"Get Your Children Out As Quickly as Possible!" Utah State School Board Member Sounds Alarm

Government schools are beyond reform and represent a serious threat to children, warned a top education official and veteran teacher in Deep Red Utah. We spoke to her to get the shocking inside scoop.

A Republican member of the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) took the unusual step of urging parents in a letter to withdraw their children from the state’s public school system, citing concerns over what she described as indoctrination and failed academics.

Christina Boggess, a representative on the Republican-dominated board, issued the message as part of a letter informing her supporters she won’t be running for reelection. Boggess says the system no longer serves children or families in the state.

In a statement on X last month, Boggess wrote that her firsthand experience with “layer upon layer of dysfunction” in the public school system led her to realize it is beyond repair.

It is far worse than parents realize, said Boggess, who plans to finish her current term as a District 8 representative. The only remaining option is for parents to take drastic action to protect their children, she said.

“Get your children out as quickly as possible,” Boggess advised in her message.

In a wide-ranging interview, the mother and veteran teacher-turned-policymaker explained how she got involved, what she saw, and why she finally decided not to seek another term in office.

Her goal was to try to make “positive change” from within. She soon discovered real reform was impossible, she told The Epoch Times.

As an educator for 25 years, with multiple education-related bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Boggess could see major problems plaguing Utah public schools.

From “teacher burnout” and protecting student privacy to “disastrous” academic standards, overwhelming behavioral problems, and what she described as “radical ideological indoctrination” in the classroom, Boggess cited many issues she sought to address.

Whole Language Method

Among her major concerns upon arriving to teach in the state capital’s schools in 2015 was the way reading was being taught.

Known as the “whole language” method, it has been discredited since it was first tried in Boston in the mid-1800s, as this writer documented in 2019 for The Epoch Times.

“One of my own sons struggled with reading—really, he couldn’t read—by 2nd grade,” Boggess said.

While she put her son in a faith-based private school partly so he would learn to read properly, students still in public schools remain vulnerable, she feared.

COVID: The Breaking Point

During COVID, it went from bad to worse, Boggess told The Epoch Times.

“I remember an administrator telling children the schools had to be shut down so they wouldn’t kill their grandparents,” she said.

“I already knew the system was extraordinarily dysfunctional. But the COVID response put it over the edge. I was dumbfounded.

“All those silly pictures you see online—children playing flutes through masks and such—that was happening in Utah.”

Boggess said that many Utah schools stayed closed long after most GOP-controlled jurisdictions reopened.

COVID showed her it was time to get involved, she said.

“I had to do something,” she said.

‘Alphabet Soup’ and ‘Marxism’ for Teachers

Meanwhile, Boggess and other teachers were attending “training programs” for what she called “alphabet soup.” These included diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), critical race theory (CRT), social-emotional learning (SEL), and more.

One she recalled was an “empathy” session on how LGBT individuals “experience intimacy.”

“I was like, ‘I don’t need that to be a better teacher—nobody does!’” she said.

The summer of 2021 marked a turning point for her when the state board adopted Rule R277-328, originally titled “Educational Equity in Schools.”

The policy, described by social critic James Lindsay as “full-on installation of Marxism,” was supposed to inject more “equity” and “anti-racism” into education.

In reality, it served to indoctrinate and weaponize teachers and students with ideologies contrary to American and biblical principles, Boggess said.

“As a teacher, I could give you endless firsthand accounts of these Marxist struggle sessions,” she said.

Meanwhile, parents keep expressing concerns about it all: “pornography in libraries,” “radical gender ideology,” and the “assault on parental rights,” Boggess said. But their concerns are frequently “mocked, ignored,” or drowned out by special interests, she said.

A False Sense of Security

Utah is a deeply conservative state with a government dominated by Republicans.

While awareness of these issues in Democrat-controlled states is more widespread, Utah families have a false sense of security, Boggess said.

Despite its Republican majority—13 of the board’s 15 members identify themselves as Republican—the board’s voting record says otherwise, according to Boggess.

Some of the supposed Republicans are “wolves in sheep’s clothing,” she warned.

In just one instance, an April 2025 resolution banning DEI from Utah public schools failed in a 10–4 vote.

Boggess alleged that administrative hurdles, updated forms, and a lack of response make it difficult to “accomplish anything of substance.”

“There’s always one excuse after another,” she said.

Boggess said some critics dismissed her concerns, accusing her of being “elitist” or having “white privilege.”

Born into foster care, Boggess was not adopted until age 11. By 23, she was a single mother trying to make ends meet.

“So yeah, elitist—that’s definitely not me,” she said.

Boggess said that the problems within the education system are not being halted by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature, although voters may not realize it.

For example, an “anti-DEI” in education bill was passed by lawmakers. But it included many exemptions, and no progress has been made, Boggess said. There’s even a word for these fake “solutions” in the legislature, “placation bills,” she noted.

That is part of what got her involved in the first place.

Before her election, Boggess testified before lawmakers. People began encouraging her to run for office.

Finally, when her husband suggested she run, she decided to go for it.

What she found, though, was a system she says is impervious to positive change.

Quality of Education

“We are no longer teaching content knowledge,” Boggess said. “The system is so stuck in these woke ideals; it is not teaching children to really think.”

The curriculum is “terrible,” and veteran teachers know it, Boggess said. But they must use it anyway.

“They’ve dumbed down everything,” she said. “The children are reading garbage, if they read at all.”

Boggess is not the only education official to speak out.

Just a few days after Boggess’s announcement, another USBE member, Emily Green, also announced she would not seek reelection.

“We should not look to politicians for salvation of our families and this nation’s future,” Green said on social media.

“If we want to preserve what matters, that battle now belongs to us.

“It starts with parents reclaiming their authority and responsibility. We outsourced our most sacred work, and our children are suffering the consequences.”

In Arizona, former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas—who served from 2015 to 2019—came to the same conclusion as Boggess years ago: The public school system is beyond reform.

“The system was designed to do what it’s doing,” Douglas, who reached out to Boggess after her comments, told The Epoch Times. “The only real option is to abandon it.”

When asked what was next, Boggess said she was not sure yet, but likely finish her term and continue teaching, “as long as it’s the Lord’s will.”

“I look forward to affecting the lives of the next generation for as long as the Lord allows it,” she said.

USBE Communications Coordinator Kelsey Sprout James told The Epoch Times Boggess’s comments “reflect her individual opinion and are not the official position of the Board.”

Read the full article by Alex Newman in The Epoch Times.

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