This article was originally posted 9/26/2021 on SUBV Facebook page
“WE WANT TO TAKE OVER THE ENTIRE SCHOOL BOARD.” - New York Political Action Committee founder Ryan Girdusky, regarding efforts by his “1776 Project PAC” in Blue Valley, Johnson County, and key School Board races across Kansas and America.
SUBV recently warned our members about a new out of state special-interest group issuing endorsements in the Blue Valley School Board race. While the “1776 Project PAC” sounds so nice and patriotic on its surface, we’ve already called out the dog-whistle, false narrative it promotes. (https://www.facebook.com/StandUpBl.../posts/2796301543995111) Despite what this New York-based PAC wants you to believe, Critical Race Theory (CRT) is NOT being taught in Blue Valley Schools, not in Kansas, not in K-12 schools anywhere in America. CRT is a high-level academic concept regarding race and society that’s taught in law school! The Kansas State Board of Education even published a letter back in July confirming that CRT is not, and never has been, part of the state’s educational standards.
The 1776 Project PAC endorsed candidates Kaety Bowers, Christine White, and Jim McMullen for BV School Board, in a tweet from late August. See our endorsements and read about our candidate evaluation process on our website www.standupbluevalley.org.
Our members will want to read this recent in-depth article from the Sunflower State Journal, a subscription-only publication linked here with permission of publisher Brad Cooper: (SSJ is worth a subscription to stay well informed on political happenings across the state.) https://sunflowerstatejournal.com/federal-pac-targets-local-school-board-races/
“In what may be a first for Kansas, a federal political action committee is targeting local school board races in an effort to elect candidates who oppose critical race theory...The 1776 Project PAC is supporting school board candidates who oppose teaching critical race theory or anything about the 1619 Project, a New York Times initiative detailing the history of slavery and the role it played in shaping the country.”
Cooper reports that the guy heading up the “1776 Project PAC” previously chaired a PAC that spent $2 million trying to get Kris Kobach elected to the US Senate. This New York based political operative has joined forces with others who have basically made up a definition of Critical Race Theory, falsely claimed it’s invading our K-12 schools, and are using this to try and stir up votes for their chosen candidates. The PAC has taken thousands of dollars in contributions from California, Florida, Texas, Alabama, and Virginia - out-of-Kansas people trying to influence our Blue Valley School Board election!
The guy behind “1776” had these things to say about Kansas School Board races: - “Kansas was a good place to focus his efforts” - “Kansas provides an interesting opportunity of having really the school board being the major issue on the ballot” - “an opportunity to see how critical race theory plays with voters” - “WE WANT TO TAKE OVER THE ENTIRE SCHOOL BOARD”
We read FEC filings from the PAC. So far they’ve filed one report and gotten two “notices” from the FEC. (“Notice” = they’ve missed the mark on filing correct info with the FEC, that is.) They’ve filed nothing since the end of June so we don’t know if they’ve spent money on Blue Valley candidates other than putting together endorsement graphics for Twitter. (Unlike SUBV, we doubt employees of “1776” volunteer their time.)
As if fighting back against Virginia-based “Americans For Prosperity” since 2015 wasn’t bad enough, now we have another group of outsiders working to spread lies and create division in our community. NO East-Coast PAC should have ANY say in our kids’ education and we know our members will agree. So it’s our job to Get Out The Vote and send a clear message to outside special interests eyeing our School Board races: “You are not welcome here and the Blue Valley School Board is NOT for sale.”
More coverage on this developing story from the Topeka Capital-Journal: https://www.cjonline.com/.../1776-project-pac.../5829424001/
