Right to Win Ozarks has produced an online resource for citizens who want more information about the issues in our local libraries. It includes background information, resources, and positive steps for bringing change to our library system.
While not an exhaustive resource, the MERRI Book is designed to be an educational tool that allows anyone to access as little or as much information as they want. It is meant to be freely shared and we hope it proves to be a helpful aid.
School boards DO have a lot of power. When they give up their power by submitting to the MSBA's decrees, our children are harmed and school boards become the tool of powers that are bent on implementing policies that reach far beyond the classroom.
The
Missouri School Boards Association (MSBA), a private quasi-governmental
organization whose purpose is to assist Missouri school boards, recently
held their 2023 Fall Delegate Assembly.
The
MSBA works in conjunction with other state-level professional
organizations and alongside the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education (DESE) to implement top-down agendas that are not only in
direct conflict with local control, but seek to implement and
advocate for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), Social Emotional
Learning (SEL) and Critical Race Theory (CRT).
With
a 2023-2024 revenue budget of over $12 million (some of which is in
the form of federal tax dollars), the MSBA is a powerful presence in
Missouri schools. According to their own explanation, “Since 1936,
MSBA has been the unified voice of school board members throughout
the state.”
Why
would school board members in Ozark want to have a unified
voice with school board members in St. Louis or Kansas City? Why
would local school board members want a unified voice with
those in any other locale for that matter? One unified voice for all
Missouri school board members is not local control.
Just
the tip of the School Borg, the MSBA is a full-service provider:
“MSBA
offers Basic and Full Maintenance policy
services to our member districts. Our team of experienced policy
editors and lawyers will work with your district to develop policies
that drive excellence.”
If you look at MSBA-member school boards across the state you will indeed see a uniform structure of policies and guidelines that are amazingly...unified. Certifications,
training, resources, personnel, financial services, business
connections, education safety, emergency operations, and legal aid are
some of what the MSBA offers. It’s a one-stop shop that makes it
easy for school boards to justify paying membership fees that reach
into the thousands of dollars annually.
If
your local school board is seeking a new superintendent, the MSBA is happy to provide candidates. The MSBA’s school
board policies also hand over most of the school board’s authority
to superintendents.
In the video below Ozark School Board members Amber Bryant and Guy Callaway at the Nov. 16, 2023 Ozark School
Board meeting, advocate for school personnel control by the superintendent and not
the school board. Involving a new position, that of Human Resources Executive Director, discussion included who the new director would report to. Board Member Christina Tonsing suggested that the board might have oversight over this employee and not the superintendent. She reasoned that if there was an issue with the superintendent, there was nowhere for staff to resort since the position would be under the direct supervision of the superintendent.
This policy puts the superintendent, an employee of the school board, in a position of authority so complete that there is little to no recourse for school employees who may have issues with the superintendent. Board member Amber Bryant stated, "The only person who reports to the board is the superintendent." Callaway concurred. "I don't think they should report directly to the board," he said.
Interestingly, Bryant is the human resources director for Christian County. She reports to a "board," the citizen-elected Christian County Commissioners. Why wouldn't the elected Ozark School Board provide for a similar personnel structure? They have voluntarily given their authority to a non-elected individual. It is well known that Ozark school employees have been victims of this structure in the past. You can read about them here.
Readers should know that the policy Bryant stated is simply that, a policy. It does not have the force of law. The school board could easily adopt a policy that allows for certain other employees to report to the board, thus placing ultimate authority in personnel matters to the board and not the superintendent--a non-elected position. Here is the Missouri Statute regarding how school boards govern.
The video below is prompted to the discussion at around 47 minutes:
This is what 18 hours of MSBA training will get
taxpayers—school control in the hands of administrative staff and
not the elected school board.
It
is organizations like the MSBA, working alongside state government
agencies, that have created a veritable Borg system of rules,
regulations, and guidelines that drain away local control, and put
power in the hands of state-level trade organizations and often handpicked administrators instead of
elected board members.
Unfortunately, it is often school board members who are unwilling to utilize their authority for the good of the students and staff that allow for the MSBA to control what happens in local schools.
Guy Callaway & Patty Quessenberry, Ozark School Board members
MORE ON THE MSBA BORG
The
MSBA Assembly is held annually. Member delegates gather to confirm the
MSBA’s annual budget, its advocacy position proposals, give
reports, adopt the agenda, and other business. Although the MSBA is a
voluntary organization, it rules school board members through a
maze of guidelines and regulations that are enforced on the local
level by ignorant and/or complicit school boards.
Throughout
the MSBA’s 2023
delegate
handbook is a constant drumbeat for increased taxes. In fact, in
their first policy proposal, the MSBA advocates for “Adequate
and Equitable Public School Funding...MSBA supports increasing state
revenues available to adequately fund public education by
bringing certain taxes on tobacco, e-cigarettes, imitation tobacco or
cigarette products, recreational marijuana, alcohol and
alcohol-related products, and internet sales to a level
consistent with the national average.”
