This is a Carvalho progress report, so it's going to be short.
I know I'm in the middle of a DeSantis philippic (that one's for you, Dr. Nelson), but everybody's doing a one-year anniversary review for LAUSD Superintendent and world-class suit wearer Alberto Carvalho so I thought I'd add my two cents.
To be clear, Carvalho is not DeSantis. DeSantis is a fascist with big dreams of political power and white supremacy. Carvalho is what he's always been: a corporate functionary that loves the limelight. He's a luxury-box CEO with a head full of slogans who always knows where the camera is.
Carvalho and DeSantis are both "my way/highway" guys of course, but Carvalho is a traditionalist, even though he may think of himself as an innovative disruptor. He's fond of pre-packaged commercially-available gimmicks--We'll take some of that readin' science!--a technology true believer and data disciple.
Carvalho is steeped in education reformster (h/t Peter Greene) patter--the jargon is strong in this one--and has got a slogan to suit any occasion. "Ready for the world!" "Not skill set, but will set." "The impossible becomes the inevitable." And of course, in an "inspired and inspirational" turn of phrase: "One size fits none," akaSchool Choice! Choice! Choice! .
Carvalho's policies predictablyalign with the reformster set of preferred outcomes -- bust the union, public funds for private entities. (Note: Carvalho talks endlessly about "equity," and has been featured on a panel at the U.S. DOE's "Equity Summit Series" alongside fanboyPedro Noguera, dean, USC Rossier School of Education. Yet, Carvalho seems uninterested or oblivious to the fact that school choice actually increases segregation.)
DeSantis is a different animal altogether, in my opinion. The governor gets what he wants at the point of a gun, and what he wants is everything. We'll get back to him next time.
The two aspiring strongmen butted heads when Carvalho was still in Miami-Dade when they tangled over masks and testing. Carvalho also fought with the governor, appearing to side with teachers. But did he?
In between jobs, Carvalho spoke with A Martinez at NPR where he was asked about the testing dust-up with the governor:
What I'm asking for is let's not use the test results in a punitive way that will influence the evaluation of teachers or the designation of school grades. Why?
Good question. Carvalho's a savvy operator and often boasts about getting rid of "F schools" in Miami-Dade, as he did in the middle of his goodbye letter to district parents reported by CBS Miami: "We have eliminated F schools and have been recognized as an "A" rated school district for three consecutive years."
Could his pushback against testing have had more to do with protecting his record than caring for teachers? Asking for about 30,000 friends.
Carvalho has been in the L.A. job for 367 368 days since giving the the City of Angels the gift of his presence officially on Valentine's Day 2022. He's presumably taking a little time to get his west-coast legs after bolting the shithole of FloriDeSantis, as his accomplishments have been fanciful. Howard Blume listed them in an L.A. Timesarticle earlier this week:
Began a school-by-school data review process so principals know exactly where students stand.
Added costly academic “acceleration days” to the calendar to give students a chance to boost grades and fill learning gaps. Critics called the first two days a failure, but not Carvalho, who intends to roll out an improved version during spring break.
Rebooted tutoring after dismal participation in prior years.
Filled teacher vacancies temporarily with former teachers who’d been promoted to nonclassroom positions.
Sped up projects to add air conditioning and heating to work spaces in cafeterias and kitchens.
That's it? He started a couple of programs, filled teacher vacancies that he said weren't vacancies with people who had done their best to get out of the classroom, and worked on the hvac for cafeterias.
He's padded his record with programs that haven't happened yet, programs that according to the L.A. Times will be contracted out when and if they do happen, and stuff that has no chance of working. According to the Times,
Late last year, [Carvalho] announced that the district would be using artificial intelligence to create acceleration plans for every student, based on data such as math and English proficiency and attendance. These individual reports would create recommended learning strategies that could be powerful tools to help guide students.
"High school students will see at a glance if they are on track to graduate, Carvalho said. “But the beauty about this IAP is that there is a series of recommended actions."
What a riot. Does this guy really think nobody's thought of that? For ten years, as I worked next door to his office, I watched the counselor at my school keep one of these plans for every one of five hundred-plus kids starting in middle school. He met with them. He met with their parents. He included "recommended actions."
