“Time and time again, I think you’ve seen ideology placed over data and evidence… They will constantly try to shift because they will never admit that their ideology was incorrect…. That’s very, very dangerous. And that’s a problem with our society that we’re grappling with in ‘woke corporations,’ classrooms, and other politically charged venues… What I’ve said is that the state of Florida is the place where woke goes to die. We’re not going to let this state descend into some kind of woke Dumpster fire.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis presenting a new set of school “guidelines” on August 17th in implementation of the recently passed Individual Freedom Act.
“We have so many students who are going on to college academically malnourished… There is no way they are going to be academically prepared for the rigor of college.” Allison Wagner, head of a Milwaukee college scholarship program.
“I feel like I didn’t really learn anything.”
A recent high school grad on her COVID-driven virtual classes
With approximately 13,000 public school districts in the United States, according to the US Census Bureau, we spend only 60% of the aggregate school budgets on day-to-day classroom support. Not only does this mass of little bureaucracies suck money from genuine classroom instruction, but a dramatically large number of such school districts are more consumed with political, religious and social issues than in the quality of the level of education furnished to their students. Teachers are routinely underpaid, placed into political pressure cookers in overcrowded classrooms, often lacking modern computers and the latest drafts of mandatory textbooks.
To compound the educational quagmire, textbook publishers tend to follow the requirements of larger school districts when it comes to academic restrictions in order to simplify and standardize their major publications. Hence, textbooks are driven by states like California, New York, Texas and Florida… with the lowest common denominator of “acceptable material” becoming the national standard.
The pandemic has also taken a major toll on students, deprived of classroom experience and relegated to virtual schooling, a system that works for some but is frustrating, isolating and ineffective for many others. As many recent high school graduates are learning, what passed for 11th and 12th grade education, particularly with generous grading, has left them short of required basics. As the bottom two quotes above illustrate, “Hundreds of thousands of recent graduates are heading to college this fall after spending more than half their high school careers dealing with the upheaval of a pandemic. They endured a jarring transition to online learning, the strains from teacher shortages and profound disruptions to their home lives. And many are believed to be significantly behind academically.
“Colleges could see a surge in students unprepared for the demands of college-level work, education experts say. Starting a step behind can raise the risk of dropping out. And that can hurt everything from a person’s long-term earnings to the health of the country’s workforce.” Associated Press, August 12th. The notion of catch-up puts a strain on so many students, frustrated and anxious enough with the explosive complexities they never faced before. Is there a solution?
“Researchers say it’s clear that remote instruction caused learning setbacks, most sharply among Black and Latino students. For younger students, there’s still hope that America’s schools can accelerate the pace of instruction and close learning gaps. But for those who graduated in the last two years, experts fear many will struggle.
“In anticipation of higher needs, colleges from New Jersey to California have been expanding ‘bridge’ programs that provide summer classes, often for students from lower incomes or those who are the first in their families to attend college. Programs previously treated as orientation are taking on a harder academic edge, with a focus on math, science and study skills.” AP
But instead of facing these pragmatic realities, particularly given that nationally, there is a shortage of at least 300,000 teachers in our nation’s public schools, there is a rising red state priority to emphasize a non-existent “problem” that is best expressed as “culture wars,” a new cause célèbre within the Republican Party. The battlelines against teaching subjects, like slavery and racial strife, are led by two GOP governors with obvious presidential aspirations: frontrunner, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis against distant second place culture warrior, Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Florida, which boasts the fourth worst paid teachers (in a state that is not exactly inexpensive to live in) in the country, has moved its focus to promulgate right-wing White evangelical values, rather openly, through a series of statutes. The most recent contribution, beyond the earlier “don’t say gay” legislation was signed into law by DeSantis on April 22nd, which goes into full swing in the current school year. It’s misleadingly labeled the Individual Freedom Act (H.B. 7), also known as the Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (W.O.K.E.) Act, which prohibits schools and businesses from presenting or teaching the idea that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.” It was passed along party lines. Yet, DeSantis is quite willing to allow a cadre of “temporary” teachers, many without undergraduate degrees, to teach in Florida public schools.
On August 17th, announcing a new set of public-school educational guidelines based on the above statute, DeSantis made the above statement. Those guidelines are being offered to be taught virtually or in person to teachers, who receive $700 for the effort. These new rules, thinly disguised White Christian Nationalist goals, explain that the Constitution must be interpreted in accordance with the intention of the Founding Fathers (applying 18th century expectations in a world of muskets, flintlocks, horse power and a society that was 94% agricultural), unaffected by modernity. “Originalism,” a right-wing legal precept that is hardly the way most constitutional scholars interpret that document.
The guidelines also say that slavery was a reluctant and temporary practice, opposed by the leaders who themselves owned slaves, and the kind of separation of church and state that is our new normal was never intended. DeSantis knew that this law and his guidelines would not pass judicial muster… at least at the trial court level. But with the new right-wing Supreme Court reversing serious civil and personal rights legislation, he sees hope.
On August 19th, in his 44-page decision, US District Judge Mark Walker ruled that the Republican-backed Individual Freedom Act is unconstitutional, writing that it ‘discriminates on the basis of viewpoint in violation of the First Amendment and is impermissibly vague in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.’ As we watch our high schools fail to prepare an increasing number of students for more complex subject areas, manufacturing issues that are actually detrimental to producing and effective and educated workforce, the rest of the world is smiling. We do not produce enough STEM college graduates remotely to fill the jobs that need to be done. Instead, the United States is simply stepping aside, deprioritizing a competitive education in our public schools, to let nations that have upped their commitment to real learning pass us by.
I’m Peter Dekom, and I wonder if those states emphasizing culture wars over academics understand what a huge competitive advantage they are ceding to the rest of the developed world.
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