Daniel Losen of the UCLA Civil Rights Project warns that the Trump administration is trying to pin the blame for the Parkland massacre on the Obama era school discipline policies, which sought to reduce disparities between white and black students who were punished for misbehavior. Betsy DeVos is supposed to head a commission on school safety, and the Obama era guidelines are sure to be scapegoated, although it is difficult to see any connection between Nikolas Cruz and the controversial guidelines. This maneuver is a distraction, an effort to change the subject from gun control to school discipline.
Losen posted this comment last night:
“Tomorrow the House Judiciary committee will hear from Max Eden who recently joined his pal Michael Knowles in this podcast. https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/27958/ep-117-guns-dont-kill-people-schools-kill-people
“Folks need to realize that some masquerading as researchers are using every opportunity to mischaracterize the joint civil rights guidance on school discipline. The latest salvo distorts and lies about what actually happened in Broward County Florida to suggest is was leniency in school discipline, and a program intentionally trying to reduce the unnecessary arrests of Black youth for misdemeanors that lead to the murder of 17 children. Eden and his friend claim that the policy was for schools not to report such behaviors to the police. In fact the Promise Program never involved the shooter, but does require cooperation with the police and attorney general’s office so that when a non-violent misdemeanor is committed, there are alternatives beside locking up the children. Further, this program came on the heals of Broward county being the second highest in the state for school based arrests. In this interview Eden says he is trying to change the framework from being about guns to being about what he considers to be top down discipline policy. That is also a lie and is obvious to anyone who actually reads the guidance. Part of Eden’s argument is informed by his pro-charter position. He wants no part of civil rights protections for children if it means sacrificing charter autonomy. In this interview he also embraces “no excuses” approaches arguing that their communities “might not be able to give them values…” Eden’s agenda is deeper than the guidance. He is a staunch opponent of the civil rights regulations dating back to the 1960s that made unjust or unjustifiable policies and practices with a disparate impact potentially unlawful because they harmed protected subgroups of children more than others.
“I recently debated Eden before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv_GgG-igBE&t=10624s
“and more recently, debated Michael Petrilli on Education Next journal. Folks should weigh in against stripping children of the civil rights. http://educationnext.org/dont-walk-back-needed-discipline-reform-forum-losen/
“Tomorrow Kristen Harper will be on the panel with Max Eden. It will be life streamed at 10 a.m.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Only in racist America could the shooting rampages of white boys be blamed on boys of color.
The “no excuses” disciplinary approach is racist, condescending and arises because entitled people like Whitney Tilson think poor black children “need it” and that their communities “might not be able to give them values.”
Simply disgusting.
Exactly. Thank you for this comment.
What’s most disgusting is that when Whitney Tilson and his friends insist that 5 and 5 year old children (but not white children) “need” that harsh discipline in which they are suspended for their supposed violence.
^typo: “5 and 6 year old children”:
You could reuse this headline over and over “Trump Administration trying to blame…”
The President and his team are terrible role models. The best thing they could do is stay out of public schools. Parents have enough to deal with without multimillionaires bringing their ethical collapse and utter and complete lack of character into our schools.
I hope public schools don’t fall for these “grants”. A grant is a one-time payment. DC will stick us with operating cost for their garbage “security plans” and since they cut funding we’ll have to reallocate funding from instruction. They’ll all be on to their next campaign and you’ll be stuck paying for their gimmicky quick fixes.
Don’t let these sophisticated con artists take you for a ride. Spin the cost out over 10 years and do an actual analysis within the reality that “plus/and” is a lie. That’s not how budgets work.
They think you’re all dopes . Don’t make them right about that.
Trump and many other Republicans are always looking for scapegoats for issues they choose not to address. I suppose Trump got tired of blaming Obama so he has found a new scapegoat that fits into his authoritarian framework, “lax discipline.” Students that have a voice and speak for themselves are not a product of “lax discipline.” They are the product of good parenting and effective education.
But Trump is blaming Obama for the Parkland massacre. The message here is that federal guidelines intended to reduce disparate punishment for black boys was a causal factor in the massacre. To outsiders, the links are invisible the killer was disciplined and was not black.
This is one more example of the irrationality of #45. He seeks not to understand, but to blame.
Public schools could do a much better job not getting duped so often.
This is a nonprofit ed reform group who promote ed tech product:
“The LEAP Innovations pilot works directly with forward-thinking educators and technology companies to identify, implement and evaluate personalized learning approaches and edtech products.
In the program, companies benefit from product pilots with high-fidelity implementation, gain visibility with district and school leaders, and receive valuable qualitative and quantitative feedback on their products. As of the 2016-17 school year, 79 percent of LEAP pilot school teams adopted their edtech product after pilots ended.”
“Nonprofit” doesn’t mean anything. Jamming a “nonprofit” between schools and ed tech vendors doesn’t change anything.
They are selling you product. There’s nothing wrong with that. Public schools are huge buyers.
There’s something wrong with people who are selling you product but won’t admit that’s what they’re doing. Don’t buy from those people. You’re the buyer. You’re in charge.
There’s no shortage of ed tech product. Public schools don’t exist to serve these companies. These companies exist to serve public schools. Your students aren’t the voluntary test population for these products and for goodness sakes don’t pay THEM to hand them your students!
Demand better. If they won’t change this up to benefit YOUR students then walk away. They’ll come back. You’re their biggest market.
The Heritage Foundation, according to Politico, is out with a new report that has the same racist explanations of problems in schools.
SICKENING. This shows how immoral this administration is.
I stand with all the HS students who protested. Go HS students.
Would anyone think they’d have a different message?
There is one connection I think we should make. It has nothing to do with lax discipline, but everything to do with NCLB and its philosophical offspring.
Ever since we started using extraordinary pressures to keep students in school, the population of students who do not fit into the way things are done has ballooned. Many of these students have psychological difficulties that make their presence at school problematic at best. Nationwide, the numbers tend to swell those that have the potential to be dangerous to others and themselves.
Since graduation rate trumps everything, and since the funding for helping special cases is not generally available, students who need special help are here but underserved.
This all started with a letter Marco Rubio wrote to Betsy DeVos and Jeff Sessions seeking the elimination of a guidance letter written by the Obama administration. Mr. Rubio’s letter, made the preposterous claim that the guidance issued by the Obama administration— designed to protect youth of color, children from poor families and children with disabilities from from oppression and bigotry and injustice— was somehow linked to gun violence in suburban schools. As Erica Green pointed out in a NYTimes article last week, this overlooks the reality that “Black students have never been the culprits in the mass shootings that have shocked the nation’s conscience nor have minority schools been the targets.”
Mr. Rubio’s assertions regarding this Obama directive are disingenuous at best, racist at worst, and clearly misleading. It isn’t surprising that Mr. Trump is echoing them. https://wp.me/p25b7q-264
Wgersen, the Obama discipline policies—which sought to end disparate and harsh discipline of black and brown students—has now become the GOP scapegoat for gun violence. Beyond ridiculous.