September 23, 2025 • 8 mins
GRANDPARENTS NEED TO ENGAGE ON SCHOOLS! And I've got a guest today who I know personally and am thrilled to help promote her organization for grandparents. Linda White joins me at 12:30 to talk about Grandparents for Kids and what they do to stand up for academics in schools instead of politics. Find out more by clicking here!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A woman that I've met from doing so many different
things in Douglas County. And I'm proud to call Linda
White a friend because not only is she just a
really nice human being, she helped create and I don't
want to We're going to get into the origin story
here in just a second. Lenda an organization called Grandparents
for Kids, and this, unlike you know, I feel like
(00:20):
every grandparent group that's out there, and this is not
a disparagement, is focused on things like grandparent rights when
it comes to custody disputes and things of that nature,
and they can be a little bit confrontational out of necessity.
Whatever they're fighting for. This organization is the I think
the exact opposite. It is a support organization that is
(00:41):
designed to make sure that schools are focusing on academics.
But I'm going to let Linda tell you a little
bit more about that. Linda, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
First of all, thank you Mandy for having me. I
appreciate this opportunity.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Oh it's my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So tell me a little bit about where Grandparents for
Kids came from.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, grandparents came from first of all, my love of
my grandkids. I have eight grandkids and two great grandkids, and.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
I know they are the future of our country. But
it came out of COVID.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I started hearing a lot of different things that were
happening in the schools, and I started attending some different
kinds of seminars and things like that to educate.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Myself as to what was going on.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
And while I was sitting there, I kept hearing parents
should do this, parents should do that. And I'm sitting
there as a grandparent, thinking, wait a minute.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
What about us. We are huge untapped army.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Not only do we love our grandkids, but we grew
up in a time when we did have a rigorous
academic focus education. I sound like an old lady when
I say that, but that is the truth, and we
have some extra time to devote to our grandkids. Actually,
we also have some wisdom, and we might have a
(01:59):
little extra money to put towards academics for our grandkids.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
So that's how it started.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
So when you started putting this together, did you just
reach out to other grandparents that you knew?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
How did you go through this process?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Well, I'm an accidental activist. I had never done anything
like this before. This is a nonprofit, So anybody that
donates to Grandparents for Kids do get a tax deduction.
I just started, just started.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
I didn't even know how to start.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I did reach out to a few people because I
didn't have experience with starting like a C three and
that kind of thing. But I just started going out
and reaching out to people and talking and walla, we.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Have members all over Colorado and we have members in
about twenty six states.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Oh that's fantastic. So what kind of things are you
actively doing?
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Actively? We speak at school board meetings.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
And when I first organized Grandparents for Kids, I thought
that we would be speaking out against things that we
thought weren't geared towards academics.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
But then I began to realize that when there.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Are school boards that promote policies that are academic focus,
not you know, ideology, I realized that that's just as
important to speak in favor of things. Also, so we
speak at school board meetings. If you can't speak, we
urge people to write letters to the school board. We
(03:29):
testify at the state legislature, which that is something I
had never done in my life. But you know, if
you want change, you have to speak up. We attend rallies.
We support charter schools, we love charter schools, and our
main mission is to educate grandparents. I can't tell you
(03:50):
how many grandparents have no idea what's going on.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I just spoke to a lovely group of people in
Frederick a couple of weeks ago, right after the death
of Charlie kirk So, a couple of weeks ago, and
they were all my age, are a little bit older, right,
you know, And they were all saying, what can we do?
What can we do? And this is the kind of
stuff that seems like is that going to be enough?
(04:16):
But it has an impact? And why are grandparents such
a powerful force in your view, Linda.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Well, for one reason, there are a lot of us.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
There are seventy million grandparents in the United States and
my goal with grandparents for kids is to activate one percent.
That would be seven hundred thousand grandparents standing up across
this nation saying this is enough, this is enough. So
I think we have an untapped voice.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
When you say this is enough, what specifically are you
are you thinking about?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Well, this is enough that our kids don't graduate from
high school being able to read or to do math
at grade level, and so Grandparents for Kids really believes
that a lot of the reason for that is things
that are taught being taught in the school that aren't
academic focused. It takes away the time from academics.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Well, I am in complete agreement with that.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And one of the things that I have seen as
a Douglas County parent is that when the school board
says we're not going to engage on nonsense and tom foolery,
We're going to focus on academics. The result is that
Douglas County has the highest performance in the metro area when.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
It comes to school districts.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
So is it just a matter of saying to school districts,
here are the things we don't want you to focus on.
