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Michele Morrow, a homeschooling mom who just lately received the GOP nomination to lead public schools in North Carolina, pledged the return of “sound, basic public education” in an interview with Fox News Digital.
And her common election contest in opposition to Democrat Mo Green figures to be some of the watched and politically charged races nationally this yr.
A supporter of former President Trump who attended a rally outdoors the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, 2021, Morrow was no stranger to controversy when she ran within the March 5 GOP main and defeated present North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt.
As she advances to the final election, Morrow outlined her promise to parents whereas her previous social media posts that after roiled her unsuccessful 2022 marketing campaign for the Wake County School Board as soon as once more resurface throughout her 2024 bid for statewide workplace.
“I want to get back to sound, basic education. I want our children to be able to think, to be able to solve problems, to be able to overcome obstacles,” she advised Fox News Digital. “If we talk to any of our neighbors that have come from other countries where they’ve lived under radical regimes, they understand the incredible benefit and blessing that it is to live in a nation where we have our religious freedoms.
Michele Morrow won the Republican primary for North Carolina’s superintendent of public instruction March 5, 2024. (Morrow 4 NC)
“And we even have the liberty as parents to select training, to select our medical choices and all the things throughout the faculty for our youngsters. I shall be an advocate for that. And individuals throughout the state perceive that.
“I have a great appreciation for the opportunities in the United States of America, and I am proud to be a citizen of this great country,” she added. “I want that to be true of every person, every child, to understand the true history of our country as well as world history, to understand what an incredible blessing and responsibility it is to be a citizen in a free nation.”
She additionally criticized Green, the previous superintendent of Guilford County Schools and common counsel for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, over his work as government director of Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, which reportedly has invested $627 million in instructional grants and different initiatives in North Carolina.
“It appears that there has been funding for very radical groups like Antifa and potentially BLM, as well as we are looking into the fact that he may have been funding drag queen story hours and things that have been divisive, even antisemitic protests,” Morrow stated, including her marketing campaign was persevering with its analysis into the funding.
“We cannot have somebody who does not believe that every person has the religious freedom to practice their religion as they desire, as well as believes that people should be divided by the color of their skin or defined by the color of their skin. That is not going to be helpful, and it’s going to be actually traumatic and going to cause more division and problems in North Carolina,” she added.
“And I would tell the voters, ‘If you are ready for a change in our school system, if you want to see academics put first, if you want our spending to start at the classroom and move its way up to the boardroom, and if you want politics out of our schools, then I am your only candidate. Because if you vote for my opponent, it’s going to be more of the same,'” she stated.
“It’s going to be somebody that comes from the system that has broken the system. And so we need somebody that comes in with new ideas and fresh perspective and who’s going to be a hard worker that’s going to fight for the families of North Carolina.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Green’s marketing campaign Thursday in regards to the allegations however didn’t instantly hear again.
Morrow charged that the general public faculty system has been more and more “pushing a political agenda” that has divided kids by race, religiously and politically, “impeding the unity that our children should experience in being in a school situation. It’s also impeding their understanding of using their gifts and talents in order to improve whatever community they end up in after they’ve graduated,” she stated.
Morrow vowed to transition to a powerful civics training in North Carolina public center schools and excessive schools and praised Ben Carson’s curriculum, developed for kindergarten by means of fifth graders, “that talks about just the history of the United States, and that is to talk about all of the history.”
“I think we need to talk about the things that we have done well, as well as the things that we have done very poorly and learn from those,” Morrow stated. “I believe that no one should be defined. Nor should their future be determined by the color of their skin.
“I would like to get again to specializing in math and studying and science and historical past,” she said. “I would like to elevate the bar of expectation, whether or not that is in conduct or whether or not that is in educational efficiency. And I’ve a plan to do this. I would like to see that our schools, as I stated, are extremely protected, that they are locations of peace and order and civility, the place our younger individuals truly be taught self-control, they usually be taught to be arduous staff and to overcome, with assist from others, the obstacles that lie of their path. I feel that the persons are going to see that I convey a message of hope. I convey options to a damaged system.”
