Public School Parents are An Important Part of the Resistance.

Welcome to the Resistance, Public School Parents

Jessica Grose
February 4, 2026
The New York Times

 Fear and disruption is touching nearly every parent and child in places like Minnesota and Maine. And everyday people who otherwise describe themselves as not especially political are stepping up for their fellow parents and children.

 

The terror for children, parents and teachers in Minnesota started even before Operation Metro Surge sent thousands of heavily armed, masked federal agents into the streets. The school year began with a shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in South Minneapolis, where two children died and at least 24 others were injured. Local families barely had time to process those deaths — only five years after the killing of George Floyd rocked their city — before their daily lives were upended by the chaotic presence of federal officers harassing citizens under the guise of immigration enforcement.

A teacher named Sarah in the Twin Cities told me that her school received a bomb threat after Renee Good’s killing, ostensibly for being too supportive of immigrants. “I kind of forgot about it because we went on with our day, teaching,” Sarah, who is a mother, told me, acknowledging how absurd it was that lockdowns and the shadow of violence were now unremarkable fixtures of the public school experience in Minnesota. (Like many people I spoke to for this story, she requested that I use only her first name because she feared retaliation against or further targeting of her school.)

Two things became clear as I talked to parents, educators and school board members in Minnesota and Maine, where there was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown called Operation Catch of the Day in January targeting immigrants from Somalia.

The first is that the fear and disruption touch nearly every parent and child in these places. A Minnesota woman named Alli, who has a child on the autism spectrum, told me that because she and her child are not white, she is worried about him having a meltdown in public and attracting immigration enforcement. She wondered aloud to me, “Can we go to swim class tonight,” or should they just stay home to avoid being hassled and potentially traumatized?

The second is that everyday people who otherwise describe themselves as not especially political are stepping up for their fellow parents and children. We know public schools are often a hub of local connection, but what stands out is how far schools have extended their care into the community. Fellow parents are offering rides, food, grocery delivery and money to the families affected. They’re patrolling the sidewalks in front of schools to keep an eye out for ICE vehicles in the deep northern freeze.

Educators like Valley View Elementary School’s principal, Jason Kuhlman, are taking students to visit their detained parents at the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis. Valley View is where Liam Conejo Ramos — the prekindergartner in a bunny ears hat whose photo while being detained by federal agents has become an icon of the crackdown’s cruelty — is a student and where at least 25 other families have had a parent or guardian apprehended.

“We gave them hugs,” Kuhlman told my newsroom colleague Sarah Mervosh, of two children he took to see their detained mother. “We’re crying; they’re crying.” Later he found out that the three were taken to a detention center in Texas.

It struck me that these parents and teachers, mourning together, are treating all children as their own.

When parents across the country leave the house for school drop-off or errands, they have to figure out whether the route they are taking is safe by checking Signal and WhatsApp chats and social media posts and recalculate if they think agents are lingering. If they are immigrants or the relatives of immigrants, they are afraid of being targeted and detained even if they are here legally.

Alexandra, a stay-at-home mother of two children in a suburb of Minneapolis, is married to an immigrant from the Caribbean. Though her husband is naturalized, she explained that he will no longer do pickups and drop-offs at school, and she doesn’t take her children to places like Mall of America because she is afraid they will be targeted because of the color of their skin. “I’m terrified when he leaves by himself that he won’t come home,” Alexandra said of her husband. “He travels anywhere he goes with his passport. It’s like my body is on constant alert, knowing that anywhere I turn, something could happen and my kids could see that and it would affect them for the rest of their lives.”

Even the littlest children notice that their friends are missing from class and have questions. On Jan. 27, 21.3 percent of public school students in Portland, Maine, were absent, according to Sarah Lentz, the chair of the city’s school board. That’s about three times the average for a typical day in January. Attendance dropped so much in the Twin Cities that public schools are now offering remote learning as an option for children too scared to go in person.

