Pop quiz for school boards and candidates

Since schools are back in session, and school board elections are taking place, it’s time to discuss what’s happening — and isn’t happening — in our local public schools. 

Parents might be surprised — and taxpayers stunned — to learn what’s happening in the classroom and how budgets are growing. How things often were intentionally, radically, purposefully changed over the last five to ten years.

Lower standards. Falling test scores. More “sex education,” much sooner. Bigger budgets. More administrators. Parents ignored at best, pushed away at worst. “Gender” discussions, and men in girls’ bathrooms and sports. 

This is especially true in the suburbs (more so than Philadelphia, and certainly more than rural communities), where our children are being used as political pawns to advance an ideology, and, treated like subjects in a sociological study. It’s a tragedy.

Public schools matter to your community, our economy, and our nation — whether you have children currently attending or not. Attend a school board meeting and pose questions. Quiz candidates. Here are some suggested questions: grading to curriculum; budgets to staffing. Our tax dollars at work — or maybe not.

Regarding Academics: What percentage of students do not meet grade level work, according to state test scores? How do scores compare to five or ten years ago? Are our students learning as much now as ten or 20 years ago? How does our district measure up amongst the 500 districts in Pennsylvania? Nationally? How does that ranking compare to five or ten years ago? 

Regarding Curriculum: Compared to five (or ten or 20) years ago: Have they ever — and are they still — teaching CRT/DEI type programs? Are they dividing students into “victims” and “oppressors?” Do teachers refer to the white students as “privileged?” How much less time are students spending in the classroom, compared with five or ten years ago?

How are the Founding Fathers portrayed? Do teachers teach students that there’s a climate crisis? Are high school students taught about socialism, and how is that presented?

Do they assign, recommend, or offer extra credit for sexually explicit and graphic “sex-education” or “gender awareness” books? If so, at what grade are they assigned to students? Do teachers read them aloud in the classroom — or call on students to read them? If so, at what grade?

Regarding Grades: When do your schools begin assigning and distributing report cards? How does that compare to five or 20 years ago? For high school students, do they still have class ranking — if not, when did it end? Do they have honors classes; if not, when did they end, or when were the numbers reduced? Do they announce/celebrate National Merit Finalists; if not, when did that end?

Do they encourage — or tolerate — grade inflation? What’s the average GPA in each grade, and is it higher than five or 20 years ago?

Do math or science teachers give positive grades for “close enough” test answers? Do teachers assign deadlines for projects and reports — are points deducted for assignments turned in late? Is homework assigned to students; if so, at what grade is homework first assigned?

In other words, are students challenged and held accountable? Are students encouraged to pursue excellence — to reach their highest potential?

College and trade schools. Do high school counselors and teachers make students aware of opportunities in the trades, alternatives to college, alternative career paths? Or are all students urged to go to college?

Regarding bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports: Are our schools following common sense, decency and responsibility — and the White House Executive Order — making sure that only biological girls use the girls’ lockers and bathrooms? Are girls protected from men playing in girls’ sports? And, if that’s been corrected, were they doing it in the past?

Regarding budgets, taxes, and staffing. Have district budgets grown faster than inflation? How much faster? How many officials work in the district headquarters — how does that compare to 2020? Ten years ago? Is the percentage of the budget spent on administration growing faster than the portion spent on teachers over the last year? The last five years?

How much will taxes be increased this year? Last year? Over the last five years?

Regarding parents. Does your district have a policy of keeping secrets from parents? Is keeping secrets encouraged? Tolerated? Do they have — or have they had — students who allege “gender identity” issues that they’ve kept from parents? Do they allow students to have different gender names at school — different than their parents’ assigned names? Do they allow students to change outfits at school — e.g., are biological male students allowed to change into female clothing, assume a female alternative first name? 

Are students encouraged to keep information from parents — confiding in teachers or counselors, rather than parents: about grades, pregnancies, sexual preferences, gender issues?

School district budgets are growing — many faster than the rate of inflation. Most districts are raising taxes to keep up with this increased spending. And much of the growth is being spent on an increasing number of officials working at headquarters with compensation packets in 6-figures.

In many districts, proficiency rates are stagnant or falling — and many more have scores below where they were five, ten, and 20 years ago. At the same time, standards in the classroom are falling; excellence is no longer pursued or celebrated and “everybody gets a trophy” — at least a “B.”

Worst of all, students are being used as political pawns — CRT, men in women’s sports and bathrooms. Graphic “sex education” is being pushed into lower and lower grades. And parents are being ignored or pushed away.

It’s long past time for us to ask questions and demand answers — of incumbents and candidates.

Our kids are not all right. And we’re paying the price — as parents, taxpayers and a nation.

Guy Ciarrocchi is a Senior Fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation. A commentator, he writes for Broad + Liberty and RealClear Pennsylvania. Follow Guy at @PaSuburbsGuy.