In a resounding victory for California families, parental rights advocates are celebrating the election of at least 34 pro-parental rights school board candidates across the state. This wave of success signals a growing demand for transparency, accountability, and the protection of parents’ constitutional rights to direct the upbringing of their children.
Together, we can ensure that California schools remain places of learning, transparency, and respect for parents’ God-given role in their children’s lives. As we celebrate these victories, let us remain vigilant and committed to advancing God’s design for life, family, and liberty.
Here is a list of the 34 newly elected pro-parental rights school board members. Some of these races still have votes to be counted, but the listed candidates on in the lead:
Dr. Joseph Komrosky: Temecula Valley Unified School District
Melinda Anderson: Temecula Valley Unified School District
Steve Lesch: Roseville City School District
Jonathon Zachreson: Roseville City School District
Heidi Hall: Roseville Joint Union High School District
Jeremy Jeffreys: Placer Union High School District
Emily Craig Travis: Auburn Union School District Board
Brenda YH Lebsack: Santa Ana Unified School District
Dr. Aakash Ahuja: William S. Hart Union High School District
Erin Wilson: William S. Hart High School District
Julie Hupp: Rocklin Unified School District
Rachelle Price: Rocklin Unified School District
Candy Olson: Redlands Unified School District
Diana Greene: Colfax Elementary School District
Jeannette Wilson: Redlands Unified School District
Heidi Moore: Elk Grove Unified School District
Jackie LaBarbera: Shasta County Board of Education
Teresa Roberts: Shasta County Board of Education
Steven Lewis: Golden Valley Unified School District
Julia Rinauro: Anderson Union High School District
James Na: Chino Valley Unified School District
Andrew Cruz: Chino Valley Unified School District
John Cervantes: Chino Valley Unified School District
Jennifer Adnams: Capistrano Unified School District
Lisa Zollinger: Capistrano Unified School District
Lisa Davis: Capistrano Unified School District
Tracie Thill: Santee School District
Leandra Blades: Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District
Tim Dougherty: Poway Unified School District
Lief Hansen: Fallbrook Union Elementary School District
Tom Duncan: Placer Union High School District
Jami Merchant: Corona-Norco Unified School District
April Huckabey: Orcutt Union School District
Rebekah Koznek: Atascadero Unified School District
That is good news. Local school boards should govern schools, not Sacramento or Washington. People seemed shocked that some want to eliminate the federal Department of Education. Why? I attended public schools in California before Jimmy Carter created the federal Department of Education in the late 1970’s. In the 1960s, California’s public school system was considered to be among the best in the country. Now, it’s near the worst dozen in our nation. If education has gotten worse since the Department was created, it obviously isn’t helping. And, we send tax dollars to DC, where they skim off a lot and agree to send some back to California, but, only if we follow all the federal regulations, like boys in girls’ locker rooms. Let’s keep our tax dollars in our state, counties and local school districts (and even our own pockets), where it’s more prudently spent. Remember the Catholic principle of subsidiarity.
Great post! All true– the U.S. Dept. of Education, established in 1979, is a fraud! President Ronald Reagan, who succeeded Pres. Jimmy Carter, wanted to get rid of it, too. Getting greater parental control of our School Boards, with 34 election victories, is just wonderful! There is a great deal of work ahead, to oust Satan and all his evil works, from our state. I just signed a mothers’ petition, to protest and get rid of an evil Hollywood horror movie called “Dear Santa,” which will begin playing on the streaming platform, “Paramount +,” on Nov. 25th. Makes me sick what those evil, greedy Hollywood filmmakers did, to harm America’s innocent and vulnerable children and families, and ruin their Christmas holidays! I long ago got rid of all types of cable TV. I ended TV watching and movie-going at the end of the 1960s– except for maybe one or two carefully researched, decent shows, films and documentaries, and good Faith and Family films– all rare. According to the information, the horror film, “Dear Santa,” is about a little boy who writes Santa Claus at the North Pole, and sends Santa his Christmas wish list. But the little boy misspells “Santa,” and his Christmas letter and wish list end up, evilly, with Satan—- and just like the old Satan stories in the Bible and in medieval tales— Satan makes the poor child an offer to trade his soul to Satan, for his most heartfelt wish on his Christmas list. Isn’t that just horrible? That is the most horrible thing to do, in a Christmas film, to be broadcast straight into American homes! In traditional medieval literature, Satan only tricks naughty adults– not children– with evil in their hearts, longing for deadly mortal sins of illicit sex, money, and power. They usually want to wrongfully seduce an unobtainable pretty girl. And the evil man gets his evil wish– and then, he loses his soul, and Satan grabs his victim, and takes him off to Hell. Hoping this movie, and all evil Hollywood trash, will someday be illegal, and that the horrifically corrupt Hollywood film business, harming good and decent Americans, will be completely destroyed.
