This blog on Texas education contains posts on higher education, as well as preK-12 policy accountability, testing, bilingual education, immigration, school finance, race, class, and gender issues at both the state and national level. It also represents my digital footprint, of life and career, as a community-engaged scholar in Texas.
Online voter registration is what's increasingly the norm nationally, and it's more cost-effective than the paper system we currently have in place. Just think about it. Why aren't we already doing this as it would dramatically cut administrative costs to implement? Your guess is certainly the right answer. It supports voter suppression, helping to preserve the incumbencies of those in power.
As I've said before, Texas is not a red state. It's an oppressed one. This, too, will change, but as this piece shows, it's still an uphill climb.
This piece provides evidence on how racism and anti-semitism are on the rise in Texas schools. It's interesting, if not predictable, to note that this is happening at the same time that books and materials, including those designed to challenge racial, sexist, and homophobic hatred are limiting what can get taught in the schools. This creates a vacuum in knowledge and information that risks getting filled by other readily accessible online communities that promote hatred and violence.
This vitriol then manifests at school board meetings where parents refer to race and gender justice texts as "porn," when what is really obscene is the racial hatred that plays out in school environments as youth take cues from adults, including from government leaders and members of the legislature who are happy to perpetuate fallacies, most especially, an ethnically-cleansed curriculum that's non-inclusive and thusly, narrow and harmful.
I think that most Texas students, their parents, and Texans, generally, find this to be both reprehensible and unacceptable, but those perpetrating these harms are often the loudest voices. I'm glad to see the federal government stepping in on behalf of these aggrieved students. Read for yourselves the IDRA statement here that expresses the following:
"The complaints list a number of demands for resolution, including revised district anti-harassment, anti-discrimination and anti-bullying policies; training of school and district staff on Title VI and appropriate school discipline practices; effective and age-appropriate prevention programs for students; systems for student and family input; alternatives to exclusionary discipline placement, such as restorative practices; an external evaluator to regularly assess the educational climate and effectiveness of policies; and annual reports posted online summarizing the reports of racial bullying and harassment."
These corrosive and toxic dynamics have to change if we are to prevent racial, religious, and other forms of harassment and violence in our schools. Anti-racist curriculum and pedagogy together with policies like Ethnic Studies that support their teaching, are also steps in the right direction. There is a bill this session, House Bill 45, an Ethnic Studies bill authored by Rep. Christina Morales, is what merits specific support. And now is the time to rally for it as a way to move positively forward.
LUBBOCK — Parents, full of anger and disbelief, have confronted school leaders in the Lubbock area over a series of racist and antisemitic incidents in several schools.
In total, four separate incidents have come to light in recent weeks.
Two episodes — both involving Black students targeted in constant bullying by their peers and inaction by school officials, parents say — have led to separate federal civil rights lawsuits.
At the heart of the two lawsuits is the pain parents say their children have endured as a result of months of constant and violent bullying — including an Instagram account that posted photos of Black students from a Lubbock middle school with racist captions, and racial discrimination by school officials against students at the high school in Slaton, about 17 miles south of Lubbock.
A third South Plains school district — Roosevelt ISD — had a parent file a federal complaint against them for racial discrimination by school officials. There, a mother took her daughter out of school after she claims school officials targeted her child for undue disciplinary actions.
Meanwhile, a threatening antisemitic petition was passed around by a student at another Lubbock middle school. Parents say they are disappointed the school hasn’t had a strong response.
On their own, these might seem like isolated incidents of school-age angst. However, racially driven and antisemitic incidents are on the rise in Texas. And now four different school districts in the South Plains are facing tensions emblematic of the widespread problem. Instead of addressing it directly, parents say school officials try to sweep the issues under the rug.
Lubbock-Cooper ISD — which includes Laura Bush Middle School, where the Instagram account was based — declined to comment on the federal lawsuit.
“Racism has no place at any school within Lubbock-Cooper ISD,” the district added in a statement. “It is not a reflection of our beliefs as a school and it completely contradicts the virtues we wish to instill in our students.”
