If you have elections tomorrow and haven't already voted, I have a strong suggestion to you. Go to Ballotpedia and look up your election. If it includes school bond issues, drill down and look at the testing. I knew it was bad, the district we live in usually had its ups and downs, but generally the kids tested out in the upper half across demographics. I was honestly shocked. For example in 2010 89% of Black kids passed, now it's 33%. For White kids 96% passed in 2010, now it's 67%. For AAPI kids it was 95% down to 68%, for Hispanic kids 89% down to 59%. Yet, graduation rates are 90% and up. How does THAT work? I don't know whether it is COVID, disruptions, distracting from academics for social justice issues or what, but this is not acceptable. I know how I'm voting.
I know right now someone is saying it is counterintuitive to give a struggling district less money. I disagree. Having taught for 20+ years, I know districts waste boatloads of money on things that have nothing to do with academic excellence. I've said for years that in every admin building in the nation entire layers of bureaucracy could vanish over night and nobody would know or care. We have administrators now that are more like politicians in that they mandate actions guaranteed to keep them in their jobs. That needs to stop.
Other things that need to stop is the Federal programs that have turned schools more into daycare centers than schools. Right now in every high school in the nation their are kids who can't read, write or walk who have one on one training all day long. In that same school there are forty kids crammed into an Algebra 2 class with outdated books and few supplies.
We break the bank to provide for EXTRAcurriculars and have administrations who swear those outside activities actually improve student achievement. Just try to get a football player out of practice to make up a test or a band member out of a 6A band to get needed tutoring during marching practice. We have kids who are going to be functionally illiterate and the scariest part of that is they will be able to vote.
When you look at elections, this is a chance to force a change in a system where the inmates think they have all the power and do not owe any sort of accountability to the people they serve (See also: Congress and White House). By forcing districts to make hard choices, maybe they will jettison they very woke and very expensive productions that have divided us as a nation. What is more, if we can force schools at the public school level to move out of the job of shaping opinions and back into the business of teaching academic skills, we can start chasing down the wokies at the university level so that ESG and DEI grievance offices, all of which must be lavishly funded, will be removed.
Most important of all...VOTE. You must vote. Even if in your heart you don't think it will implement change, you must vote. Do not give them the satisfaction of thinking they have tacit approval to poison the next generation with far Left, Marxist, Hate everyone dogma.