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On concern about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and critical race theory (CRT) trickling down into the public education system, Morrow said she believed the “position of the academic system ought to be to assist each single scholar to attain their fullest potential, and, actually, it should not have something to do with their tradition or with their race or with their gender for that matter.”
Despite homeschooling her own children, Morrow explained to Fox News Digital that she is a product of the North Carolina public school system, graduating from high school in Charlotte and graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she received her nursing degree. She said her family made the decision to start homeschooling while living in Texas after experiencing issues getting her special needs daughter accommodations. And it has continued homeschooling on a year-by-year basis.
“I spent the final ten years educating right here in Wake County, educating excessive schoolers, all the things from biology, chemistry, civics, as effectively as Spanish,” Morrow said. “And these college students additionally had been within the public faculty system, and their parents had chosen that the best choice for them was going to be homeschool. So, I really feel like I’ve been the change agent. I’ve been the reply to a failing system, not solely for my household, but in addition for different households. And I would like to change the system and make or not it’s a viable possibility and a very good possibility for each household in North Carolina.”
North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt lost narrowly March 5, 2024, in the Republican primary to Michele Morrow. (AP Photo/Bryan Anderson, File)
From traveling across the state, she said she learned a lack of discipline, consequences and expectations is a main concern for parents.
“I feel if our college students usually are not protected, then they don’t seem to be ready to be taught. And then it is going to be focusing time, classroom time and our assets on educational excellence and making ready our youngsters to assume critically,” she said.
While she promotes religious freedom and equality, Morrow’s 2022 school board race was mired by past social media posts in which she described Islam as a “cult.” She clarified during that race that she was referring to Islamic extremists.
When asked if she wanted to address her past social media posts about Islam, Morrow said she was “honored to have the enthusiastic assist of parents and households throughout North Carolina of each race, faith and creed as a result of everybody understands that when we’ve politically charged, racially divisive and sexually specific content material and agendas which are in our schools, it’s harmful to all of us.”
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On Wednesday, Morrow was confronted on camera after dark in the parking lot of the North Carolina GOP Convention by a CNN reporter, who demanded she respond to other resurfaced social media posts from 2020 in which she allegedly referred to wanting to see former President Obama put in front of a firing squad.
She also allegedly spoke of executing North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper; former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo; Hillary Clinton; Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; and Joe Biden for treason. CNN also alleges Morrow is promoting QAnon conspiracies.
In a video message shared to X, Morrow addressed the incident, saying CNN reporters had been staked outside her home for days and then took it a step further in the parking lot.
“These three males ambushed and refused to permit us to attain our car till we answered a litany of their questions. This is totally inappropriate. It’s unsafe, and it’ll not be tolerated,” Morrow said. “Do you surprise why reporters from New York City are down right here stalking me and demanding that I reply their questions on training in North Carolina? It’s as a result of they’re attempting to intervene within the 2024 election, identical to they did within the 2020 election. If these individuals actually cared about training, and in regards to the issues that the voters of North Carolina care about, they might be discussing the 800 failing schools that we’ve in our state.”
The post added, “CNN thinks they will select who leads Okay-12 in NC by intimidating me and mendacity to you. It will not work.”
Fox News Digital followed up with Morrow’s campaign on Thursday, asking about those posts and the related fiery exchange with CNN, but did not immediately hear back.
In the 2022 race, Morrow also publicly said teachers should have their Second Amendment rights protected but should not bear the responsibility of school safety.
Asked by Fox News Digital to expand on what she meant by this, Morrow claimed that over the past several years, 1,500 teachers have been assaulted in a classroom and, in 2023 alone, more than 600 elementary students brought weapons to school. She vowed to consult with law enforcement officials, child psychologists and counselors to develop a new statewide school safety plan.
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Asked about Jan. 6, Morrow deflected, saying, “The individuals of North Carolina are excited in regards to the future and what it holds for what we wish to do in training. Seventy-five % of North Carolina eighth graders had been discovered incompetent in math, studying and science final yr.
“And, so, it’s time for us to actually get politics out of the classroom and start focusing on the sound, basic education that our Constitution promises every student.”
Morrow has not been charged within the Capitol riot.
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