This is just magical thinking rooted in ego. Believing that putting together
"a document which will live on the website that can be printed — easy to understand, written at a fifth-grade reading level"
and which
"would include steps such as signing up for tutoring, acceleration days and after-school programming and working online “at your own pace from home.” The reports also are to include activities and Parent Academy classes for parents to support their students.
will somehow have everybody going to tutoring and graduating is not just simplistic and egotistic and lazy. It shows that you have no idea what actually happens in the schools you're in charge of.
Oh, it's your special plan. And it has computers. Well then, I guess when you connect it to the mentoring you can't staff and the tutoring company you can't afford, and the late buses you can't spare, it should work out okay.
I hear the familiar refrain of "Fuck the teachers; let them figure it out." I'm wondering what it would look like to have a computer program access every "strategy" and every "material" on the planet and put together a unique sequence and pacing plan for each of the 170 students I had in my last in-person year. Or do I just get the individual files and recommendations and figure out the lesson plans--thirty of them per class--myself? We need less artificial intelligence around here and more of the real kind.
I also hear "Tell me you don't understand teaching without telling me you don't understand teaching." Predictably, I also hear the giant sucking sound of district dollars being diverted to some very lucky, well-connected companies. Am I wrong to be so cynical? I may be cynical, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.
All in all, this is perhaps not as ambitious a first year as we were led to expect.
When he got the gig back in December of '21, he did it with a unanimous vote of the board and riding a wave of puffery from fans with stars in their eyes:
Excited about the vision of new LA superintendent AlbertoCarvalho. He is bringing new energy to move this district forward. pic.twitter.com/c5hqBGxbg6
What followed was a public relations blitz, a "whirlwind tour" where he "repeatedly pledged that more high-quality schooling would be nurtured into reality because, he said, more is urgently needed." Imagine going to sleep at night believing all your students were going to do their homework because they "needed" to. Magic.
Anyway, during his coronation and first 100 days during the development of his strategic plan, Carvalho made oodles and oodles of promises. When you listento Carvalho talk himself up, except for his personal story which he has told so often it feels flat and rote, he sounds like a carnival barker as he bloviates about all the things he's done and everything he's going to do. It's part campaign stump speech and part sales pitch.
"sweet spot of progress"
"putting our collective shoulder to this important boulder"
green spaces, college-readiness, social emotional, eliminating racism, identifying environmental threats and addressing them through a lense of equity
But even when he puts it in writing, like with the 100-Day Plan he released in February 2022, it sounds a bit like being sold a used car. Hint: The plan contains lots of promises.
This car is fast, and it will never give you a bit of trouble.
The Super followed up with his 2022-2026 Strategic Plan to get every student "Ready for the World." To say Carvalho's "Strategic Plan" may have overpromised is a massive understatement. It mostly looks like advertising for a timeshare company or, as I'm now familiar with, a Medicare Advantage plan. I saw virtually nothing about HOW he and his team propose to achieve these goals. And without "employees" and "labor partners" (don't say teachers unless you're discussing evaluation), I don't see how he'll accomplish any of it. At least he gave himself four years.
If it doesn't work, I'm sure he'll find someone to blame.
A couple last things and we'll get out of here. A lot of the self-promotion and overpromising is just ego. Now, a lot of bosses like to pretend they don't make mistakes, but faking the number of students at "Acceleration Days" and withholding the truth about the data breach are important indicators and not good ones.
There are also little things. I'm just saying that it's an open question why the "core beliefs" swapped out empowerment (2.2022) for collaboration today (irony?).
Whatever. I'm sure it has nothing to do with collaborating with teachers.
And the Blume article that got me started on all this had the following headline in print:
But somehow online the article is:
He’s bold, camera ready and loves Twitter, but
has L.A.’s schools chief uplifted students?
Questions.
When it comes to Year One of the Carvalho Common Era, everybody's got a take. The Daily Breeze in the South Bay asks the right question the right way with "One year in, LAUSD’s Carvalho has made many promises, what about results?" Yahoo got into the act with "Carvalho's first report cardas LAUSD superintendent: a few stumbles, but he can do better."
