Nancy Ackerman Will, a teacher in Traverse City, Michigan, updated my post today about the angry protestors at a recent board meeting, who accused school leaders of allowing critical race theory to “seep in” to the schools.
She posted this good-news comment:
I am an elementary music teacher for Traverse City Area Public Schools. I appreciate your article, but you should know that three days ago the TCAPS Board approved a revised Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging resolution with much stronger language to support our students. This time the meeting room was packed with people in support of the resolution, wearing red shirts in solidarity. Parents, grandparents, members of the faith community and students spoke in support of strengthening and passing the resolution.
I am pleased to say this was the end result. https://www.record-eagle.com/news/tcaps-board-passes-equity-resolution-7-0/article_64121fba-ee47-11eb-83b8-036d823f2f6c.html
Video of the 3 hours of public comment at the meeting and then two hours of the Board members crafting a final document can be viewed here: https://livestream.com/tcapslive/board/videos/224040779
Diane Ravitch's blog 
May all good people rise to the aid of the ones who have no voice!
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Well stated, Roy.
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Did Nancy Ackerman Will find indications that members of the Traverse City religious community provided support for the “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging resolution” (about 40% of the city are religious with the Catholic churches having the most members)?
In Feb., there was controversy in Traverse City. Fr. Roman delivered a sermon at St. Assisi Catholic Church in which he criticized Pres. Joe Biden, abortion, and today’s cancel culture. The Traverse City mayor asked for an apology from the Bishop of the Diocese of Gaylord. In my search I was unable to find the apology.
George Weigel, at EPPC in D.C., described “liberals bullying” conservative churches. He reported that “Catholic universities, by employing the new Catholic evangelism, can help recover the lost cultural memory of the Western World.”
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Sherri Glezman publicly criticized the sermon. She, as a member of St. Assisi, was in the pew for Fr. Roman’s sermon which included his citing of Church doctrine about homosexuality. The mother of Pete Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten, lives in the small city of Traverse City and her name is Sherri Glezman. When Chasten came out , “he left his home shortly after due to the friction. A few months later, his family came around. He cried when his mother called and told him to come home.”
If politically connected liberals aren’t in the pews to report dissatisfaction, how often are negative comments about Joe Biden and liberal political policy being made from the pulpit and not reported?
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Linda
You are a bit over the top with the criticism of Catholics. Note I don’t disagree. I also agree that the” American “Catholic church has pretty much gotten a pass for intolerance and their right wing power grab in the Courts. . But spread it around. Orthodox Jews and Fundamentalist Christians are equally culpable if not more.
And all one has to do is look at the Middle East to see what Islamic theocracy looks like .
So please diversify your criticism.
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Thanks, Joel. I have told Linda that the fundamentalists in every religion are dogmatic and intolerant.
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Joel,
Please review msm reporting and reply back if you find what I found.
Media criticize evangelicals which Pope Francis evidently interprets as protestants (a prior reference of mine to an article by a close colleague to Pope Francis published at La Civilta Cattolica) for political activities but, not the right wing Catholic activities. The big tent is cited as excuse. It is a convenient and effective way to have the public misled about the alliance between the Catholic hierarchy and evangelicals.
A recent example of the cover that right wing Catholic political activities receive is a Brookings report which compared politicking from the pulpits of different faiths. The Catholic Church is unique in having almost 50 state Catholic Conferences that politic for the bishops. When I find protestant, etc. political organizations that publicly take credit for school choice legislation and when I find their political organizations linked together and working with the Koch network in state capitols, your point may have merit.
I live in a midwest state. The protestant churches in my town did not have hundreds of signs in their churches’ lawns that said, “Religious Freedom” and, there is only one faith’s church that recently posted a sign that says, “Pray for the Police”.
When you report back that the leader of a regional church has told all of the ministers that he oversees that he prohibits them from voting in a Democratic primary and he cites its legality by an opinion from his state religious conference, your point may have merit.
If I asked the average person on the street how many of them know Leonard Leo or Paul Weyrich and how many of them know that 6 conservative Catholic jurists are on SCOTUS and no evangelicals, what would the response be? If I asked them who Jerry Falwell and Pat Buchanan are, what would they say?
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Joel,
In light of the Biel SCOTUS decision in 2020 exempting religious schools from civil rights employment law, the public should be made aware that their taxes have positioned Catholic organizations as the 3rd largest U.S. employer.
I understand that men don’t need to worry that 1 in 6 hospitals are Catholic when their lives aren’t put at possible risk by hospital policy applied in reproductive procedure decisions.
If a religious sect enrolls the same number of students as Catholic schools and that sect has the same number of students recite an altered U.S. Pledge of Allegiance that includes the sect’s religious doctrine then, both sects’ actions should be brought to the attention of the public.
