The Dumbing Down of American School Boards

We reap what the Heritage Foundation sows

Hey there, Secular FAM! Another day, another unbelievable headline! So far this May, the F(elon)OTUS accepted a private jet from an authoritarian dictator WITHOUT congressional approval, 

people who call themselves Christians HATE the new pope, ICE agents are rounding people up like it’s 1933, and *GASP* White House officials have ties to antisemitism!  

Felon 47 also wants all of us to believe that this guy is a persecuted “refugee” from South Africa.

Between this decision, the asylum granted to the Tate Brothers, and the release of over 1500 violent insurrectionists, I do NOT feel safer. Oh well, the party of public safety only wants some people to be safe, I guess. 

While I began writing this, SCOTUS was hearing FOTUS’s challenge to the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing birthright citizenship. This lawless regime is already disappearing people, many of whom have legal status in the United States. 

So let’s recap: masked marauders are infiltrating neighborhoods and disappearing people in broad daylight; ICE agents are jumping people at immigration courts; people are being welcomed or detained based on skin color; the leader of the free world is accepting gifts from dictators; dead women are being kept alive to incubate babies because evangelical cult members believe we’re only as valuable as our reproductive organs; “Christians” celebrated the death of Pope Francis. 

But wait! It gets worse! All these dummies got their start somewhere, and for a whole bunch of them, that start was getting elected to their local school board. Honestly, I think that’s great. I dipped my toes in the cool waters of school board service, and I loved it. As a classroom teacher, I knew how boardroom policies trickle into the classroom, and I worked hard to follow the data, and stay up-to-date on best practices in public education. 

I spent much of 2015 researching education policy in Arizona and nationally, and studied what worked in public school districts throughout the country. And guess what, Secular FAM? Things like Social Emotional Learning (SEL), Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), Comprehensive Sex Ed (CSE), and cultural sensitivity produce better academic, economic, and societal outcomes for everyone. 

The really badass school districts work closely with their municipal, county, and state leaders to address factors outside the classroom. They work with nonprofits, faith leaders, government agencies, and chambers of commerce to advocate for better housing policies, food security programs, and mental health services. 

It is really weird to me when school board members advocate for things that limit students’ access to these services, but that is the hottest trend amongst members of Cult 45/47. Yes! Despite actual experts researching, studying, and publishing best practices, these cultist school board members reject the research and best practices. 

At their last meeting, PUSD tabled an agenda item about a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce Foundation, and their job-training program, ElevateEdAZ. According to their website, 

“The Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation convenes and catalyzes business, education, and community to enhance college and career readiness, develop a stronger workforce, and build healthier communities throughout Arizona. The Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, leads the charitable and education initiatives of the Greater Phoenix Chamber under the four pillars of education, workforce development, wellness, and research.”

After this description, the website launches into a couple of success stories of individuals who accessed the ElevateEdAZ program, and goes on to state that the Chamber Foundation’s program, ElevateEdAZ: 

“partners with education, business and community to prepare Arizona students for college and career in leading industries. Our primary objectives include increasing the number of students enrolled in and completing high-wage, high-demand career pathways, increasing student attainment of industry-recognized credentials and early post-secondary credit, providing more students with work-based learning experiences, and empowering educators to reimagine classroom learning through educator externships.”

Sounds great, right, Secular FAM? A free program that matches students to meaningful career options. This is a no brainer. Except…it seems that a couple PUSD board members may not actually have brains.

I encourage all of you to watch a good 15-20 minutes of pretty much ANY PUSD board meeting from this year to see just how undereducated some of their elected officials are. You see, the Phoenix Chamber’s foundation’s board of directors is composed of some of the Phoenix area’s best and brightest business leaders. They lead organizations like APS, Verizon, Aetna, CVS, PetSmart, and JP Morgan. You know, totally woke organizations that truly care about the Common Good 🙄.

The discussion about this MOU really highlighted the extreme ignorance and dangerous lack of reading comprehension of (at least) two PUSD board members. Just about any teacher out there reading this has had students like this in their classroom at one point or another. 

During the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) era, schools focused on standardized testing - a notoriously bad way to measure student achievement - and “failing” schools panicked. I was in a “failing” district during this time. Because of our rating, we were told to scrap meaningful learning that relied on best practices and thematic units in exchange for test-taking strategies. 

Even after that, many students still couldn’t show what they’d learned. As a teacher, I would sit with these kids, and listen to them read. They could sound out the words and pay attention to the punctuation and sentence structure. But then when the time came to identify the correct answer, they still couldn’t do it. 

This kind of reminds me of what I witnessed at the May 8th, 2025 PUSD board meeting. 

