Why Should You Care About Swun Math

***This is Si Swun

***This is how everyone feels about it.

Here's the thing. Everyone has taken those baby steps away from the most recent scandal in Newport-Mesa Unified School District...Swun Math.

There is just one little problem. It's checkered past lingers in 6th grade because they have not found another math program for next year...one whole year.

The question to you is why does this, in any way, matter to you?

The answer is that you should ALWAYS care about what is going on in education everywhere. Your kids, your grandkids, your nieces and nephews, the neighbor's kids, your best friend's kids, special ed. kids, home school kids, private school kids. Get it? ALL KIDS! Why? Because we are going to need them to make decisions that might just cure cancer, cure ALS, grow safe foods, and maybe save the universe. These are the kids who are going to work on your plane, manufacture your cars, take care of you when you are sick, take care of you when you are old, and maybe send us to Mars.

The debacle of Swun Math IS something you should understand, so here goes.

Swun Math is named after Si Swun,

Si Swun and Fred Navarro (the superintendent) have known each other before.

Swun math has cost between $4,000,000 and $6,000,000

Swun math has been flawed from the beginning

Swun math was not state approved

Teachers have had to correct he mistakes for four years.

Students, teachers, and parents have complained about it for four plus years.

Fred Navarro and the Board of Education have ignored complaints

You have paid for this mess.

What can you do?

Granted, 1st-5th grades have a new math program, and next year Swun is only going to affect the hundreds of kids in 6th grade, so why bother to do anything.

Here is why. This latest problem that has been ignored by the administration and the board is but one out of many that has gone from a superintendent who was a felon through CDM's cheating scandal, to the outrageous amount of money spent on administrators. Clearly something is wrong, and because the Trustees have not been "minding the store" we need new ones.

In 2018 three trustees seats will be up for grabs. If the present trustees follow their past behavior, those three trustees will retire before the election, and the others will appoint three new ones who have been on the radar, who will go along with the trustees in office, and will have the word INCUMBENT on the ballot, plus a lot of name recognition already in the media.

Therefore, in the end the Board of Education will not change, and the "ostrich" type behavior will go on.

Your job, if you choose to accept it, will be to pay attention, research the candidates, and for now call/write NMUSD and ask questions, complain, and remember which team your doing it for....KIDS