I remember how it was -- JR
Virginia May Be a Purple State, but Many of Its Colleges Are ‘Social Justice’ Blue
Virginia is a very purple state, evenly divided between conservatives and liberals, but its universities are not equally balanced ideologically.
A simple way to gauge how “woke” universities are is to search for certain terms in their course catalogs. The more “woke” words that appear in the titles and descriptions of courses and programs, the more left-leaning the university is likely to be.
Harry R. Lewis, a computer science professor and former dean of Harvard College, recently did this to demonstrate how radical Harvard had become. Terms like “social justice,” “decolonization,” and “oppression” have become ubiquitous in its course catalog.
Replicating Lewis’ approach for the 15 public universities in Virginia reveals some unexpected patterns.
The term “social justice” appears 72 times in the course catalog of James Madison University, 59 times for George Mason University, and 53 times for Virginia Commonwealth University.
None of the other dozen public universities in Virginia have even half as many mentions of “social justice” in their catalogs. Virginia’s two historically black public universities, Norfolk State University and Virginia State University, don’t even mention “social justice” a dozen times in their catalogs.
But these universities are not all the same size and may not have an equal number of courses and programs described in their catalogs. For a better apples-to-apples comparison, we can also look at how often more traditional terms, such as “Constitution,” appear in their catalogs.
The term “social justice” appears in the James Madison University catalog 4.5 times as often as the term “Constitution.” For Virginia Commonwealth University, “social justice” is 3.1 times as common as “Constitution.” At George Mason University, it is 2.6 times as common.
For the historically black institutions, Norfolk State and Virginia State, their catalogs mention “Constitution” more often than they do “social justice.” The same is true for the flagship University of Virginia, as well as at Old Dominion University, Christopher Newport University, Longwood University, and Virginia Military Institute.
In fact, VMI does not have a single course or program that includes the terms “social justice,” “decolonization,” “liberation,” “white supremacy,” or “intersectionality” in their titles or descriptions, but it does have 13 with the term “Constitution.” By contrast, William & Mary University’s catalog mentions these woke terms 17 times. The Constitution? Only three times.
Obviously, these are not perfect proxies for how woke universities are, but they roughly give us a flavor of the ideological tilt of their academic offerings.
And it’s important to note that benign-sounding terms such as “social justice” are often anything but benign.
In their highly useful “cheat sheet for policymakers,” titled “Responding to Social Justice Rhetoric,” authors Bruce Gilley, Peter Boghossian, and James Lindsay explain that “social justice,” as the woke define it, means “group entitlements, which is the reframing of particular political demands as universal moral imperatives [and] a denial of just rewards to individuals who follow the law.”
The relative frequency of woke terms such as “social justice” in course and program titles, and descriptions that feature more traditional topics, such as the Constitution, does not seem to be related to the size of the university or its demographic composition.
Woke universities in Virginia come in all sizes, from very large ones such as George Mason, James Madison, and Virginia Commonwealth to very small ones, such as William & Mary and the University of Mary Washington. And those with greater ideological balance are as big as the University of Virginia and as small as VMI.
The fact that Virginia’s two public historically black institutions, as well as some universities with relatively high percentages of low-income students (as measured by Pell Grants), such as Longwood and Old Dominion universities, have very little interest in woke courses and programs suggests that this is not being driven by student demographics or demand.
When universities go woke, it’s the result of decisions made by their leaders. And it’s their leaders who need to be held accountable.
University presidents, provosts, and deans make choices about how to allocate resources, hire additional faculty, and create new academic programs. Boards of trustees approve those decisions and review the performance of senior administrators. Those decisions determine whether a university has dozens of social justice courses and programs and only a handful on the Constitution.
It’s time for us all to remember that these universities are public institutions and are ultimately accountable to the residents of Virginia. If they deviate too far from what Virginians want, voters will demand that their political representatives appoint administrators who will restore ideological balance.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/01/30/virginia-may-be-purple-state-many-its-colleges-blue/
********************************************Indiana AG Launches Portal for Parents to Monitor Public Schools’ Discriminatory Policies, Content
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita announced, in an exclusive interview Monday with The Daily Signal, the launch of a public portal online for parents in the state’s public schools to submit and monitor content of concern to them.
“This is a tool to empower parents in their dealings with their own school system so they can better raise their kids, which is their job and not the schools’,” Rokita, a Republican, said of the online portal.
The past several years have seen national concern about public school systems hiding discriminatory and sexually or racially inappropriate content and policies from parents. Indiana is no exception.
Dozens of Indiana schools have incorporated critical race theory and gender transition plans without the consent of, much less the awareness of, many Hoosier parents.
Accuracy in Media last year released undercover videos in which several administrators at five Indiana public schools admitted to teaching critical race theory despite telling parents otherwise. At least two of those administrators since have stepped down or been placed on leave.
A previous report by The Daily Signal exposed one Indiana school system’s hidden gender support plan, which required teachers to omit information about a student’s “gender transition” in conversations with his or her parents. The school system fired that whistleblower, a school counselor, for revealing the information; she is currently suing the district.
As attorney general, Rokita outlined these “constituent concerns” as the rationale behind his office’s new “Eyes on Education” online portal, which would allow parents to submit policies, lesson plans, and other concerning matters to be reviewed by the Attorney General’s office and placed on a public database for other parents to see.
