Waunakee School Board Member, Heather Murray

Heather Murray is a Wisconsin Progress alumna and a member of the Waunakee School Board. In her position, she hopes to make education early, accessible, and equitable for all people, including working-class families, students with disabilities, and others from marginalized groups. 

1: So, just to start, what first inspired you to run for school board?  

Well, my son, who’s nineteen, is autistic and disabled, so I've spent a lot of time advocating for people with disabilities and then moved into the early childhood advocacy when it was needed a couple of years ago. And then, I felt like it was just a natural transition to go use my voice a little further, and the school board was the place to start, I think.

2: How does your experience as a teacher influence your politics, both in the way that you act as a politician and your values? 

I would say that, you know, when I started my own business here, the kids always came first. You know, the kids and the families, I was trying to make sure that they, you know, got good quality care and education. I think I bring that to the school board too, because whenever anything's sitting in front of me, I always think about the students, the kids, and what would benefit them the most. Because I've been in the classroom and around kids for about 32 years. I've been working with kids for a long time, so I always keep them at the forefront.

3: Before running for school board, you organized events that advocated for investment in early childhood education, which is facing potential cuts on both the state and national levels during this budget season. Why do you believe early education is important in terms of what it gives to the child and to the state at large? 

I just believe early education and child care are a public good.

Because in the 19 years, going on 20 years working for this center, the only time that I ever felt like I was really getting ahead was when we started getting money from the government to offset some of those costs that parents couldn't make up. 

That is the definition of a public good, something that benefits communities with the help of government investment. I just think it's important, I mean, it's infrastructure. Parents can't work without it. And brain development for children ages zero to five is the most important time cognitively and behaviorally. So, having good quality care not only benefits the kids, but also the parents are benefiting from it, and communities are benefiting from it.

There are so many levels to early education. And without that investment, there are going to be less and less of us. So, you know, that's why we're working so hard right now, to get somebody to pay attention.

4: You’ve also said, speaking of that, there's a lot of attention that's on the national level right now for obvious reasons. But before your campaign, I noticed you said that local government has to pay attention. Could you explain why you think local campaigns are so important?

I just think with the federal chaos that's happening, where everybody feels so unsteady, that we have to have supportive communities. Closer, smaller, close-knit communities that support children and families, and just positive things in the community at large, because we're so overwhelmed with federal issues. 

And to get anything done, you know, community is where you should look. Last year, when the state money didn't come through, I actually got the village board of Waunakee to have a grant program for like $85,000 to support Waunakee Child Care Center. So again, the local government can do a lot. They shouldn't have to, but they can.

5: You also partnered with Wisconsin Partners in Policy Making to be an advocate for disabled people. Could you explain what that organization is, what you learned there, and how it can educate people on being an ally to someone with a disability?

With Partners in Policymaking, essentially, they start with a history, which was good for me, like a history of disability rights and what has happened and why things have happened a certain way, and all of that. And then they go into having you tell a story, explaining why you want to run as a candidate, and tying in disability advocacy to it.

They’re a great organization for me even now, because I graduated in 2020 when I did that training, but I’ll continually get emails from them telling me what legislation is coming up, you know, like what we need to communicate to legislators and all of that kind of thing. So it's a really wonderful, well-run organization that has made a difference in the lives of people who live with disabilities. Wisconsin has a lot of good laws on the books for people with disabilities that protect them, and it is just a sign that people were there advocating and legislating for these things. 

6: Has your approach to disability advocacy changed in recent years, due to things like the Trump re-election, or comments made by people on the right, such as R.F.K. Jr., that have spread ableist messages?

That kind of thing hasn't really come up yet on the school board. I mean, in the disability rights community, you know, that’s certainly an issue. And these are good conversations to have with people, because there can be a lot of disconnect between what disabled people and their allies want, and the regular way people talk. Even when I use the word 'disability', which took me a long time to get that into my vocabulary. But 'disability', people with disabilities just want to be, I mean, they, I'm trying to think of the right word. You know, when you're talking about eradication or disease or anything like that, that's not how they see themselves, that’s not what they want.

And they are only disabled in our world because it's an able-bodied world that we live in, you know? So that's why it's okay to say the word “disability.” But most people haven’t been informed about it in the ways I have. R.F.K., he's said a bunch of things, and I have to, as a parent, first of all– take a step back. My reaction when it happened was not great; it makes me pretty angry because even in the last twenty years, we've gone from you know, “Autism is not a disease, it's how people are, we should accept them,” we've come a long way, but this has set things back a long way, I think. 

