Off the Editor’s Desk – 3-27-2013

Are School Boards becoming obsolete?

That question has been bouncing around in the vacuum between my ears for the better part of a year, since I heard the news that the school lunch program had been taken over by the federal government. They tell the school what and how much can be fed to students. They got into this in an attempt to combat obesity, we are told. And, as obedient lambs we go right along with the big boys.

Well, it has nothing to do with obesity. It’s control. If you follow what is happening, the state and federal government will have control of our schools and then that control will be turned over to the United Nations.

I want the school to be in the control of us local folks. The school board and the residents of our communities are the ones that must have control of our school.

Schools already have become something different in the last couple of decades. Are the schools educating our children or are they brainwashing them into a global society that plays follow the leader?

I have had it with this PC crap, and PC has nothing to do with computers. It’s Political Correctness. What ever happened to “tell it like it is?” Now comes word from an Oregon school that has ten students that have classified themselves as “Transgender”. The school is faced with building unisex bathrooms for those ten, because they are not sure if they are female or male and don’t like answering questions. I must compliment the schools in their efforts to stop bullying.

Another reason I like local control is it keeps costs down. Money for schools raised from local sources is like a dollar raised is a dollar for schools. Let the state raise the money and you get maybe three-quarters of it back and if the feds do it, you will be lucky to get fifty cents back and if the UN does it, maybe pennies!

And, don’t fall for the old line, it’s state or federal money and they should control it. Nuts, it’s our money, that we worked hard to earn and the government takes it away and thinks we should be happy that we got some of it back.

I know it’s hard sometimes to talk to school boards about your concerns, especially if it is labor-related. It hides behind the union contract. But you do have someone to talk to about the school and that’s what counts.

Remember, this just did not happened. The people we elected to represent us have either lead the way or have been talked into taking control away from us. We are just the dummies out in the sticks, you know.

Now, next Tuesday we will be voting for the State Superintendent of Public Education. That office lead by Dr. Tony Evers has a four billion dollar budget. That’s over $700 out of the pockets of each man, woman and child in the state. Tuesday, I am voting for Don Pridemore, if for no other reason, than a new broom sweeps clean.

— Carlton