Amy Cawvey (R) is running against Jennifer Lloyd (D) for the Kansas School Board in District 1.
The Kansas Department of Education created a map showing the 10 current members of the Kansas School Board, along with the borders of their districts.
District 1 is located in northeast Kansas, and includes Riley County.
You can click on the images in this article to view larger versions of them.
The Kansas School Board helps determine education policy for the state’s K-12 schools.
Jennifer Lloyd is a librarian at Jefferson West School District in Meriden, Kansas.
Meriden is a small town located in Jefferson County.
Before becoming a librarian, Lloyd taught special education and fifth grade.
Amy Cawvey previously served on the Lansing School Board in Lansing, Kansas.
Lansing is located in Leavenworth County.
Cawvey is the Kansas chair of the National School Boards Coalition.
Bad Policies
Amy Cawvey is a conservative Republican who supports bad policies.
On her campaign website, Cawvey says she wants to “Remove SEL from state standards.”
SEL stands for "Social and Emotional Learning", which sure sounds like a good thing to me.
Cawvey says she wants to “Remove DEI from curriculum and professional development.”
DEI stands for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”
Everyone should be familiar with the problems caused by conservative opposition to, and obsession with, DEI.
Critical Race Theory
On her campaign website, Amy Cawvey links to news articles that quote her positions on education policy.
I am going to quote her comments, as reported by The Sentinel, a conservative news organization that covers state and local government in Kansas.
Cawvey told The Sentinel that Critical Race Theory is being taught in public schools.
She said that even though it doesn’t appear as a class or curriculum, “it is sometimes embedded in just about any subject matter, depending on the teacher, and if the desire is there to do so.”
Cawvey discussed a social justice club that took place during school hours, which she said was taught by a teacher, and with materials, paid for by the district.
Books discussed in the club included books by Ibram Kendi and “This Book is Anti-Racist,” which Cawvey described as “pure CRT”.
Cawvey said she brought the book to the attention of the Lansing School Board, prior to her election to the board.
“With our newly elected conservative majority board, those books and the club are no longer at Lansing,” she said.
I believe public schools should be willing to have difficult discussions about race.
There has been considerable racism in America’s past, and in America’s present. I believe students should learn about that important topic.
Obviously, those conversations should be conducted carefully and thoughtfully.
I don’t like conservatives who brag about banning books, with ideas they don’t like, from schools.
Obviously, it depends on the book, but I believe anti-racist books should be available to public school students.
I believe these topics and books should be fair game for a voluntary club at a public school.
Outing Transgender Children to their Parents
In another interview with The Sentinel, Amy Cawvey discussed a “Parents Bill of Rights”, which she wrote, that was passed by the Lansing School Board.
The policy says parents have, “the right to expect teachers and administrators will not withhold, either inadvertently or purposely, important information related to a child, including, but not limited to, information related to health, well-being, and education.”
Cawvey believes teachers should inform parents if their child uses a different pronoun or name.
Doing so would violate the privacy of transgender children.
“We have had issues locally and statewide, as you know, with gender issues with teachers and staff potentially, either willingly or inadvertently, keeping things like a preferred pronoun, or a student change in their name, from parents,” Cawvey said.
“When it came to our attention that was being kept from parents, when they have the right… to have that.”
Not all parents accept the gender identities of their transgender children.
Children are in a much better position to predict how their parents might react if their parents learned their child is transgender, than teachers or school administrators are.
Every LGBT person should have the right to determine whether, when, and how to come out to their parents.
The ability to make those decisions themselves should not be taken away from them by teachers or administrators.
If a parent has a strong negative reaction to learning their child is transgender, the child has to live with the consequences, not teachers or school staff.
If a transgender child does not believe they will be accepted at home, they should have some part of their life, where they can be themselves.
I realize that there are many issues related to transgender people where trans rights advocates are going to be on the losing side of public opinion for a long time.
This is definitely one of them.
But we really need to make the case for the rights, privacy, and dignity of transgender people, because if we don’t, we’ll never turn the tide of public opinion.
And it's important for people to understand that things for transgender people in places like Kansas, Texas, and Florida, are a lot worse than they are for transgender people in more accepting parts of the country.
Conclusion
I strongly endorse Jennifer Lloyd (D) for Kansas School Board in District 1.
You don’t want conservative Republicans setting education policy.
You just don’t.
Here is Jennifer Lloyd's campaign website.
In September, Jennifer Lloyd delivered a speech at the Rally for Democracy in Manhattan, Kansas.
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