You may not live in the Pennridge School District, but recent overreach by its school board directors should be of great concern to you if you’re a parent, teacher or tax payer in Pennsylvania.
“Our district has been beaten down by our school board. About a month before the last bell rang, our school board signed a contract with Vermilion Education, a 5-month-old private curriculum consultant from Michigan, with deep ties to far-right conservative Hillsdale College,” wrote Ridge Network co-founder and parent Lauren Bradley in an op-ed published by the Bucks County Beacon.
Ridge Network is a group of Pennridge residents from every walk of life working to shining a light on issues that impact students and teachers in the Pennridge School District.
READ: In Pennridge School District, Books Once Shadow Banned Are Now In The Trash Can
Currently, the district is the only public school system in the United States to have its curriculum hijacked by local Moms For Liberty school board directors and their outside consultant, Jordan Adams of Vermilion Education, who lacks the necessary credentials to perform the $125 an hour work for which he was contracted.
After endless hours of public comment regarding changes to the curriculum and retaining the services of Vermilion Education fell on the school board’s deaf ears, Ridge Network was forced to look for other ways to solve the ongoing dysfunction within the district.
“We came up with this letter writing campaign to Shapiro, which we were just doing completely on our own and kind of organically,” said Bradley who estimates approximately 200 letters were sent.
The project grabbed the attention of Red Wine and Blue, who asked, How can we help you? What can we do to assist?
LISTEN: Unmasking Moms For Liberty’s Extremism, With Olivia Little And Diana Leygerman
“They loved the letter writing campaign, but they were like, hey, we have the technology and the infrastructure to make this an automated letter. And we can expand the scope,” Bradley said.
“We think this is bigger than a Pennridge issue. We think that this is a state issue,” said Ronna Dewey, Pennsylvania Program Director for Red Wine and Blue.
Since 2018 Red Wine and Blue has worked to harness the power of suburban women to address an array of social and political issues, including political extremism in public education.
READ: Red Wine and Blue Labels Pennridge School District More Extreme Than Florida
Together the two groups drafted an expanded version of the original letter that may now be sent by anyone in Pennsylvania to their state representative, senator, the attorney general, the secretary of the department of education and the governor.
“The orchestrated effort to infiltrate school boards to advance specific political agendas has shifted the dynamics of district oversight,” reads a portion of the action alert. “We are asking Pennsylvania leadership to act urgently and stand up for public education, students, and educators and put policies in place that limit school board overreach and demand accountability to constituents.”
Regardless of where you reside in the commonwealth, you may send a letter, free of charge, by clicking HERE.
Dewey believes that a lot of communities don’t take action until it’s too late. “We really feel like a lot of people just are not aware of what is happening… It’s going to seep up and it’s going to catch people by surprise.”
The new automated letter writing campaign launched on July 18. In less than one week 364 letters have been delivered.