Or are you actually coming in and saying here's where
we want the focus to go.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
How specific are you getting?
Speaker 4 (05:49):
We do both. We do both.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
If there's a curriculum that we're not really liking, we
will show up and write letters and say let's not
do this.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Please.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
This isn't just academics, this is ideology. So we do
both of what you're talking about standing up for and against.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
So if people want to get involved, Linda, what are
the ways that they can do that well.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
We have a newsletter that we send out to all
over Colorado and like I said, also in twenty six states.
And that newsletter is full of information about what's going
on in the schools and how to get engaged and
to join that, you would go to grandparents the.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Number four kids dot org and.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I put a link to that on the blog today.
Grandparents the number four kids dot org and sign up
for the newsletter. At bare minimum, you should know what's happening.
I think for people that are not necessarily politically engaged,
and they're not necessarily the sort of people who watch
the news a lot, I think that there are grandparents
who would be super shocked to find out some of
(06:59):
the things that are being taught to little children in
our schools, Like I mean, flat out gobsmacked. So if
nothing else, yeah, yeah, sign up for the newsletter and
then share the newsletter. And this is when I was going,
like the people that listen to the show, they know,
they know what's up, they know what's going on. If
you get that newsletter, share it with other people that
(07:19):
may not be as politically involved or active as you are,
to give them an idea of what it is. They're
missing because we all want to assume that schools are
doing the same kind of stuff we were doing when
we were in school.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
It's like a whole new world in schools, not necessarily
a bad thing. I do want to be clear about that.
I mean, they have technology, and they have labs, and
they have all these things that we didn't have access to.
But the ideology portion must go. And Linda White, I
appreciate what you've done grandparents for kids, what you guys
continue doing, and I hope that a lot of people
sign up for the newsletter and start getting engaged because,
(07:54):
as you said, they got the time right.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Yes, and we have a loud voice.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
A couple of text message questions, is this like cars
for kids? Do I have to trade in a grandparent
to get a kid? No, it is nothing like cars
for kids. And then another totally different texter texted in
Mandy finally replaced cars for kids with grandparents for kids.
If only I could, people, If only I could, lind
(08:21):
I so appreciate your time today.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Thank you, and I hope we grow our army with
the help of this show.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
So thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Amen to that that's Linda White with grandparents for kids.
A woman that I've met from doing so many different
things in Douglas County. And I'm proud to call Linda
White a friend because not only is she just a
really nice human being, she helped create and I don't
want to We're going to get into the origin story
here in just a second. Lenda an organization called Grandparents
for Kids, and this, unlike you know, I feel like
(00:20):
every grandparent group that's out there, and this is not
a disparagement, is focused on things like grandparent rights when
it comes to custody disputes and things of that nature,
and they can be a little bit confrontational out of necessity.
Whatever they're fighting for. This organization is the I think
the exact opposite. It is a support organization that is
(00:41):
designed to make sure that schools are focusing on academics.
But I'm going to let Linda tell you a little
bit more about that. Linda, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
First of all, thank you Mandy for having me. I
appreciate this opportunity.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Oh it's my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So tell me a little bit about where Grandparents for
Kids came from.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, grandparents came from first of all, my love of
my grandkids. I have eight grandkids and two great grandkids, and.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
I know they are the future of our country. But
it came out of COVID.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I started hearing a lot of different things that were
happening in the schools, and I started attending some different
kinds of seminars and things like that to educate.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Myself as to what was going on.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
And while I was sitting there, I kept hearing parents
should do this, parents should do that. And I'm sitting
there as a grandparent, thinking, wait a minute.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
What about us. We are huge untapped army.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Not only do we love our grandkids, but we grew
up in a time when we did have a rigorous
academic focus education. I sound like an old lady when
I say that, but that is the truth, and we
have some extra time to devote to our grandkids. Actually,
we also have some wisdom, and we might have a
(01:59):
little extra money to put towards academics for our grandkids.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
So that's how it started.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
So when you started putting this together, did you just
reach out to other grandparents that you knew?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
How did you go through this process?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Well, I'm an accidental activist. I had never done anything
like this before. This is a nonprofit, So anybody that
donates to Grandparents for Kids do get a tax deduction.
