National teachers union boss Randi Weingarten likened the rhetoric of supporters of school choice and parents’ rights initiatives to segregation, sparking protests from supporters of the movement.
A comparison of the racial explosion of the Jim Crow era to modern-day activists pushing for school districts to allow parents more input in their children’s education was made by the president of the American Federation of Teachers during an interview Tuesday with Northeastern University Burnes Center for Social Change senior fellow Seth D. Harris.
“The same roots that happened after Brown v. Board, the same words you heard, in terms of wanting segregation, after Brown v. Board of Education, the same words you hear today,” Weingarten, 65, said in response to a question about the difference in political discussion around schools now compared to the 20th century.
“I was kind of surprised when I talked to the Southern Poverty Law Center, and they showed me the same words: choice, ‘parental rights’ and an attempt to divide parents versus teachers, and at that point, white parents versus another. parents. But it’s the same kind of word,” he added.
Weingarten claims the words “choice” and “parental rights” were favored by segregationists who wanted to stop the integration of public schools in the Jim Crow era. Burnes Center for Social Change
Weingarten argued that only “a small group of extremists,” who want to end public education, back school choice and parental rights policies. He specifically named former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, New College of Florida board member Christopher Rufo and the conservative nonprofit group Moms for Liberty, which has a membership of 115,000 people in 45 states.
“If Randi is truly interested in addressing modern-day segregation in schools, she should strongly condemn the practice of racially segregated ‘affinity groups’ & ‘healing circles’ used in K-12 schools,” Nicki Neily, president of Parents. Defending Education tweeted in response to the union leader’s comments.
“Yet he’s the one blocking the school gates,” Ilya Shapiro, director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, argued in a tweet.
??Randi Weingarten equates parental rights and school choice advocates with segregation:
He said the words “choice” and “parental rights” are the same kinds of words used in response to school desegregation by opponents of the Brown v. Board of Education. pic.twitter.com/XDvP12pWbU
— Nicki Neily (@nickineily) September 13, 2023
“Public schools remain one of the most racially and economically segregated institutions in America,” Nathaniel Cunneen, communications strategist for the American Federation for Children, stated in a tweet. “Stanford University researchers found that white-black segregation between schools increased 35 percent between 1991 and 2020. Meanwhile, nearly every study on the topic shows that school choice has a positive effect on integration.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled Moms for Liberty and other parents’ rights organizations “hate and anti-government groups” — along with groups like the Ku Klux Klan — in June.
Weingarten claims that “the vast majority” of parents reject the “harmful rhetoric” of school choice and parents’ rights advocates. John Roca
The extremism watchdog argued that “Today’s parental rights activists have also copied and pasted from the group’s script of the past, adapting old ideas of racism and homophobia, as well as conspiracy theories that insist on Marxist indoctrination. They are now adding some QAnon rhetoric, accusing progressives of trying to parent and sexualize children.”
“Like their predecessors, their rhetoric takes on distinctly anti-LGBTQ, racist and nationalist themes, excluding from their parental concerns a large demographic segment of American society,” the center added.
Weingarten answered the shout in a tweet Tuesday, calling it “an example of the extremism we face.”
“I said I was shocked that a small group of extremists used the evil words of segregation and watched the vast majority of parents and educators reject it,” he said.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
