The mama and papa bears who have children in public schools are rapidly waking up. The warped history of America being taught, the push toward creating transgender students, and the sexual assaults that have occurred due to ridiculous bathroom policies have awakened parents. The lockdowns of last year opened parents’ eyes to what their children were being taught. Now parents are standing up for their children’s right to a good education.
The New York Sun posted an article today about the backlash against the garbage being taught to our children in public schools.
The article reports:
Parents who never imagined running for office battled to win seats on local school boards last week. They won some but lost many. Their fiercest opponents were the teachers unions. Where outside national groups, such as the 1776 Project PAC, stepped in with funding to help offset union power, the odds shifted and challengers did well.
The press portrayed these school board races as culture wars, but that’s only part of the truth. They were also struggles by parents to wrest control of the boards from self-serving unions. For decades, the unions have maintained a tight grip on who gets elected. No wonder school district decisions — about budgets, masking, COVID closures, curriculum, and teacher contracts — protect teachers first. Never mind what’s best for pupils.
That needs to change. In Albuquerque, the winning candidate, Courtney Jackson, told a local newspaper, “the board of education should be the kids’ union,” not a puppet of the teachers’ union. Jackson decided to run after watching the board discuss when to end lockdowns. The discussion focused entirely on what teachers wanted, never addressing the childrens’ needs. “Their interests were not brought up once.”
In Guilford, Connecticut, a small seacoast town, the Guilford Education Association, representing teachers, ran the show. In a questionnaire for school board candidates, the union’s number one question asked candidates to pledge support for “collective bargaining rights.”
The article concludes:
Why the explosion in parental engagement this year? Parents sitting at the kitchen table listening to Zoom school saw what their children were being taught — and not taught. That’s what happened in Montclair, NJ.
In Montclair, the mayor, Sean Spiller, serves as president of the state’s largest teachers union but also appointed the school board — a blatant conflict of interest. The board negotiates the teachers’ contract. Last Tuesday, the town voted 70% to replace mayoral control with an elected board.
That’s an improvement, but electing the board won’t guarantee students become the priority. Not while teachers unions outgun local parents groups. Organizations like Moms for Liberty, now with chapters in 32 states, will make the difference.
Many school districts will elect board members sometime in the spring, instead of on Election Day. That’s by design to keep the public in the dark that an election is even happening and discourage turnout.
Parents and other concerned citizens have roughly half a year to gird for these upcoming contests. Tiffany Justice, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, told a news outlet that “Parents are going to right this ship, and this election was only the beginning.”
It’s dangerous to wake a mama bear.