This diary is meant to collate the firehose of information that has been written about Education twice a week, on Wednesday and Sunday morning. This very long diary can be perused at your leisure, with links back to the original source material in order to read more about the news.
There are seven different sections of the War on Education:
- Headlines: these are usually (but not always) the most important news stories of the day. These are articles that apply to all schools and all parents. If you want somewhere to start, this section is a good bet.
- Attacks on Diversity/CRT: after the success of Youngkin in Virginia, many GOP dominated states have pushed for “anti-CRT” bills that target diversity programs and any sign of thought critical to white supremacy. Book bans that focus on the experiences of PoC also fall here.
- Anti-LGBTQ+ Watch: these articles focus on the disgusting and harmful bills being considered or enacted targeting the LGBTQ+ community. Book bans that focus on the experiences of LGBTQ+ also fall here.
- Attacks on Public Schools: these articles focus on the attacks on public schools through vouchers, onerous requirements, and corporate charter chains siphoning off money. Expect to see a lot of Diane Ravitch’s work in this section.
- COVID-19 and Schools — The Decade From Hell: these articles are meant to show the great amount of consequences that the pandemic has had upon schools. Expect to see masking debates, learning loss, and other such items here.
- Teachers and Labor: Expect to see efforts by teachers to organize and have their voices heard in these articles. The teachers are one of the last bastions of the labor movement in America. The stories could include teacher activism and the acute teacher shortages.
- Parental Guidance: This section is meant to help parents navigate the often opaque and jargon filled world of education. Expect to see respectful ways on how to work with your child's teacher and school during these troubling times.
Without further ado, here is the first War on Education diary series!
headlines
Children Are Falling Behind in Reading At Concerning Rates
The big picture: Though U.S. literacy rates were already dipping prior to COVID-19, studies show that roughly a third of kindergarten through second-grade students are missing reading benchmarks compared to about 21% in 2019.
Why it matters: The learning loss disproportionately impacts children who are Black, Hispanic, disabled, low-income or not fluent in English.
Details: As schools closed and districts struggled to adapt to remote teaching, students were forced to learn the basics of reading outside the classroom with varying access to online instruction.
The students are also falling behind in math.
Only a trickle of the money Biden requested for Title I Schools has been approved by Congress.
Truly amazing things happened in New Mexico this week! Aysha Qamar writes that New Mexico Passes Expansive Higher Education Program and Free In-State Tuition. It’s great to see a rare victory in the war on education!
Attacks on Diversity/CRT
First it was “Don’t Say Gay”, and now this piece of work bill has been passed in Florida. Now politics will seep into EVERYTHING in the classroom.
The bills passed by these radical legislatures are working exactly as intended. The cruelty is the point.
All is not lost on the anti-CRT front, as Indiana rejected their version of this bill. Here’s why.
These bills are often tied to book bans, but activists are trying to end book bans for good. Hat tip to Williesha Morris for writing the article through PRISM.
Affirmative Action is another battleground in the War on Education, and it is one we are losing with the radical Supreme Court. This issue is also more complex than reported, and it is used as a wedge to crack many groups of Asian Americans apart from our coalition. Here’s an example of how the wedge is driven.
Judge Says Virginia School “Racial Balancing” at the Expense of Asian Americans
A federal judge has again ruled against a northern Virginia school system that he found guilty of discriminating against Asian American students when it overhauled its admissions policies at a highly selective high school.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton rejected a request from Fairfax County Public Schools to delay the implementation of his ruling against the new admissions policies at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
The school system argued that its selection process for the incoming freshman class is well underway, and implementing his ruling now would throw the process into chaos.
Anti-LGBTQ+ Watch
Controversial “Don’t Say Gay” is Heading to the Desk of DeSantis
A bill that would ban lessons about sexual orientation and gender identity from some classrooms looks poised to become in law in Florida, the latest in a cavalcade of conservative legislation from state houses around the country that have targeted LGBTQ people and generated national backlash.
