By Tiffany Benson |
Voters will forever be disadvantaged if they keep believing school board races are “nonpartisan.” As a formality, progressive candidates David Sandoval, Melissa Girmscheid, and Mikah Dyer are registered with no party declared. Don’t be fooled by this. They fully intend to unleash a far-left agenda if they secure seats on the Peoria Unified Board of Education this November.
All three candidates are endorsed by the sleazy, nonprofit hack Save Our Schools Arizona (SOS). SOS is a radical, union-loving, anti-parent organization with a special hatred for school choice. They even dedicated an entire page to demonizing empowerment scholarship accounts (ESA). One bullet point under “Get the Facts,” says, “The minimum ESA voucher is $500 higher than the state per pupil funding to district schools.”
To that I say, the year-over-year state ranking of 48 to 50 confirms that our public schools are a failed government experiment. At the same time, by some estimates, Arizona ranks #1 in school choice. One source said the average homeschooled student scores 15-30% higher on standardized academic achievement tests. So, it appears that $500 is well spent.
In April 2024, a columnist for The Washington Post found that Arizona spends about $13,500 per public school student compared to an ESA average of $7,143. This prompted the writer to declare, “[I]f everyone opted for ESAs, the state would save money.” Wow, that’s a difference of nearly $6,400 in favor of parents’ choice! I promise not to hold this little discrepancy against SOS members who graduated from Arizona public schools (especially since recent state test scores show math proficiency at 34%).
Board candidate Dyer—who graduated from PUSD in May 2024—is also anti-parent. Of course, this is a rite of passage for teenagers. In an article by The Courier, Dyer spoke against the conservative parent organization Moms for Liberty, a group that was founded around the time Dyer “graduated” from middle school. Dyer told the Courier that he thinks students know how to best serve the majority of their classmates.
Sorry, Dyer, kids don’t know what’s best for kids, and neither do government schools. This is why we have parental rights legislation affirming the ultimate authority of primary caregivers. Children don’t make final decisions on anything they’re not mature enough or financially stable enough to manage on their own, especially K-12 education.
In the same article, Dyer claimed that students were “not worried about what’s happening in the restrooms” on campus. This statement effectively silenced all the PUSD students who spoke out at school board meetings last year and lined up to protest the cross-dressing boy who was allowed to use the girls’ bathrooms. I remember Dyer attending those board meetings. He even made public comments in opposition to those students’ concerns. So, I’d say he’s out of touch with his adolescent peers.
Not only is Dyer’s worldview shaped by a school district that prefers “rainbow libraries” over academics, he’s also campaigning alongside current PUSD board member David Sandoval—a leftist who discriminates against Christians. Sandoval’s claim to fame is his tenure on the board. Despite winning a seat in 2016, and re-election in 2020, he has little to no achievements in the ways of sound district policies, student safety, or academic improvement.
Sandoval voted in favor of permitting males to invade female spaces. He has no issue giving unlicensed, psycho-emotional grifters access to students’ mental health. In a hostile climate of school shootings and bullying, Sandoval doesn’t consider Student Resource Officers a high priority. If teachers and staff want to bypass state law and travel for CRT/DEI/SEL conferences, Sandoval’s vote is guaranteed. Circling back to math proficiency, within a year of Sandoval’s swearing-in, PUSD students were testing at a failure rate of 49%. On his watch, that dropped to 37% by 2023. Notwithstanding various uncontrollable factors and administrative issues, Sandoval is fundamentally lacking in leadership capabilities.
Board candidate Melissa Girmscheid is a cut above the rest having previously taught math and science in PUSD. She’s running a clean campaign to the untrained eye, but let’s be real: Girmscheid’s ideological roots and the party’s agenda won’t let her focus solely on academics. Her “endorsements and distinctions” tell the story of a candidate beholden to hazardous teachers’ unions, LGBTQ and sex-ed advocacy groups, and a “social change” movement that exists to “promote feminist ideals.” Furthermore, Girmscheid earned a seal of approval from “the only organization in the nation focused on recruiting, training, and electing Democrats with a background in science to public office.”
Earlier this year, the trio participated in a candidate forum hosted by Secular AZ—an anti-God club fixated on mythical interpretations of “separation of church and state.” During the interview, all three candidates gave a resounding “yes” to the question of reintroducing sex education curriculum. They agreed that PUSD educators should be discussing “reproductive health” and “consent” with students as young as 10 years old. There’s only one word to describe an adult who thinks about innocent children in this context: evil.
If Peoria residents want a school district that’s centered on safety, academics, and fiscal responsibility—Jeff Tobey and Janelle Bowles are the trustworthy candidates. We must reject any contender who will prioritize special interests above students, infringe upon parental rights, and plunge our education system further into darkness.
I’ve done my due diligence by bringing all this to your attention. Spread the word.
Tiffany Benson is the Founder of Restore Parental Rights in Education. Her commentaries on education, politics, and Christian faith can be viewed at Parentspayattention.substack.com and Bigviewsmallwindow.com.