A few years ago, I wrote an article about how public school is for care: that so many educators and counselors are going above and beyond their job descriptions to give children whatever they may need when they walk through the door, from food to clothing to emotional stability. That is part of the mission of public schools — to take the children as they are, whoever they are. Lentz told me that Portland schools have long served recent immigrant communities and that the school district has worked with multiple food organizations for decades. “We send bags of culturally relevant food home on the weekends for kids and their families that need it,” she said, including halal options.

Among the greatest critics of public schools seem to bemembers of the Trump administration who have not set foot in them for decades, if at all. They do not acknowledge that schools, for all their imperfections, are highly functioning civic centers providing so much more than academics. It also occurs to me that the organizing on behalf of all children in Minnesota and Maine schools might be one reason the people running the Education Department want to defund public schools.

The heroism of ordinary people helping one another is profound and a silver lining of this preventable tragedy. But we should not lose sight of the real fear and anxiety, which won’t disappear overnight, even as the federal government claims to be backing off in Maine and Liam and his father have been returned to Minnesota from their detainment in Texas.

Every person I spoke to in Minnesota and Maine said that the disruption to their children’s lives was much worse than with Covid. At least then they knew that they would be safe when they were inside. The parents I spoke to who were organizing grocery drop-offs and driving other people’s children to school were afraid of being followed by ICE agents to immigrants’ homes or back to their own.

“These actions are going to have lifelong impacts on our kids, whether they’re experiencing it, whether they’ve witnessed it firsthand or they just saw it on social media,” said Anil Hurkadli, a Minneapolis-based independent educational consultant who served in the Department of Education under President Joe Biden. Whenever this ends, Hurkadli said, it’s going to take the entire community to help the children recover.

In an essay he wrote for The Minnesota Star Tribune, Hurkadli pointed out that during immigration crackdowns in Florida and California in the past few years, test scores fell among children who were affected. It’s nearly impossible to learn when students are afraid that their parents will be taken away.

For those of us who do not live in Maine or Minnesota, the past two months should serve as a warning. The targets are ultimately arbitrary — far from the southern border and hardly the states and cities where the most undocumented immigrants live. ICE raids continue all over the country, even if the presence of federal officers is not as disruptive or violent as it has been in these states.

Just because it’s not our children today doesn’t mean it won’t be tomorrow.

End Notes

• There was a public education bright spot last weekend when Leigh Wambsganss — a Texas Republican who was a proponent of book-banning efforts and far-right school board takeovers in Texas — lost a state legislative special election in the Fort Worth area to a Democrat, Taylor Rehmet. Wambsganss far outspent Rehmet in the district, which President Trump won by 17 points in 2024. This suggests to me that even in heavily Republican districts, parents do not want a far-right agenda in their public schools and are sick of the divisiveness.

Jessica Grose newsletter.  A journalist and novelist offers her perspective on the American family, culture, politics and the way we live now.

 

Trump's Takeover of Education is Taking A Page from the Confederacy

 Trump’s Takeover of Education is Taking a Page from the Confederacy 

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-education-department-prageru-tpusa-heritage-foundation-confederacy

 

Injunction Stalls Trump / MAGA Assault on Education Department

 

Preliminary Injunction Issued in Democracy Forward’s Legal Challenge 

Massachusetts – The coalition of educators, school districts, and unions that challenged Secretary of Education McMahon’s massive reduction-in-force has won a preliminary injunction that will halt the administration’s unlawful effort to dismantle the Department of Education. The Secretary’s Mass Termination Order would have gutted the Department of Education and decimated crucial services the Department provides to every American. The group, which includes the Somerville Public School Committee, Easthampton School District, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) – Massachusetts, AFT, AFSCME Council 93, American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is represented by Democracy Forward inSomerville Public Schools v. Trump.

As the district court wrote, “A department without enough employees to perform statutorily mandated functions is not a department at all. This court cannot be asked to cover its eyes while the Department’s employees are continuously fired and units are transferred out until the Department becomes a shell of itself.”

“Today’s order means that the Trump administration’s disastrous mass firings of career civil servants are blocked while this wildly disruptive and unlawful agency action is litigated,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “No one’s lives are being made better by this administration’s attempted dismantling of the Department of Education. Instead of taking a wrecking ball to our nation’s best values and our chance at a better future, this administration should be focused on how to improve education and opportunities for all.”