The legislation, which has both drawn the ire of liberal political figures and celebrities and cheers from conservatives, is the latest culture war blowup. In recent years, school officials and lawmakers in Republican-leaning states across the country have banned gender-affirming care, prohibited books with LGBTQ themes, and allowed parents to opt their children out of any lessons that mention sexual orientation or gender identity. On Tuesday, nearly identical legislation to Florida’s was introduced in the Georgia Senate.
First it happened to Florida, and I didn’t care because it was Florida. Next, it…
And this is only the opening salvo of the criminalization of LGBTQ+ ideas and severe punishment for allies of students who are uncertain of their identity. Read this chilling article if you dare.
The attacks on transgender children, often the ones most at risk for suicide, is especially heinous. Good news in Texas, but Idaho is still marching ahead with a similar bill.
Anti-Transgender “Child Abuse” Order Blocked by Texas Judge Temporarily
A Texas judge on Friday issued an injunction against enforcement of the governor’s order to investigate gender-affirming care as child abuse, handing opponents of the policy a temporary victory.
District Judge Amy Clark Meachum said that in issuing the Feb. 22 directive without a new state law or rule, Gov. Greg Abbott and officials’ actions “violate separation of powers by impermissibly encroaching into the legislative domain,” The Associated Press reported.
The state Legislature last year failed to pass a bill that would have made it a felony alongside physical and sexual abuse to provide gender-affirming care to minors.
A Kansas middle school teacher who was disciplined for refusing to use a student’s preferred first name and gender pronouns is suing the school district.
Fort Riley Middle School math teacher Pamela Ricard said in a federal lawsuit filed Monday that the Geary County School District violated her constitutional rights and did not accommodate her Christian beliefs when it suspended her for three days.
Attorney Mark Edwards said the district would have no comment on the lawsuit. The school is located in Fort Riley, a U.S. Army base that's 130 miles (210 kilometers) west of Kansas City.
Attacks on Public Schools
I worked in Arizona as a teacher. There were already too many administrative boxes to check. This adds one to the list. There are much better ways to engage parents without giving a chance to be confrontational (which is EXACTLY the point of this bill — to aid “anti-CRT” and racist knuckleheads).
What will happen is the bare minimum will be shared at the 72 hour before deadline. Garbage in, garbage out.
Voucher Bill Dies in Committee in Tennessee
A House subcommittee has narrowly killed a bill that could have revived Tennessee’s controversial school voucher program regardless of how the state’s highest court rules this year on the state’s overturned school voucher law.
The bill aimed to change eligibility requirements for students receiving public money to pay for private school tuition under the 2019 education savings account law that squeaked through the legislature but was halted by a judge before the program could launch.
The new legislation failed 5-4 Tuesday, despite a rare subcommittee appearance by Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who tried to tip the scales when a key voucher supporter, Rep. Glen Casada of Franklin, was absent. Three other Republicans — Reps. Kirk Haston of Lobelville, Chris Hurt of Halls, and John Ragan of Oak Ridge — broke ranks and voted with two Democrats against the GOP bill.
This thread unroll explains why I am against the corporatization of education. Charters pull a lot of shady financial shit to secretly make a profit. Charters weren’t intended to destroy public education, but the idea was for them to be more experimental in outlook to make the school system stronger. Corporatization prevented that, and made our school system weaker (and more segregated).
COVID-19 and Schools: The decade from hell
Morale is Suffering in Schools due to the Pandemic
It's been two years since our lives got thrown into chaos because of COVID, and many are still working to recover from the uncertainty of it all, including public school teachers and staff.
CBS2s Vanessa Murdock reports that while from the outside, our schools seem to have returned to normal, on the inside, morale still suffers.
"We loved our jobs. We were good at what we did. We knew how exactly to get the job done ... And then it all changed," said Amanda Jaggi, who has been a teacher in New Jersey for 21 years.
Here is what the school of the future will look like thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. It sure isn’t the school you or I went to!