Regardless
of the desired tax on marijuana and internet sales, the word
“equitable” is the word to focus on. This is the term that
Marxists use to take money from one group and distribute it to
another group. Now
just remember, that approximately 75% of property taxes go to fund
public schools in our local school districts. But this isn’t
enough for the MSBA. They come right out and say this about the
current tax on tobacco products:
“The
recreational marijuana-specific tax rate is not currently used to
fund public schools. The Missouri Constitution specifies that the
taxes are used for a) administration costs, b) the costs of expunging
criminal records for marijuana-related offenses, c) costs of health
care and other services to military veterans and their families, d)
to increase access to drug addiction treatment, overdose prevention
education, and job placement, housing and counseling for those with
substance use disorders, and e) to provide legal assistance for low-
income Missourians through the Missouri public defender system.”
The
MSBA wants to take tax dollars away from military veterans and their
families, treatment for drug addiction, and other programs for
low-income Missourians. You can’t make this stuff up.
The
handbook then moves on to the MSBA’s advocacy positions. We will
focus mainly on the highlights of their advocacy positions that
involve centralized control. Within the verbiage the word “equitable”
or “equitably” occurs at least five times regarding the funding
of public schools. The MSBA:
Supports
legislation to “fund state
and local programs to eliminate disparity in achievement among all
students.” (Utopian
silliness.)
Supports
legislation to provide “relief” to school districts that have a
“significant amount of tax-exempt property. (Like
churches and
some job-providing businesses?)
Urges
an increase in state
funding “to allow districts to provide free early childhood
education programs.” (You
can say good bye to small independent childcare businesses.)
Supports
a state
program to provide “low-interest loans to school districts during
difficult financial times.” (In
addition to the bonds and levies that taxpayers already provide?)
Supports
a “constitutional amendment permitting the increase of a school
district’s bonding capacity to 20 percent. (Let's help the taxpayer accrue more debt on the school's behalf!)
Supports
legislation exempting “public school districts from paying state
motor fuel tax for fuel consumed by school buses.”
Supports
an increase in the state
motor
fuel tax in Missouri!
That’s
just some of what you will find in the delegate handbook. It must be
noted that the MSBA also desires to have government control over tax
abatement projects, including: “School boards shall have legal
standing to participate in all phases of the process, including any
legal appeal relating to any tax abatement application for property
located in the school district...School boards shall have veto power
over their portion of any tax abatement project.”
Let’s
ponder that for a moment. The MSBA wants school boards to be able to
have legal standing over a city or county’s tax abatement
processes, including having veto power. I wonder if our tax assessor
and other elected city and county officials know about that. This
seems like an outright usurpation of the authority vested in other
elected officials.
This is the bloated, centralized tick that is sucking tax dollars from wherever it can and attempting to accrue political power wherever it can.
Moving
on, the MSBA:
Supports
“legislation mandating accurate real property assessments and
practices to ensure comparable assessments and practices throughout
the state.”
(So
much for local governance.)
Moving
quickly through the positions, the MSBA also advocates for a state
accreditation system that forces any schools that receive state
funding to be under the system.
States
student curriculum must be inclusive to educate the whole student.
This is DEI language.
Says
local districts can come up with goals and objectives for learning
as long they meet state
and national
standards, but then says
the local districts are not allowed to prohibit or mandate specific
curricular content. (Doublespeak.
Schoolspeak. Centralized control of curriculum.)
Wants
standardized kindergarten readiness tests.
Advocates
for state
licensing
requirements to all public preschools, as well as full certification
for all
Missouri preschool teachers.
Advocates
for a single, statewide
reporting system to be funded, for “safety” reasons.
Advocates
for a State
school safety coordinator.
Advocates
that all
students
MUST attend school until 18 or a diploma.
Wants
to require homeschooling parents to annually report to the school
district where their child(ren) reside.
Wants
more control over releasing information regarding emergency
operations, school safety hot line, and to have limited financial
penalties when schools “inadvertently” break the law.
Ozark School Board Member Patty Quessenberry, who has been a board member for 27 years, is also the president-elect of the MSBA. She has recently spoken of the MSBA in glowing terms. She has been assimilated. She is most likely running for another term on the Ozark School Board.
Nick Reed weighs in on how the Left coerces speech compliance, which leads to much more compliance in other areas. The Springfield School District and the News-Leader are rolling out the narrative/plan. See here. Can't unsee it. Listen to Nick:
At the Oct. 19, 2023 Ozark School Board meeting, a demographic report was presented to the board. You can access the slides of the report here. The News-Leader wrote about the "destination district" here.
However, a new video just dropped from Missouri Freedom Initiative. Looks like there are two sides to the data.