Black students at the Laura Bush Middle School in Lubbock-Cooper ISD were allegedly bullied over months, including with an Instagram account that posted photos of them with racist captions. Credit: Mark Rogers for The Texas Tribune
Wow! Carroll ISD is moving several steps backward based on this 5-1 school board vote striking gender, religion and sexual orientation from their nondiscrimination statement. It denies many youth protections and send a wrong, terrible message, especially for a district that already seems plagued by prejudicial woes as captured in the infamous Southlake podcast that I encourage all to listen to. My hope is that this district is the exception and not the rule, and also that the Dignity for all Texas Students group opposing this, ultimately prevails.
The amendment, which was passed 5-1, means the statement will simply say the district “does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age in its programs and activities.”
The Carroll ISD Administration Center photographed on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, in Southlake. (Juan Figueroa / The Dallas Morning News)(Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer)
SOUTHLAKE — The code of conduct for Southlake students will strike references to gender identity, sexual orientation and religion from its nondiscrimination statement, the Carroll ISD school board voted Monday.
The amendment, which passed 5-1, means the statement will simply say the district “does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age in its programs and activities.” The statement previously included the words “religion,” “gender” and “sexual orientation.”Board member Michelle Moore was the sole vote opposed. After the vote was cast, Moore told The News she was disappointed in the school board.
Sharing this, knowing that some lucky person will benefit from this opportunity.
Best of luck! -Angela
***
Good morning Angela,
I hope this finds you having an excellent semester. I work at a nonprofit called MANOS in Oaxaca and we are happy to announce our eighth immigration advocate training will be here in Oaxaca, Mexico from January 2nd through the 13th, 2023. We are hoping you would be so kind as to share this announcement with any networks you think would be interested in this opportunity. We still have a couple spaces left!!
In partnership with the Oaxacan non-profit MANOS: Migrantes Apoyados, No Olvidados, this training is a two-week program at Centro Ollin Tlahtoalli with an emphasis on language (Spanish or Zapotec) and enhancing intercultural awareness through learning opportunities with community leaders, human rights defenders, lawyers, and language teachers. We have found that through this dynamic combination of seminars and visits to local Indigenous communities, U.S.-based immigration advocates who work for and with immigrant communities learn how to better support, assist, and learn from the people they serve who come from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
Here is the link to learn more about the courses and experiences offered:
All profits from this training go to support the work of MANOS to offer free legal services to Oaxacan migrants, to families of “disappeared” migrants, and to refugees. Visit the MANOS website at www.manosoaxaca.org to learn more.
Ollin Tlahtoalli is a Spanish and Culture Center founded in 2007 in Oaxaca, Mexico by a small group of Oaxacan teachers and educators. Ollin Tlahtoalli is a Spanish school founded on the principles of community engagement and social justice through education. Ollin Tlahtoalli is committed to our Oaxacan people and the many educational and social needs of the people. In addition to providing Spanish courses for international students, Ollin offers free English lessons to Oaxacan artisans, art-identity workshops in Indigenous communities and professional development opportunities for local teachers. Ollin Tlahtoalli is the main organizer of the International Assembly for Community Development Across Borders, a gathering of community leaders, organizers, land defenders, artists, students and academics interested in creating strong and active networks of support across borders. (2018, 2019). One of our main goals is to create critically informed language and culture programs that can bring together local and international communities of students and educators alike.
I've been tracking this—and just catching up to the latest here in Texas on free speech. Adopting the Chicago Statement is a great move in the right direction as it supports free speech by university faculty. According to scholars Berube and Ruth (2022), extremist campaigns against free speech work to create the impression that the university is little different from the marketplace of journalism when it is.
Berube and Ruth argue that the academic freedom that we professors not solely enjoy, but earn through our formal training as scholars and researchers, is "vetted speech" when we speak from our own expertise.
According to these scholars, and as mentioned in my earlier post, "both-sidism" is an untenable proposition. It is the misguided notion that impartiality, where one speaks even-handedly to "both sides" of an issue, is a balanced view. However, it is not sustainable when considering that not all opinions are equal, on the one hand, and when there can be many sides to an issue, on the other.
This statement lends important support to existing state policy, namely, Senate Bill 18 passed in the 86th (2019) Texas Legislative Session by Republicans in response to attempts in recent years, to silence conservative voices.
I had learned previously of the Chicago Statement and thought, "It would be so great if UT could adopt this." And it just happened for the entire UT System, literally a few days ago!
It protects free speech for academics across the political spectrum that at least for now, provides a great deal of support and backing for the work that we all do—and the voice that we give to that work.
