Welcome to the third inaugural War on Education. In this issue, I discuss the assaults on public education by the right wing crazy contingent in this nation. If you are asking about corporate charters which have support in both parties, I am covering why they are attacking schools in this article as well. They are looking to pick the bones clean of the public education system once it has been destroyed by the right wing. In every instance a red state has a GOP trifecta, crazy coordinated laws attacking public schools can be found.
Just know that 2/3rds of the articles I have to wade through are from right wing propaganda sources. The other third are fluffing charter chains or the latest buzzword corporate programs for schools. Usually, the mainstream news is silent on the issue of education or slightly pro-charter. Very few actually defend public schools. This is alarming with public schools being attacked on a near daily basis.
1) Arizona is trying to pass a last second, virtually unread bill that would starve public schools of funds at the expense of corporate charters. Expect all of these measures to start making the rounds nationwide in red state trifectas. For instance, Kentucky has revived their zombie charter school funding bill once again. The corporate charter lobby is a powerful one, with its hooks in both parties.
2) Michigan is an educational battleground because of Betsy DeVos, one of the most pernicious influences in education both in the state and across the nation. Her voucher schemes are being pushed in state after state to kill public education in favor of corporate charters, segregated religious schools, and homeschooling. Every time public education defenders win, the ideas come back just like a zombie to be pushed again by another state in an even more pernicious fashion. Others use them as a front for homeschooling or re-segregation.
3) No one is talking to teachers to see what is actually needed to retain teachers and actually attract people to the profession. In red states, this is by design, but even blue states are having trouble retaining and attracting teachers. What do teachers need to actually be successful? It’s complicated, and the list of demands gets longer the more that education gets neglected.
4) Curricula are still under attacks in many states, with diversity training, books, and even social-emotional learning under attack by red state trifectas. They want their own brand of indoctrination, supplied by schools such as Hillsdale College.
- For instance, the likely 2024 presidential frontrunner Ron DeSantis signed his “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law over this past week. Other states have followed suit.
- More and more states are pushing library books bans, regardless of how actual librarians and educators feel about the books.
- Some states are priming the pump for even more anti-diversity attacks by forcing teachers to post lesson plans and other materials online 72 hours before each lesson or punish them for teaching “controversial topics”.
- Others are literally pushing courses that are taught by the NRA for "gun safety”. How Orwellian!
5) Liberals are fumbling on the issue of education, traditionally one of their strongest, right in front of our very eyes. Polling indicates that more and more people are starting to turn to conservatives as better protectors of educational issues. It started with the Virginia governor race, and now it will be weaponized against us nation wide. Wealthy white liberals want to maintain the status quo on education, no matter what — which is not helping when COVID has changed everything.
Crippling Public Schools in Favor of Charters — Tweaking the Funding
Where do schools get their money? It’s a complicated issue, with local property taxes, state funding, and federal assistance (Title I and Title IX) all playing their roles. It is usually a complex formula that only die-hard educators and lawmakers understand the intricacy of. What I do know is that it can take YEARS to change the formula correctly, not a rush job like Arizona pulled this week to fund schools!
Why are these bills rushed? They are rushed in the dead of night such that no opposition can form against them: whether it be in Arizona above or Kentucky below. The goal is to direct less of the funds to public schools that actually need them and more to the corporate charter schools that will just pocket the money — or worse. Many corporate charter chains spray money towards supporting key candidates in both parties — ones that will keep the gravy train going.
Even ostensibly “non-profit” charters are in on the act, usually being underwritten by a for-profit company that manages the charter chain or also the real estate behind the charter school. They take the money pit that is a school and find ways to cut corners to the max, leaving only profits left for themselves and as little for the kids as humanly possible.
They often have sweetheart deals with the states they are located in.
The charter chains often have to resort to financial chicanery to “balance the books” all while making a secret large profit behind the scenes that is totally unaccountable. Luckily, Congress and the Biden administration are (finally) looking to crack down on such corrupt practices.
UNROLLED THREAD — read it all!
Vouchers Will Continue Until the System is Starved
Vouchers play a key role in the fever swamp in right wing education world. The theory is that parents have the right to choose what kind of education their darling little angel deserves. Each headcount (for that is what these people think public schools views students as) is worth a certain amount of enrollment money. Voucher schemes seek to utilize that idea and individualize the education of each person. Sounds great, right? NOT SO FAST MY FRIENDS!
