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Category: Education

Israeli scientists fear ‘destructive’ education policies will result in a brain drain

Israeli scientists fear ‘destructive’ education policies will result in a brain drain

Science reports: Until recently, Elena Itskovich, an Israeli stem cell biologist who earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University 2 years ago, was planning a return to her home nation. But Itskovich says she’s now “on the fence.” She is uneasy about the policies of the Israeli government elected nearly 8 months ago and largely led by conservative nationalists and ultra-Orthodox parties. She is not alone in her concerns. Israeli researchers have become increasingly vocal in opposing policies they say threaten…

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DeSantis’s Florida approves climate-denial videos in schools

DeSantis’s Florida approves climate-denial videos in schools

E&E News reports: Climate activists are like Nazis. Wind and solar power pollute the Earth and make life miserable. Recent global and local heat records reflect natural temperature cycles. These are some of the themes of children’s videos produced by an influential conservative advocacy group. Now, the videos could soon be used in Florida’s classrooms. Florida’s Department of Education has approved the classroom use of material from the Prager University Foundation, a conservative group that produces videos that distort science,…

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Florida schools will restrict access to Shakespeare in English classes

Florida schools will restrict access to Shakespeare in English classes

The Messenger reports: Some Florida educators don’t plan on teaching William Shakespeare in full this fall. Instead, they’re required to teach only excerpts of the plays in an effort to comply with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ conservative education policies. Joseph Cool, a teacher at Gaither High School in Hillsborough County, told the Tampa Bay Times, “There’s some raunchiness in Shakespeare,” and he hardly blames the district for taking the “safe” route in limiting Shakespeare. However, he still thinks the new…

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Florida universities hit by brain drain as academics flee ‘toxic’ environment

Florida universities hit by brain drain as academics flee ‘toxic’ environment

The Guardian reports: With the start of the 2023-24 academic year only six weeks away, senior officials at New College of Florida (NCF) made a startling announcement in mid-July: 36 of the small honors college’s approximately 100 full-time teaching positions were vacant. The provost, Bradley Thiessen, described the number of faculty openings as “ridiculously high”, and the disclosure was the latest evidence of a brain drain afflicting colleges and universities throughout the Sunshine state. Governor Ron DeSantis opened 2023 with…

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How college towns across America are decimating the GOP

How college towns across America are decimating the GOP

Politico reports: Spring elections in Wisconsin are typically low turnout affairs, but in April, with the nation watching the state’s bitterly contested Supreme Court race, voters turned out in record-breaking numbers. No place was more energized to vote than Dane County, the state’s second-most populous county after Milwaukee. It’s long been a progressive stronghold thanks to the double influence of Madison, the state capital, and the University of Wisconsin, but this was something else. Turnout in Dane was higher than…

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Florida schools will teach how slavery brought ‘personal benefit’ to black people

Florida schools will teach how slavery brought ‘personal benefit’ to black people

The Daily Beast reports: Middle school students in Florida will soon be taught that slavery gave Black people a “personal benefit” because they “developed skills.” After the Florida Board of Education approved new standards for African American history on Wednesday, high school students will be taught an equally distorted message: that a deadly white mob attack against Black residents of Ocoee, Florida, in 1920 included “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” Dozens of Black residents were killed…

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Religious right gets blindsided by angry parents in a Southern California school district

Religious right gets blindsided by angry parents in a Southern California school district

Politico reports: Three Southern California school board members backed by a far-right pastor narrowly won election last fall in campaigns fueled by pandemic rage. Then they banned critical race theory and rejected social studies materials that included LGBTQ rights hero Harvey Milk. Now, they’re fighting for their political lives. After just six months in office, those officials face a recall effort on top of a civil rights investigation launched by the state’s Democratic-led education department. Students have held protests, and…

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Ending affirmative action may be just the beginning

Ending affirmative action may be just the beginning

Aziz Huq writes: It is easy to think of the Supreme Court’s decision invalidating Harvard and UNC-Chapel Hill’s affirmative action programs as the end of a long road. A court with a Republican-appointed majority has been chipping away at the legality of using race to allocate state benefits since the Reagan administration. And a young lawyer in Reagan’s White House by the name of John Roberts candidly condemned state affirmative action measures in blunt terms as “highly objectionable.” Now, after…