The dismantling of the Department has begun via mass layoffs of half of the entire Department. Prior to January 20, 2025, the Department employed 4,133 employees. If the Trump administration’s actions were allowed to proceed, just 2,183 would remain. From distributing funds to help schools work with students with disabilities, to providing support and assistance to parents and families, protecting students’ civil rights, and making sure higher education is affordable for students, civil servants at the Department of Education are essential to the success of students. Mass firings of these hardworking people will harm students and schools.  

“We are deeply encouraged by the court’s decision today to grant the preliminary injunction,   which will temporarily prevent the Trump administration from proceeding with its harmful efforts to dismantle the Department of Education,” said Ilana Krepchin, Chair of the Somerville School Committee. “This victory is a win for our students, teachers, families here in Somerville and across the nation, and it affirms that our public education system is too important to be undermined by actions that threaten our students’ rights and opportunities. We thank our coalition partners for coming together to defend public education, and we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that our students’ futures remain bright.”

“While today’s decision will provide some relief, the damage is already being felt in our schools – by our students, especially the most vulnerable, and our educators,” said American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts President Jessica Tang. “We have the utmost confidence in the virtue and facts of our case. The White House is not above the law and we will never stop fighting on behalf of our students and our public schools and the protections, services, and resources they need to thrive.”

“Today, the court rightly rejected one of the administration’s very first illegal, and consequential, acts: abolishing the federal role in education,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “This decision is a first step to reverse this war on knowledge and the undermining of broad-based opportunity.  For America to build a brighter future, we must all take more responsibility, not less, for the success of our children. The vast majority of Americans and states like Massachusetts, with the highest NAEP scores, want to keep the education department because it ensures all kids, not just some, can get a shot at a better life.”

“This decision gives public schools important relief from losing critical support, which the Department of Education provides,” said AFSCME Council 93 Executive Director Mark Bernard. “Thousands of families across Massachusetts depend on the vital services and protections under the IDEA Act, which ensures educational support for our most vulnerable children. Massachusetts, the home of the first free public school in America, has long been a beacon of leadership in public education, championing accessible, quality education for all students. Thousands of dedicated AFSCME Council 93 members across the state work tirelessly to create safe, welcoming, and caring school communities where every child can thrive. This win is a strong affirmation of our commitment to protecting public education for all.”

In addition to the layoffs, a presidential Executive Order and other administration statements have described the intent to close the Department and move Department programs and offices, such as the Office for Special Education Programs and Federal Student Aid, to different federal agencies with no relevant expertise or necessary resources. 

Read the full complaint here and the preliminary injunction here. 

The legal team at Democracy Forward on this case includes Will Bardwell, Elena Goldstein, Rachel F. Homer, Victoria Nugent, Adnan Perwez, and Kali Schellenberg.

– # # # – 

Democracy Forward is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org. 

Trump and Elon Musk have aimed their wrecking ball at public schools and the futures of the 50 million students."

 public schools and the futures of the 50 million students."

Jake Johnson

Mar 12, 2025

The Trump administration on Tuesday took a major step toward dismantling the U.S. Department of Education by firing roughly half of the agency's workforce, a decision that teachers' unions and other champions of public education said would have devastating consequences for the nation's school system. 

The department, now led by billionaire Linda McMahon, moved swiftly, terminating more than 1,300 federal workers on Tuesday including employees at the agency's student aid and civil rights offices. 

Sheria Smith, president of AFGE Local 252, which represents Education Department workers, pledged in a statement to "fight these draconian cuts." The union toldNPR minutes after the statement was issued that Smith, an attorney with the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, was laid off. 

The Education Department said the mass staffing cuts would affect "nearly 50%" of the agency's workforce and that those impacted "will be placed on administrative leave beginning Friday, March 21st." 

In a press release, McMahon declared that the workforce cuts reflect the department's "commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers." 

But critics, including a union that represents more than 3 million education workers nationwide, said the firings underscore the Trump administration's commitment to gutting public education in the interest of billionaires pushing tax cuts and school privatization. 

