By Anna Gilchrist | September 11, 2024
Our children are finally back in school, often an exciting time to see friends they missed during the summer, meet new ones, and discover new skills and ideas that will aid them in their development.
Unfortunately, their schools are being attacked and urgently need our help. Conservative extremist groups are going after school counties, effectively working to defund our schools and take away the rights of our students to learn in a safe school environment. Their moves are significantly impacting our students of various backgrounds, including Black, Brown, disabled, and trans children.
This can be put to a stop, but it requires action from us: parents, educators, and advocates for students. We must be proactive and let our presence be known to stop the influx of dangerous and harmful actions being placed on our students, teachers, librarians, and school administrators.
Here are four ways we can change the narrative and help our public schools from conservative extremism:
Be informed.
In the Emmy-winning TV show (and one of my favorites), Abbott Elementary, when Ms. Janine Teagues (Quinta Brunson) and other teachers have problems with resources or facilities in their school, they often times have to reach out to “the District” - the name used to refer to the Philadelphia school district where they teach - to get them resolved.
Although it is mentioned in a fictional sitcom, it is similar to how it works with public schools nationwide. In the public school system, the school district is where the big decisions are being made about all your child’s schools, their teachers, and the curriculum they’re learning.
It is also why many conservative extremist groups, like Moms for Liberty, are taking up space in these spaces of power to change what and how our schools are teaching our students, infusing our students’ educational programs with book bans, misinformation, and white supremacy.
That is why we must be informed and proactive. Find out what is happening in your child’s school district, who is the superintendent, and in other leadership positions. Check to see what is on their agenda for the school year, then prepare to share with other parents at the next PTA meeting and other community events. That way, your community can come together to organize and develop a plan to stop this extremism from happening in your school county.
Attend school board meetings, vote in school board elections.
Make time to attend school board meetings and make your voice heard! Also, make sure to vote in the school board elections. Many extremists have been able to infiltrate our school boards by being elected with little pushback due to the lack of awareness from the public.
Fortunately, that is no longer the case; many families and educators are fighting back. In the state of Florida, for example, where the extremist movement has had a lot of traction and is being led by a self-proclaimed “anti-WOKE” governor, Ron DeSantis, it recently experienced several losses in several school board elections across the state, demonstrating the power of our voices and love for our students do get results.
Stop Project 2025…Full stop.
Project 2025, a nearly 1000-page conservative manifesto by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation that explains what will happen when the next conservative President is elected, states that they will completely remove the U.S. Department of Education and significantly reduce funding to public schools.
Make no mistake, this move will be detrimental to U.S. public education and will predominately affect students with disabilities and from lower-income families, especially Black and Brown students. We simply cannot allow this time to happen, so we must make it a priority to show up and vote this November for the Presidential, Senate, and Congress candidates that are about ensuring all of our children - not just the kids of the rich - get a fair opportunity to learn, grow, and eventually make a difference in our society.
Our children deserve to learn in a safe, equitable, and free educational environment. With our awareness and organization, we can stop the infringement of their right to a free education and ensure they have a safe school year full of excitement and boundless learning!
Sources:
Anna Gilchrist is a children's author, child rights advocate, and founder of her media company, Sandfish Publishing. She received her dual BFAs in Political Science and Theatre Arts at Virginia Tech, and her MFA in Childhood Studies at Swansea University in Wales. When she is not writing, she loves to spend her free time cooking gourmet meals, singing and dancing to 90's hits, and tending to her multiple plants in her New Jersey home.
コメント