I have heard it all!  Every reason for constituents in the district to NOT be involved in the Public School Board.

• I’m too  busy
• My kids go to a private school
• My kids are grown and out of the home
• I am a snowbird
• I don’t get involved with politics
• Those decisions don’t affect me
• My kids are about to graduate
• We homeschool our children
• I don’t know how to choose the best candidate so I leave that blank

Then, from the far left, I have directly experienced how they try to suppress your vote and your ability to find good candidates to run for School Board:

• You don’t have kids in the public school, so you shouldn’t vote for school board
• You don’t have kids in the school, so you shouldn’t care what happens in the public schools!  
• You have no vested interest in the school, so stay out!
• Why do you even care?  You send your kids to private schools.
• You have only lived in the district for a few months, so stay out of this election.
• Keep your Christian values out of the public school board!
• Why do you even care?  Your special needs kid doesn’t even go to the classroom every day (yes, I have actually heard this one)

Even as a parent that sends one of my daughters to a local private school, I beg and implore you to consider the reasons why you SHOULD be involved in the local school board.

You live in the community

Every single resident in the community pays local property taxes and we all have a vested interest in how the schools perform.  Great schools dramatically increases the property values and attracts parents to move into the district.  Sometimes, they sell their home and move just blocks to be in a desirable school district.  

The interest to move into a good school district increases your property values and will matter when you eventually want to sell your home.

There are a finite number of homes in the district and when the demand to move here increases, your property value also goes up.  

Every kid deserves and needs an education

For those that have the resources, ability, and desire to send your children to a private or charter school, we must remember that ~86% of the community uses the public schools.  

Our founding Fathers recognized that the best way to keep our freedom is to educate the future generation.  In order to preserve our freedom for future generations, we need to provide a liberal arts education to all children.  

It is through this educational system that the next generation of adults will eventually be making decisions for YOUR life and YOUR children’s life.  If they are trained and educated at this age to live well, treat others with respect and value the process of learning, we have a chance.

However, progressive school board members today want to teach this generation the ways of marxist ideology, morality is relative to the person, mandate the reading of sexually explicit books, and that parents are too ignorant to know how to educate their children.  They want to have the government raise your children, NOT you.

Keep property taxes low

Public Schools are the single largest taxing entity on your local property taxes.  A mis-managed school district can quickly burn through cash while at the same time decreasing the education children are receiving.  Just look to the east and see the decline in the Milwaukee and Wauwatosa public schools.  

These communities over the years have seen some corrupt and ignorant school board members that don’t make good sound, fiscal decisions.  Some Superintendents purposely run the finances into the ground in order to get referendums passed and infuse the school with millions and millions of dollars.  

If you want to keep taxes down and your property values high, find out who is going to make the best decisions and vote for them.

Just last month, four school board members all voted to increase your property taxes next year.  This wasn’t a unanimous decision and no one can stop this tax increase from taking place. 

I am already hearing rumors now within the district that an operation referendum will be placed on the ballot in the near future to increase funding to a now declining enrollment.  

Moral Decline in Public Education

I have talked with many parents that have pulled their children from the Elmbrook Schools and put them in a private or neighboring district because of the continuing moral decline and the progressive political agendas witnessed in the schools.  If our schools had strong, moral decision makers, I believe many parents would reconsider putting their children back in the public schools.

Instead, we are seeing decreased enrollment this year and more parents are opting to homeschool or send their kids to private schools.  

Just last month, the progressive-leaning school board added the sexually explicit book The Handmaid’s Tale BACK into the mandated reading for some classes after the committee recommended excluding this book due to the graphic content.  

This was a sad decision forcing children interested in Literature to read such graphic, sexually explicit content.  With this passing recently, I fully anticipate that the limits will be pushed to the next lower level of sexual perversion upon the children in the district.  

Final Thoughts

For me as a Christian, I believe we are mandated to care for the children — all the children.  I don’t believe I have the right to sit on the sidelines and not be involved.  What better way to care for children than to have a say in their education?  What better way to be a positive influence locally on a large scale than to preserve and protect the innocence of children and help shape their education in a positive way?  

I believe that with the right school board team, we will see a preservation of conservative values in the classroom by removing the sexually explicit content, we can keep taxes low by making sound financial decisions and we will see an significant improvement in the educational outcome of the students of Elmbrook by focusing on education and not political agendas.

We can keep the progressive agenda out of the schools and fully restore common sense back to the educational process.

We can provide a place for all the kids to learn how to be critical thinkers and contributing members of society.  

YOU must be involved and you must VOTE and tell your friends to vote in April.