The catch is that the segregated private schools that vouchers are intended for are more expensive than this piddling amount of money. That effectively shuts out the best schools in the state and amounts to a tax cut for parents who don’t need it. The next choice, public charters, often have a waiting list or other means of exclusion to the “riff raff” that try to use vouchers to access that school. What winds up happening is that the voucher leads to the subsidizing of white academies and other segregated private schools or right wing Christian homeschooling, leaving everyone else at the suddenly fund starved and overburdened public school.
Name a legislature controlled by the fascists, and I will give you an example of a voucher scheme cooked up by Betsy “Cruella” DeVos — the queen of vouchers and private “Christian” charter school education. She’s responsible for the death spiral of Michigan public schools for decades, and her tenure under TFG allowed her to export her ideas to all of the right wing states.
Don’t be tricked by vouchers — they are a key means of starving public education and promoting segregation.
What People Think Teachers Need and What Teachers Say They Need are Not Aligned
Here’s what my 37 year veteran teacher friend posted on Facebook this past year. She didn’t write it, but it was so accurate I had a PTSD flashback and cried.. I am posting it again because the life of a teacher these days is truly insane. Every teacher I know is looking for the exit either through the private sector or through retirement.
Me: Ok class, today...
Student: This is stupid. I'd rather be playing video games.
Office: *ring* Send (student) to the office.
Voicemail: My kid told me that YOU...
Email: We need you to sub on your prep.
Teacher coaches: Students are experiencing an all time level of trauma. Form relationships with all students and make connections every day.
SRSS: Make sure to incorporate ELA and math into your lesson plan daily, so we can boost our scores for data.
IEP: Implement these modifications and accommodations for these students every hour. Document it.
504: You are legally bound to adhering to these accommodations for these students. Document it.
Pinterest: Every teacher in the universe has a cooler and craftier idea and classroom than you.
Facebook: Omg. Did you hear about what happened in *insert teacher here* class?! Don't they even watch them? It's their job! How did (s)he miss that?! Yeah, and I heard...
Class roster: 30+ kids every hour, 6 times per day.
Student Services: You have 4 homeless students. You need to provide the following daily.
Student Medical alert: These students will die if you don't monitor these medical issues closely.
Professional Development: We're trying something new this year even though we're not ready to roll it out and there's no funding for it. Be sure to document that you are doing it correctly.
Media: Your classroom is going to get shot up any minute.
Surprise observation: Be sure goals are set, reports are finished, lesson plans are perfect, and that you hit the learning target and success criteria multiple times. We need documentation and evidence that you're doing this.
Standardized tests: You suck as a teacher. Also, your rating is based on this, but also, make sure students don't feel defined by their performance on these.
PBIS: Teach students the expectations in the hallway, cafeteria, classroom, and outside. Take students in the bathroom and reteach how to wipe, flush, and wash hands. Be sure to only reward positive behavior. Check in and check out with these specific students daily.
MTSS: We have 3 tiers of support. What about your gifted students, pull out students, intervention students? Why aren't you providing enough differentiation? You need to provide documentation.
Door: Keep me locked, so that students are safe. Yes you will be interrupted to open me 10x per hour.
Papers/Grading: Say good bye to your evenings and weekends.
Lesson plans: Are they aligned with school, state, U.S., and world wide standards? Be sure to document that.
The Powers That Be: What can we do to help?
Teachers: Please take something off our plate before adding something new.
The Powers that Be: Sorry, no can do. Btw, you also need to...
Tech Dept: We are working on correcting today's issue as quickly as we can.
English Language Learner: *crying, speaking a foreign language, feeling alone and scared*
The Powers that Be: Sorry, there's just not enough funding for those students.
Department Heads: I've been told we need to align all of our curriculum, assessments, and daily lesson plans. Be sure to document that.
Staff Memo: Be sure to attend the following meetings this week: staff, grade level, core subject, tech, school climate, school improvement.
Counselors: We saw 500 of the 900 students on our caseload, this month.
Social Worker: Yes, I filed that CPS report and the other one. Now we wait on the state to act.
Student: My step dad got arrested last night for beating up my mom.
Tornado Drill: Surprise! Make sure all students are safe. Now go back to teaching.
Fire Drill: Surprise! Make sure all students are safe. Now go back to teaching.
Internal Threat Drill: Surprise! Barricade your door and make sure all students are silent for 45 minutes. Go back to teaching.
External Threat drill: Surprise! Make sure student are silent and out of the funnel of potential bullet spray. Now go back to teaching.
Tutoring: Provided before school, after school, and during lunch.
Technology: Must be implemented into all lessons but also make sure to monitor all 30+ students at all times and make sure they're not doing anything inappropriate.
