Republican Assault on Public Education (1 Viewer)

[MT15]

This probably needs its own thread. It ties in with a lot of different R culture wars: Attacks on universities, attacks on CRT and “woke”. Classifying teachers and librarians as “groomers”. Pushing vouchers to send tax money to private, often religious, schools. Betsy DeVos was an advocate for all these policies that will weaken public education, and there are several billionaires who also want to dismantle public education. Public education may have its faults, but it is responsible for an amazing amount of upward mobility. Kids from poor areas can still get a college prep education in a public school.

Vouchers (sometimes disguised as “school choice”) are a particular peeve of mine. Public money is diverted from poor schools to wealthy private schools, which aren’t required to offer accommodations for special needs or challenged students. Families with special needs kids are left out. Rural areas often suffer disproportionately because there are no private schools to attend, but their public schools still see the reduction in funding. Often the families who take advantage of the voucher money are upper class and the private schools simply raise tuition knowing the families are getting taxpayer money now.

Greg Abbot is being particularly vile in this area. No surprise. Voters will have to make a statement about public education. If we want to halt the growing divide in this country between the “haves” and “have-nots”, we need to pay attention to public education.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Wasn’t sure where to put this, here or SCOTUS thread
======================


Aug 21 (Reuters) - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's incoming freshman class this year dropped to just 16% Black, Hispanic, Native American or Pacific Islander students compared to 31% in previous years after the U.S. Supreme Court banned colleges from using race as a factor in admissions in 2023, the elite engineering school said.

The proportion of Asian American students in the incoming class rose from 41% to 47%, while white students made up about the same share of the class as in recent years.

MIT administrators said the statistics are the result of the Supreme Court's decision last year to ban affirmative action, a practice that many selective U.S. colleges and universities used for decades to boost enrollment of underrepresented minority groups.

Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the defendants in the Supreme Court case, argued that they wanted to promote diversity to offer educational opportunities broadly and bring a range of perspectives to their campuses.

The conservative-leaning Court ruled that their race-conscious admissions practices violated the U.S. Constitution's promise of equal protection under the law……

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/mits-enrollment-black-latino-students-drops-after-supreme-court-affirmative-2024-08-21/

Enrollment for Black students fell at two elite US colleges in the first class since the supreme court’s decision last year to strike down affirmative action in college admissions and upend the nation’s academic landscape.

Amherst College and Tufts University, both in Massachusetts, reported a drop in the share of Black first-year students, an early sign that the high court’s ruling could negatively affect racial diversity in the US’s more selective colleges and universities, according to the New York Times.

In June 2023, the US supreme court, driven by its conservative supermajority, ended race-conscious admissions at universities across the country in a move that dealt a substantial blow to the cause of greater student diversity on campuses, which critics warned would have far-reaching effects throughout society.


The share of Black students at Amherst College for the incoming freshman class decreased by eight percentage points, from 11% last year to 3% this year, the data showed. The percentage of Hispanic students dropped from 12% to 8%……

Elite colleges see Black enrollment drop after affirmative action strike-down

Amherst College and Tufts University report lower number of Black students this year as white enrollment increases

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

guess this can go here
==============

A federal judge in Indiana dismissed a lawsuit filed by parents of five public school children who argued the school should be banned from teaching evolution because it amounts to the state coercing students into accepting atheism.

Jason and Jennifer Reinoehl sued the Penn-Harris-Madison School corporation, the Indiana State board of Education, and the Indiana Secretary of Education in May 2023. They alleged that the defendants were equally blameworthy in causing their family pain and suffering by “forcing” the children, “to learn and cite as truth religious origin stories that were different from those in which they believe in.”

Throughout the 35-page complaint in which the plaintiffs represented themselves as pro se litigants, the Reinoehls referred to evolution as “religious teaching” and a “religious myth of evolution.” Their argument appeared to be that evolution has not been proven to accepted scientific standards, and is — on that basis — religious in nature.

