Candidate Q&A: Lawrence Samuels for Carmel Unified School District.

As part of the 2022 election season, the Weekly asked candidates for several offices to answer questions about some of the issues by email. For the Carmel Unified School District, there are two seats up for election this year, with four candidates: incumbents Sara Hinds and Tess Arthur, and challengers Drew Lander and Lawrence Samuels. Samuels' responses are below.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Carmel Unified School District in the next four years, and why are you the best candidate to address them?

The biggest challenge is to improve educational standards by maintaining a classical liberal education based on the classics—math, language, science, civics, and “critical thinking.” I want to be a watchdog for excellence in education and to make sure that Carmel Unified School District does not follow other school districts, like the Spreckels Union School District, which parents have accused of engaging in undisclosed transgenderism, secret grooming of students, and semi-pedophilism. Worse, these schools often created a cloud of secrecy that left parents in total darkness. After all, the government does not own students, at least it shouldn’t. Parents must be made aware of any effort by a school official to change the names of their children along with their pronouns, an injustice that occurred at the Spreckels school, and has now become a major and costly lawsuit.

Moreover, the racist and fascist Critical Race Theory (CRT) should NOT be taught. This is a dangerous theory that claims that one race is inferior while another race is superior. This theory also maintains that one race is the “oppressed” and another race is the “oppressor.” CRT first originated in National Socialist Germany—indoctrinating children in the big lie that the German race was being “oppressed” by the “oppressor race”—the Jews. Such authoritarian socialist indoctrination divides and politicalizes society. In Nazi Germany, it led to the Holocaust.

I would make a good school board member because I know how systems fail and succeed. I spent almost 20 years researching and writing my “In Defense of Chaos” book, which deals with “Self-Organizing Systems/Complex Adaptive Systems” and “System Failures: The Boomerang Effect.” If a system is badly designed, there is almost no way to make it successful. The system will simply produce uncorrectable outcomes known as unintended consequences.

What qualifications do you bring to this position?

I am the author of five books (nonfiction and fiction). I taught a class at Cal State University, Fullerton during my college years (Alternative class). I consider myself an educator, researcher, and historian. I was a journalist at college, becoming, for a short time, the editor of my campus newspaper. I have been a leader in a number of nonprofit educational organizations such as Rampart Institute.

How often do you currently attend CUSD board meetings, and how would you rate the current board’s performance? 

Not often. But I was disturbed about the antics of the Carmel School Board last year. During a scheduled public meeting at the Middle School, the board decided to go into a non-public session. Fine. But they did not inform the parents as to when they would return. The board members had gathered in an adjacent classroom and stayed there for many hours. The board members never told the parents when they would return. Some parents came looking for them. Several parents found them socializing with each other. The board members refused to come out or tell the public when they would return. It seemed that the board members were acting like unruly children. 

What is your vision to help students make up for learning loss after pandemic closures?

Maybe an hour or two of extra learning in the afternoon. Maybe some night classes.

What will you do to support public engagement in school district governance and ensure all voices are heard?

Keep public meetings open and easy to attend. Do not hide away from parents and interested parties. They do not bite.

CUSD has taken steps to create a portal for public information and to receive and respond to rumors (“word on the street”). Do you think this is needed? Is it working? What would you do, if elected, to improve the relationship between the district and the community?

Be honest. Do not create policies that will keep future policies secret or misidentify what a policy will actually do. Allow as much openness as possible. Try to emulate some of the openness and less bureaucratic policies often found in private and charter schools.

What is your view on the process for the stadium lights project, and the project itself? Will you support it?

I have not taken a position. I will soon be talking with a group of parents who want to explain their point of view about the lighting.

The district is facing significant legal expenses. Do you think the change of law firm was a good idea? Is there anything else the district can/should do to reduce exposure to litigation? 

Well, this is a complicated problem. In short, when a system can simply dump the costs of its mistakes and blunders onto taxpayers, few problems will ever be fixed—no personal responsibility. As I stated earlier, I spent almost 20 years studying successful and unsuccessful systems, resulting in the publication of my “In Defense of Chaos” book. The simplest systems usually do best. Highly complex systems usually result in high rates of failure. Such complex systems often only survive due to a continuous flow of taxpayer money, despite the fact that they continually produce extremely bad results. That is why governmental structures have such a poor record of accomplishing good results. They do not have to be successful in order to survive. In many ways, “Government succeeds by failing.”

The district has had a lot of turnover in superintendents in recent memory. How is the current superintendent, Ted Knight doing—please grade him, A to F. What will you do to ensure continuity of leadership? 

I will be a newcomer. I would have to work closely with Ted Knight to know what kind of administrator he is. I do have a low opinion of government administrators and bureaucrats in general. They have a high rate of failure.

Who is your proudest endorsement?

I have not asked for endorsements, yet.

Who are you supporting for the other open seat?

I have not decided, yet.