Generation COVID (which is what I call the current Generation after Gen Z) will have it especially rough given their developmental delays and continued problems with accessing social and intellectual milestones.
How the Pandemic Has Shaped the Development of Babies
Two years is a long time in any child’s life. It’s half of high school and most of middle school, time enough for a grade schooler to notch several inches on the kitchen doorframe and for toddlers to leap from first words to conversations. For the babies born in March 2020, just as the pandemic was declared, two years make up their whole lives.
From the minute these children were born in empty maternity wards to now—as their parents are cautiously approaching their second-birthday celebrations, and the world is observing the pandemic’s anniversary—life has been unpredictable and unsettling. For adults, anyway. It’s less clear what the experience has been like for the kids, who have been limited in their interactions like everyone else—but who are engaged in a time of astonishing brain growth, when the foundations are laid for everything from language to friendship and resilience.
I talked with six families whose babies were born just as the pandemic descended. Some of those kids have yet to meet their grandparents, aunts, or uncles. Some have spent months on end playing only alone or with siblings. Parents have grieved missed milestones: A joyous baptism celebration turned into a few masked people spread out in a church; first birthdays consisted only of immediate family and cake. They have also experienced beautiful moments: extra time snuggled together over books, or hiking and biking with an infant in tow.
As per usual, the wealthy private schools and public school districts get measures to combat the COVID pandemic, while schools mired in poverty get next to nothing.
And worldwide, this is a crisis that will cripple an entire generation, what I call Gen Covid. Some developing nations haven’t been consistently in school for YEARS.
Teachers and Labor
Yet more bad Arizona news. As a participant in Red for Ed, it is tough seeing the fruits of our labors squashed by judges.
It appears that teachers in the Twin Cities have gone on strike. Hat tip to Cirien Saadeh on PRISM for an explanation of the issues in the Twin Cities that have led to the strike. Saadeh writes:
In a Feb. 24 announcement, teachers with the Saint Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), which includes both teachers and Education Support Professionals, announced an intent to strike. Filed with the state of Minnesota’s Bureau of Mediation, the intent to strike was authorized by the board in a vote counted Feb. 17 and provides a legally-mandated, 10-day warning to the school districts about a possible strike.
The demands from both unions to their districts have been similar. They are asking for limits on class sizes, wage increases, and better mental health support for students. According to reporting from Minnesota Public Radio, the districts have said that the teachers’ demands are not feasible due to budget shortfalls. However, the state currently has a budget surplus of more than $7 billion, which could potentially be used for education.
Wow, I would not have guessed this! Though teachers are a bunch that love to grumble but stay for the kids. Kind of like an abusive relationship almost.
The problem is really the fact that there is no one going IN to the profession these days.
Good Parental Guidance
What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Don’t harass the teacher, but firmly advocate for your child. Use laws like the Florida CRT one against the system. This is especially important if the child is on an IEP or 504 plan. This video has tips for any parent! As a former teacher, it is interesting to hear advice given to the other side of the IEP/504 table.
This is super important for students who are English Language Learners (ESL/ELL). They should be encouraged to use their native tongue even if you don’t understand it.
Finally, here are some tips on how to handle a child who has challenging behavior issues. Remember, the pandemic has taken away ANY sort of normal routine from the child. He may know someone who has died from COVID -19. Be empathetic but firm.
4 Steps to Discuss Challenging Behavior With a Child
We’ve read about and witnessed firsthand the mental health crisis and increase in behavioral challenges of students this year. Because of those challenges, which are coupled with a lack of mental health providers in schools, educators often find themselves in a position of having difficult conversations with students around social, emotional, and behavioral struggles. As many teachers report an increase in stress, responding to challenging behaviors and student emotional needs can leave us feeling exhausted.
The four simple steps that follow can assist you when having difficult conversations with students. They can be used as part of a process after a student has escalated, when a student shares about a struggle, or when you are trying to interact with a disengaged student.
It is geared towards teachers, but parents can use the same techniques with their children too!