Education is on the Ballot – Over 20,000 School Board Seats up for Election
BallotReady reports that 21,144 school board seats are on the ballot November 5. Local school boards wield a great deal of authority over our nation’s children, so it’s critical that good candidates are elected to these positions. The results affect around 50 million students in government-run schools.
It’s difficult to overstate how important these local elections are, as the results affect around 50 million students in government-run schools.
As we explain in the Focus on the Family resource Equipping Parents for Back to School, parents are ultimately in charge of their children’s education, but when children go to government schools, they give up some of that authority, and the school is empowered – to some degree – to act on parents’ behalf.
And local school boards oversee those schools.
While school boards operate under the authority of federal laws, state regulations and state departments of education, local boards also have a lot of power and authority.
They choose curriculums, establish teacher hiring criteria, set student achievement standards, write bathroom and locker room policies, select books for libraries, choose research databases for students, contract with other districts for school choice transfers, and more.
Parents – as well as grandparents and other concerned citizens – are becoming increasingly aware of serious problems in government schools, such as these:
- Despite federal, state, and local government funding of $878.2 billion, or $17,700 per pupil, students are not learning basic skills like arithmetic, reading, and writing.They are also failing to learn subjects like history and civics.
- National math and reading scores show low levels of academic achievement. As Fortune reported, “American students are in trouble. About a third of students in the youngest grades are behind on reading. Only 36% of fourth graders are proficient at grade-level math.”
- City Journal reports, “The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results in reading and math, released in June, are appalling.” Known as “The Nation’s Report Card,” results from the NAEP U.S. history and civics test “revealed that just 13 percent of eighth graders met proficiency standards for U.S. history, meaning that they could ‘explain major themes, periods, events, people, ideas and turning points in the country’s history.’” For civics, “About 20 percent of students scored at or above the proficient level,” the Journal stated.
- As previously reported by the Daily Citizen, each year since 2016, school districts across the country have participated in events like “Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action,” where students are taught to be “queer” and “transgender” affirming. Students and teachers are expected to pursue globalism and diversity and to be committed to “building a Black women affirming space free from sexism, misogyny, and male‐centeredness.”
- Abigail Shrier reports in The Free Press, “There is a well-coordinated, national effort between teachers, activist organizations, and administrators to indoctrinate American children against Israel.” She explains, “In August, the second largest teachers union chapter in the country – there are more than 35,000 members of United Teachers Los Angeles – met at the Bonaventure Hotel in L.A. to discuss, among other things, how to turn their K-12 students against Israel.”
- Parents Defending Education (PDE) reported that more than 1,143 school districts have “Transgender/Gender Nonconforming Policies,” allowing schools to hide a child’s sexual identity confusion from parents and encouraging schools to open bathrooms and locker rooms for students based on their “gender identity,” not on their sex. This includes 20,951 schools and more than 12.2 million students.
Around the nation, parents have become aware of schools sexualizing and confusing K-12 students by teaching about homosexuality and transgenderism – in literature, social studies and sexual education classes. Parents have learned about profanity-laced, violent and sexually explicit books in school libraries, and they’ve seen the erosion of free speech, religious freedom and parental rights.
It’s time to take a stand and protect all children. Vote for school board members who will fight for academic success for all students; safeguard parents’ rights; protect students’ free speech and religious freedom; and defend children from indoctrination and inappropriate instruction.
Related articles and resources:
Christians, the Election is in Your Hands. It’s Time to Vote!
Dad Confronts School Board for Allowing Boys in Girls Restrooms
‘Equipping Parents For Back-To-School’ – Updated Resource Empowers Parents
Is ‘Critical Race Theory’ Being Taught in Public Schools? CRT Deniers Claim it Isn’t
Is it ‘Book Banning’ to Keep Sexually Explicit Books out of Schools?
Join the Nationwide Prayer Call for the 2024 Election
The National Education Association Wants to Indoctrinate Children Across the Country
Students’ Test Scores Tank After School Consults ‘Woke Kindergarten’
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeff Johnston is a culture and policy analyst for Focus on the Family and a staff writer for the Daily Citizen. He researches, writes and teaches about topics of concern to families such as parental rights, religious freedom, LGBT issues, education and free speech. Johnston has been interviewed by CBS Sunday Morning, The New York Times, Associated Press News, The Christian Post, Rolling Stone and Vice, and is a frequent guest on radio and television outlets. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from San Diego State University with a Bachelors in English and a Teaching Credential. He and his wife have been married 30 years and have three grown sons.
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