When ideologues seize local school boards, they don’t just inflame meetings. They run up bills. A first-of-its-kind study from UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access tallied the national price tag of these culture-war fights—legal fees, investigations, security, PR, and staff time—and found U.S. districts spent about $3.2 billion in 2023–24 responding to politically manufactured conflict. That’s money not spent on teachers, tutoring, arts, buses, or repairs.

When Murrieta Valley School District Board President Nick Pardue cited the so-called “45 Communist Goals” as “history” during Tuesday night's MVUSD school board meeting, he wasn’t just making a casual error — he was peddling a decades-old piece of political fiction as fact. 

This isn’t a matter of differing interpretations; it’s a matter of documented truth versus ideological invention.

And why did he tell this fable to Murrietans? To justify voting against $800,000 in funding for mental health programs for the school district.

The current majority of the Murrieta Valley USD board has made it crystal clear: bring on the lawsuits. As the board majority works to push through new policies and board resolutions, they also publicly shared that they welcome the resulting costly legal challenges.

Murrieta School Board President Nick Pardue continued avoiding responsibility at the May 8 board meeting, deferring key tasks to staff while trying to take credit for pursuing his culture war promises.

If it wasn’t for the advice of legal counsel, Jonathan Pearl, at the April 17 meeting of the Murrieta Valley Unified School Board, trustee Eleanor Briggs might have moved full steam ahead with a Brown Act Violation. 

MURRIETA— After a debate that spanned two school board meetings, MVUSD president Nick Pardue succeeded in removing more than half of the district's social workers at the end of this school year.