Howard Blume got me started thinking with his Los Angeles Times requisite front-pager on the Super. It's a pretty good job and the headline is was a gem. Anyway,
My sense is that. like every school superintendent ever, Carvalho's tenure--no matter how long it lasts--will be judged by how he manages his workforce. Teachers and support staff are looking for a bargaining partner, not a bully, and if the Super thinks he can strong-arm staff or ignore them, maybe he should talk to his predecessors. If he can find them.
Carvalho's own Strategic Plan, though it mostly ignores teachers except regarding evaluations, does contain the following:
"The ambitious goals we have set for ourselves and for our students require a clear focus on the recruitment, development, and retention of talented and dedicated staff."
Like much of management throughout the galaxy, Carvalho regards labor as the enemy, an impediment to his agenda, an obstacle that stands in the way of his vision. But as far as I can tell, he has a bunch of big ideas without much of a clue how to accomplish them. He's going to need help beyond programs, partnerships, and publicity. He's going to need teachers whether he likes it or not, whether he likes them or not.
Carvalho needs to stop posturing and get to work. Why?
Every teacher I've known has been the enemy at one time or another. It may have been remote and impersonal, like a newspaper article, denigration in Big Media, or disinformation on the socials -- Groomers! Pedophiles! Indoctrinators! Communists!
It might have been very personal, with a principal who resented being challenged with difficult questions, with a parent at a meeting with a struggling student, at Thanksgiving with your crazy uncle -- Groomer! Pedophile! Indoctrinator! Communist!
Some of that stuff is ignorance, some is probably fear, some of it is just bullies being bullies. The hardcore loony shit can be dangerous if, for example, you happen to be wearing a mask, or somelunatics decide they don't like you and want other lunatics to know where you work, where you live.
This bunch is unhinged and cruel, but they can be arrested, and sued. It's not a perfect answer, but at least the harassment is illegal.
I'd argue that the extralegal threats and intimidation are not sufficient for the reactionaries and fascists to achieve the outcomes they desire. Their activities must be buttressed by a legal framework. That's why the lasting damage, the real danger to teachers and schools and to students, the stuff that turns teachers into officially certified villains, is what's being done legally, through bills being passed to codify the intimidation and authorize the harassment. Which brings us to Florida, and Ron DeSantis.
I'm really angry, so I'm going to go on for a while. For a more concise, less DeSantis-is-a-fascist-y take, PEN America has this really good breakdown from last year. It reviews the Florida laws I discuss in this post, plus one that chills speech on college campuses.
Here goes...
Is Florida ground zero for the war on teachers? Or just an aggressive overachiever who refuses to lose?
If you've been paying any attention at all, you know that Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, is building his MAGA bona fides on the backs of teachers and a paranoid delusion called WOKE (They can't define it--SEL!DEI!-- but they know it when they see it and it's baaaad.). How bad is DeSantis? Let's just say he made Florida so repressive and disgusting even mini-despot and world class suit-wearer LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said "I'm out of here." Maybe the town just wasn't big enough for the both of them.
Side note: What, exactly, would be the opposite of "WOKE"?
I'd heard a lot about DeSantis's campaign versus teachers and schools, among other things, but I didn't really know anything beyond the smug nastiness oozing from news clips on the teevee machine (h/t Charles Pierce). Who is this tiny troll? As with so much addressed in the Answer Key corner of the world, I needed to educate myself in order to write about it.
Note: I have no first-hand information about the number of centimeters in one DeSantis (sources say 5' 9", 154 lbs. He looks bloated, right?), but he's certainly tiny on the inside.
Stipulate that the culture wars did not start in Florida, nor did they start three years ago with The Great COVID Conspiracy and a bunch of MAGA nuts and privileged white elites yelling "you're not the boss of me... er... my child!" while burning their masks in a ceremonial freedom bonfire while blaming teachers and their union! for school closures (instead of, you know, a deadly virus).
Stipulate further that Florida has spent years dumping brain cells into the Gulf of Mexico and is now seeing vastly increased return on that investment.
Ripeness is all, as the only Shake-scene in a country might say, and so we have the fusion reaction of stupidity, racism, ambition, and homophobia in one great supercollider and out pops Ron DeSantis on Crusade.
And the boy has been busy. Ron of Santis came out swinging, wielding the sword of self-righteousness as he vanquished the enemies of the realm one by one and two by two.
