The culture wars nesting in public education are not a new phenomenon, but they have been reinvigorated with the latest battles against “critical race theory.â€
Mind you, critical race theory is an academic framework that is nonexistent in West Virginia K-12 education and, to my knowledge, not even explored in collegiate curricula in the state, outside of some elective courses. But the authoritarian right smells political opportunity and is diligently following the scent.
As is most often the case with the culture wars, this is not a spontaneous, grassroots movement for something like “parental rights†or a valiant attempt to shield youth from unnecessary divisiveness; it’s a well-funded and well-coordinated attack on public education and on this country’s ability to fully reckon with its past to truly become a more perfect union. There are those behind the scenes with financial and ideological motives for spurring this fight and they know who and how to exploit to move their agenda.
Who benefits? Those invested in charter schools, private and religious schools and home schooling. According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, enrollment at charters (which are privately run but publicly funded) has increased by 7% across the country, or 240,000 students, as public school enrollment declines. Private schools have seen a net growth of 1.7% over the last two years, according to the National Association of Independent Schools, while U.S. Census Bureau data shows that home schooling has nearly tripled since 2019, with more than one out of every 12 students in the U.S. now being home-schooled.
Kevin G. Welner, director of the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado, recently told The Washington Post, “I wish that organizations supporting public education had the level of funding and coordination that I’ve seen in these groups dedicated to its privatization.â€
Public schools are suffering enough trying to get through a global pandemic with similarly motived, right-wing backlash to common sense public health policy like mask mandates, but the right can’t help but pile on. Senate Bill 498, introduced by Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, and sitting in the State Senate Education Committee, which seeks to eliminate the teaching of “prohibited concepts,†is just the latest shot over the bow of honest, accurate and complete education.
In Wood County, where I live, local public schools have been closed and students consolidated into others because of population loss. We face teacher and substitute shortages across the state, thanks in large part to teaching positions being underpaid. Teachers and school service personnel had to go on strike twice in two years just to get average 5% pay increases, and they still don’t have answers for rising health care and retirement costs.
An Economic Policy Institute analysis of 2014-2019 Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group data found that West Virginia teachers make 18.2% less than other comparable college-educated workers. Our public school educators don’t need this politically-driven curriculum policing.
If you’re a parent of school-aged children, like me, I strongly encourage you to actually read, as you have time and ability, what you’re being told your children should not be subjected to.
Over the course of these past couple of pandemic years, I’ve done a lot of reading, and I’d like to share with you some important selections.
My recommendations are:
- “Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019,†edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain.
- “A True History of the United States: Indigenous Genocide, Racialized Slavery, Hyper-Capitalism, Militarist Imperialism, and Other Overlooked Aspects of American Exceptionalism,†by Daniel A. Sjursen.
- “Between the World And Me,†by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
- “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,†by Heather McGhee.
- “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story,†by Nikole Hannah-Jones and the New York Times Magazine.
- “A Black Women’s History of the United States,†by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross.
- “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States,†by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.
Don’t be taken advantage of. Don’t be myopic. Education is about the expansion of a person’s mind and skills base and lived experiences; it’s about the sharing and comparing of ideas and wisdom and collectively finding understanding and truth, as elusive as truth can be. Our children and the teachers, administrators and other faculty we entrust them to for so much of their lives deserve better than this latest puritanical assault being stoked in an election year.
