Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Democrat Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal was already pushing his and the Washington Education Association’s (WEA) extreme agenda, on teachers and kids in Washington. With the schools in shutdown due to the virus, it’s obvious that Reykdal and his puppet masters, the WEA, are taking advantage of the situation to wrestle more control from parents over their kids’ education.
The WEA controls most of the state’s education curriculum and spends millions of dollars to ensure sympathetic school board members and elected officials are on their side (and giving them more money). By controlling the curriculum, they can push an agenda that increases their power and membership dues. For the WEA, it’s not about the kids, it’s about more money for the union.
Reykdal received massive amounts of cash from unions in his last campaign, the highest amount coming from the WEA. Those donations are to make sure he parrots the WEA party line, and they seem to work.
Taking political correctness to a ridiculous level, Reykdal the ‘supe’ started out the year by drafting a sex-ed bill, Senate Bill 5395, that would start with kindergarten kids. You’ll have to read the material yourself here, as Shift considers itself family friendly and won’t be publishing the content online. The majority of Washington parents think sex-ed should be taught in schools, but when they see the proposed material, that position changes quickly.
Thousands of parents called and emailed their opposition to the bill while it was in the legislature, but the Democrat lawmakers voted to pass it anyway.
Hundreds of parents then called for Democrat Governor Inslee to veto the bill, which he gave approximately 2 seconds of consideration to before signing it into law.
Outraged parents organized a ballot measure effort and collected 266,000 signatures to repeal the new law. The measure qualified and will be coming to a ballot near you this November.
Now in the fourth month of coronavirus lockdown, parents are beginning to realize that we need alternate ways to educate our kids outside of the traditional state-funded school system. Washington, unfortunately due to the amount of control the special interest groups exert over the superintendent’s office, hasn’t developed robust alternate education systems, as that would draw money away from the WEA’s coffers.
This despite the fact that Washington is one of three states that zero high schools successfully graduated all of their students.
It’s obvious the system isn’t working when Reykdal removed a failing grade as an option this year, since the schools can’t provide the education the parents are paying for. This is born out of Reykdal’s irrational fear of not being fair to all students and being accused of inequality.
Speaking of paying for schools – if the schools are closed, shouldn’t the parents get a refund? Some parents want to keep their kids home permanently and this is sending a shockwave through Reykdal’s and the WEA’s plans.
Only when Reykdal realized that keeping the schools closed until 2021, might encourage parents to look for other education options, did he hastily reverse his earlier decision. Now the schools will be reopening in the fall, ensuring continued members‘ dues for the WEA.
The contempt shown by both Reykdal and the WEA towards parents trying to get a good education for their kids is palpable. His recent comments, comparing parents that want to teach their own kids or send them to a non-public school with flat earthers, illustrates the lack of respect held by the highest educator in the state.
Chris Reykdal should receive an F for his job performance but won’t because he has outlawed failing grades.
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