May 21 is election day in Wellsville, please vote!
By Andrew Harris
SUN: Would you be agreeable to merging with smaller school districts like Scio, Whitesville, and Andover ? Why or why not?
BENZ: I would only agree to merging with Scio, Whitesville and Andover if a plan were adopted to financially exist completely on local funding without State or Federal aid. Much of the garbage enforced in our schools across a wide variety and spectrum of issues is adhered to for fear of loss of funding due to the previously agreed to “puppet strings” contingent on receipt of State and Federal aid. The strategy to refuse funding aligns with an often forgotten and seldom acknowledged “Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate”. Said doctrine asserts that local government is preferable because it is most responsive to the people precisely because we can much more easily dialogue, debate and discuss with those in our community who are our neighbors – be they on the board, a superintendent, a principal, a teacher or a coach. To say we cannot do this, that it is ” pie in the sky”, is simply a static way of looking at the current predicament – a more dynamic view could imagine many New Yorkers flocking here, a “New State of Jones” as it were just as several did flee the cities and suburbs during the atrocities of 2020 and 2021 artificially mushrooming our tax assessments. Austerity is coming and the choice is clear. Do you want to be austere and free or austere and a slave to State and Federal government? Choose.
SUN: Wellsville has low test scores compared to the rest of the region according to the latest state reports. There are infrastructure improvements needed in the schools and buildings and grounds (including athletics) and we have a lot of teaching openings. There is also a budget to be done. What are your priorities as a board member?
BENZ: My priorities as a board member are:
A) Parental rights emphasizing medical freedom. Special needs have exploded since Republican Ronald Reagan signed Democrat Tip O’Neill’s National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act on November 14, 1986 which indemnified the manufacturers of childhood vaccines from any potential financial liability in causing injury or death. The grand compromise made to those who objected was V.A.E.R.S. the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System which would warn of problematic signals regarding safety and efficacy. Remember all the medical professionals in our community who referenced V.A.E.R.S. in 2020 and 2021? They could be counted on a scale of Zero to One. Here’s a hint – it isn’t One.
B) Austerity budgets to reassert local control realizing that pain will be required while also recognizing that many studies have shown a classical education could be achieved spending between $5000-$10000 per student. Ask any homeschooling parent.
C) Fight for good teachers who have made Wellsville a better place to live…to not reprimand and alienate them- driving them away but perhaps encouraging them to dialogue with their fellow teachers on how those other teachers could better lend patient listening to downcast children and thereby spread and ease the load.
SUN: How do you explain the historic number of candidates for a volunteer school board spot ? What is the number one reason you gathered signatures and filed a petition?
BENZ: I explain the historic number of candidates as an answer to prayer. Since 2022, I have been praying daily for both a Great Awakening and Illumination of Consciences. I know many of the good people running for school board and even if unelected I would consider it a win if people did not accept my claims. I am not the science. Rather, I simply ask that you do not believe me and look it up. If you disagree, don’t assassinate my character but instead refute my points allowing for rebuttal. If however, you agree – have the courage and humility to change your mind.
The number one reason I gathered signatures and filed a petition is I am motivated by my God and my family – Annie, Haley and Terrence to stand before my hometown in Faith and Love asserting what I believe are many hidden and important truths in Hope for a better tomorrow.