According to the plaintiffs, evolution is a “highly flawed scientific theory” that does not meet the proper criteria for scientific hypothesis and has been “scientifically disproven.” Over multiple pages, they argued that there is no way to test the theory of evolution just as there is no way to test the “Big Bang Theory.” Scientists, they said, subscribe to evolutionary theory because they, “have been indoctrinated with it while attending public schools and universities,” and they are “reluctant to abandon this religious teaching.”..........

Judge dismisses lawsuit that said teaching evolution was 'forcing' kids to accept atheism

A federal judge in Indiana dismissed a lawsuit filed by parents who argued the school should be banned from teaching evolution because it amounts to the state coercing students into accepting atheism.

lawandcrime.com

DocumentCloud

www.documentcloud.org

 

[Optimus Prime]

……..The situation is structurally the same in the United States – would-be authoritarians and one-party states centrally target universities with the aim of restricting dissent.

Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, is an aspiring autocrat who has used the myth of widespread voter fraud to severely restrict minority voting. (Voter fraud practically never happens in the United States; rigorous investigation estimated it as between 0.0003 and 0.0025%.)

DeSantis also created an office of election crimes and security, to pursue supposed cases of voter fraud.

Besides minority voting populations, DeSantis has focused on public and higher education as central targets.

According to an AAUP report by the special committee on political interference and academic freedom in Florida’s public education system in May 2023, “academic freedom, tenure and shared governance in Florida’s public colleges and universities currently face a politically and ideologically driven assault unparalleled in US history.”

The committee’s final report reveals an atmosphere of intimidation and indeed terror, as the administrative threat to public university professors has been shown to be very real.

Even more so than Florida, Tennessee is a one-party state, with a Republican governor and a Republican supermajority in the legislature.

The Tennessee house and senate passed a resolution to honor the Danube Institute; on the floor of the Tennessee house, the state representative Justin Jones questioned why the state was honoring the Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán’s thinktank. Tennessee

has a state ban on the teaching of “divisive concepts”, one that includes public universities. To report a professor for teaching such a concept (such as intersectionality), Tennessee provides an online form.

Attacks on voting, and democratic systems generally, almost invariably center on universities, and vice versa. The Yale Law School graduate and current Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance has claimed that the 2020 election should not have been certified because of suspicion of voter fraud.

In a speech to the National Conservatism Conference, Vance also proclaimed, echoing Richard Nixon: “The professors are the enemy.”…..

Why fascists hate universities | Jason Stanley

Authoritarians and would-be authoritarians are only too aware that universities are primary sites of critique and dissent

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Some Florida school districts are rolling back a more comprehensive approach to sex education in favor of abstinence-focused lessons under pressure from state officials who have labeled certain instruction on contraception, anatomy and consent as inappropriate for students.

Officials from the Florida Department of Education, led by an appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, have been directing some of the state’s largest school districts to scale back their lesson plans not only on sexual activity, but on contraceptives, human development, abuse and domestic violence, as first reported by the Orlando Sentinel.

The shift reflects a nationwide push in conservative states to restrict what kids can learn about themselves and their bodies. Advocates are concerned that young people won’t reliably be taught about adolescence, safe sex or relationship violence at a time when sexually transmitted infections have been on the rise and access to abortion is being increasingly restricted.

Under recent changes to state law, it’s now up to the Florida Department of Education to sign off on school districts’ curriculum on reproductive health and disease education if they use teaching materials other than the state’s designated textbook.…..

Florida officials pressure schools to roll back sex ed lessons on contraception and consent

Some Florida school districts are rolling back a more comprehensive approach to sex education in favor of abstinence-focused lessons.

apnews.com

 

[MT15]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Some Florida school districts are rolling back a more comprehensive approach to sex education in favor of abstinence-focused lessons under pressure from state officials who have labeled certain instruction on contraception, anatomy and consent as inappropriate for students.

Officials from the Florida Department of Education, led by an appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, have been directing some of the state’s largest school districts to scale back their lesson plans not only on sexual activity, but on contraceptives, human development, abuse and domestic violence, as first reported by the Orlando Sentinel.

