THE SPEECH
- Our Superintendent of Public Instruction testified before the House Committee on Education & the Workforce on Oct. 19th.
- Ms. Degenfelder gave testimony in support of book banning. Highlights:
- Accused a Wyoming educator of teaching pornography and bullying students when they spoke up.
- Said that people have lost faith in public schools because of “inappropriate and sexually explicit materials” and named that as the #1 concern of parents she spoke with during her campaign.
- Stated that taxpayer money was used to purchase sexually graphic and erotic material.
- Said that parents should have to opt-in for use of library materials rather than opt-out, like for field trips.
- Stated her firm belief in local control while touting the statewide library guidance she will be rolling out to schools soon.
- The guidance was created with a group of stakeholders of “varying backgrounds and viewpoints.”
THE FACTS
- Though Ms. Degenfelder opened her speech by stating that she is passionate about public education, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
- One of the main priorities laid out in her strategic plan is “school choice” aka funneling public money into private hands in the form of charter schools. Legislation crafted in part by her will boost funding for charter schools, matching the money given to public schools.
- Not only does Megan D. want to give our money to private charter schools, she is pushing heavily for Educational Savings Accounts aka school vouchers.
- ESAs use state taxpayer dollars to fund nonpublic schools, private instruction and homeschooling by taking per-student funds out of public schools and giving them to parents for “educational expenses.”
- At a Joint Ed meeting in August, a bill about ESAs that would give $3000/student was debated. Degenfelder’s representative gave testimony that she wanted to increase that amount to 90% of per-student funds. 90%!!!
- That would absolutely GUT our public schools, doesn’t sound like she’s super passionate about them, does it?