Adam Manka is a man on a mission – overcoming family hardship to rise and serve others. At 18, he became one of the youngest elected officials in Wisconsin when he won a seat on the La Crosse school board as a senior in high school.

“I ran not fully expecting to win at all,” Manka, now 20, told The Lion in an interview.

Concerns about school safety prompted him to run.

“There were a lot of drugs in the schools,” he said. “It wasn’t uncommon to hear people selling drugs inside the bathrooms. Students would even go across the street to local businesses to avoid using them.”

Manka and some friends conducted their own investigation, which found high school drug use was closer to 40% – not 20% as the district had claimed. He brought his findings to the board but “didn’t get a response,” which contributed to his decision to run.

Following his election – which saw him leave school early some days to collect the signatures necessary to appear on the ballot – he successfully advanced funding to place vape detectors in half of the high school bathrooms. This year, the district funded detectors for the rest, which he called a “huge” win.

“This is the one thing I ran on,” Manka said. “Not only did the school district admit that they were underreporting the drug usage inside the schools, now they have the policy to at least address it in the bathrooms.”

Faith forged through family trauma

Manka’s drive stems in part from an unstable home life and trauma that forged his character and ultimately led him to the Christian faith.

His family situation included substance abuse, stopping his father’s suicide attempt on Thanksgiving and an ongoing custody battle that has hindered him from seeing his younger sister.

“I had a very unstable family growing up, so I moved constantly all the time,” he said. “It was Thanksgiving 2023, and I just felt a strong call like I had to go home. I left and came five minutes before my father was about to take his life.

“I actually became a Christian during this time because of everything that went on. My dad’s now a Christian, too – we were not Christians at the time.”

It’s experiences like those that have made Manka unafraid to take a stand on issues such as education.

He stood firm after the husband of the local teachers’ union president blasted him at a meeting for leaving a pro-school choice comment on a social media post and called for him to be censured or resign.

“Adam, I had you as a student in my class and I remember you as a very intelligent young man, but the response you made to this post … shows a glaring lapse of intelligence and a lapse of common sense,” said Greg Schams, a social studies teacher at La Crosse Central High School. “Your behavior has betrayed the public trust … I strongly urge you to resign.”

Manka explained the situation to The Lion.

“Back in March, a commentator made a Facebook post showing that, despite receiving less funding than our public schools, one of the private schools here had better testing scores than the average testing score at La Crosse Central,” Manka said. “I commented on this, responding, ‘Yes, you’re absolutely right, and this is why I support the voucher program.’

“I cited what I said before: The more parents are involved, the better the education is. I also noted that I’m tired of hearing public educators speak as if they own children, because schools don’t own children. It’s very unpopular to say that to the teachers’ union, but it’s very true.

“We provide a service for the children, but we don’t own them. The parents are our stakeholders. You’ve got to love the passion teachers have for teaching, but they don’t actually own the child.”

Deb Suchla, who was board president at the time, confirmed with an attorney that Manka was within his First Amendment rights to make the comments and refused to sanction him. But she said the level of opposition proved “what a strong board member he is.”

“He made one comment on a social media post,” said Suchla, who has since left the board. “It tells you how strong Adam’s voice is and how uncomfortable people are with him.”

‘He actually went to do something about it’

Suchla often helped Manka, especially when he was new to the board, still in school and enduring his parents’ custody battle, which caused him to move in with friends for a time.

“He would call me before meetings,” Suchla said. “Sometimes, I would clarify how our policies work. Other times it was giving him support and advice. Especially his last year in high school, he needed somebody who could just be there and encourage him.”

Manka also found strength and stability through his pastor, Robert Meyer, who praised Manka’s willingness to act.

“He’s someone that, when he sees something that isn’t right, he doesn’t just talk about it. He actually will do something to change it,” said Meyer, pastor of West Salem Baptist Church. He called Manka an example for other young people to follow.

“A lot of people as high school students, they’ll complain about something in their school district or something, but he actually went to do something about it,” Meyer said. “And he’s very passionate about what he does.

“If he gets an idea, he’s willing to step forward and try it, rather than just sit and worry about possibly failing. If he has an idea or a dream, he’ll act on that dream rather than just talk about the dream.”

One example came after Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September 2025 – Manka organized a prayer vigil at City Hall. He asked Meyer first, who approved of the idea because it was during Sunday morning service hours.

“We’ve been his sounding board on a lot of things,” the pastor said. “He’ll say, ‘Hey, I’m proposing this at school board tomorrow. Would you guys pray for me?’ There’ll be a lot of times he’s called me for that.”

The friendship is personal, even providing something of a second home.

“As his pastor, but also as a friend, we’ve always had our house open to him to just pop in anytime and be able to share what he was doing,” Meyer said.

Looking ahead

Manka currently lives on his own and works as a grassroots organizer for a free-market advocacy organization. He is still deciding whether to seek another term on the school board – elections are in April 2027 – but he is already preparing for a lifetime of public impact.

He recently earned his associate degree in business administration from Western Technical College with full honors.

“Taking these classes has been a difficult challenge while working full time and serving the community, but it has been very useful to use the skills in the field and has been a worthwhile investment,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “Excited to see what else is next above the horizon.”

Manka isn’t waiting to give back.

Last year, he established the Manka Scholarship of Opportunity, awarded to a graduating student living below the poverty line to help with living expenses while pursuing further education. He funded the $250 scholarship after his college grants were “more than enough” to meet his own needs, though he hopes to raise more money and expand it in the future.

His advice to other young people is simple: You do not have to join a school board, but take your education and your life mission seriously. Walk humbly and be willing to learn.

“Education does not end as soon as you finish your degree,” he said. “I was one of the very few school board members who actually went to the teachers themselves on a normal school day and asked them how things were going or asked about particular issues. Just simply having that mind to listen and say, ‘I might be on a board, I might be an elected official, but I don’t know everything.’

“No one knows everything, no matter what seat you’re on. It really helps, and with my own testimony, accepting Christ as my Savior, I’d say that humbled me to the point where I could serve in the best capacity that I am doing now.”

Manka said the hardest thing about his journey has been isolation from his peers.

“It’s being in a spot where you’re supposed to be a lot more mature than a 20-year-old,” he said. “I was in a position where I had to build myself up, and it had to be now. Being in a spot where I couldn’t just go out and do what I want – I have a commitment.

“I actually wear an oath ring on my pinky finger to remind myself. It’s a commitment I take every day, and sometimes I need to remind myself of that.”

Others have noted Manka’s maturity.

“I’ve described him as a middle-aged man in a young man’s body,” Suchla said. “He’s carried the weight of the world so long, he does kind of conduct himself as a more mature person. At 19 years old, he read War and Peace for the fun of it.”

Both she and Meyer said they expect big things from him.

“I feel like God’s just given him a huge launch forward into life, into accomplishing things that he’s wanting to accomplish,” Meyer said. “He went through a lot of stuff in life, and that drives him to want to make things better with family law so that other young people aren’t stuck in the same situations of being bounced around.

“I hope that he’ll be able to accomplish those things that he set out to do – to see real change and real benefit for families and for schools and the needs that are out there.”

“He’s going to go somewhere in this world,” Suchla said. “Politics are in his blood. He’s going to do well in life, and he’s not going to give up on his conservative voice, and he does not back down from a fight.

“I’ve said, ‘I’m just honored to know you during part of your journey.’”