Time for school board to be conservative

Submitted by Dona Becker
Posted 11/1/22

Dear Editor: 

I am writing in response to a couple letters in the Oct. 27 edition of the Powell Tribune, the Powell Tribune’s In Our Opinion by Dave Bonner and Greg Borcher’s …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Time for school board to be conservative

Posted

Dear Editor: 

I am writing in response to a couple letters in the Oct. 27 edition of the Powell Tribune, the Powell Tribune’s In Our Opinion by Dave Bonner and Greg Borcher’s Letter to the Editor, both in regards to the Powell School Board race. Dave brings up the fact that the board is a non-partisan race and Greg says that “Our public schools are not to be politicized…” and that they “represent ALL students.” I’m sorry but I believe that the time for all races to be non-partisan is over, but I will stick to the school board for now. Sadly, it is a fact that our schools are politicized. That happens organically when one party pushes an agenda and the other pushes back against it.

Greg also says that “…there is a lot of misinformation being circulated in our community as to what is or isn’t being taught in our schools. Most of it comes from people who read stuff on the internet and then repeat it as if it were happening in our schools.” Yes, we do see a LOT of scary stuff happening in schools around this nation, but we are NOT immune in Wyoming. Do a search for “library books” in Cowboy State Daily and you’ll find plenty of articles about the vulgar books in schools across our state. Cody has had complaints brought about four books this year. There were various issues with the books: profanity (which Cody has a policy against), underage drinking, pot smoking, porn, rape, and Marxist CRT. Four of those complaints lost with the Book Committee and three lost on appeal to the school board. (The fourth hasn’t had its appeal.) Why? I don’t think everyone agrees that the things I listed are OK for kids to read about. Maybe they weren’t taken out of the library because none of the people on the complaint committee and school board were conservative. I don’t know but I’d like to test it. Let’s get true conservatives, ones who aren’t afraid to say that they don’t think kids should read porn, on these school boards and then see what happens.

I’m disappointed in Wyoming. We can’t seem to get ahead of an issue. We just react after. There was a bill to stop mask mandates and masks being put on children during Covid. The bill was laughed at in committee and it was said, “That will never happen here.” Well, as we know, it did. SF0051, Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, wasn’t passed in the last legislature because it’s not a problem here in WY. Why do we have to wait until something is a problem? Let’s get true conservatives on the school board that have already said that they don’t agree with the issues that are coming up across the country and put laws and regulations in place to prevent them from happening here.

For some issues, it becomes a matter of picking a side. There is no middle ground in letting transgender kids play in the sport of their preferred sex, letting transgender women in girls’ locker rooms and restrooms, and whether curating porn is book banning. At one time those matters were not political. There was a consensus on them. It made sense to have non-partisan elections but now the issues are very political and fall according to party lines. One party says yes to all those things, one says no.

You received two different voting guides regarding the Powell school board. If you’ve gone to any of the candidate forums, you know which side each slate takes on the issues. Now, the choice is up to you.

Dona Becker

Powell

Comments