"Trump and Elon Musk have aimed their wrecking ball at public schools and the futures of the 50 million students in rural, suburban, and urban communities across America by dismantling public education to pay for tax handouts for billionaires," said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association. 

"The real victims will be our most vulnerable students," Pringle added. "Gutting the Department of Education will send class sizes soaring, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, take away special education services for students with disabilities, and gut student civil rights protections." 

"We will not sit by while billionaires like Elon Musk and Linda McMahon tear apart public services piece by piece." 

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that "denuding an agency so it cannot function effectively is the most cowardly way of dismantling it." 

"The massive reduction in force at the Education Department is an attack on opportunity that will gut the agency and its ability to support students, throwing federal education programs into chaos across the country," she continued. "This move will directly impact the 90% of students who attend public schools by denying them the resources they need to thrive. That's why Americans squarely oppose eliminating the Education Department. We are urging Congress—and the courts—to step in to ensure all students can maintain access to a high-quality public education." 

The Education Department purge came days after news broke that President Donald Trump was preparing an executive order aimed at completely shuttering the agency—a move that would legally require congressional approval. 

Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said late Tuesday that the Education Department firings "are Project 2025 in action, and they have one goal—to make it easier for billionaires and anti-union extremists to give themselves massive tax breaks at the expense of working people." 

"Today's announcement from the Department of Education is just the beginning of what's to come," Saunders warned. "These layoffs threaten the well-being and educational opportunities for millions of children across the country and those seeking higher education. The dedicated public service workers at public schools, colleges, and universities deserve better. Elections may have consequences, but we will not sit by while billionaires like Elon Musk and Linda McMahon tear apart public services piece by piece. We will keep speaking out and finding ways to fight back." 

 

https://www.commondreams.org/news/education-department-layoffs

Protect Our Kids: The Fight for Public Education

ICE and Schools : Trump Turns Schools Into Immigration Battleground

IN CHICAGO, PARENTS WHO JUST SAW ICE raids hit their neighborhoods have begun worrying about picking up their kids from school.

In New York City schools, the official policy is for security to alert the principal if ICE agents arrive at the school doors, but some school officials are considering having the principals stall to alert teachers of any students in danger, a Queens teacher told The Bulwark.

In Austin, Texas, white parents are thinking about how to tell their children about what could happen to some of their classmates without scaring them.

Note: Sacramento USD is a Safe Haven District,

http://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2025/01/scusd-is-safe-haven-district-to-protect.html

In Denver, news that a parent was detained by ICE near a school sent a chill through a meeting organized by the Colorado governor’s office, state agency officials, and community immigration and legal groups, according to a source at the meeting.

And in Virginia and Maryland, administrators have stopped touting “Know Your Rights” training sessions being held by lawyers and advocates, for fear of retribution from Trump.

A climate of fear and desperation—relayed in interviews with teachers, principals, parents, teacher’s unions and lawyers—has rapidly emerged as the Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement efforts. What’s shaken communities is how quickly schools themselves have become one of the main battlegrounds.

“This is just so heartless,” Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) told The Bulwark. “By targeting schools for immigration enforcement, this administration is destroying that sense of safety. This is not just policy—it’s cruelty, plain and simple. They say they’re targeting dangerous criminals, but let’s be honest: Who in a classroom is a criminal? Who among the parents dropping their kids off in school is a murderer or a rapist? There is no evidence to back up this claim.”

The idea that schools could be thrust into the forefront of the debate over immigration enforcement was something that immigrant rights groups warned about prior to the election. Under the Biden administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had been prohibited from going into sensitive areas, including schools, churches, and hospitals. But Trump was expected to rescind that memo. And within days of taking office, he did.

The impacts of that decision have, nevertheless, been profound.

In my conversations with educators, parents, teacher’s unions, and legal experts from New York to Baltimore, Chicago, Austin, Virginia, and Denver, I could sense a palpable psychic toll.

