4 leftists and 2 moderates have expressed interest in a candidacy for the CUSD80 board. There is no strong conservative candidate.
If you don't participate in politics, you will be ruled by your inferiors. - Plato
Live and let live is nice. But what if the other guy doesn't want to let you live? - Unknown
Imagine running a football team without quarter and running backs. You are 100% focused on defense. When you intercept, you don't even attempt an offensive play to advance and take yards. Instead, you hand the ball back to the opposing team, and purely focus on not letting them advance more yards. Could you ever win? Are you not destined to eventually lose all your yards and have the other team score touchdown after touchdown? In short, isn't a purely defensive strategy always going to lose and isn't a good offense really the best defense?
School boards around the country are dumpster fires of unhinged radicals pushing insane and evil political ideologies in the classroom. Sending weak moderate compromisers into school board political battles may slow things down a tad, but won't turn things around. The educational establishment is highly organized, disciplined and well funded. They won't be defeated by a bunch of don't rock the boat moderates who save a few thousand in the budget by pinching pennies, while diversity and equity directors spend millions on indoctrinating children into hating themselves while hailing the new American ethno-socialism that aims to reward and punish people based on race and get rid of our natural rights.
In Chandler a similar weakness was on display recently when the entire Chandler Republican delegation to the Arizona House and Senate voted FOR the constitutional override, flushing nearly $1 Billion out of the wallets of tax payers and into the coffers of public school districts around the state. Gilbert Republicans on the other hand mostly opposed the measure. With the help of weak Republicans, Democrats in the House and Senate passed the measure and so rewarded one of their key constituencies: unionized public school teachers.
Below is a brief breakdown of the candidates who have signaled interest in running for two (of five) CUSD80 board seats available in the November 2022 election. The Chandler Unified School District, CUSD80 covers much of Chandler, Gilbert and part of Queen Creek. It has enrolled around 40,000 K-12 students.
As far as we could ascertain, both incumbents up in 2022, Lara Bruner and Lindsay Love, are not running for re-election, though this could change. Bruner is a teacher and has governed to the left of 3 other members of the CUSD80 board, Olive, Mozdzen and Wirth. Bruner voted abstain when these 3 members voted to end support of the National School Board Association, NSBA. This was just after the NSBA had penned a letter to Biden calling for the persecution of parents opposing critical race theory as domestic terrorists. Lindsay Love had voted against the measure, meaning she wanted to continue supporting the NSBA. Love is the most radical of the current board members and could be classified as being part of the radical and even militant left.
Crystal Markowsky was the subject of a recent article that was based on her address to the CUSD80 board and our own research about her. Markowsky does not yet appear to have a campaign website. Based on the currently available information she can be classified as radical leftist.
Marilou Thalke Estes is a retired CUSD80 teacher. According to her social media profile Estes supports Black Lives Matter and other liberal and leftist causes and organizations. She does not yet appear to have a campaign website. Based on the currently available information Estes can be classified as an Arizona Republican for Biden, which means a Democrat masquerading as a Republican. Estes appears to have close personal connections to the leftist educational establishment, including teachers unions.
Matt Young is a neuroscience PhD. In general there are two types of neuroscientists. The first type looks at neural tissues, performs lab experiments on cells, uses microscopes and other instruments. The second type hands out questionnaires to people and then evaluates answers. Young appears to be the second type. His graduate school research focused on how emotions affect learning. Young is raising two children with his wife. His campaign website can be found here. Young prominently mentions identity politics issues, equity and diversity on his website. Based on the information currently available Young can be classified as liberal to leftist. It's likely that if elected, he would govern by strongly deferring to the opinions of the leftist educational establishment, including teachers unions.
Martha "Patti" Serrano has bought a domain for her campaign and has developed a rudimentary landing page. The donate button on that rudimentary page is connected to an Actblue page. Actblue is a major Democratic fundraising platform. Information on the Actblue page indicates that Serrano has not yet received sufficient signatures to put her on the ballot.
Kurt Rohrs is a regular speaker at CUSD80 board meetings and clearly cares about the district. He has 3 children. His campaign website can be found here. Good ideas are one thing in politics and education. If and how to implement them is an entirely different question. Rohrs appears to be a typical California Republican with some good intentions on the one hand, and the assumption that his "friends" on the left side of the isle have noble intent also on the other. It appears that his decision to alienate potential allies by taking a hostile stance against opponents of the November 2021 budget override was wrong, unwise and rash. Rohrs is now saying that the override was unjustified. Of course the money has now been taken from families and sits in bank accounts administered by the district. Rohrs recently dug through the district's finances and found out that CUSD80 sits on a $300 million cash pile. Rohrs will likely govern as a a don't rock the boat type of member. On the positive side, he will most likely not push for mask or vaccine mandates. On the downside, from past statements Rohrs has made, he seems neither willing nor able to confront the vested interests in the educational establishment, including teachers unions and the toxic equity and diversity establishment pushing critical race theory (CRT) on children. Based on the information available, Rohrs can be classified as a moderate or centrist.
Charlotte Golla used to be a frequent speaker at CUSD80 board meetings but has not spoken for several months, starting more or less at the time she announced her candidacy. Golla is raising 4 children with her husband and has been active in her children's school via volunteer positions in the PTO. Her campaign website can be found here. Golla too supported the budget override, although unlike Rohrs, she did not directly attack override opponents. Like Rohrs, Golla will be better than Lindsay Love and Lara Bruner, who she would be replacing, but will otherwise likely govern as a don't rock the boat type of board member, defending on a few issues while caving on others. It's most likely too much to expect her, or Rohrs, to call for the firing of the equity and inclusion director for example, because clearly that would be confrontational and racist. Based on the currently available information Golla can be classified as a moderate or centrist.
Missing is a Thatcher/First-Term-Reagan type of candidate who clearly understands that public education has been captured by its enemies. Those enemies of public education use the system that they have captured in order to create more voters for their cause, and of course to pay themselves big salaries. They endlessly dumb down the curriculum and replace learning with indoctrination, facts with emotions. They see Western society as being based on superior victims oppressed by inferior oppressors. To remedy this they want to institute a kind of ethno/racial/tribal socialism that rewards and punishes people based on race (critical race theory) and eliminates natural individual rights. Here is one example of this. The missing candidate understands that to change things and return back to normal, those who have caused the system to be so broken need to be removed from it. They don't need to be gently spoken to, they need to be defunded, fired and prosecuted if they have broken laws. The missing candidate knows that this will be a long fight with many setbacks, but that it is important to take and win this fight for the sake of our children and future.