Education Chaos and Conflict
From elementary schools to elite universities, the battle is on.
The Kennewick School Board Takes a Stand
On March 27, the Kennewick School Board, in Kennewick Washington, issued a press release announcing their decision to file a Title IX Civil Rights complaint with the Department of Education.
The complaint identifies leaders in the Washington State education community who are pushing policies in conflict with the Trump administration, putting federal funding at risk for the school district.
School board members are requesting relief from, “open and egregious Title IX violations” that they say puts girl athletes at risk by allowing biological males to participate in girls’ sports. In addition to the hazards created on the ballfield, they are concerned about safety in the locker rooms.
The KSB complaint lists four specific areas of concern.
1. Restroom and locker room access
2. Participation in athletics State Requirement
3. Gender ideology and pronoun use State Requirement
4. Parental Rights State Requirement
Listen to a discussion between Kennewick School Board Members Gabe Galbraith and Micah Valentine as they share their personal perspective on this historic conflict between federal and state entities. They share the challenges they face and concerns they have as mandates from Olympia continue to demean and diminish girls sports and girls safety.
Note: The opinion expressed in this video belong to the individuals. They are not representing the Kennewick School Board in their remarks.
Is This the Final Demise of the Department of Education?
By Eileen Griffin-Ray
On March 12, President Trump signed an Executive Order to begin eliminating the Department of Education.
“We are not doing well with the world of education in this country, and we have not for a long time,” Trump said announcing the order.
Trump said that the U.S. spends more money per pupil than any other country, yet student outcomes rank near the bottom globally.
“Seventy percent of 8th graders are not proficient in reading or in math,” Trump says. “Forty percent of 4th graders lack even basic reading skills. Students in our public elementary and middle schools score worse in reading today than when the department opened by a lot.”
The administration has already eliminated 50 percent of the bureaucrats within the Department of Education. The stated goal is to send decision-making authority back to the states.
“We want to return our students to the states - where the Governors are so happy about this,” Trump says. “They want education to come back to the states and they are going to do a phenomenal job.”
The White House Fact Sheet explains that the Department of Education has burdened the education system with mandates, regulations, and paperwork. Resources have been redirected from education to ideological initiatives.
The new order prohibits any education money to be used on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives (DEI) or gender ideology.
“Taxpayers will no longer be burdened with tens of billions of dollars wasted on progressive social experiments and obsolete programs,” the Fact Sheet reads.
“We are very simply returning education back to the states where it belongs,” Trump says.
While the Trump administration is seeking to send education authority back to the states, Washington State continues to antagonize and defy the direction coming from the White House.
A few days after the announcement from the White House, State Superintendent Chris Reykdal issued a statement in response to the Executive Order. Reykdal says that the order, “underscores the President’s disregard of public education and civil rights.”
Reykdal seems to characterize the move as an attack on civil rights by the U.S. President.
“The Department’s longstanding Office for Civil Rights has remained steadfast in its responsibility for ensuring all young people in America have equitable access to a high-quality public education,” the statement reads.
“In Washington state, our Legislature has instituted civil rights protections for students above and beyond the federal minimum protections, and no order by the President will diminish our state’s obligation or moral imperative to serve and support all students.”
The focus on civil rights, as opposed to reading and math, may be one of the reasons that there is such a significant decline in enrollment in the government managed school system, as Heartland Daily News previously reported.
Reykdal expresses concern that the Trump agenda includes providing more opportunities for parents to choose alternatives to the government run schools.
“What we are seeing in Washington, D.C. is a cruel chaos that has been intentionally designed to promote a school privatization agenda and undo a 60-year commitment to equity and civil rights that lies at the heart of our democratic system.”
Private schools have been dramatically expanding enrollment and the homeschool movement has exploded over the past few years. The exodus from public schools began long before the dismantling of the Department of Education.
Disbanding a group of federal bureaucrats is not nearly as concerning to parents as the dismantling of their parental rights, which is happening in Olympia. The state legislature continues to promote legislation that will erode the popular parental rights initiative 2081.
If education leaders in the state of Washington are really concerned about parents choosing private schools over the state run schools, maybe they should start supporting parents rights rather than undermining them.
Elite Colleges Get a Lesson in Basic Finance
Columbia University faced the prospect of losing federal funding due to activity identified as antisemitic. President Trump promised to withhold additional funding from Columbia if they continued to accommodate the discriminatory and hostile behavior towards Jewish students. Other colleges also made the list of those under investigation for the same reason.
Losing funding turned out to be an attention-getter. Suddenly, Columbia is paying attention. Other schools may start functioning differently once they consider the budgetary impact of their decisions.
Should the Trump administration withhold funds from American universities? Can Trump do this, and is it wise for him to do so? Read a thoughtful analysis of the issue, by clicking the link below.
Columbia Gives In By S.T. Karnick
Life, Liberty, Property
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