Our Children Are Being Underserved

Parents, we need to take back our schools. The school system is drifting—and our kids are paying the price. The Clock Is Ticking.

The Issaquah School Board has released its Draft Strategic Plan. It’s polished, full of buzzwords, and completely out of touch with what our children actually need to thrive in a fiercely competitive, morally complex world.

This is not just about policy. This is about whether your child is being prepared—or pacified. Whether they’re being shaped into a leader—or managed like a client.

Here’s what’s really going on:

Graduation Has Become the Ceiling—Not the Floor

The Board’s academic ambition is shockingly low: keep students “on track to graduation.”

After 13 years in this system, that’s all they promise?

Where is the plan for academic mastery, for gifted students, for children who want to reach further? We see no vision for excellence. No push to compete with the best minds in the world.

Meanwhile, students in China, India, and across the globe are being trained to lead, build, and win. Are we preparing our children to keep up—or to fall behind with a nice diploma and no real skills?

“Diversity” Is Being Reduced to a Headcount

The Board celebrates a small rise in hires “of color.” But diversity of skin tone without diversity of thought is an empty gesture.

Where is the intellectual diversity? The invitation to principled disagreement? Are our children being taught to question ideas—or to conform to one?

The current strategy risks turning education into ideological training—not intellectual development.

Parent Voices Are Being Ignored

Every school board director wears two hats - Elected Representative of the people, and an officer of a corporation (yes, the School District is a corporation!)

Parents and the voting public in general are low on their priority. Parents can be evicted, muted, and silenced in Board meetings because the meeting is private property of the corporation.

The Board claims to listen. But when parents challenge the prevailing narrative, we're dismissed. Meetings are choreographed. Meeting minutes are never shared. Public comment by parents are aggressively limited to only 2 minutes, even though 30 minutes are allocated for public comment. When parents reach out privately to the board, they are met with silence or gaslighting.

We are stakeholders—not spectators. And we are done being shut out.

Civic Education ≠ Customer Service

The Board talks about better “customer service.” The parents, who pay taxes, are ignored. Our kids are future citizens and education isn’t about pleasing them. It’s about forming them—morally, intellectually, and socially. This is about the kind of people we’re raising. Do we want children who are resilient, rigorous, and free-thinking? Or comfortable, compliant, and fragile?

Right now, we are building compliance, not character. Slogans, not substance.

And if customer service is the model, why aren’t great teachers rewarded? Did you know that teachers get paid only based on tenure? Yes, the best teachers leave, becuase there is no incentive for them to improve customer service to the customers that matter - children.

The Future Is Still Ours—If We Act

We are not powerless. But time is short.

We must demand a system that:

• Re-centers excellence as the goal—not just equity.

• Brings out excellence in our children

• Respects parental voice—not filters it.

• Teaches real-world skills and ethics—not ideological safety.

• Rewards courage, creativity, and merit—not group identity.

The Strategic Plan is not enough. We must raise the bar. For our kids. For our country. For the future.

That’s why I’m running. Not to criticize from the sidelines—but to lead with resolve.

Join me. Let’s build a school system that’s worthy of the children we love.

Parents Know What’s at Stake

We feel it in our bones: the world our children will inherit is demanding, fast-changing, and often unforgiving. They need more than policies and programs—they need a system that believes in their potential and pushes them to meet it.

We cannot afford to coast on comfortable goals. We must demand clarity, ambition, and excellence from our district. Not someday—now.

I’m not running to tear down our schools. I’m running because I believe in them. I believe in what they could be—with the right leadership, the right values, and the courage to act.

Together, let’s give our children not just a path to graduation—but a launchpad to greatness.

Let’s do this—for them.

– Chinmay Nagarkar, Candidate for School Board