Endorsements, Are they worth it?

Candidates often ask, how valuable are endorsements in campaigning? Do people really vote because someone endorsed them? I do not know the answer, I do however know, there are some people I would not accept an endorsement from.

I am sure most of you know me and know that one of my faults is that I am open and honest and transparent as you can get. Sometimes I should keep my opinions to myself, but I feel so compelled to share. You need to know about a group, that is giving the public endorsements, to weigh whether you want to accept or reject their endorsements of candidates.

When “Utah Parents for Teachers” was organized, I was one of the first to sign up.

I love our teachers, I listen to them, and I have done a lot to help bring respect back into the teaching profession.

I sat on the School Board that began a Salary and Benefits war, that has nearly doubled teacher salaries in the last 8 years. When I joined the Board, the beginning teacher wage was $34,000 and now we are over 60K. We removed salary caps for experienced teachers, and created a 20-year jump, eliminating the 20 year step giving experienced teachers a double raise in that year.
Over this time teachers have had little to no premium increase on benefits.  Our board created Maternity, Paternity and adoption benefits. We moved sick time to Paid Time off, allowing teachers to take the days they earned.  I could go on.

So of course, I want to belong to a group that advocates for teachers. I not only signed up to be in the group, I joined their requested for moderators at each district. I wanted to be there to answer questions and listen to concerns.

As a moderator, I saw things that the group does not see. The group advertises as a bi-partisan group, which they are not. I was embarrassed with the level of hated these moderators have towards people in our community that see the world different then they do. They screen the people wanting to join their group and expel people who do not agree with their political points of view. I am shocked they never eliminated me, because I also hold membership in Utah Parents United and Jordan Parents United. It is ironic that the administrators were looking for members who held dual membership and limiting them from their group, when I held membership to both all along.

I believe, if we want to help teachers, we need to work with everyone at the table.

You and I can believe differently politically. Politics should be left out of school boards, in my opinion. We have legislators and lawmakers whose role it is to politically create laws that govern our schools. Let them do their work, and we will do our work.

I was a moderator of this group for a year or two, I cannot remember how long. I should have seen the red flag waving when I saw, recommendations for endorsements coming from this group that generally represented people of a political affiliation and not candidates who can help education. I was shocked that Tracy Miller, our board president who was running for a House Seat, was not being endorsed by this group who claims to want to help teachers. Anyone who knows Tracy Miller knows she has done more for education then possibly anyone in the community.

I had a falling out with the administrators of this group, when I choose to read JD Vance’s autobiography. I did not know anything about vice president candidate JD Vance. “Hillbilly Elegy” is an excellent read and gave me some hope that should he have an opportunity to lead us, he has the potential to become an incredible leader. I posted on my personal Facebook page about reading this book and the wrath of these moderators attacked me. I was removed as a moderator, as they were upset that I shared something about a republican candidate. They also defriended me, which did not cause me a lack of sleep.

For the record, around the same time, I read the autobiography of Kamala Harris and posted about my positive feelings of her story. My republican friends did not abandon me because I read a book from the opposition. I want to know the stories behind the people that lead us, regardless to their political affiliation.

I did elect to leave this group on my own will, I abandoned them in fact I was invited to stay. The fact is that I am not the only person that they did this to. Several of my fellow moderators were kicked out for similar reasons.

You just need to be aware; this is NOT a “bipartisan” group. The administrators of this page, have an agenda, and I believe it is an agenda they can never achieve. The only way to help teaches is to accept ALL people at the table. Work on win-win solutions TOGETHER, like we have in the past.   The Jordan School Board is well known for the amazing advances we have made to all educators in the State of Utah. We are known as a board that LEADS the Way.

Follows of this group are amazing, they joined for the same reasons I did. They want to help teachers. I do not advocate for people to leave this group, but I will warn you that their endorsement, might be their own personal views and not the view of those seeking to really help teachers.

I know the risk of posting this on my Facebook group. I know they will share this in their administrator chat and slam my name, and likely even on their page. It comes with the price of being open and transparent. I just felt YOU needed to know my experience with this group as you make yOUR choice in each office.