Wicomico County Board of Education
Schools today are a mess. Filled with violence, teachers who are being forced to teach materials outside their scope of training, inappropriate materials being force-fed to vulnerable minors, and bloated Central Office budgets that fail to support classroom instruction. All of this needs to be changed. We can no longer trust the local schools to responsibly teach our children, we must hold them accountable for their malfeasance.
While School Boards and Superintendents have made moves to remove School Resource Officers from our schools, for fear of harming the feelings of students, violent incidents have increased. While teachers come out of their own wallets hundreds of dollars, Central Offices employ staff and misappropriate funds that could be used to fund classrooms. While parents and children are forced to compromise their values in order to have a passing grade while reading pornographic literature, testing scores in reading, math, and science have plummeted. We need schools that actually teach our children things they will need to know in life. We need schools that teach children how to think, not what to think.
We need safter schools. We need schools that have School Resource Officers available to be proactive to situations that may occur. Our officers need to have their hands untied to do their jobs, not be handcuffed to the bars of political correctness.
Our teachers are our most valuable assets. They need fair compensation. There is no reason a teacher should ever have to come out of their pocket to fund their classroom for necessary goods. No longer should a teacher have to use their hard-earned paycheck to create a learning environment that is inviting for their students, or have to create a GoFundMe to make sure they have necessary supplies.
Parents are a vital partner in the school relationship. For years, they have been forced out of the process, marginalized by the Teacher's Unions for the sake of pushing children toward a collectivist goal. Parents need to be brought back to the center of the process, with the goal of getting them back into schools to see their child in action.
PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION
School Safety
We need to work cooperatively--parents, teachers, administrators, and School Resource Officers to end the endless cycle of school violence. We need to build relationships among stakeholders to bring about positive change and peaceful resolutions to conflicts.
Critical Thinking
"How to think, not what to think." Teachers need to teach students how to critically think and analyze resources and develop their own critical analysis of materials, not be told what to think by union-led teachers pushing their own agendas.
Fiscal Responsibility and Transparency
The budget process should be transparent--to the School Board, the County Council, and the people. No one should be lied to about where the hard-earned money of the taxpayers should go. The proper process for the allocation of funds needs to be followed and be shown to the people, so we can be good stewards of the People's money.
Family Back in Schools
When was the last time you actually visited your student's classroom? When was the last time you knew about classroom visitation for National Education Week? If the answers are "Never" and "I don't know," then you as a parent are being cut out of a vital part of your student's life. I want to bring you back into the classroom, on your terms, not the school's terms.
Appropriate, Responsible Curriculum
What is your student reading in school? Have you ever seen their assigned reading books? If you don't know, then your student is probably reading something you wouldn't want them to read. Making children select reading materials based on the teacher's biases is wrong and bordering on indoctrination. A teacher should present multiple different choices, not the same choices in a different cover.
Return to Core Learning, not Common Core
"Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic" We've heard that adage our whole lives. Our students deserve the same. Science, true science based on the Scientific Method, History based on credible, fact based sources, math, English-Language Arts, and a return to best writing practices are the best way to get the best from our students. Add in Home Economics, Music, Choral Studies, Band, Visual Arts, Industrial Arts, and a robust Career and Technical Education curriculum, and we have a return to classical education parents, teachers, and students can be proud of!
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