#518: The Attack on Public Education

ICE, CRT, race, gender, religion, curriculum, the reading wars, and anti-intellectualism

Last week, the federal government sent 100 agents to the Bay Area to support an immigration enforcement operation. While the immediate surge was called off, the impact on communities was deep. At my school in Oakland, instead of spending time planning lessons and supporting students with their academic work, our staff gathered to review ICE protocols, organize carpools, dispatch mental health services, and call families to convince them that their children would be safe with us.

Educating our children is already challenging. Why do we also have to battle our own government? One of our students, who is organizing his peers in activism, told me, “They are doing this on purpose. They don’t want us to learn. They don’t want us to be educated.”

This week’s issue includes two podcast episodes, two graphs, and one article that explore the attack on public education. My selections — both new pieces and classic ones — are by no means comprehensive; they merely scratch the surface. But I found them powerful and feel they’re very worth your time and attention.

Hope at least one of the conversations or articles resonates with you. Leave a comment if you want to share your thoughts. As always, thank you for your readership and your support of Article Club. If you appreciate the newsletter, I’d be honored if you shared it with a friend or colleague. Have a great weekend ahead!

1️⃣ Race and Gender: Southlake

In last week’s issue, I featured the words of Nikole Hannah-Jones, who argues that a racial backlash since 2020 has decimated gains in civil rights for people of color. Ever since the beginning of her career, when she covered school resegregation, Ms. Hannah-Jones has emphasized that “schools are segregated because white people want them that way.” This is especially apparent in affluent white progressive enclaves, like San Francisco, where 40 percent of students go to private schools, and Southlake, Texas, whose school boards established bans on diverse curricula and policies against trans students.

Published by NBC News, Southlake is a six-part podcast about how the mostly white community in a Texas suburb failed to respond to the harm that white students caused when they chanted the n-word in a video after a homecoming dance in 2018.

By Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton • 6 episodes • Apple Podcasts

➕ Mr. Hixenbaugh joined Article Club last year to discuss Southlake and his book, They Came for the Schools: One Town’s Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America’s Classrooms. It was one of my favorite conversations.

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2️⃣ Religion: Breaking Public Schools

One way to destroy public education is to make students and families feel unwelcome. Another way is to hamstring teachers, make them nervous, and curtail the curriculum. Even in liberal California, for example, there has been a shift away from Ethnic Studies. The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year, in Mahmoud v. Taylor, that parents could opt their children out of lessons relating to LGBTQ+ issues. Oklahoma, of course, is in an entirely different league. Former state superintendent Ryan Walters instituted curriculum standards that not only include references to Christianity but also require students to analyze “disparities” in the 2020 election. And then, of course, he mandated Bibles in every classroom. (I’m no constitutional scholar, but to me, this seems like a violation of the First Amendment.) In this outstanding two-part series, Hanna Rosin explores Oklahoma’s policies (like its proposed ideology test to outlaw “woke” teachers) and interviews Mr. Walters himself.

By Hanna Rosin • Atlantic Radio • 42 min • Apple Podcasts

Here’s a spapshot from the Inaugural Highlighter Happy Hour, circa 2017. Look at these kind, thoughtful readers!

3️⃣ The Decline of Reading

This week’s third selection is not an article but rather a graph from the Financial Times. It’s about how teenagers aren’t reading anymore. Here it is:

There is plenty of blame to spread around. We can blame phones and social media. We can blame Moms for Liberty and the parental rights movement to ban books. We can blame Lucy Calkins and balanced literacy or David Coleman and the Common Core. We can blame teachers for failing to teach our kids to read.

But whenever I hear adults complain that young people aren’t reading, my first reaction is, “How much am I reading?” Because I know I am reading less than I used to. Are you reading less, too? If so, why do you think that is?

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4️⃣ Saying No to College

Up until about 10 years ago, the message to young people was clear: Go to college, the best one you can get into, and you’ll be good for life. The data was sound. Then we learned that student debt was crippling millennials and devastating college-goers who did not graduate. Public opinion on the value of college began to decline. Conservatives complained that professors were too liberal. The federal government severely cut funding. High schools offered more career and technical education and less college prep. The result? The majority of Gen Z says getting a high school diploma is sufficient to attaining a good life. Here’s another graph I saw this week:

This got me thinking of a classic Article Club piece, “Saying No to College,” by Paul Tough, one of my favorite education writers. Published in The New York Times Magazine in 2023, the article explores two big questions:

• Why are Americans losing faith in the value of college?

• What will happen to our country if this downward trend continues?

Mr. Tough writes:

For the nation’s more affluent families (and their children), the rules of the higher education game are clear, and the benefits are almost always worth the cost. For everyone else, the rules seem increasingly opaque, the benefits are increasingly uncertain and the thought of just giving up without playing seems more appealing all the time.

By Paul Tough • The New York Times Magazine • 16 min • Gift Link

➕ Mr. Tough has joined Article Club twice. The first time was in 2020 to discuss “Getting an A,” from his book, The Inequality Machine. Then he came back in 2024 to discuss “Saying No to College.”

Thank you for reading and listening this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

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