By Steve Levy
A May 12 Newsday letter (“Don’t let ‘fox’ into school chicken coop”) from a former teachers’ union leader labeling community based ideological school board candidates as being foxes in the chicken coop is the height of hypocrisy.
The letter was prompted by recent articles regarding grassroots campaigns by parents running for school boards to ensure that Critical Race Theory and anti-American curriculum are not foisted upon our children.
The letter writer complains that this will lead to school boards being hotbeds of discussion between the right and the left or various ideologies.
Obviously, this union leader wants to keep the status quo, wherein most school boards are controlled by candidates who do the bidding for the unions regarding contract negotiations, closing our schools during Covid, or unnecessarily mandating masks on our children.
The union leader is fine with his union giving donations to board members who will vote on his salary. While in the private sector that would get you arrested, in the public sector it’s considered perfectly acceptable.
Actually, it’s why our property taxes are amongst the highest in the nation.
And now there is an effort by regular taxpayers to have some skin in the game. Oh, how this is giving vapors to the union leaders who have maintained a lock on our school systems.
They indeed were the foxes watching the chicken coop. What an incredible lack of self awareness that they would use that actual term to deny parents and taxpayers from having a say on the school boards.
Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of “The Steve Levy Radio Show.” He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com