List of Talking Points
All elected officials, including school board members, must be subject to term limits. Anybody that has influence in the decision process must be publicly elected and not appointed.
All textbooks, materials and courses must have an extensive glossary
The goals or objectives of all course books and materials are to be expressly and should be stated in terms of skills or knowledge gained.
All educational books and materials should be free of opinion, endorsements, favoritism, subjective conclusions and all opinions should be clearly labeled as such.
Teaching and teaching materials should not violate federal, state or local laws and should reflect the spirit of the U.S. Constitution.
Schools, colleges and universities should not have a net profit more than a reasonable amount including passive income.
All teaching and teaching materials should not promote political, ideological or religious positions. Historical fact excepted.
Classes containing sexual content will not be taught until middle school. Definitions of gender and identification of someone's gender excepted.
All expenditures should be budgeted and educational budgets shall be fully funded and paid for.
All proposed textbooks, materials and curricula for the coming term must be publicly announced by scheduled election days.
Implement regular reviews and re-authorization of all textbooks, materials and curricula.
Define, redefine or clarify the school district's and the school board's purpose, rules and standards.
Establish a 180 day comment period before any textbook, material or curriculum is approved.
Establish a mechanism for the recall or amendment of any approved book, material or curricula.
Establish a procedure for citizen-based amendments to any proposal including what constitutes an approval.
Establish a procedure whereby the school board, with a two-thirds vote, can recall or amend a previous textbook, material or curriculum approval.
Establish that there should be detailed and published minutes including the “yeas” and “nays” by person for every vote.
Establish that any state or local education personnel that are elected can also be recalled by a defined procedure.
Establish that all meetings must be publicly announced at least 7 days in advance.
Redefine the school board's jurisdiction and limit it to only those things that are clearly academic. Transfer all other functions to another department or person.
Establish that all contracts must be published where the public has easy access to it.
Make it well-known you strongly consider critical thinking essential to the educational process and insist that it is a focus in daily work.
Make sure there is no racism, Marxism or any other “ism” taught in school, inside or outside the curriculum.
Create a public database as a repository for curricula. Books, material and lesson plans could be added in a second phase.
Establish a 180 day provisional period during which it can be reviewed, amended or recalled before it becomes permanent.
Make sure teaching is oriented towards HOW to think not WHAT to think. This one is important.
Eliminate CRT (or any subject) that is taught from an authoritarian or indoctrination point of view.
Eliminate statewide approvals for textbooks, materials and curricula and transition to local approval.
Grants and regulations should be local.
Eliminate any textbook, material or curriculum that is negative or opinionated.
Establish a Watchdog committee.
Establish a Citizen's Advisory Committee.
Establish full “sunshine laws” in your area.
All salaries for public education department are paid for with public tax money and should be public information.
Take a moment for a victory lap and then quickly move on to the next project.
More to come...