What is an ANTI?

ANTI is a shorten version of a descriptive term used for folks who are opposed to fact based public education. It stands for anti-public education. Characteristics of these folks are:
(1)They do not have their children in public schools.
(2)They believe any bad rumor that they hear about public schools without bothering to investigate the rumor's veracity.
(3)They are usually religious. Virtually all belong to a cult like off shot of Christianity that is best described as "militant little godism."
(4)They believe that it is not only ethical to use church people, church directories for personal political gain but that they are morally obligated to do so.
(5) They do not operate in a fact based world. Their gut feelings about what they feel ought to be true outweighs factual evidence to the contrary.
(6) They are angry.
(7) They seem to not be bound by ordinary polite conventions at school board meetings, in discussions with others, and in blog posts.
(8) They feel that rules and laws apply to their opponents but not to themselves.
(9) They see themselves engaged in a great movement to fight evil. This fight makes them feel like life has meaning.
(10)They oppose all local and state school bonds.

Sadly in our VUSD we have a large and vocal group of ANTIs. They stopped our first three bonds (Prop K, Prop L and Prop LL) from passing by convincing one third of VUSD voters to vote against them. Two of their members on our school board, Jim Gibson and Dr. Stephen Guffanti were able to delay the start of construction on our third high school by FIVE years from the summer of 2002 to the spring of 2007. They also increased the cost of the third high school from a projected 50 million dollars to one hundred million dollars. Gibson and Guffanti's actions indicate a clear strategy to delay new school construction and waste as much taxpayer money as possible in order to hinder the completion of new schools.

If you are an ordinary American you probably think that no one could be opposed to public education or needed school construction. You probably think that all Americans know that education is a public good. Right?

Well no, in this country there is a large, primarily religiously based, movement that wants to end all public education. They fear FACT based public education.

Former VUSD school board member, Dr. Stephen Guffanti, belonged to an organization dedicated to the immediate destruction of public education until the North County Times ran a story about Guffanti's membership. Guffanti at first defended his right to be in such an organization and then withdrew from membership a bit latter in an attempt to save his political future.

I would link to the relevant North County Times 2002 articles about Guffanti's membership, but the NCTimes archives and URLs of that age no longer seem to work.

Another religious group dedicated to the destruction of all public education for its role in the "spiritual rape of innocent children"* and "hold(ing) all Christians in contempt" is a group called Citizens for Excellence in Education. Read their views here: http://www.nace-cee.org/prmarch07.htm
or here*: http://www.nace-cee.org/ceestrategy.htm


We have members of CEE in Vista. Though a small group they are very vocal. These folks were instrumental in the stealth political campaign that resulted in a three member extremist VUSD board majority in 1992. The actions of this board resulted in national attention on our district from 1992-1994 when they were recalled.

Read more about our 1992-94 board in the Los Angeles Times archives here:
http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/vista-ca-schools

Articles found at the above link include: Vista Board OKs teaching of creationism,Vista Schools OK Sex Education Program with a Religious Theme,Bibles and the Board a Skirmish Brews, there are five or six more similar LAtimes articles about our 92-94 board at that site.

or you can read about the the VUSD 92-94 board at the New York Times archives here:

http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?frow=0&n=10&srcht=s&query=creationism+Vista&srchst=nyt&submit.x=13&submit.y=7&submit=sub&hdlquery=&bylquery=&daterange=full&mon1=01&day1=01&year1=1981&mon2=01&day2=26&year2=2010