I just started, just started.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
I didn't even know how to start.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I did reach out to a few people because I
didn't have experience with starting like a C three and
that kind of thing. But I just started going out
and reaching out to people and talking and walla, we.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Have members all over Colorado and we have members in
about twenty six states.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Oh that's fantastic. So what kind of things are you
actively doing?
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Actively? We speak at school board meetings.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
And when I first organized Grandparents for Kids, I thought
that we would be speaking out against things that we
thought weren't geared towards academics.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
But then I began to realize that when there.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Are school boards that promote policies that are academic focus,
not you know, ideology, I realized that that's just as
important to speak in favor of things. Also, so we
speak at school board meetings. If you can't speak, we
urge people to write letters to the school board. We
(03:29):
testify at the state legislature, which that is something I
had never done in my life. But you know, if
you want change, you have to speak up. We attend rallies.
We support charter schools, we love charter schools, and our
main mission is to educate grandparents. I can't tell you
(03:50):
how many grandparents have no idea what's going on.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I just spoke to a lovely group of people in
Frederick a couple of weeks ago, right after the death
of Charlie kirk So, a couple of weeks ago, and
they were all my age, are a little bit older, right,
you know, And they were all saying, what can we do?
What can we do? And this is the kind of
stuff that seems like is that going to be enough?
(04:16):
But it has an impact? And why are grandparents such
a powerful force in your view, Linda.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Well, for one reason, there are a lot of us.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
There are seventy million grandparents in the United States and
my goal with grandparents for kids is to activate one percent.
That would be seven hundred thousand grandparents standing up across
this nation saying this is enough, this is enough. So
I think we have an untapped voice.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
When you say this is enough, what specifically are you
are you thinking about?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Well, this is enough that our kids don't graduate from
high school being able to read or to do math
at grade level, and so Grandparents for Kids really believes
that a lot of the reason for that is things
that are taught being taught in the school that aren't
academic focused. It takes away the time from academics.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Well, I am in complete agreement with that.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And one of the things that I have seen as
a Douglas County parent is that when the school board
says we're not going to engage on nonsense and tom foolery,
We're going to focus on academics. The result is that
Douglas County has the highest performance in the metro area when.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
It comes to school districts.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
So is it just a matter of saying to school districts,
here are the things we don't want you to focus on.
Or are you actually coming in and saying here's where
we want the focus to go.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
How specific are you getting?
Speaker 4 (05:49):
We do both. We do both.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
If there's a curriculum that we're not really liking, we
will show up and write letters and say let's not
do this.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Please.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
This isn't just academics, this is ideology. So we do
both of what you're talking about standing up for and against.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
So if people want to get involved, Linda, what are
the ways that they can do that well.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
We have a newsletter that we send out to all
over Colorado and like I said, also in twenty six states.
And that newsletter is full of information about what's going
on in the schools and how to get engaged and
to join that, you would go to grandparents the.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Number four kids dot org and.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I put a link to that on the blog today.
Grandparents the number four kids dot org and sign up
for the newsletter. At bare minimum, you should know what's happening.
I think for people that are not necessarily politically engaged,
and they're not necessarily the sort of people who watch
the news a lot, I think that there are grandparents
who would be super shocked to find out some of
(06:59):
the things that are being taught to little children in
our schools, Like I mean, flat out gobsmacked. So if
nothing else, yeah, yeah, sign up for the newsletter and
then share the newsletter. And this is when I was going,
like the people that listen to the show, they know,
they know what's up, they know what's going on. If
you get that newsletter, share it with other people that
(07:19):
may not be as politically involved or active as you are,
to give them an idea of what it is. They're
missing because we all want to assume that schools are
doing the same kind of stuff we were doing when
we were in school.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
It's like a whole new world in schools, not necessarily
a bad thing. I do want to be clear about that.
I mean, they have technology, and they have labs, and
they have all these things that we didn't have access to.
But the ideology portion must go. And Linda White, I
appreciate what you've done grandparents for kids, what you guys
continue doing, and I hope that a lot of people
sign up for the newsletter and start getting engaged because,
(07:54):
as you said, they got the time right.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Yes, and we have a loud voice.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
A couple of text message questions, is this like cars
for kids? Do I have to trade in a grandparent
to get a kid? No, it is nothing like cars
for kids. And then another totally different texter texted in
Mandy finally replaced cars for kids with grandparents for kids.
If only I could, people, If only I could, lind
(08:21):
I so appreciate your time today.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Thank you, and I hope we grow our army with
the help of this show.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
So thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Amen to that that's Linda White with grandparents for kids.
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