AWAKE / MAGA COMING AFTER OUR SCHOOLS
By Nancy Kupca
If you follow the local school board meetings like I do, you will see well-intentioned people getting up to speak on one side of an issue or the other. This is what the reception of visitors’ section of the agenda is for.
But there are other groups who are not just there to express an opinion for or against something. Rather they seek to advance an agenda based on misinformation, fear-mongering and bullying. If you watch over time, you will often see the same people speaking on a variety of topics, misquoting information, and drawing faulty inferences. Is this really for the advancement of education as they claim or is this for other political reasons? Unless you follow the information submitted by the superintendents and other staff closely, and most people probably don’t, it would be easy to believe and react to this information.
School districts post information all the time. Always go back to the primary source. You can read the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests made by some of these speakers, and the district response. You have only to compare what the districts have responded in writing to what those from these groups claim they said to understand the disconnect. Finally, never be afraid to reach out to a school superintendent for more information. While not entirely bias free, they should be able to answer your questions and provide additional information or resources as needed.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where a lot of disinformation is coming at us from multiple sources. But when it comes to our children’s education it is important to get the facts and to vote for people who will uphold the principles of making certain that each student has what they need to be as successful as possible.