Members of a nonpartisan state agency made up of local school board officials from across Washington are warning that conservative groups opposed to teaching about race and gender in schools are wielding increased influence within the organization’s ranks.
An unknown number of Washington State School Directors’ Association members outlined their concerns in an anonymous letter released last month. In a response, Tim Garchow, executive director of the association, emphasized that the anonymous letter writers do not represent official communication from the association.
“Many people mistakenly think those messages are ‘from WSSDA,’” Garchow wrote in April. “Put simply, they are not.”
The letter contends that school board members and directors connected with Moms for Liberty and other conservative groups in Washington are “actively working to undo recent progress around diversity, equity, and inclusion in public schools; enact anti-LGBTQIA+ measures; and have a stated agenda to try to move public money to charter schools and school choice vouchers.”