Of course, the UT System knows that failing to protect free speech is anathema to democracy, and ending it would irreparably cripple higher education in Texas. My wishes don't often become true so quickly, so life is good right now.
I pray that this very positive development means one less fight in the next session of the legislature that begins soon in January. We can only hope.
The Board of Regents adopted the Chicago Statement, a free speech policy created by the University of Chicago in 2014. More than 90 institutions have adopted the statement.
Protesters gather in front of the UT Tower to protest President Donald Trump's inauguration in 2017. The UT System Board of Regents approved a commitment to free speech Thursday. Credit:Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune
The University of Texas System Board of Regents adopted a formal policy Thursday expressing its commitment to free speech on its campuses.
The board unanimously approved adopting the Chicago Statement, a declaration of commitment to free speech that was penned for the University of Chicago in 2014.
According to the statement, the board “guarantees all members of the UT System the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn.” It reads, “debate or deliberation may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most individual members of the UT System community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or wrong-headed.”
The UT System reserves the ability to restrict speech that breaks the law or constitutes a threat, among other examples.
“Why the Chicago Statement? As my friend, [Purdue University President] Mitch Daniels said, when Purdue was one of the early institutions to adopt it, we didn’t see how we could improve upon the language, and I think we share that sentiment,” UT System Chancellor James Milliken said to the Board of Regents at its regular meeting.
The statement “does reinforce the board’s already existing commitment to free speech on our campuses,” Milliken added, “but I think it’s an important statement from the governing board for the university system.”
The University of Texas Senate of College Councils, an intercollegiate student government at University of Texas at Austin, endorsed the board’s decision.
“The Senate of College Councils supports free speech for individuals to advocate for their needs, especially at a time when political actors are attacking the academic freedom to teach and to learn,” it said in a statement from Communications Director Vaishnavi Kothakonda. “In the future, we hope to work with the University to ensure that free speech applies to all students and faculty.”
“In many universities and systems, the existing [free speech] policies are a sort of patchwork of policy decisions,” said Jeremy Young, the senior manager of free expression and education at PEN America, a nonprofit that seeks to protect free expression in the U.S. and worldwide.
“The value of adopting the Chicago Statement is in making a clear, declarative statement that sets a set of principles” for how free speech will work at the UT System, Young added. “This pulls free expression out to the front and makes it a preeminent goal and focus of the institution, as it should be.”
Ninety-one other academic institutions across the country, including University of Texas at San Antonio, have adopted the Chicago Statement, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit that aims to protect free speech rights on college campuses.
In 2019, Texas passed a law requiring universities to allow anyone to speak freely while on campus and to create disciplinary sanctions for students who interfere with others’ free speech.
Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at San Antonio and University of Texas System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
Just came across this earlier piece from Oct. 14, 2021 as I was trying to get updated on the latest news out of the Carroll Independent School District (CISD) located in Southlake, Texas. Know that this is an affluent district undergoing a lot of demographic change.
Book banning. Closing class libraries. Vetting books. "Both-sidism" about the Holocaust and slavery. This all sounds so Medieval and backwards.
There are so many layers here. For one, if you listen to the Southlake podcast, you can hear for yourselves the expressed racial animus that is raw and unhinged. Geez, anti-blackness manifests recklessly with students using the "N-word" gratuitously—like this is exactly how many of their families talk at home. This kind of language is diametrically opposite that of what should be happening in a multiracial democracy.
Another layer is a real misinterpretation of the law. Folks in CISD are interpreting and trying to implement SB 3979 when it's SB 3 that's the actual law they need to be following as expressed in the article below. Plus, "Critical Race Theory" doesn't even appear in the actual bill. Nor is it taught in K-12 education, period. And not even that much in higher education. I should know about this. I've taught CRT for many years now.
The irony of all of this is that it is these very families and this very community could really benefit from considering alternative perspectives and viewpoints in history.
I read somewhere that districts like CISD, Eanes, and other places that are having these difficulties are the same ones that are undergoing the most demographic change which means a de-centering of whiteness. N.B. Will have to track down the exact source. Another irony is that SB 3, if you actually read the law, could be far worse. It does accord teachers a great deal of latitude in their teaching. How this all gets interpreted at the local level is what Southlake and Eanes are about, demonstrating how "policy implementation," isn't as straightforward a matter as one might expect from the passage of policy.