Start with COVID. Florida's response is instructive in a couple of ways.
I know this post is focused on laws, but I just have to say that if I'd seen DeSantis treat one of my students the way he bullied those kids at his photo-op for simply wearing masks, I'd have kicked his lawyer-not-a-real-SEAL ass right up between his ears. If you haven't seen this asshole working hard to be the biggest asshole, here he is:
In early 2020, DeSantis declared a public health emergency followed by a comprehensive state of emergency for the entire state of Florida. Within a couple of weeks DeSantis had issued "self-isolation" orders for travelers entering Florida (an action he blamed on other states and especially on New York City. In a nice touch, there was also a gratuitous shot at Florida's "southeastern counties and other urban cores").
In an additional "safer at home" executive order (signed April 1, ha ha), DeSantis continues to blame everybody else for making him order Floridians "to limit their movements and personal interactions outside of their home to only those necessary to obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities."
The notion of respecting the guidance and expertise of anyone not named DeSantis clearly grinds his gears. Thus, by the end of April 2020, DeSantis had "convened the Task Force to Re-Open Florida" and begun to do so.
On July 6, the Florida Department of Education ordered that "Upon reopening in August, all school boards and charter school governing boards must open brick and mortar schools at least five days per week for all students..." When the Florida teachers union sued DeSantis and Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran over safety concerns, DeSantis did what DeSantis does: He blamed somebody else. From Politico:
DeSantis on Monday put the order squarely at Corcoran’s feet and said it was meant to give parents the option of sending their children back to school.
“I didn’t give any executive order, that was the Department of Education,” DeSantis told reporters.
On September 25, the governor essentially lifted remaining restrictions. Cases immediately began to rise, with new cases peaking at over 15,000 per day in early January 2021 (up from about 2500 when DeSantis signed the order).
Even that wasn't good enough for the governor. Seeing which way the crazy wind was blowing and eager to ride the MAGA wave--and subsequent waves of COVID--DeSantis signed an order in May 2021 prohibiting local jurisdictions from implementing local restrictions and mandates. Three months later the state topped 50,000 new cases a day.
On a roll and giddy with power, with sights trained directly on the White House and President Biden, the governor called the Florida legislature into special session to finish the job and pass four anti-mandate laws into existence as part of his "freedom agenda." In true fratboy style, DeSantis signed the bills in November of 2021--in Brandon, Florida. In early January 2022, new cases spiked over 70,000 a day, reaching over 100,000 at one point before receding to previous levels.
DeSantis had ridden the waves without wiping out and that was it. Or was it? Reluctant to abandon a winning strategy and apparently wanting to get the most mileage out of being a dick, we got thisin January 2023: "Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Initiative to Make Protections from COVID Mandates Permanent, Enact New Protections for Free Speech for Medical Practitioners." I'm not sure what "permanent" means in a democracy, but the November laws were scheduled to end in June and DeSantis was not about to let go of a good thing.
In fact, he has upped the ante, now requesting a grand jury to investigate complaints about the vaccines, complaints that DeSantis amplifies and that are based on misinformation and junk science. Complaints that would be surprising to an earlier version of DeSantis who was at the time trying to keep his state alive and hadn't yet taken the temperature of the rubes and reprogrammable meat bags (h/t Rude Pundit). Here's a little video amuse-bouche of DeSantis's evolution.
I put you through all this for two reasons. One, DeSantis is an expert at finding what works. He has no principles except "I'm the boss!" and he will root around like a truffle hog until he finds that perfect blend of cruelty and sanctimony. He always has an audience because he's mean to the "right" people and there's nothing too big or too small for him be a dick about. He'll find the bright lights and run the perfect play. Over and over. For as long as it works.
Works at what? Two, DeSantis is entirely a creature of power. It is his only reason for being on the planet. With COVID, as with all things DeSantis, there is no number of dead people that will stand in the way of his ambition. Being the biggest dick in the room is existential for him. Sound familiar? Except DeSantis thinks strategically.
In June of 2021, while all the COVID hubbub was bubbling, DeSantis was expanding the battlefield in the culture wars. On June 1, 2021, the first day of Pride Month, DeSantis approved a bill that restricted athletes in public schools and colleges to sports teams based on their "biological sex at birth." Then on June 29, DeSantis approved the "Parents' Bill of Rights" establishing, among other things, the right of a parent "to direct the education and care of his or her minor child."