The shift reflects a nationwide push in conservative states to restrict what kids can learn about themselves and their bodies. Advocates are concerned that young people won’t reliably be taught about adolescence, safe sex or relationship violence at a time when sexually transmitted infections have been on the rise and access to abortion is being increasingly restricted.

Under recent changes to state law, it’s now up to the Florida Department of Education to sign off on school districts’ curriculum on reproductive health and disease education if they use teaching materials other than the state’s designated textbook.…..

Florida officials pressure schools to roll back sex ed lessons on contraception and consent

Some Florida school districts are rolling back a more comprehensive approach to sex education in favor of abstinence-focused lessons.

apnews.com

This is exactly how you will get a sharp increase in teen pregnancies. So good job, assuming that’s what they are trying to do.

 

[Huntn]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Some Florida school districts are rolling back a more comprehensive approach to sex education in favor of abstinence-focused lessons under pressure from state officials who have labeled certain instruction on contraception, anatomy and consent as inappropriate for students.

Officials from the Florida Department of Education, led by an appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, have been directing some of the state’s largest school districts to scale back their lesson plans not only on sexual activity, but on contraceptives, human development, abuse and domestic violence, as first reported by the Orlando Sentinel.

The shift reflects a nationwide push in conservative states to restrict what kids can learn about themselves and their bodies. Advocates are concerned that young people won’t reliably be taught about adolescence, safe sex or relationship violence at a time when sexually transmitted infections have been on the rise and access to abortion is being increasingly restricted.

Under recent changes to state law, it’s now up to the Florida Department of Education to sign off on school districts’ curriculum on reproductive health and disease education if they use teaching materials other than the state’s designated textbook.…..

Florida officials pressure schools to roll back sex ed lessons on contraception and consent

Some Florida school districts are rolling back a more comprehensive approach to sex education in favor of abstinence-focused lessons.

apnews.com

It’s the Ignorance Agenda which covers a wide spectrum. Maybe they’ll roll back history and science in public schools too, to keep a pliable serf working class until automation can take over.

 

[Optimus Prime]

This could have gone in a number of threads
=========================


New College of Florida (NCF) will host the extremist writer Steve Sailer, who has been described as a “white supremacist” and a “proponent of scientific racism”, at a college-branded public event next month.

New College has made headlines since January 2023, when the rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, vowed to transform it from a university known for liberal values into a conservative institution, and installed a new board of trustees including the rightwing culture warrior Christopher Rufo.

That board in turn appointed DeSantis’s “close ally” Richard Corcoran as the new college president, in which role he makes a $699,000 salary.

DeSantis’s lieutenants’ actions at New College – like abolishing disciplines, removing bathroom signage and denying professors tenure – have seen the departure of more than a third of the faculty, and given rise to myriad legal actions.

But the moves have been lauded by the so-called “new right”, many of whom see US higher education as a bastion of liberalism that needs to be subject to a rightwing “reconquista”. JD Vance, for his part, has pledged to “aggressively attack the universities in this country”.

Even so, Sailer’s invitation to speak is likely to stir controversy for his extremist views, especially on race.

In Sailer’s newly published anthology, Noticing, one essay claims that an “African population explosion” is related to a “primal African cult of fertility”. Another associates “young woman-of-color journalists” with “Haitian voodoo and Southern hoodoo magic”.

Many offer variations on the claim that “Blacks have higher average levels of violent crime and lower average levels of intelligence”………

Sailer’s interlocutor, Wilfred Reilly, is the author of the books Hate Crime Hoax and Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me, and assistant professor of political science at Kentucky State University. The Guardian emailed Reilly asking him about the upside of sharing a stage with Sailer, given his views. There was no response.

Sailer, meanwhile, has repeatedly denied in recent months that he is a white supremacist in response to reporting in the Atlantic. The Guardian asked Sailer to characterize his political position on race in a detailed request for comment that also sought clarity on matters of fact, his beliefs and criticisms leveled at him.

In a 3,000-word emailed response, Sailer described his views on race as “realistic” and “moderate”.……..

