Letter to the Editor: Submitted by Ann Fields

To the Editor:

I am a product of public education, having graduated from Crestwood High School. I also am a substitute teacher for Eastern Allamakee Community School District. I do this because I believe in the value of public education and local control. The local school board oversees the public funding, sets district policy, and its decisions impact local students, families and the community.

Today, Governor Reynolds and anti-public education legislators are taking away local control and encouraging extremist groups, like Moms for Liberty, to attack our schools, ban books, and stop students from learning the truth about American history, both its strengths and weakness, including native-American genocide, slavery and the Holocaust.

Iowa’s School Board and City Council elections are non-partisan. Our students deserve a school board that puts public education first and believes in local control, without limiting the learning, censoring of books, or listening to the extremist groups who do not live in our community. Our schools need to be inclusive, so that all students feel safe to express themselves.

When you vote for school board members (and city council members), you have the opportunity to either elect people who believe in local control or people who believe that the Governor and the extremists in the Statehouse know what’s best for the students and families of their community.  Vote for the candidates who support local control.

Ann Fields
Lansing