To the editor:

I read with interest the article on March 2 about the school board interviewing for a new District 88 superintendent. Here in Minnesota it was just reported that 19 elementary and high schools did not have one student test proficient in 2022 on a math standardized test. At the start of the 2022 school year, fewer than half of Minnesota students statewide are proficient in math (44.6%) and just under 50% can’t read at grade level.

We don’t want New Ulm to be in those negative numbers. We need leaders from the superintendent on down to be concerned about teaching the basics of reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic, and eliminate the WOKE social agenda issues. We need administrative leaders and teachers with strong moral characteristics to lead our children.

To help with that goal, I suggest our current board of education ask the questions that follow of the superintendent candidates. I would hope that the superintendent and all members of the board of education could answer YES for each of them.

Should parents be allowed to express their concerns about what is being taught to their children, and that it is wrong to call those parents “domestic terrorists?”

Will you keep the damaging, dangerous, and divisive Critical Race Theory (CRT) out of the curriculum? Will you eliminate the LGBTQ+ activism that has crept our schools?

Will you do all in your power to make sure that male students are not allowed to play on female teams, including males that pretend they have transgendered to a female?

Will you speak against the teacher’s unions (NEA & AFT) that attempt to indoctrinate our students with the WOKE agenda of fostering transgenderism, sexualizing the students, allowing sexualized smut in the curriculum, and at the same time ban Dr. Seuss books?

Will you stand against gender dysphoria, castration of boys, mastectomy of girls, cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and instead allow counseling for transgender students with the parent’s permission?

Are you willing to back our teachers when they report children who were disruptive in the classroom with words and actions and have those children appropriately punished?

Will you do what you can to get rid of the equity indoctrination that pits one group against another by bringing down those who are exceeding, instead of trying to raise everyone’s level? Equity is not equality.

I’m sure the readers can add other questions to ask the superintendent candidates.

Myron Fluegge

New Ulm