Assault on education

[ixcuincle]

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/08/18/west-virginia-university-academic-cuts/?utm_source=reddit.com

West Virginia University, a crucial institution in one of the nation’s most impoverished states, is poised to jettison all of its faculty dedicated to teaching Spanish, French, Chinese and other foreign languages. Students interested in learning a new tongue would be pointed to instructional alternatives — such as, possibly, an online app.

The state’s largest public university also is moving toward elimination of a master’s degree program in creative writing and a doctoral program in mathematics, among other proposed cuts, in response to declining enrollment and what university officials call a “structural” budget deficit of $45 million.

[The Evil Genius]

Declining enrollment at WVU shouldn't be a shocker. The state itself is dieing (population wise and economically) AND largely supports Maga anti intellectual education policies. When a large portion fo the state now sees education as the enemy and the main college is the go to place for in state residents, losing 10% or more enrollment since 2015 shouldn't surprise anyone. 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2023 by The Evil Genius

[Renegade7]

We might get something here regarding actual choice and true flexibility... But I have serious reservations about the lack of regulation and outside money pouring into this...

 

If certain standards were set, like what it takes to say someone has graduated 3rd grade with the end goal of a GED, I'd be more comfortable with this.

 

Serious point about folks not being teachers and thus not being paid or protected like one, let alone safety requirements you'd expect from a school...

 

The line about "not teaching Egypt if they want to be a lawyer" is not keeping convoy honest in regards to College is not on the same page letting folks skip elective courses entirely to focus souly in their majors classes to get their undergraduate degree.  Allowing more specialized routes in K-12 isn't crazy to me, but the above example is.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/interactive/2023/homeschooling-microschools-pods-esa-vouchers/

 

[China]

A Wyoming Public Library Board Fired Its Head Librarian After She Refused To Remove Books

 

In late July, the board of the Campbell County Public Library system in Wyoming voted 4 to 1 to terminate Terri Lesley, its longtime director.

 

For two years, the library board, with the assistance of conservative community members, had been trying to get Lesley to remove books they alleged were sexually inappropriate for minors. But Lesley refused — for fear of getting sued and her strong belief that a diverse collection of books is integral to a successful library.

 

“I believe the community is harmed by not having access to a wide variety of information,” Lesley said.

 

Lesley is adamant that LGBTQ-themed books belong in the library — even if certain parents don’t want their children reading them. She was also worried about being sued for violating the First Amendment which prohibits government-sanctioned censorship.

 

“They’ve manufactured this crisis,” she told HuffPost, speaking about the board in the aftermath of her dismissal. “Their claims have no substance and lack any credible support.”

The Campbell County Library Board has not responded to HuffPost’s request for comment.

 

Lesley had been an employee of the library system for 27 years, including 11 years as director. According to members of the community in the town of 30,000, she was widely beloved; at the special meeting in which she was dismissed, hundreds of people showed up to support her. So how did she get removed from such a critical position?

 

The challenges to Lesley’s oversight of the library followed a strategic track: Conservative activists, often supported by Republican legislators, have launched an all-out war against LGBTQ+ people. Under the guise of parental rights, they have pushed to remove books from schools and censor educators — and along the way, public libraries have also come under attack ― the latest front in culture war that is attempting to remove the existence of LGBTQ people and their experiences from public life, via tools like laws that dictate what teachers can say about gender identity and prohibiting transgender kids from playing sports at school.

 

In October 2021, supporters and critics of the library gathered at a board meeting to voice their concerns.

 

The critics alleged that the library was providing sexually explicit and abusive material to minors. One woman said during public comment that her personal survey of the teen section indicated that 60% of the books were “witchcraft,” while another said that the library had become an “indoctrination center.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

2 hours ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

 

This is a re-hash.  He introduced this "legislation" in February.  And it's likely to go nowhere:

 

A GOP lawmaker wrote a one-sentence bill to abolish the Department of Education. His reasoning doesn't address student loans, grants, or any of the major things the department does.

 

It'll probably take more than one sentence to get rid of a federal agency — but one Republican lawmaker is trying that route anyway.

 

Last week, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie introduced a bill to abolish the Education Department, and it's a short, one-sentence read: "The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2023."

 

When Insider asked Massie how abolishing the department would impact programs and laws that specifically rely on the department, he said that "unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children's intellectual and moral development."

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Fact Check Team: How hard would it be to dissolve the Department of Education?

 

Abolishing the Department of Education is not a new idea. In fact, it dates back to 1981 — just one year after it started operating.

