Craig Campbell: Anchorage school board reformation with these four candidates

By
Suzanne Downing
-
19

By CRAIG CAMPBELL

In 51 days the Municipality of Anchorage will be sending out the ballots for the April 6 municipal election.  

Of course, electing a conservative mayor is absolutely essential to change the socialistic direction of Anchorage, aggressively being promulgated by an uber-Leftist Acting Mayor and Assembly.  

Traditionally, local elections don’t have a large participation rate.  Unless the conservative community votes in record numbers this year we may end up with Forrest Dunbar as mayor and no change on the assembly.  That should scare the hell out of everyone.  

Here’s a guy that believes our Constitution is based on racism, has voted for every far-left proposal passed by the Assembly, was a strong supporter of disgraced former mayor Berkowitz, and when Maria Athens first spoke out about Berkowitz lewd sexting photos, Dunbar defended Berkowitz. So much for liberals really supporting the “Me Too” Movement. Such phony hypocrites.

What a disaster a Dunbar administration would be in accelerating the pace of destroying our individual liberties, replaced by entrenched socialism. So, every registered conservative must vote in this municipal election to reverse this destructive path towards a despotic autocracy.

OK, now that I have your attention, let me focus on just as big a problem in Anchorage, the Anchorage School Board.  That Board is comprised of six liberals and one conservative. Just like the Assembly, the liberals run shotgun over the conservative, Board Member Dave Donley. He needs some help, and you can give it to him this election.  There are four school board seats up for election, all liberals who need to be replaced.  

Do I need to remind anyone why these liberals are a failure to our children?  Let’s start.  The Anchorage School District is one of the largest unified districts in America, has one of the largest budgets of any school district of comparable size, with one of the lowest performance levels.  Last year the World Population Review ranked ASD 48th worst, with its Quality Ranking dead last, 50th.   

According to an analysis done by WalletHub, ASD ranked last in reading test scores and had one of the highest drop out rates.  

For these results we pay $12,628 per student. This is the highest cost per student in the history of the district at a time when the student enrollment (45,366 in 2020) has been on a steady decline since reaching its high of 48,493 students in 2015.  

The ASD operating budget for 2020 is $572.5 Million.  Just for reference, the municipality operating budget, which is also way too high for a city of only 300,000 people, was $531.9 Million in 2020. Yup, we are paying over $1.0 Billion to support our city and school district. That should make your eyes bleed red with fury.  

In the business world, one looks for a favorable return-on-investment. In education, we should expect excellent performance against national standards for the incredible financial investment we are making in ASD.  That would be a good return-on-investment, one we are not getting today.

But wait, there’s more.  While having one of the nations highest budgets and producing some of the worse results, our ASD pursues a feely, touchy social emotional curriculum, not centered on the basics of reading, writing, and math.  No wonder our students are not getting properly prepared for college and life.

And what did we get for most of 2020, a school district shut-down due to coronavirus.  Of course, just up the road the Mat-Su School District has been open this entire school year and it has not been a super-spreader center for COVID. The ASD has cowered to the Leftist’s propaganda that to protect our population, we must not open schools to educate our children. 

In Anchorage, children stay at home, sitting at a computer like zombies, learning very little, not interacting with other children, and deprived of physical activities, school nutrition programs, and other essentials we have entrusted to our school districts in an effort to educate our future leaders and workforce. ASD is ruining our children’s future.  

Think these politicians will give us a tax break next year for the money they didn’t need this year with schools closed. In your dreams. They will keep and spend every penny on a bloated administration, teachers who are not in-class, and unnecessary new and expanded programs as the good book of socialism dictates.  

But this week, the wizards at ASD opened classrooms for Pre-K-3. Yup, kids get to go to school sit/kneel on the floor, six feet apart, do their work on the seat of their chair, with no recess, no lockers, and fully masked over nose and mouth for up to six hours. This bizarre set-up feels like a government indoctrination center, not a robust center for learning in a free society.  