Florida university to host extremist after DeSantis-led lurch to right

Next month, New College of Florida will welcome activist and writer Steve Sailer, a ‘proponent of scientific racism’

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Attacks targeting American public schools over LGBTQ+ rights and education about race and racism cost those schools an estimated $3.2bn in the 2023-24 school year, according to a new report by education professors from four major American universities.

The study is believed to be the first attempt to quantify the financial impact of rightwing political campaigns targeting school districts and school boards across the US.

In the wake of the pandemic, these campaigns first attempted to restrict how American schools educate students about racism, and then increasingly shifted to spreading fear among parents about schools’ policies about transgender students and LGBTQ+ rights.

Researchers from UCLA, UT Austin, UC Riverside and American University surveyed 467 public school superintendents across 46 US states, asking them about the direct and indirect costs of dealing with these volatile campaigns.

Those costs included everything from out-of-pocket payments to hire to lawyers or additional security, to the staff member hours devoted to responding to disinformation on social media, addressing parent concerns and replying to voluminous public records requests focused on the district’s teachings on racism, gender and sexuality.

The campaigns that focused on public schools’ policies about transgender students often included lurid false claims about schools trying to change students’ gender or “indoctrinating” them into becoming gay.

This disinformation sparked harassment and threats against individual teachers, school board members and administrators, with some of the fury coming from within local communities, and even more angry calls, emails and social media posts flooding in from conservative media viewers across the country.

In addition to the financial costs of responding to these targeted campaigns, the study revealed other dynamics, the researchers said. “The attack on public officials as pedophiles was one I heard again and again, from people across extremely different parts of the country: rural, urban, suburban.

It speaks to the way that this really is a nationalized conflict campaign,” said John Rogers, an education professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the lead author of the study.

The frequency with which both school board members and school superintendents were “being called out as sexual predators – it was really frightening”, Rogers said.

Superintendents from across the country told the researchers how these culture battles had affected their schools, and cut into resources they would have preferred to spend on education.

One superintendent in a Rocky Mountain school district told researchers that he faced intense public backlash after trying to protect the privacy of a transgender student.

The school district had to divert money from planned professional development programs for teachers in order to pay for outside consultants to deal with PR, communications and legal issues, the superintendent said.

Five educators left the district, and school staff felt “caught in the crosshairs of a societal war”, he said………

US public schools burned up nearly $3.2bn fending off rightwing culture attacks – report

Researchers surveyed 467 schools and found funds for learning improvements were diverted to security, PR and attorneys in wake of targeting

www.theguardian.com

 

[bird]

Attacks targeting American public schools over LGBTQ+ rights and education about race and racism cost those schools an estimated $3.2bn in the 2023-24 school year, according to a new report by education professors from four major American universities.

The study is believed to be the first attempt to quantify the financial impact of rightwing political campaigns targeting school districts and school boards across the US.

In the wake of the pandemic, these campaigns first attempted to restrict how American schools educate students about racism, and then increasingly shifted to spreading fear among parents about schools’ policies about transgender students and LGBTQ+ rights.

Researchers from UCLA, UT Austin, UC Riverside and American University surveyed 467 public school superintendents across 46 US states, asking them about the direct and indirect costs of dealing with these volatile campaigns.

Those costs included everything from out-of-pocket payments to hire to lawyers or additional security, to the staff member hours devoted to responding to disinformation on social media, addressing parent concerns and replying to voluminous public records requests focused on the district’s teachings on racism, gender and sexuality.

The campaigns that focused on public schools’ policies about transgender students often included lurid false claims about schools trying to change students’ gender or “indoctrinating” them into becoming gay.

This disinformation sparked harassment and threats against individual teachers, school board members and administrators, with some of the fury coming from within local communities, and even more angry calls, emails and social media posts flooding in from conservative media viewers across the country.

In addition to the financial costs of responding to these targeted campaigns, the study revealed other dynamics, the researchers said. “The attack on public officials as pedophiles was one I heard again and again, from people across extremely different parts of the country: rural, urban, suburban.

It speaks to the way that this really is a nationalized conflict campaign,” said John Rogers, an education professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the lead author of the study.

The frequency with which both school board members and school superintendents were “being called out as sexual predators – it was really frightening”, Rogers said.

