Assault on education

[China]

Former Far-Right Hard-Liner Says Billionaires Are Using School Board Races to Sow Distrust in Public Education

 

When Courtney Gore ran for a seat on her local school board in 2021, she warned about a movement to indoctrinate children with “leftist” ideology. After 2 1/2 years on the board, Gore said she believes a much different scheme is unfolding: an effort by wealthy conservative donors to undermine public education in Texas and install a voucher system in which public money flows to private and religious schools.

 

Gore points to West Texas billionaires Tim Dunn and brothers Farris and Dan Wilks, who have contributed to various political action committees that have poured millions into legislative candidates who have promoted vouchers. The men also fund or serve on the boards of a host of public policy and advocacy organizations that have led the fight for vouchers in Texas.

 

In recent years, the largesse from Dunn and the Wilks brothers has reached local communities across Texas, including Granbury, near Fort Worth, where fights over library books, curriculum and vouchers have dominated the community conversation.

 

Gore said that she believes school board candidates are being recruited, at times without their full knowledge, in an effort “to cause as much disruption and chaos as possible” and weaken community faith in local school districts.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[The Evil Genius]

 

[Cooked Crack]

Quote

In what has become an unfortunate and increasing reality in America, a public library in Idaho will be restricting their entire facility to those 18 and older beginning July 1, 2024. Donnelly Public Library is unable to comply with the state's newly-passed House Bill 710 (HB 710) due to the tiny size of their facility, their small budget, and their lack of an attorney on retainer to handle potential litigation. 

 

HB 710 allows parents or guardians to lodge complaints against materials they deem inappropriate for minors. Once a complaint has been filed, public and school libraries have a total of 60 days to relocate the material to a section that is only accessible to adults. If they do not comply, those parents or guardians can receive $250 in statutory damages, alongside other financial relief for damages. 

 

Donnelly Public Library made a statement on their Facebook page last week that the ambiguity of the bill, coupled with the fact their entire library is a mere 1024 square feet, makes implementing the law impossible. They would be unable to relocate any books deemed "inappropriate" to a section inaccessible to minors. While the library is divided into sections for children, young adults, nonfiction, and adult fiction, the space is small enough that books in the adult section can be touched when looking at books in the designated children's section. The library already has an occupation limit of 16 and utilizes two tipis on the property to make their programming reach larger.  The only solution to save the library is to make it adults only beginning July 1. Every patron of the library will be required to sign a new agreement to use the facility.

https://literaryactivism.substack.com/p/an-idaho-public-library-will-become?publication_id=1735219&post_id=144806518&isFreemail=true&r=s9ot&triedRedirect=true

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

The kids at my school with MAGA parents absolutely do not care and do not think they have to listen to teachers at all. Fortunately yesterday I had to yell at one of them to stop as his ball rolled onto a busy parkway.

[Simmsy]

1 hour ago, Sacks 'n' Stuff said:

The kids at my school with MAGA parents absolutely do not care and do not think they have to listen to teachers at all. Fortunately yesterday I had to yell at one of them to stop as his ball rolled onto a busy parkway.

 

Funny, when it comes to bad children, all the maga chuds talk a big game on discipline and spanking. However, actually holding people accountable is a different beast, I guess.

[ixcuincle]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7X4E1eRlAk/?igsh=MTNmM2lqY3NiY21oZg==

 

 

[youngestson]

12 hours ago, Simmsy said:

 

Funny, when it comes to bad children, all the maga chuds talk a big game on discipline and spanking. However, actually holding people accountable is a different beast, I guess.

When the moms call themselves "Momma Bears" I know why the kid is a donkey.

[China]

How Did Moms for Liberty End up on Washington State’s Approved List of Groups Training Teachers?

 

By law, Washington teachers must complete 100 hours of professional development every five years to keep their licenses.

 

But there are nearly no state rules for who offers these continuing education credits, known as  “clock hours.” And there are few enforcement tools to guide what content they cover. In just a few simple steps, just about any group can register with the state online to be a clock hour provider.

 

In fact, Moms For Liberty—a conservative group against teaching about race and gender in schools and labeled far-right extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center—is on Washington’s official list of approved providers for this school year. That’s despite the state’s commitment to ensuring clock hours align with diversity, equity and inclusion standards. 

 

No teachers have reported clock hours from Moms for Liberty to the state, and Ann Streit, chair of the group’s King County chapter, says the organization doesn’t yet have a curriculum in place should a teacher choose to get clock hours from the group.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[The Sisko]

We went to our god-daughter’s graduation in FL last weekend. She was home schooled so she was attending with other home schoolers at an event put on by the FL home school association, or whatever it’s called.

