Legislators also passed another bill to allow teachers to refrain from using a student's preferred pronoun. Bill Lee announced a plan to open charter schools across the state in partnership with Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian college in Michigan with ties to former President Donald Trump's administration. Meanwhile, a state bill requiring Tennessee public schools to publish lists of the materials in their collections and to periodically review the materials for "age-appropriateness" was just passed by the Republican majority, among the most recent examples of how local and state debate over public education has become hotter and more political.Įarlier this year Tennessee Gov. Republican lawmakers in Georgia passed a bill to increase parental oversight of schools and another which bans teaching "divisive concepts" on race. This January alone, more than 70 such bills were introduced or prefiled across the country.
FREE GRAPHIC DOWNLOADS BLACK SCHOOL TEACHER FREE
Thirty-five states have introduced 137 bills limiting what schools can teach about race, American history, politics, sexual orientation and gender identity since the beginning of 2021, according to research by PEN America, a writers organization dedicated to free speech. In January, the McMinn County school board drew international attention when it voted to remove "Maus," a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, from its middle school curriculum.Īcross the country, there has been growing scrutiny over school curriculum. "Most local parents and community members do not agree with the hateful rhetoric that singles out books authored by or highlighting the lived experiences of people of color as well as LGBTQIA+ folks." "There has been a nationwide attack on literary freedom, librarians and educators by radical organizations and politicians, and one simply has to observe recent school board meetings to see that Chattanooga and Hamilton County are no exception," a news release for the group's March rally stated. On the other side of the political spectrum, Moms for Social Justice - a local group of progressive parents - have opposed censorship efforts, saying they trust teachers and students. You have seen us in different roles before, but now we are getting engaged on this level that we have never been engaged before."Ī special book review committee - formed last fall after the Hamilton County school board began facing pressure from Chattanooga Moms for Liberty - made recommendations which included disgust over "gross explicit sexual content" and concern the school district's library handbook was a "liberal tool," as well as approval for current policies. "We realized we don't like the decisions that are being made for our children.
"We have been room parents, team moms and dads, PTA moms and dads," Howard said in the interview. Nationally, the group was launched early last year by a conservative Florida mom to advocate for and unite parents wanting to resist mask mandates and vet curriculum. Howard helped start Chattanooga's Moms for Liberty chapter. In Hamilton County, primary elections on Tuesday set up partisan face-offs for six school board seats in the Aug. Howard and other parents mobilized during the pandemic around issues such as curriculum, library content, masks in schools and more - resulting in legislative changes such as the introduction of partisan politics to local school boards in Tennessee. "I started listening to what was being taught in those classes, and it wasn't good."
"I was in the kitchen doing my dishes, and I was listening to my daughter doing her virtual class, and I heard something and I said, 'What did she just say?'" Howard told a fellow local conservative in a YouTube interview last year. Then schools went online, where parents could hear day-to-day classroom teaching. Howard didn't know much about school board candidates and often skipped their boxes on the ballot at voting time before COVID-19. Parents' relationship to public education has changed since the pandemic, argues Brandy Howard, an Ooltewah parent of two who has worked for almost a year to engage more parents in the now rowdy politics of public schooling.
0 kommentar(er)