Superintendents from across the country told the researchers how these culture battles had affected their schools, and cut into resources they would have preferred to spend on education.

One superintendent in a Rocky Mountain school district told researchers that he faced intense public backlash after trying to protect the privacy of a transgender student.

The school district had to divert money from planned professional development programs for teachers in order to pay for outside consultants to deal with PR, communications and legal issues, the superintendent said.

Five educators left the district, and school staff felt “caught in the crosshairs of a societal war”, he said………

US public schools burned up nearly $3.2bn fending off rightwing culture attacks – report

Researchers surveyed 467 schools and found funds for learning improvements were diverted to security, PR and attorneys in wake of targeting

www.theguardian.com

This is unsurprising. They hate that some of their children might be gay. They hate that some of their children might actually hold different opinions or have different values. Thus someone must be to blame. And since they hate public education anyway they focused their anger and, more importantly, fear, at schools.

 

[Huntn]

Attacks targeting American public schools over LGBTQ+ rights and education about race and racism cost those schools an estimated $3.2bn in the 2023-24 school year, according to a new report by education professors from four major American universities.

The study is believed to be the first attempt to quantify the financial impact of rightwing political campaigns targeting school districts and school boards across the US.

In the wake of the pandemic, these campaigns first attempted to restrict how American schools educate students about racism, and then increasingly shifted to spreading fear among parents about schools’ policies about transgender students and LGBTQ+ rights.

Researchers from UCLA, UT Austin, UC Riverside and American University surveyed 467 public school superintendents across 46 US states, asking them about the direct and indirect costs of dealing with these volatile campaigns.

Those costs included everything from out-of-pocket payments to hire to lawyers or additional security, to the staff member hours devoted to responding to disinformation on social media, addressing parent concerns and replying to voluminous public records requests focused on the district’s teachings on racism, gender and sexuality.

The campaigns that focused on public schools’ policies about transgender students often included lurid false claims about schools trying to change students’ gender or “indoctrinating” them into becoming gay.

This disinformation sparked harassment and threats against individual teachers, school board members and administrators, with some of the fury coming from within local communities, and even more angry calls, emails and social media posts flooding in from conservative media viewers across the country.

In addition to the financial costs of responding to these targeted campaigns, the study revealed other dynamics, the researchers said. “The attack on public officials as pedophiles was one I heard again and again, from people across extremely different parts of the country: rural, urban, suburban.

It speaks to the way that this really is a nationalized conflict campaign,” said John Rogers, an education professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the lead author of the study.

The frequency with which both school board members and school superintendents were “being called out as sexual predators – it was really frightening”, Rogers said.

Superintendents from across the country told the researchers how these culture battles had affected their schools, and cut into resources they would have preferred to spend on education.

One superintendent in a Rocky Mountain school district told researchers that he faced intense public backlash after trying to protect the privacy of a transgender student.

The school district had to divert money from planned professional development programs for teachers in order to pay for outside consultants to deal with PR, communications and legal issues, the superintendent said.

Five educators left the district, and school staff felt “caught in the crosshairs of a societal war”, he said………

US public schools burned up nearly $3.2bn fending off rightwing culture attacks – report

Researchers surveyed 467 schools and found funds for learning improvements were diverted to security, PR and attorneys in wake of targeting

www.theguardian.com

Our reality has changed to something unrecognizable 40 years ago…

 

[Optimus Prime]

Bolding at the bottom mine. Someone (forget who) said we should teach children critical thinking, how to identify bias, how to research sources, etc. and that was ripped to shreds by Republicans, so they don't want to teach kids how to think either
============================================


Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Tim Sheehy said at multiple campaign stops this year that he wants to do away with the U.S. Department of Education to save money — by “throwing it in the trash can” — and that education is one of his top three priorities.

“We have a Department of Education, which I don’t think we need anymore,” Sheehy said. “It should go away. That’ll save us $30 billion right there.”

Although he lobbed criticisms at public education from elementary schools all the way to college, his comments on the campaign trail offered more talking points from Project 2025 than they do specific plans that would benefit Montana, according to audio clips provided to the Daily Montanan.