Need I say more.  It’s time to put four conservatives on the Anchorage School Board to reverse this horrific trend.

I strongly recommend you get to know:

  • Judy Eledge, a retired educator with over forty years’ teaching and administrative experience in Anchorage and Alaska; 
  • Pierce ‘Coach’ Blewett, A life-long Alaskan, parent of young children, football coach, and Anchorage School District alumni; 
  • Sandra ‘Sami’ Graham, a retired educator who held many positions during her educational career, such as teacher, counselor, assistant principal, and principal and was a prior member of the Anchorage Education Association and Anchorage Principals’ Association; and 
  • Kimberly ‘Kim’ Paulson, a resident of South Anchorage who has three children, two graduates of South Anchorage High School with the third currently enrolled at South.

These four conservatives would be fantastic additions to the school board.  They come from a variety of backgrounds, but all are laser focused on bringing change to ASD that will result in measurable improvements in the scholastic performance of all students. 

If you like what you see, as I do, connect with them, invite them to speak to you and your friends at your home, donate, and spread the word that Anchorage has four solid conservative candidates for the ASD School Board who will bring a higher standard of education to our community. 

 These candidates will empower parents, take a community minded approach to education, focus on the basics required to be successful in life, and create more accountability for the dollars we invest in education in this community. They need your support and vote to be successful.  Now is the time to take a stand.  

I enthusiastically endorse Eledge, Blewett, Graham, and Paulson for ASD School Board.  Please consider voting for these four outstanding candidates this election.

Craig E. Campbell served on the Anchorage Assembly between 1986 and 1995 and later as Alaska’s Tenth Lieutenant Governor.  He was the previous Chief Executive Officer and President for Alaska Aerospace Corporation.  He retired from the Alaska National Guard as Lieutenant General (AKNG) and holds the concurrent retired Federal rank of Major General (USAF).

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19 COMMENTS

  1. Slavery is hidden in the constitution but it is there if you look. Slave states wanted more representation, but northern states didn’t want them counted as a whole man. Language referring to ” other people” was used.

    • Slave states wanted a confederation of states, not a federal basis that was established by our Constitution. They wanted to keep slavery as cheap labor for their mostly agricultural economy. Northern states may not have been pure in their desire to end slavery, as the first priority was to keep all states under the federal system and not fracture the nation. The defining moral issue was slavery and the north was on the right side of history by forcing the end of slavery, albeit it took decades to fully implement. Other than that, not sure what your comment was addressing relating to the Anchorage School District board election. Cheers.

      • The north owned slaves too. The founders knew the importance of slavery. The south wanted states rights. Ironically not much has changed
        Just responding to one of your original comments. Cheers.

        • Greg, given that since the dawn of pre history Slavery being the norm within every governing body of man, the question really is how did freedom come into being? I submit that it was through the actions of our Founding Fathers who brought forth the ending of slavery. Perhaps a reading of Madison’s copious notes taken during the debates to frame our constitution might shed some light on the subject. BTW, my grand father was a slave of sorts on the Habsburg Plantation once upon a time too.

          • I think you may be sort of right. 10 of the first 12 presidents owned slaves and Washington only freed his own after his wife Martha died and had no further use for them. You realize that slavery is still happening right? China, Russia among others. I don’t know much about the Madison papers, only of Jefferson and Lincoln. Jefferson knew that slavery was important to the economics of the newly formed country. Lincoln was not much for or against slavery, but didn’t want the country tearing itself apart. During the Lincoln Douglas debates he even said he didn’t think blacks should have the right to vote, serve on juries or interbreed with white folks. So as you can
            see, these early leaders who many put on a pedestal we’re flawed men but that’s all hindsight. Slavery helped make this country great, and slavery lead to two or three generations having a better life than they would have had in Africa.

