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Janelle Burke (Everett Public Schools school board District 2, Washington, candidate 2025)
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Janelle Burke ran for election to the Everett Public Schools School Board to represent District 2 in Washington. She was on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025.[source]
Burke completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Janelle Burke provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on October 5, 2025:
- Birth place: St. Louis, Missouri
- High school: Parkway South High School, Manchester, MO
- Gender: Female
- Religion: Spiritual
- Profession: Graphic Designer
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign slogan: “The ballot is my microphone. The truth about our schools is my campaign.”
- Campaign Facebook
Elections
General election
General election for Everett Public Schools school board District 2
Janelle Burke and Jennifer Hirman ran in the general election for Everett Public Schools school board District 2 on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
Janelle Burke (Nonpartisan)  | ||
| Jennifer Hirman (Nonpartisan) | ||
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Burke in this election.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Janelle Burke completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Burke's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Parents are the primary stakeholders in their children’s education—not school boards, not bureaucrats. I will fight to restore transparency, opt-in policies, and active parent partnerships. Parents must not be sidelined by one-sided contracts, unapproved data collection, or school decisions made without consent. Trust is built when schools serve families, not control them. Education should support the family structure, not override it. When parents are empowered, students succeed.
- The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was meant to ensure Black children and students with disabilities had full access to quality education. But since then, research-based experimentation and policy overreach have disproportionately harmed Black, Brown, and disabled youth. My campaign is about restoring the original intent: equal opportunity, not systemic harm. I will fight to stop practices that track, punish, or control ALL students and push for culturally affirming, student-centered education that uplifts all youth.
- Families never consented to surrender their constitutional rights to school districts. Government power in education has expanded to override basic parental authority. From hidden policies to coerced behavioral plans and ideologically driven curriculum, schools are overreaching. I stand firmly against this. The Constitution does not pause at the schoolhouse door. I will protect every family's right to direct their child’s upbringing, beliefs, and learning—without intimidation or interference.
I am committed to protecting our youth from the school-to-prison pipeline, which criminalizes them instead of cultivating their potential. I believe we must return to core academics and trade education—reading, writing, math, and the arts—rather than continuing with ideologically driven, experimental programs that yield little value and often cause harm.
Elected office is not a platform for personal power, party loyalty, or performative leadership. It is a duty—a sacred trust between the people and those they entrust with decisions that impact their children, their communities, and their futures.
I believe any elected official shall have the grit to stand against injustice, even when it’s unpopular, and the tenacity to hold institutions accountable, especially when they fail our children. They must be unafraid to name harm, disrupt harmful systems, and act as a voice for the voiceless—not a gatekeeper for the powerful.
An elected official shall recognize that families—not government—are the first and most important authority in a child's life. They shall not permit the circumvention of parental rights under the guise of policy, programming, or safety. They shall not endorse government overreach disguised as support. Instead, they shall stand in defense of family sovereignty, constitutional protections, and the sacred bond between parent and child.
I believe that officials must speak boldly when systems criminalize children, especially Black, Brown, and disabled students, and they must act boldly to dismantle school-to-prison pipelines and practices rooted in control, not care. They must champion whole-child education—academics, the arts, trades, and emotional wellness—not pathways to dependency, silence, or institutionalization.
At the heart of this role is accountability—not just fiscal, but moral. School board members must ensure that students are being educated, not managed or criminalized. They must ask hard questions, examine the impact of “research-based” programs on vulnerable populations, and push back against systems that overreach into family sovereignty. I view it as my responsibility to represent families who often feel unheard, especially those raising Black, Brown, and disabled children who are frequently on the frontlines of educational harm.
Dialogues with the Devil was on her bookshelf, and after finishing The Lord of the Rings series, it was one of the last books left. It drew me in with its emotion, antagonism, and raw honesty. It made sense to me in a way few books ever have—it reflected the complexity of the world I was trying to understand.
She’s been my favorite fictional character for as long as I can remember. Her quirkiness, her strength, her stamina, and most of all, her refusal to conform—she lived her truth loudly. She didn’t wait for permission to be who she was. She showed that people might be uncomfortable with you at first, but once they get past that discomfort, they see your heart. I relate to her deeply. I’m quirky, unyielding, and bold. Like Pippi, I want people to learn to accept others as they are, not as they expect them to be.
Fannie Lou Hamer said, “If my child has to get this education, then you’re going to have to deal with me.” Malcolm X warned us that “only a fool would let his enemy educate his children.” I stand firmly in that truth. I do not believe in respectability politics when harm is happening in plain sight.
In my view, that means ensuring schools stay focused on their core purpose: educating—not policing, pathologizing, or programming students for control. It means removing harmful barriers—like exclusionary discipline, data-driven experimentation, and overreach into private family decisions—and replacing them with policies that build trust, safety, and academic success.
