Merry Christmas!

Missouri Freedom Initiative Livestream: MSBA

 Right to Win Ozarks joins Patrick Holland and Friends on the Missouri Freedom Inititative livestream:

 

Never Give Up, Never Give In

 

"In one South Carolina community, a conservative activist group called ‘Moms for Liberty’ not only took over their local school board, they also fired the progressive superintendent and banned the teaching of Critical Race Theory. And that was just in the first two hours. Impressive."

More here. Apparently they have a way to go since they are spotlighting DEI in their December 2023 newsletter, a year later. It took a long while to corrupt the schools, and it will take a while to bring them back to sanity.

 

NEW: a group of Moms for Liberty backed school board members were sworn in Tuesday

Within 2 hours, they’d fired the superintendent & the district’s lawyer, banned CRT and set up a committee to determine books to ban for “pornographic content”https://t.co/tRcOMub2nD

— Tyler Kingkade (@tylerkingkade) November 17, 2022

Clever School Board Votes to Max Out Their Bond

 

The election for Clever voters to approve/disapprove the bond is April 2, 2024, which is the General Municipal Election. The bond is for over $16 million. Other local school districts have also voted to max out their bonds.

As Retha Holland says in the video, it's a BONDEMIC. Holland shares how school board members in districts all over the state are pressured to make financial (and other) decisions as one, which is a feature of the "training" that the Missouri School Boards Association gives to board members.

As Holland says, these bonds are usually 20-year debts, which are added on to as time and finances permit. This means that the kids in the schools now will eventually be paying on that same debt if they decide to stay in Clever.

Currently, 80% of property taxes goes to the Clever School District--which is the highest in Christian County.

Keep up with Patrick and Retha Holland at Missouri Freedom Initiative. Lots of information about state and local politics.

DEI IS Communism

 

DEI is the rebranding of communism. pic.twitter.com/KtgSSwuX9x

— Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@BillboardChris) December 18, 2023

What is SEL and why should it be resisted?

By Gretchen Garrity

Chances are your school is infected with Social Emotional Learning (SEL). The Ozark School District certainly employs it, claiming it is teaching children how to be kind or collaborative or empathetic or resilient, etc. Seems very innocuous and it is sold that way by the school district. It is, however, a method of indoctrinating children to think and act in ways that lead to an acceptance of DEI and CRT, gender ideology and so on--social and political ways of thinking that many parents do not approve of.

The video below is instructive because it tells the story of how one instructor became concerned about SEL in her school district. According to Jennifer McWilliam's website, "In 2019, Jennifer was working as a “Reading Intervention Instructor” when she became very concerned about the education transformation unfolding at her school and across our nation. As she began to research what was causing the shift in focus from academics to ideology, she learned about the driving force behind the change: Social Emotional Learning. In September 2019, she started to inform parents and citizens about the concerning changes in the education system. In February 2020, Jennifer was fired for exposing the SEL program at her school."

🚨This 4th archived video was the first time I ever spoke about Social Emotional Learning (SEL). I hope this brings Courage to everyone joining the fight to protect children & save America. Video 1. Brief explanation / Video 2. recorded on 12/17/2019 #ExpelSEL pic.twitter.com/dcEintP4P1

— Jennifer McWilliams (@Jenn_McW) December 12, 2023

In the Ozark School District, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Craig Carson included in his December Board Narrative several instances where SEL is being implemented. On page 1 is a planned future "Curriculum Conversation" titled, "How Ozark teaches emotional regulation and socialization between peers."

On page 4 under Training is, "Academic Behaviors - POG in conjunction with SEL." Additionally, on page 7, Dr. Carson shares a consulting visit by Cassandra Erkens of Solution Tree, a company that pushes SEL as part of its efforts to "help" schools:

 

 

Here is a short and very helpful graphic from Courage is a Habit that explains SEL. Here is another one that explains the cycle of indoctrination. Lastly, here is a video from James Lindsay of New Discources, in which he exposes SEL. It is well worth the time it takes to listen to his podcast. Around 16 minutes in Lindsay explains how many leading educators are completely ignorant of SEL, its true purpose and how widely it is implemented in schools. As Lindsay says, it is a pretty package with something horrible inside.

This is in your school

 

It's not just the universities

 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is being pushed on our children from young ages. It is not just at the university level.  

James Lindsay defines DEI as, "The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion industry under Woke Marxism is easy to understand. Equity is a rebranding of Socialism: an administered economy that makes outcomes equal. Diversity and Inclusion are tools used to install political officers and to censor and remove dissidents, respectively. In other words, the Woke Marxist DEI industry is a racket designed to install commissars for its ideology." 

A good share for normies who watch CNN is Fareed Zakaria, here speaking to the complete unmooring of a moral intellectal tradition in our universities:

 

America’s top universities should abandon their long misadventure into politics, retrain their gaze on their core strengths and rebuild their reputations as centers of research and learning.

My take: pic.twitter.com/smjkQ9fngE

— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) December 10, 2023

A Very Interesting Lawsuit

Pen America, Inc., a self-described "free expression organization," has sued the Florida Escambia County School District and School Board for removing certain books from its school library shelves that the district deems not in keeping with their educational goals. Pen says,

“Children in a democracy must not be taught that books are dangerous. The freedom to read is guaranteed by the constitution,” said Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America. “In Escambia County, state censors are spiriting books off shelves in a deliberate attempt to suppress diverse voices. In a nation built on free speech, this cannot stand. The law demands that the Escambia County School District put removed or restricted books back on library shelves where they belong.”

