This new AZ grad is running for school board against far-right extremists in Peoria

“[School boards] should remain a nonpartisan race. When people look at their ballot and they go down to the school board and they see Mikah Dyer, I want them to look me up, and see my top priorities.”

In the spring, Mikah Dyer graduated from Ironwood High School in Peoria. In the fall, he’ll be on his community’s ballot in a run for school board.

“I’ve been in the district since kindergarten,” Dyer said. “I’ve lived in Peoria my entire life.”

Dyer—who also attended Coyote Hills Elementary School and Sunset Heights Elementary School—said he’s been sitting in on Peoria Unified School Board meetings for years. And in his experience, something important has been missing.

“My number one priority is student voice, student empowerment, and student representation within the district,” Dyer said.

What can be done policy-wise to fix that? Dyer’s platform includes implementing “participatory budgeting” and adding youth liaisons to the school board.

Participatory budgeting—a process that allows people in the community to decide how to spend part of a public budget—would bring locals in rather than create the division that’s become common in school board meetings across America.

“[It] can inform them on what a democratic process is on the budget,” Dyer said.

Youth board liaisons, Dyer added, would sit in on meetings as non-voting members of the school board. It’s another way to include people in the process, while also hearing from an important population—students who experience life in the schools every day.

“It’s sad to see that we have board members who are so far removed from what’s actually happening within the classroom that they’re trying to pass and say all of these different things,” Dyer said.

A school board is no place for a culture war

School board races in Arizona are nonpartisan elections, so voters typically have to dig a little deeper to see what candidates actually believe. Dyer said that homework is important to ensuring public schools can perform their function in the community, rather than being used as a political tool for candidates pushing agendas.

“One of the things that I love to say is when we have a divisive board, that leads to divisive schools and divisive classrooms, and we can’t have that because we need our classrooms to be spaces that let our students come in and be comfortable,” he said.

By contrast, Janelle Bowles, another candidate for Peoria School Board (and sister of Arizona Sen. Anthony Kern, a Republican who was at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021), has several far-right extremist posts on what appears to be her personal Instagram account—yet her campaign website gives no hint at these positions.

“[School boards] should remain a nonpartisan race,” Dyer said. “When people look at their ballot and they go down to the school board and they see Mikah Dyer, I want them to look me up, and see my top priorities.”

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Despite the power the school board holds locally, there’s only so much they can do if the Arizona Legislature doesn’t want to give schools the funding they need.

Dyer said he’d be willing to work with Republicans and Democrats alike, as long as it meant they were passing bills that promote and support public education.

The Republican agenda in Arizona has favored so-called “school choice” and vouchers. Vouchers started as a program to make education more accessible to students with disabilities, but have ballooned into a conservative project to divert taxpayer money away from public schools and into funding private and charter schools.

“In Paradise Valley Unified School District they had to close schools, and some of the reasons they cited for that was because of [vouchers],” Dyer said. “I would hate to see that happen in my community and Peoria Unified.”

Dyer reiterated that he’s not interested in jumping into “culture war” issues, and instead wants to ensure that the Peoria Unified School District is properly funded, and that students and staff are kept safe.

“I earned the ‘gun sense candidate’ distinction from Moms Demand Action, which is an amazing organization that works to prevent gun violence,” Dyer said.

Local elections have local results, and Dyer noted that the result of the Peoria Unified School District board race could have a strong impact on people in the community.

“I really think the more local the race you get, the more impact it has on your day-to-day life,” he said.

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