Data: You suck as a teacher.
Administrators: *literally being pulled in 20 directions at once, everyday, while fielding discipline, making multiple teacher observations, fielding staff, breaking up fights, keeping us safe, performing investigations, cooperating with police, meeting with students and parents, and attending all after school and extracurricular activities*
Employability grade: Be sure to document when students are tardy, not following directions, unprepared, and not collaborating well. Document this for all 175 students.
Academic Grade: Document all accommodations, modifications, retakes, and rationale for grades for each of your 175 students. No we will not provide district time for you to enter these into your grade book.
Special Ed State Dept: You must mainstream all students regardless of behavior, cognitive function, and/or potential violent episodes. Sorry, there's just not enough funding for additional support in your classroom.
State: Make sure you are highly qualified, but you must pay for all of your professional development, student loans, grad classes, conferences, hotel stay, food, travel, and substitute teachers out of pocket. And you need to update your certification. You'll need to pay for that too.
Bladder: You haven't peed in 7 hours, you're going to get another infection.
Heart: *racing*
Stomach: *in knots and anxiety coursing*
Brain: You're not enough. You'll never be enough.
Chest/Lungs: I can't breathe.
Eyes: *leaking tears*
Me: *smiles* (Tells self) Stop. Just suck it up. You're fine. You have 30+ students eyes on you right now. Do NOT let them down.
Society: F*ck respect for authority, including your teachers. Must be nice to get your summers off.
Parent of a student: You make a difference.
Student: I know I'm special and have value, because of you.
My own kids: Mom, why are your crying?
Me: *sets alarm for tomorrow to do it all over again
All of the above, only for the students to become a disaggregated data point in a spreadsheet somewhere. That’s right — your child has been reduced to its data because teachers have precious little time these days to form an actually deep and lasting relationship. We’re too busy documenting everything we are doing to teach to the all-mighty standardized test that determines whether or not teachers are deemed valid or not by the school and the state. Heaven forbid if your data regresses or stands pat. Then you get badgered by administration until you get those scores back in line. Your child matters not, unless the data determines that they matter.
Unfortunately, state legislatures and even the Biden administration ignore what teachers really need to thrive within the classroom. It’s almost as if none of the legislators or government stakeholders have ever listened to a teacher and what they actually need. Here are some of the harebrained schemes and band-aids that have been proposed to ‘help’ teachers.
Here is what teachers are actually saying needs to be done about the crisis currently brewing in the field of education. See if you can spot the disconnect between what is being proposed above and what teachers are asking for in both of these articles.
It is almost as if the goal of many is to diminish the (female dominated) profession of teaching down to a place where the quality educators quit and newbies are brought in without the institutional knowledge needed to resist against the test and punish regime… *thinking emoji here*
The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Indoctrination Improves
What is scary about all of these attacks is that instead of being random and grass roots, they are merely the latest attempt by conservative power players (such as Hillsdale College) to take over what is being taught to your children. The alarm is once again being sounded in the New Republic article below. No one is talking about this sustained assault that aims to replace free thought in secular public schools with indoctrinated proto-Christian messages. It is a backlash against the growing diversity of schools.
Attacks on Students Who are LGBTQ+
I know that other states *glares at Arizona this week* are attacking students who are LGBTQ+, but Florida remains hands down the leader in the field by passing the execrable “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which has already had a chilling effect on teachers who need to talk about these issues. Most other states are attacking students who identify as transgender and eyeing copycat legislation with Florida as a model. The most insidious attack from the right is insisting that educators who talk about these issues are grooming children. This ties in the world of QAnon to these brazen right wing attacks.
Attacks on CRT/Diversity
Almost every state that is dominated by a GOP trifecta has passed a bill targeting Critical Race Theory, which has become a weaponized dog whistle against diversity in general. These laws are deliberately written in a vague manner so that vigilante nutcase parents can nark on teachers that are talking about “divisive concepts designed to assign guilt, shame, or doubt”. This means basically every social studies or ELA teacher is now at risk of running afoul of these laws. It is almost impossible to teach a TRUE version of history without breaking the law — which is the point.