The discussion was so shocking, it has already been covered by local journalist, Phil Haldiman. 

First, let’s talk about chambers of commerce. Generally speaking, local business chambers tend to be pretty conservative. These are corporate leaders and local business owners who care about tax rates, bottom lines, and best practices. The entire goal of this foundation is to help its members identify potential employees, and provide them with the training and skills they need to join the workforce someday. You know, totally normal stuff that businesses do all the time. 

So why would PUSD President Rooks and Board Member Bowles have a problem with it? Well, because the Phoenix Chamber values Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. They value it so much, they host a quarterly DEI forum and they publish a DEI Toolkit.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Rooks and Mrs. Bowles appear not  to have good listening or critical thinking skills. This free program, that has served two Title I schools (those schools that serve our most vulnerable kids) in the district, and has helped thousands of students connect to meaningful employment opportunities may be terminated because of two board members’ blind obedience to authoritarian cult leaders and their inability to dissect information. 

During the presentation, the district employee made it clear that this MOU has been successfully implemented in two Title I schools and the plan is to expand it to two more Title I schools. Children in Title I schools tend to come from homes experiencing poverty and they tend to have more BIPOC students. 

Do you remember when President Rooks voted against a free partnership with Microsoft because of wOkE? 

She also got big mad when the district accurately depicted its diverse, equitable, and inclusive history in a video. 

Board Member Ewing kicked off the discussion, and stated how she reached out to several local businesses in Peoria, and their generally positive feedback about the partnership. 

In normal times, this would be a very short presentation, discussion, and vote, since it’s so obviously beneficial to all stakeholders in the partnership. But these are not normal times. And at least two of the board members in PUSD seem not to care about what the majority of its constituents want. 

Additionally, they don’t know what the good folks at the Greater Phoenix Chamber want, and boy, howdy! That’s a choice! You see, even the Libs like to suck up to their corporate overlords when their bills are due. Anyone catch last week’s headline about Governor Hobbs and APS?

People who run businesses, corporations, and large nonprofits tend to have money. Many of them donate to both sides of the aisle to hedge their bets so that they can curry favor with either candidate regardless of who wins. Many of these organizations have Political Action Committees (PACs) that their employees can donate to, and some employees donate to candidates and causes independently. 

Additionally, they don’t seem to understand that these corporations are run by boards of directors. While some corporations have kow-towed to FOTUS’s anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, they’ve done so to their own detriment.

Many more boards of directors have overwhelmingly maintained their DEI policies, so do these cultists support free market capitalism and companies’ autonomy, or nah?

What Bowles and Rooks don’t seem to understand is that there are more constituents in their district than the small, orange Kool-Aid-drinking faction they’ve cultivated. Folks who once supported President Rooks have voiced their concerns at recent board meetings. So sh!tting all over local business leaders who very much need qualified employees, in addition to ignoring those who once supported her will probably really boost her 2026 bid for reelection.  

Now, because they do not understand the anti-DEI policy they’ve created, the attestation they’ve created, and the MOU between them and the Phoenix Chamber’s Foundation, they need to consult with an attorney. Again. 

Even though Clerk Tobey seems to believe that there is a bottomless legal fund at the fingertips of school districts, that’s not the case. All these executive sessions and the seemingly constant presence of the board’s attorney cost taxpayers money. Lots of it. This is not good stewardship of taxpayer dollars, and the residents of PUSD deserve better. 

They’ve asked for yet another budget-draining executive session because they’re either too stupid or too dishonest to follow their own policies.

There were other dumb things that happened during this meeting, and Sister Fratelli seemed to advocate for bringing back child labor during a discussion about custodial services, so that was weird. But this item deserves attention; this item will likely return for the next PUSD meeting on 5.29.2025, so you know what to do, Secular FAM!

Take a moment to let this board know how you feel about board members who do not listen to their constituents and waste taxpayer dollars. You can email them directly: 

• President Heather Rooks - hrooks@pusd11.net

• Clerk Jeff Tobey - jtobey@pusd11.net 

• Board Member Janelle Bowles - jbowles@pusd11.net

• Board Member Melissa Ewing - meewing@pusd11.net 

• Board Member Becky Proudfit - rproudfit@pusd11.net 

• Superintendent KC Somers - Ksomers@pusd11.net 

It’s time for all of us to channel our inner Lorax and make things better because the other side is moving at breakneck speed to dismantle 80 years of progress. 

Now more than ever, Secular AZ needs your support. Please, consider upgrading to a paid subscription, become a monthly member, or become a volunteer today. 

Stay woke, Secular FAM!