WHEREAS the Republican Party is waging an ongoing, extensive, deliberate, well-funded, national effort to undermine and defund public schools for the purpose of privatizing education and thereby weakening our democracy; and
WHEREAS, as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated, “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely; and the real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education”; and
WHEREAS elected trustees of school districts must ensure all students are educated equitably because our children are future citizens who need to be “prepared to choose wisely,” yet some trustees are undermining public schools and educators by banning books, omitting required curriculum, discriminating against LGBTQ+ students and staff, avoiding public oversight by ignoring the Brown Act, usurping authority beyond their purview, filing frivolous lawsuits, and violating their official responsibilities by wasting tax dollars taken from students to spend on their extremist agendas;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the California Democratic Party supports that education laws must be followed by all school boards and districts, enforced by oversight agencies, and that the community should monitor the actions and decisions of their local and county school boards and participate in its meetings, take an active part in surveys, Parent Teacher Associations, and exercise other efforts to guide school board decisions in order to guarantee that school boards facilitate the delivery of quality education to the students they serve, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party supports electing and supporting school board members and trustees who commit to following state and federal education laws, as the first step to guarantee quality education to all students.
