By Mark Baisley
Monday, October 13, 2014
American teens are a rich demographic for political
investment. Their unassigned stem cells can mature into conservative wisdom or
attach permanently to the free radicals that cause liberalism.
As an engineer, one of the most valued books in my
personal library is How We Decide, by Jonah Lehrer. The author briefly uses
politics to illustrate his lesson on cognitive dissonance, “Once we identify
with a political party, the world is edited so that it fits with our ideology.”
Based on Lehrer’s research, advancing an effective appeal to high school age
citizens could pay off over 70+ years of voting.
As a long term strategy beginning in the 1960s, the
hard-left began seizing public school districts as captured territory. Their
systemic routine goes like this: Unionize the teachers, collect dues far beyond
what is necessary to cover union salaries, use the excess millions to fund
campaigns that elect union sympathizers to the school board, negotiate
collective bargaining agreements with the union loyalists on the school board,
persuade the cooperative school board to withhold union dues from teachers’
paychecks, establish an isolated “progressive” education culture, rinse and
repeat.
Colorado communities began to catch on to this hustle
about five years ago as voters stepped up to displace incestuous school
districts with community minded parents and business professionals to represent
them on the board. The shot heard round the world was fired five years ago in
Douglas County by community challengers with a war chest of $120,000. Their
purse was matched by the union who eventually lost every seat in the newly
awakened neighborhood.
The war spread to battles across Colorado in 2013, with
more than $1 million expended by campaigns on each side. Unions brought in reinforcements
from the ACLU, the Democratic Party, and Barack Obama’s campaign operatives.
And across this brief history, the hard left grip on K12 has sustained
tremendous losses at the ballot box and in the Colorado courts.
But the greatest casualty for Colorado’s liberal
education establishment was the 2013 loss of majority control within Jefferson
County’s school board. The unions cannot blame the Koch Brothers or any other
outside influences for losing all three seats up for election last year. The conservative
challengers spent less than $10,000 each as voters opted for reform in
Colorado’s second largest school district. And the shocking defeat may very
well have prompted the most shortsighted overreach since George Custer left his
Gatling guns behind to uproot that “small Indian village” on the bank of the
Little Bighorn.
Ever since losing their stronghold over Jefferson County,
frustrated union operatives have made a habit of disrupting every public school
board meeting, looking for any opportunity to sabotage the reforms being
advanced by the newly elected members. Last week, the union distracters jumped
at what they saw as a chance to embarrass the board. In response to a plan to
reassess AP American history curricula, a group of disgruntled teachers incited
students to join them in a walkout. The protest accuses the new board of
censoring American history.
So over the course of a week, high school students across
Jefferson County skipped classes to stand on street corners and hold signs in
objection to the supposed revisionism being imposed by the school board. I
believe that the union has unwittingly created the most marvelous invitation to
plunge a wooden stake in the heart of liberal control over education.
Conservatives should not miss this opportunity.
The protest signs being held by the altruistic students
read:
Teach us the
truth
Save American
History
We want facts;
not opinions
People didn’t
die so we could erase them from history
Educate; Not
indoctrinate
We want
transparency
My education is
not your political agenda
We love our
teachers
Conservatives should openly, publicly and aggressively
encourage Jefferson County students to continue pursuing truth in order to
“Save American history.” Along with their concerns that America’s most shameful
moments are being downplayed, the students should be assisted in discovering
how many more truths have been removed by liberals as being inconvenient to
their philosophies.
They may come to understand the actual meaning of the
words, “a wall of separation between church and state,” written by a president
who attended church every Sunday in the U.S. Capitol. They may learn which
political party defended the practice of slavery and which one ended it. They may
grow to understand which political philosophy creates a Dallas and which one
creates a Detroit. Greater still, they may dislodge the censorship of
intelligent design.
They may come to appreciate the horrifying heroism and
the powerful kindness of the U.S. military. And by staring into the face of
Nazism, students could realize the parallels that their generation will face
from Islamofascim.
Students could actually become “educated, not
indoctrinated”, on the liberating effects of free enterprise and the
dispiriting consequences of government control. They may even come to realize
the unfair cruelty of the IRS, the EPA, and Department of Labor.
And when it comes to transparency, well what luck.
Students can become directly involved in Colorado’s current statewide debate on
the topic by supporting Proposition 104, on the ballot this November. This law
would require that negotiations between teachers union representatives and
school boards administrations be open for anyone to attend and observe. Unions are
fighting it because it exposes their conflicts of interest and just how much
money they make.
“My education is not your political agenda.” This protest
sign just may be my favorite. Education became political when teachers were
sucked into the union’s web. The best way to accomplish the sentiment for this
sign would be to disallow unions from participating in school board elections.
The next good measure would be to restore decorum at the board meetings by
restricting attendance to the citizens for whom they are intended.
I am glad that you love your teachers, Jefferson County
students. And those who stood tall in the classroom, rather than walking out on
their responsibilities, love you as well. No doubt, you value fairness and hold
respect for our Republic. Those new members of the Jefferson County Board of
Education were elected by the residents to represent them in those positions.
They are local citizens, just like you. Please interact with them as you would
have them interact with you.
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