There are connected diabolic themes, found all through many medieval and later literary, artistic and musical works– numerous plays, poems, stories, operas, ballets, etc. In one theme, the great, self-impressed, smart-aleck intellectual professor at a big university, who is bored, and he seeks more and more earthly knowledge, ignoring or mocking and shunning theological or religious knowledge of God, laughing at religious people and clergy. And that is his downfall. The Devil sneaks into his life, and traps him into a deadly bargain for his intellectual passion. He is a big smarty-pants, and gladly makes the bargain, and sells his soul to the Devil– for the gift of tons of earthly knowledge and power. His ego is exhilirated! Why, he is now very smart and important– he knows all things! He is smarter than God, and all laughable religious knowledge! But then, all of a sudden, the Devil grabs his dumb victim, cheated out of Eternal Life– and takes him, kicking and screaming, off to Hell. That type of story, and the version in which a soul gets cheated out of Eternal Life by selling his soul to the Devil for greedy money and power– or selling his soul to the Devil, for evil lusting after illicit sex with an unobtainable girl– and he gets his evil desire fulfilled, but loses Eternal Life with God in Heaven– are the most common themes, that I have always remembered, too, in practical life. There are famous people in many prominent professions, who exemplify these themes– and that is still true, today– especially among the highly intelligent, greatly talented– but Godless and corrupt– leftist liberals, in academia and in the arts. They exemplify very destructive sins to avoid. I vividly recall, in late January of 1973, attending a fine ballet production of “Medea.” The star of the ballet, a pretty and talented ballerina, announced afterwards, to a few friends at the reception, that she had become pregnant by her boyfriend, and was “happy” to have just had an abortion, right after Roe vs. Wade was decided. The abortion was quickly done by a doctor at a local hospital, and did not affect her dancing. Nobody had known about her pregnancy– this was a big shock! She was glad, because now, she was free to continue her ballet performances. I got chills– I was so sickened! In the Greek tragedy, Medea coldly had her maid kill her two children, so she could be free to run off with the Greek hero, Jason, her new lover. Today, I always think of “Medea,” regarding abortion.
Finally some wonderful news from California. Let’s all pray that this is the beginning of something bigger for California. Rebuild California! http://www.rebuildcalifornia.com.
If citizens want to change what is happening in public schools, they need to vote for people who stand for change. That is how a republic works. We elect representatives to represent us. Too often, people put the blame on other institutions like the Education Department which doesn’t have much influence over what happens in the classroom. The state legislature determines what goes on in the classroom and the governor appoints the state education department which has a lot of influence since it picks the curriculum and textbooks. Churchill said that Americans always do what is right after they try everything else.
That is why voting is so important. Having said that, those elected to school boards must ensure that the schools are teaching truth and not opinion.
If you know most teachers you know that they are devoted to their students and work hard to do a good job. They, however, are often constrained by the local administrators who are charged with carrying out the wishes of the school board.