A board member should stand between the people and any institution that attempts to harm or silence them. That includes pushing back against overreaching state and federal mandates when necessary. The job is not about titles or status. The job i’s about service with courage, integrity, and clarity.
While I center Black, Brown, and disabled students in my work due to the disproportionate harm they've faced, I serve all youth and all families because every child’s future matters. Whether you are a parent, teacher, student, grandparent, or community member—your voice is important to me. I am here to protect the right of every family to be informed, involved, and respected in our public schools.
I believe in building solutions from the middle ground—where different voices intersect and where policy can uplift all groups, not just the loudest or most privileged. Supporting diversity isn’t about performative language or checkbox initiatives—it’s about impact. I will push to remove barriers that disproportionately affect Black, Brown, disabled, and low-income students, while ensuring that no one is left behind.
I plan to hold regular public forums, attend local events, stay active in school buildings, and be a visible, accessible presence. I’m not here to chase endorsements or focus on organizational politics. My primary responsibility is to taxpayers, families, and students—the people whose daily lives are directly impacted by school board decisions.
Advanced teaching strategies are often unnecessary for basic K–12 education. Foundational subjects—reading, writing, math, and the arts—require consistent, culturally aware, effective instruction, not constant reinvention. We don’t need to reinvent teaching—we need to protect it from politicized distractions.
As a school board member, I would advocate for a community-driven reevaluation of what basic education actually includes. That must happen through a collaborative approach with families, educators, local leaders, and policymakers—not just from the top down. Proper funding is not just about asking for more money; it’s about asking what we’re funding, why, and for whom.
I strongly oppose policies that push indoctrination or introduce ideologies that conflict with the values of families and communities. School safety must include freedom from coercion—especially in areas involving identity, behavior modification, or data collection without parental consent. According to Washington RCW 28A.150.211, the state acknowledges a responsibility to provide a safe learning environment. However, safety also means respecting boundaries, honoring parental authority, and maintaining educational neutrality.
Supporting student mental health should begin in partnership with parents, not institutional gatekeepers. Parents must lead in identifying their child’s needs, and schools should support—not replace—the role of the family. Whether it’s through IEP meetings or general support conversations, schools should collaborate with families to identify appropriate steps that reflect cultural, emotional, and developmental needs.
Our schools should reflect equality under the Constitution, not identity hierarchies. Policies must be grounded in educational excellence and moral neutrality, not social engineering. I would push to repeal or revise any policy that imposes ideological mandates, manipulates data to justify discrimination, or creates unsafe environments by forcing staff or students to conform to narratives that don’t reflect their lived realities.
I am proudly supported by families, taxpayers, parents, students, and community members who are tired of systems that harm children and silence parents. My loyalty is to the people...not to parties, gatekeepers, or institutions that have historically failed to protect our most vulnerable.
Students should learn in environments that are structured but not stifling, safe but not over-policed, challenging but also uplifting. Classrooms must return to foundational learning: reading, writing, arithmetic, the arts, and hands-on vocational exploration. But beyond curriculum, we must remove policies that label, track, or harm students—especially those who are Black, Brown, disabled, or economically disadvantaged.
Parents are the first and most important educators in a child’s life. My goal is to create systems where they’re not just informed after decisions are made—they’re involved before policies are written. I will be accessible, responsive, and committed to showing up where parents are—whether in schools, homes, or community events.
I believe in hiring educators and administrators who are focused on teaching—not culture wars. That means upholding professional standards, supporting our staff with the resources they need, and protecting schools from becoming ideological battlegrounds. The classroom should be a place of safety, learning, and development—not conflict or confusion.
We need to get back to functional education—skills-based, purpose-driven instruction that prepares youth to either pursue higher education, a trade, or entrepreneurship without requiring them to relearn what they should have mastered in high school. We must prioritize literacy, financial literacy, vocational exploration, and critical thinking over ideological content or excessive testing.
AI should be a supplemental tool, not a replacement for student effort or teacher engagement. I support AI tutors, research assistants, and tools that help students learn how to think, not tools that do the thinking for them. If youth use AI responsibly—as a support, not a crutch—then I’m all for integrating it into learning environments.
What’s even more disturbing is how race, ethnicity, and economic status continue to shape these experiences.
I’ve embraced the grit, tenacity, and raw strength that define who I am. I stand fiercely and unapologetically in my truth—especially when it comes to protecting children. I am the kind of mother, advocate, and leader who is unshakable and unbreakable, or as I like to say, unf*ckwithable, when it comes to the safety and dignity of my children—and yours.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Other survey responses
Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Burke completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
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Candidate Everett Public Schools school board District 2 |
Footnotes
