That’s right – I am running for the School Board in Virginia Beach.*
I have three children in the Virginia Beach public schools, and I send them there because Virginia Beach has some of the best public schools in the country.
Unfortunately, we now have a school board that seems determined to do something about that.
Two years ago, the teachers union mounted a large and successful campaign to wrest control of the school board from parents and other community leaders. The predictable result has been a board that has been more responsive to the school administration than to parents and the community.
The teachers union school board has already stricken 3 days from the school year, and they have generally put teachers’ employment issues ahead of the best interests of students.
Furthermore, the teachers union school board has been so deferential to the administration that it came close to adopting a new grading system that would have prohibited teachers from counting homework and class work into the students’ grades, would have required teachers to allow students to turn in assignments late with no meaningful consequences, and would have required teachers to allow students to retake tests as many times as they wish until they get a grade they like.
Yes, really.
This borderline-insane grading proposal would have left our students ill-prepared for colleges that expect assignments to be submitted on time, employers who expect employees to complete their work on time, and the IRS, which expects people to file their tax returns on time. But this scheme was stopped only after a large outcry from parents made it politically toxic. And even after this scheme was publicly withdrawn, a very similar plan was reintroduced just three weeks later. Once again it took a large outcry from parents and other community leaders to force the school board to agree to modify it to restore student accountability. And that fight is far from over.
I have been outspoken against this terrible grading proposal, including being quoted in the Virginian-Pilot and addressing the school board directly, and it looks at this point like we’ve succeeded in thwarting it. But the fact that it might not be enacted now doesn’t mean the school administration won’t keep trying to enact it. After all, it only took three weeks after announcing that they were dropping this scheme for them to try to bring it back.
In fairness, the teachers union didn’t originate or support this grading scheme, but that scheme came within a stone’s throw of becoming district-wide policy because the teachers union-controlled school board shows undue deference to the school administration. They have forgotten – if they ever understood in the first place – that the administration works for them, and they work for us. As a member of the school board, I won’t ever forget this basic principle of our representative democracy.
Another reason that I’m running for the school board is to be a voice for families of students with disabilities. Longtime readers know that one of my sons, Josh, has a number of serious disabilities, including Down syndrome, autism, and hearing and vision impairments. At age 5, Josh is developmentally roughly the equivalent of a typical one-year-old. I’m glad to say that my family has had a very positive experience with Josh’s school working vigorously with him to advance his intellectual and developmental abilities; however, I’ve talked with many other parents of children with special needs whose experiences have been much more frustrating. I want to bring to the school board my perspective and experience as the father of a child with special needs and be a voice and advocate for special needs families.
Maintaining the excellence of our schools is important not only to our kids’ future but also to the economic development of our city. Last year, Virginia Beach was ranked as the third-best city in the country to raise a family. We earned this distinction in large part because of the quality of our schools – Indeed, we ranked third in the country for Education and Child Care. Our city’s reputation as a family-friendly community with great schools is one of the primary attractions for businesses to relocate to Virginia Beach. If we start sacrificing our standards and eliminating student accountability from our policies, our students will be ill-prepared to succeed in the real world, and our city will have a harder time attracting quality businesses – employers – to our area. For the sake of everyone in Virginia Beach, students, parents, businessmen and women, farmers, and laborers, we have a moral and practical imperative to maintain and improve the excellence of our schools.
I’m currently in the process of gathering signatures to get on the ballot for the November 8th election. If you’re willing to help, please send me an e-mail at [email protected].
If you’re willing to help my campaign with a donation, please make your check out to Friends of Ken Falkenstein and send it to P.O. Box 66042, Virginia Beach, VA 23466. Your donation of $250, $100, $50, or $25 will help me to be able to print signs, bumper stickers, and campaign literature to get the word out and to run newspaper ads and radio spots as we get closer to the November 8 election.
Also, to keep up on developments in the race and my campaign, please “like” my campaign’s Facebook page.
My campaign motto is “Excellence and Accountability,” and these are the guiding principles on which I am running. Please consider helping my campaign to once again make excellence and accountability the touchstones of our schools.
*Unlike this Bearing Drift April Fool’s prank, my candidacy for the School Board is real!