Maryland Students, Educators, and Schools Deserve Better
Don’t let these extremist school board candidates have a say over our schools.
Montgomery County
School Board
School board members Lynne Harris and Shebra Evans are running for reelection, but the current Montgomery County School Board has mismanaged the budget and mishandled a major sexual harassment scandal.
According to Montgomery County Council President Andrew Friedson, the school board has shown “a woeful lack of leadership, accountability and responsibility” in managing the budget, increasing class sizes, and cutting a popular program even in the face of strong public opposition.
Earlier this year, in the wake of a disturbing sexual harassment scandal, the school board apologized for how harassment complaints were handled in the school system. The subsequent settlements, legal expenses, crisis management fees, and the contract buyout for former Superintendent McKnight cost an estimated $2,359,021, per reporting by the Montgomery Perspective.
MCPS needs a change. We can do better for Montgomery County students, families, and educators.
However, that change should not be Brenda Diaz–who held a campaign event with Moms for Liberty, an extremist group known for promoting book bans, including books on Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank, and has been accused of harassing educators and community leaders.
Diaz is a favorite of the Montgomery County Republican Party, whose recent email blast highlighted her campaign no fewer than six times in a single message.
Diaz denies that the COVID-19 vaccine saved lives, saying vaccines “have caused much harm.”
She encourages the public to read what RFK Jr.–a notorious proponent of widely debunked, extreme fringe theories about childhood vaccination–has written about alleged “vaccine-related injuries.”
These extreme views earned Diaz the endorsement of UARE, a group that claims terms like “equity” and “social justice” are secret vehicles for teaching critical race theory (CRT) in schools.
Diaz’s links to UARE predate her campaign.
In 2022, a UARE event poster billed her as a consultant who “helps parents who are seeking to homeschool their kids,” and promised that she would “show how CRT is being infused into the MCPS history curriculum.” Brenda Diaz is too extreme for the Montgomery County school board.