For too long, conservative November voters have failed to engage in their local elections and have allowed others to dictate the character and priorities of our schools.

I get it. You’ve been busy raising a family, working hard to provide, and investing your time and talents in other things. But what has happened in the absence of your voice and your vote?

The truth is, while we—the conservative majority in this community and in this state—have been asleep at the wheel during May elections, our local governments have been taken over by a fringe minority who do not share our values.

For conservative Texans who never miss a November election, what happens in May likely seems like small potatoes, but when it comes to our schools, the stakes are higher than you can imagine.

Nothing short of our children’s safety, innocence, and education is at risk every single time a member of your local school board is on the ballot. And if you don’t have a student in the school system, the majority of your property tax bill is determined by the school board.

Big stakes. Big implications. Big money.

If, as an unconvinced November voter, you want evidence of what a public school can be when it is governed by a board majority that shares your values and respects you as a parent and taxpayer, please look at what we’ve done at Grapevine-Colleyville ISD (GCISD).

First, and most importantly, we’ve neutralized the classroom. Our kids are no longer being exposed to a decade-plus leftist social experiment. We’ve established the basic principle that GCISD is a place of learning and not of woke cultural assimilation.

The GCISD board purged over 18,000 materials and book vendors from our district that failed to meet our values and standards. Why does this matter? Because these materials and books are the entry-point for so much of the divisive Critical Race Theory propaganda and sexualized content that gets into our classrooms.

We also formalized a fair, neutral policy for the community to challenge and review a book. The cultural Marxists and their apologists in the media love to call this “book banning” but we all know that’s just hateful fearmongering.

The truth is any book that is ultimately removed from our shelves is a click away on Amazon—go buy it yourself if you want. All we’re saying is the district’s taxpayers will not do it for you. Pretty simple.

Our board majority has also increased academic standards and rigor at every level and we’re willing to pay a premium for the teachers excited about coming here and pouring knowledge and critical-thinking skills into our kids.

You can see the results. We have a higher number of merit scholars. We are improving upon the educational deficits that were created over decades. We are implementing a curriculum that has been absent for a decade that focuses on reading, writing math science, and history. We are driving excellence—for all kids and their many professional options after graduation.

Our board also got serious about fiscal restraint and responsibility. We didn’t just talk or play games that allowed us to tout a “decrease” in your tax rate but “somehow” your property taxes still went up.

We lowered taxes two years in a row in a big way. And we followed that by passing the first balanced budget as a district in roughly two decades—all while decreasing costs while increasing classroom teacher pay. Magic? No, conservative principles of government.

The board found $45 million of your money in abandoned accounts and put that money to work for you—creating an emergency fund, investing in needed one-time expenditures, and paying down debt.

November voters, we need you. And not just in our community, but in every community across Texas. You lose every election you do not participate in because someone else is dictating the outcome to you.

GCISD is a shining example of what we can do when we show up and we dictate the outcome. Let’s change the culture of May elections and let’s continue taking back our schools everywhere.