Bob One– You need to get lots of good, accurate, up-to-date information, to see the ugly truth. The Dept. of Education is a liberal leftist establishment, highly corrupt, destructive to traditional American education and good family values, Christian Morality, decency, and parents’ rights. They are controlled by the radical liberal leftist activists. And they provide badly-needed funding to all American schools, K-12, and colleges, public and private– including religious schools. And the badly-needed funding is tied to strict, liberal leftist, activist government policies. For example, if you refuse to serve transgender students by not allowing them in girls’ locker rooms, bathrooms, and on girls’ sports teams, etc.– or if you “discriminate” against a gay or lesbian first grade teacher who has a lover or “spouse”– and fire her– your funding for all your programs– even your school lunch program for needy poor children– will be in jeapordy, and may be immediately cut. Did you refuse to comply with Title IX policies tied to your federal grant money? It will be swiftly cut off. Etc. The whole thing is unbelievably horrible and immoral– a great danger to children and their families. And watch out at the school library! God help us! School libraries, too, receive state and federal funding– but it is all tied to implementing whatever immoral, so-called, “non-discriminatory” evils they demand. If you refuse– the funding is cut, and you have nothing at all. It is a horrific mess! Go read about or talk to some parents who are struggling with all of these horrors in the schools– public and private, including religious schools. Funding from state and government sources is available to all types of schools. Catholic schools have received millions of dollars in aid, from government programs, since the 1960s. The Dept. of Education as well as state Depts. of Education– are a terrible mess, operated mainly by leftist liberal political activists– with NO MORAL CONSCIENCE. Go talk to some struggling parents and find out the ugly truth. The U.S. AG Office and FBI have labeled concerned American parents as “Domestic Terrorists,” for rejecting their Democrat-controlled, immoral, radical liberal activist trash.
Looks like I got a little over-reactive, writing about the issues of parents’ struggles with the state and federal Depts. of Education. Sorry! I submitted a good news article on this subject that is objective, about the reason the Trump Administration wants to end the U.S. Dept. of Education– or perhaps they will transform it, instead. Since the Dept. of Educ. was established in 1979, billions of dollars have been spent on schools– with extremely poor education outcome results. The schools have been forced to focus not on true education, but on radical liberal activist mandates to change American society to their wrongful, immoral interests. Use of wrongful, radical political leftist dogmas of CRT, DEI, Title IX, etc. to “dumb down” math and English curriculums, uphold “non-discrimination” and “rights” of feminists, Blacks, LGBTs, and so on. Mandating sex-ed curriculums, gay sex-ed curriculums, pornographic books and videos, transgenderism– secretly assisting kids to change their gender without parental knowledge, etc. Both state and federal Depts. of Education have ruined American schools, from kindergarten through grad school. Many American students are no longer proficient in traditional, basic skills of the “3R’s”– reading, writing, and math– after graduating from high school. Sorry I got a little too upset over this. The news article I submitted on this topic is much better.
I hope once Trump takes office we’ll have hundreds of thousands or millions of reasons to rejoice in the form of mass deportations of illegals from our state.
There are some huge problems, because the U.S. government is wrongfully spending millions of taxpayers’ dollars, educating and providing for all the needs of illegal immigrants’ kids. “Illegal” status is the whole problem. People who immigrate legally, are the ones eligible for help and support.
Here is a good article on why President Trump wants to close the U.S. Dept. of Education.
https://abc7ny.com/post/donald-trump-transition-news-what-eliminating-department-education-could-mean-students-schools/15559633/
Here is a good article on why President Trump wants to close the U.S. Dept. of Education. Pres. Ronald Reagan, who succeeded Pres. Jimmy Carter (who started the U.S. Dept. of Educ. in 1979) also wanted to eliminate it. A very informative article. Hope it will be printed!
https://abc7ny.com/post/donald-trump-transition-news-what-eliminating-department-education-could-mean-students-schools/15559633/
Close the schools. They are liberal indoctrination camps.
Let’s do that! Close the schools. Then what?