Those individuals still had an appetite to fight Trump’s policies. But they also seemed to recognize that they must do so quietly to avoid drawing undue scrutiny from the most retributive administration in American history.

“In 2017, I felt a certain amount of protection by staying in the light,” a Baltimore teacher toldThe Bulwark. “In a way, it protected you. But I don’t feel that way this time, because Trump is being extraordinarily vindictive.”

Few teachers or administrators were willing to use their names for fear of drawing hostile attention to their school and the students they’re working to protect.

In Chicago, a principal said fear over ICE in schools has led attendance to drop nearly 25 percent.

“Attendance has bombed. We serve a high rate of newcomers. Then there are birthright kids, whose parents don’t have legal immigration status,” the principal told The Bulwark. “So the parents are not sending kids to school because they don’t feel safe bringing them to and from school everyday, and if they do [bring them], the fear of separation is very real. Other parents who feel their child needs structure and access to education ask, ‘What is your plan?’ Or they say, ‘Here is my contact information sheet. Here are all the people to contact if something happens to me.’”

The principal likened this state of growing, ambient fear to the anxious vigilance they have developed over the years around school shootings. Both destroy the sense of safety that is meant to be inherent in schools and is critical for learning.

“It’s 100 percent a violation,” the principal said. “We’re sitting inside a bubble that’s going to pop.”

During the school’s weekly meeting last week, “everyone was crying,” the principal said, so the meeting turned into a conversation about giving teachers resources and clarity in this moment. Among the questions educators are now asking administrators is whether they have looked outside for ICE agents before dismissing classes each day.

“Criminal or not, immigrant or not, a kid deserves to get picked up by their parent everyday,” the principal said. “I think to myself, ‘How am I prepping myself to talk to that child if something happens? Am I hiding kids tomorrow if ICE comes?’ Then I get home and feel guilt over my own kids who are so happy, with not a care in the world.”

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In Virginia, a school board member said that all school systems in the area were communicating, exchanging best practices, and working with the nonprofit sector on “Know Your Rights” training. If ICE agents arrive, schools have been instructed to contact the school system’s lawyer. The source said establishing widely understood processes was important because of the rapid spread of viral TikTok videos of teachers pledging to stand in the way of ICE agents, which has been contributing to misinformation about teachers’ responsibilities in such a situation.

“There are videos of teachers saying ‘I will stand up for my students, I will defend my students.’ That’s also not good because it’s leading teachers to believe this is an additional responsibility, and that’s not the case. If law enforcement comes, it’s not your job to face an ICE agent,” the source said.

In nearby Maryland, Montgomery County Public Schools issued guidance assuring parents that there are strict protocols in place for how to handle immigration enforcement agents coming “to a school to inquire about students.” The guidance, shared with The Bulwark by a parent, also said families would be contacted should this occur. “Our schools are and will always remain safe places where every child—regardless of immigration status—is welcomed, valued, affirmed, validated, respected, and loved.”

In Baltimore, some high school students have taken it upon themselves to organize “Know Your Rights” trainings from experts as well.

That training may seem like it’s not enough in the face of a daunting and punitive federal enforcement policy. But it was apparently enough to annoy Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, who told CNN Monday night that Chicago raids had been made more difficult because of the pervasiveness of “Know Your Rights” training.

“For instance Chicago, very well educated, they’ve been educated how to defy ICE, how to hide from ICE. I’ve seen many pamphlets . . . here’s how you escape ICE from arresting you, here’s what you need to do. They call it, ‘Know Your Rights.’ I call it, ‘How to escape arrest.’”

In some cities, fears over immigration enforcement near schools is not new. In May 2017, just months into Trump’s first term, Jesus Pedraza, a father of three, was followed home by ICE agents after picking up his son at Hampstead Hill Academy in Baltimore. He was charged over a 12-year-old deportation order for fleeing Honduras after witnessing a murder at the age of 17 and having his own life threatened, WYPR reported.

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With this palpable fear as a backdrop, a Baltimore teacher assigned her students to write notes on how they’re feeling. The teacher shared those notes (written in both English and Spanish) with The Bulwark.