The sports bill, CS for CS for SB 1028, started out as "An act relating to charter schools" and had zero to do with sex, gender, or sports. After months of legislative chicanery it ended up as "An act relating to education," with an inserted section (Section 12. Section 1006.205, for those of you playing along at home).
Designed to address a problem that doesn't exist except in the Fox-addled minds of the MAGA base, the so-called "Fairness in Women’s Sports Act" amended Florida law to require "Interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, or club athletic teams or sports that are sponsored by a public secondary school or public postsecondary institution must be expressly designated as [male, female, or coed/mixed] based on the biological sex at birth of team members."
DeSantis got the librul tears he was looking for as the law prompted objections from Human Rights Campaign, the LGBTQ+ community, and of course Democrats. NPR reported on the bill signing:
"In Florida, girls are going to play girls sports and boys are going to play boys sports," Gov. Ron DeSantis said as he signed the bill into law at a private Christian academy in Jacksonville that would not be subject to the law.
COVID was kind of played and the governor had found a new passion. He was now all tingly over school kids and their naughty bits.
I'll put this here to draw the connection between the COVID DeSantis and the school DeSantis. (spoiler alert: it's the same asshole) This flyer concerns the November 2021 laws and comes from the governor's website.
So, again, November 2021, and you can see the school/family half of the menu starts with "nobody tells us what to do" bs about COVID and masks and quarantine, and it ends up with lawsuits and parents' rights and radical school boards. DeSantis runs a potent con and he doesn't hesitate to run it again and again.
By December, DeSantis adds race to his mission and goes to war with "woke," whatever the fuck that means. On 12/15 DeSantis announces his "Legislative Proposal to Stop W.O.K.E. Activism and Critical Race Theory in Schools and Corporations," described as "a legislative proposal that will give businesses, employees, children and families tools to fight back against woke indoctrination."
Side note: Teachers are aware of their limitations. I know if I'd had any power to indoctrinate I'd have washed their brains full of empathy, curiosity, and joy, not to mention a love for hard work and a passion for Shakespeare. Turned out I was just not that important or powerful.
Anyway, "Stop W.O.K.E." (with W.O.K.E. an acronym for the dopey "Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees") is such a hit as a follow-up to the great COVID rebellion that it played on all the stations right through the winter. By spring they were ready to roll.
In March we get the news on instructional materials with CS/HB 1467 which, among other things, outlines the clearance requirements for materials. There's also a requirement that each district school board create a process for parents to object to a specific material on any of several grounds. Pay extra attention to Florida statute s. 847.012! That's the "Harmful materials; sale or distribution to minors" portion of this freakshow, and you'll discover that any educator who provokes a parent objection takes a risk. It reads, in part, "Any person violating any provision of this section [which includes 'nudity' and 'narrative accounts of sexual excitement, or sexual conduct...that is harmful to minors'] commits a felony of the third degree." So long, Romeo & Juliet. Bye bye David. You guys had a good run.
After taking the weekend off, DeSantis was back at it again on Monday, March 28, as he signed CS/CS/HB 1557 , known as the "don't say gay" bill among those with a heartbeat and as the "Parental Rights" bill among Republicans. It builds on the "Parents' Bill of Rights" bill You can read it and make up your own mind, but for my money it does two things: prohibits discussion of " sexual orientation or gender identity" in grades kinder through 3 and to infinity and beyond if not "appropriate," and it forces educators to out their students to parents regardless of consequences for the kids.
Finally (if only), we get the right-wing orgasm they've been edging for since last year aka forever. DeSantis signs the Stop W.O.K.E./Individual Freedom Act CS/HB 7 on April 22, 2022.
It's true the college parts of the stopwoke circus were enjoined last November by Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker who called the law "positively dystopian." DeSantis then got called out for not working that hard to obey the injunction against stopwokeness in college. However, in January a new judge said the governor was doing just fine.
Seems the younger schoolkids are still being shielded from the WOKE, and the bill reveals a pattern of verbal trickery common to the Laws of DeSantis. At least. Let's have a look.