How will our kids compete with the rest of the world for jobs? How will our country compete with the world that wants to take us over? Who will manage the stores, the factories, invent the new technology, etc., etc.?
Don’t close the schools. Elect a different board of education in your town. Run for office, Vote. That is how you change things.
How will our children compete with the rest of the world? Is there much value left in America, for traditional education? No. For a good education in a country, you need excellent, high-quality teachers, who are well-educated, paid well, and are highly respected and valued, and high standards and hard-work expected of students, in traditional areas of English, math, science, history, etc. In recent assessments, American students ranked 20th out of 81 countries and territories. In the 20th century, with the availability of mandatory public education, American students had been improving and doing well, for the first half of the century– but dropped suddenly and sharply in 1967 (That was the horrible year of the filthy, violent, lawless “Hippie Movement” events in San Francisco– destroying California kids– and spreading like a killer virus to the rest of the country. The sickening, lawless rock “music,” dope-and-sex in the park and in the streets– worse than animals– of the immoral, irresponsible “Summer of Love” was a horror beyond belief! That nearly totally killed our country, our culture, and our education system.) Educational proficiencies continued to decline from 1967 thereon, and there was another sharp decline after the U.S. Dept. of Education was started in 1979 by Pres. Jimmy Carter– and the sharp decline continued all through the1980s, and beyond, up to this day. Millions of talented teachers, educators and administrators– at all levels– as well as those involved in curriculum design and textbook writing, all quit and left our education system, after the filthy, lawless, destructive, immoral 1960s. Today’s children also face horrible challenges because over 40% of all babies are born to out-of-wedlock, unstable, low-income mothers, and they are fatherless and suffering, in poor circumstances at home. In the schools, innocent American children are bombarded with all the evils of the 1960s filthy, lawless, hippie, liberal leftist indoctrination camps, destroying an entire country. The support for the traditionqa aal (man-woman) Marriage and Family has been destroyed, replaced by promiscuity and “shacking-up.” And the divorce rate skyrocketed after the lawless, immoral 1960s. This has had a terrible impact on American children– with highly unstable homes. Plus, there are now unprecedented hordes of immigrant students– both legal and illegal– and the population is unstable, with nmany serious problems. Guess which countries have students who out-perform all the others, in the area of mathematics? Asian countries. And immigrant Asian students often out-perform all others, in all academic areas, in American classrooms. Their ancient cultures traditionally highly value education, learning and wisdom. Best to end the ED (U.S. Dept. of Education) and offer block grants to schools (no strings attached, no requirements of DEI, CRT, LGBT or transgender garbage, etc.) Just block grants, no strings attached. And return control of U.S. schools back to the states, and to local control, with parents and School Boards. Homeschooling by dedicated parents has been a great success, to educate American children, since the evils of thec1960s. The children educated by Homeschooling in that era, now are grandparents, with several generations of successful homeschooling. Homeschooling is now very popular and highly successful.
In America, public education started individually in different states. Before that, Catholic and other private schools flourished. Massachusetts Bay Colony established a compulsory education system for settlers in 1642. And in 1852, Massachusetts was the first state to set up a compulsory public education system. By 1918, each American state had an education system set up, and public education was compulsory– but the laws were not always enforced. Not all students went all the way through school, and graduated from high school. It is a good idea to return control of American education back to the states and local School Boards and parents.
AI is going to make many jobs obsolete. Kids in school now are in for a rude awakening. They are being taught largely imminently obsolete things as well as left-wing nonsense.
Californians for the first time in decades voted down an increase in the limited wage, finally realizing that the increase does not go into the pockets of the workers and their families, but into the pockets of the left by an increase in union dues. raising the limited wage also causes layoffs.
If the younger generation votes for republicans instead of democrats we’ll be all right.