Attacks on any ‘Deviant' Curriculum
To help in the battle against ‘indoctrination’, many of these states are now requiring ‘parent rights’ and ‘transparency’ bills that force teachers to publicly post their lesson plans and materials at least 72 hours in advance of when they are supposed to be taught. This isn’t meant to foster a better conversation between stakeholders. Instead, it is the glue that holds the bills above together. The nutcase parent who has nothing better to do than post those right wing memes on Facebook U now can become an amateur detective for the state, finding the nebulous “CRT” within the content of lesson plans and launching the next controversy. This includes book bans and now increasingly any attempt at social emotional learning, which is meant to help students cope with the mental health epidemic hitting them right now. That’s right — ANY ATTEMPT TO HELP STUDENTS OUTSIDE OF THE APPROVED RIGHT WING THOUGHT PROCESS IS CRT!
Attacks on Logic and Sense in General
Arizona has been debating a bill for about a month which would require EVERY student to take a course in “gun safety” as a requirement for graduation. There is an opt out, but the pushers of this bill happily note that they expect to refer any parents who choose this route to the regulatory apparatus of Child Protective Services to harass you for doing so. That’s right, they are using the bureaucracy they claim to hate to enforce their right wing fever swamp idea. To cap it off, the group that will run these ‘gun safety’ courses isn’t exactly a neutral party: the NRA. While the organization was once a respectable way of learning gun safety — their political aims ever since the Clinton administration have been increasingly radical. I wouldn’t trust my child for a second with an NRA curriculum — but this forced indoctrination upon them will leave its mark on kids in grades 6-12. What utter insanity.
Polling: Conservatives Are Being Trusted More on Educational Issues — and Wealthy White Liberals Want to Maintain the Status Quo
Read that title again. It seems impossible, doesn't it? How the HELL can the fascists be gaining ground and *gulp* winning on the issue of education? Why is the Democratic Party suddenly moribund on this issue that until recently been one of the biggest strengths? Well, the article about “classical education” above and this article below connect ALL of the dots on why this issue will be an absolute bloodbath for our party this November.
It has to do with a concurrent backlash against two different things that have given the fascists the opportunity: the closing of physical schools with inadequate Zoom school due to the pandemic AND what is seen as ‘superfluous’ curriculum needs being labeled as “CRT”. Many parents got to see the worst of education during the pandemic and did not understand that this wasn’t the usual goings on in a classroom.
The white wealthy cohort of the Democratic Party has been pushing “college for everyone” since the era of the Clintons. This may have worked before the Great Recession, but since then all it has led to is crippling student debt and poor job prospects. Oh, and college is getting ever more expensive. More and more scrutiny is being placed on this plan by the public, and the backlash to this plan is increasing by the year. Instead of being the vanguard of change, “Cancel student debt” is the most popular solution being proposed — and it doesn’t solve the core problems.
This is where conservatives and “classical” education is trying to fill in the void. In their thoughts, by focusing on the so-called “Judeo-Christian” basics, we can overcome the secular society and its problems. We can then avoid the need for college and the pointy egghead elitist degrees that produce nothing for society. They are tapping a rich vein of anti-intellectualism that has found fertile ground in America. Just google ‘Scopes Monkey Trial’ of you don’t believe me!
We are unprepared for this assault on education, because it is different packaging from what conservatives usually propose for education. Their plans are as follows:
1) Attack public education to discredit it with anti-LGBTQ+, anti-diversity, and anti-secular attacks in the eyes of the majority of Americans. Attack veteran teachers to make them leave and replace them with more malleable teachers.
2) Push corporate charters that have a religious bent, as is evidenced by the involvement of Hillsdale College. Provide vouchers to further pad the wealth of these corporate charters and strangle the already underfunded public schools until people leave the public schools in disgust.
3) Push an approved ‘1776 Commission’ (look it up) style “classical curriculum” to indoctrinate future generations of students such that they are more susceptible to GOP magical thinking and less likely to commit thoughtcrimes.
4) Close down public schools or severely limit them to the worst of the worst students that charter schools do not want because they are too expensive to educate. Point to the “falling test scores” to push for more religious Hillsdale type charters, wash, rinse, and repeat.
Very scary times in the education world...
Conclusion
If attacks on education and on teachers keep happening — if teachers continue to be locked out of policy conversations and treated like ignoramuses’, the exodus from the field of education will continue. New teacher applicants will continue to shrivel into nothing. Instead of demonizing public education in favor of corporate charters and right wing hysteria, perhaps we could do what Finland does and treat teachers with the respect that they deserve. Otherwise, ideas such as the ones below will continue to fail to make any difference.
Teachers should NOT be the punching bag profession of America. We should not dump ALL of the problems of society onto our public schools. Instead, let’s try to tackle those problems and let teachers do their jobs without jumping through 75 hoops just to teach to the test and fail anyways.
It’s either we listen to the professionals, or get ready for this to happen to America.