If as Pen America avers, “Books have the capacity to change lives for the better, and students in particular deserve equitable access to a wide range of perspectives," then books also have the capacity to change students lives for the worse.

To suggest that the ideas found in some books are not dangerous to children is to leave the realm of reality and float on a utopian cloud. Or worse, it is a blatant agenda to twist the Constitution in ways that allows for the indoctrination of children that opposes local control over a community's minors, and negates parental rights. Notice that Pen America states, "The freedom to read is guaranteed by the constitution [sic]." 

I challenge Pen America to find in the US Constitution where it says "freedom to read."

The Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, has filed an amicus brief in the case, which is brilliant in expounding upon the arguments involved. You can find the brief here.

A few points from the filing:

"PLAINTIFFS FAIL TO STATE A FIRST AMENDMENT CLAIM.

1. Plaintiffs contend that “[s]chool libraries are . . . of great importance to

book authors and book publishers, especially with regard to books aimed at” their

intended audience—“children and young adults.” DE25-1 ¶ 41. In their view, “[t]he

libraries within the School District constitute, at a minimum, non-public forums,”

and, “[b]ecause they are non-public forums, the School Board cannot” restrict

access to materials “based on viewpoint.” Id. ¶ 218. That is wrong because 

Florida’s public-school libraries are a forum for government, not private, speech.

And when the government speaks, it “can freely select the views that it wants to

express, including choosing not to speak and speaking through the removal of

speech that the government disapproves.” Gundy, 50 F.4th at 71(cleaned up)"

 

And: "...the Supreme Court and Eleventh Circuit have repeatedly held that the 

government’s authority to “regulate the content of . . . its own message,”

Rosenberger, 515 U.S. at 833, includes the discretion to select materials and 

content for compilation and presentation to citizens, be it a government parade,2

a broadcasted debate,3 a state-university commencement,4 or a state-sponsored 

art gallery.5"

 

Further: "And because the compilation of library materials is government speech, the

First Amendment does not bar the government from making viewpoint-based

choices about what to curate. See Gittens, 414 F.3d at 29; Am. Libr. Ass’n, 539 

U.S. at 204–05 (plurality op.)
 

That principle applies with even more force in public-school libraries, the purpose

of which is to support the government’s educational mission by “providing 

materials that properly supplement the basic readings assigned through the

standard curriculum.” Zykan v. Warsaw Cmty. Sch. Corp., 631 F.2d 1300, 1308

(7th Cir.1980). By curating a school library, the government conveys its view on

which books have the “requisite and appropriate quality” to bolster student 

development."

 

And here: "2. The Student Plaintiffs are just as wrong that the First Amendment

 bars the government from restricting library books “for the purpose of ‘deny[ing]

 students access to ideas with which’ the school district disagrees.” DE25-1 ¶ 225

 (citing Pico, 457 U.S. at 870–71 (plurality op.). The government has no

 constitutional obligation to present educational material with which it disagrees.

 Because a “listener’s right to receive information is reciprocal to the speaker’s

 right to speak,” Doe ex rel. Doe v. Governor of N.J., 783 F.3d 150, 155 (3d Cir.

 2015), that right cannot be deployed to interfere with the government’s own

 message. Students certainly have no more right to control what the government

 puts in its libraries than they do to control the content of a school cheer, see

 Dean, 12 F.4th at 1265–66 (cheer leading is government speech), or the message

 they communicate while participating in a training practicum, see Keeton v. 

Anderson-Wiley, 664 F.3d 865, 877 (11th Cir. 2011) (same for school practica)."

This case may have implications beyond government-funded public schools. It is well worth following.

Recap of meeting and Give a Follow

A nice recap of Monday evening's We the People meeting in Nixa by David Rice. Do give him a follow on his Substack for some local wit and wisdom. 

From his article:

"A local political advocacy group, the Missouri Republican Alliance and We The People are focusing on efforts to vet and recommend political candidates at local levels across the county, but need to spread this method across the state. Speakers at a recent MRA meeting emphasized the need to monitor elected officials and carefully select candidates of strong moral character who will defend liberties and align with conservative Christian values. We can no longer allow people who aren’t conservatives to pretend to be Republicans. 

Tony Petrosino explained the intensive vetting process they use to assess candidates and decide whether to endorse them. This includes evaluating their life experience, principles, voting history if applicable, and responses to questions on key issues. The goal is to weed out those who may not stand firm for their causes. 

 State Representative Bob Titus spoke to the We The People meeting. Now in his freshman term, Titus discussed limitations freshmen legislators face in pushing legislation, noting only about 30 reliable fiscal and social conservatives among the Republican reps of 110. He reviewed some concerning aspects of the 2024 Missouri budget, including increased spending and billions in federal funds that will eventually require tax hikes when that well runs dry."

 Rice's "Baphomet’s Used Christian Lot" is ascerbic and biting and very entertaining. Do read the whole thing:

"Welcome to my used Christian lot, where we promise the best prices in Hell. We have so many models to choose from down here that we need to unload them quickly. We are having a fire sale on these used Chrisitans. So many of them have come down to Hell recently, we can’t keep up with them all."

 

Taking Back Education

 

A courageous mother shares what encourages her to be on the front lines of her kids' education. ft @REVWUTRUTH @tpusafaith pic.twitter.com/ASxriyxoTL

— Turning Point Academy (@tpusaacademy) December 4, 2023