In South Carolina's Berkeley County, there has been an increase in accountability. It is unclear if this was a witch hunt or if it was a result of the local residents' anger. The former board chair was removed last week, and the new members were elected by angry parents.
The new board immediately fired the district's superintendent and its attorney, and it banned critical race theory in the schools. According to NBC News, this resulted in some community members raising concerns.
The newly elected school board members were sworn in on Tuesday evening. Six of them were endorsed by a conservative group called Moms for Liberty.
Within two hours, the board had voted to remove the district's first African-American superintendent, establish a committee to decide on banning certain materials and books from the schools, and fire the district's lawyer.
The board also voted to replace the former chair with Mac McQuillin, who is a local attorney.
The board then voted to hire a second African-American superintendent to replace the first one. Although the former board chair David Barrow called the actions of the new board “travesty,” another member, Yvonne Bradley, claimed that the new board members were being “misled.” She then left the meeting.
It's not clear if the voters were actually tricked into supporting these actions. According to the conservative group, Moms for Liberty, the agenda of the new board was exactly what the members wanted.
The group claimed that the victories of the six candidates were an example of how the voters were tricked into supporting a conservative agenda. Four of them were incumbents, while the two new members were only new to the board. They promised to put an end to the “woke agenda,” improve transparency in the curriculum, and establish a more responsible school system.
Who's being tricked? According to the residents of the community, they were fed up with the direction the education system and school board were taking. They organized to stop the policies that they felt were not working well for their kids. The results of the election showed that the people were willing to make changes, and democracy looks very effective at the local level.
Bradley might have been engaging in a case of projection. The dissenting members of the board claimed that the decisions were not being made according to the correct curriculum. They also stated that the ban on books was wrong, and the district had a process in place to remove educational materials.
The members of the previous board might have been referring to the double-speak that might have cost them control over the schools. One has to wonder if the editor and reporter of NBC News were aware of the double-meaning they were using.
Several speakers, including teachers, pastors, and an NAACP representative, stated that critical race theory should be taught in schools. A district librarian also claimed that the creation of a committee was redundant since there were already policies in place regarding the purchase and use of educational materials. The librarian also noted that parents could challenge specific titles that they don't want their kids to read.
How dare you prevent the teaching of CRT? Also, how dare you look into the standards for books instead of the librarians? There is a process that allows parents to change the policies so that they don't have to go through the process of personally reviewing the work of the school librarian. This election process, which is called a school board election, was very successful in Berkeley County, South Carolina.
In the future, more school board elections will be held in Berkeley County. If the residents of the community don't like what the new board is doing, they can hold them accountable. It's clear that the members of the new board are committed to carrying out the mandate that the voters gave them.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on HotAir.
