Can ’t Agree on Values? The State Will Decide for You

Neal McCluskeyThis week we entered battle number 2,500 on thePublic Schooling Battle Map, which now catalogs a  total of 2,507 values‐ and identity‐​based conflicts in public schools. These are the most intense of conflicts because they have very personal stakes: whether your children are taught the moral and other values you think they should – or shouldnot– learn, and how you see yourself – your race, religion, etc. – treated in school policies and curricula.No doubt right now the two highest profile battles of the sorts we catalogue on the Map are over the teaching ofcritical race theory, or other approaches that suggest racism is systemic and perhaps somewhat ingrained in people, and whether transgender girls should be able toparticipate in girls ’ high school athletics. Both appear to be driving a  trend that, as you can see in the chart below, may have been developing since 2016, but which seems to have exploded in 2021: state governments, not districts, deciding on policies for all.Importantly, Map battles are not drawn via representative sampling, and our collections before 2013 have not always been of uniform intensity. That said, assuming we have not disproportionately excluded state ‐​level conflicts in past years relative to district‐​level battles, the data suggest that many people are no longer trying to settle difference at the local level.If true, it is bad, but understandable. While it is better to leave decisions to individual commu...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs