In Battle Ground’s District 1 school board race, only one candidate has an impeccable record of supporting parents’ rights and local control over state mandates: Jennifer Heine-Withee.
In 2018, when the district proposed the sexualized FLASH curriculum, Jennifer was one of the leaders representing the community’s disapproval. Through their efforts, over 200 people showed up to voice their opposition. The community rejected the curriculum for over two years until the state mandated Comprehensive Sexual Education (CSE) in 2020.
Still, Jennifer worked extensively with an author of a more acceptable curriculum used in California, to adopt it to Washington standards. The curriculum review committee was impressed with the curriculum, but ultimately decided the online portion was not quite ready.
Jennifer became the director of Washington Parents’ Rights in Education and traveled the state talking to parent groups. She testified in Olympia and at school board meetings. She worked tirelessly to pass initiatives to protect parents’ rights.
Jennifer also advocated for the removal of sexually explicit books from the school library and the adoption of a new book acquisition policy. This is not the same as banning books, as some have charged. Polling shows that 70% of parents are opposed to having sexually explicit material in their child’s school library.
Jennifer is directly responsible for the fact that small school districts now have as much say as larger districts at the Washington State School Directors Association (WSSDA). She organized a group for school board directors concerned with the direction of the state schools. In 2023, the group organized and changed the bylaws to get rid of the weighted vote. Prior to the vote, King County schools had 138 votes to Clark County’s 38. Now, all districts have one vote when considering policy adoptions.
There are a number of districts in the state who are pushing back against the stifling mandates (which are also in direct opposition to federal law). It takes courage and conviction to stand up to the threats of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).
Jennifer has both.
Jennifer, her husband, and their three children were all Battle Ground Public Schools (BGPS) students, so she is invested in the district.
The connections she’s made with lawmakers, other school board directors, and non-profit organizations have given her the knowledge and experience to pursue her goals of improving test scores, promoting volunteerism, and ensuring the district operates with greater transparency and better communication.
If you want someone who will challenge the status quo of failing scores and diminishing parents’ rights, someone who will listen to the community and champion a return of power to the local districts who then have to be accountable to parents, not bureaucrats, vote for Jennifer Heine-Withee.
Julia Dawn Seaver
Vancouver
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