Who’s Leading The Resistance Today? School Boards And State Departments Of ED!
Gay books for all the kids!
Oh look, in That Man’s slurry of Executive Orders, a demand right out of the first pages of the Project 2025 playbook (literally starting on page one), trying to make it illegal to teach children that structural racism exists, or that gender-nonconforming people exist, and mandating that the secretary of Education “shall establish the 1776 Commission in the Department of Education” to promote “Patriotic Education” in elementary and high schools, or else no federal funding for those schools. Which is not legal, of course.
The whole order is one ballsy stew of projection and vague catchphrases; some Heritage Foundation intern apparently punched I’m not the indoctrinator, you’re the indoctrinator! into a ChatBot that doesn’t understand how outlines work, and it spat out a misnumbered miasma. Mao would tsk at this sloppiness.
States’ rights, what are those? Tenth Amendment, never met her!
As it turns out, the members of many state education departments and school boards were paying attention in history and civics class, and they’re not fucking having it.
In New York state, it’s the job of the state Board of Regents chosen by the state Legislature to decide the curriculum, with lots of latitude given to local school boards. State education department Spokesman J.P. O’Hare:
“We remain committed to ensuring that schools are safe, welcoming environments for all students, which is a bipartisan issue. We will continue to work with the Legislature and governor to ensure that our schools remain devoted to truth, excellence, and free inquiry.”
It should be a bipartisan issue. Most companies that aren’t Hobby Lobby actually don’t want to employ ignorant bullies. Good luck lasting in a job with a multinational corporation if you won’t shut up about how white Americans have the best, most normal culture and everybody else’s culture is WEIRD with food that smells funny. And, students who don’t understand that structural racism and the Civil War had anything to do with each other, or that the Civil Rights movement happened, are not going to do well on the American History portion of the SAT.
In Ohio, Michael Cole, president of the Columbus City Schools Board of Education: “bring it on.”
Michigan State Superintendent Michael Rice: children “have the right to go to school to learn without fear of being targeted because they are an immigrant, are transgender, or are a person of color.”
Damn skippy!
California Department of Education: “President Trump issued an executive order to find out what education funds he can legally rescind based on curriculum he doesn’t like. Existing law already answers that question — nothing. It is against federal law for the White House to dictate what educators can and cannot teach by threatening to defund essential public services for students.” Hey, somebody did the homework! And, how would California teach California history under this plan? Ignore those Japanese internment camps? Not mention who built the railroads? Guess so!
The issue of local school board control is particularly pressing in Montgomery County, Maryland; two weeks ago the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal in Mahmoud v. McKnight, the lawsuit from parents funded by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty (that Catholic group founded by an Alito acolyte that was behind Hobby Lobby banning birth control for its employees) and co-signed by Moms For Liberty. The lawsuit takes the preposterous position that books about gay and trans people sitting on public school shelves creates a burden on them practicing their religions.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals down in Richmond was like, no injunction for you, you aren’t being burdened by the existence of books that aren’t even on any curriculum, whiners:
“What is missing here is the evidentiary link showing that the storybooks are being implemented in a way that directly or indirectly coerces the parents or their children to believe or act contrary to their religious faith.”
(FYI the case is now Mahmoud v. Taylor, because Dr. Thomas Taylor is now the Montgomery County superintendent.)
The MoCo conservative parents were especially mad about the book Pride Puppy! Which “depicts a family whose puppy gets lost amidst a LGBTQ-pride parade, with each page focused on a letter of the alphabet. The three- and four-year-old audience is invited to look for items such as ‘[drag] king,’ ‘leather,’ ‘lip ring,’ ‘[drag] queen,’ and ‘underwear.’” MY HOUSE MY RULES AND IT’S ULTRASUEDE OR NOTHING!
Last year the 1776 Project PAC poured record bucks into the Montgomery County school board race to back book-banning candidates, including anti-vax home-schooling Mom For Liberty Bethany Mandel, remember her? She built her entire personality around whining about how all things “woke” are the devil, and then created an epic ass-pucker cringe on TV when she couldn’t define what “woke” was. And then of course she wrote an article for Newsweek crying about how the Left conspired to make her look stupid (“I Was Asked to Define Woke. My Humiliation Went Viral”).
And MoCo voters were not persuaded that they wanted her bossing around the schools about what to teach! In fact, all of the school board candidates backed by the conservatives lost, and the candidates endorsed by the local teachers union won, whomp whomp. Mandel did not even get enough votes in the primary to make it onto the ballot in November, in spite of pretending she was a Democrat at the last minute.
Montgomery County is bright blue, and they value education: More than 63 percent of the population has a college degree, and 19 percent have an MA or higher. Can’t fool them, the school board knows it’s a state and county’s right to teach their kids stuff like empathy, acceptance of others, and American History that doesn’t have everybody but the white cis hetero Christian men edited out if they want to. And they’re going to be nice to the trans kids, so fuck off.
The heartening message from MCPS Superintendent Thomas W. Taylor and Board of Education President Julie Yang:
All our children deserve a high-quality education that fosters both academic excellence and well-being regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration status, disability, religion, or any other identifying characteristic.
We stand by our community and school system values, which include learning, relationships, respect, excellence and equity. They guide us every day and anchor us when navigating difficult times. We intend to use all legal means necessary to uphold them.
We are committed to maintaining local authority over our curriculum, teaching and learning. And we will fiercely support our teachers and staff as they implement our curriculum and policies.
So, throw your Executive Order on your “see you in court!” pile, dummies! Later!
[Executive Order/ Newsday/ Bridge Michigan/ Maryland Matters/ MyMCM/ Washington Post archive link]
Per NPR , the family of the female copter pilot has requested her name not be released. Might have something to do with the President of United States of America looking for a DEI hire to blame. Oh and all the trolls claiming she's transgender.
This is who we are now.
Our District hasn't made it official policy yet, but the clear guidance is the following:
- ICE is not welcome in our schools
- School Police is not legally obligated nor allowed to assist ICE, so they will not
- Existing policy regarding a safe and respectful learning environment for *all* students, staff and parents means exactly that. Any statements of "Your body, my choice" or "ICE is coming for you" will be presumptively considered bullying and subject to disciplinary action.
- The curriculum is the curriculum and no one from on high is going to dictate what we teach