A deeper concern is a normalizing of extremism through the marshaling of cliches like "fairness" and "balance" as a defense.
I'm glad to see that the NAACP has filed a lawsuit there. Wishing civil rights attorney, Gary Bledsoe, and the NAACP Defense team great success in challenging the discrimination, and ultimately, the gratuitous prejudice, that is sadly, in full display.
SOUTHLAKE, Texas — A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.
Gina Peddy, the Carroll school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the comment Friday afternoon during a training session on which books teachers can have in classroom libraries. The training came four days after the Carroll school board, responding to a parent’s complaint, voted to reprimand a fourth grade teacher who had kept an anti-racism book in her classroom.
A Carroll staff member secretly recorded the Friday training and shared the audio with NBC News.
“Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Peddy said in the recording, referring to a new Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust,” Peddy continued, “that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”
“How do you oppose the Holocaust?” one teacher said in response.
Another teacher wondered aloud if she would have to pull down “Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry, or other historical novels that tell the story of the Holocaust from the perspective of victims. It’s not clear if Peddy heard the question in the commotion or if she answered.
Peddy did not respond to messages requesting comment. In a written response to a question about Peddy’s remarks, Carroll spokeswoman Karen Fitzgerald said the district is trying to help teachers comply with the new state law and an updated version that will go into effect in December, Texas Senate Bill 3.
“Our district recognizes that all Texas teachers are in a precarious position with the latest legal requirements,” Fitzgerald wrote, noting that the district’s interpretation of the new Texas law requires teachers to provide balanced perspectives not just during classroom instruction, but in the books that are available to students in class during free time. “Our purpose is to support our teachers in ensuring they have all of the professional development, resources and materials needed. Our district has not and will not mandate books be removed nor will we mandate that classroom libraries be unavailable.”
Fitzgerald said that teachers who are unsure about a specific book “should visit with their campus principal, campus team and curriculum coordinators about appropriate next steps.”
Clay Robison, a spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association, a union representing educators, said there’s nothing in the new Texas law explicitly dealing with classroom libraries. Robison said the book guidelines at Carroll, a suburban school district near Fort Worth, are an “overreaction” and a “misinterpretation” of the law. Three other Texas education policy experts agreed.
“We find it reprehensible for an educator to require a Holocaust denier to get equal treatment with the facts of history,” Robison said. “That’s absurd. It’s worse than absurd. And this law does not require it.”
State Sen. Bryan Hughes, an East Texas Republican who wrote Senate Bill 3, denied that the law requires teachers to provide opposing views on what he called matters of “good and evil” or to get rid of books that offer only one perspective on the Holocaust.
“That’s not what the bill says,” Hughes said in an interview Wednesday when asked about the Carroll book guidelines. “I’m glad we can have this discussion to help elucidate what the bill says, because that’s not what the bill says.”
Six Carroll teachers — including four who were in the room to hear Peddy’s remarks — spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity, worried that they would be punished for discussing their concerns publicly. They said district leaders have sent mixed messages about which books are appropriate in classrooms and what actions they should be taking.
“Teachers are literally afraid that we’re going to be punished for having books in our classes,” an elementary school teacher said. “There are no children’s books that show the ‘opposing perspective’ of the Holocaust or the ‘opposing perspective’ of slavery. Are we supposed to get rid of all of the books on those subjects?”
A Carroll ISD teacher hung caution tape in front of the books in a classroom after the new guidelines were circulated.Obtained by NBC News
After this article was published, Carroll ISD posted a statement on Facebook from Superintendent Lane Ledbetter saying that Peddy’s advice to teachers was “in no way to convey that the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history.”
“Additionally, we recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust,” he wrote in the post. “As we continue to work through implementation of HB [House Bill] 3979, we also understand this bill does not require an opposing viewpoint on historical facts,” he added, referring to the new Texas law.
Ledbetter said that the district would work to add clarity to its expectations for teachers.
The debate in Southlake over which books should be allowed in schools is part of a broader national movement led by parents opposed to lessons on racism, history and LGBTQ issues that some conservatives have falsely branded as critical race theory. A group of Southlake parents has been fighting for more than a year to block new diversity and inclusion programs at Carroll, one of the top-ranked school districts in Texas.
