Kelly Tshibaka continues to unveil her “It’s Time for a Change” agenda
Alaska Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka today unveiled principles and proposals to improve education and increase parental involvement under her “It’s Time for a Change” agenda. Woke culture has infiltrated public schools and frozen parents out of policy decisions, which is a dangerous trend that must be reversed. Alaskans can see that incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski sides with President Joe Biden, has enabled his disastrous agenda, and voted to confirm his Secretary of Education, along with more than 90 percent of his Cabinet nominees.
“Far too often, school officials see parents as adversaries, when in fact parents should have the right to be involved in their kids’ education. It’s a travesty that parents have been cordoned off from the decisions that affect their children’s future and that has got to change,” Tshibaka said. “When I’m the next U.S. senator from Alaska, I will fight to ensure that schools are for teaching facts, not leftist ideology, and parents will have a say in what their kids learn. Lisa Murkowski, on the other hand, has been a rubber stamp for Joe Biden and his radical band of social engineers, and our children have suffered for it.”
As part of her “It’s Time for a Change” agenda, Tshibaka made the following pledges regarding education:
I will fight for the rights of parents to make decisions about what happens to their kids in the classroom because parents don't surrender their rights or responsibilities when they enroll their children in school. I support a Parental Bill of Rights, including the right to know and see all material being taught, as well as school budget and spending; the right to develop Individual Learning Plans to create a unique education experience for their child; the right to direct their child's health decisions based on their unique medical needs; the right to be immediately informed of violent activity or threats at school that affect their child, and to be informed prior to major disciplinary action being taken; the right to be fully informed of and to approve any sex education, gender identification, or race theory material being presented or discussed with their child; and the right to access their child's data and records, have the information provided in a timely manner, and be assured of the safeguarding of their child's privacy. We need multiple paths to receiving diplomas so that our children can be engaged and prepared for jobs and self-sufficiency in Alaska.
Education is a national priority and state responsibility which must involve parents with their children. I will advocate for child-centric education, such as block grants that allow funding to follow the child, not the system, empowering families to make best choices for their child's education. From tribal compacting, to public school options, to charter schools, a child’s zip code should never determine their future.
I will fight to reserve federal education funding only for essential education, such as those that will place Alaska youth in Alaskan jobs. School is not a place for ideological indoctrination programs, such as Critical Race Theory.
To meet each child's unique educational needs, I will support innovative approaches like competency-based education, where students can obtain school credit for mastering competencies through on-the-job-training, internships, apprenticeships, subsistence living experiences, or extracurricular activities. We need multiple paths to receiving diplomas so that our children can be engaged academically and prepared for jobs in Alaska.
I will support a requirement that school children recite the Pledge of Allegiance, stand for the National Anthem, and honor the American flag.
I will support requirements that American history be taught accurately in school.
I will oppose any efforts to discriminate against school students who voluntarily engage in prayer.
Tshibaka, who was born and raised in Alaska, has spent her career exposing fraud and abuse in government and served as Commissioner of Administration for the State of Alaska until she stepped down to announce her campaign. Her father was a union electrician and Vietnam War veteran, and her mother was one of the first workers at the startup of Prudhoe Bay, one of Alaska's large oil fields. Her parents were homeless for a time in the 1970s but fought their way into the working class. Tshibaka graduated from Steller Secondary School in Anchorage and was the first in her family to pursue a college degree, beginning her studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage before graduating from college and law school. She lives in Anchorage with her husband, Niki, and their five children.
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