Colorado finding out what happens when MAGA takes over a school board

[Nevilledog]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/woodland-park-colorado-school-board-conservatives-rcna83311

WOODLAND PARK, Colo. — When a conservative slate of candidates won control of the school board here 18 months ago, they began making big changes to reshape the district.

Woodland Park, a small mountain town that overlooks Pikes Peak, became the first — and, so far, only — district in the country to adopt the American Birthright social studies standard, created by a right-wing advocacy group that warns of the “steady whittling away of American liberty.” The new board hired a superintendent who was previously recalled from a nearby school board after pushing for a curriculum that would “promote positive aspects of the United States.” The board approved the community’s first charter school without public notice and gave the charter a third of the middle school building.

As teachers, students and parents began protesting these decisions, the administration barred employees from discussing the district on social media. At least two staff members who objected to the board’s decisions were later forced out of their jobs, while another was fired for allegedly encouraging protests.

These rapid and sweeping shifts weren’t coincidental — instead it was a plan ripped from the MAGA playbook designed to catch opponents off guard, according to a board member’s email released through an open records request.

*snip*

[Timeflyer]

1. Sounds like Proud Moms for Bigotry got involved in the school board election. Hillsdale approves.

[Initech]

20. Also that shitty Patriot Mobile.

Their fascist asses can go get royally fucked.

[keithbvadu2]

2. Indoctrination is/is not

Indoctrination is/is not

[keithbvadu2]

3. Look who makes money off the charter school...

After he and two other conservative members of the board were recalled, Witt became executive director of an organization that oversees charter, online and other schools and helped launch Merit Academy.

[highplainsdem]

4. K&R! Was just about to post this. Spotted the story thanks to a

retweet by Tom Nichols.

[Cha]

5. That's Sickening.. Colorado is my

Home state and I've been so Happy How Blue it is! Except for Boebert District 3.

Best of Luck to those in Woodland Park who Protest this Fascist Shit.

TY

[soldierant]

14. And Buck District 4 and Lamborn District 5.

But i'm proud that we already had 4 blue districts, and now we have 5. We do outmunber them. An I'm very proud of our governor.

[Cha]

15. TY for telling me about those

Districts.

Yes, I'm so proud of your Governor, too.. amazing!

[soldierant]

16. I'm in D-5 and I call him

Lamebrain. Sadly, he is very good at sucking up to veterans who are not woke - and there are a lot of them.We've been trying hard to oust him and haven't even come close. But at leat we have two fine SEnators.

[Cha]

18. Yes on your Great Senators From

Colorado!

What cities are in D 5?

The Vets there should know about what the magat House is Cutting for Vets in their Debt Ceiling Proposal.

TY!

[soldierant]

19. D-5 is essentially Colorado Springs.

After the most recent redistricting it may now only be part of Colorado Springs, but it still includes unincorporated Security, which is where I am.

And yes, they should. Beau would be happy to tell them ... if only they would listen.

[Cha]

23. TY.. For Beau, too!

[AllyCat]

6. Woodland Park. Just another fascist "suburb" of Colo. Spgs.

Used to be a cool, artsy place.

[NullTuples]

7. So what would it take to declare school board & Sheriff positions partisan as they actually are?

And thus require candidates to declare their party?

I live in a deep solid blue region yet still had a few successfully get elected because the position is officially "nonpartisan" and they used wording so very careful, it had to have been provided for them by a national effort.

[hadEnuf]

8. Of course they are not coincidental. Nothing the MAGAs do is coincidental.

What they do is from a well coordinated and fully networked script.

[Grokenstein]

9. Ever see those old films warning of "Commie infiltration"?

As usual, while decent people were horrified, rightwankers were frantically scribbling notes.

[yonder]

10. All ideology and hidden agenda, no solutions.

Illingworth sound like he fancies himself to be a wartime general serving himself rather than all of the citizens he represents:

..."this is the flood the zone tactic, and the idea is if you advance on many fronts at the same time, then the enemy cannot fortify, defend, effectively counter-attack at any one front,” David Illingworth, one of the new conservative school board members, wrote to another on Dec. 9, 2021, weeks after they were elected. “Divide, scatter, conquer. Trump was great at this in his first 100 days.”

Jeez, referring to what is likely the largest portion of the people he is supposed to represent as the enemy? Live by the sword, die by the sword seems to be what he is asking for and would be a fitting finale for his career. With luck, the citizens of that district (not his own personal army) will realize what he and his ilk are and serve them what they deserve.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

11. We had to beat back a slate of magats here (Chicago suburb)

One of the candidates had posts on her Facebook about “teach your children to be men before your teacher teaches them to be girls”

[Initech]

21. Wow that's horrible!

That's why I make a policy not to engage with terrible people like that. Just block, report, and move on.

[Solly Mack]

12. "It is terribly important to be a disengaged citizen, and indeed, a disengaged student,"

“It is terribly important to be a disengaged citizen, and indeed, a disengaged student,” said David Randall, research director at the National Association of Scholars, a conservative organization that created the standards last year.

Disengage and -

Do only as we say to do.

Believe only what we say to believe.

The facts are only what we say they are.

[world wide wally]

13. To give you an idea about Woodland Park, let me reference the Texas Seven

If you don't remember them, they were a group that busted out of a Texas prison and went to Woodland Park Colorado. They hid out in plain sight there and were finally captured a few months later when a local newsman convinced them to give up.
When asked about it after the fact, more than one Woodland Park resident said they had met them and associated with them because they just blended in with everyone else.

[DemocraticPatriot]

17. One convicted criminal in a red state is just as good as all the un-convicted criminals

who still have the right to vote!

JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJA . They all look alike to me! LMAO

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

22. summed up in this graphic