Ohio Value Voters endorse Ault, Taylor and Jones

Yard signs for Ault, Jones and Taylor on a Bay resident's lawn.

Ohio Value Voters has endorsed Bay Village Board of Education candidates Casey Ault, John Taylor and Rick Jones. 

“These candidates for school board in Northeast Ohio oppose critical race theory, comprehensive sexuality education, and social emotional learning,” the non-profit group tells visitors to its website. “Share it with friends, family, and on social media.”

Ohio Value Voters endorsements 

The three key issues presented by the Bay Village Citizens for Transparency are critical race theory, comprehensive sexuality education, and social emotional learning. Ohio Value Voters and its subsidiary, Protect Ohio Children, are shared as informational resources by the BVCT’s website. 

The religious conservative group, founded in 2007, is based in Parma, Ohio. Ohio Value Voters “empower(s) citizens to exercise their First Amendment rights to peacefully speak at meetings and petition their government and representatives for the redress of grievances.”

Ohio Value Voters also urges citizens to run for office. 

Election race training academies for school board candidates

The group was included in an October 9 Associated Press article, Local school boards emerge as hot races in November election.

“One of the active groups in Ohio is Ohio Value Voters, which created its own spinoff — Protect Ohio Children Coalition — in April, state business records show,” the article states. “The group’s leaders did not return phone calls or emails seeking comment, but its website coaches parents to show up in groups of 30 and employ a ‘tsunami strategy’ to raise hot-button social issues and disrupt board meetings.

“The group also keeps an interactive ‘indoctrination map’ that takes aim at districts offering what it describes as critical race theory, comprehensive sexuality education, and social-emotional learning. It also directs parents to the FreedomWorks training academy, stating as one of its goals ‘replacing radical school board officials through the election process.’”

The FreedomWorks training academy is one among hundreds of candidate training academies popping up across the country, “organized by national conservative groups,” according to the article. “And state-level recruitment efforts are encouraging challenges by right-leaning political newcomers. The results could have consequences for public education and coronavirus safety measures across the country.”

Charlie Wilson, a school board member in Worthington, a Columbus suburb, and the immediate past president of the National School Boards Association, tells the Associated Press that the candidates coming out of these makeshift academies are running with identical messages.

“I believe what they’re really wanting is they want to end all mention of race, racism, slavery, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights movement, the Holocaust. I cannot tell you the emails I and other board members have received that say, by mentioning race, we are racist.”