I may be naive, but I think too many people think the Department of Education has more influence than it really has. It only provides about 8% of the funds for education from pre-K through grad school. Its mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. Much of its money goes to Pell Grants. The people I know who work in the field of education tell me that the DofE does not influence their day-to-day operation. It is the local school board that controls K-12 education in this country.
Funding is tied to policy mandates– particularly, “non-discrimination,” as in revised Title IX, etc. That has all been a big issue, since the 1960s, with Civil Rights actions and policies. For a deeper knowledge, try reading on these colleges’ websites, why Hillsdale College, Christendom College, and Wyoming Catholic College refuse all funding from the U.S. Dept. of Educ. You will see the problem clearly. Throwing tons of money at failing schools, where traditional education has been ripped out and replaced by fraudulent, socialist, Godless, extremely immoral, radical liberal leftist indoctrination camps– is a huge waste of financial educational resources.
Bob One– to sum it up. the U.S. Dept. of Education is inefficient, ineffective– and in some cases, may be illegal, as the U.S. Constitution left the issue of public education up to the states
For anyone interested– here are two links to two good, recent articles on the problem with the U.S. Dept. of Education:
https://www.heritage.org/education/commentary/the-department-education-making-great-case-its-own-abolition
https://amp.miamiherald.com/opinion/article295438519.html
I don’t think current college tuition and book charges are very fair, for most middle-class students. I have known good students who took out federal student loans all through school– but then, it took them maybe ten years or more, to pay off these loans– with high interest rates. The interest rates were not as high as most credit cards– which some students have also used. But overall, I think the whole thing is not fair. Pell grants, which started in 1972, are free. But why were they needed? Because college costs went up, and we had inflation, during the era of the Vietnam War. And many boys also tried to avoid the draft, by staying in school– with some liberal, anti-war professors falsely dumbing-down their classes and grades, out of sympathy. Before that era, our culture was different, many people could get a job out of high school, marry and settle down, start families, and make a down-payment on their first home. Much nicer, economically! College was not always needed. Life was simpler. Most students that I have known, since college costs began to go up, got married, held down jobs, and started families after college. And that added extra burdens of high debt, to start off their adult lives. Not fair. Something should be done about the high cost of an education, and the burden of high student loan debt, after college— some salaries may not be high enough, for tackling all that debt– plus marriage and a growing family of children. Hope the new Trump Administration can help with all of this. Very scary, as many young married couples can no longer afford to buy a home, today. That dream is lost, sadly, for many. I have also known many young people at various Catholic parishes, who feel they cannot afford to live on their own after college, because the costs of everything are way too high, and many salaries at decent jobs are not high enough to take care of their normal needs– so they remain at home, until marriage, or until they can afford to move out. The other day, I talked to a lady who told me that her brother was paying $1800/month for his first 1-bedroom apt., after getting a good first job, after college, in Idaho. And she and her husband had found a home in Idaho with a mortgage payment of $800/month. She felt really bad for her brother. Both the lady and her husband and her brother are young, and could not afford to live in the Bay Area. Something really needs to be done, regarding these issues, in today’s world.
Public colleges and universities are no longer public. When my children attended the University of California and California State University back in the 1980s, it was almost free because the state contributed a huge piece of the cost, just as they did for K-12 and community colleges.In the meantime, salaries have gone up, administration costs are higher, and the state gives next to nothing to cover those costs.
Housing costs are higher because of inflation, which results in higher interest rates, higher material costs, and higher regulations and permit costs.
In 1985, UC annual tuition and fees were $1,296. In 2025, soon, it will be more than $50,000 per year. Up until COVID hit, college tuition increased more than the rate of inflation. Part of the reason is that government funding of college students with loans and grants allowed colleges to increase their tuitions. And, many students took out loans that some of them hoped they didn’t have to repay. The President said they wouldn’t have to. Isn’t a loan from the federal government the same as a gift? Free college! Nothing is free. Someone (some people) have to pay for it. Unless teachers are willing to teach for free and construction workers and building maintenance workers work for free (and more), there can be no free college.