The Arizona Republic reported that Republican legislators are focused on imposing new demands on the public schools, reflecting the rightwing cultural agenda. This is somewhat ironic since they previously used their power, when the Governor was Republican, to create a universal voucher program so that students can use public money to attend private schools that are entirely unregulated by the state.
Arizona lawmakers are seeking to reach deep into classroom operations with proposals to require the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, to designate which students can use which bathrooms and, once again, to limit how race and ethnicity are taught.
Those are in addition to proposals that would require gun safety training at schools and mandate that instructional materials and teacher lesson plans get posted online. Another bill would have the state Department of Education create a list of books banned from classroom use.
To some, these bills, among others, are a replay of recent legislative sessions, where the public school system became the turf for battles over hot-button cultural issues.
That ignores the changed political reality at the Capitol, with the arrival of a Democratic governor after more than a decade of unified GOP control, said Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association.
If the GOP actually cares about these issues, why don’t they put the same requirements on voucher schools? It appears that if you want to escape the GOP mandates, the way to do it to open a private school, where you are free to teach about race and gender, free of testing, free of any accountability.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So much for the party of small and local government…
So much for a party that really cares and takes care of people. So much for a party that really believes in freedom of speech and personal freedom to learn and understand what being a human is all about.
I think they left that pretense behind with Teddy Roosevelt…
But it is pretty small.
Good point: the Republicans want to control your life, even your bedroom.
And thought…
Ever since NCLB a variety of coercive tactics that put public education on the defensive have been concocted by political driven individuals. This is another attempt to undermine and hamstring the functioning of public education by those that seek to destroy it. The people of Arizona need to show up at the polls and vote them out in the next election.
The people re-elect these divisive clowns to keep taxes low—esp retirees.
yup
It would be interesting to understand how the “Overton Window” Concept and Trevino’s degrees of acceptance were/are used by Trump, DeSantis, and other like politicians to determine how they can win elections and mold the direction of this country.
Yes, Trump and DeSatan are normalizing what would have been considered outrageous a decade ago: overt racism, homophobia, book banning, etc.
Extremely important points, Rex, Diane. Ofc, Trump himself wouldn’t know an “Overton window” from a hush money payment to a porn star or a can of spray-on tan. But his handlers–the creators of the beast–Bannon, Miller–they do. And Trump is just naturally out of bounds–off somewhere in his own looney, criminal universe of alternative facts, knee-jerk defensiveness and hostility, and equally reflexive predation.
“It appears that if you want to escape the GOP mandates, the way to do it is to open a private school, where you are free to teach about race and gender, free of testing, free of any accountability.”
This is exactly what I was asking in some of my recent posts, and I was not joking— What will we do, what will YOU do if (WHEN?) our public schools are taken over by right wing extremist traitors in our country?
What will we do, what will YOU do if and when our schools are micromanaged communist-style –with bounties paid to informers–and the only way we can teach and learn freely is to open our own charter schools and beg for our share of tax money??
These policies are being enacted NOW, including banned books and words, bounties, and voting restrictions.
When you open a charter school that defies their mandates, that’s when the red states will regulate charter schools.
Yes, and “regulate” will mean “Teach Our Curriculum Only” and cameras in every classroom.
Yes. Red states are determined to crush academic freedom.
The policies you mention as well as others that have a negative impact of the people this country are slowly becoming the norm and acceptable. Inch by inch. Vote by vote by politicians are putting in place what was not acceptable six-ten years ago is becoming the norm for today. Politicians are playing tricks on the minds of people making them think what is happening to them is right, good for them, and is the norm.
Bottom line – they want to turn public schools into Homeschooling under one big tax funded home – and government is the parent.
What’s hard to grasp is that the GOP—historically the party of small, limited government—now has no limits about intruding into one’s personal lives. Into thought control, censorship, gag orders, intervening into medical decisions between women and their doctors, dictating medical decisions that concern parents and children. No limits.
yup. This is a strategy for the Dems going forward–to make this VERY CLEAR to voters. They are the party dedicated to limiting your freedoms.
The United States has never needed the Pledge of Allegiance since the country already had a Constitutional Oath. That Oath could easily have been extended to every citizen instead of the few that are required to to take it.
The Oath to defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies both foreign and demotic has been part of the U.S. Constitution since day 1, in the late 18th century.
George Washington was the first president to take that Oath, and his troops took a similar oath during the winter at Valley Forge, before we were an independent country.
More than a century later, The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy (1855-1931). It was originally published in The Youth’s Companion on September 8, 1892. Bellamy had hoped that the pledge would be used by citizens in any country.
In its original form it read:
“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
In 1923, the words, “the Flag of the United States of America” were added. At this time it read:
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
So, do we pledge blind obedience to the flag or an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution?
It is apparent to me that the MAGA RINO Mob pledged blind obedience to the flag on January 6th, 2021, and the president of their choice, elected or not, because the Pledge of Allegiance says nothing about defending or obeying the U.S. Constitution.
Lloyd, you forgot to mention that the two words “under God” were added in 1954
https://www.history.com/.amp/news/pledge-allegiance-under-god-schools
They WERE against 1) big government, 2) government regulations, and 3) taxes… until 1) THEY became big government, 2) could write the regulations (on people, not corporations), and 3) get tax credits and a nice savior blurb in their annual reports from all those taxes.