It’s spring, which means I am once again embroiled in an epic war against the bindweed in my backyard. If you’re unfamiliar with bindweed (I envy you), it’s a climbing vine that grows quickly and generally refuses to die no matter how frequently you attack it. And since I can’t hit it with herbicide without damaging my rose bushes and peonies, my choice of weapon is limited to pruning shears and frequent obscenities.
As you might imagine, it’s not going well. I’ve been battling this dumb plant for three years, even though I know I’m never going to beat it. Bindweed has a massive, resilient root system, and the vines in my yard snake under the fence from adjacent properties on both sides, which means I don’t stand a chance unless the entire neighborhood bands together to fight with me. It’s too far gone, in other words. By the time the creeping weed has infiltrated every corner of the yard, there’s no chance of eradicating it.
The Big Takeaway
We last discussed the link between schools and politics three months ago, and it’s only grown more concrete since then. Lately it’s most visible in school libraries, where more than 1,500 books were removed from shelves across 26 states, most of them either written by LGBTQ+ authors or people of color, or featuring characters from marginalized groups.
Most of those titles were pulled due to vaguely defined “objectionable” content, or under the guise of protecting students from feeling “discomfort” due to their race or sex. But some defied explanation. Officials in Florida announced earlier this month that they’d rejected 54 math textbooks for incorporating “problematic and impermissible topics,” then declined to highlight the offending content or identify which books contained it, per the Florida Phoenix.
It’s part of an ongoing trend of political culture wars infiltrating schools across the country as GOP lawmakers tweak education policy to limit classroom discussions of sexual orientation, gender identity and race — and to empower parents to complain about basically anything that displeases them about their children’s education. Since January 2021, lawmakers in 42 states have sought to restrict how teachers talk about racism and sexism, and roughly three dozen states have considered “parental rights” legislation in the last year.
The trend was on full display in Georgia Thursday as Gov. Brian Kemp signed multiple bills into law, granting parents the right to complain about “objectionable” library and educational materials, banning concepts of racism from classroom lessons and creating a committee to decide whether transgender girls should be allowed to play sports on teams that align with their gender identity.
Kemp, a Republican, said the policies “put students and parents first by keeping woke politics out of the classroom and off our ballfields,” the Georgia Recorder reported.
“It ensures all of our state and nation’s history is taught accurately,” Kemp continued. “Here in Georgia, our classrooms will not be pawns of those who want to indoctrinate our kids with their partisan political agendas.”
Of course, things like the reality of racism or the existence of LGBTQ+ individuals weren’t political until Republicans began attacking them, but it’s 2022 and nothing matters, so Kemp shrugged off criticism of the policies. None of them are extreme, he argued.
“Standing up for the God-given potential of each and every child in our schools and protecting the teaching of freedom, liberty, opportunity and the American dream in the classroom should not be controversial,” he said. “Making sure parents have the ultimate say in their child’s education should not be controversial. … I want every young girl in this state to have every opportunity to succeed in the sport they love. That should not be controversial.”
Other lawmakers openly courted controversy. Tennessee state Rep. Jerry Sexton said Wednesday he’d be happy to set fire to any books deemed obscene by a state textbook commission, the Tennessee Lookout reported.
The remark came amid debate over proposed legislation that would require school districts to submit lists of library books to the commission for review. A Democratic lawmaker asked Sexton what, exactly, the state would do with the books deemed inappropriate.
“I don’t have a clue,” Sexton said. “But I would burn ’em.”
Book-burning is a decidedly authoritarian practice, common in places like Nazi Germany, where university students torched more than 25,000 books after they were labeled “un-German,” per the U.S. Holocaust Museum. The bonfire was set ablaze after Joseph Goebbels, a propagandist for the Nazis, gave a speech calling on Germans to say “no” to “decadence and moral corruption” and “yes” to “decency and morality in family and state!”
State Rep. Gloria Johnson, a Democrat from Knoxville, alluded to that history, telling Sexton that, “History hasn’t looked fondly on people who ban books or burn books.”
It’s fine, Sexton reassured her before the House approved the bill. They aren’t banning books, just removing them from school libraries.
Chalk it up: Kansas Legislature passes bill to fund public schools and allow open enrollment … (Wisconsin) Baldwin joins senators calling for student loan forgiveness, details on ‘Fresh Start’ plan … Kansas Democrat threatens to recruit parents to sue schools for lack of honest history lessons
From the Newsrooms
- Georgia college students learning hard economics lessons as cost of living rises
- (Wisconsin) National campaign puts its sights on popular police gunfire detection tool
- All eyes on New Jersey as it grapples with letting cops use cannabis
- Tree-planting program launched to mitigate severe Las Vegas ‘heat island effect’
- Spending on lobbying at the Nebraska Legislature topped a record $20M in 2021
One Last Thing
Oktoberfest is back. Nature is healing. Paint with all the colors of the wind.
This edition of the Evening Wrap published on April 29, 2022. Subscribe here.
