Candidate Responses
What do you believe is the fundamental role of education?
I believe that any kind of education whether public, or private, should be geared toward the perfection of a child’s intellect, will, and moral outlook, and it should provide the tools needed to participate in a civil society as a functional adult.
How would you promote rigorous academic instruction and excellence in your school district?
As it stands, Post Falls schools have generally low test scores across the board, which leads me to believe that the curriculum that is currently implemented in our schools is deficient.
I believe that by removing Common Core and its derivatives like SEL, and replacing them with a more traditional curriculum, will go a long way in helping our students achieve academic excellence.
How do you define Critical Race Theory? When implemented in school policies and curriculum, do you think Critical Race Theory differs from simply “teaching history?”
Critical Race Theory (CRT) teaches students to hold one another in derision based on their race. Curriculum based on CRT teaches students to view White children with contempt, for certain perceived wrongs, while at the same time teaching non-White students that they should not even try to excel in the classroom because they will be “held down,” regardless of their individual effort, by a fictitious “White supremacist society.”
The educational atmosphere created by these programs hinders students ability to excel in the classroom.
Critical Race Theory is the praxis, or application of Critical Theory to a particular subject. This means that teachers who have implemented CRT in their classrooms are teaching history through the lens Critical Theory with a special emphasis on race, and is distinct from a traditional history class.
I am unequivocally opposed to Critical Theory in all its forms and applications, especially CRT.
How do you define Social Emotional Learning (SEL)? Would you encourage the implementation of any SEL model in your school district? If so, which model and why?
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs seek to substitute parents with teachers and school counselors to provide for the student's "emotional needs." SEL undermines traditional Christian morality in favor of "group norms" and is a form of state-sponsored secular (and relative) morality.
Post Falls schools have already adopted SEL as a part of its curriculum, and when I am elected to the board of trustees, I will see to it that we remove SEL from our schools.
How would you respond to the Idaho State Board and Department of Education’s recent dissemination of resources such as the SEL Roadmap for Reopening Schools, which argues that schools should adopt anti-racist practices, focus on social justice, and conduct staff-wide implicit bias trainings? Should teachers be required to attend these kinds of trainings?
I would respond by pointing out that "social justice" and "implicit bias" are both explicitly left-wing political talking points designed to promote division among students and teachers along racial lines. I would also call attention to the fact that the CASEL Roadmap for Reopening calls for the collection of our children's data, and is sponsored by groups such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
Our teachers should not be attending any of these kinds of trainings, and I would do all in my power to kick Big Tech and these left-wing NGO's out of our schools.
Should your school district be required to teach a sex education curriculum? If so, should this curriculum include instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity? Should parents and guardians be required to provide consent before their children participate in any sex education curriculum?
School districts should not be required to teach sex-ed, and I am in fact opposed to classes like this outright. It is the parents responsibility to educate their children in these sensitive matters.
We have all seen the disgusting and even pornographic content that has been included in classes like this across the country, and we should not allow our public institutions to corrupt and pervert our kids morals under the guise of "sex-ed."
Parents and guardians should be required to opt-in to any programs like this.
How should school districts respond to the Idaho School Boards Association’s recommendation that transgender students be allowed to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify?
School districts should respond by re-asserting the immutable truth that there are men and women, and that these characteristics are non-fungible. As such, biological males will be expected to dress like men and use the men's restroom, and biological females will be expected to dress like women and use the women's restroom.
Do you support mask mandates in schools as a COVID-19 mitigation strategy? Do you support implementation of any other policies or practices designed to mitigate the effects of COVID-19?
I do not support mask mandates or "social distancing" in schools, and I am opposed to any kind of mandatory vaccination programs as a requirement for enrollment.