If there is a silver lining to covid, it is the exposure of the corrupt underbelly of public education. Our children’s lives have been devastated at the behest of the all-powerful teachers’ unions, and many parents are fed up. Are bureaucrats and school boards listening? Generally not. For the most part, they are in the pockets of the unions.
A case in point: Oakley Union Elementary School District, in northern California:
A northern California school board discussed ways to limit the public’s ability to speak at meetings and mocked parents who desperately want schools to reopen.
“They want their babysitters back,” Lisa Brizendine, a trustee of Oakley Union Elementary School District, told her colleagues during a pre-meeting session that they believed was not open to the public.
School board member Kim Beede mentioned a negative interaction with some frustrated parents? a frustrated parent, then described her own mindset: “Bitch, if you are going to call me out, I am going to fuck you up.”
Another member of the board theorized that parents want their kids to go back to school so they can spend the day getting high.
Lovely. How ridiculous–parents wanting teachers to actually do the jobs for which they are being paid.
The board did not respond to a local reporter’s request for comment.
I’ll bet they didn’t. It is interesting, though, to learn that at least one school board member considers her teachers to be babysitters. Maybe she has a point. Our public schools are so bad that if they successfully babysit kids through the day, they are probably average or better. The catch, of course, is that if they are running a babysitting service, our teachers and school administrators are grossly overpaid.
Via InstaPundit.
PAUL ADDS: I agree with John that there is a silver lining to the pandemic here. Post-pandemic, I think public school enrollment will decline, surely a good thing. I expect that the standing of teachers in the public’s estimation will also decline significantly — another good development.
UPDATE: The entire Oakley Union school board has resigned.
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