Setting the narrative is important in politics. We can see that in the local Springfield Board of Education race that is gearing up for election day on April 2, 2024.
Recent News-Leader articles show how a narrative is built and sold to the public. Eight people are now in the race for 2024. First, let's look at a pretty straightforward article from Oct. 24, that discusses which candidates will be running and who on the board will be running for re-election.
Not only does the article mention two previous candidates who will be running again, Landon McCarter, and Dr. Chad Rollins, but makes sure that their vote totals are mentioned. Other previous candidates who were contacted did not get the same detail, including a former incumbent who was defeated in his 2022 reelection bid. Nor are the vote totals for the winners given, which might show a closer race than many would suspect.
Perhaps it's because some of these candidates have not made a decision, or have decided against running. At any rate, there seems to be a subtle nudge there with McCarter and Rollins, both of whom seem to be excellent candidates.
Six days later on Oct. 30, is an article introducing a new PAC called "United Springfield." Watch how the narrative is building. The article starts off:
"Prominent, long-time Springfield leaders have formed a political action committee to support candidates in upcoming school board and city council races that are required by state law to be nonpartisan."
We see words like "prominent" and "long-time leaders" and "nonpartisan."
The PAC's launch was the day before packets could be picked up by potential candidates. We are told "its creation is a direct response to a dramatic increase in the participation of partisan and 'dark money' groups..."
The article goes on to say "such groups have raised significant sums of money, and sent or paid for political attack ads on TV, social media and through text messages."
PAC co-chair Jim Anderson speaks about "civil discourse" and "community partnership" and "collaboration." He's "very concerned with the disruption and the divisiveness and the polarization that seems to be all around us..."
Anderson goes on to opine that the new PAC "is the vehicle we think we need to make the community better."
Here are some of the PAC's goals:
"Support of candidates running for nonpartisan office who aim to unite, not divide..."
Then there is "Protecting civil discourse, community partnerships..."
And finally, "Preserving a united, nonpartisan local government."
Remember President George W. Bush, who said he was a uniter, not a divider?
The ick!
To people who have been "long-time leaders" like those who are forming the local PAC, just having candidates who do not align with the status quo power structure can seem divisive and uncivil.
The fact is, schools have been suffering academic decline for years, including the years that the "prominent, long-time Springfield leaders" have been actively in charge of things.
While it's nice that both Democrats and Republicans are forming the PAC together in an effort to be nonpartisan, it's pretty well understood that there is a Uniparty power structure on all levels of government--local, state, and national. And it's the Uniparty members, long used to being in charge, that oversee bloated government budgets, declining schools, and higher taxes.
Back to the narrative building. In a Nov. 10, 2023 News-Leader article, an eighth candidate has emerged to run for the Springfield Board of Education. Susan Everett Provance has announced. Self-described as a "team player," Provance has a long history with Springfield Public Schools, from student, to teaching and coaching, to having children in the district.
Here comes the narrative part:
"She said the ugliness of recent school board races--with candidates subjected to negative TV ads, flyers, and videos--was a concern as she explored a campaign.
"'The priority ought to be the kids,' she said, adding that she is nonpartisan."
"'In this nasty world of politics, I consider myself part of the silent majority that now needs to step up and not be silent.'"
If Provance tows the line, if she speaks only positivity, rainbows, and unicorns to voters, she will undoubtedly earn the endorsement of the United Springfield PAC.
This is the narrative that is being built by the local power brokers in Springfield. If you step out of line, if you say anything about school issues that seems remotely negative about another candidate or their platform, then you are a divider, and you must be silenced through appeals to civility and nonpartisanship.
This is how the free expression of ideas is suppressed in public discourse. This is how "prominent long-time leaders" retain their power structures.
This will not help Springfield schools. Hopefully, voters will be awake to the narrative. Look for similar narratives when Christian County school board races start up.
UPDATE: Here is more of the Narrative Business in this latest article about the Springfield School Board Race. The "uniters" are pulling out all the stops. In this article about Kyler Sherman-Wilkins we immediately see the narrative words "partisanship," "divisive," "inciting division," and "one voice."
Once you see the Narrative, you can't unsee it. The latest candidate is going to be an interesting one in the mix. He's got lots of experience in the public sphere and his politispeak is smooth. The powerful in Springfield are walking a tight line. We may see some unusual alliances in the coming months.
Official MoFI release: I have contacted the Missouri AG's office. The Missouri Attorney General's office will be investigating the viability and possibility of suing the federal government over the DOJs handling of J6 prosecutions.
— Missouri Freedom Initiative (@MissouriLibert2) November 9, 2023
Will Scharf, who has lately been working for President Trump, joins Wake Up Mid-Missouri and says school reform is a major issue for Missouri voters. He's right. DESE is in the dock. Prompted to the start of his interview at 2:05:00.