    • The Constitution also looked forward to a day that slavery was to be outlawed. It said that could not happen before 1808, but it allowed banning slavery after that. It was a compromise to get the southern states on board.

  2. I am not saying that these aren’t good candidates at all, but would be careful with the assertions about the Anchorage School District from your source: World Population Review. Ironically, the best performing states are predominantly “deep blue” with the worst-performing being “deep red.” That data is very counter to the points made in your article.

    • I saw that too when I was searching out states with best education performance using google, and the outcome perplexed me. But, I think ite false information to decieve the public while States democrat/rhino controlled from top down have huge homeless and addict plantation populations. Common sense if any State has top education delivery and performance then they should not have as big as a homeless and addict problem.
      I can’t use Google for searching out information, it doesnt give me nor the public any good information for information and It skews making those democrat states look rosy as seeing them thru rose colored glasses. You have to go straight to the state and study the outcome seeing the products of a democrat controlled state’s education performance. Now. I dont like Google. You got to start getting your answers the old fashion way before internet search go straight to the primary sources like legislatures, the state, the schools and know what a child looks like who is academically ahead and academically behind to make a fair comparison which schools are delivering and performing well.

  3. Thanks Craig. Your leadership is sincerely appreciated, Well Done.
    Insight to School board candidates is information that is hard to obtain.
    My vote for school board candidates is clear thanks to Craig.
    Please everyone let’s follow Craig and get word out on who to vote for on the Anchorage School District Board in April.
    This is just the beginning, as conservative’s we must engage ourselves into the political process. Often especially in the MOA election’s, it simply means voting.
    If you are really pissed off on the outcome of the Presidential Election, my advice is to STAY pissed off.
    What should you do;
    vote, make your opinion known to others, contribute to your conservative candidate, attend conservative rallies, and most importantly get others to vote conservative.

  4. Thank you, Craig, for your lifetime of sane, conservative work for Anchorage and Alaska, and the same goes to Dave Donley. We need your voices now more than ever. The conservative and moderate citizens of Anchorage had better catch the clue with what has happened with our sister cities along the Pacific coast of America: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and especially Seattle, which has always had a strong political and economic stranglehold on Alaska. Behold the role that liberal local political leadership has done transforming these cities into Third World sewers of open drug addiction, sexual perversion, and mental crisis.

  6. Great candidates, but Good luck getting a fair election. Anchorage let the foxes into the henhouse a long time ago-they aren’t leaving anytime soon because an election process, which they control completely, is going to give them a less than favorable outcome. Btw- how come we NEVER hear from the Anchorage delegation about all this? Seems like they are totally fine with things like, mandatory lockdowns, mask mandates in perpetuity, and fraudulent mail in ballots.. you would think so at least from how little we hear from them.

  7. Would really like the present Anchorage School Board to refute the statements showing Anchorage schools to be last or near the bottom in test scores while near highest in cost per student. Who does the School Board feel they are responsible to?
    The Anchorage City Assembly rubber stamps the School Board proposed budgets each year, without acknowledging that the school operating budgets are greater than running the entire city while getting results nearly the lowest in the whole country…..
    .

  8. “Unless the conservative community votes in record numbers this year we may end up with Forrest Dunbar as mayor and no change on the assembly,” Mr. Campbell wrote. We’re assured of no change on the Assembly, since Assembly seats are never on the ballot during a mayoral election year. A few clicks on the MoA website would tell Mr. Campbell and Ms. Downing that. Does he really know what he’s talking about?

  9. Since you censored my comment in a reply to another person’s comment without giving a reason, could I get my $100 donation returned. You never said thank you for that either.

  10. Judy Eledge is on record having posted on her Facebook that “interracial marriages are seeming to become the norm” and that “she just doesn’t think they are the norm”. No thanks, not voting for anyone who has prejudice against people choosing who they want to marry. And don’t want her anywhere near making educational decisions that would affect my own interracial kids with her ignorant mindset.

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