“I think ‘La Migra’ is like a gun being shot in the wrong direction,” one male student wrote. “People who genuinely want to work are being deported. I know it’s for America’s safety, but a force for good is being aimed wrong.”

“I think it’s unjust because many parents of students came for the American Dream, and since 2020 it feels like these dreams have died,” another male student wrote in Spanish. “The government isn’t the same as before, they don’t treat us equally.”

“I don’t understand what the point is of using violence to take away our right to study and our right to live,” a female student wrote in Spanish. “Just because we don’t have a piece of paper. No human is illegal on stolen land.”

One of the students was undocumented. Instead of giving her thoughts, she drew an angry cat holding a sign with ICE crossed out.

Baltimore students share their feelings about the prospect of ICE in schools

---

LAST WEEK IN NEWARK, ONE OF THE FIRST ICE RAIDS swept up a U.S. citizen—a Puerto Rican warehouse manager and military veteran. Afterwards, the city’s black mayor, Ras Baraka, held a press conference on the benefit of immigrants to our nation’s economy. The moment was fleeting. But it showed, to many advocates, the power in non-Latinos or non-immigrants stepping up to call out abuses of the law and the reckless implementation of radical policy.

In Austin, Texas, Ken Zafarias, the president of a local teachers’ union called Education Austin, said he, too, was trying to rally the community around protecting its undocumented members, many of whom were his students when he served as a teacher for a dozen years. He has moved to “rebuild and renew alliances” between schools and the community to prepare for what’s coming.

“My rage and frustration reaches beyond my ability to change things,” he said, reflecting on what he could do as a white man with a child in fifth grade. “I live in the community where ICE is very likely to show up. While I have great privilege as a white guy in this nation, no one is coming at me directly, but everything I’ve built my life and my family around is connected to this community.”

Zafarias has concluded that everything comes down to the door to the school, where on one side ICE is waiting, and on the other side there are administrators, a principal, teachers, custodians, food service workers, and students.

“What happens at that moment is what we’re trying to impact right now—what procedures are in place so, to the greatest extent possible, our children are protected,” he said.

He called the prospect of ICE descending on a father picking up their kid from school “chilling,” noting that his own Greek immigrant grandfather, who emigrated in 1918 to escape poverty and lack of access to opportunities, never had to deal with this.

“It’s the most appalling, gut-wrenching thing as an educator that I can imagine,” he said, his voice slow and full of emotion. “I have a hard time conceiving it—how can anyone think this is valuable?”

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Keep ICE Off of School Campuses !!

 

Release: #24-52
December 17, 2024

Contact: Communications
E-mail: communications@cde.ca.gov
Phone: 916-319-0818

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Sponsors Senate Bill 48 to Keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement Off of School Campuses, Protecting School Attendance and Funding Amid Deportation Threats

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond is sponsoring Senate Bill 48, legislation that aims to keep U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents off California campuses by establishing a one-mile radius safe zone around schools, as well as protect against the use of school data for deportation efforts. The bill, introduced by Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez (D-33) on Monday, December 16, will prevent schools from experiencing a drop-off in student attendance due to immigration concerns, which would directly and negatively impact critical funding. The bill also doubles down on the commitment by the California Department of Education to safeguard students and families, maintaining schools as spaces where everyone has the right to an education.

“SB 48 seeks to push back against threats of deportation that create fear in immigrant families. These practices suppress school attendance and rob schools of needed revenue,” said Superintendent Thurmond. “I am honored to partner with bill author Senator Lena Gonzalez, other legislators, and immigrant rights groups to support our families and keep ICE off our school campuses—period.”

The bill would prohibit school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and their personnel from granting ICE officers and other federal immigration authorities access to campuses if they do not have a judicial warrant. The bill would also prohibit police cooperation with any immigration enforcement efforts within a one-mile radius of school to ensure a safe corridor for parents to bring their children to and from school.

As schools continue to face challenges related to student safety and data privacy, this bill sends a strong message that California is committed to protecting our students and families. SB 48 will also prohibit the sharing of any information about students, families, their households and school employees with ICE officers or other federal authorities.

