Schools become flashpoint for Republicans eyeing White House

[phkrause]

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has called for parents to elect and fire school principals. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has banned instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. And Nikki Haley, the former U.N. ambassador who is expected to announce her White House candidacy this coming week, is among the Republicans taking aim at critical race theory.

https://apnews.com/article/ron-desantis-politics-united-states-government-2022-midterm-elections-donald-trump-c65049b0c64206996dd1bea4cee65b81?

[phkrause]

Republicans bet big on "the education election"

A perfect storm of Supreme Court decisions, pandemic recriminations and fiery culture wars has vaulted education to the top of the 2024 presidential agenda, animating Republicans who believe they have the upper hand.

Why it matters: This election will be the first to test whether four years of heated debate over COVID-19 school policies, critical race theory and gender identity will translate at the presidential level, Axios' Stef Kight writes.

Driving the news: The Supreme Court's rejection of affirmative action at colleges today is a watershed moment for higher education — one celebrated across the board by Republican candidates and condemned by President Biden, who declared that this is "not a normal court."

• As soon as tomorrow, the high court is also expected to rule on whether Biden has the authority to grant federal student loan forgiveness — with the fate of millions of borrowers hanging in the balance.

Zoom in: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has staked out the most aggressive education platform of any candidate, seeking to upend school systems nationwide with the same "anti-woke" blueprint he's constructed in Florida.

• DeSantis yesterday called for abolishing the Department of Education, and last week sued the agency over its college accreditation process.
• His team has also hammered former President Trump from the right on education, tweeting out a 2015 clip of the Republican front-runner saying he's "fine with affirmative action."

What we're watching: This weekend, five presidential hopefuls — including Trump and DeSantis — are speaking at an event run by a controversial group known for promoting book bans and leading raucous school board protests.

• The national Moms for Liberty, the hosting group, has been labeled an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center; an Indiana chapter recently came under fire for quoting Hitler in a newsletter.

How we got here: Conservatives' intense focus on K-12 education policy in particular has been building for years, beginning in response to prolonged school closures and mask mandates imposed over COVID.

• In 2021 and 2022, school boards became ground zero for the movement — with parents protesting at meetings and national groups coordinating efforts to replace school board members with conservatives.
• The focus then shifted to concern about curricula surrounding race and racism, with conservatives making a bogeyman out of a scholastic framework called critical race theory, or "CRT."
• More recently, self-described parental rights advocates have zeroed in on what they view as inappropriate teaching about gender and sexuality in schools.
• Republicans have also latched on to the national debate around whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in women's sports, passing legislation and holding hearings in Congress.

The bottom line: Republicans have dominated the education messaging war, with little engagement from Democrats. But it may not be enough to reverse the party's recent election woes, with abortion and anti-Trump sentiment remaining a significant obstacle with independents.

Share this story.

[bonnie1962]

Amazing isn't it when parents become aware what is being taught their children?

[phkrause]

? Republican war on colleges

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the GOP's 2024 frontrunners, both promise a crackdown on colleges. Why it matters: It's a stark reflection of the right's growing skepticism of higher ed, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports. What's happening: Republican complaints about colleges are related to broader concerns about "wokeness" and free speech. But others hint at deeper questions about the value of college — and how to ensure a degree comes with an appropriate economic return. In a video posted on his website last week, Trump pledged to "fire the radical Left accreditors" and hire new ones "who will impose real standards on colleges." Some of those standards would include "protecting free speech," "removing all Marxist diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucrats," and "implementing college entrance and exit exams to prove that students are actually learning and getting their money's worth." Last month, DeSantis sued the Biden administration over the college accreditation system, alleging it's unconstitutional, Inside Higher Ed reports. Students who receive federal aid must attend an accredited college or university. ?️ The big picture: Republicans' confidence in higher education has plummeted over the last several years. Gallup polling released this month found that Americans' confidence in higher education has fallen to 36%, compared to 57% in 2015. The sharpest reported drop in confidence was among Republicans. Only 19% of Republicans say they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in higher education, compared to 56% who said the same eight years ago. Among Democrats, 59% expressed confidence, a 9-point decline from 2015. In 2017 Gallup polling probing the reasons behind low confidence, the most frequent answer given by Republicans was that colleges are too liberal or political. ? Between the lines: Higher education is likely to be a major motivating issue in '24. Democrats were furious last month after the Supreme Court struck down college affirmative action + President Biden's original student loan forgiveness plan. ? What to watch: Much of the Republican noise is political. But right-leaning think tanks — and some policymakers — are focused on making colleges more accountable for students' economic outcomes. Accreditation reform could be where these goals intersect.

[phkrause]

Florida Phoenix columnist Diane Roberts writes Monday about scared Republicans:

Republicans are scared. They’re scared of citizens voting, so they make it as difficult for us as possible. They’re scared of women taking charge of their own bodies, so they demand the right to track their movements and seize their medical records in case they go to another state for an abortion.

They’re scared of vaccines and drag queens and climate scientists and Brown people and Black people and gay people. They’re so scared of “the libs” they make up demented stories about Democrats drinking the blood of children.

Most of all, they’re scared of higher education. Colleges. Universities. Known hotbeds of wokery, Marxism, and foreign languages, they should instead focus on the one thing that matters to real Americans: training future cogs in the uber-capitalist machine and sports.

The point is the mini-Mussolinis who run Florida see higher ed as a threat which must be neutralized. And what better way to control Florida universities than to install one of their own at the head of each one?

FL Republicans are taking out their hangups against the state university system

Most of all, they’re scared of higher education

https://floridaphoenix.com/2023/07/24/fl-republicans-are-taking-out-their-hangups-against-the-state-university-system/?

[phkrause]

Republicans Pushed Almost 400 “Education Intimidation” Bills in Past Two Years

Lawmakers in all but four states introduced bills that indirectly censor what’s taught in schools, according to a new report from PEN America.

https://theintercept.com/2023/08/23/school-censorship-bills-pen-america/?