Dear editor,
Rick Lohr is right in his comments about various political and religious groups attempting to influence our public education system.
Even our Congressional representative says he is concerned about teachers “indoctrinating” our students with radical ideas.
Our public education system is a bedrock to our democratic government and civil society. Our teachers work extremely hard to motivate students, deal with problem kids, and make their course material interesting and relevant. Our grandson is doing just that in his first year of teaching. (How many of us can say they were inspired along the way by a dedicated teacher?)
We must push back against these groups and political factions who want to change public education to conform to their beliefs — or to destroy it altogether.
One step we could take to get rid of “at large” school board elections, wherein a group of like-minded individuals can run together and essentially take over the board. We saw this last week in Kiel, Wisconsin, where such a group attempted to fire the superintendent.
In my opinion, it would be much better if each district or ward within a school district elected a school board representative — just the way we elect our council representatives. This would take a change in state law, I understand, and political blocs could still form, but at least the school board would be answerable to the people.
Jim Force of Wausau
Editor’s note: Wausau Pilot & Review gladly publishes commentary from readers, residents and candidates for local offices. The views of readers and columnists are independent of this newspaper and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wausau Pilot & Review. To submit, email [email protected] or mail to 500 N. Third St., Suite 208-8, Wausau, Wis. 54403.
