Friday News Roundup

It’s Friday. Here’s your News Roundup.

Texas Tech’s Limits on Gender Identity Discussion Deepen Fears of Politics Breaching Academic Freedom (The Texas Tribune)

Last week ABPTL reported that Angelo State University, an institute of higher education within the Texas Tech University System, decided to ban classroom discussions of transgender identities.

Now it seems the entire Texas Tech University System is following Angelo State’s lead. The Texas Tribune reported last week that,

“In a first for Texas higher education, the Texas Tech University System has ordered faculty across its five universities to limit classroom discussion of transgender and nonbinary identities but gave little guidance on how academic endeavors or instruction should proceed.”

The last time I checked Texas Tech and its companion campuses were publicly funded enterprises. Publicly funded means Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, pro-transgender and anti-transgender citizenry pay to support those campuses.

A publicly supported institute of higher education cannot take this position, if they want to be considered, and funded, as a public institution.

Texas Investigation into Teachers’ Post after Charlie Kirk’s Death Violates Their Free Speech, Experts Say (The Texas Tribune)

Texas, along with other states, has been quick to go after classroom teachers whose posts, according to Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, were “reprehensible and inappropriate.”

The Texas Tribune reported this week that,

“The Texas Education Agency investigation into teachers’ social media comments after Charlie Kirk’s killing has legal experts and public education advocates troubled by what they say amounts to a ‘witch hunt’ that shows a lack of regard for educators’ free speech rights.”

…

“Legal experts and public education advocates say the state’s reaction to remarks about Kirk – who often made comments and promoted rhetoric many found hateful, inappropriate and reprehensible – is an attack on teachers’ right to express their opinions on matters of public significance, even if their employer finds them distasteful.”

“’What’s especially troubling is the political pressure surrounding these investigations and the demands coming from the highest officials in the state that teachers face investigation and punishment for their comments about a public figure,’ said Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.”

“Public school employees do not surrender their First Amendment rights when they take the job, Terr said. When teachers speak in their personal capacity, even on school grounds but outside their official duties, they retain their right to free speech, he said.”

Like most issues today, this conflict is headed to the courts to decide. I can’t imagine how backlogged our judicial system is these days.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Indiana Wants Reading Gains Before Paying (The 74)

According to a recent post from The 74,

“Indiana doesn’t have a plan to solve middle school students’ reading struggles, so the state is looking to hire private tutoring companies to ‘put your money where you mouth is,’ with pay dependent on results.”

We’ve been down this road before. When I worked in a large urban school district in Texas, the school board passed a pay for performance resolution, meaning teachers would be rewarded with bonuses based on student improvement in reading and math.

Teachers, especially members of the teacher unions, hated it. They hated it so much that eventually the school board dropped the issue and changed its policy.

One of the problems with our traditional K-12 system is that adult learning leaders have little accountability when it comes to making students smarter and stronger. And one has to think that accountability will never enter the profession (if there is no accountability regarding desired outcomes, can it really be considered a profession?) as long as the main characters have the ability to keep receiving a paycheck while kids continue to struggle with their reading and math skills.

Ryan Walters’ Oklahoma Tenure Offered ‘Microcosm’ of Trump’s Education Overhaul (The 74)

The 74 reported this week that,

“Just after taking office in 2023, Oklahoma education chief Ryan Walters removed portraits of respected educators from the walls of the state education department, calling the move a blow to ‘bureaucrats and unions.’”

“He began opening monthly board meetings with a Christian prayer, released a video about protecting children from transgender students, and fired employees at odds with his agenda. The next two and a half years were marked by a steady stream of edicts, incendiary statements and disruptions that included bomb threats, funding delays and conflicts with state officials.”

…

“As Walters leaves his post as state superintendent to head the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a national anti-union organization, Oklahomans say his turbulent administration offered a preview of the Trump administration’s ‘move-fast-and-break-things’ approach to overhauling education. Despite rhetoric about educators ‘closest to the child’ knowing what’s best in the classroom, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, like Walters, has embraced an aggressive, top-down approach that frequently targets teachers for an assortment of perceived ills, from equity policies to protecting the rights of LGBTQ students.”

And still no talk from Secretary McMahon, or Ryan Walters for that matter, regarding a plan to make kids smarter and stronger in their reading, writing, and problem-solving skills – especially those black, brown, and poor kids.

What exactly are they working on?

SEL by Another Name? Political Pushback Prompts Rebranding (EducationWeek)

At a time when our youngsters are hurting, it seems like we adults would embrace strategies designed to help them feel better about themselves and their world.

That’s what social-emotional learning was designed to do, until policymakers decided to demonize the movement as something nothing more than a “wokeness disguise.”

Now, it seems that a rebranding effort has emerged, trying to name the process by which kids learn how to feel better about themselves and others as anything but social-emotional learning, or SEL.

That rebranding probably won’t work. Just as decision-makers comb grant applications or governmental reports for social-emotional language, they will do the same with the rebranding language.

In the meantime, kids continue to suffer in the classroom and out.

Education Department Out-of-Office Emails Changed to Blame Democrats for Shutdown, Staff Say (EducationWeek)

Honestly, I’m not making this up.

According to EducationWeek,

“Staff furloughed from the U.S. Department of Education say their out-of-office emails blaming Democratic senators for the federal government shutdown were set up without their permission – and they raise concerns about violations of the federal law that prohibits government employees from using their positions for political activities.”

I uncovered middle school pranks more evolved than this.

Whether you believe Democrats would do the same thing given the opportunity or not, this is how our American government, at least inside the Department of Education, is working, or not working, these days.

Embarrassing.