Some of you know that I clean empty rental units, preparing them for the next tenant.  Many times I go into units where the former tenant has claimed to clean the unit, but when you look deeper, you find that it is still dirty. For example, this morning I opened the refrigerator and thought that’s pretty clean. When I looked deeper, the tops of the racks had been wiped. The bottoms were still dirty. Underneath the produce drawers at the bottom, it had not been cleaned. The cover on the butter compartment in the door had been cleaned, but not the compartment itself. You get the idea. 


I thought back to when I started cleaning rentals. I would receive calls asking me to just come in and make the unit look good so the owner could get it rented. I always turned down those jobs. The integrity of my work depends on every job I do. 

Then, I thought about Common Core and our education system. Our schools claim to educate our children, and on the surface they do. But when I look deeper, the public education system in the United States is really indoctrinating our children. For example, in Utah, using Common Core aligned curriculum, they are teaching first graders English Language Arts. The sentence is “My mom always ______ me to clean my room.” Is the correct answer “tells” or “nags?” The teacher edition says the correct answer is nags. When I look deeper I don’t see just education, I see the undermining of the family.  

My name goes on the check for the taxes paying for this “education,” and by default my integrity. Since not paying my taxes is not an option, mostly because I have no desire to go to jail, my only other option is to demand that my taxes educate, not indoctrinate my grandchildren. 

MamaBearSD

This is an op-ed. This does not represent the views or opinions of the group as a whole.