[cheering] Paul Stekler: This is a story of how big money and polarizing politics turned a sleepy school board election into a scorched earth battle zone.

It's about how national groups exploit local conflicts to advance their agendas, leaving a divided electorate in their wake.

News Anchor #1: A Conservative-led school board in suburban Denver wants to rewrite history.

Paul Stekler: It all started two years ago when a newly-elected Conservative school board in Jefferson County, Colorado, decided they didn't like the way American history was being taught in Advanced Placement classes.

News Anchor #1: All right, what's up with these punks?

News Anchor #2: Throughout this week, hundreds of students in Jefferson County, Colorado, have walked out of class to protest plans that could wipe civil disobedience from their lesson books.

School board member Julie Williams wants a committee to review the curriculum, saying material should present positive aspects of the United States and its heritage.

[music] Paul Stekler: This wasn't taking place in a deep red district.

Jeffco, as the locals call it, is in many ways a classic American suburb.

But there's something special here.

It's the most hotly contested county in a hotly contested state.

Anything that changes the balance of power here gets noticed.

Sandra Fish: Two years ago, a Conservative majority was elected to the Jefferson County School Board, and they hit the ground running.

They hired a new attorney, they said we're going to go out there and get more charter schools, we're about school choice, we're about pay for performance for teachers, we want a new union contract along that line, and it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

[crowd booing] Paul Stekler: It turned out that the fight over history was just one front in the culture wars that had come to Jeffco.

The new majority was taking aim at the teachers' unions and pushing other Conservative goals, and the minority was fighting back.

Ken Witt: And we will continue to enforce them.

Female Board Member: Mr. Witt, these are students from our Gay-Straight Alliance, and if you truly believe in diversity and you truly believe in our students -- Ken Witt: I truly believe that the rules apply to everyone.

[indistinct exclamations from crowd] Dick Wadhams: I think the unions, they never accepted the fact that they didn't run the school district anymore and especially the school board.

When the AP History issue came up, that gave them the opportunity to characterize this board as a bunch of right-wing kooks who wanted to censor school textbooks, and it became their rallying cry to diminish this board.

And they succeeded.

Woman #1: I'm tired of the deceit and the -- there's no trust, there's no honor, and there's no integrity in our board, and we need to restore these things.

I wouldn't have allowed it in my classroom, and I'm not going to allow it on my board of education.

[music] News Anchor #2: Get rid of them.

That's what some parents and teachers are saying about the school board majority in Jefferson County.

A group has begun an effort to start a petition to recall these three board members.

Paul Stekler: With the recall on the ballot, the stage is set for a clash of political agendas.

Woman #2: Thank you!

Paul Stekler: It's become a must-win fight for the teachers' unions, the Conservative reformers, and parents on both sides.

Woman #3: Students matter!

Students matter!

John Caldara: The old saying in Colorado, as goes Jefferson County, so goes the state.

So basically, you're in the swingiest county of the swingiest state in the Union.

If these type of reforms take hold and stay in a place like Jefferson County, it could happen anywhere in the state.

And if it could happen there, it could happen anywhere in the country.

Paul Stekler: So with a chance to influence national educational policy, the big money isn't far behind.

Woman #4: When I talk to folks, I ask them.

I said, you stop and think about it.

Why would two billionaires and their political organization located in Arlington, Virginia, feel like they need to put half a million dollars into a school board race?

Paul Stekler: That would be Americans for Prosperity, founded by the legendary Koch brothers.

For years, they've taken sides in obscure local races in order to promote their low-tax, small government agenda.

Female Spokesperson: Call the Jefferson School Board and say thank you for passing equal funding for all public schools, including charter schools.

Woman #4: It's not just charters.

They support vouchers.

They shouldn't be allowed to buy our school board, and I think we need to keep them out of our classrooms.

Woman #5: We don't need the Tea Party coming in here and telling us how to run our schools.

Joe Basel: There are much bigger players involved in this election than anyone wants to talk about.

Of course, everyone wants to talk about their opponents' sugar daddies and not admit to their own.

Paul Stekler: Nowadays, it's easy to hide where campaign funds are coming from, but one thing's for sure: when it comes to money, everyone is spinning.

You know, John, having $1 million spent in a school board election sounds crazy, at least from the traditional way of looking at it.

John Caldara: Who's spending $1 million?

Paul Stekler: Well, we've heard that the anti-recall side spent $500,000 on a TV buy.

