Critically Thinking about Experience

Should you automatically vote for the candidate with the most experience?

Although the Presidential election race has rightly taken front stage, there are several down-ballot races that are EXTREMELY significant. As a good example of these, I’m going to discuss a North Carolina contest. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this is just a NC matter!

There is almost universal agreement that the US K-12 education system is seriously distressed — so fixing it is a bipartisan issue. The problem is that almost no one is doing anything meaningful to address this extraordinarily important problem — until now. (BTW, School Choice is a great thing, but it will not fix this situation.)

Arguably one of the top twenty most important elections in the US is the contest for the NC Superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction (DPI: K-12 schools). The outcome there could have profoundly beneficial national — and even international — repercussions.

The GOP candidate, Michele Morrow, is a political novice (note that I did not say education novice). She is a mom with five children (and most of them were home-schooled), a long-time nurse, and a staunch Conservative Christian.

As an aside, here is a short video of Michele speaking at her local school board a few years ago — long before she decided to run for DPI Superintendent. Since this is an unscripted talk, it is a good representation of who she really is…

The Democrat candidate for NC DPI Superintendent is Maurice (Mo) Green, who is politically experienced. He is a lawyer, former superintendent of a large NC school district, and CEO of a Left-leaning organization.

There have now been a few debates between these candidates, and the mantra from Mr. Green is that he should be elected because he is the “experienced” option. (Watch a representative debate [below], and hear that for yourself. Also note who seems more competent.)

The question here is: should “experience” be the primary reason that a citizen votes for a candidate?

Let’s critically think about what “experience” is. Basically, it means that a person has done something before.

Let’s say you’ve never played golf, and you decide that (for health, social, etc. reasons) you’d like to become a competent golfer. You share this new aspiration with a neighbor, who has played golf 50± times. Since he clearly has much more experience than you do, should you accept his offer to give you lessons?

Hopefully, this analogy should make clear: experience — by itself — is NOT any assurance of competence. Your neighbor may never have broken 100, so is that the person you want giving you instructions about golf habits you should adopt?

Back to the NC Contest —

Interestingly, this NC contest reveals the types of concerns that any Critically Thinking voter should have about their own state’s education department…

Since Mr. Green is trumpeting his experience and leadership in NC K-12 education, the question to Critically Thinking voters is: is that a positive factor?

Let’s look closer at NC DPI, which is a system that has been run for years by credentialed experts with extensive experience, including Mo Green. What the question for NC voters is: are you happy with the results? This means considering that:

1 - NC DPI is having great trouble in not only recruiting but retaining teachers. (NC’s most recent annual attrition rate was over 10,000, the highest on record!)

2 - There were some 11,000 reports of violence last year in NC K-12 schools, again the highest on record. (Note: there were likely many more not reported.)

3 - Academic test results have been inferior. (Things are so bad that DPI is portraying results that show that less than sixty percent of NC students just have the minimum proficiency in their grades, as a positive thing! Look at the official DPI trends over the last twenty years to see the bigger, disturbing picture.)

4 - A record number of parents are removing their children from NC public schools, and are now home-schooling them. (Some 100,000 children have now been taken out of the NC public school system and home-schooled.)

5 - DPI has allowed Progressive ideology like DEI, CRT, SEL, etc. to become thoroughly indoctrinated into NC children (e.g., here).

6 - There is no part of the DPI’s curricula that specifically teaches NC children how to be Critical Thinkers. Compare that to the fact that regarding SEL, DPI has webpages, has hired people to promote SEL, has professional training for teachers on SEL, etc. There is nothing remotely comparable to that for Critical Thinking!

These extremely troubling results are what has happened when we have put the education of our children in the hands of so-called experts with experience, like Mr. Green. Again: experience is only a positive thing when results are a success. That’s obviously not the case in NC, so we need to look for outside-the-box solutions.

This is exactly why Michele is running for NC Superintendent of DPI. Voting for her means business as usual at DPI is no longer acceptable.

a) She believes that DPI should have more emphasis on academics and be paying much closer attention to what is in the curricula. In doing so, DPI needs to scrub DEI, CRT, etc. from the curricula, as it is counterproductive and disruptive. These types of progressive messages increase violence and undermine teacher retention.

b) She believes that DPI should primarily be teaching our children HOW to think, not WHAT to think — as is happening now.

c) She believes that after emphasizing student academics and critical thinking, DPI will be much more successful at recruiting and retaining good teachers.

d) She believes that if DPI actually taught students what is promised in the Portrait of a Graduate (how to critically think, communicate, have empathy, etc.) DPI will not only reduce safety issues but will also increase teacher retention.

e) She believes that getting more money from the NC State Legislators would be a complete waste if it is just dumped into the current system. When Legislators see Michele’s DPI changes, it is highly likely that they will loosen the purse strings.

In short, Michele believes that DPI can provide a superior education product, competitive with the best private schools, and better than the home-school option.

So the choice to NC voters is very simple and extraordinarily important.

Attorney Green is a proud and unrepentant part of the NC education establishment. Voting for him means that citizens are happy with how things are going at DPI, and that they want Mo of the same.

Voting for Michele means that citizens believe that NC K-12 public schools can provide an excellent education — but need an outside infusion of creativity to return NC schools to their past levels of performance.

The Bottom Line —

No matter where you live, please support this courageous, competent, conservative woman!

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PS: Just so you don’t think this is all in my head, here is a fine piece about Michele, from a credible NC source, with no connection to me.

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