Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource
Community member Kayla Church stands in support of LGBTQ+ community and in opposition to Temecula Valley Unified curriculum ban.
Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource
Community member Kayla Church stands in support of LGBTQ+ community and in opposition to Temecula Valley Unified curriculum ban.
Carl A. Cohn
July 25, 2023
I recently saw a sign that said: “Make school board meetings boring again!” It could have been a directive to two Southern California school districts, Temecula Valley and Chino Valley, the only two school district board meetings that I’ve had the courage to attend in the past year.
First, in December when the new church-sponsored board majority was sworn in in Temecula, and this past Thursday night in Chino Valley, where the church-sponsored board majority there was considering a new policy initiative requiring all school personnel to share with parents within 72 hours (about three days) any confidential information that they might receive from a student.
I left the Temecula board meeting back in mid-December trying to figure out how is it in America today that some elements of organized religion feel threatened by what’s going on in the public schools, so much so that a pastor would call the public schools “the devil’s playground.”
I don’t know about you, but I sometimes turn to Hollywood — the real “devil’s playground” — for an answer. Sure enough, right there on Amazon Prime’s classic films webpage, I found Stanley Kramer’s 1960 Academy-Award nominated “Inherit the Wind,” a fictionalized version of the 1925 so-called Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee, which sent a high school biology teacher to jail for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. Replete with Tennessee Ernie Ford’s rendition of “Give Me That Old-time Religion” playing in the background, the film captures a bunch of evangelical parents reacting to a major new perceived threat to the safety of their children posed by the public schools.
The threat is completely made up and phony, not unlike what we’re seeing in both the Temecula and Chino school systems recently — churchgoing parents believing that the public schools are rampant with so-called “groomers” determined to expose their young children to all manner of sexual deviance and debauchery. This fiction has had a degree of success in some recent school board elections, where the banner of “restoration of parental rights at the local level” has been the organizing principle for a new campaign of denying rights and returning to blatant bigotry in some parts of our progressive state.
Back in 2011, when I was appointed to the State Board of Education by Gov. Jerry Brown, I was one of the biggest supporters of his signature education policy initiative of returning to local control of public schools in California. I remember at the time that two veteran civil rights lawyers whom I deeply respect both cautioned me about my enthusiasm, reminding me that, in the long history of civil rights in America, appeals to local control had often been used to take away and deny rights rather than advance them. My reaction was: “Calm down, gentlemen, this is California, not the Deep South.” They know who they are, and I owe both an apology.
As someone who studied to be a priest before getting into public education, I’m struck by what I hear from sincere, churchgoing parents at these school board meetings like the one in Chino Valley this past Thursday night. The literal preaching and constant references to the Bible are remarkably similar in that they only embrace the fire and brimstone of the Old Testament, along with selected references to the New Testament almost exclusively drawn from passages focused on Judgment Day. What’s consistently missing are any references to the compassionate and courageous Jesus of the four gospels — a man who was looking out for the poor, the outcast, the stranger, those who were looked down upon in his time. That same Jesus of the gospels was also constantly pointing out the shortcomings of the religious establishment of his day. All of that is missing from the public testimony of evangelical parents at these two school board meetings that I’ve attended recently in Temecula and Chino.
Another dilemma that I faced following that initial visit to Temecula back in mid-December was how someone can stand up, raise their right hand and pledge to defend both the state and federal constitutions and laws, both of which provide protections for all youngsters, and then proceed to violate that public oath that they took by supporting policies that discriminate against some students. I was so exercised by this that I actually went to Sacramento and started knocking on the doors of legislative leaders and others looking for answers. Finally, a lawyer who is a good friend told me: “Look, Carl, the oath is merely ceremonial, once the county registrar has certified that you’ve won that seat — absent death, resignation, recall or defeat in the next election — that office is yours no matter what oath you took.” My quiet reaction was: “My God, isn’t that a horrible example and terrible civics lesson for our students?”
Once again, I turned to a classic Hollywood film for an answer. Fred Zinneman’s Academy Award-winning 1966 film “A Man for All Seasons,” vividly captures the importance of what taking an oath “before God and man” actually means. In this historical drama about the conflict between King Henry VIII of England and Sir Thomas More, everyone, including family members, implores More to avoid being beheaded by taking an oath recognizing Henry as supreme regarding religious matters. In a moving letter from prison to his own daughter, future St. Thomas tells her that his conscience would not allow him to violate an oath that he took before God and man.
At Thursday night’s school board meeting in Chino Valley, there were at least seven people present who, upon first entering their positions, had taken an oath to defend both the state and federal constitutions — the five elected school board members, the Chino Valley superintendent and the elected state superintendent of public instruction, Tony Thurmond. As a Californian and a Catholic who believes that all of God’s children in our public schools deserve the best from those who have taken a taken an oath to defend them, I’m hoping that we can all find common ground in the example and heroic life of public servant St. Thomas More that an oath taken before God and man still means something.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that our state is going to need a new coalition committed to keeping extremists off our public school boards. Both Temecula Valley and Chino Valley are showing us how important and challenging this new work is going to be in keeping all our children safe from bigotry and discrimination.
Let’s roll up our sleeves and go to work!
•••
Carl A. Cohn is professor emeritus and senior research fellow at Claremont Graduate University. He previously served as the superintendent of Long Beach and San Diego Unified school districts. His research on the new and emerging politics of education in America is supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
To get more reports like this one, click here to sign up for EdSource’s no-cost daily email on latest developments in education.
Share Article
"control" - Google News
July 25, 2023 at 11:54PM
https://ift.tt/vQF85aT
COMMENTARY: School boards in Chino and Temecula raise worries about local control - EdSource
"control" - Google News
https://ift.tt/1k3A27f
https://ift.tt/emjlvH5
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "COMMENTARY: School boards in Chino and Temecula raise worries about local control - EdSource"
Post a Comment