“All California children deserve safe school environments that prioritize student learning, regardless of immigration status,” said Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez. “As Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus, I’m proud to be partnering with Superintendent Tony Thurmond to author this important legislation, which will prevent disruptions to student learning, keep children in school, and prevent families from being torn apart.”

In California, 93 percent of children who have one or more undocumented parents are U.S. citizens. Additionally, all children in the United States, regardless of immigration status, have a right to a free and appropriate public education. The proposed bill reflects California’s commitment to ensure that pandemic-era increases in chronic absenteeism do not recur and reiterates California’s commitment to make sure that schools are welcoming environments where all families can safely bring their children to learn. It aligns with California’s broader efforts to promote equity, inclusion, and the protection of immigrant communities.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Tell Lawmakers To Support The Education Funding Agreement By Upholding Prop 98 (CC)

MAGA ATTACKS on Teachers and Schools

Show your solidarity with teachers in the face of Republican attacks on public education!

This week, the Utah Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, sued the state in hopes of shutting down a Republican-led voucher program that could reroute more than $82 million of taxpayer money away from public schools and Utah's students. The union president called it a "deliberate undermining of public schools." Before 2021, Utah ranked last in the country for its per-student spending. Now, it's second to last.² 

For decades, Republicans across the country have worked to decimate public education and villainize public school teachers. Now, their most extreme plan for public education is laid out in Project 2025, the MAGA agenda for a second Trump presidency. 

The Project 2025 manifesto has an entire section focused on reshaping—or, more accurately, dismantling—our public education system and has a plan to drain all of our resources to reroute them to private education, like what is happening in Utah. The plan includes eliminating the Department of Education, getting rid of teachers unions, ending federal funding, and gutting any programs that support equity and inclusion, even free school lunch programs and Head Start.³

For many communities across the country, teachers are wrapping up after another year of serving and educating our communities. Will you print out a few of these cards to thank the teachers in your life for all they do for your kids or your community? Taking a moment to write a note to thank them for all they do is an act of solidarity during a challenging time for public educators.

It's no surprise that Moms for Liberty, a far-right "parental group" best known for their support of book bans and opposing LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools, sits on the Project 2025 advisory board and were influential in drafting the educational policies within the Project 2025 proposal.⁴ While under the guise of protecting kids and family values, they aim to strip us of our freedoms, deny the truth of our history, and push their ultra-conservative agenda into every aspect of our lives. 

Authored by the far-right Heritage Foundation, backed by more than 100 conservative organizations, and funded by dark money, Project 2025 is a 920-page detailed presidential transition plan to consolidate power and force the MAGA agenda into every aspect of our lives. In addition to undermining public education, the agenda aims to eliminate Social Security and Medicare, roll back climate initiatives, revoke protections for LGBTQ+ people, and ban abortion.⁵ 

This is the agenda Trump and Republican leaders will pursue if they seize power in this election. No wonder the stakes are so high. As we fight to defeat this MAGA threat in November, we also need to make sure American voters know about Project 2025 and all the unpopular, damaging policies it includes. And we need to do what we can to show solidarity with those who would be targeted the most—such as public school teachers who, day in and day out, make an important difference in the lives of our kids.

Together we can defend public education and the teachers who give so much to our kids and community. Start by thanking them for another year of teaching!

Thanks for all you do.

Sources:

1. "Utah teachers union sues over state's $82 million school voucher program," The Salt Lake Tribune, May 29, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/193597?t=6&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW 

2. "Utah has no plans to change lowest-in-nation education spending, officials say," The Salt Lake Tribune, January 28, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/193598?t=8&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW

3. "A guide to Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda for the next Republican administration," Media Matters, March 20, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/189537?t=10&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW

4. "Project 2025 Tapped Known Hate, Extremist Groups For Advisory Board," Accountable.US, May 20, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/193620?t=12&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW

5. "A guide to Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda for the next Republican administration," Media Matters, March 20, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/189537?t=14&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW

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Schools and Equity Law Suites in California

The State of California settled a lawsuit last week that had been going on for more than three years, since the height of the debate around pandemic school closures. The case was notable nationally; there have been few others like it. And the settlement included an eye-popping number: $2 billion.