Part of the Act is a caution on teaching about race. See if you can find the traps. Okay, I'll help:
(3)The Legislature acknowledges the fundamental truth that all persons are equal before the law and have inalienable rights.[The bait. We're all friends here.] Accordingly, instruction and supporting materials on the topics enumerated in this section must be consistent with the following principles of individual freedom:
(a) No person is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex. [Strawman.]
(b) No race is inherently superior to another race. [Convinced? Agree?]
(c) No person should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, disability, or sex. [Wait...What? Can you define that?]
(d) Meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are not racist but fundamental to the right to pursue happiness and be rewarded for industry. [What are we talking about again? Dog whistle. Also, There's a fundamental right to be rewarded for industry?]
(e) A person, by virtue of his or her race or sex, does not bear responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex. [What if the person continues to benefit from those actions? Or do we want students to think racism is just... over? And responsibility to do what?]
(f) A person should not be instructed that he or she must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress for actions, in which he or she played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex. [The switch. Strawman, sure, but mostly gobbledygook cobbled together to get them where they always wanted to go: Shut up about race.]
(all emphasis and commentary mine)
It's a con, a bait and switch, a rhetorical flimflam. They use vague wiggle words so the boss can decide what they mean. Who adjudicates the words "adverse treatment"? Who decides when "may" becomes "must"? This allows the perps to deny the real meaning, purpose, and predictable effect of the law while satisfying the crazies.
Whether it's Orwellian or Lewis Carrollian, DeSantis and the De-Lites use language to deflect and enrage. Hence we get this doozy from the governor:
“No one should be instructed to feel as if they are not equal or shamed because of their race,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida.”
In keeping with tradition, they run this con over and over--and by "they" I mean DeSantis (the royal "They"). Regarding Don't say gay Parental Rights CS/CS/HB 1557, the Tampa Bay Times reported:
The text of the seven-page bill never mentions the word “gay.” Its vague provisions offer few details for how the ban on teacher-led instruction of gender and sexuality will be implemented in Florida’s public schools and yet both sides say they understand precisely what the intent is.
Then the paper went on to frame it as an "opponents say" to describe a bill that, indeed, "both sides" precisely understand:
Opponents warned it is a solution in search of a problem because the primary provisions of the bill — banning teacher-led discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade — is a subject currently not taught in public schools. They say the law is intentionally vague, intended to suppress talk of gender inclusiveness in schools, intimidate teachers into avoiding the topic and target LGBTQ students. (emphasis mine)
Yes. Yes it is.
The sponsors of this perversion repeatedly say "nuh uh!" when confronted with the obvious intent of their fuckery. They are lying.
Doublespeak--descended from the marriage of Orwellian binary stars Newspeak and doublethink--is deliberately ambiguous language and allows a reader to think words mean one thing while the writer can claim they meant something different.
But they (DeSantis) are not actually that interested in hiding their intentions. For example, in the stopwoke bill, almost every reference to "gender" is replaced with the word "sex," and every time the term is used with regard to protection against discrimination. In "don't say gay," "gender" appears twice, both times followed by "identity" and both times to tell everybody what not to talk about. "Gender" doesn't come up at all in the materials bill which is, I suppose, meant to warn teachers and librarians off everything to do with gendersex.
Even though everyone understands what the laws mean (and who they're meant for), I guess I was still surprised that the laws didn't say exactly what I expected from what I had heard. Turns out, the vagueness is the villainy and also the point. In trainings, out of the TV lights and away from the podium, the rules are being... clarified.
Librarians are being trained to "err on the side of caution" when considering materials. Here's the slideshow, from the Florida DOE. And here's the slide:
Here's a reminder about the law:
s. 847.012 is the pornography statute. How do you know if it's pornography? Glad you asked:
Need more? Here's part of what's illegal:
Harmful to minors? Who decides that? Guess:
Still not sure if Romeo and Juliet is okay? Before you decide, have a look at the penalty:
Like they said, err on the side of caution.
If you're thinking, "Well at least they're trying to protect librarians and media specialists," ask yourself if you trust any of them to decide or even know what "predominantly," "offensive," or "serious" "value" mean. Educators are being threatened and told they will be subject to severe penalties if they don't interpret the statutes correctly. Words can mean just what they want them to mean, and everybody knows what that means.
