Yes, parents of all color wake the hell up and get active. Actually, you do not need to be a parent in a particular school to be on the district school board. All you need in most cases is to live in the district! I totally agree with Greg about making school the Numero Uno issue for all elections, local, state, and federal. That is exactly why Virginia turned blue, it had everything to do with educating their youth and the parents were pissed! Wake up, you need to speak up and take action.

Education’s woke up call

By: G. Maresca

Former U.S. House Speaker Tip O’Neill notably said, “all politics is local” and at its most fundamental is your school board. It is the only political office that a Pennsylvania state employee can actively seek. It is also the most crucial when you consider who and what the politicking directly impacts and influences – children.

Throughout our fruited plain once routine school board meetings have devolved into a 21^st century “Gong Show” thanks to the COVID shutdown last year.

The resulting lockdowns galvanized parents to get more involved with their children’s education like never before. Virginia’s Democrat candidate for governor, Terry McAuliffe, iced the cake saying, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

Perhaps McAuliffe had in mind what Vladimir Lenin infamously said, “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.”

School boards are accountable to parents, and the community who elect and support them through taxation. You pay your taxes to get your children educated – not programmed. Public schools are the vanguard for leftism where parents are “domestic terrorists” if they disagree with Critical Race Theory, genderless bathrooms, libraries supporting pedophilia, mask mandates, and racial preferences for admissions.

The National School Board Association declared these boisterous encounters as “heinous actions” that rival “domestic terrorism.” Rather, it is partisan politics that are overtly hypocritical. Black Lives Matter rioters could burn buildings, loot, and harass and are labeled peaceful protests.

With schools compelling partisan political propaganda on unsuspecting children, parents are finally pushing back. School boards are not beholden to any educational associations, teachers’ unions, or even a U.S. president. Such unwary hubris of the education bureaucracy must hear from not just parents, but every American.

Economist Thomas Sowell summarized the situation as only he can: “Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of our enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children. In an age of artificial intelligence, they are creating artificial stupidity.”

No parent wants to be censured about their child’s education that in many instances is the indoctrination to wokesim. Leftists pontificate how history, math, English are racist, and any parent who challenges that narrative must be silenced through fear of reprisal as the left has weaponized agencies like the IRS and now, the FBI.

The leftist trinity of diversity, equity and inclusion have replaced critical thinking, logic and debate. This trendy catchphrase may sound enticing, but the results are tragically incompatible with our longstanding constitutional republic.

Much of public education in our country leaves kids far behind in reading, math and science. Moreover, some school districts are doing away with gifted programs because of race quotas. Such policies only accelerate America’s dumbing down by eliminating merit that results in children failing to achieve their full potential.

Admitting the most qualified applicants benefits a student body. Racial makeup should be irrelevant to qualifications and ability. Preferences are established when race is the priority rather than the qualification.

These policies result in qualified applicants being denied admission for diversity’s sake that benefits no one across the educational spectrum. The only color that should matter is the applicants’ grey matter.

Excellence rather than mediocrity should be paramount.

As Martin Luther King suggested, when do we start treating people based on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin? Rather than handing out a passing grade, why not challenge and strive toward excellence? Telling minorities, they can’t make it without special quotas only handicaps them further.

Equality under the law by allowing school choice without having to pay twice – once for public and a second time for private education – is the solution. The government monopoly of public schools must end. Republicans need to make education the issue leading up to the November 2022 midterm election. This would help push the pendulum back and jump start many in breaking the cycle of dependency.

In defense of freedom, education plays a critical role in maintaining liberty. At the core of every school board meeting should always be what is best for our children.

What is best for them is best for America’s future.

Oh, and by the way, Happy Veterans’ Day my brothers and sisters.Semper Fi, Jim, USMC (Ret)