Got Morality?

To fix the state's education system, we should appreciate the defining values that once made our schools great.

By: Sloan Rachmuth

What's wrong with the State's K-12 school system, and how do we fix it?

Parents, teachers and writers of opinion pieces have been thinking about this question lately. There is no consensus about what one thing is broken, nor a silver bullet to fix it. Most people are aware, however, that "morality" and "merit" are under attack, and the first priority should be restoring these ideals in our schools.

Back in the 90's, North Carolina was recognized as the state making the most progress toward achieving the national education goals. From 1990-96, North Carolina led all states in math and reading gains. Math scores in both 4th and 8th grade saw the most significant gains throughout the 1990s.

The state's exceptional performance can be attributed to factors like teacher pay, or student-to-teacher ratios, but the real answer is simpler than that: North Carolina schools were better in the past because education leaders knew the difference between right and wrong, or good and bad behavior. And the cherished American value of achievement through hard work was promoted throughout the school community. These common sense ethos protected students' personal liberties and helped keep them honest and responsible. The virtues of morality and merit would still exist in our schools today if the system hadn't been infested by cultural anarchists.

Who are these anarchists wrecking education? The answer depends on who you listen to. A growing number of North Carolinians believe these agitators are Marxists - left-wing extremists hell-bent on blowing up civility and replacing it with their beliefs: America is systemically racist, white supremacy is killing the country; customs: tearing down statues, kneeling to the flag; and orthodoxy: gender is fluid, fathers are bad.

Some anarchists are in the classrooms disguised as teachers. They do things like conduct classroom exercises to get children to express themselves about their gender, sexual preferences, and private relations with family members. Classroom anarchists are often members of the NCAE teachers' union, known for spewing unthinkably racist epithets at the very taxpayers who underwrite their jobs.

There are other anarchists posing as district school superintendents. They do things like gather minority students from schools to transport them to off-site indoctrination camps where they learn how to stage pop-up protests in the classroom.

Still other anarchists are unelected bureaucrats charged with drafting disasterous education policy for the entire state while simultaneously calling for the dismantling of the system.

The only way to save our schools is to defeat these cultural anarchists at every turn. Then, after we take our schools back, we must rewind time and restore morality and merit as the foundation for North Carolina's K-12 education system.