Keep Politics Out of Local School Boards
Dear KM Community,
We have award-winning schools here in the Kettle Moraine School District that are recognized as some of the best in the state, including the top high school in Wisconsin. KM offers innovative learning experiences and environments not offered in other school districts, making it a top destination for open enrolled students. Through excellent financial stewardship, the District has accomplished all this while reducing the school property tax rate, despite plunging state aid.
We want to keep KM’s successes going.
The KM Alliance was formed by a group of KM moms, dads, and residents who want a well run, fiscally responsible school district that delivers a top quality education for all of our children. We are not affiliated with or backed by any political party.
We don’t care which party our school board members vote for in their ballot box. We do care that they: 1) run a campaign free from support from, and not as a representative of, a political party; 2) listen to and represent our whole community; and 3) make good decisions for our schools based on proven educational best practices, sound legal guidance, data, and fiscal responsibility.
Don’t all school board members have political views that influence their decisions? What’s the problem with candidates for local government offices running as representatives of a political party or gaining the endorsement of a national PAC?
Yes, all school board members have personal political views. Yes, those views will tend to influence their decisions. We get that. But a candidate who is not a Party candidate is free to make their own decisions in the best interest of their local schools. Just as we cannot allow our personal politics or religious beliefs to impact our abilities or decision making at a place of employment, we also need to keep these personal biases off our public school boards. A public school is an institution meant to serve ALL of the community, not some.
Teachers are required, by law and District policy, to refrain from using their position to promote partisan politics or religious sectarian ideology. We believe that school board members should be held to the same standards, checking their politics and religious sectarian ideology at the door.
We do not believe that Party politics or fringe culture war issues will help maintain our excellent public schools. Let the candidates appeal to our KM community based on how well they listen to the entire community and how they will contribute to addressing the real challenges facing our schools:
Attracting and retaining great educators in an extremely tight labor market
Supporting educators and students who have struggled with the stresses of the last few years
Providing educational opportunities that meet the needs of all our students
Attracting open enrollment students to counter the demographic changes in the District
Acting as a strong financial steward during this period of economic uncertainty
Education is too important a topic to allow our political ideologies to take control of. These are our schools, and all of our community is responsible for their stewardship and safekeeping.
People in our community are civil and thoughtful residents and citizens who, despite the upheavals of the last few years, still have the ambition and good will to run our own district. Let the political parties and the national PACs hear that they cannot take over our KM community.
Join us in voting for Jay Crouse and JJ Andrews to keep party politics out of our KM School Board.
The Kettle Moraine Alliance