Evaluation criteria

We are looking for candidates who will stick to real concerns facing public schools, not spreading harmful, unfounded narratives that undermine trust. 

Some politicians are repeating false, destructive narratives about public schools.

• In June 2022, Peter Hegseth and David Goodwin published a book called “Battle for the American Mind.” In it they argue that it is imperative that Americans "save our children from leftwing indoctrination" in "government schools" where they learn to "hate America." He warns his readers that “government schools” (his name for public schools) are molding our children into mindless automatons fit only to be cogs in some great socialistic machine.
• In February of 2022 one of our elected representatives from Texas was quoted in an interview as saying, "…And in too many instances, you have left-wing educators putting explicit pornography in front of kids. I think that is severely misguided."
• According to the promotional material for The Queering of the American Child, a book being promoted on the Moms for Liberty website, “Kids are no longer learning to read, write, or do math, but they are learning how to be "radical gender" activists. Meanwhile, school districts keep parents in the dark, hiding critical information about the health and well-being of their children from them.”

These kinds of inflammatory statements are very rarely true, but they are finding their way more and more often onto politicians’ websites and blog posts and into their speeches. It is insulting to educators.  It is irresponsible, it is undermining trust in public schools, and it is distracting from real work that needs to be done to make our schools stronger.

An interesting case study in how misleading this kind of rhetoric can be is the story of Courtney Gore from Granbury, TX.  Ms. Gore, a former school teacher, campaigned for school board in Granbury by claiming that schools had been “hijacked by Leftists” and were “indoctrinating kids.”  In her campaign, she promised to inspect educational materials for inappropriate messages about sexuality and race and to remove them all.  To her credit, when she was elected, she followed through on her promise.

She examined hundreds of pages of curriculum – and found no evidence of “indoctrination.”  According to the Texas Tribune article about her story, “Children were not being sexualized, and she could find no examples of critical race theory, an advanced academic concept that examines systemic racism. She’d examined curriculum related to social-emotional learning, which has come under attack by Christian conservatives who say it encourages children to question gender roles and prioritizes feelings over biblical teachings. Instead, Gore found the materials taught children ‘how to be a good friend, a good human.’’’

One of the most important things about public school is that they serve us all. That means kids in public schools get to meet all kinds of different people there. Yes, they might have a teacher with a Pride sticker on his or her computer, or a framed Bible verse sitting on his or her desk, or both.  I would argue that kids aren’t getting much of an education if they don’t learn that different people have different points of view, if they don’t hear at least a few things that make them feel a little uncomfortable, if they don’t question one or two ideas they have never questioned before.  That is part of what makes public schools great – and important.  In public schools students are exposed to different ideas.  They learn to get along with all kinds of people.  That’s a useful life skill – especially in a democracy.

Public schools reflect the communities where they are located.  Sometimes those communities are pretty homogenous, sometimes they are quite diverse, mostly they are at some point on a continuum between the two.  Also, of course, communities change. That means schools and communities sometimes need to negotiate and re-negotiate school culture and what educational approaches and curriculum are  considered acceptable and unacceptable. Of course those conversations can get heated – people care passionately about what kids are learning or not learning in our public schools.

But to undermine trust in public education with the kinds of exaggerated, destructive, and most of all, untrue narratives that some politicians are tossing around today is unacceptable.

I would ask of people who are puzzling over these negative narratives about public schools: Look around at the public school educators you know -- The ones teaching your children, the ones attending your church, shopping at the grocery store where you shop, living in your neighborhood. I'm pretty sure you will see people who are working extremely hard to help their students learn the subject matter at hand, to develop critical thinking skills, to find their place in the world, and to grow into good citizens and good people. They are not “indoctrinating” children into an army of Marxist foot soldiers or “hypersexualizing” them.  Teachers are your neighbors.  They reflect the community just like you do.

Public schools face some real challenges - that's no joke. Finding enough qualified teachers, supporting vulnerable students, managing behavior challenges – these are real concerns. We need elected leaders who recognize those real challenges and want to work on them. We need elected leaders who will support and build up our public schools, not fear-peddlers insulting our teachers, undermining trust, and then using that as an excuse to skimp on funding and push a voucher program that will only serve a few kids.

We are looking for candidates who are talking about real concerns -- not candidates who are using scary talk to stir up unproductive and unfounded controversy.