Verbatim: Common ground, choice, and prosocial policies

Just a few odds and ends at the end of the week

I haven’t been writing as much. I’m thinking things and rethinking things and deciding what is the most productive use of my voice during a time when it seems the real issues of education - teaching, and learning - are an afterthought.

And, for those who believe education is an essential contributor to a healthy democracy, this is a tough time to be positive.

I’ll be back with more to say soon. Here are a few odds and ends to end the week.

WHAT CHOICE?: My views on school "choice" have changed. Sure, it's a basic right for everyone to decide what they learn, how and where they learn it, and who's teaching them. But, I no longer think school choice alone does the job. I watch my old friends in the "choice" game have a wargasm about vouchers and education savings accounts making it into law across several states, but I'm noting other laws their choice champions are signing. The same folks constantly talking about "freedom" are the same ones that limit my kids' reading and learning.

A perfect example is Florida. It has the most school choice in the U.S., but it's also passing tricky laws that censor education and stir up race issues. You can pick your school, but there are hefty limits on what teachers can teach. This shows me that all the talk about school choice and educational "freedom" by those praising education censors is smoke and mirrors. The real deal is learner choice—letting students fully control what they learn.

To that end, I was happy to talk with Neal McCluskey from CATO Institute. He is both for school choice and for learner freedom.

Take a listen:

COMMON GROUND: Given all the political polarization in the country, can we still pursue politics for the common good? Dr. Heather Harding joined the Freedom Friday podcast to discuss her work at Campaign for Our Shared Future.

We started the show by discussing an example from Heather McGhee’s book “The Sum of Us” about the large resort-style municipal swimming pools available to Americans as a public service starting in the 1860s until desegregation. Rather than swim together, many white Americans preferred to drain the pools - even if it meant they would lose access themselves.

How can we overcome “drain the pool” politics that dominate media coverage today? By understanding history, showing up, and taking action when the basic rights of minorities are threatened.

Take a listen:

BAN STUPIDITY: To illustrate just how far we’ve drifted from reasonable debate in this country, look at this take about book bans from a Heritage Foundation senior fellow:

Heritage is contesting the use of the word “ban” PEN America, a free speech advocacy group, to describe incidents where access to reading materials are restricted by education officials. They say it’s not really a ban if you can still access the material somewhere else. Yet, telling minorities you are targeting for erasure “you can still read your stuff, you’ll just have to find in somewhere else” is a little too separate but equal-ish for me. Why are books aimed at affirming my children restricted? Who decides?

It’s a point that comes through in this clip by MSNC’s Joy Reid:

Anyway, while Heritage and other white nationalist research mills haggle with the word “ban,” we should take note of their overuse of the word “pornography.”

I mean, look what happened to a book most of us read in our school years:

In Vero Beach, Fla., a book about the famous German-born Jewish girl who died during the Holocaust is no longer available to be checked out at the student library. The novel, Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation, is an illustrated take on her life — and notably, it’s written by a child of Holocaust survivors.

But according to some, it features two “sexually explicit” scenes. In the first, Frank walks along a series of nude statues, and in another, she asks a friend if they want to show each other their breasts.

Concerns about those scenes were raised by the advocacy group Moms for Liberty. Jennifer Pippin, who chairs the organization’s Indian River County chapter, said that history like the Holocaust “absolutely needs to be taught,” but it was ultimately determined by the school district — after Moms for Liberty spoke up — that parts of this book in particular don’t contribute to the mission of Holocaust education.

DIVERSITY: According to a government report, as the U.S. becomes more diverse than ever, the state of school diversity isn’t as good as we should expect. VERBATIM: “Also last week, as the nation commemorated the 69th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling, the Department released a new report on the state of diversity within America’s schools.  Based on currently available data and a review of educational and economic research, the report found that progress toward increased racial and socio-economic diversity has stalled in many communities as segregation patterns have persisted, leading to inequitable access and outcomes for students.”

BLUE STATE HAVEN: As a political independent living in a liberal-leaning state, I’d had years to battle progressives, especially over their data phobia regarding education policy. But, the anti-social policies taking root in red states where minorities are being savaged by white nationalist policymakers make me appreciate the relative peace of living in a prosperous, caring, efficient, and pro-social place like Minnesota.

Here at home, we just closed out a legislative session that is getting national attention as an example of what a blue state produces when they own the table. Yet, while Democrats celebrate (including The Majority Report and even President Obama), local Republicans call it “bonkers.”

Here’s a run-down from MinnPost of what Dems got done for the people:

Democrats codified abortion rights, paid family and medical leave, sick leave, transgender rights protections, drivers licenses for undocumented residents, restoration of voting rights for people when they are released from prison or jail, wider voting access, one-time rebates, a tax credit aimed at low-income parents with kids, and a $1 billion investment in affordable housing including for rental assistance.

Gov. Tim Walz on Monday tweeted this image of a legislative to-do list.

Also adopted were background checks for private gun transfers and a red-flag warning system to take guns from people deemed by a judge to be a threat to themselves or others. DFL lawmakers banned conversion therapy for LGBTQ people, legalized recreational marijuana, expanded education funding, required a carbon-free electric grid by 2040, adopted a new reading curricula based on phonics, passed a massive $2.58 billion capital construction package and, at the insistence of Republicans, a $300 million emergency infusion of money to nursing homes.

I don’t think this agenda is all there is, and some of the policies I disagreed with (e.g., the minimum wage for Uber drivers), but what a relief it is to know that books aren’t being banned, black thought isn’t being outlawed, transgender people are free to be themselves, and bottom-feeding conflict wholesalers don’t undermine our major public institutions.

Minnesota Dems still need to offer more than Pleasantville platitudes to fix education for students of color. They need to stop attacking alternative teaching pathways that increase the abysmal numbers of teachers of color. They need to end the benign neglect of the educational catastrophe that is Minneapolis Public Schools.

Still, living in a state that refuses to be the new Gilead is good.

BLUE STATE II: And, even as I celebrate the social policies of my home state, analysis from conservatives at the Center for the American Experiment points to a huge educational blindspot.

This, from ABC News:

Minnesota-based think tank The Center of the American Experiment (CAE) conducted an analysis of state test scores from the 2021-22 academic year. Traditional public schools, online public schools and charter schools were all evaluated to determine where students are struggling to recover from pandemic-related learning losses.

CAE's findings concluded that while declines were evident statewide, two of Minnesota's largest public school districts saw scores plummet the furthest last year.

Nineteen Minnesota schools had zero students perform at grade level in math, and the results were largely split between the Minneapolis Public School District (MPS) and Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS). The two districts accounted for 10 of the schools altogether, and elementary schools appeared to fare the worst.”

That’s all for now folks. See you soon.