Ban the culture war from classrooms

As America’s children start getting back to school this month, our country needs a grown-up conversation about public education’s future. The odds of having one this fall are slim.

It’s more likely that the midterm election campaign will intensify today’s noxious trend toward politicizing public schools. That’s reprehensible, because our children, who suffered severe learning losses and emotional stress during the pandemic, deserve better than to be treated as hostages in the nation’s vitriolic culture wars.

Republicans, who seem to be at war with all of America’s public institutions, are the worst offenders. But Democrats aren’t blameless, and even as they fend off the right’s demagogic attacks on public schools, they need to come to grips with the valid reasons why parental frustration is boiling over.

Public faith in the K-12 system is approaching an all-time low. Only 28 percent of Americans express confidence in their schools. Many parents have been voting with their feet — public school enrollment has dropped by about 1.4 million students since the pandemic began.

Republicans see political gain this fall in fusing parents’ anger over school closings and learning losses with conservative bugaboos like mask and vaccine mandates, critical race theory and classroom discussions of race and gender. That’s the formula Glenn Youngkin used last year in making education the galvanizing issue of his successful race for governor in Virginia.

About a quarter of Virginia voters named education as their top issue, after the economy. Youngkin, who branded his campaign events as “parents’ rallies,” won these voters by 15 points. That helped him carry independents as well as Virginia’s suburbs, reversing former President Trump’s losses the year before.

Since then, red-state legislators have passed a slew of “parents’ rights” laws aimed at restricting classroom about race, sexual orientation and gender identity. And GOP governors with presidential ambitions, notably Florida’s Ron DeSantis, routinely stoke conservative white parents’ anger at “woke” school authorities.

Across the country, normally soporific school board meetings are erupting into screaming matches, and board members are targeted for online abuse, including death threats. Previously low-key elections for school superintendent suddenly are becoming hotly contested arenas of partisan conflict.  

The volatile new politics of education poses a dilemma for Democrats, who historically have dominated the issue.

According to a recent survey by Impact Research, by a 47-43 percent margin, U.S voters now trust Republicans over Democrats to handle education issues. The GOP lead is bigger among parents (9 points) and voters of color (10 percent).

Another survey by the American Federation of Teachers found Republicans have a narrow (39-38) advantage on education in seven key battleground states with competitive elections. 

Both polls show that, by enormous margins, voters want schools to concentrate on teaching math and reading rather than race and gender issues. The striking finding here – which may come as a shock to liberals – is that U.S. voters think Democrats are more fixated on these issues than Republicans.

How can Democrats regain public trust on education and keep our schools from becoming a culture war killing field?

First, by focusing on the fundamentals of learning. They should challenge school authorities around the country to accelerate the pace at which students regain lost ground and make sure poor and minority students don’t fall even further behind.

Over the past year, younger students have made up about a quarter of reading and math learning they lost when schools closed. But older students are recovering more slowly, and low-income and Black and Hispanic students also are struggling to catch up.

Second, by reclaiming the Clinton-Obama mantle of public-school reform, unwisely discarded by the Biden administration and congressional Democratic leaders.

The party establishment seems locked in a marriage of political convenience with an outdated K-12 system run by change-averse district school bureaucracies and powerful teachers’ unions. But parents want more than a return to the status quo pre-COVID-19.

The best way to blunt the GOP education offensive is to offer restive voters a progressive vision for reinventing public schools for the digital age. Drawing on the well-documented success of public charter schools, which performed more nimbly during the pandemic and saw their enrollment grow, Democrats should call for expanding parental choice, shifting decisions from central offices to school leaders, and shutting  down schools that chronically fail their students.

They also should push for closing the international achievement gap between U.S. students and their counterparts overseas, especially in China. And to ease the transition from school to work, U.S. high schools need to do a better job of exposing students to careers and creating work-study opportunities with local employers. 

Third, by forcefully rejecting the cultural left’s attempts to suppress free expression and discredit America’s founding ideals, which are all that holds this pluralistic, multiethnic democracy together. Their illiberal brand of identity politics is the mirror image of the right’s white ethnic nationalism, and just as damaging to our country.

On abortion and other issues, our country is in danger of splitting into separate red and blue zones where conflicting laws and social mores hold sway. We can’t let that happen to public education.

Our children need to know the true history of the nation — both its sins and its contributions to human progress. Bigotry, discrimination and injustice are part of the American story; so are unceasing struggles to overcome them and extend the blessings of individual freedom, civic equality and democratic self-government to all citizens.

This is what we should teach kids in school. Today’s cultural warriors want to indoctrinate by telling kids what to think; our public schools should expose kids to facts and reasoned arguments and help them learn how to think for themselves.

Will Marshall is president and founder of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI).