TOPEKA, Kan. — Conservatives could capture majorities on state school boards in Kansas and Nebraska in this year’s elections, making it easier for them to shape what is taught in classrooms.

At issue are well-known efforts by conservative Republicans and groups to limit what K-12 public schools can teach about racism, diversity, sexuality and gender. But also up for debate are skills-building lessons that conservatives dismiss as social engineering.

A push to teach soft skills – such as persistence, tolerance of others and managing emotions – came after surveys in recent years suggested that companies see them as crucial for future employees. But some parents, state lawmakers and groups see what it’s sometimes called social and emotional learningor SEL, as the promotion of liberal values.

“We want to turn the tide away from social engineering and go back to education,” said Fred Postlewait, a retired information systems manager and Republican candidate for a Kansas City-area seat on the Kansas board.

Conservative parents, right-wing groups, and Republican officials in the US who wanted to ban some books and other materials are increasingly including SEL among the “woke” concepts or programs they want removed from the classroom. SEL joined DEI — for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — and CRT for critical race theory, which focuses on the idea that racism is systemic in American institutions.

Both states are Republican, helping conservative candidates down the ballot in the Nov. 5 election. In Nebraska, state board races are officially nonpartisan, but in Kansas, they are partisan, and party affiliation could prove decisive.

“I’m concerned that people don’t have this on their radar,” said Judith Deedy, executive director of Game On’s pro-public education program for Kansas schools. “If the board flips, there will be a lot of unhappy people.”

The Kansas State Board of Education is perhaps best known for the two-decade-old debate over whether evolution should be taught in school. The state had five sets of science standards for K-12 schools between 1999 and 2007, as the board majority changed hands repeatedly.

Conservatives last won control in 2004 and rewrote standards on how evolution is taught in schools to reflect doubts about well-established scientific theory – and to make room for arguments that the complexity of the universe points to intelligent design. In 2006, the moderate bloc regained control and quickly returned to science-based standards. The latest standards were adopted last year.

“This type of issue could come back,” said Kansas state board President Melanie Haas, a Democrat facing Postlewait for a second term. “I don’t know that the board would have tremendous success getting this through as a policy, but I think it can be really disruptive to education in Kansas.”

Besides Kansas and Nebraska, only Alabama, Colorado, Michigan, Texas and Utah elect all of their board members, but current majorities in those states appear unlikely to lose power. In most states, governors appoint most or all of the state school board members, according to the Education Commission of States.

The Nebraska State Board of Education is split 4-3 against right-wing Republicans with one vacancy. Half of the seats are on the ballot, including the vacant one, and in the other three districts, most board members, all longtime educators, are no longer running. Members serve four-year terms.

If the Tories flip two seats for a 5-3 majority, they can follow GOP led policies such as banning some books and materials from schools and ending social and emotional learning programs.

Board member Kirk Penner, a conservative Republican who has denounced “woke culture,” described social and emotional learning in a social media post last year as the “TROJAN HORSE for all gender and CRT lessons brought to schools”.

“After the election on the 24th we should have the majority to remove him,” he predicted.

Kansas board members also serve four-year terms, and five of the board’s 10 seats are up for election this year. A coalition of moderate Democrats and Republicans holds six, but three of those members are not seeking re-election.

The push to focus more on social and emotional learning in Kansas began in 2015, and state Education Commissioner Randy Watson said SEL addresses what business and community leaders want from public schools. In previous surveyssaid Watson, they told the state board that the students were doing “fairly well” academically but needed to develop soft skills.

One controversy concerns questionnaires for parents enrolling their children in kindergarten or preschool programs. One for parents of 5-year-olds asks 39 questions, including whether their children can go to the bathroom alone, play with other children, have long tantrums and, “Does your child seem happy?”

The goal, board officials said at the monthly meeting in October, is to help teachers meet the individual needs of children and better manage their classrooms.

But Republican state board member Danny Zeck, a retired car dealer from northeast Kansas who is up for state board in 2022, said he worries that schools are telling parents how to treat their children and ” I want all children to react the same way to everything. “

“That’s not what our great country is based on — it’s based on you and me being different,” Zeck, who also served on the local school board, said during a break at the October meeting. “I am concerned about the indoctrination of children. “

In challenging Haas for her seat, Postlewait argues that “social engineering” initiatives require too much classroom time. As evidence, he points to Kansas students’ scores on the state’s annual standardized reading and math tests.

The state Department of Education reported earlier this month that two-thirds of Kansas students taking state tests this spring had the basic knowledge and skills to be ready for life after high school. It reported slight improvements in the percentages of students scoring at the “efficient” or “excellent” levels.

But almost a third of students showed only “limited” knowledge and skills. That seems far too high for Postlewait and other conservatives, especially when the numbers are worse in individual districts and schools.

“It’s important to me that the State Board of Education makes sure we have rigor in the classroom,” said state Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Molly Baumgardner, another Kansas City Republican.

Baumgardner said that while the Legislature is addressing education issues, it can’t move as quickly as the school board can, so he sees lawmakers taking action as a “last resort.”

“The workforce needs we have in our state are: People need to be able to read. They must also have strong math skills,” she added.

Haas, the current board president, said social and emotional learning programs help ensure students are prepared both academically and socially so they can thrive in jobs -university.

With the election in mind, she said, “It may jeopardize how we manage social-emotional learning.”