Recently, it came to my attention that the Republican Party, working in conjunction with a group that originally called itself the Family Advocacy Alliance (FAA), recruited school board candidates for Talbot County. We, the citizens of Talbot, need to be aware that the FAA got its start as an anti-VAX, anti-mask, anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) organization. It is also critical for you to know that this group and these candidates are enthusiastic supporters of Dan Cox and Gordana Schifanelli.
In the past few months, the FAA has promoted the formation of a local chapter of a national group called The Moms For Liberty, who recently tweeted the following, in reference to a New Hampshire law that will fire and remove the license of public school teacher if anyone successfully complains said teachers are teaching CRT. “We’ve got $500 for the person that first successfully catches a public-school teacher breaking this law. Students, parents, teachers and school staff…We want to know! We will pledge anonymity if you want.”
There is a saying, “What you do speaks so loudly in my ear, I cannot hear what you say.” No matter how loudly the FAA proclaims themselves patriots, their actions betray that word. Founding a chapter of a national radical organization in Talbot is a divisive act meant to turn us against one another and perhaps one day having us turn in one another in for bounties.
We, the exhausted majority, want to move past the ugliness of the past four years. We want to get to a place where we may disagree civilly, restore our faith in experts, like teachers, and where parents are welcomed in schools as partners. Candidates recruited by local people who preach fear and division will mire us even more deeply in the muck of
lies, fears and division.
So, I have looked for the School Board Candidates to support. It’s tough to know who to vote for because there are four races in four different districts. So, you may or may not have a school board candidate on your ballot. By lucky coincidence, the School Board Candidates who best represent our Eastern Shore values of generosity, service and caring for neighbors in need all have a last name ending in “son.” Jymil Thompson is running in District 1. Amy Dodson is running in District 3. Emily Jackson is running in District 4. Jay Hudson is running in District 7. If you would like to move us forward at a time when our schools have serious challenges, vote for one of the “Sons”of Talbot for the Board of Education if an election contest is on your ballot.
Tori Paxon
Easton
Philip Sayre says
Well said! It is important to know the background of those running for school board office. The four candidates mentioned — whose names coincidentally end in “son” — are reasonable and thoughtful people who have no hidden agenda, just the desire to support the school system and children.
Reed Fawell 3 says
Our article writer says: “We, the exhausted majority, want to move past the ugliness of the past four years. We want to get to a place where we may disagree civilly, restore our faith in experts, like teachers, and where parents are welcomed in schools as partners. Candidates recruited by local people who preach fear and division will mire us even more deeply in the muck of lies, fears and division.”
Yes, and that last sentence needs to include teachers unions and the federal Department of Justice that, after shutting down public schools for the last two years while sucking up ever more Federal dollars, now try to label parents who object to school board policies that have been labeling white kids as systemic racists while ruining all of our kids education for decades, as terrorist who should be subject to arrest.
Mickey Terrone says
If CRT is being taught in Talbot County schools, where is the proof? What is your definition of CRT? If you can’t or won’t explain your claim, then you are simply fear mongering. If unions are Marxist, where is your proof? If you claim that schools were shut down for two years, you are either wrong or willfully prevaricating. Schools adapted to provide on-line classes to students from Grades 1 through 12. They worked to ensure internet was available to most everyone. They worked to protect children via masking as much or as little as the varying cases of infection required. Parents who howled about masking children had no better way of protecting them and their families from spreading the COVID-19 virus. These utterly irresponsible and baseless complaints about masking would have endangered millions of children – and their family members nationwide were it not for highly responsible school systems.
Radical fringe groups make loud, absurd claims without having to prove their opinions. They are doing the equivalent of shouting “fire” in a crowded movie theater – and then asking the theater-goers to vote for them.
Voting for extremists who claim the 2020 election was a fraud without any evidence and with 60+ failed lawsuits are not worthy of holding office anywhere in this country. Voting for Andy Harris after he refused to vote to certify the Electoral College vote on January 6th, 2021 is supportive of Harris’ act of treason.
I trust that minimal numbers of Independent voters and many dismayed Republicans will reject these extremists and vote Democrat right down the ballot. Most of us are smart enough to distinguish wild, unsupported claims from reality. Numerous Republicans to whom I have spoken are saddened and genuinely disappointed at the radicalism of the party as expressed in Trumpism and completely unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and howling claims of CRT. I trust a clear majority of non-Democrats will not suppport this radical Republican slate of candidates.
Eva M. Smorzaniuk says
Thank you Ms. Paxon for bringing this to light. Behind its benign name, the FAA is promoting a radical right wing agenda that moderates of any political party would have a hard time agreeing with. I agree wholeheartedly that children and communities will flourish when there is partnership between parents and teachers. Targeting and criminalizing teachers is often the strategy of an oppressive government
Sarah Sayre says
The schools don’t need outside agitators. The teacher’s job is hard enough!
Anne Stalfort says
Thanks. I voted for my “son” candidate.
Mary Hunt-Miller says
Thank you Tori for your thoughtful letter. I agree that we, in Talbot County, don’t need assistance from any political group to help us determine what is best for our children and our schools. I would find it extremely concerning to have a bounty placed on teachers. Their performance should be monitored, as it always has, by their superiors (principals, parents and school boards) and not by any outside person incentivized by the promise of a monetary reward. I believe that the individuals who go into teaching are largely motivated simply by a love of children and learning. Their job is not easy and they need our support not our suspicions.
David Lloyd says
Could not agree more with this commentary. Shameful that Republicans are willing to stoop to such low levels. Very sad and scary!!
Reed Fawell 3 says
Do these commenters appear to be highly defensive, i.e. to protest too much?
If so, might they protest to much by reason of these statistics found here:
https://www.publicschoolreview.com/find-schools-by-zipcode/21601/25/none/0/0
Michael Pullen says
Does this comment deflect and attack by innuendo? Does Mr. Reed think that’s the point, because the statistics he uses don’t support his point. He has none.
Mickey Terrone says
Clearly, Mr. Fawell cannot respond to the challenge to document any evidence of CRT being taught in our schools nor can he document any evidence of any negative effect of any alleged CRT in our schools. He can’t document any evidence of a Marxist takeover. This is why self-proclaimed “patriot” parents who continue to make utterly unsubstantiated claims can properly be labeled fringe elements, even as they continue to ignore reality while they rant. Considering that some of these same people support Cox/Harris’ debunked claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election and QAnon theories and support the January 6th insurrection (like Andy Harris), is it any wonder why cannot be believed? No reasonable excuse for any Democrat, Independent or Republican to vote for people who ignore reality like this in our US Congress, in our State Legislature, or on our County Council or School Board.
Reed Fawell 3 says
Frequently, we all are unable to see what is in front of our noses, and indeed the air we breath,and the water we swim in.
As regards public schools in Talbot and Dorchester Counties, the air we breath, and the water we and our children swim in, include these realities:
https://www.publicschoolreview.com/find-schools-by-zipcode/21601/25/none/0/0
These statistics are real, and scandalous. These statistics are destroying our children and their future, and the future of the generations that follow in their wake.
We know how to fix these problems because alternatives to our broken public schools here are now succeeding every day all over the country. We need to spread the word about our growing numbers of highly competent schools and educational programs elsewhere, and deploy their proven solutions to Talbot County and nearby places.
Time is of the essence. Our children’s lives hang in the balance.
Ideology is not the solution here. Indoctrination kills off education. Indoctrination in lieu of education in reading, writing and math, poisons minds young and old, including the minds of would be teachers. This is a major part of our problem, and its failing our children miserably, as these statistics clearly show, and have been showing for decades. The time has come to fix it.