As with the town of Bowdoin in the MSAD 75 district next month, there are school board elections occurring across the state in which communities must decide between handing the keys over to a national teacher union or build a school board comprised of objective non-conflicted members that prioritize the kids and taxpayers in their community.
In his 2006 piece “The Union Label on The Ballot Box,” Stanford professor Terry Moe described teachers elected to school boards: “For with unions so powerful, employee interests are given far more weight in personnel and policy decisions than warranted, and school boards are partially captured by their own employees.”
In 2021, teacher unions are top-heavy political machines comprised of those that parrot the current agenda and those who suppress their dissent out of fear of losing employment. Union-aligned board members will not vote on a curriculum or collectively bargain through a community-first perspective but for the emotionally charged learning agenda set by union lobbyists. The school board acts as the check and balance required for exceptional governance, but without objective members free from all conflicts, the union power will serve itself.
Power is serving itself in Maine schools by offering only one perspective as we see with the Lewiston Middle School having “Black Lives Matter” on their home page and Mount Ararat High School with “No Justice No Peace” written with ceramic tiles on a school wall. Both ignore conflict and objectivity in respect of all stakeholders.
It is pertinent to elect school board members that will approve curricula with the intent of producing independent, contributing members of society. Not just for institutions, but also the working class, with earlier access to jobs through apprenticeships. If not, collective bargaining will be met with the same politically charged narrative of resistance.
Allen Sarvinas
Topsham
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
