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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has leaned hard into educational issues as he burnishes his national profile ahead of a potential White House bid — conservatives love what they see.
He has secured GOP plaudits for moves ranging from reopening schools during the coronavirus pandemic to the bizarre irony with the College Board over an AP African American studies course. And he’s done it all in the name of saving Florida’s classrooms.
DeSantis has made it clear how he views public schools and what they teach children: He doesn’t trust them. Many say the decision-makers have lost their minds regarding what schools are doing and how it needs to get done. Schools are now the cultural battlegrounds for everything under the Sunshine State’s sun.
IT’S CONSTANT POUNDING
He has been masterful in imposing political control on schools to turn the state into a political weapon. And with the barrage of ridiculous rhetoric and narrative pounding classrooms daily – how are schools fighting back? – by being student ready. It’s that simple, schools are just trying to be schools. Think of it as attempting to take the high road.
The population is growing more diverse. Our public schools reflect that diversity. Factors such as religion, ethnicity, gender, race, language, giftedness, disabilities (learning, behavioral, and physical), family make-up, socioeconomic status, access to resources, access to preschool, responsibilities at home, homelessness, the need to work, history with mental health, violence in or out of the house, drugs, alcohol, are all front and center.
Public schools are doing everything they can to be student-ready. Ready to meet the needs of all students in the best way possible.
IT’S CALLED BEING A TEACHER
I’ve seen the patience of teachers who work with kids who throw books and desks across the room. I’ve seen the persistence of teachers who stay late and come early to help ensure students with poor writing skills meet the standard to pass.
I’ve seen counselors work tirelessly with at-risk kids on the verge of dropping out – and then hug them when they walk across the stage, diploma in hand. I’ve seen school-to-work programs for Special Ed students, where they get on-the-job training for work they continue after graduation. I’ve seen the kid who hadn’t read a book cover-to-cover because he didn’t think he could read turn into a kid who reads four books in a month.
IT’S NEAR TO IMPOSSIBLE
Here’s the thing: Being student-ready has become more complicated. An insidious agenda has made it more difficult. For schools to do their work, they need financial support. Public schools have continually been tasked with doing more with less. Those in power have played the long game: Don’t fund schools at the level needed. Schools are negatively impacted. Schools don’t perform as well. People will be frustrated.
And it’s not the only thing that has led to this. The other issue is some people don’t like everything our schools have to be ready for. Our schools don’t look like them. Don’t sound like them. Don’t act like them. Don’t do learning the way they think learning should be done. So instead of realizing our schools are a picture of the world where teachers and staff are doing their best to help all kids be ready for the world, they go after the school — which is their way of going after the world.
IT’S JUST NOT THEM
Because the world doesn’t look like them. Doesn’t sound like them. Doesn’t act like them.
Doesn’t do life the way they think life should be done. But it’s hard to go after the world.
Instead, they go after something where they feel they have the power to do it, armed with a false narrative and promoted by organizations and people with money to spread it. And those organizations and people will keep trying to bring down public schools and with them — the towns and people that depend on them — until they can sit on top of the heap, smiling down at white-washed history and homogeneity while they count their stacks of money.
Public schools aren’t the problem. The teachers and staff aren’t the problems. The students aren’t the problem.
The problem is the people who are coming after them.
This column is by Ritchie Lucas, Founder of The Student Success Project and Think Factory Consulting. He can be reached by email at ritchie@thinkfactory.com and on Facebook and You Tube as The Student Success Project.
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