When right wing groups like Catholic Vote praise the founder of a PAC that funds school board candidates running on the single issue of opposition to CRT, the public should not turn a blind eye especially when the same types of groups and right wing bishops make condemning statements about public schools. Selectively ignoring a source that promotes school choice is foolish particularly in states where conservative religion’s members, legislators and lobbyists dominate policy decisions. Bellwether in a written report about the South advised the self-appointed ed reformers to reach out to churches to achieve their goals.
When a significant percentage of a community’s population is listening to a right wing message from the pulpit and those people vote for school board members and for or against tax levies for schools, big tent as an excuse to ignore the messaging, strikes me as an absurd position to take.
We can agree to disagree.
Sen. Rob Portman, similar to conservative religious families, would have continued to cause misery to gay people. Their compassion and empathy was only provoked because their own sons came out. Rhetorically, who speaks for gay people against intolerance when they are people without the support systems of people like the chastened Portman and Glezman families. Rhetorically, how many within the churches spoke out about the priest abuse of children or, in Canada, about the hunger and neglect of First Nation children?
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Diane and Joel,
Believing that size of influence and that geographic variables have no connection to capability and effectiveness in skewing national and state public policy to the right is a luxury that IMO, the nation can’t afford. Particularly, the interests of women, people of color, the poor, the middle class and the LGBTQ community and their children will suffer from that mind set.
Muslims are estimated to be 1.1% of the U.S. population. They overwhelmingly vote Democratic (83%). The Jewish population is estimated to be 2.17% with 10% of that number estimated to be orthodox. Similar to Muslims, 80+ percent of Jewish people vote Democratic.
The Catholic population is estimated at about 20% of the population with 60% voting for Trump in 2016.
The populations of Muslims and Jewish people are geographically concentrated unlike the Catholic population. It would be very difficult for Muslim and Jewish religious leaders to create an effective network of political lobbying offices in almost every state, a system that is obviously working for conservative Catholic leadership.
I calculated the number of Muslim and Jewish voters Democrats can expect in 2024 as contrasted with the Catholic voters Trump can expect in the key states. Have you?
I add comment here and elsewhere because I need to believe the prospect of change is possible..
.
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What a fascinating story. I read about it here: https://www.record-eagle.com/news/st-francis-priests-sermon-criticizing-lgbtq-catholics-draws-backlash/article_85037f12-6a2f-11eb-aa94-1755cf0f936d.html
Roman’s response to the paper does contain a note of regret (if not direct apology), clarification, things he will do differently. The deficiencies of Catholic doctrine are obvious in the context of commentary provided by the local Anglican and Presbyterian ministers, as well as the indignant quotes from a few citizens.
I’ve never seen anything like it: a sermon published on FB by the Mayor along with calling out the priest! All handled rather nicely and non-“divisively” by the local rag. And some staunch support for the priest in the comments. This is a community that talks together. As reflected in the Bd of Ed listening to hours & hours of community input & finally coming up with a 4th draft that supports the majority of the community and does not sell their own principles short.
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Most of the comments that followed the article were what one would expect from conservative religious.
Our nation has one of the worst situations possible for a country that wants to fulfill the promise of equality for all, the promise of democracy /rejection of authoritarianism and, the promise of progress. The nations’s capitol is dominated by a conservative religion’s institutions of higher learning (btw, the schools are not evangelical protestant). The conservative colleges have outsized influence in the Capitol. The institutions have long records reflecting the privilege of white, male leadership to the exclusion of women and people of color. And, to the detriment of the American people, the board of one of the major two universities has bedded down with Charles Koch.
When men interpret God’s words to say women can not be priests it enables the perpetuation of women as second class citizens. It has its parallel in middle eastern nations that deprive women of their rights.
School choice, forced birth extremism, and predatory capitalism would not have gained the traction they did in the Capitol but for one sect’s D.C. universities that remained quiet or actively politicked for them. The billionaire privatizers and conservative religious seized and implemented an agenda together.
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Well, the one that finally passed was really watered down thanks to the contingent of racist parents in Traverse City intent upon preserving their white supremacist children’s presumed right not to have the racist ideology they’ve inherited challenged at all.
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Just clarifying, Bob: was that your opinion of the 4th draft that finally passed? Only the 3rd is shown in the article linked here. [But wait: I can’t even read that or any of the drafts without subscribing for $18!]. Apparently the 4th version deletes the para about CRT being inappropriate for K12 [which means there’s no reference to it one way or another], and establishes a diversity & inclusion committee for continuing community discussion. Another article says the fourth version “acknowledges racism in the community and condemns it.”
This is just me, but I like their approach of throwing racism right in with other [exhaustive list] examples of bullying. [Since that’s what it is.] Most schools by now have policies stating zero tolerance/ measures for addressing bullying. I have no problem with deleting the promise to include marginalized works in curriculum: the less said the better; teachers will add works as they see fit. Let’s just hope there’s no verbiage re: teachers can’t teach anything that would hurt somebody’s feelings.
