Early loathing

By Steve Woodward

I am not an advocate of so-called early voting, and certainly not marathon early voting. Moore County citizens are afforded 15 days to vote “early” in this primary season, February 15 through March 2.

The premise of voting ahead of Election Day (March 5) is that we live in a world of citizens who are drowning in “popular culture” delivered by a relentless social media fire hose. So consumed are they by Taylor Swift, mRNA booster guidance, climate change initiatives and TikToking, only repeated prompting by an early voting countdown clock can compel them to exercise their rights as American citizens to vote in free elections. 

Among retirees of a certain age the conventional wisdom is that voting early ahead of the Election Day rush is prudent in the same way that it’s sensible to avoid buying green bananas.

But by far the worst aspect of early voting is that it encourages a long running high school student body election scenario. During the interminable slog toward the final hour in which the last votes are counted (or so we assume, often naively, they’re counted) our candidates are afforded plenty of time to record radio ads, design unreadable yard and roadside signs, publish word-salad print advertisements and appeal to voters as they parade by the electioneering penalty box outside of two antiquated voting sites — one in Carthage, another in Southern Pines (where bathrooms were out of order all day on February 27 in the Southern Pines Land Trust’s rundown “community center” gymnasium). 

Like high schoolers vying to lead the student government association, our local candidates for board of education accuse their opponents’ surrogates of relocating, even stealing, campaign signs. Stationed alongside various tents at the voting sites the candidates spew empty rhetoric about everything except the issues actually plaguing public education. 

What is clear to anyone paying attention amid this marathon voting season is how deeply local Democrats despise the current school board. After achieving a 6-1 ideological majority in November 2022, and with a newly hired superintendent anxious to get to work, the new board set forth fiscally conservative priorities and classroom reforms aimed at improved learning by focusing on fundamentals — reading, math and discipline, to name the top three.

Democrats, including parents of Moore County Schools students, could not conceal their rage when a policy was voted into place that requires our students to read books and submit written reports detailing their comprehension. Their heads exploded when the board adopted a parents’ bill of rights intended to end the specter of administrators and teachers enabling children intent on keeping secrets from mom and dad. The policy recognizes the essential role of parents in raising and educating their children.

It’s unfortunate that a policy was required to enforce what should be common sense. But our poisoned culture finds increasing numbers of educators who believe they are obligated to help children embrace gender dysphoria and seemingly inevitable gender transitioning.  

Our tormented, angry local Democrats and the candidates they are supporting cried foul, of course. They lecture sternly that everything that happens behind the closed doors of a public school must be orchestrated by the “professionals” — administrators and teachers. They lament that teachers will quit their jobs if some overzealous mom dares to tell them what to do, or what not to do. They claim their is a “teacher shortage” because of a school board that addresses obvious red flags — vulgar books in school libraries, for one, or kids who arrive at school appearing to have just rolled out of bed or, in extreme cases, a ditch.

Democrats advise that the way to “fix” the schools is to elect a board controlled by ex-teachers and administrators, even though these are the people who, during the past decade, presided over plunging reading and math proficiencies, lax disciplinary measures and profligate spending of taxpayers’ dollars.

Consider these nuggets appearing in Democrat letters published in February 28 editions of The Pilot, the same Pilot that recent eviscerated school board member Ken Benway, a military veteran who believes the inmates should not run the asylums that many public schools nationally have become.

“Looking at the slate of candidates available this time around, there are far more qualified individuals to consider, who are not ideologically driven and have real-world (emphasis added) experience in our local education system.”

“Pointing the finger at students, teachers, legislators and, finally, each other has done nothing, except drive quality teachers to retire or relocate and compromise education. Please don’t fall for scare tactics or re-elect pretenders.”

“What has been delivered by the current board is wasted time and money to control pronouns, ban books and try to force children to wear uniforms.”

“As a former educator myself, it is also disturbing to watch the board overruling professional curricular decisions through mandated book reports and book banning.”

“Moore County Schools should provide the highest quality education for all students.”

That statement is particularly rich. Before voting — hurry, only five days remain — here’s the question every school board candidate must answer: When the next, inevitable, health crisis arrives, will you tolerate indefinite school closures, masking and mandatory mRNA shots in arms? Or will you defy tyrannical mandates?

“Educators” who cowered in fear amid pandemic hysteria across 2020, 2021 and 2022, imposed devastating learning loss and mental health declines from which many children have not recovered to this day. In fact, some never will.