Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 8, 1993 TAG: 9308080055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK O'KEEFE LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium
The movement's success has much to do with grass-roots disenchantment with a liberal public school establishment and little to do with "stealth" tactics hiding conservative candidates' true agendas, said Ralph Reed Jr., the coalition's executive director.
"Parents will gain a greater control of education one precinct at a time, one school district at a time, one city at a time," Reed said.
"They need not be afraid of us unless they're afraid of parents having a voice in their children's education."
People for the American Way, a liberal watchdog group of the religious right, says terms like "parental control" and "back to basics education" are euphemisms designed to hide the right's extremist agenda.
Reed counters that his issues have mainstream support, even if the education establishment rejects them. He says the coalition has nothing to hide.
Instead, the group has printed millions of voter guides in scores of school board elections this year which describe where candidates stand on the coalition's key issues. Those are reinstating school prayer, introducing biblical creationism, teaching abstinence-based sex education, advocating government vouchers for private education and opposing public school distribution of condoms.
Reed said voter guides will be distributed in Virginia when cities and counties that have opted to do so switch to elected school boards next year. He said the Virginia efforts will "not be any more or less than any other state."
Founded in 1990 by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, the Christian Coalition is regarded by many as one of the most effective grass-roots political organizations in the country. By law, it cannot endorse candidates.
But it does encourage political involvement through mass mailings, nationwide training seminars and telephone voter drives. The organization claims 400,000 members and says it has added about 10,000 a week since President Clinton took office.
Low-turnout school board elections are especially fertile ground for the coalition because a relatively small number of activists can sway the outcome.
According to a national report released by People for the American Way two weeks ago, one-third of the 243 school board candidates agreeing with the religious right have won elections this year. Even when conservative Christians did not win, they often drove the key issues.
That's what happened in New York in May, where a "rainbow curriculum" teaching acceptance of homosexuality polarized the city.
A new phenomenon also occurred. The coalition and others called it "reverse McCarthyism," an unfair labeling campaign by liberal groups.
Josh Futterman, a candidate running in District 3 on the city's liberal, upper west side, was a victim. Futterman said his key issue was increasing parental involvement, particularly among minority groups. But no one wanted to listen.
Also hurting Futterman were 20,000 fliers distributed in his district by a group of eight "parents slate" candidates. The flier's headline said, "Stop the extremists."
Futterman and other opponents of the parents slate had their names crossed off the flier. Even though Futterman describes himself as a "staunch Democrat" who opposes the religious right, he wasn't perceived that way. He lost.
According to an analysis by The New York Times, 52 out of 88 candidates who agreed with the coalition's key issues won election to 32 community school boards. But 19 were incumbents and many of them were Roman Catholics who had conservative moral views before the coalition was formed.
According to several political analysts, the lesson for Virginia may be to expect similar polarization here, especially if hot-button issues like sex education emerge.
by CNB