Focus on equity. We endorse Arnold Farr for the Fayette County Board of Education.

At this moment, our school board members fill one of our democracy’s most important elected offices. Our schools are where we shape generations, teach them to uphold our society and be good citizens of a tumultuous world ablaze with fire and virus.

Our schools are also where that virus has exposed our society’s greatest deficiencies between the haves and have-nots, whether they are students without access to the Internet or schools without access to enough resources or teachers to help their students. The need to fix these crucial imbalances is why we are endorsing Arnold Farr for the 5th District seat on the Fayette County Board of Education.

Farr understands the full spectrum of education. He first got interested in running for the school board as a philosophy professor at the University of Kentucky, where he observed that high school preparation or lack thereof was key to student success. He also understands pervasive racial discrimination that has resulted in a district already far too segregated by race and income.

Both of his opponents, Amanda “Amy” Green and Amy Beasley, are knowledgeable and passionate public school advocates, and we hope they will continue to serve their multiple roles in schools. Like Farr, they are concerned with the district’s reaction to the pandemic, the turmoil over returning to school and the lack of communication and transparency from the district.

But in a district in which half the students meet the federal standard of low-income, the school board needs a social justice warrior to battle on those students’ behalf, and on behalf of their teachers. He has protested alongside teachers in Frankfort and will work to form more community partnerships to support them amid strained budgets. He’d also like to see more money devoted directly to classrooms even if it means less budgetary largesse for Fayette County’s numerous building projects.

In his editorial board interview, Farr described himself as not particularly religious, but he frequently returns to the Gospel of Matthew, when he refers to feeding the hungry and taking care of the sick, “the least of these,” as they are described.

“That’s my motto,” Farr said. “It’s the way I live my life and it allows me to see things that others aren’t seeing.”

We agree that strength is an important one for the people who oversee our public schools and it’s why we endorse Arnold Farr for the 5th District seat.