 

Then-President Ronald Reagan proposed dismantling it and assigning some of its activities to other agencies. He said it would shrink the federal budget and that education is the responsibility of local school systems, teachers, parents, citizen boards and state governments.

 

“By eliminating the Department of Education less than two years after it was created,” Reagan said. "We cannot only reduce the budget but ensure that local needs and preferences, rather than the wishes of Washington, determine the education of our children.”

 

Federal money is funneled through the Education Department for public school grants, student loans and Pell grants for low-income students. For fiscal year 2023, over $94 billion is available to the agency. Therefore, if it were abolished, that funding would go with it or it would need to be funneled through a different agency.

 

Abolishing a government agency is not an easy task.

 

Former President Ronald Reagan once said “a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth” because both the House of Representatives and the Senate must agree to abolish an agency. There is currently a Republican majority in the House and a Democrat majority in the Senate, so it is unlikely this would happen.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

On 8/8/2023 at 3:28 PM, China said:

Oklahoma Schools Boss Reaches Screwball Territory With China Conspiracy Theory

 

A Chinese-made Graco car seat is visible behind Oklahoma Superintendent for Public Instruction Ryan Walters as he sits in his vehicle, going full-out nuts in a video he would then post on X (formerly Twitter.)

 

“Good afternoon, Oklahomans, I’ve been looking more and more into what’s going on at Tulsa Public Schools, and it’s just been unbelievable to find out that they’re one of the only schools in the country taking money from the Chinese government,” he says in the Aug. 3 post first reported by Tulsa World and the Oklahoman.

 

Walters looks and sounds like a right-wing zealot as he alleges that the Tulsa Public Schools is accepting money intended to sabotage America.

 

“You have communist China that is giving money to Tulsa public schools in order to try to undermine our United States government, our country,” Walters continues. “It’s unbelievable.”

 

One reason it may be unbelievable is the fact that it does not appear to be true. The Tulsa Public Schools did have one high school teacher, Lin Tao, of Booker T. Washington High School, attend a professional development program at the International Leadership of Texas. The Texas entity partners with Confucius Classroom, which is linked to the Chinese Ministry of Education. But Tulsa Public Schools pays Tao’s salary. Not so much as a yuan comes from China.

 

“Tulsa Public Schools does not receive money from the Chinese government, as Oklahoma State Superintendent Walters has alleged without evidence,” the Tulsa Public Schools said in a statement to The Daily Beast on Monday.

 

When reached by the Daily Beast, Lin Tao sounded a lot less like somebody who is party to undermining America than a teacher who is what every kid in America should have.

“All I want to do is give the best to my students,” she said.

 

Tao sounded wary and ended the interview after that. She had good reason to be careful. Back in August of 2022, Walters called for a Norman high school English teacher named Summer Boismier to lose her teaching license for providing students with a QR code that linked to banned books via the Brooklyn Public Library. The teacher had already resigned, saying she did not think she could accommodate Oklahoma's new anti-woke edicts.

 

And in recent days, Walters has been talking about stripping the entire Tulsa School system of its accreditation, at least ostensibly due to poor academic performance, but also because it perpetuates “radical left ideology.”

 

Click on the link for the rest

 

How Oklahoma’s schools superintendent became the state’s top culture warrior

 

Since Ryan Walters was sworn in as Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction in January, he’s called for prayer in public schools and hanging the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

 

He’s adopted regulations prohibiting school libraries from circulating books with “sexualized content” and requiring educators to tell parents if their child changes their gender identity.  

And now Walters is threatening a state takeover of Tulsa Public Schools, Oklahoma’s largest district — leading Tulsa's superintendent to announce plans to resign Tuesday ahead of a key state Board of Education meeting on Thursday. 

 

In his first seven months on the job, Walters has made a significant mark on the Oklahoma education system and thrust a typically low-profile office into the center of political firestorms. He has drawn support from conservative activist groups such as the 1776 Project PAC, Americans for Prosperity and Moms for Liberty, which pledged last month to back like-minded state superintendents nationally. Walters’ work in Oklahoma offers a preview of the policies and tactics that could continue spreading to other states with conservative education leaders.

 

“This is a war for the souls of our kids,” Walters declared shortly after his election last year at a banquet for City Elders, a national group that advocates for Christian-based government. He went on to claim that liberals are trying to make children hate their parents and the country. “I will do all I can to fight to get that nonsense out of schools and to put God back in schools,” he said.

