Project 21, the coalition of black conservative leaders, is denouncing plans by the U.S. Dept. of Education to analyze racial disparities in school discipline cases. That plan mirrors the 2014 policy implemented by the Obama-led Dept. of Education, which was so-called "guidance" that came with threats of federal investigations and defunding if schools failed to comply.
Four years later, that “guidance” that affected every K-12 public school classroom was rejected by the Trump administration when Education Secretary Betsy DeVos sided with teachers who described bullying students, who took advantage of the policy, and school administrators who were afraid of being accused of violating federal civil rights law.
Horace Cooper of Project 21 tells One News Now the coming analysis is moving closer to what he calls a race-based “quota” system in the classroom.
"You are going to absolutely guarantee greater bad behavior, greater disruption in the classroom,” he predicts, “and now you are going to put the teachers' jobs in jeopardy."
At a congressional hearing, a civil-rights professor told lawmakers to set aside the issue of safety to focus on the “school-to-prison pipeline” that he said begins with minority students being unfairly treated.
Before the Trump administration rescinded the DOE guidelines, a New York Post article reported frustrated and frightened teachers who were describing war zone-like classrooms and hallways, where students knew the federal guidelines meant they could physically harm teachers and other students.
“Safety also includes protection from oppression and bigotry,” the UCLA professor insisted.
According to Cooper, however, the Biden policy will allow disruption in the classrooms and that, he says, will create a “death spiral” of public education that harms minority students most.
Photo by Santi Vedrí on Unsplash
