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NOTE: NEIFPE's "In Case You Missed It" will not be published next week. We'll be back with more updates on September 9, 2024. Thanks for supporting Public Education.
"Privatization is a kind of reverse social contract: it dissolves the bonds that tie us together into free communities and democratic republics. It puts us back in the state of nature where we possess a natural right to get whatever we can on our own, but at the same time lose any real ability to secure that to which we have a right. Private choices rest on individual power… personal skills… and personal luck. Public choices rest on civic rights and common responsibilities, and presume equal rights for all." -- The late political theorist, Benjamin Barber, quoted by Jan Resseger in Parents’ Rights Activists, Privatizers, and Project 2025 Conspire Against Public Schooling
REJECT PROJECT 2025
Part 2: Parents’ Rights Activists, Privatizers, and Project 2025 Conspire Against Public Schooling
We must protect our vulnerable students and reject Project 2025 (no matter what it's called now) and the people who support it.
From Jan Resseger
...Project 2025 would:Five of these Project 2025 proposals threaten hard won political victories for justice accomplished since 1960. All of these protections for vulnerable groups of children are threatened today by political efforts to elevate the rights of particular parents to protect their children from “woke” policies or from peers the parents consider undesirable in public schools. The sixth—universal school privatization—would, of course, also create the opportunity for parents to remove their children, at public expense, to private educational institutions that can insulate those children from experiences and peers that threaten their parents’ values. In his commentary, Harris elaborates on the ways publicly funded school privatization permits schools to discriminate: “While private schools cannot legally discriminate based on race because of the Civil Rights Act, they can discriminate on most other dimensions, including religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, income, and disability status. Moreover, the protections against racial discrimination are stronger in public schools, with additional avenues for recourse available to public school students through the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil rights.”
- promote universal school choice (universal private school tuition vouchers);
- eliminate the Head Start program that serves preschoolers in poverty;
- discontinue Title I, that provides federal funding to schools serving low-income children;
- rescind federal civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ students;
- undercut the federal capacity to enforce civil rights law; and
- “reduce federal funding for students with disabilities and remove guardrails designed to ensure these children are adequately served by schools.”
A GOOD DAY FOR FLORIDA
Florida: Moms 4 Liberty Lose Key School Board Races!
Make sure you're registered to vote...make sure your driver's license (or other identification) hasn't expired. Be ready to vote for those who support public schools.
From Diane Ravitch
The extremist culture warriors in Florida flopped at the ballot box on Tuesday. Not even Governor DeSantis’s endorsement helped them in their crusade to ban books, censor history, and sugarcoat what children may learn.
DeSantis quite deliberately set out to take control of Florida’s education system, including its schools and public colleges. He believes that as Governor, he is authorized to shape the curriculum to match his extremist agenda. He has poured billions into charter schools and vouchers for all, no income limits. He has grabbed control of the boards that oversee public colleges, and he has handpicked college presidents from his circle of cronies. The state’s sycophant legislature gives him whatever he wants, including the elimination of tenure in higher education and the ideological takeover of the state’s highly regarded progressive college, New College, which has been transformed into a conservative outpost that values athletics more than philosophy and that abhors gender studies and other “woke” courses.
Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel wrote about the voters’ rebuff to “Moms for Censorship,” err, “Moms for Thought Control, err, “Moms for Liberty.” Voters in most school districts rejected the right wingers endorsed by DeSantis.
Folks, this was a good day for the students and teachers of Florida.
Vic’s Statehouse Notes #387 – Indiana Governor must prioritize public education
Jennifer McCormick will support public schools in Indiana.
From Vic Smith at Indiana Coalition for Public Education
Our public education students and schools need a Governor who will protect their funding.
Candidate Mike Braun has proposed a cut in property taxes which solves the property tax problem on the backs of public school funding and local government funding. Under current law, public schools fund vital services with property tax money: bus transportation, maintenance and repairs, debt service for new buildings and referendum funding.
Mike Braun could have presented a plan that replaced the money that would be cut from schools with state sales or income taxes, but he didn’t. He didn’t even release a fiscal analysis showing the amount public schools would lose.
This has happened before. When property tax caps were put into the Indiana Constitution, public schools and local government lost funding. “Replace, don’t erase” was the rallying cry to resist the loss of public school funding. Replacement of lost funding is again the issue that leaves public schools wondering how to maintain current programs for public school students.
Mike Braun is not protecting public education students, but Jennifer McCormick’s new property tax plan issued August 15th aims to do so, offering “targeted relief to those who need it most without cutting essential police, fire and school services to Hoosiers,” according to a fact sheet released by her campaign team about the complex plan. She also found a way to provide a fiscal estimate of her plan, which Mike Braun did not do.
It Wasn’t Always Like This in Indiana...
After second draft released, questions linger over Indiana’s proposed diploma changes
The new high school graduation requirements must be approved by the end of the year, but so far, some details are still up in the air.
From Indiana Capital Chronicle
A revamped high school diploma model proposed by Indiana education officials appears to have earned approval from the state’s higher education institutions and several school advocacy groups, but others around the state — including parents, teachers, business owners and lawmakers — say they still have questions about the plan.
Many said their support hinges on unreleased — or uncertain — details about post-graduation outcomes, financial impact, and the feasibility of widespread work-based learning.
“While parts of the proposal appear to be a step in the right direction, this updated diploma proposal remains a major change that high school students, educators and counselors must adjust to,” said Rep. Cherrish Pryor, D-Indianapolis, in a Tuesday statement.
“There are still many unanswered questions about the work-based learning requirements,” Pryor continued. “For example, who will pay for student transportation? How will school counselors handle the increase in workload in the midst of a counselor shortage? At the end of the day, this is an unfunded mandate that will unfairly burden our chronically underfunded public schools.”
Northwest Allen County Schools lands 'strategic' 35 acres
From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**
The Northwest Allen County Schools board agreed Monday to buy about 35 acres of land near Carroll High School for $1.2 million without knowing how the district might use it.
“The fact that that’s connected to the high school gives you a lot of options,” said Brandon Basham, chief financial officer.
The sellers are the Barrett family, who have previously sold land to NACS. Basham told the board the parents always wanted their children to sell the land to the school if they didn’t want it, and the children are honoring those wishes.
The purchase price – $1,222,000 – is the average of two appraisals.
“The Barrett family could have a lot of options for that land, so we really appreciate what they’re doing for the school district,” Basham said.
He added that NACS has been preparing for this potential land purchase for a while.
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JOIN US
An Evening with Jennifer McCormick
NEIFPE is proud to co-sponsor this event featuring Jennifer McCormick, candidate for Governor of Indiana. We hope you can attend.
Click HERE to register for the September 25th event:
**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is essential; one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information, go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/ [NOTE: NEIFPE has no financial ties to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]
†Note: NEIFPE's In Case You Missed It is posted by the end of the day every Monday except after holiday weekends or as otherwise noted.
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