Coming up in the Lakota schools soon is an opportunity to elect three more conservative school board members, and to answer the question I have been asked regularly: am I running for one of them? Because many people want me to. Not to give a politically worthless answer, but in my opinion, people who genuinely appreciate the system should be the ones to run it. I do not like the system, and I have no interest in working with people like that. I view education as a reform effort, and I believe the amount of time required to fulfill a school board role exceeds 70 hours per week. It’s not a helicopter position as it’s now for many people who are currently in it. So I would advise people who want to help fix the system and are willing to do that level of work to let us know, and we’ll help you connect the dots. But as far as one of those people being me, that wouldn’t be a good idea for those wanting to save the system in some regard. I’m accustomed to being entirely in charge of the things I do; I’m not a very good consensus player. I don’t even think the design of school boards in public education is correct; it needs a strong CEO-type to oversee these radical superintendents. I don’t like the lawyers. I don’t like the teacher’s unions. I don’t like the way they are funded. I don’t like what they teach. I don’t think they work long enough hours, regardless of the level of employees, administrative, or the teachers themselves. I support scrapping the whole thing and starting over. However, there are many parents with school-age children who want to make the best of a difficult situation, and these are the types of individuals who should be leading the school.
As far as holding on to the way things were in the past? There is no chance of that. I was watching the protests this weekend at the Statehouse against Trump and Elon Musk over their fears that Social Security will be cut, which isn’t even on the table. However, the level of stupidity exhibited by some of those participants is genuinely overwhelming. There is no talking to people like that with reason. They can’t understand anything that needs to be changed, so, in my opinion, they should all be scrapped. They are not prepared for what needs to be done. I would argue that they aren’t even qualified to be parents. I feel sorry for the children born into families with the kind of parents who go to these anti-Trump protests. It’s not their fault their parents are idiots. But I see no hope in any of those people; they are the result of a society that has experimented with Marxism, and they accepted those thoughts as a new reality. And that is not the future of education. There is only one way things are going, and no amount of crying like a baby is going to change anything. The funding of public schools needs to change; it will change. The government funding of schools, with unmanaged money moving from the federal government back to the local level, is not a future prospect. It can’t be, and it never should have been. People have seen what that system gave them, and they aren’t willing to continue with that method. The per-pupil costs of educating students should be at least half what they currently are. When I talk to people who are out there carrying signs in favor of preserving that system, they don’t understand it, and they never will. Education has to be competitive; we need competition with other teachers, with other districts, and with other states. The teacher’s union model of everyone getting a collective bargaining agreement for subpar work is over.
And as I say that, people will tell me tomorrow, and the day after that, and the week after that—that’s why I should be on the school board. Consider what you’re saying and think about what you know about me. Yes, I can speak very politically, and I work very well with people who hate me and plot against me with everything they can come up with. My life is far more complicated than the most ostentatious Shakespeare play. There isn’t any way for my life to be reflected in art because nobody would believe it, including the most conspiratorial of Shakespeare’s works. My idea of the perfect school board member was and is Darbi Boddy. She genuinely cared about making the school a great one, and she represented a sizeable demographic group within the Lakota school system. And people from all political sides conspired to get rid of her. Who in their right mind thinks I would put up with that? Darby handled things very well and played by the rules, paying her legal fees to defend herself in ridiculous ways. She never should have had to do that. And I can say, I wouldn’t. I would burn the whole system down from the inside out, along with all the people associated with it. So be careful what you wish for. I want what’s best for the people of my community. However, what’s best for me is what people who deal with me receive, and I’m not sure people can see past the results they want, which are undoubtedly attainable. But what would they do with the wreckage in the aftermath? That’s where the real trick is.
I think there is a way to do it, but as I mentioned, I believe the job of a school board member at Lakota schools requires at least 70 hours a week. It takes that long to read everything you need to read and speak with all the people you need to talk to. The school board meetings need to be more prolonged, more frequent, and include more detailed information. And the people working together need to build a team, not to resemble a Shakespearean drama. And when I say that, we need three school board members who will work together, not against each other, and merge into the political faction of the teacher unions. I have a very dominant personality in personal conduct, and I excel when I can give orders. But consensus building is not my thing, and it never will be. I’m the one you call to take the head shot. Not the one who cleans up the mess. And Lakota schools are a mess, and there is a lot to clean up. And the people doing that need to like each other and to represent the community in the best way possible. But there will be a lot of hard talks and times in the next two to three years. Really, until Vivek Ramaswamy is governor of Ohio, we won’t be able to truly fix public education for good with competitive models and funding tied to the child, not the uncompetitive local school. The property tax racket has to come to an end. It has given us a garbage product taught by garbage people who are worthless in every category, and it’s time to put all that to an end. As those protesters increasingly do in places like the Ohio Statehouse, they aren’t in the realm of reality, and that isn’t the fault of the rest of the world. It is their social dysfunction to think that a school system can continue to get unlimited funds to sponsor a poor work ethic and to teach Marxism to the next generation isn’t even a consideration for the future. I will not say everyone but me should do such a hard job. But when it comes to delivery, be careful what you wish for. My bedside manner on this topic does not come with any handholding. I’ve been ready to pull the plug on the patient for a long time. It’s a system that needs to die.
Rich Hoffman
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