Unsurprisingly, Michele Morrow has co-opted the MAGA campaign mantra “Make America Great Again” and molded her own unoriginal version: “Make Education Great Again.”

The images attached to this post were found on Morrow’s Facebook account and while Morrow tries to ride the populist wave that MAGA creates, it does beg the question of what time is Morrow hearkening back to?

To “Make Education Great Again” means that education was great at one time here in North Carolina. So when was that time according to Morrow?

Was it in the 1960’s when we had states fighting against the Brown decision? When segregation academies were being created in many southern states?

Was it is the 1970s when there were advances in increased opportunities for minorities at the time and for women? When 1972 saw the Equal Opportunity in Education Act passed or when the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed in 1975? (Actually, maybe not then considering the video posts that have been shared in Morrow’s past that disparage minorities and make uneducated comments about “retarded” children?)

Was it around 1983 during the first Reagan administration, when a report appeared that many agree started the craze in educational reform through the means of constructing straw man fallacies to control the public narrative on how schools are perceived?

And considering that Morrow has never sent her kids to North Carolina schools as a parent is she referring to the time when she was in high school in Mecklenburg County in the late 1980s before No Child Left Behind was put into place and the state did a better job of funding public education?

Was it in the 1990s and early 2000s when we as a state had all that standardized testing that while scores improved, we had to start asking whether we were teaching students to be great test takers or giving them skills to be lifelong learners?

And Morrow must remember that during this time teachers had graduate degree pay, the Teaching Fellows Program was in its original form, teachers had due-process rights as well as longevity pay, and retirees were guaranteed health benefits. So, if she is thinking this is the time to return to, then she has a few things she could campaign on right there.

Was it in the late 2000s and early 2010s when the Great Recession caused funding for public education to plummet and we really have not recovered since?

She certainly could not be referring to any part of the last decade as vouchers, unregulated charter schools and ESAs, and other reforms put into place by the very party she represents has virtually created a vacancy problem and a perceived need to do what her slogan dictates:

So, Michele, when was education “Great” in North Carolina in your opinion?

Would love to compare notes on that.

Or is this just another one of your baseless catch phrases that you are unwilling to explain or give an actual clear and intelligent interpretation of ?