Several alert readers messaged your Lady Yokels to instruct us to tune in to the board meeting. Colt Black was getting his ass handed to him for his insensitive, and frankly stupid, comments about some students in our schools. We encourage all who didn’t see it, to go back and watch it as soon as it’s posted on their site.
You’ll have to mire through Heather Fletcher telling you in the name of Jesus Christ to get rid of all the porn in the school, and suffer through Tom Neumark mansplaining the budget…but it’s worth it. Because, more importantly, you’ll learn from the kids how we are going to survive this Trump hell for the next four years.
The students who came to speak during public comment made it clear to Mr. Black and the world of the impact of Policy 443. They spoke to how much better school was for both them and their friends as a result of this policy. They made it known that they would not accept any hint of discrimination in their school system.
Then came the board member comments, and we have to say that the students really knew what they were doing when they elected Elijah Steele as their representative. Mr. Steele constructed a defense of his fellow students against people like Colt Black and Jaime Brennan by using student testimony and actual facts to support why this policy matters. He reminded them not to bring their political agenda into the school system! Something they love to accuse others of, but apparently don’t see in themselves.
Afterwards, the adults on the board gave their comments. Colt Black chose to be sarcastic about his critics and then mad about the budget instead of taking any time to reflect on his behavior. Jaime Brennan wants to know why we can’t all just come together after all the hateful things she and Black have said. And Nancy Allen, who wasn’t going to speak and probably shouldn’t have, goes off on a rant about how poorly treated both she and Colt Black have been because of the horrible and hateful things they said! Can’t these people get a break and spew their hate without any repercussions?! Geeze!
Imagine that!
The other board members really stepped up to the plate and stood up for all of the students in our school system. Karen Yoho reminded us of the discussion in 2016 when Policy 443 came about. It was because of students! Mr. Rose threw some Southern shade Colt Black’s way and made it known that he would no longer tolerate any bashing of kids at board meetings. Board members Gallagher and Monier both voiced their support for policies for that protect kids. These are the people that make our board and our school system better.
What Black, Brennan, and Allen need to realize is that they are there for the kids, all of them. They and their followers can put forth all of the hyperbolic “the sky is falling” bullshit they want about what this policy “could” do, but the truth is they are wrong. There has not been a single incident of any of this propaganda happening in FCPS. Since this is an FCPS policy that only applies in FCPS, that is all that matters. If you cannot prove harm, then you don’t have a leg to stand on. What we do see over and over again is student after student testifying to how much this policy has helped them at school. That’s all that matters. Leave these kids alone, leave this policy alone, and let’s move on to more important issues.
Thank you to everyone who reminded your despondent Lady Yokels how we are going to survive this new fresh hell we find ourselves in. These kids and Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde have reminded us how to move on by standing up for what is morally right in this world:
We won’t let these people hurt the ones that we love.
We’ve been taking it a bit easy this summer at Yokel headquarters. But now it’s time for us to step back into the fray! Lots of big news going on! First of all, we finally have a chance to have a woman president!
Kamala!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We also want to share with you this meme that pretty much sums up the last few years of American politics:
Imagine having to explain the last 8 years without having lived through it! It’s hard to explain even if you lived through it!
What we want to focus on today is the assault that the American educational system is under AND what that means for us locally. We are going to concentrate on two recent publications in particular.
First on our list is a column that the Frederick News Post ran on July 5th by a member of the Heritage Foundation with the seemingly innocuous title, “America’s teachers are unhappy. Here’s how we can turn that around.” Except there is nothing in this article that would make any teachers we know happy. Case in point:
Imagine Uber or Airbnb for education: An online platform that allows educators to offer their services to as many families as are willing to pay. One teacher could offer Advanced Placement English to hundreds of students at a time, and be compensated based on the popularity of their course, instead of a flat district salary schedule.
That’s what we want to know Mr.Tinkles!
So, teachers would be happier if they had to piecemeal their existence together? And what about healthcare and retirement? Or is that just the radical agenda of those evil teacher unions? Didn’t most people hate online learning for their kids? Here’s another jewel:
It’s no wonder. Teacher preparation programs can be money makers for colleges, but they offer little practical guidance on how to manage a classroom or deliver a lesson.
There’s been a bit of research on this so you can look for yourself, however we will share the conclusions of an analysis of student outcomes comparing Teach for America teachers to traditionally certificated teachers in the Houston School District:
Again we found that uncertified teachers and those with less than standard certification—whether TFA or non-TFA—exert negative effects on student achievement relative to teachers with standard certification.
AND…..
Raymond and colleagues reported that across the four years of their study, TFA teachers had left teaching in Houston by their third year at rates of between 60% and 100%. We found similar attrition rates: Between 57% and 90% of TFA recruits had left teaching in Houston after their second year, and between 72% and 100% of recruits had left after their third year.
No Heritage Foundation word salad on education would be complete without some accusation of indoctrination:
Those who persist are forced to take on tens of thousands of dollars in debt to sit through hours of abstract theorizing and ideological indoctrination — only to walk into class on day 1 of their first year ill-equipped to handle the student who won’t take his seat.
