Run for elected office. At least you get to speak.
I ran for a seat on the regional school district Board of Education.
I lost the election, to an entrenched Democrat, with close ties to the teacher's union.
I won, in that it gave me a microphone, and encouraged both our elementary and high school boards of education, Parent - Teacher Association, and the teachers themselves, to listen to my ideas about WHY we are spending money on education.
Sometime it takes someone who cares, to prompt others to "do the right thing". This has layers, like an onion.
I cared, initially because my own, above-average child was falling behind in math, as a result of a lousy elementary school teacher who was lazy, and coasting to retirement. I'm not a teacher, but an engineer. My first response was to jump in and begin tutoring her. It worked. She caught up, and jumped ahead of her peers in math.
"Gomer" is the father of my daughter's class-mate. He cared. Gomer is a very bright guy whose schtick is pretending to be dumb. He was serving on the elementary school board. He encouraged me to run.
The board was packed with teachers from various school systems. The Special Education lobby was over-represented. Other members were parents of autistic children. One was a manufacturer of "Special Needs" furniture. Great for them. They hired a superintendent who completely eliminated the "Gifted and Talented" program, to pay for Special Ed.
This same superintendent promoted an anti-Second Amendment propaganda campaign being pushed by the State Board of Ed. They were trying to coerce EVERY student into signing a "Pledge Against Gun Violence", wherein they would promise to "Never Touch a Gun". I was already teaching my daughter about gun safety. They were trying to get every kid to sign this propaganda "Pledge" in front of all their peers. I was outraged that our public school system was undermining Constitutional rights. I tried to explain what was wrong about this pledge. My daughter broke down in tears, when I told her she would not be signing it with her class. As a sheer stroke of luck, the BoE was meeting that very night.
I went to the Board of Ed meeting, and spoke out against that "Pledge". They understood my point. They also agreed that, rather than isolating my daughter by removing her from the room, or expecting her to refuse, when the "Pledge" was signed, she would bring her OWN copy, rewritten so as NOT to compromise her rights. That's how it unfolded, and the "Pledge" was never distributed again.
That experience led me to seek a seat on the board, when a mid-term vacancy became available. Since a seat on the board was open, all applicants / candidates must be allowed to speak. The press would be present. I knew that this clique of Special Ed interests wasn't going to accept me into their game, but at least I had an opportunity to draw public attention to their complete lack of support for Gifted and Talented, or bright-normal children. Nearly a million dollars of our elementary school budget was being guzzled down by Special Education, while only two thousand dollars was allocated for "enrichment".
As I see it, "Special Education" is an expense: money thrown into a hole, never to be seen again. "Gifted and Talented" programs are an investment, in bright, and bright-normal children who will grow up to be productive members of society, potential guiding lights of the next generation.
Also as I see it, teachers should not be getting 4% annual salary increases across the board, when the taxpayers income is stagnating, and they certainly shouldn't be getting carte blanche, premium health insurance, at the expense of taxpayers who do not have such premium benefits.
I lost the votes for mid-term appointment, as I knew I would. I lost an actual election, when I ran for that seat. But I got their attention, and I got some friends among the other parents of bright kids, and whenever the system even HINTED at short-changing the bright kids we really care about, the kids we expect to return our investment, we made damned sure the Boards of Education, Superintendents, Principals and teachers, knew that we were watching. We kept the AP classes available, when there were attempts to eliminate some of them. We had to pay a little more for the music program, but we kept it. We jumped to the defense of our kids, when teachers got tyrannical or lazy.
There was always the threat that we would call them out in front of the media again, the next time an election came around.
The valuable lesson here, is that you don't have to win an election, to reign in special interests, but you do have to overcome your fear of speaking out against them, and stand up, speak up, for what you believe. If you have to throw your name in the Sorting Hat to get the microphone for a few minutes, it's a small price to pay, a small investment to make in everyone's future.
I lost the election, to an entrenched Democrat, with close ties to the teacher's union.
I won, in that it gave me a microphone, and encouraged both our elementary and high school boards of education, Parent - Teacher Association, and the teachers themselves, to listen to my ideas about WHY we are spending money on education.
Sometime it takes someone who cares, to prompt others to "do the right thing". This has layers, like an onion.
I cared, initially because my own, above-average child was falling behind in math, as a result of a lousy elementary school teacher who was lazy, and coasting to retirement. I'm not a teacher, but an engineer. My first response was to jump in and begin tutoring her. It worked. She caught up, and jumped ahead of her peers in math.
"Gomer" is the father of my daughter's class-mate. He cared. Gomer is a very bright guy whose schtick is pretending to be dumb. He was serving on the elementary school board. He encouraged me to run.
The board was packed with teachers from various school systems. The Special Education lobby was over-represented. Other members were parents of autistic children. One was a manufacturer of "Special Needs" furniture. Great for them. They hired a superintendent who completely eliminated the "Gifted and Talented" program, to pay for Special Ed.
This same superintendent promoted an anti-Second Amendment propaganda campaign being pushed by the State Board of Ed. They were trying to coerce EVERY student into signing a "Pledge Against Gun Violence", wherein they would promise to "Never Touch a Gun". I was already teaching my daughter about gun safety. They were trying to get every kid to sign this propaganda "Pledge" in front of all their peers. I was outraged that our public school system was undermining Constitutional rights. I tried to explain what was wrong about this pledge. My daughter broke down in tears, when I told her she would not be signing it with her class. As a sheer stroke of luck, the BoE was meeting that very night.
I went to the Board of Ed meeting, and spoke out against that "Pledge". They understood my point. They also agreed that, rather than isolating my daughter by removing her from the room, or expecting her to refuse, when the "Pledge" was signed, she would bring her OWN copy, rewritten so as NOT to compromise her rights. That's how it unfolded, and the "Pledge" was never distributed again.
That experience led me to seek a seat on the board, when a mid-term vacancy became available. Since a seat on the board was open, all applicants / candidates must be allowed to speak. The press would be present. I knew that this clique of Special Ed interests wasn't going to accept me into their game, but at least I had an opportunity to draw public attention to their complete lack of support for Gifted and Talented, or bright-normal children. Nearly a million dollars of our elementary school budget was being guzzled down by Special Education, while only two thousand dollars was allocated for "enrichment".
As I see it, "Special Education" is an expense: money thrown into a hole, never to be seen again. "Gifted and Talented" programs are an investment, in bright, and bright-normal children who will grow up to be productive members of society, potential guiding lights of the next generation.
Also as I see it, teachers should not be getting 4% annual salary increases across the board, when the taxpayers income is stagnating, and they certainly shouldn't be getting carte blanche, premium health insurance, at the expense of taxpayers who do not have such premium benefits.
I lost the votes for mid-term appointment, as I knew I would. I lost an actual election, when I ran for that seat. But I got their attention, and I got some friends among the other parents of bright kids, and whenever the system even HINTED at short-changing the bright kids we really care about, the kids we expect to return our investment, we made damned sure the Boards of Education, Superintendents, Principals and teachers, knew that we were watching. We kept the AP classes available, when there were attempts to eliminate some of them. We had to pay a little more for the music program, but we kept it. We jumped to the defense of our kids, when teachers got tyrannical or lazy.
There was always the threat that we would call them out in front of the media again, the next time an election came around.
The valuable lesson here, is that you don't have to win an election, to reign in special interests, but you do have to overcome your fear of speaking out against them, and stand up, speak up, for what you believe. If you have to throw your name in the Sorting Hat to get the microphone for a few minutes, it's a small price to pay, a small investment to make in everyone's future.