Re-elect Pinocchio for School Board

For the better part of two years, school boards across Pennsylvania have given parents an incredibly cold shoulder. In unprecedented numbers, parents have poured into school board meetings in an attempt to be heard and redirect out of touch progressive school boards who have lost touch with the values of those who elected them. Board members, with curious unanimity, opposed the passionate pleas of parents who are fed up with the sprint to Leftist identity politics, essentially telling them to “talk to the hand”… but only for 2 or 3 minutes before time expires.

The transgender agenda had parents pushing back on the notion that there is no problem allowing biological males who identify as female to use the girls bathroom or to compete in girls sports. Until now, kids and parents – who were previously inclined to just roll their eyes at the thought of these ideas being normalized – finally slipped down the slippery slope that we’ve been told doesn’t exist. Then, for all the talk of “following the guidance” and “trusting the science”, it became clear that the idea of local representative government had given way to rule of the “experts”, bypassing their actual stakeholders – local parents and taxpayers. (It’s worth noting that countless peer-reviewed studies and papers have since established that those “experts” turned out to be wrong on just about everything COVID-related). Why would we trust “experts” cut from the same Marxist mold to get gender and identity right?

These boards love “diversity” as long as no-one departs from the prescribed ideology. There is to be no diversity when it comes to ideology. For parents who dared to have an independent mind and oppose the religious doctrines of Leftist school boards, they faced being characterized as “terrorists”. Nice, huh? Behind their stoic posture, as they endure the impassioned comments from parents with manifest indifference, would seem to these parents to be utter contempt for opposing views. And what about the kids who attempt to take a stand for values that run contrary to the priests of “education”? They may want to think twice about expressing it. And they do. Kids self-censor to avoid the tyranny of students and teachers alike who, for all their preaching of tolerance, are anything but tolerant. Certainly this is not representative of all students and teachers but the prevailing climate does not even begin to cultivate an environment that respects ideological diversity.

Well now it’s campaign season and these school boards want you, the voter, to forget about all that. Instead they want you to understand what a great job they’ve been doing. But remember those unprecedented numbers of parents being shown “the hand” in school board meetings? Turns out that this phenomenon is translating to unprecedented numbers of challenges to school board incumbents. There is a wave of opposition to incumbents across the state unlike anything Pennsylvania has seen before. What was a ripple of flipped seats and boards over the last few years may be shaping up to be a tidal wave in 2023. The record tells quite a different story than the one that many incumbents across the state are telling. But it’s campaign season, so certain narratives are expedient, and the ends justifies the means. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

According to Douglas Durham, a parent in the Southern Lehigh School District and Chair of the Southern Lehigh Republican Committee, “Nine out of ten candidates in our race are registered as Republicans. Of those, the Southern Lehigh Republican committee has endorsed five who we regard as ‘authentic’ Republicans by virtue of their affirmation of principles in a document called My Commitment to the SLSD Community. Amazing that nearly half wouldn’t pledge support to plainly Republican values. But what about the others? “Beyond these five”, Douglas continues, “two of the candidates, Candi Kruse and Eric Boyer, switched their party affiliation to Republican since the 2022 midterms, and Eric Boyer has never voted as a Republican. The remaining two, Emily Gehman and Tim Kearney, were both enthusiastic advocates for continued masking and virtual learning, and were strong advocates for a DEI consultant and mixed gender bathrooms”. I know the party isn’t monolithic, but that doesn’t sound very ‘Republican’, does it?

Similarly, in Centre County, in a recent letter to the editor of the Centre Daily Times, Dr. Gretchen Brandt, an incumbent board member for the State College Area School District, begins by asserting that the school board simply wants to “learn from and utilize the expertise, energy and creative ideas of ALL our residents to solve issues”. Sounds great, but later she continues a posture of non-responsiveness, deflecting, and blocking by saying, “We will not be sidetracked by political talking points that have nothing to do with our students or our district…”. You see how this works? Your passion and values are dismissed by reducing them to mere “political talking points”. In public comment sessions, according to a parent who does not want to be identified, these “talking points” allude to things like 1) different emails to parents based on students’ race, 2) non-academic surveys being given to students after parents have opted their kids out, 3) over-emphasis on group identity at the expense of student individuality, 4) Creating racial divisions (Example), 5) drawing childrens’ attention to sexual matters too soon, and 6) de-normalizing the notion of binary gender. Evidently some people call this “progress”. Dr. Brandt may want to reconsider that these are, in reality, ‘constituent talking points’, and these constituents are in fact a subset of the “ALL” that she pretended to care about earlier in her letter. Clearly, there is no true intention to listen to ALL constituents. She then goes on to endorse the rest of the slate that she is running with – who are likely very likeminded about policy – and tactics.

Incidentally, at least in some districts, there is a practice of asking newly-elected board members to sign a non-disclosure statement. If transparency is truly a value for students, parents, and taxpayers, why would an NDA be necessary?
NOTE to readers: Consider asking your school board if there are any NDAs in place for school board members in your district. If so, ask what the justification is for that.

If you live in a blue or purple school district, chances are your school board is comprised of incumbents who want to act against the interests of their constituents’ values, but appear another way during campaign season. Don’t trust the rhetoric. They know what their constituents want to hear, and they’re happy to say all the right words. Don’t fall for it. These folks would make Pinocchio blush. This is your chance. Make it count. Get educated on who these people *really* are. Vote on May 16. And bring some friends with you.

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