 

Walters, 38, ran for office as a Republican focusing on culture war issues like books with sexually explicit passages and school policies supporting LGBTQ students, which have become dominant conflicts in public education. He promised to protect “parents’ rights.” 

 

At Moms for Liberty’s national summit this summer, Walters and three other Republican state education leaders pitched their offices as the ones to “finish the job” after conservative activists elect new school board members and GOP lawmakers pass bills to limit how race and LGBTQ issues are discussed in class. Throughout this year, state education leaders have been at the center of these conflicts.

 

That represents a shift for state superintendents, away from a relatively quiet role focused on complying with regulations and facilitating school funding, said Josh Cowen, a Michigan State University education policy professor.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Florida's New Anti-Trans Rule Threatens Jobs of College Faculty For Bathroom Use

 

Staff and faculty at Florida colleges can now be fired if they dare use the wrong bathroom even once. Two offenses will guarantee termination under a newly approved state regulation.

The Florida Board of Education on Wednesday approved new rules strictly enforcing a new law segregating public restroom facilities by gender. Under the new regulation, that restriction will apply even in college dormitories.

 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bathroom bill impacting all publicly owned bathroom facilities, one of several anti-LGBTQ+ laws enacted in the state this year. The bathroom law requires any publicly-owned facilities to restrict bathroom used based on gender assigned at birth.

 

But Carlos Guillermo Smith, outreach coordinator for Equality Florida, said the new rule impacting state colleges extends well past the requirements of the law.

 

“It mandates taxpayer-funded investigations into restroom usage in the Florida College system,” Smith said. “That was not in the original bill. It also expands the bill to include college dormitories, not in the original bill. It also requires that staff be fired on a second offense for using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.”

 

The new rule makes clear that if college officials deem it appropriate, a faculty or staff member could be fired on the first offense for peeing in the wrong room.

 

University advocates suggested the legislation could conflict with other protections such as tenure. It could also threaten accreditation for all of Florida’s colleges.

 

“You continue to come after your most marginalized Floridians, but we’re not going to keep taking it,” said Kate Danehy-Samitz, founder of Women’s Voices of SW Florida.

Ben Gibson, chair of the Florida Board of Education, said the rule-making board had little choice in adopting regulations.

 

“The state board is required to required by law to pass this rule and to provide for the requirements,” he said.

 

Kathy Hebda, chancellor of the Division of Florida Colleges, focused on requirements for any public facilities to have restrooms and changing clearly segregated for males and females. Any buildings built or bought since July 1 must prove they are in compliance with that new rule within a year. She also said the state’s college system must develop some type of regulatory enforcement of the law.

 

“The statute requires that Florida College System institution boards of trustees have to update their disciplinary procedures based on and they are subject to disciplinary actions established in State Board of Education rule,” she said.

 

The Florida board also imposed restrictions on bathrooms and locker rooms for all K-12 public schools in the state. Equality Florida also pointed to vague rules about punishing educators for “gross immorality” or “moral turpitude,” regardless of whether an individual has been charged with a crime.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

‘Not a Fundamental Right’: Maryland Court Strikes Down Parents’ Request to Opt Kids Out of LGBT Curriculum

 

A Maryland district court denied parents’ appeal to reinstate an opt-out policy in Montgomery County Public Schools on Thursday.

 

The case, Tamer Mahmoud v. Monica B. McKnight, hinged on whether the district’s May decision to rescind its opt-out policy for LGBT curricula violated parents’ right to direct the religious instruction of their children.

The court concluded that, “the plaintiffs’ asserted due process right to direct their children’s upbringing by opting out of a public-school curriculum that conflicts with their religious views is not a fundamental right.”

 

Parents sought a preliminary injunction that would authorize opt-out options once school begins on August 28, which judge Deborah Boardman also denied:

 

“Because the plaintiffs have not established any of their claims is likely to succeed on the merits, the Court need not address the remaining preliminary injunction factors. Nonetheless, because a constitutional violation is not likely or imminent, it follows that the plaintiffs are not likely to suffer imminent irreparable harm, and the balance of the equities and the public interest favor denying an injunction to avoid undermining the School Board’s legitimate interests in the no-opt-out policy . . . The plaintiffs seek the same relief pending appeal as in their preliminary injunction motion: an injunction that requires the Board to provide advance notice and opt-outs from instruction involving the storybooks and family life and human sexuality. For the reasons stated in this opinion, the Court cannot conclude the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of an appeal. The plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction pending appeal is denied.”

