Wall Street Journal - Parents Must Take Back School Boards

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Wall Street Journal - Parents Must Take Back School Boards

Published: Thursday, February 5th, 2026 @ 6:08 pm
By: John Steed ( More Entries )

The Wall Street Journal has a good piece out entitled "Parents Must Take Back School Boards." That message should be heard here in Beaufort County where there is a clear division between school board members who stand up for parents and those who do not.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/free-expression/parents-must-take-back-school-boards-e867047d?st=XNWVsH

The issue of school board responsiveness to parents came up in a Beaufort County School Board meeting last month. An existing written board policy provides that in dealing with books and other materials that are controversial with parents and the community, the school system will only consider the opinions of "educational professionals" in determining whether to keep those materials accessible to students. A motion was made to amend that policy to provide that the opinions of parents would also be considered, along with the educational professionals in resolving such issues; That motion was defeated on a split vote. Our current board is divided between those who want to exclude parent opinions in decisions on controversial materials like dirty books, and those who want to include parents.

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Comments

Steven P. Rader said:

( February 7th, 2026 @ 5:37 pm )

The provisions of the school board policies I moved to change on parent input were some that had come down from Raleigh before I was on the board. They fly in the face of the landmark US Supreme Court decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which was decided last summer and upholds parental rights on a wide range of controversial school materials. Indeed, if the issue in any way can be related to religion, as LGBTQ materials were in that case, parental rights now trump eveyone else. I want to see our board revisit this issue so that we can align our policies with the US Surpeme Court ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor.

Concerned Taxpayer said:

( February 7th, 2026 @ 2:43 pm )

One would think that any elected body would take into account the opinions of those who elect them. In the case of the school board, that would be the parents and the taxpayers. Those board members who voted to respect and consider those opinions, School Board members Rader, Hickman, Shreve, and Davis should be applauded - and re-elected. That is the type of board members we need. The others? Not so much!

Bubba said:

( February 7th, 2026 @ 9:46 am )

Why is Carolyn Walker out recruiting opponents for conservative school board members? Is she trying to set up her own little political machine? It sounds like she is the one who needs to go since she is anti-parent.

Van Zant said:

( February 7th, 2026 @ 9:30 am )

CV: Good point. We need to remember our pro-parent School Board members. In fact, we need to remember all of our elected officials that act and govern like conservatives and not just give it lip service on occasion.

BTW I'm sure you know we can't assume all Republicans are conservative. On our local Beaufort County boards Democrats, when they exist, are only pile on or swing votes. The real battles between conservative and liberal policies are between Republicans.

Conservative Voter said:

( February 5th, 2026 @ 7:36 pm )

With election time coming, lets give credit where credit is due. Board member Steven Rader made the motion to also consider parents opinions and it was seconded by Board member Charles Hickman. Liberal board member Carolyn Walker spoke against the motion (and thus against parents). Board members Stacey Davis and Donald Shreve also supported the pro-parent motion.

Rader, Hickman, and Shreve are all up for re-election this year. Two of them have opponents recruited by Carolyn Walker. Most of those who opposed parents on this vote will be up for election in 2028. It will be 2028 for Beaufort County to take our school board back. This year, it is mostly protecting the pro-parent members who are being challenged.

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