Yes, Carroll's Board of Ed election is partisan, the reason why is obvious

Not sure why this is such an issue

Conservative BMW slate vs. progressive teachers union slate

Yes, Carroll County’s Board of Education election, which in broad strokes pits the conservative BMW slate against the progressive teachers union slate, is obviously partisan for one simple reason.

And that reason is that — political affiliation is a near perfect predictor of a candidate’s position on the issues that voters care most about.

In fact I would be willing to bet, that when the candidates are out door knocking or courting the electorate at events, the two questions they get asked most often are:

1. Are you a Republican or a Democrat?

2. Did you vote for Trump or Biden in the last election?

For the average voter who is only marginally informed, this makes total sense. Get the answers to these two quick questions and you’ll have the data needed to make an at least somewhat informed decision.

Yup — show me an education issue and I’ll show you a clean partisan split.

The conservative BMW slate would never again permit the masking of children, while the progressive teachers union slate would quickly defer to the mask hawkish and wrongheaded state and federal authorities for guidance.

The conservative BMW slate wants political flags out of classrooms because they are a distraction and have become a means for division, while the teachers union slate would maintain that flying, say, a pride flag, has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with acceptance.

The conservative BMW slate wants the default local health curriculum to be free of the strange gender identity content the State of Maryland is forcing on everyone, while the teachers union slate would invite its inclusion.

The conservative BMW slate would accurately point to the unscientific and extended school closures as being the reason for learning loss, while the teachers union slate would blame it on the pandemic at large.

And in terms of overarching principles, BMW would advocate for a return to the basics, like numbers and letters and merit based scoring and individual responsibility, while the teachers union slate would administer the schools through an equity lens with the support of the super progressive State of Maryland.

I could go on. But the point is that, there are very few issues where the candidate’s basic positions are not predetermined by their political affiliation.

This is not to say that they are cookie cutter, not at all. It is just to observe that, this is a political election, and our politics are predicated on a two party system.

And just because the candidates in this race won’t have an “R” or a “D” next to their name on the ballot, doesn’t mean they are exempt from this obvious reality.