I Hate To Be A Negative Nelly

And here's a free link to the piece, from me and @paulwaldman1. Hope you enjoy. 10/10https://t.co/WQiir2Py2g

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) June 1, 2023

But the interesting part of this is not the parents pushing back by yelling at their school boards in public meetings. The interesting, and sad, part of this column is this:

A raucous school board meeting in Hernando County, Fla., on Tuesday night captured what’s striking about this new phenomenon. The scene featured teachers pointedly declaring that right-wing attacks are driving them to quit, even as parents and students forcefully stood up on their behalf, demanding a halt to the hysteria.

“I have never seen such fear from my colleagues as I have seen in the last two months,” social studies teacher Victoria Hunt told the board.

The whole affair really put the culture-war-mongers to shame. Not that they’ll see it that way; as the meeting also showed, scenes like this — with maximum rage, fear, tension and suspicion surging between parents and educators — are precisely the outcome they want.

This county, north of Tampa, voted for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022 by a 41-point margin. It’s where fifth-grade teacher Jenna Barbee recently enraged local enforcers of right-wing orthodoxy by showing her class “Strange World,” a Disney movie with an openly gay character. The Florida Department of Education is investigating whether she violated DeSantis’s “don’t say gay” law restricting classroom discussion of sex and gender.

Barbee is resigning, but she’s hardly the only one. At Tuesday’s meeting, local teacher Daniel Scott gave a moving speech, declaring that the climate of rage is driving him out of the profession.

“I don’t feel that I can adequately provide a safe environment for my students anymore,” Scott said, denouncing the “draconian working conditions that are causing many such as myself to abandon this honored career.”

Meanwhile, Alyssa Marano, a math teacher who has resigned, rejected the oft-heard charge of LGBTQ indoctrination of students. “No one is teaching your kids to be gay,” she told the room. “Sometimes, they just are gay. I have math to teach. I literally don’t have time to teach your kids to be gay.”

Nearly 50 teachers are reportedly planning to resign in this school district. Lisa Masserio, president of the teachers union in Hernando County, says state laws and directives restricting educators are a key reason. She told us: “There is increased pressure and scrutiny on an already difficult job.”

At the meeting, right-wing parents and a minority of the school board amplified the usual attacks: Pornography in classrooms, indoctrination, wokeness. Watching them, it was impossible to avoid the sense that they were relishing every second of the tumult they’ve unleashed.

At the meeting, Shannon Rodriguez — a favorite of the right wing Moms for Liberty that led the attack on the Disney movie episode — kept robotically repeating phrases like “woke ideologies” and “woke agenda,” not even slightly disturbed by any sense of obligation to define their meaning. She proudly brandished her solidarity with boycotts of Bud Light and Disney as a badge of anti-woke heroism. Another conservative parent practically shouted, “You have awakened the entire alpha male blood of this country!”

The second half of that column is Sargent declaring the "real story of the night" is the opposition to the, er, opposition.  Which still doesn't outweigh these opening paragaphs.   50 teachers are going to resign from this district.  50.  If 50 teachers resigned from my local school district, it would be be a major upheaval and have parents screaming at the school board to DO SOMETHING!  The biggest fear the school board has here is mass teacher resignations, public resignations like some of these.  There've been a record number of retirements in the local school district this year, mostly around political issues (local, as in the crazies on the school board, and state), but nobody really noticed at the board meeting I attended where the Lovely Wife was recognized, among 30 others or so, for her years of service.  Some teachers in that crowd, leaving after less than 10 years service.  But nobody commented, or publicly cared.

They probably will when the school budget requires deep cuts in September because the Lege ended the session without approving ANY funding for schools beyond what's already in law.  Will they come back before August and approve even $50 extra per student per district?  Because as it stands the schools aren't even getting that.  And is this being covered as a feature?  Or a bug?