In Billings, Sheehy shared part of his rationale for axing the Department of Education: “We formed that department so little Black girls could go to school down south, and we could have integrated schooling. We don’t need that anymore.”

According to the Office of Public Instruction, roughly 150,000 children attend public school in Montana; Kids Count data show 89.6% of students in kindergarten through 12th grade attend public school in Montana.

Data from OPI also show that at the school level, federal money accounts for roughly 12% of the funding per student.

Project 2025 is a plan designed by more than 100 conservative groups that includes a massive overhaul of the federal government. An analysis by the National Education Association said the plan would “gut” funding for education and hurt students who are the most vulnerable.

Lance Melton, head of the Montana School Boards Association, said federal dollars are significant in Montana for at least a couple of reasons.

He said they are especially important in areas with smaller taxable values, including some of the Native American reservations.

American Indian students graduate at about 64% compared to the overall population that’s eligible for free and reduced lunch at 72%, Melton said — or the average rate overall, which is in the high 80%-range.

Additionally, Melton said, the state gets $40 million alone to help students in public schools who have disabilities. The amount represents just 15% compared to the 40% it’s supposed to be, he said, but it’s more than zero.

“Fairly significant harm would be implemented in Montana’s public schools if we suddenly snapped our fingers and said, ‘No more federal funding of education,’” he said.

In a race being watched nationally with political control of the U.S. Senate in the balance, Sheehy is running to unseat U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat and Montana’s senior senator seeking his fourth term. Recent polls show Sheehy pulling ahead of Tester, a farmer and former public school teacher himself.

Sheehy’s campaign did not respond to an interview request to discuss his plan for public education. In audio clips of his comments at six different events this year, he said the other two priorities for him are immigration and the crisis at the southern border, common political talking points.

His campaign website offers five sentences on the topic of education. However, the criticisms the Bozeman businessman levies at public education don’t always reflect the systems he’s fighting against, and his plan for solutions isn’t always clear.

On his website, Sheehy said he supports parents “at the forefront” of their child’s education, “more choice,” and teaching children “how to think — not what to think.”.............

Sheehy's plan for education includes throwing Department of Ed 'in the trash' • Daily Montanan

Republican Tim Sheey's plan for Department of Education includes 'throwing it in the trash can' in the hopes of saving money.

dailymontanan.com

 

[cuddlemonkey]

Bolding at the bottom mine. Someone (forget who) said we should teach children critical thinking, how to identify bias, how to research sources, etc. and that was ripped to shreds by Republicans, so they don't want to teach kids how to think either
============================================


Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Tim Sheehy said at multiple campaign stops this year that he wants to do away with the U.S. Department of Education to save money — by “throwing it in the trash can” — and that education is one of his top three priorities.

“We have a Department of Education, which I don’t think we need anymore,” Sheehy said. “It should go away. That’ll save us $30 billion right there.”

Although he lobbed criticisms at public education from elementary schools all the way to college, his comments on the campaign trail offered more talking points from Project 2025 than they do specific plans that would benefit Montana, according to audio clips provided to the Daily Montanan.

In Billings, Sheehy shared part of his rationale for axing the Department of Education: “We formed that department so little Black girls could go to school down south, and we could have integrated schooling. We don’t need that anymore.”

According to the Office of Public Instruction, roughly 150,000 children attend public school in Montana; Kids Count data show 89.6% of students in kindergarten through 12th grade attend public school in Montana.

Data from OPI also show that at the school level, federal money accounts for roughly 12% of the funding per student.

Project 2025 is a plan designed by more than 100 conservative groups that includes a massive overhaul of the federal government. An analysis by the National Education Association said the plan would “gut” funding for education and hurt students who are the most vulnerable.

Lance Melton, head of the Montana School Boards Association, said federal dollars are significant in Montana for at least a couple of reasons.

He said they are especially important in areas with smaller taxable values, including some of the Native American reservations.

American Indian students graduate at about 64% compared to the overall population that’s eligible for free and reduced lunch at 72%, Melton said — or the average rate overall, which is in the high 80%-range.

