The School Battleground: Public Claims-Making in Local School Board Meetings

• In Event: School Boards Under Fire: Governance, Demographics, and Politics

Abstract

Since September 2020, 807 anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) measures targeting schools have been introduced (UCLA 2024). Amidst politicization of K-12 school curriculum, which individuals and groups are speaking up? Whose voices are being heard? To better understand the role of public actors in shaping local education governance, I focus on the case of CRT discourse at local school board meetings in California, analyzing 125 public speeches. A qualitative analysis reveals that unaffiliated local actors represent the largest social group making claims over local school governance. I draw upon existing sociological literature on social movements to explore patterns in this demographic’s strategic framing processes.

Author

• MacKenzie Bonner, University of California - Irvine