Because that's how Sargent sees it.  The right wing and "Moms for Liberty" are a bug being exterminated even in a Florida county that went for DeSantis by 40 points.  Or is it a feature, which is why the right wing is so happy with the chaos?  50 teachers are leaving the profession in one district.  Who will be standing in front of those classrooms in September?  How qualified will they be.  Will our children be learning?  As one student said:

“War on woke?” one student said pointedly. “More like war on your children’s future.” 

The local school board has this fatal flaw.  They aren't interested in education or the students or teaching or learning.  They are interested in political points.  They want to score on local issues.  One board member who couldn't be bothered with the concerns over state funding raced to get in front of the parade when the Superintendent's e-mail about state inaction prompted attention from local TeeVee news and meetings with local state senators.  Then she rushed to go to Austin and be at the table for the board meeting televised locally.  The cameras left, however, and the meetings in Austin ended, and she's not interested any more.  She has no clue what being a "trustee" means, even though she's a lawyer.  She doesn't care.  Frankly, neither does Greg Sargent.

This problem is not about politics and horse races and who's "winning" now.  This problem is that our children are losing.  This problem is that public schools are under attack, and the attack is very basic:  what is the idea of a public school?  And should we have them if they can't be controlled so thoroughly, if they can't be dominated so absolutely by only the "right" people?  It's a fight that goes back to 1954.  If we can't have the school system we want, teaching the things we want taught, we won't have a school system at all.  That's why the people Sargent describes are enjoying the chaos they have unleashed.  It's the chaos theory of right wing terrorism.  Timothy McVeigh and Dylann Roof and several other mass murderers thought they could "spark" the revolution that would purge American society of the "wrong" elements.  The people at the board meeting Sargent writes about don't want to spark violence, but chaos serves their ends even without a civil war.  They want to drive those 50 teachers out, and replace them with the "right" teachers.  And if that doesn't work (as it's not really working in Texas.  I know of only one school district that pointedly took a MAGA stance, and like a former UCC church in Texas that loudly left the UCC to form a new denomination, all but begging other Texas UCC churches to join it, nobody is following (that church is now a member of a denomination of about 5 churches nationwide.  It didn't spark a revolution, either.),they'll jus burn the district down and start over (that's the rhetoric you're hearing from U.S. Representatives as to what to do with the FBI and the DOJ and why stop there?).  So the Texas Lege decided to starve public education, in order to push everyone into private schools or into public schools that cannot function.  The problem is, the vouchers that were supposed to save the "right" parents from the underfunded and so "failing" schools didn't pass, either.  And probably won't, no matter how many times Abbott brings them back for special sessions.  Of course, the other fly in that ointment is Paxton's impeachment trial,* which will tie up the Texas Senate for most of any 30 day (by law, that's the limit) special session Abbott might call.  He's got to wait for that to play out, and the clock is ticking since most school districts have to make their budget by August for the new school year.

Chaos serves somebody.  It always does.  Or at least, somebody imagines it does.  Aye, there's the rub.  What Sargent should be paying attention to is not pissed off parents, but the endgame of the right wing.  Because it's clear as day they want a school system for them, and screw everybody else.  And if they can't get that, they'll burn it all down so nobody can have one.

And where does that leave our children, whom no one listens to because, hell:  "They're just kids!"

We can do a helluva lot better than this; but we have to pay attention to what's right in front of our noses.

*I have to drop this here since I brought up Paxton.  He continues to be a cloth-headed idiot about his impeachment.  First he called Representatives trying to scare them into not voting for the articles.  Now he has several AG employees on "leave of absence" to represent him in the Senate trial.  He's already been criticized for using AG resources for this matter, and of course the substance of many charges against him is the abuse of state resources for private purposes.  I'm beginning to think there really is a contagious stupidity among MAGA heads, because Paxton doesn't see that his case will be won or lost on politics and appearance, not on the legal arguments his staff will try to bring to bear.  The Texas Supreme Court is not going to review Paxton’s removal from office, and his actions are all but going to guarantee not only removal, but a lifetime ban from holding state office again.  The guy really is an idiot.