Arizona’s schools are under siege — and you may not even know it

OPINION — There is a well-organized, well-funded, and deeply coordinated effort underway to take over school boards across America.

It didn’t start in Arizona. It won’t end here. And if you’re not paying attention to your local school board election, you are handing these people exactly what they want.

I spent decades in public education — as a teacher and as an administrator in Arizona. I have sat in board meetings, worked alongside superintendents, supported families in crisis, and watched what happens when governing boards function as they should: in service of children. What is happening in several Arizona districts right now is the opposite of that. It is a cautionary tale for every community in this state.

The playbook is national. The damage is local.

Nationally, groups like Moms for Liberty, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled an extremist organization, have explicitly trained candidates on how to infiltrate school boards, targeting low-turnout, low-visibility elections precisely because most voters ignore them. Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon has said plainly: “The path to save the nation is very simple, it’s going to go through the school boards.” These are not concerned parents. These are political operatives using the language of parental rights as a Trojan horse.

At Moms for Liberty strategy sessions, participants are trained on how to get media attention, vet candidates, dissect school policies, and prepare to run for office. The goal is explicit: elect their people, pass their legislation, and dismantle the public education system that serves the rest of us.
Arizona is not immune. In fact, we may be ground zero.

In Peoria Unified School District, voters elected a right-wing majority to the governing board in November 2024. Since then, the board has been consumed by internal warfare, political posturing, and governance failures that are directly harming the district’s ability to focus on what matters: students.

Board member Heather Rooks, elected as board president with the backing of newly elected members Janelle Bowles and Jeff Tobey, ran on a platform that prioritized parental rights, opposition to COVID mandates, and opposition to curriculum she deemed inappropriate. What that has looked like in practice is a board presidency defined by lawsuits, public conflict, a harassment lawsuit from a transgender teacher who alleged that Rooks made negative public comments about her and attempted to terminate her employment contract, and the introduction of religious ideology into public board meetings. Rooks filed a federal lawsuit after being instructed to stop quoting scripture during public board meetings. She sued the district she was elected to govern — with taxpayer dollars at stake.

Arizona’s public schools have survived budget crises, a pandemic, and teacher shortages. What they may not survive is a sustained takeover by people who view them not as institutions of learning, but as battlegrounds for political power.

Vote in school board elections. Recruit qualified candidates. Show up to board meetings. Read the meeting agendas. Know who governs your children’s schools — because someone already does, and right now in too many Arizona communities, that someone has a political agenda that has nothing to do with your child’s future.

This writer is using a pen name. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org.

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