Name, town: Judy Newton, Holden
Position sought: Representative to the Wachusett Regional School District School Committee.
When I served on the school committee in the early 2000’s, WRSD was ranked the top regional school district in the state, while Massachusetts itself was ranked No. 1 for public education in the country. We were rightfully proud of that distinction.
Fifteen years later, WRSD has fallen to 64th in the state. Why is this drop in educational excellence happening?
Let’s take a look at the results of the annual Panorama survey, a national test that measures student attitudes about their school experience, as compared to students at other schools across the United States. The trend is unmistakable: By the time our children are in high school, their sense of feeling valued —of being respected for who they are — is rock bottom, the lowest percentile nationwide. Why do they become more and more demoralized as they move through the school system? Worse yet, why is this alarming trend being ignored?
To get to the bottom of this, we must have access to the curriculum itself. Absurdly, we the taxpayers are not allowed to even look at the materials used to educate and influence our kids. This has to change. But how? The first step is to form a Parent Advisory Board to oversee the curriculum for every school in the district. We must evaluate the negative impact of this so-called “social justice” framework that is being forced on our children by the national teachers’ unions via the Department of Education.
We must also recognize that our teachers are but pawns to the union bosses who are calling the shots. Reduced to middlemen who are themselves indoctrinated and coerced into promoting falsehoods as facts, our once-esteemed teachers are also victims of this distorted system and need our support. But not as members on any school committee. They have a clear conflict of interest that disqualifies them from serving objectively in that role.
Make no mistake: the powerful, controlling interests do not like their iron grip on education to be challenged. I am already being smeared on social media by my opponent’s supporters. But as a mother and grandmother, retired from a career in finance, I feel it is my duty to step up, speak out and once again serve this community, which has given me and my family so much.
Please vote for me on Monday, May 8, to take back our schools.