 

It was a somewhat surreal experience. First came the speech from their commencement speaker. Usually, commencement speeches are a bit corny, yet uplifting. However, this woman droned on and on about staying on the Lord’s path their parents have forced them into, ‘er laid out and being good automatons for whatever 9-to-5 drudgery most of them are in for. She was a black woman and was conspicuously distinct in her diction. Mind you, I generally don’t speak black English myself, though I don't have any issues with it. However, her repeated use of the word “aTTiTude” (emphasis on the distinct t’s) was more than a little annoying. Her whole schtick smacked of the respectability politics crowd. To top it all off, she had to include a few de rigueur statements about how kids shouldn’t make a big deal out of racism which only makes one a victim. Instead, they were exhorted to just rise above it using prayer, hard work to prove themselves, and of course all the while maintaining the proper aTTiTude. Ugh.

 

There were only about 350 grads, so they were able to do a brief blurb written by or about each of them. The vast majority were various religious statements. Most were going to FL’s equivalent of community colleges or trade schools with just a smattering of USF’s, FL State, U of F’s and the like. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that. I went to PG Community College for RT school myself. However, the fact that many were aspiring nail techs, cosmetologists, instead of career track education they could get at these schools sure seemed to paint a somewhat bleak picture of what life has in store for these kids, to me and Mrs. Sisko anyway. Even worse, they're also likely to be the types that will fall for the convicted felon's and the Republiklans' song and dance.
 

Edited June 2 by The Sisko

[Jabbyrwock]

4 hours ago, The Sisko said:

Most were going to FL’s equivalent of community colleges or trade schools with just a smattering of USF’s, FL State, U of F’s and the like. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that.

 

It was similar out here...even a lot of the really bright kids.  After a bit of investigation, some of the phenomenon came down to they didn't get a full scholarship to dream school X,Y or Z, and even half tuition was stupid over priced, so why not go to CC on the cheap for the first two years and transfer.  Basically same classes, and save on two years of cost.  Maybe get straight A's and better support next go around when they transfer.

[The Evil Genius]

Personally I think there is a lot to be missed when kids skip over freshmen year of dorm life. Especially for what appears to be extremely sheltered home school kids. 

 

I get the finances of it though. 

Edited June 2 by The Evil Genius

[The Evil Genius]

 

I'm sure it's only for nice Christian patriots.

[Fergasun]

@The Sisko

@The Evil Genius

@Jabbyrwock

 

Our family just ended our homeschool journey/experience (I always refer to us as accidental homeschool parents).  Son graduated last year and daughter needs to be out of the house (she went to private school one year).  Maybe I should start an AMA thread about homeschooling.  

 

Re:  College Choices of homeschool kids

My son was in a class of 25 and University of Arizona (his school) was probably the most widely known -- at least to the average person. When he told people in his school he was going to Arizona, they were all like "Oh... Grand Canyon?" and barely any of them knew about UofA being in Tucson. Really people?  GCU is like the west coast Liberty.  My wife and I are not that conservative socially.  The school fined our daughter for dress code violation at this years graduation (her skirt was right at her knee..

 

Re:  Awkward homescoolers

His class had a very diverse group of graduates.  I know one specific was/is model and her family runs a clothing line -- parents were also models.  Another blew up as a singer on TikTok.  It's also true that a lot of his cohorts didn't really have an idea of what they wanted to do in life.  But there was very much an idea of "You're an adult" among them.  Wife and I are shocked at the maturity level and none of the kids we knew were awkward. In fact, it was more the opposite because the kids are treated more as adults and have more interaction with adults (other homeschool parents).

 

Socialization for the kids were sports (volleyball and basketball), mock trial (his school won that competition multiple time in California), robotics, service club as the main ones.  If a parent wanted to support a club they would start it -- our daughter did a Future City (public planning) competition one year.  I know the family that sponsored it did it for the extra curricular on college app.  But it didn't make it bogus.  Their daughter is going to Cal Berkeley.  

 

I have many thoughts on the public secondary education system and how it trains our kids to think certain ways. But I would be dumb to think that my wife and I had the resources and ability to pull them (him) out and ability to think smart about his curriculum. Many families who can't.  

 

I very much agree with the "everyone should experience freshman dorm life" theory.  

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[The Evil Genius]

Yeah why would a state that is over 25% African American want to learn about their history anyways? 

 

GOP snowflakes.