Additionally, Melton said, the state gets $40 million alone to help students in public schools who have disabilities. The amount represents just 15% compared to the 40% it’s supposed to be, he said, but it’s more than zero.

“Fairly significant harm would be implemented in Montana’s public schools if we suddenly snapped our fingers and said, ‘No more federal funding of education,’” he said.

In a race being watched nationally with political control of the U.S. Senate in the balance, Sheehy is running to unseat U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat and Montana’s senior senator seeking his fourth term. Recent polls show Sheehy pulling ahead of Tester, a farmer and former public school teacher himself.

Sheehy’s campaign did not respond to an interview request to discuss his plan for public education. In audio clips of his comments at six different events this year, he said the other two priorities for him are immigration and the crisis at the southern border, common political talking points.

His campaign website offers five sentences on the topic of education. However, the criticisms the Bozeman businessman levies at public education don’t always reflect the systems he’s fighting against, and his plan for solutions isn’t always clear.

On his website, Sheehy said he supports parents “at the forefront” of their child’s education, “more choice,” and teaching children “how to think — not what to think.”.............

Sheehy's plan for education includes throwing Department of Ed 'in the trash' • Daily Montanan

Republican Tim Sheey's plan for Department of Education includes 'throwing it in the trash can' in the hopes of saving money.

dailymontanan.com

To your comment that I bolded: I can only speak for me, but I am a proponent of philosophy being taught all through high school. That would go a long way toward teaching these things.

 

[LA - L.A.]

To your comment that I bolded: I can only speak for me, but I am a proponent of philosophy being taught all through high school. That would go a long way toward teaching these things.

At the very least, every freshman should be required to take classes in both epistemology and American civics. That way even if a student drops out after their freshman year, they've had both classes that will increase the chance that they are constructive members of society.

 

[Optimus Prime]

n issue of crucial importance to tens of millions of parents, students, and teachers has inexplicably gotten short shrift this election season. Nary a word was uttered about public education on either the presidential or vice-presidential debate stages. It is rarely mentioned by pollsters and pundits as a top-tier issue.

But education is on the ballot next week—and the stakes are existential. Will we vote to strengthen the public schools that 90 percent of America's children and families rely on, or to weaken and ultimately destroy our last remaining truly public institution?

Public schools need support to prepare young people for life, college, career, and citizenship. But some extremist politicians have embroiled our classrooms in toxic culture wars to soften the ground for their systematic defunding, privatizing, and voucherizing. It's time we took the threat seriously.

I'm in schools every chance I get. I see the joy that comes from kids immersing themselves in a good book, engaging in hands-on projects, and working in teams to showcase their knowledge. I've seen how we can transform public schools to embed them in their communities and align them with economic and career opportunities.

With so many young people still struggling through the coronavirus pandemic's effects on their learning, development, and mental health, we need to redouble our efforts to make school more engaging and relevant, address students' well-being, and fuel their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

I know that with the right support, we can make every public school a place where parents want to send their children, educators want to work, and students thrive.

Donald Trump and JD Vance have long disparaged America's educators and public schools, and the GOP platform will gut public education as we know it. It calls for a vast expansion of school voucher programs, despite evidence they siphon money from public schools, blow billion-dollar holes in state budgets, and cause significant declines in student achievement.

Vouchers mostly go to parents whose children are already in private schools—providing a taxpayer-funded handout to the well-to-do. Since Arizona began its statewide voucher program in 2022, the promised price tag for taxpayers quintupled. In Wisconsin, 41 percent of voucher schools failed. In Louisiana and Ohio, the hit to student achievement for students in voucher schools has been almost twice the loss caused by the pandemic.

These schools can choose which students to accept; are free to discriminate against students on the basis of disability, learning styles, or identity; and lack the basic student and family services that public schools are required to provide. The choice for many rural families without a nearby private alternative would boil down to homeschooling or Zoom schools run by for-profit companies...............

