Thread by @donmoyn

People laughed about the Stephen Douglas/Frederick Douglas mistake, but this bill is really bad. The key goal is to silence, discredit, and put a bounty on teachers, while further undermining the attack on public schools. 1/

https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1482024234272497667

The bill has the standard blocking of "divisive concepts." In other words, you can't suggest structural racism is a real and persistent force in America, despite evidence of this point. Doesn't matter if it's true as long as it's "divisive." 2/

It also blocks teachers from talking about current events that might be controversial, that is, the news. If for any reason they do, they have to present both sides. 3/

Teachers cannot give credit for service learning opportunities that allow the development of civic engagement skills. For example, pretty much any nonprofit could be considered to be engaged in lobbying if they pushed for spending in a certain area. 4/

This is the new wave of bills centered on "transparency" (this is also in Youngkin's EO): schools have to turn over all instructional materials to outside actors. This results will be predictably used to feed the outrage machine with cherrypicked quotes shorn of context. 5/

Heres the kicker: teachers can be fired for violating these policies, lose their license or even subject to legal punishment. Parents are offered a bounty in the form of vouchers if they succeed in persuading the school board that the teacher is a repeat offender. 6/

As I've noted before, these policies will be implemented differently depending on local mores. In localities with anti-CRT school boards, such policies provide the basis for a witch hunt of teachers. Many teachers will quit. 7/
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-lessons-…