayers. A conservative Republican taxpayer could be forced to support the campaign of a Party of Socialism and Liberation radical, or a politically progressive taxpayer the candidacy of a Moms for Liberty activist.
This is a radical departure from the traditional American way of electing representatives.
Yet there was no discussion of it during the August 15 and September 12 Board meetings where it was on the agenda. No rationale was offered. No explanation given for why this provision was added. Not a single Board member had a single thought to share or opinion to voice on the matter of compelling taxpayers to fund political candidates they oppose and for whom they will not vote.
On the other hand, that isn’t surprising considering the matter was buried in the middle of one of fourteen separate documents pertaining to various Board bylaws and policies.
The OUSD Board of Education will continue revisiting various Board bylaws and policies for possible changes and additions. They owe the public a full and transparent discussion on why – in a democratic republic – they think it would be a good idea to tax a citizen in order to fund candidates with whom that citizen disagrees and for whom that citizens chooses not to vote.