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‘A tragedy for us all’: Supreme Court Justice Jackson blasts majority’s affirmative action ruling

‘A tragedy for us all’: Supreme Court Justice Jackson blasts majority’s affirmative action ruling

CNBC reports: Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson excoriated her colleagues who voted to strike down race-conscious college admissions policies, accusing the majority of “turning back the clock” on affirmative action. “With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat,” Jackson wrote in a thundering dissent to the major court ruling Thursday. “But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life,” she wrote. “History speaks. In some form,…

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‘War on woke? More like war on your children’s future’

‘War on woke? More like war on your children’s future’

Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman write: By now, it’s obvious that the reactionary culture warriors who want to reshape American education are inspiring a serious liberal counter-mobilization in response. Remarkably, this backlash to the backlash is gaining momentum in some of the reddest parts of the country. A raucous school board meeting in Hernando County, Fla., on Tuesday night captured what’s striking about this new phenomenon. The scene featured teachers pointedly declaring that right-wing attacks are driving them to quit,…

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A day in the life of a woke third-grade teacher, as imagined by a far-right politician

A day in the life of a woke third-grade teacher, as imagined by a far-right politician

Ashley Ingle writes: The alarm blares, and I wake up with a renewed vigor to indoctrinate America’s youth. I ride my bike to work, smugly turning up my nose at real Americans who drive trucks. As I pedal, my thoughts are preoccupied with how I will infect children with my liberal agenda. No other ideas flow in and out of my mind on my commute, like wondering if I should donate plasma this weekend to make some extra cash to…

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Democracy suffers when citizens are uninformed

Democracy suffers when citizens are uninformed

A high school student in California holds a sign in protest of her school district’s ban on critical race theory curriculum. Watchara Phomicinda/The Press-Enterprise via Getty Images By Boaz Dvir, Penn State The Florida Department of Education announced on April 10, 2023, that it had rejected 35% of the social studies books publishers submitted for approval and use in the state’s public schools. The move was based on a determination the books contain references to social justice issues “and other…

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‘The point is intimidation’: Florida teachers besieged by draconian laws

‘The point is intimidation’: Florida teachers besieged by draconian laws

The Guardian reports: Adam Tritt, a high school English teacher in Palm Bay, Florida, was shocked when his school’s librarian – eager to comply with Florida’s new law restricting “inappropriate” books in schools – removed one-third of the books on his classroom shelves, including a collection of Emily Dickinson’s poetry that was not on her list of approved books. Vivian Taylor, a seventh-grade teacher in Miami, says she was told to hardly discuss Emmett Till – the 14-year-old victim of…

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This is what the right-wing takeover of a progressive college looks like

This is what the right-wing takeover of a progressive college looks like

Michelle Goldberg writes: When I first met Matthew Lepinski, the faculty chair of New College of Florida, he was willing to give the right-wingers sent to remake his embattled progressive public school a chance. This was in January, a few weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida appointed six activist conservatives, including the culture war strategist Chris Rufo, to New College’s board of trustees. Rufo, the ideological entrepreneur who made critical race theory a Republican boogeyman, was open about his…

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The ‘diploma divide’ is the new fault line in American politics

The ‘diploma divide’ is the new fault line in American politics

Doug Sosnik writes: The legal imbroglios of Donald Trump have lately dominated conversation about the 2024 election. As primary season grinds on, campaign activity will wax and wane, and issues of the moment — like the first Trump indictment and potentially others to come — will blaze into focus and then disappear. Yet certain fundamentals will shape the races as candidates strategize about how to win the White House. To do this, they will have to account for at least…

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Why GOP culture warriors lost big in school board races this month

Why GOP culture warriors lost big in school board races this month

Politico reports: Amid all the attention on this month’s elections in Wisconsin and Illinois, one outcome with major implications for 2024 flew under the national radar: School board candidates who ran culture-war campaigns flamed out. Democrats and teachers’ unions boasted candidates they backed in Midwestern suburbs trounced their opponents in the once-sleepy races. The winning record, they said, was particularly noticeable in elections where conservative candidates emphasized agendas packed with race, gender identity and parental involvement in classrooms. While there’s…

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