Late last year, one of those parents complained when her daughter brought home a copy of “This Book Is Anti-Racist” by Tiffany Jewell from her fourth grade teacher’s class library. The mother also complained about how the teacher responded to her concerns.
Carroll administrators investigated and decided against disciplining the teacher. But last week, on Oct. 4, the Carroll school board voted 3-2 to overturn the district’s decision and formally reprimanded the teacher, setting off unease among Carroll teachers who said they fear the board won’t protect them if a parent complains about a book in their class.
Teachers grew more concerned last Thursday, Oct. 7, when Carroll administrators sent an email directing them to close their classroom libraries “until they can be vetted by the teacher.” Another email sent to teachers that day included a rubric that asked them to grade books based on whether they provide multiple perspectives and to set aside any that present singular, dominant narratives “in such a way that it ... may be considered offensive.”
In a statement, Fitzgerald, the district spokeswoman, said the training session was planned weeks ago in response to the new Texas law and was not related to the school board’s vote to reprimand a teacher. Fitzgerald acknowledged that the timing of the board’s disciplinary vote and the release of new class library guidelines caused “confusion and worry” among teachers. But the district’s inconsistent messaging to staff members and parents since then has also caused confusion, teachers said.
Carroll ISD circulated new guidelines about classroom libraries to teachers last week.Obtained by NBC News
Last Friday, after NBC News published an article detailing the district’s book instructions and plans for staff training that afternoon, Carroll Superintendent Ledbetter sent an email to parents denying that the district was asking teachers to remove books — even though the district had instructed teachers a day earlier to close their classroom libraries until every book could be vetted.
“I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight,” Ledbetter wrote in the Friday note to parents. “The district has not mandated that any book be removed from teachers’ classroom libraries. Additionally, the district has not provided any training on removing books.”
About an hour before Ledbetter’s note went out on Friday afternoon, Carroll teachers were receiving a different message, according to the audio of the training session recorded by a staff member and shared with NBC News.
“The information we have right now is that classroom libraries cannot be used until they have been vetted,” an assistant principal can be heard telling a group of elementary school teachers, instructing them to use the rubric sent by the district to determine which books are appropriate. “So you do need to go back to school and separate the books that have been vetted, and those books need to be available to students. The other ones do not need to be available to students until they have been vetted.”
A teacher can be heard arguing that the guidelines shared by the district for determining the appropriateness of classroom books are too subjective. Another said she didn’t feel safe keeping any books in her classroom following the school board’s vote to reprimand one of her colleagues.
After 30 minutes, Peddy, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, arrived at the training and tried to reassure the teachers. She told them not to worry and that district leaders supported them.
“We are in the middle of a political mess,” Peddy said in the recording, acknowledging that teachers are afraid. “And you are in the middle of a political mess. And so we just have to do the best that we can.”
Peddy then told the teachers to hold off on closing their class libraries, according to the recording. She said she was expecting Fitzgerald, the district spokeswoman, to send out a statement in response to the NBC News article from that morning.
“There’s a general statement coming out from the district,” Peddy said in the recording. “I have no idea what it’s going to say. And so I think we need to wait and see what that says, and then we come back and determine how and what your library classrooms are going to look like.”
After several teachers complained in the recording about the changing messages, Peddy told them she was going to step aside to call another district leader, Deputy Superintendent Courtney Carpenter, to ask for clarification.
Peddy returned a few minutes later, according to teachers who were there. In the audio, Peddy explained that teachers should be working to ensure that the books in their classes present opposing viewpoints — and offered the Holocaust as an example. Based on her call with Carpenter, Peddy said, teachers should disregard the earlier instructions to close their class libraries as they worked to read through all of the books, which she acknowledged could take weeks.
Carpenter did not respond to a message requesting comment. Fitzgerald said the Holocaust example given by Peddy did not come from Carpenter.
“I do know that you feel like it’s putting you at risk,” Peddy told teachers on the recording. “I do know that. But I also know that we’re going to do what’s best for our kids. And we’re going to stand behind you on this.”
The recorder was still running a few minutes later, after the session had ended, as a group of teachers gathered in a hallway and discussed what they had just heard.
“I am offended as hell by somebody who says I should have an opposing view to the Holocaust in my library,” a teacher said, her voice quavering.
Another replied: “They don’t understand what they have done. And they are going to lose incredible teachers, myself potentially being with them.”