If you're thinking, "Well, that's for librarians. I'm a teacher," just stop.
You should be thinking, "First they came for the librarians..." Or maybe, "Nice career. Be a shame if something happened to it."
Anyway, the law applies to everybody and everything instructional. "instructional material."
You don't need a crystal ball. It's happening right now as Manatee County errs on the side of caution. Florida is leaving no doubt about what is expected. Here's a video! courtesy of Duvall County.
Who wouldn't be silenced cautious when you risk losing your job for getting too close to a very fuzzy and sinister line.
And just like the COVID con, DeSantis knows a good thing when he sees it and he is going to ride that train all the way. You will not be surprised to see that he has re-upped his war on teachers for another season. On January 23 he announced something called--I shit you not--a "Teacher’s Bill of Rights" that would, in his words, "increase teacher pay, support teacher empowerment and protect teachers’ paychecks by ensuring they have control over their hard-earned salary.”
He called it a "huge package," but he may have been just boasting.
The "agenda" is essentially a recipe for breaking the union with cash prizes and permission to beat up kids as incentives. I'm not kidding. This, from the governor's website:
This proposal will establish teacher empowerment provisions in law and will include these main provisions:
Establish a new process for individuals to notify the state of a violation of teachers’ rights and ensure that the Department of Education can investigate those claims.
Empower teachers to maintain safe classroom environments by creating a “stand your ground” classroom safety policy to protect teachers who are often judged unfairly for maintaining order and safety in their classrooms.
Clarify that teachers have the choice to join their local teachers union and will not face any repercussions if they opt not to join.
Providing civil remedies for teachers who are asked to violate Florida law and punished by their employers for standing up for what is right.
It's a bribe for teachers to demolish their own union. And DeSantis is not stopping at high school. Those college perfessers are a thorn in his side, too:
The Governor’s proposal will create more accountability and transparency for public sector unions, including K-12 teacher unions and higher education unions.
Public sector unions. Hmm... That covers a lot of ground. However, it is not at all clear that the "accountability" includes unions that support the governor such as as firefighters and police. Sounding a little like a kid scared of getting the only spanking, union leader Terrie Brady wondered. This, from WJXT television in Jacksonville:
Terrie Brady, President of Duval Teachers United, questioned why DeSantis is targeting teachers unions and not other unions like those used by police and firefighters.
“In Duval County, we have four or five other unions here that represent members in the exact same way. They do collective bargaining, they have dues deduction, they are a stand-alone, they represent grievances due process, all sorts of things. Maybe it’s because we are the largest, you know, that could that could be it, maybe it’s because we are politically active,” Brady said. “I do want to stress that no union dues are used for political activities.”
Yes, do stress that. And I'm pretty sure "politically active" doesn't tell the whole story of why you're getting shit on. I'm sure that if you just gave up the idea that history happened and all kids should be protected and have equal rights, you might get out of the doghouse. But maybe not. DeSantis needs somebody in there that he can be tougher than.
If you are wondering how teachers got to be the bad guys, you are definitely in the right place. Of course, it's complicated.
Take a profit-driven industry pissed off about labor costs,
Mix in a bunch of taxpayers pissed off about paying taxes,
Sift together free-market monomania, political ambition and religious fanaticism,
Marinate in racism, sexism, and a scoop of toxic nostalgia (at least overnight, over centuries is best),
Stir in memories of all the terrible teachers you ever hated and
Voilà!
We have definitely been depicted as villains; let's take a look at how and why.
Teachers are viewed by the privileged and powerful as the delivery systems for dangerous ideas such as LGBTQ+ rights and race equity (don't say anti-racism!) and, of course, income equality. Therefore, educators are at the nexus of legislation prescribing what can and can not be taught (and how), and the implementation of those laws. In other words, teachers are responsible for sanctioning and distributing certain kinds of knowledge while delegitimizing and withholding others.
We'll start with the laws. I'll focus on "CRT," sex, and "parents' rights" for now and leave most of the mask mishegoss for next post when we'll get to the who and why of all the bashing. (For those of you looking for a school choice rage party, please be patient.)
It's not just for Florida anymore. It never was.