The vision for the portal began to take shape around the end of 2021, Rokita told The Daily Signal:
Parents were sending me lesson plans. This is around the time that we were calling out critical race theory and this social [and] emotional learning that was being taught to teachers and then teachers to the students, and it was corrupting the whole educational experience.
Many teachers and administrators claimed that critical race theory and radical gender ideology were not being taught in public schools. But, using social media, many parents posted concerning videos, screenshots, lessons, and policies that showed otherwise.
“So either these parents are part of a huge conspiracy and making all this stuff up, as the teachers and principals and school board members would have you believe,” Rokita said, “or there’s really something going on—even in good ol’ Indiana. So we’ve been collecting these different submissions for about the last year and a half.”
I asked Rokita what plans were in place to verify materials sent to the Indiana Attorney General’s Office—citing a situation in which many Hoosier parents were fooled by a hoax about litter boxes at a high school in Kokomo, Indiana.
Rokita responded that “rumor mill” submissions would result in a call to the individual who submitted the material, followed up by a second look by his office’s investigators.
“We deal with very complex, complicated professional licensing issues, so to speak, and ten of thousands of other cases per year,” Rokita responded. “We can get to the root of a liar, of a fake, pretty easy. But really it’s also for self-policing.”
The attorney general said he thinks this is a job for the state superintendent of schools. But just like the Parents Bill of Rights document that Rokita launched in June 2021, he said, he took on this project because “no one’s picking up the mantle.”
The theme of the entire project is transparency, Rokita said. If a school system disagrees with what has been posted by his office, the attorney general said, the “denial” also will be posted.
“I’m not going to go and start investigating schools,” Rokita said. “No. 1, I don’t have the statutory authority to go in there. But this is going to be a portal, a transparent portal where we can cut through the rumor mill.”
To cut through this “rumor mill,” Rokita said, his office would post only primary documents and verified material, letters, and policies from the schools.
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A Democrat Mayor Voiced His Support to Remove Police From Schools. Here’s How the Community Responded
In an interview late last month, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said that he supports ending a program that puts uniformed police officers in dozens of Chicago Public Schools.
The mayor made the remarks in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. In the interview, he voiced his support to end the $10.3 million contract with the Chicago Police Department. CPS officials reportedly told school principals last month to prepare for the removal of the officers next fall.
“The Board of Education is moving in the direction that I do support,” the mayor told the outlet. “There is an intergovernmental agreement between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department. To end that agreement, there’s no qualms from me there.”
Johnson as a mayoral candidate said he would remove all officers and focus on those alternative solutions. But once he took office, he backed off, saying Local School Councils should make individual decisions. Now he has once again reversed course.
A Chicago school principal and several lawmakers, on the other hand, expressed that the city’s Board of Education should not make the decision on whether or not police stay in schools.
William Howard Taft High School Principal Mark Grishaber told Fox News that the removal of school resource officers (SRO) at CPS should be decided by the Local School Councils (LSC) as opposed to the Board of Education.
"Let each school's LSC decide if they want to retain their SRO's or let them go. Many years ago the system was broke, but through the efforts of Jadine Chou and CPS, the SRO's are now in the schools that want them and the SRO's are now trained," Grishaber said in an email to Fox News Digital.
Reportedly, earlier last month, the Chicago Board of Education wanted to strip Local School Councils, which are made up of parents, teachers, and students, of their power to choose whether to have SROs at their schools.
"Each school in CPS is different. Principals and other community members on Local School Councils understand the environment and needs of their schools. They are best equipped to determine the necessity of school resource officers," the Illinois Policy Institute told Fox. "Local School Councils already have the power to remove officers, but district leaders are taking away that local control."
Grishaber added: "If the Mayor and the Board really believe what they say, that the safety of our students is their number one concern and the Mayor and the board really believe in listening to student and community voices then the decision should be crystal clear.”
The Sun-Times noted that Alderman Peter Chico, a Democrat, said that police officers were removed from George Washington High School in the city. As a result, he heard complaints from CPD that calls from the school increased. And, parents didn’t feel comfortable with the lack of police presence.
Ald. Ruth Cruz added that parents have spoken to her about their concerns with a lack of police in schools. Cruz, a former LSC member, said that these decisions should be left up to these committees.
This debate about police officers in schools has occurred in other school districts across the country. In Alexandria, Virginia, the Alexandria City Council voted in 2021 to return police to schools after the school board and superintendent worked to remove them (via the Washington Post):
After several incidents involving students and guns this fall escalated safety concerns, parents and top school officials pleaded with the council to reinstate the decades-old initiative. This week, their calls were enough to sway just one key lawmaker.
“I’m willing to take that step back,” said council member John T. Chapman (D), who had initially voted to defund SROs. “We know this program is not a silver bullet, but we have to do something here tonight.”
City council members had previously voted to reallocate $800,000 for SROs to expand mental health programs for students.
“We want to thank the Alexandria City Council for its decision to work with us and agree to the reinstatement of our [SROs],” Alexandria City schools spokeswoman Julia Burgos said. “SROs serve as a proactive safety mechanism while serving as a trusted adult for our students.”
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2024/02/06/chicago-cops-in-schools-n2634788
******************************************************My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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