On Nov. 5, Reject Extremist Attacks on Public Education | Opinion

Harris and Walz support universal preschool, strategies to reduce gun violence, and training for good jobs that do not require a four-year college degree.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

New College of Florida, which has been the subject of a rightwing takeover that has reversed its previous reputation as a liberal arts school, has hired ideologically aligned rightwing faculty and staff for a range of positions, in a process that an internal open letter said “often replaced faculty expertise with administrative fiat”.

New College of Florida (NCF) was targeted by the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, who made transforming the liberal institution into a conservative one a centerpiece of his ill-fated presidential campaign that sought to take on liberal causes. Its board of trustees is now dominated by DeSantis allies, triggering campus turmoil and the exodus of some staff.

Some in the Republican party see the effort to transform New College as a model in a wider battle to take on American higher education, which the rightwing sees as dominated by left-leaning institutions and leaders. With Donald Trump returning to power after winning the presidential election last week, many rightwing activists could seek to replicate what has happened to New College across the US.


The Guardian has identified several faculty members who have a history of connections with rightwing media, far-right thinktanks and the so-called “New Right”. The hires are of a piece with the hard-right drift at the college since DeSantis appointed new members to the governing board of trustees including the culture warrior Christopher Rufo, which in turn appointed a new administration led by Richard Corcoran, a longtime Republican activist and former political candidate in Florida.

In an internally circulated open letter to Corcoran written by the chairs of a key committee, staff members have complained that hiring processes now involved the “arbitrary replacement of searches in specific fields with open-field searches, searches with no requirement for a PhD in the field, insertion of candidates with no rationale, and job offers made without a recommendation from the search committee”.…….

Revealed: Florida liberal arts college in rightwing hiring spree after takeover

With Trump returning to power, rightwingers may seek to replicate New College of Florida’s experience across US

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

The Oklahoma Department of Education has announced that it will launch an "Office of Religious and Patriotism" to protect the religious practices of students, teachers and parents.

In an announcement Tuesday, the state education department said the office will seek to protect students, faculty and parents as they "practice their religion freely in all aspects" and will investigate "abuses to individual religious freedom or displays of patriotism."

Specific guidance related to the office will be sent to Oklahoma public schools in the near future and will ensure that "the right to pray in schools is safeguarded."

State Superintendent Ryan Walters claimed that "our nation's public schools have tragically been ground zero for the erosion of religious liberty across our country" over the past few decades.

"The radical left never misses a chance to co- opt the teacher unions and their minions to indoctrinate our children against traditional values of faith and family, seeking to attack any display of faith or religion or patriotism," Walters said in a statement.

"It is no coincidence that the dismantling of faith and family values in public schools directly correlates with declining academic outcomes in our public schools."

Walters said he looks forward to "working with the incoming Trump Administration" to "aggressively pursue education policies that will improve academic outcomes and give our children a better future."

According to the statement, the new office will support teachers and students when "their constitutional rights are threatened by well-funded, out of state groups." The release cited a case in Skiatook last year where a school was legally pressured to remove Bible verses from display.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based secularist legal organization that advocates for a strict separation of church and state, denounced the new office in a social media post, deeming it unnecessary.

"Students have always had the right to pray. No one is trying to take that away. This dystopian' office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism' is about indoctrination and forced prayer in schools," the FFRF tweeted.

Earlier this year, Walters garnered headlines nationwide when he issued a directive to public schools requiring them to incorporate the Bible into their curriculum. He also announced plans to spend $3 million to purchase Bibles for schools...............

MSN

 

[fooferdoggie]

The Oklahoma Department of Education has announced that it will launch an "Office of Religious and Patriotism" to protect the religious practices of students, teachers and parents.

yes because Christians are so marginalized in the us.

 

[bird]

And we have this nugget from the RW religionist hack Superintendent of Oklahoma.

No, their rights and freedoms regarding religious liberties are NOT continuously under assault.

https://kfor.com/news/oklahoma-education/walters-orders-public-schools-show-students-video-of-him-speaking-politically-charged-opinions-praying-for-donald-trump/

Of course, he is right that we are living in dangerous times for our country. The danger comes from azzhats like him.