The GOP Plan for Education – 3

What it Means for Arizona – Part 3

Below is part 3 on the GOP promises for education in the 2024 RNC Platform. The first two parts dealt with promises one through six. This one reviews the final promises, seven through nine.

“7. Promote Love of Country with Authentic Civics Education: Republicans will reinstate the 1776 Commission, promote Fair and Patriotic Civics Education, and veto efforts to nationalize Civics Education. We will support schools that teach America’s Founding Principles and Western Civilization.“

Interestingly, the GOP is against any efforts to “nationalize Civics Education”. This is weird, because civics is, after all, the study of the rights and duties of citizenship. States do not have citizens, only nations, and all citizens of the United States share rights and duties. Why, therefore, would we not nationalize civics education? Oh, that’s right, because the GOP wants all power to reside in the states.

For that matter, what is “authentic” civics education, and who determines that? I guess the GOP’s desire to reinstate Trump’s 1776 Commission, means that’s what they believe “authentic” civics education is. According to Forbes.com the Commission ‘pushes back on the “decline of American education” led by “progressive educators” who “sought to reshape students in the image they thought best.” The Civil Rights Movement, the Commission argues”, was “almost immediately turned to programs that ran counter to the lofty ideals of the founders.” And, in his executive order creating the commission, Trump said, “Many students are now taught in school to hate their own country”. So when the GOP “promotes Fair and Patriotic Civics Education”, we probably can’t be too hopeful that includes the important role people of color played in the shaping of America.

In Arizona, the statute already requires civics instruction in public schools that must include instruction on: “the original intent of the founding documents and principles of the United States as found in source documents” and “the civic-minded expectations of an upright and desirable citizenry that recognizes and accepts responsibility for preserving and defending the blessings of liberty inherited from prior generations and secured by the United States Constitution”.

GOP’s statement that they’ll “support schools that teach America’s Founding Principles and Western Civilization”, is just more of the same one-dimensional thinking. In a quick Internet search, I found several different ideas about what the Founding Principles are. The Library of Congress lists the ideas that all people are created equal and that these people have fundamental rights, such as liberty, free speech, freedom of religion, due process of law, and freedom of assembly. The National Archives lists checks and balances, federalism, limited government, popular sovereignty, republicanism, and separation of powers. What Founding Principles is the GOP referring to and why would we only want our children to learn about Western civilization? They will have to compete in a global economy – shouldn’t they understand something about the world in which it operates?

“8. Freedom to Pray: Republicans will champion the First Amendment Right to Pray and Read the Bible in school, and stand up to those who violate the Religious Freedoms of American students.“

Firstly, the First Amendment does not provide the “right to pray and read the bible in school”. The First Amendment states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Although the “separation of church and state” does not specifically appear in the U.S. Constitution, the concept is enshrined in the first line of the First Amendment. This line is known as “the establishment clause” which prohibits the government from creating an official religion or favoring one religion (or nonreligion) over another. When public schools teach the Judaic-Christian Bible, that smells a whole lot like the government favoring one religion over another.

“9. Return Education to the States: The United States spends more money per pupil on Education than any other Country in the World, and yet we are at the bottom of every educational list in terms of results. We are going to close the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and send it back to the States, where it belongs, and let the States run our educational system as it should be run. Our Great Teachers, who are so important to the future wellbeing of our Country, will be cherished and protected by the Republican Party so that they can do the job of educating our students that they so dearly want to do. It is our goal to bring Education in the United States to the highest level, one that it has never attained before!“

It cannot surprise anyone that the GOP wants to eliminate the Department of Education. After all, the main jobs of the Department are to:

Establish policies on federal financial aid for education and distribute and monitor those funds
Collect data on Americas’ schools and disseminate research
Focus national attention on key educational issues
Prohibit discrimination and ensure equal access to education

You may have heard that red states are the biggest net “takers” (state residents pay less in federal taxes than the federal government gives back to the state). As of 2022, Arizona was seventh in the nation for the states most dependent on the Federal Government with almost 41% of Arizona’s funding coming from it. When it comes to education, AZ K-12 schools receive $2.36 billion, or $2,090 per pupil, from the federal government. Of course, as I discussed in item #2 above, the GOP doesn’t want to give up this funding, they just don’t want a federal agency administering it. Rather, they want it to go directly to the states in “no strings attached” block grants that allow the state to determine how to spend the money, such as giving it directly to parents. Arizonans, having seen the runaway, unaccountable voucher program in action, should recognize what a disaster that could be.