UCLA School of Law has a CRT Forward Tracking Project. It has an interactive map and, as they describe it, "includes state and federal legislation but also goes much further, into areas where systematic research tools are sparse. It tracks actions by school boards and other local governments, as well as non-legislative actions at the state level, such as regulations, executive directives and attorney general opinions."
The ACLU has an interactive chart "Mapping Attacks on LGBTQ Rights in U.S. State Legislature[s]" that links to the text of bills and provides each bill's status.
Parents' Rights are all the rage, and they serve as the rich canopy under which anti-CRT, "don't say gay," and rules for book-banning and outing kids to their parents, can grow and flourish. These PR bills may take first place in the "words mean what I want them to mean" race.
Most of what's in most of the bills is a rehash--this time louder and in ALL CAPS--of stuff parents already have and can do. Section 445 of the General Education Provisions Act (first passed in the 1970s and re-upped in 2020) gives parents the right to view instructional materials and opt their students out of surveys and "analysis" based on challenged materials. When it comes to sex, most states already require parent notification and offer an opt-out (or opt-in) to families. That doesn't stop these folks from passing the same "new" law over and over. Red meat eaters need red meat.
They get away with birthing this calamity in part because the laws hurt the people the base wants hurt, and partly through rhetorical legerdemain. The language of the bills is both redundant and deliberately ambiguous. Concepts like "age-appropriate" and "unsuitable" rely on nonexistent good faith and invite parent/?/activists and the billionaires who own them to contest lessons and materials that conflict with their personal (corporations are too persons!) ideologies.
As a result, the laws that claim to promote transparency and protect a parent's right to "direct" their child's education function as a way for those parents to also direct the educations of other parents' kids. Rights for me, not so much for thee.
The bonus is the ability for parents to sue for damages and costs along with "injunctive relief" if the school district does not rectify the issue to the parent's satisfaction. This is the main mechanism for chilling speech and erasing disfavored knowledge, experience, history, and people from the public conversation that occurs in schools.
If you're thinking that most people won't go so far as to sue a school, or that they can't afford to, you might be right. But there are a lot of interested groups that are eager to finance just such an effort, and as anyone who has worked in a school can tell you, the bosses are terrified of lawsuits. So terrified you don't actually have to bring them. Maybe one or two.
Reminds me of The Maltese Falcon:
Gutman: "Well, sir, there are other means of persuasion besides killing and threatening to kill."
"Sure," Spade agreed, "but they're not much good unless the threat of death is behind them to hold the victim down."
Of course not all of these legislative grenades make the national news and when they do, as in the New York Timeshere and the Washington Posthere, NBC here and ABC here, the reports have often just reviewed some of the hundreds of bills proposed. And in Congress, a federal "Parents' Bill of Rights Act" remains under the radar and has so far made barely a ripple.
Even when it does occur, reporting on the bills is usually smothered in partisan horse-race "analysis" that rarely pierces the veneer of process and "for the children" bad faith. Instead, these articles split their inches between dramatic horror stories from the frontlines and tedious "who's winning?" back-and-forth conflict porn.
What is much harder to find is an honest investigation into the origin and purpose of these culture wars. Kathryn Joyce who writes for Salon and Vanity Fair among others, has this, about which we will hear more next time (Vanity Fair also has this and this.) The New Yorker has this and that.
...Network for Public Education@Network4pubEdwebsite (boasting a team that includes Executive Director Carol Corbett Burris@carolburrisand Leonie Haimson @leoniehaimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters), and on...
...Diane Ravitch's essential blog that serves as a crucial platform for amplifying these voices along with many others.
For the digitally inclined, Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider are masters of the domain with their podcast, Have you Heard.
For the enlightened and antediluvian, there are books! I haven't read them all, but I'm still young (at heart) and still learning. The following titles are a sample of those I've either bought, started, finished, or had recommended to me.
There is a lot more than culture wars legislation in the work of these writers. If you want to know what's really going on out there, you should start here. Read their stuff. Listen to it. Follow them on twitter. Don't spend your career in a silo like I did.
Next up, the guest of honor. The hero responsible for bringing together all the bad ideas and shitting them out as a state-sized turd hanging off the asshole of the country. Florida Man.
