OMAHA- Heated debates over masks, sex education standards and critical race theory have transformed once-dull school board meetings in Nebraska into skirmishes in a national culture war — and there could be fallout at the ballot box.

Before the pandemic, parents rarely filled local and state board rooms, and when they did, it meant that a band or gifted program was getting cut.

But now an agitated, mobilized and partisan public is showing up in numbers, packing board meetings, shouting, clapping, cheering and sometimes jeering.

School officials are adding security to meetings, reducing the time that people have to speak, cutting speakers off mid-sentence and sometimes even escorting them out for violating rules or decorum.

An attempt is underway to recall board members in the Norris Public Schools over a mask requirement for younger students. Another recall is underway for the board president in the Wahoo Public Schools in an argument over the state’s proposed health standards.

A North Platte woman has already announced that she will run against incumbent State Board of Education member Robin Stevens in 2022.

Elizabeth Tegtmeier says on her website that she would “represent values of western Nebraskans and listen to their concerns” and “protect children from sexually inappropriate and racially divisive material.”

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen, whose eight years on the State Education Board were uneventful compared with today’s raucous meetings, doesn’t think that the rising discontent reflects a change in Nebraskans.

“It’s not the opinions of the citizens that have changed,” he said. “It’s the proposals of the board members that have changed.

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