June 13, 2022
Bob Barbatti’s Public Address
Let’s think about public education in our county.
By most accounts MCPS system is doing a commendable job, unless we consider the following:
• Loss of learning during the pandemic with no obvious plan to repair the damage
• Large and increasing annual costs, $14,000/student–Really?
• Many employees are so dissatisfied that they want to unionize
• Parents’ rights are ignored by policy and practice
• Focus on social justice and vague equity issues–both derived from Marxism
• Student indoctrination to deviant gender thinking
• Teaching that our country is built on racism
• Students cannot read cursive let alone write it [Is this by design so that citizens will not be able to read our country’s founding documents? (Editorial addition)]
• Students cannot communicate in grammatically correct language
• Students do not know real history
• Students know nothing about our constitution
• Students cannot make change or write a check
• More attention to pride flags and spaces safe from criticism than a hardened school protected from an active shooter
• Lack of transparency by administration–i.e. no information back to Board of Supervisors for weeks about use of specific money allocated by the Board to salary increases
• Bullying using race tactics within the school board
• Denying a teacher led political statement (PRAY FOR PEACE) while allowing a teacher led organization (MCEA) to endorse, advertise, and campaign for candidates for local office
Heard enough? I could go on–and that is from less than a year of observing board meetings.
Does this sound like an effective or trustworthy part of our county infrastructure–let alone commendable?
This simply adds insult to our citizens who are already enduring the injury of
paying taxes for public education and then having to pay again for
homeschool, private school, tutoring, or mental health services.
It’s time to give the power back to the parents with vouchers, grants,
scholarships, and let the public school compete for the money.