I’m not surprised the GOP wants to stop collecting data on America’s schools. Data helps make informed decisions but if you don’t want that data perhaps you’ve decided your way forward irrespective of the facts. It is obvious the GOP wants to privatize public education and Arizona has been leading that effort.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this three-part post, I took the liberty of connecting the RNC Platform and Project 2025. There are plenty of ties between the two, and with Trump, all we need do is follow the people who worked for him and are prominent in the “Cult of Trump”. Paul E. Peterson, Professor of Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University, makes the connection between the RNC Platform and Project 2025 much more eloquently though. He writes that, although the former is “spare” and the latter “complex”, they “can be construed as entirely consistent with one another”. “Read together”, he offers, they “strongly suggest that a Trump presidency implies a smaller federal footprint in K12 education, support for school choice, less federal regulation, opposition to affirmative action and reversal of the sex and gender policies of the Biden Administration.”

I don’t know about you, but I hope and pray “we are not going back”!

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Linda Lyon

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September 13, 2024

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Are We Strong and Determined?

Our Public Schools and Common Good Depend on It

According to the New York Times, Project 2025 suggests that the federal Department of Education should be “eliminated”. The Republican Party’s 2024 platform shares this idea and although Trump has been trying to distance himself from it, there is plenty of proof that he has endorsed it in the past. Not only that, but his positions are even weirder.

It is not surprising, that Trump’s position on education is low on content and high on red meat. He promises “the direct election of school principals by the parents” and to cut “federal funding for any school or program pushing critical race theory, gender ideology or other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content to our children”. To counter the threat he says is posed by the “Marxists” and “pink-haired Communists teaching our kids”, he’ll “create a new credentialing body” (the “world’s gold standard”), “to certify teachers who embrace patriotic values, support our way of life and understand that their job is not to indoctrinate children but very simply to educate them.” Wait, whaaaaaaat?

Firstly, under our current laws, he can’t make good on his promise to allow parents to directly elect principals. And, why do they need to? Parents (and other voters) already elect governing board members responsible for oversight of district administration. If parents aren’t happy with the way the school is run, they have the power to address it. Secondly, just so I understand, teaching kids the true history of America as a multi-cultural melting pot that has promised, but not always delivered, liberty and justice for all is indoctrination. But, teachers embracing patriotic values (as defined by the right-wing) and supporting our way of life (assuming “our” refers to white, heterosexual, Christians with children) is not indoctrination. Good to know.

What is also good to know, is that these issues were those of the last election, not of this one. As reported in The74, “an online survey of 1,300 likely 2024 voters – including parents of school-age children, found Americans now care about different issues related to public education: safety, high-quality teaching, and literacy. Or as The74 puts it, safe schools and kids who can read.

The truth is, Trump and his GOP cronies aren’t out to improve academic outcomes for all America’s children. They are out to keep the rich and powerful ensconced in their ivory towers by dividing the rest of us. This is why they promote the privatization of our public schools and couch (maybe I should have used a different word here) it as school choice and parental empowerment. The truth is that where vouchers have gone on the ballot, voters have rejected them. Voters know that our public schools are the hubs of our communities. They bring us together and help bond us in a shared identity. There is power in this shared identity.

We can though, fight back. We must vote for lawmakers who will legislate for the next generation versus the next election. We must recognize that America’s public schools have always been a big part of our success as a nation and are our best solution to ensure the “educated citizenry” Thomas Jefferson wrote was “a vital requisite for our survival as a free people”.

I am no pedagogical expert, but I learned a long time ago that people care how much you care, long before they care how much you know. So, let’s just start with really caring. That would mean we no longer accept firearms as the number one cause of death for children in the U.S. killing more children each year than car accidents, drug poisoning, drowning, and suffocation. Everytown.com reports that in 2024, there were at least 124 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 34 deaths and 71 injuries nationally. It is inexcusable that school shootings are now just a way of life in classrooms around our country and lockdown kits are yet something else schools need along with locked single entry points, metal detectors, cameras, and active shooter drills. If we continue to allow the carnage, we just don’t care enough and that simply IS who we are.

A second step is for all of us to understand education is an investment, not an expense. The future is only as bright as the children who inherit it and we can’t give them what they need without a serious commitment of time and resources. Those resources include high-quality teachers and support staff, a full curriculum, and well-fed “butts in seats”. The GOP’s Project 2025 may call Federal school meals an entitlement program inferring it a bad thing, but students focus better when they are fed and we should care more about them being fed than about who does the feeding. We also need them to attend school. As the New York Times reported, “an estimated 26% of students were considered chronically absent (missing around 18 days) in 2023. Increased discipline problems are intertwined with absenteeism and both are holding back progress in our schools.

In a 2017 New York Times magazine article titled “Have We Lost Sight of the Promise of Public Education?” Author Nikole Hannah-Jones discusses how American public institutions and systems have long struggled with the ideal of serving the common good against the strong influence of the private market economy. She wrote, “If there is hope for a renewal of our belief in public institutions and the common good, it may reside in public schools”. I believe it does reside in our public schools, but only if we fight for them. It’s just sad that in the seven years since her article, the forces fighting back seem stronger, or at least more determined, than ever. Are we?