Emily Green for State School Board

My Positions

I believe that parents have the primary responsibility to educate their children and I am grateful to live in a state where that right is asserted and protected in the Utah Constitution. Parents are the most influential force in a child’s life. As a member of the State School Board I will ensure that parents retain this right.

I believe that classical education and a focus on reading, writing and arithmetic are essential to a child’s education. I want every child to experience a love of learning. The current environment of education is steeped in culture wars and socialist ideologies that do not belong in the classroom. We need to return to a student focused education where parents and teachers work together to ensure every child’s success.

Restore Classical Education

We need a return to the basics – reading, writing and arithmetic – with direct instruction from teachers. Literacy is critical to economic development and individual and community well-being. Technology can be an asset when used as a supplemental help in the classroom, but the primary teaching of students should be done by a teacher.

The implementation of a merit based grading system with high expectations will give kids the real incentives and tools to succeed far beyond their K12 years.

Fund Teachers Not Tech

We need to bring back the art and heart of teaching. In too many places we have replaced the teacher with a computer. Teachers have become compliance officers to ideological agendas in “modern education” coerced through tech programs.

We need to let teachers teach again. We need to reduce their reporting burden and allow to them to be educators. Tech companies have discovered endless abilities to collect data from our children. It is time to have a robust conversation about how tech is and is not allowed in the classroom.

Build Teacher- Parent Partnerships

The two most impactful people in a child’s education are the parent and the teacher. There has been a drastic shift from one of trust in teachers to one of distrust.

Teachers are required to implement Programs that are actually creating the divide. Getting to the root of ideological driven Programs and replacing them with time proven teaching practices infused with academic excellence is the most impactful way to correct this divide.

When Programs enter schools which encourage subtle belief systems that strip our students of American Exceptionalism, encourage Critical Theory, revoke the moral training from parents and create division through comprehensive sexuality education it is no wonder there is a battle between parents and teachers. Teacher-Parent relationships will only improve with a return to academic integrity.

Character Education

I strongly support Character Education and reject modern concepts of Social Emotional Learning. Character education should be built around developing honesty, integrity, morality, civility, duty, honor, service, and obedience to law.

We need to educate them about the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and our founding fathers. We need to teach our children the “skills, habits, and qualities of character which will promote an upright and desirable citizenry and better prepare students to recognize and accept responsibility for preserving and defending the blessings of liberty inherited from prior generations and secured by the constitution.” (Utah Code 53G-10-204-(3))