How To Test Your Comprehension Of Education Speeches

By C.J. Janovy, Kansas Reflector

March 24, 2021

OK, class. We’ve all learned a lot in the last year, haven’t we? We’ve demonstrated proficiency with new vocabulary words. Some of us even know a lot more about science than we used to. And math — not just addition (as in two pounds per month in weight gain), but also percentages, such as the level of danger when a specific number of people in a larger population test positive for a deadly virus.

Some politicians, however, say they’re deeply worried about what school kids have, or have not, been learning during a year in which everything was disrupted.

To assess your knowledge of current events at the Kansas Capitol, see how you do on the following test, which I’ll put in the form of a complicated essay question.

The setup: A state has two counties right next to each other. One county has historically been among the wealthiest in the entire United States and ranks as the healthiest county in the state.The other county, right next door, is one of the poorest in the state, with a history of the kinds of health problems exacerbated by poverty. The rich county is extra proud of its schools (especially their athletes). The poor county — well, the media doesn’t usually pay much attention to its schools’ accomplishments.

First complication: Demographics and voting patterns in these two side-by-side counties are representative of America’s hyperpolarized partisan dystopia.

Second complication: A pandemic descends. School is canceled throughout the state. When it starts again, much of it is online. This reveals massive problems underpinning the dystopia. For many parents, school is their only affordable child care. Parents unfit to be teachers are suddenly forced into that role. Many communities don’t have internet access.

Third complication: Children — who we say we care about most as a society (but often really don’t) — aren’t as endangered by the contagious disease. Keeping classes online protects teachers and parents from possibly dying, but kids need to be back with their teachers and friends.

Fourth complication: Politicians get involved.

One politician is from the wealthy county. He has supported legislation that would divert public money to private schools. Even though most schools have already returned to in-person learning, he also wanted to pass a law demanding all public school districts offer in-person instruction to every student by March 26 and never again revert to online-only teaching in a public health emergency. When that didn’t work, he supported another bill requiring schools to offer in-person learning for this school year, starting March 31.

This politician has also made it clear that his bill is targeted at only one of the state’s 286 public school districts.

“This bill will not affect most of your school districts — almost all of you, your districts are back in person in full time,” he told his fellow lawmakers on Monday. “The larger districts, schools are mostly in person, but some are still in a hybrid schedule. And one of our largest districts has still yet to go back at all.”

This politician, who is white (like most of the people in his wealthy county), was talking about the public school district in the poorer county next to his, where white people are in the minority.

He has also said things like: “It’s clear that the Catholic schools care about the kids. No more excuses. These local school boards have let those children down. Now it’s up to us to help them out.”

And: “Most of our schools are conforming to the science. They are in person and full time. The exception are the worst performers that we have. I would add that the private schools in same exact areas — inner urban core schools — started August 15 in full time with no issues.”

To review: This bill involves a school district not in the legislative district represented by this politician. It overrides the authority of that district’s school board. It involves telling that school district to go back in person on March 31, when that district is already planning to return in person on April 5.

This politician summed up his argument on Monday with these words:

“It doesn’t matter what side of the aisle families are on. All that matters is the school parents are watching. And they want someone to fight for their children. … You can bet that I will always take the child’s side, and my constituents like that about me. The Democrats like that about me. And that’s why I’m up here, because they know that I’ll fight against a powerful school lobby, because I’m on their kids’ side.”

Finally, here’s the question — a two-parter: Is this really about kids? And why is this politician deploying barely disguised racist dog whistles in sound-bitey floor speeches to push irrelevant legislation that seems intended only to make life more difficult for a public school district in a poor, majority-minority county?

Extra credit if you can name this politician without looking. Answers due in the next election.