Opinion
An open-letter to Warren County voters: Elect an entirely new school board as soon as possible
Dear Warren County voters:
We, the two undersigned members of Front Royal, want a clean sweep of the Warren County School Board members as soon as possible. We desperately need new ideas on the board — from individuals willing to stand up and fight against:
- “Critical race theory” is being taught in our public schools.
- Current transgendered-bathroom and locker room policies.
- Attempts to eliminate gifted programs by stressing “equity” in public education.
- Inappropriate sexual material in library books.
- An inflated school budget
- The failure to recognize parents as the “primary educators of children” — not the State Board of Education or teachers unions.
The current school board seems unable to deal effectively with these problems.
Warren County parents are shocked when they learn that it costs $64 million annually to educate 4,958 students in the Warren County Public School (WCPS). That means Warren County taxpayers are paying almost $13,000 to educate one public school student a year. That seems excessive!
Warren County parents are also shocked when they learn the high percentage of school-age children in Warren County that are attending — not public schools — but home schools, private schools, or religious schools. The figure is about 23 percent. That means that almost a quarter of the school-age children in Warren County have been pulled from public schools by their parents. Parents say the primary reasons they have taken this action are:
- Falling academic standards — especially the ability to read, write, and think logically.
- State mandates
- Classroom discipline problems.
- Failure of local schools to recognize that parents are the primary educators of children — not the State Board of Education or teachers unions.
Parents tell us they simply are not satisfied with the product local public schools are producing. Reading and math scores are simply unacceptable.
Warren County voters will go to the polls on November 2nd to elect three new school board members. To learn more about the candidates running for the three seats, we strongly recommend you watch the Royal-Examiner-filmed forum, held at St. John’s Catholic Church on October 1st, which is available online.
Click here to get to the filmed forum.
The candidates who attended the forum said it was a very fair, bipartisan, and well-organized event.
Two candidates — both of them endorsed by the education establishment — dropped out of the forum at the last minute after initially telling the Catholic organizers of the event they would be pleased to participate. Their empty seats were noted by many of the 250 people who attended the forum.
In summary, we strongly encourage all Warren County citizens to vote on November 2nd — but not for a candidate endorsed by the education establishment. We don’t need any more “education insiders” — like Terry McAuliffe — representing Warren County parents and taxpayers on our school board.
Remember what McAuliffe said on September 28th in a debate with his GOP opponent for governor, Glenn Youngkin: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
McAuliffe could not have been more wrong.
He obviously doesn’t realize that the state is not the primary educator of children — parents are!
Sincerely,
Ralph Waller, local business owner
Colonel John Lundberg, U.S. Army (retired), Front Royal resident