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I like their approach of throwing racism right in with other [exhaustive list] examples of bullying.
Perhaps I read the wrong version. Just catching up here after a medical event.
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Hope you are OK!!
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Oh, that’s such good news.
I’m telling you, public schools have the power to go their own way. They no longer have to follow behind this national “movement” that offers no benefits to their students, and comes with a substantial downside.
Public schools have an enormous advantage – they’re locally governed. If they’ve been poorly served by national policy people – and they have- they can cut national policy people loose.
Just serve your students. Our schools are set up in such a way that we can do that.
The political flavor of the month is an engineered anti-CRT panic. We can choose to go in a different, more positive direction. If what’s on offer from the national education status quo doesn’t serve public school students public schools have no duty to follow along.
Plus we have to recover from the pandemic and plan for what could be another wave. We don’t have time to indulge in another Right wing political campaign. It can (and will) go forward without us, because it was never about our students or schools.
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Not a single person from a public school was contacted for this discussion of public schools and testing:
https://www.the74million.org/article/early-reading-skills-see-a-rebound-from-in-person-learning-but-racial-gaps-have-grown-wider-tests-show/
It’s just incredible. Our schools are carefully excluded from all discussions regarding our schools.
Why would any self-respecting public school leader accept direction or advice from these folks? They completely exclude them from all discussions or debates about their own schools.
This doesn’t occur to anyone at the “Reagan Education Summit”? That it might be worthwhile to allow someone from an actual public school to participate?
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Consider the source. It’s certainly not a credible one. https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2017/10/10/in-2015-the-74-media-was-overwhelmingly-funded-by-litigious-union-busting-partnership-for-ed-justice/
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Chiara is our resident source for studying the output of ed-deformers. No one else has the stomach for it.
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Pres. Biden appointed Gold Star Dad Khizr Khan to head the Religious Freedom Commission. “Freedom from Religion” would be a good name change. The choice of a woman who supports access to birth control and equality for gay people and equality for women would have been a good choice to head the commission.
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7 to 0
It warms my heart to see “Democracy” still able to crush the people (sorry Peasants) so completely.
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The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends…
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The Moral Arc
The longer the arc
The less it bends
The curvature lark
Is not your friend
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I live just north of the TCAPS district, and Nancy Will (the music teacher who updated the story) is a friend. She is correct–this is a move in the right direction, a 7-0 decision by a public school Board in a town that is half-red, half-blue. Here’s the text of the statement (it’s a free link). Decide for yourself if it’s ‘watered down:’
https://www.traverseticker.com/news/tcaps-board-passes-antiracism-resolution/?fbclid=IwAR3gQ5pCSSTJ_Mz2S2MocfvdHr34vb6MHKjG6AlEIhMmWJyJL-RzouO-l28
Nobody was crushing anybody else. It was written and edited democratically. It may not have included everything every progressive person wanted, but it took a fair amount of courage for the Board and administrator to settle on this–hours and hours of occasionally hostile public comments, meticulous discussions dissecting words and their meanings, and lots of threats to pull kids out of the public system.
This is not just about a DEI statement. Over the past decade, scores of parents have pulled their kids out of TCAPS, a large, well-regarded public system, and put them in the local charter–over 1000 kids. The existence of the charter has meant parents who were irritated with TCAPS had an alternative besides the Catholic schools. The triggering event was just a reason for the anti-public school cabal to show up in TC. There were outside groups that came in to organize the resistance to a DEI statement. https://whataretheylearning.com/state/mi/
All things considered, I am enormously pleased with what happened in TC. It will impace dozens of smaller, more rural districts in the area. It really was good news.
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Thanks for the 2nd link. Who funds the LLC?
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Luke Rosiak is identified at the whattheyarelearning site and he appears to be integral to the effort. At Daily Caller, the media of Tucker Carlson, Rosiak is listed as a “reporter”. Sourcewatch provides details about Daily Caller and lists Rosiak as one of its employees.
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Very glad to see this version wasn’t accepted:
“The third draft directly addressed Critical Race Theory, which has been a talking point for critics of the resolution. The first two drafts did not. The third referred to CRT as an ideology that is “a complex area of academic research” that is best suited for “advanced scholarly discussion” and “not appropriate for K-12 education.” All trustees agreed to remove that section after it was criticized during public comment.”
A critical race theory lens is absolutely appropriate, and in fact is essential, for K-12 education. Racial justice needs to be a part of everything a school does.
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Tim Busch’s National Catholic Register posted a promotional piece about the anti-CRT efforts of Fordham’s Erika Sansi. Sansi acknowledges in the interview that the parents of children in private schools lack the same rights as a community within a democratic governance structure. Fordham’s efforts to privatize tax-funded schools results in the elimination of the rights of the community.
“The new official contents of sex education in Mexico: laicism in the crosshairs”, posted at the Scielo site, has broader scope then the title suggests. The article describes the strategies used to undermine public schools world-wide.
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