Backlash to Obama’s speech fueled by school board elections?

Though President Barack Obama’s speech to schoolchildren today would have likely generated some controversy no matter when it had been scheduled, the White House seemed to pick a particularly bad day for it, at least for Iowans.

As Obama delivered his live address today, hundreds of school board members and candidates were trying to win elections across the state.

Most students here will not be deprived of the chance to see the nation’s first black president address their concerns directly. In 80 years, they will be able to tell their grandchildren that they remember the moment, even if they end up disagreeing with all of Obama’s political beliefs. But some students will be denied the opportunity, as school districts have accommodated conservative parents by making the speech optional. In some districts, only students whose teachers are willing to risk backlash by showing the speech on a tape delay will see it.

It’s as if parents think that today is the only day that President Obama’s name will be uttered in public school classrooms — that the identity of the leader of the free world remains a secret to schoolchildren on every other day.

That’s ridiculous. Students read age-appropriate newspaper articles that quote the president all the time in the course of their studies. Many schools likely aired the president’s inaugural address in January without objection.

But, because school board elections are held at this time of year in many states across the country, today’s speech sparked a political firestorm.

It’s no secret that the fringe conservative groups who have spearheaded the recent movement to prevent students from seeing Obama’s speech consider school boards an important battleground. In Iowa, many school districts claim members who oppose teaching students about evolution, a fairly basic tenet of biology. Some districts have refused to enact measures to end bullying of students based on sexual orientation, even after the state legislature required them to do so. One district in Iowa has gone as far as to implement a Bible studies curriculum in public schools.

Fights that you might think the Supreme Court settled decades ago are still being waged in many corners of the Hawkeye State, and the number of parents choosing to homeschool their children continues to increase (pdf). Though a strong public education system is perhaps the most important tool for achieving equality and upward mobility in the United States today, professional educators and school board members who want to keep their students on the same page as students in other districts across the country often find themselves battling uphill.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that at least some of the conservative groups lining up to oppose Obama’s speech are hoping that it will translate into votes for their candidates on the ground. School board elections are usually low-turnout affairs, in which the results reflect the preconceptions of the few citizens who take the time to vote rather than a broad consensus of all members of the community. Even in traditionally liberal parts of the country, a riled conservative base can swing a race from one candidate to another.

In Iowa, school districts have bent over backwards to allow parents to shield their children from the president, so the impact may not be so dramatic. But I wonder, if Obama’s speech was scheduled for next month instead of today, whether the opposition would have been as vitriolic.