The frustration with government that drives the Tea Party is most often focused on federal officials—the president, members of Congress, etc. But Education Week reports that the rise in small government ethos is affecting down ticket races, too. Reporter Christina A. Samuels tells the story of the school board election in Wake County, North Carolina, where Tea Party-aligned candidates found plenty of fodder for their attacks on governmentWhile the school board election is nonpartisan, the new members "garnered much of their support from voters displeased with a school assignment policy based on socioeconomic diversity, including some conservative community organizations that viewed the policy as social engineering," Samuels writes.
While the Tea Party has not been a major factor in local education, many members of the Louisville Tea Party spoke out against the JCPS' student assignment plan at a school board meeting last year, and conservative activist David Toborowsky unsuccessfully sought a seat on the school board last year.(h/t Rural Blog)
