Missouri State Teachers Association Primary Election Endorsements

Commentary by Jim Day

The Missouri State Teachers Association’s (MSTA) Legislative Impact Committee had endorsed 59 candidates for the August 5th Primary Election at press time. For those not familiar with MSTA, it’s an educators’ union similar to the NEA (National Education Association).

As readers of the MetroVoice know, we stand firmly opposed to the present public/government education system. Today’s public education system is NOT about educating children but rather indoctrinating them with a humanistic world view. We also stand opposed to the public policies of the NEA.

There are a lot of good educators within the public education system (including Christians) and, not all educators agree with the policies of their unions. Unfortunately, the rank and file members have little to nothing to say about the public policies set by union leadership. However, that shouldn’t be an excuse for good educators not to try to change the bad policies of their unions. For example, the NEA stands against private schools, home schooling, and any kind of a ‘school choice’ program that would give parents a choice in where to send their children to school. To me this stands diametrically opposed to one of the founding principles upon which our nation was established – FREEDOM. Standing against a parent’s right to choose how and where they educate their children is nothing short of tyranny in my book.

Opposing school choice however is just the tip of the iceberg. The NEA endorses and supports practically every radical, socialist, philosophy and program you can think of such as providing free medical services and education for illegal aliens (at taxpayer’s expense of course), radical environmentalism, total gun control, the Federal No Child Left Behind Act, and especially the homosexual agenda – just to name a few.

Granted, the MSTA is not the NEA. However, a cursory review of the MSTA’s 2007 Adopted Resolutions (adopted November 15, 2007) on their website (www.msta.org) reveals some striking similarities between the positions of the MSTA and the NEA.

For example, on page 9, section A07-16 entitled Choice, Vouchers and Tuition Tax Credits it states: “The MSTA opposes legislative actions involving the concept of ‘inter-district choice’ in Missouri’s public schools. The MSTA supports intra-district choice approved by the local school district. Futhermore, the MSTA opposes legislation that would give tax credits for scholarships, tuition or vouchers to private schools or voucher plans that would divert public funds to pay for private school tuition.” (Emphasis mine) That resolution is almost a mirror image of the position which the NEA takes against any form of school choice.

Right below that section is section A07-17 entitled Home Schooling. Line 9 states: “The MSTA strongly urges the General Assembly to support legislation to more stringently regulate the education standards for individuals providing home-school instruction and student academic requirements in home-schooling situations. The MSTA further urges the General Assembly to support legislation providing penalties for parents or guardians who violate mandatory attendance or home-schooling requirements and providing for the enforcement of those penalties.” [Emphasis mine] The MSTA wants to “stringently regulate” and punish home schoolers? It appears the MSTA is in lock step with the NEA in it’s distain for home schooling as well as standing against school choice.

Section A07-1 entitled Equality of Opportunity sounds great. It sounds great unless you’re familiar with the buzz words and catch phrases utilized by homosexual activist organizations in their propaganda to infiltrate all levels of government, schools, school boards and corporations to further the homosexual agenda.

Section A07-1 reads as follows: “The MSTA recognizes that experiences should be provided that would be conductive to understanding human differences and that would develop a respect for the unique value of each human being. Educators and boards of education, working together with community leaders, have a mandate to provide a positive influence and strong leadership affecting integration and the social and educational advantages that accompany it. The MSTA urges an increased understanding, appreciation and celebration of the racial and cultural diversity within the schools and the community.” [Emphasis mine]

This entire section is replete with terminology which homosexual organizations have utilized to gain access to public schools to legitimize and mainstream their lifestyle. (Addendum to original article 7-29-08: It should be made clear to readers that the MSTA is not a homosexual activist organization but rather a teachers union.)

For instance, the MSTA recognizes that “experiences” should be provided to “understand human differences.” What does that mean? For homosexual activists organizations homosexuality is a human difference, a difference that children should be exposed to and taught to appreciate. Bringing a homosexual or lesbian into the classroom as a guest speaker to teach kids about their different lifestyle has been and is being done in K through 12 schools across the nation under the guise of being an educational experience.

In sentence two, educators and boards of education “working together with community leaders” have a mandate to provide a positive influence on children. The local president, director or other high profile leader of any number of socialist and homosexual organizations would certainly consider themselves community leaders. And, unfortunately, many of them are quite involved on school boards, serve as teachers, administrators and in other areas of influence within the public education system. What kind of “positive influence” on children do you suppose these people are exerting within the public education system?