Several families in Oakland and Los Angeles had sued the state, accusing it of failing in its constitutional obligation to provide an equal education to all children in the state, because lower-income, Black and Hispanic students tended to have less access to remote learning in the spring and fall of 2020 than other students did.

It’s important to note that the state — meaning taxpayers — will not pay out any new money under the settlement. Instead, it will take money that was already set aside for pandemic recovery — no less than $2 billion of it — and will direct schools to use it to help students who need it most to catch up. There will be requirements to spend the money on interventions that have a proven track record. You can read more about the settlement here.

Why does this matter?

Because new national data released last week, in a study led by researchers at Stanford and Harvard, made it clear that students across the country are nowhere close to catching up on learning lost during the pandemic.

That is true for students of all backgrounds, but especially for poor students. Schools in poor communities tended to stay closed longer than those in more affluent areas, and when they did, students lost more ground. Once schools reopened, students from richer families have tended to catch up more quickly than students from poorer families in the same districts, according to the new data.

Yet there have been some surprising variations.

In California, Compton Unified, near Los Angeles, and Delano Unified, north of Bakersfield, are examples of lower-income school districts that have recovered remarkably well, at least judging by standardized-test scores. You can read more about bright-spot districts, including Delano Unified, in an article I wrote with my colleagues Claire Cain Miller and Francesca Paris.

Some more affluent districts have had lackluster recoveries in reading, math or both, including Santa Monica-Malibu Unified, Menlo Park City in the Bay Area, and Arcadia Unified in the San Gabriel Valley, northeast of Los Angeles.

Look up your school district and see how it compares with nearby areas and the rest of the state. (Note: This data includes scores for students in third through eighth grades for most public school districts; some small ones are not included. The graphics show only math scores.)

Continue reading the main story

NYT.  

School Board Elections Could Make (or Break) Our Democracy

 

School Board Elections Could Make (or Break) Our Democracy Julie Marsh, Miguel Casar Rodriguez, Pedro Noguera  November 1, 2023 The Progressive  Attacks on school boards are part of a strategic, deliberate, and well-funded effort to erode public schools and advance a broader political agenda. , (Joe Brusky, CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED)   chool boards across America are under attack. We have all seen the disruptions at school board meetings triggered by clashes over controversial policies regarding the teaching of race and racism, ethnic and gender studies, and LGBTQ+ inclusion. What we may not have noticed, however, is that these attacks are not only about school boards, but about public education as a whole. These disruptions are much more than concerned parents advocating for what’s best for their children. Instead, it is part of a strategic and deliberate—and well-funded—effort to erode public schools in order to advance a much broader political agenda. Initially tapping into parent frustration over school closures and mask mandates, political agitators have targeted school boards, and in several cases, the schools and educators who serve in them, to mobilize their base.   In a country that prides itself on being a beacon of free thought and democracy, growing assaults on the teaching of history, book bans, and the criminalization and surveillance of teachers are a threat to both. School boards have become a key political battleground. As former Trump advisor Steve Bannon called out in early 2021, “The path to save the nation is very simple—it’s going to go through the school boards.” Local control and governance through elected school boards has long been criticized because of what they have contributed to gross inequity in school funding. But this model can also lead to greater community engagement with schools if people approach them with that spirit. In our own research, more than two-thirds of California voters—73 percent of voters with children and 69 percent of those without children—agreed that “local school boards are important because they ensure that decisions about education are made close to those who will be affected by them.” We know that politics is often a dirty business. And when politics becomes a struggle for power at all costs and schools are disrupted, children lose. And let’s be clear: more often than not, these agitators are not parents of children in the schools they disrupt. A recent national poll showed that 76 percent of parents support the schools their children attend.  The disruptions are taking a toll on an already burdened school system. Personal threats and attacks are resulting in resignations and turnover. They also dampen community participation in the democratic process and reduce the interest of potential educators in joining the profession and leading schools. Most importantly, precious time is taken away from what should be at the center: students.