John Caldara: [laughs] Paul Stekler: That's not the case?

John Caldara: As the guy who did the TV buy, that's not the case.

I wish it were the case.

Shawna Fritzler: I wish I had $1 million for our team so that we would be able to compete with that, but all we have are our volunteers -- moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers.

We sell these and ask for $12 each or three for $20 right now.

These are the stand up for kids shirts -- Paul Stekler: On the other side, recallers are talking up their grassroots fundraising, but this isn't a bake sale.

The national teachers' unions have plenty of skin in the game, too.

Lynea Hansen: Of course the unions have a huge vested interest.

It's the Colorado Education Association that represents the teachers here in Jeffco, and some of the folks behind me are teachers.

But that doesn't mean that that's the impetus behind this or that's who's trying to run this recall.

Dick Wadhams: Somehow the pro-recall folks found $150,000 to get the recall on the ballot.

The notion that the pro-recall folks are not being adequately funded by the unions both here in Colorado and by the National Association, it's not true.

Paul Stekler: In fact, once the smoke cleared, over $1 million had been spent by all sides.

Of course, that's only the money that was reported.

[music] Woman #6: I'm a volunteer for the Jefferson County Republican Party.

Lynea Hansen: We have five reasons listed right here of why we are requesting a recall.

Man #1: We're working to recall the school board majority because they fail to protect gay and transgender students and educators.

Woman #7: We're Jeffco moms, and we approve of the reforms that have been going on with the school board, and so we're asking people to vote no on the recall.

Man #2: My sister was a teacher for Jeffco, and she got out of it because of all the BS.

Woman #8: Get it off me now.

You post it, I sue you.

Nic Garcia: We're seeing death threats, we're seeing bullying, we're seeing hundreds of parents on streets waving signs, we're seeing popup ads on Google, and Facebook posts, and this media is going viral.

Woman #7: At times, I've been bullied on social media.

People that don't know me have called me names and called me a Koch brother minion.

Shawna Fritzler: I've had bricks thrown at the house, I've had threatening emails, I've had threatening phone calls, I've had growling phone calls.

Paul Stekler: This is the way national divisions play out on a local level.

Lynea Hansen: Be ruthless.

We want to make sure these people actually support us.

Paul Stekler: Outside money pours in, everyone retreats to their ideological corners, and there's no one left in the center.

Rick Ridder: Everybody believes that the other side is lying.

And part of the problem we see today is the sense that you don't have to build a coalition to win, that perhaps because all people in the center will not vote, that therefore, I have to just play to my activists, get them engaged, rile them up, get them warmed up and ready to vote, and say, this is the most important thing that's going to happen in the next few months and let me give you the red meat to do it.

[applause] Nic Garcia: I have yet to see anyone fundamentally move one way or the other since November 2013.

In fact, I would say if they have moved, it's in more to the extremes.

Lynea Hansen: Up the even and down the odd -- Joe Basel: Ultimately, we want the best thing for our kids.

Partisanship has ruined the chance to actually have that discussion.

So as it sits today, if that ruins the chance to have an open, honest discussion about what we can do for our children, then you just have to win elections and do it, and that's what we're doing today.

Crowd: We are Jeffco!

We are Jeffco!

We are Jeffco!

We are Jeffco!

We are Jeffco!

Woman #10: Jefferson County recall, the recall is yes at 64%.

Crowd: We are Jeffco!

We are Jeffco!

We are Jeffco!

We are Jeffco!

[cheering] Paul Stekler: So how bad is bad?

Man #4: Bad is about 65/35.

That's how bad bad is.

Paul Stekler: Thank you.

Man #4: But on the bright side, I've got Mexican food.

Ken Witt: I'm proud to say that I think we're going to have a lasting impact on education in Jefferson County.

Paul Stekler: In the end, the Conservative board had overreached and lost in a landslide.

But there's no peace on the horizon.

The combatants and their national financial backers will continue to fight here and everywhere for the foreseeable future.

Nic Garcia: I don't think we're going to see it on election night, but at some point in time, the pendulum's going to have to stop swinging.

And when you can't even get a school board in Jefferson County to find compromise over things, policies, that doesn't bode well for Washington.

[music] Paul Stekler: Jeffco is just the latest example of our political dialogue becoming no dialogue at all.

In a world where compromise is betrayal, elections become exercises in winner-take-all.

Our national divide grows larger, and the promise of effective government slips further and further away.

It just might be a future that we'll all have to get used to.