1. Are you a precinct committeeman? If yes, for how long? 

Since the Fall 2021 in LD5 

2. Tell us a bit about yourself. What made you run for school board? 

I grew up in the Osborn School District community, attended St. Gregory’s, West High and Phoenix College. We raised our five children in this neighborhood. Mid-life I had a calling to serve the youth and families of my community. I served as a religious education teacher, a minister, and a baseball coach at St. Gregory’s and for Osborn’s Clarendon Little league for over a decade. Serving my community has been and is my calling. I’m running for school board because I know I can help turn this District and their schools around. I’m also semi-retired and have the experience and time to answer the call. If all the families in this community truly understood what I’ve known through personal experiences with two of my sons at the Osborn School District they would not enroll their children at any of Osborn Schools. The Schools as well as the District are dysfunctional. For decades they have been unable to teach the majority of students in their care the reading and math skills necessary to become proficient. I have the answers necessary to help put this District and schools on track, through my experience as President/CEO and owner of a multi-state multi-million dollar tutoring company ABC. ABC tutored tens of thousands of K-12 students privately and publicly under contract with five State Departments of Education and their District schools. ABC opened a K-6 Charter School in 1995. My job title varied from Board President, CEO/CFO, to principal, handyman, gardener, plumber and whatever else was needed. ABC’s first year in operation state testing assessment scores showed 100% proficiency in reading and math at all grade levels. 

3. Do you support sexual education of children in the classroom? At what age do you believe this is appropriate, and do you believe that a parent should have the opportunity to opt out? 

Obviously, allowing individual teachers to use subjective reasoning was not what we as parents envisioned when sexual education was introduced. Parents assumed and rightly so their children would be taught biology and reproductive information etc. It must be up to the parent to decide what age sexual education should begin if appropriate. Parents should absolutely have the opportunity and the right to opt out of any sexual education programs. 

4. Do you support the idea of parents being the sole stakeholders in their children’s lives? 

I Absolutely support the idea of parents being sole stakeholder in the children’s lives. Parents must do their due diligence by taking the time before enrolling their child in any school, taking time to interview the school’s principal and their child’s teacher. Conscientious parents would not consider hiring a baby sitter without first meeting them, asking questions and getting references. No teacher or administrator can protect a child more than their parents. Parents are the sole stakeholders in their children lives, not schools, not teachers and certainly not administrators. The job parents entrust schools and teachers with is to keep their children safe and teach them to be proficient at grade level reading and math. These two skills are paramount to their child’s success in mastering all other academic subjects in school. 

5. What is your position on critical race theory, social-emotional learning, LGBTQ inclusion, and equity issues in the classroom? What do you know of Bloom365 and Corwin Press and what are your opinions? 

My position is that It is not the administration’s job or the teachers’ job to teach social emotional learning to our youth. This is far outside the scope of the educational priorities parents expect their children to be taught and learn in school. As for my position on CRT, SEL, LGBTQ inclusion, and equity issues; our legislators and Governor signed into law HB 2898 ensuring that students cannot be taught this theory that one race, ethnic group or sex is in any way superior to another or that anyone should be discriminated against on the basis of these characteristics. This law allows a fine of up to $5000 for any school that violates the law. In addition House Bill 2906 prohibits the state and any other local governments from requiring their employees to engage in orientation, training or therapy that suggest an employee is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive. My belief and stand is this: Any Administrators, Teachers or Boards that attempt to install curriculum that in any way subjectively influences the social and emotional wellbeing of students should be held accountable for their actions. Parents must be aware of any school that embraces the indoctrination of children through Social Emotional Learning (SEL). I’m not familiar with Bloom365 or Corwin Press at this time, but will look into them. Unfortunately the Mission Statement in the Osborn School District is as follows: “Accelerated learning for all through social-emotional learning and academic excellence” 

6. Based on the limitations and powers of a school board member, what’s your platform? 

Based on the limitations and powers of a school board member my platform is: choosing and adopting proven Phonetic and math Curriculum as well as re-training current staff in its implementation in the classrooms. Scrutinizing and prioritizing the budget to increase teachers’ salary to a living wage so as to attract and retain them, and hiring interventionists to remediate the proficiency of students promoted yet unable to read at grade level. 

7. What do you believe to be the biggest issue impacting K-12 students in Arizona? 

The biggest issue impacting K-12 students in Arizona is academic proficiency. Overall only 1 in 4 K-12 students tested in Arizona can’t read or do math proficiently at or above grade level. This means our schools have rendered 75% of our children functionally illiterate. A functionally illiterate person is easily manipulated because they can’t research and read different points of view. They depend on others to do that for them, and today many schools and teachers may be imposing their own subjective ideologies upon their students. School administrators and teachers must not forget what we hire them to do. We hire administrators to oversee teachers to ensure academic instruction is implemented whereby our children learn and become proficient in reading and math. These skills are necessary in order for them to master all academic disciplines in school. The administrators, principals and teachers job is not to look upon our children as theirs and not to indoctrinate and put forth their own subjective notions about race or gender theory and identity. If teachers do so and administrators are complacently allowing or supporting this indoctrination of our children then we as a community need to remove them. 

8. How do you think the state should support public education? Do you believe in expanding school vouchers? 

Choice is the only answer for Arizona and the nation. In Arizona we now have Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA). The ESA program provides between $6,000 and $6,500 to participating students. Parents can use these funds for private school tuition or to purchase home education courses, tutoring materials and supplies. Public schools that don’t provide what parents want and don’t want will lose their students. Now that ESA funds are available to all families, public schools need to take notice because the majority of parents are becoming educated and will not tolerate CRT or SEL being taught to their children. I’m a firm believer in school choice. Parents have an absolute right to choose a school they want their children to attend based on the factors they determine are best for their children. 

9. Do you have a plan to fund renovations of schools in your area that are run down? 

I do not have a plan at this time. 

10. Do you have a plan to address the shortage of teachers? 

My plan to address the shortage of teachers would be to scrutinize the budget for wasteful spending, and allocate and prioritize funds within the budget to pay exceptional, qualified, and credentialed teachers a living wage. I will ask for an agenda item be passed to allocate funds to attract qualified teachers, highlighting that we are hiring and pay a living wage and salary increases yearly based on performance. I will lobby for our district hiring practices not to be based on equity but equality, meaning we hire the best candidates regardless of their ethnicity. 

11. Do you support allowing retired military or police officers, who pass background checks, to work or volunteer in our schools to prevent mass shootings? 

Yes I support allowing retired military or police officers, who pass background checks, to work or volunteer in our schools to prevent mass shootings. 

12. Please feel free to add any additional information you would like voters to know about your candidacy. 

I’m running to serve the parents and children. Please visit johnmartinosborn.org