 

Parents could opt their children out of gender and sexuality lessons until March, when the district banned the option. With Becket Law, religious families filed a lawsuit against the district in May, claiming the policy violates their First Amendment right to guide the religious instruction of their children.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

Blue states are now Real America. No one in a blue state needs a permission slip to go by Joe.

 

[EmirOfShmo]

10 minutes ago, Cooked Crack said:

Blue states are now Real America. No one in a blue state needs a permission slip to go by Joe.

 

 

If I'm Joseph's parent I'm submitting a list of like 10,000 names he can be called...to be updated weekly as I create a more comprehensive list. 

[China]

8 minutes ago, EmirOfShmo said:

 

If I'm Joseph's parent I'm submitting a list of like 10,000 names he can be called...to be updated weekly as I create a more comprehensive list. 

 

 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

24 minutes ago, EmirOfShmo said:

 

If I'm Joseph's parent I'm submitting a list of like 10,000 names he can be called...to be updated weekly as I create a more comprehensive list. 

 

And get like 1,000 parents to submit lists just as long for all their kids, too...deluge the school with a warehouse worth of permissible names that their kids can be called.

[GhostofSparta]

3 hours ago, EmirOfShmo said:

 

If I'm Joseph's parent I'm submitting a list of like 10,000 names he can be called...to be updated weekly as I create a more comprehensive list. 

 

3 hours ago, Califan007 The Constipated said:

 

And get like 1,000 parents to submit lists just as long for all their kids, too...deluge the school with a warehouse worth of permissible names that their kids can be called.

All part of the plan. Overwhelm the people who work in the schools and drive them to quit while the lawmakers get to laugh scot-free. The smart play would be to play this game with the lawmakers. Start calling, mailing, emailing them every day with the list of 1000 nicknames allowed for your child. Sure, they won't care enough to fix the "problem" they made intentionally, but at least if they can be inconvenienced and annoyed by this it's irritating the people who deserve it, instead of the people trying to follow the stupid law so they don't get fired/arrested.

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Captain Wiggles]

Quote

 “You will stop pushing this woke ideology or we will bomb every school in the union district.” 

 

Just more good conservatives doing good things I see. 🤪

[GhostofSparta]

29 minutes ago, Captain Wiggles said:

 

Just more good conservatives doing good things I see. 🤪

[Califan007 The Constipated]

2 hours ago, GhostofSparta said:

 

All part of the plan. Overwhelm the people who work in the schools and drive them to quit while the lawmakers get to laugh scot-free. The smart play would be to play this game with the lawmakers. Start calling, mailing, emailing them every day with the list of 1000 nicknames allowed for your child. Sure, they won't care enough to fix the "problem" they made intentionally, but at least if they can be inconvenienced and annoyed by this it's irritating the people who deserve it, instead of the people trying to follow the stupid law so they don't get fired/arrested.

 

In reality, the teachers and school officials would just ignore the law in that situation...because the real work would be in trying to verify that the kids can be called by whatever nickname they're being called by. Which would render the law useless...which would be a very good thing. They'll do that before they quit.

Edited August 30, 2023 by Califan007 The Constipated

[Cooked Crack]

 

Quote

The principal of a Georgia elementary school apologized to parents last week after a guest author who was discussing his research into a co-creator of Batman told a group of fifth graders that the co-creator’s son was gay. 

 

The author, Marc Tyler Nobleman, said the principals of two other elementary schools in the district where he was speaking had asked him to stick to “appropriate” material and omit that detail of his research. When he refused, his remaining presentations were canceled.

 

[Larry]

.... which we also want to ban teachers from telling kids about the existence of. 
 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[The Sisko]

 

On 8/18/2023 at 10:17 AM, The Evil Genius said:

 

It's Georgia. 

Those are AP students here.

 

On 8/18/2023 at 2:00 PM, The Evil Genius said:

 

My Masters program (Public Administration) there was recommended for termination as well. WVU is going through a huge financial reorganization but I don't like how bad it's going to be on the existing students. I also don't think some of the recommendations are forward thinking and was surprised to learn that Gordon Gee was extended.

A fellow MPA’er! Good deal. 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[China]

The California Megachurch Pushing Public Schools to the Far Right

 

Outside the California State Capitol last month, a fitness trainer turned school board president fired up the crowd at a parental rights rally, telling them they were all fighters in “a spiritual battle” for their kids and must answer the call from God.