Of course this writer offers up no research to back her claims. So, let’s move onto the next piece we want to focus on, which is the deservedly maligned Project 2025.
That’s a great question!
There’s so much to unpack in that document, so for today we are going to just comment on the “Education Policy” section of this hot mess. First of all can we guess for whom the author of this piece works for?
If you guessed The Heritage Foundation, then…
Because of course she is!
So let’s go and break down some of these suggestions, shall we?
First of all, the overall tone of the article is that local school boards and local control is the best thing this country ever did, and all the problems in education would magically disappear if state and local governments had complete and total control.( We should mention that most other developed countries have a centralized education system) So, we set out to find some examples to refute that notion! Here’s a excerpt of an article from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education:
Daily stories abound of controversies related to school boards. In Clark County, public debates lasted all night over the boards’ deliberations over revamping sex education. Making national news, students chained themselves to the dais amidst the board’s deliberations to eliminate Mexican American Studies in Tucson while one board member was featured on the Daily Show making inaccurate and discriminatory remarks about the program. In Salt Lake City, the only board member of color showed up to the board meeting dressed as “Frito Bandito” (a cartoon character depicting a stereotype of Mexicans as thieves) in response to presumed racial discrimination. School board meeting attendees in South Carolina started singing “Jesus Loves Me” to silence advocates of transgender bathrooms, which translates to a villanization of transgender students. These are just a few of the existing examples.
You can also read stories about some coal mining towns in which the executives of the mines sat on school boards and wouldn’t allow advanced classes into the curriculum, mostly because they needed those students to work in the mines one day. And everyone remembers this, right?!
What a great example of local control of education!
Here’s a real eye-opener from Project 2025:
Safeguarding civil rights. Enforcement of civil rights should be based on a proper understanding of those laws, rejecting gender ideology and critical race theory.
These people really know how to pull out their dog whistles don’t they? Their suggestions continue along this same route:
The next Administration should abandon this change redefining “sex” to mean “sexual orientation and gender identity” in Title IX immediately across all departments. On its first day in office, the next Administration should signal its intent to enter the rulemaking process to restore the Trump Administration’s Title IX regulation, with the additional insistence that “sex” is properly understood as a fixed biological fact. Official notice-and-comment should be posted immediately. lAt the same time, the political appointees in the Office for Civil Rights should begin a full review of all Title IX investigations that were conducted on the understanding that “sex” referred to gender identity and/or sexual orientation.
Is this idea put forth to make sure Trump can get his followers jobs in the Federal Government? Just asking questions!
Minimize bachelor’s degree requirements. The President should issue an executive order stating that a college degree shall not be required for any federal job unless the requirements of the job specifically demand it.
And of course the main idea here is to destroy the public education system so they and all their buddies can make education into a business that they can profit off of:
Advancing education freedom. Empowering families to choose among a diverse set of education options is key to reform and improved outcomes, and it can be achieved without establishing a new federal program. For example, portability of existing federal education spending to fund families directly or allowing federal tax credits to encourage voluntary contributions to K–12 education savings accounts managed by charitable nonprofits, could significantly advance education choice.
Freedom they call it.
Is that why they can’t seem to hear anything?
So, we know this has been a long post, but we do need to circle back to what this means around these here parts. We have a few candidates (cough, cough-Jaime Brennan and Colt Black!) who have espoused some of these same viewpoints. Jaime Brennan is a member of Moms For Liberty who also has a relationship with the Heritage Foundation. From the Heritage Foundation’s own website:
The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project filed a lawsuit yesterday on behalf of Moms for Liberty against the Biden Administration, demanding the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and Federal Bureau of Investigation produce all records concerning the parental rights organization and the Biden Administration’s coordination with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
This lawsuit comes after the agencies refused to comply with the Oversight Project’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the same documents.
Prior to requesting these documents, the SPLC produced a report which listed Moms for Liberty as an “extremist” coalition of “far-right antigovernment parents” who are known for “intimidating and harassing teachers and school officials.” It also claimed that Moms for Liberty is “one of the most recognized names in the anti-student inclusion movement,” citing the group’s opposition to critical race theory.
Therefore we need to be smart about our vote this Fall. We need to consolidate our votes behind 3 candidates in order to make sure that our board doesn’t become overrun by people who want to destroy our schools. It’s just as important as your vote for President! And we don’t want the writer of the LTE that ran in yesterday’s paper to set the tone for our next election!:
We don’t need any more taxes.
Haven’t the politicians heard of not spending when you don’t have the money? I guess not. It doesn’t matter if it’s national or local.
To help with the spending, we need some conservatives on the school board. We need people who won’t cater to the teachers union.
Nothing is wrong with unions if they concern themselves with the employees’ well being only.
Don’t worry about critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion, as they are anti-common sense anyway.
Oh, well. The county doesn’t care about the older people who live here.
frederick local yokel 