The most important election this year is your school board. Every single voter needs to vote in this local election. Here is why electing a responsive school board is critically important to you and your community:
1. Taxpayers need a return on their investment. We spend a lot of money to educate the children of our neighbors because we want a thriving community. Employers need educated and skilled workers to hire. Our community needs the next generation of responsible citizens who are educated and can work and contribute to society.
2. Schools should provide real education with metrics to assess. The elimination of grades and testing is detrimental to academic achievement. Both parents and teachers need to assess the effectiveness of the teaching. Students should be assigned homework. For evidence of the dumbing down of scholastics, look at the new changes to the SAT: shorter test, shorter questions, and shorter answers. The result is less learning.
3. Are schools teaching information or feelings? Real-life examples from Missouri: teacher asked elementary students "how do you feel when you see the U.S. flag?" and an English teacher assigned high schoolers to write a paper only in emojis. "Feelings" is not an education.
4. The National Education Association, which is a union of teachers, should never endorse candidates in school board races; it is a conflict of interest. The school board is the governing body that oversees the schools and the school board should not be beholden to the interests of the NEA. The school board represents the parents and taxpayers who fund the school. Never vote for any candidate who has the endorsement of the NEA.
5. Are schools teaching only the bare minimum or are schools setting goals and expectations to produce excellence? Abilities vary, so is your school only teaching to the lowest common denominator? Schools should expect, demand, recognize, and honor student achievement. Many schools have eliminated honor rolls.
6. Schools should never undermine parents. The Democrat in Virginia's governor race lost because he said, "I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach." When schools teach values that contradict the parents, then schools are undermining the family. When schools conceal health information about the child from the parents, then the school is in direct conflict with the child's parents.
7. Face-coverings limit comprehension. The data is in: students are falling behind and have lost two years of education. Real education occurs in-person and in-your-face. Tear off that mask!
Mark the date of your school election on your calendar, learn about the candidates, and vote!