 

Sonja Shaw, who was elected to the Chino Valley Unified School District board of education last November with an assist from a local megachurch and its Christian nationalist pastor, didn’t equivocate in naming the enemy: state Democratic officials who are challenging her right-leaning policies—and drafting laws that hinder book bans and protect teachers from harassment.

 

“Today we stand here and declare in his almighty name that it’s only a matter of time before we take your seats and we be a God-fearing example to the nation, how God is using California to lead the way,” Shaw crowed, adding, “We already know who has won this battle. You will be removed in Jesus’s name! You, Satan, are losing.”

 

Now Shaw is in the national spotlight in wake of her Chino school board passing codes that ban pride flags in classrooms and force educators to inform parents if their children identify as transgender—the first such policy to be passed in the state.

 

This summer, Shaw’s school board meetings, about 35 miles east of Los Angeles, became chaotic spectacles, ones that attracted the Proud Boys and other right-wing extremists and pitted them against students and parents protesting what they’re calling anti-LGBTQ practices that endanger children. When California superintendent of schools Tony Thurmond appeared at the July meeting in opposition, Shaw unceremoniously silenced him.

 

Weeks after state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a civil rights probe into Shaw’s “gender disclosure” policy, his office sued the school board. Bonta said the policy violates the California constitution and state law, and would cause LGBTQ+ students, “mental, emotional, psychological and potential physical harm,” according to a press release.

 

Other right-leaning school boards across the state have followed Chino Valley Unified’s lead. Shortly before filing suit against the Chino board, Bonta issued statements denouncing the Anderson Union High School District, Temecula Valley Unified and Murrieta Valley Unified school boards’ decisions to pursue “copycat” anti-trans policies.

 

“These students are currently under threat of being outed to their parents against their will, and many fear that the District’s policy will force them to make a choice: either ‘walk back’ their constitutionally and statutorily protected rights to gender identity and gender expression, or face the risk of emotional, physical, and psychological harm,” Bonta said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Leopards ate the face of this conservative Idaho community

 

West Bonner County, Idaho, like most of the state, is Trump country. The four-time indicted former president won 73% of the vote in the county in 2020. And, following their MAGA instincts, county voters swept in a radical right-wing school board in the November 2021 elections. 

 

After seeing those two board members work diligently to destroy their schools, county voters overwhelmingly recalled them last Tuesday. 

 

The big 60% recall vote underscored the depth of disgust this conservative community felt for electing candidates who delivered exactly what they promised to do. And yet weirdly, they didn’t like conservative governance when it affected them directly!  

 

Defending themselves in the voter guide, recalled Board Chair Keith Rutledge wrote: 

 

Quote

Your vote today will determine the future of our district. Voting AGAINST my recall will keep a conservative majority on the school board that is working hard to improve the outcomes for our district’s children. Voting for my recall will hand control of our district back over to the very same people that are responsible for 60% reading competency rates and call that ‘a success.’

 

Rutledge’s defense was OH NO THE LIBERALS. Vice Chair Susan Brown, also recalled, was even more unhinged in her voter statement: 

 

Quote

If you want a board member who will fight for financial transparency, work to keep our schools free of woke agendas, and demand educational outcomes better than 60% competency for our children, vote AGAINST the recall.

 

WOKE WOKE WOKE. 

 

Man, no one is buying that “woke” crap anymore, are they? 

 

Their campaign website declared, “Keep the board CONSERVATIVE Vote AGAINST the leftist-backed recall.” No one bought that either. 

 

So what did these two school board members do to merit the wrath of their conservative community? 

 

For one thing, they lobbied for the defeat of a supplement school funding levy. Voters rejected the measure, which cost the district $4.7 million—a third of their budget. No organization can survive that kind of financial hit without serious consequences. As the recall organizers argued, “Rutledge and Brown failed to uphold their oaths of office to improve public schools, don’t respect their constituents or fellow board members and have shown a lack of concern for student education.” You don’t improve anything by decimating its budget. 

 

In addition, they hired a school superintendent, Branden Durst, who had zero experience as either a teacher or school administrator. But, he had plenty of experience as a culture war warrior at the Idaho Freedom Foundation, which is just as awful as you think it is. The top Education headlines on their website hyperventilate about Boise schools “affirm[ing] new sexual identities of ‘gender queer,’ ‘pansexual,’ and ‘nonbinary,’” cry about “woke pre-K and child care providers,” focus on bathroom policy nonsense, and pine for Florida-style education reforms that are gutting that state’s supply of teachers. 

 

Click on the link for more