Sentence three in this statement should send red flags flying in all directions: “The MSTA urges an increased understanding, appreciation and celebration of the racial and cultural diversity within the schools and the community.” [Emphasis mine] Those certainly sound like admirable and lofty goals until you dig a little deeper into the term “cultural diversity.”

In the business world a lot of major corporations conduct what’s know as “diversity” or “sensitivity” training sessions where employees are forced to sit through special classes/lectures that, in essence, promote the homosexual lifestyle. Employees are told that any comment or action which might offend someone involved in the lifestyle could be grounds for disciplinary action including dismissal.

Homosexual activist organizations, teachers and administrators have been particularly successful in promoting the homosexual agenda within the realm of public education.

Under the auspices of teaching children to be ‘respectful’ and ‘tolerant’ of others, not to be bullies, to be aware of the ‘diversity’ of cultural differences in our world, and seeking to provide a safe environment for children while they’re in school – all of which are noble objectives – homosexual groups have subverted and twisted these objectives turning them into nothing more than training and recruiting tools for their deviant lifestyle. Homosexual guest speakers are even invited into classrooms to make presentations and share their experiences as an example of “cultural diversity.”

To make matters worse, for years now homosexual and lesbian teachers and administrators – serving as sponsors - have been encouraging children to establish gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual and straight ‘student clubs’ within their schools. Two pro-homosexual organizations GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) and PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) have been particularly active in establishing such ‘clubs’ across the country (including many Missouri and Illinois schools). The bottom line is the fact that in schools across the country – including Missouri and Illinois from kindergarten on up - children are being taught to appreciate, celebrate and accept (and often encouraged to experiment with) all sorts of deviant sexual behaviors.

There were a lot more ‘gems’ I found in the MSTA’s 2007 Resolutions (i.e. opposing the Federal No Child Left Behind Act – which is a horrible piece of legislation - in one section yet, supporting full funding of the Act in another ) but I believe readers can draw their own conclusions from what I’ve already presented.

MSTA’s August 2008 Primary Election endorsements are listed below. According the MSTA additional endorsements will be made following the August Primary Elections. Those candidates with a (P) after their names have only received a Primary Election endorsement which indicates to me that that endorsement might change for the General Elections in November.

Missouri Senate
Dist. 3 Kevin Engler
Dist. 5 Robin Wright-Jones
Dist. 7 Gina Loudon (P)
Dist. 9 Yvonne Wilson
Dist. 19 Chuck Graham
Dist. 25 Rob Mayer
Dist. 29 Jack Goodman
Dist. 31 David Pearce (P)

Missouri House of Representatives
Dist. 4 Mike Thomson
Dist. 5 Jim Guest
Dist. 6 Rachel Bringer
Dist. 8 Tom Shively
Dist. 23 Stephen Webber
Dist. 26 Joe Aull
Dist. 27 Ed Wildberger
Dist. 29 Martin Rucker
Dist. 40 John Patrick Burnett
Dist. 44 Amy Coffman
Dist. 45 Jason Holsman
Dist. 47 Jeff Grisamore
Dist. 52 Paul LeVota
Dist. 54 Gary Dusenberg
Dist. 55 Bryan Pratt
Dist. 56 Brian Yates
Dist. 59 Jeanette Mott Oxford
Dist. 64 Rachel Storch
Dist. 67 Chad Beffa
Dist. 72 Maria Chappelle-Nadal
Dist. 77 Michael Corcoran
Dist. 96 Pat Yaeger
Dist. 100 Sue Schoemehl
Dist. 101 Tim Meadows
Dist. 102 Jeff Roorda
Dist. 110 Belinda Harris
Dist. 112 Tom Loehner
Dist. 115 Rodney Schad
Dist. 116 Tom Self
Dist. 119 Larry Wilson
Dist. 124 Luke Scavuzzo
Dist. 129 Ron Richard
Dist. 130 Kevin Wilson
Dist. 132 Don Ruzicka
Dist. 134 Jim Viebrock
Dist. 135 Charlie Denison
Dist. 138 Sara Lampe
Dist. 141 Jay Wasson
Dist. 142 Ray Weter
Dist. 143 Maynard Wallace
Dist. 146 Darrell Pollock
Dist. 147 Don Wells
Dist. 148 David Day
Dist. 150 Jason Smith
Dist. 152 J.C. Kuessner
Dist. 154 Gayle Kingery
Dist. 157 Scott Lipke
Dist. 159 Billy Pat Wright
Dist. 161 Steve Hodges
Dist. 162 Terry Swinger
Dist. 163 Tom Todd