It's just that you have to keep fighting this type of thing, which is exhausting. But any group of people on the margins right now are feeling that, I believe. Whether it be LGBTQ+ people, or BIPOC people, or people like my son, all of these people are feeling exhausted because they're fighting all the time. But for me, if it's what needs to happen right now, that's what needs to happen. I mean, I just sent a testimony. They had a Medicaid bill they were trying to go through that you had to apply for every six months, and they were trying to but it directly attacked people with disabilities, so you have to stand up and say something. It's definitely hard when it seems like it's being pushed back to a different time, like the civil rights era, but like them, you still have to stand up for that.

7: Especially in recent years, it seems like conservatives have used children a lot in their messaging, advocating for a lot their policies, such as book banning, and anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, because they claim these will protect children. As a progressive politician who clearly cares about children, why do you believe what you stand for is actually what children need? 

I believe progressive politics makes children's lives better because I'm thinking about, no matter what kind of child they are– disabled, BIPOC, gay, transgender– their lives are first. I believe children, the next generation, are our greatest asset, and if we educate them and have them in communities where they feel valued, it's gonna benefit everyone. And right now, the [Wisconsin] budget committee is talking about corrections– they're going to spend $780 billion on corrections or something like that.

But they won't put any money into early education. And it's one of six states that do not put any money into early education. I mean, Texas just put $150 million into early education, which is a drop in the bucket with their budget, but they still put money into early education. I’ve been down there monthly to fight for early education; they all know who I am. You know, like, I just can't. And it’s a partly-line thing; it’s mostly Republicans who are against it, and they will be the reason it's not going to go through. But they are going to get the ramifications of that– if they decide not to support early education– because all people, but people in rural areas especially, are going to be a lot harder off. So hopefully somebody changes their mind, and we'll see. 

8: One of the policies, I guess, a policy that conservatives sometimes use children to defend, is revoking DEI, which you support. Why do you support DEI, and has this culture shifted recently, given everything that’s been going on? 

They didn't. I'm in charge of the DEI committee for Waunakee. And we've kept it the way it is. We're not going to change it or name it something different. We're just going to go with how it is. And in Waunakee, there's a three-year plan that we're working through.

And I do think when you're talking about diversity, equity, inclusion, you're not only talking about my son being included, but you're talking about. Just students of color being included and trying to find community, LGBTQ+, any, again, a group that might be categorized as “not typical” or whatever. They need communities. They need teachers who support them. And they need communities where they feel safe. So that's what we're working on. And in Waunakee, they have a couple of programs where they're asking students, like, Who is your trusted adult in the building?”, and if the kid doesn't have a trusted adult in the building, then that's a problem. 

We need to figure out, especially at the high school level, how to make communities where they feel safe, because that’s what they need right now.

9: Wisconsin Progress, the organization that I work for, exists to help people who want to run progressive campaigns– especially people who, because of their income level or identity, may not believe they could do so successfully. What's your best advice for anyone who might be interested in running for any kind of office? 

I would say, if it moves you, go for it. You know, if you've got a reason for running, whatever that reason is. You know, I came with a background with a child with a disability, and I'm an educator who has done some advocacy work at the state level. But anyone, you know, should just do it if you're motivated to do it. Lori [Wisconsin Progress Communications Manager and Southeast Wisconsin Candidate Services] really helped me a lot, just even to talk through things. It was good to have somebody that, um was like a neutral, you know, like I could bounce off things. 

9: That’s great. Last question– this blog is also about trying to find the smaller, low-level changes that people do to make the world a bit more progressive, safer, and welcoming. So, do you have any stories of something that you did before politics, or something someone else did in your life that maybe felt small, but had a significant impact?

Well, for this past year’s graduating class– which I got to hand out diplomas for this year because I was on the school board– there was a girl who was in my 4k class a long time ago. She was graduating, and I ended up getting to be able to hand her her diploma. She was really excited to see me, and she said that she is going to go into early education because of the experience that she had with me, and my teaching partner at the time. That was many years later, that she decided– because of the experience I gave her, you know– that this is what she wanted to do with her life. It was an amazing full-circle moment. And again, nobody wants to teach anymore. And she'll be wonderful at it, and her parents are fully supportive of it, which I really think is amazing. So, yeah, that was a moment for me where I was like, even though I didn't think what I was doing at the time would make a difference, it did. 

And there was another time, where me and my son, Cameron, were at a rally. Learning My Shoes was there– it's a special ed advocacy group– rallying around for money. And he got to speak at a rally for the first time. He really moved people. I mean, there were state senators coming to me crying and hugging me because he talked about having a job, you know, all that kind of stuff, and he moved them. So, whatever you can do that's positive can have an impact on people.

Sophia Forster, Wisconsin Progress Intern, wrote the questions for, conducted, and wrote up this interview blog piece in June 2025.