A Wisconsin schoolteacher is being punished for trying to have her students sing a popular song by Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus.
As momentum builds around efforts to divert public funds to private schools, lawmakers and advocates should recommit to opposing harmful voucher bills and supporting greater investment in public education.
The song includes lyrics like “wouldn't it be nice to live in paradise. Where we're free to be exactly who we are.”
Students in the course say it has been one of the most valuable experiences of their school years, because it has allowed them to focus on Black life and history beyond the fundamentals of slavery and civil rights.
After surviving the worst of the pandemic, the city now faces budget cuts that seem to promise even more disruption. The average rent of a Manhattan apartment is now reaching $5,249 a month, an increase of nearly 20 percent over the previous year.
Public schools are a political battleground
The pandemic exacerbated a preexisting and long-standing shortage of teachers. The shortage is, instead, the result of a lack of qualified teachers willing to work in what has long been a highly stressful job for compensation that is well below what is available to college-educated workers in other professions.
New board members in two GOP-leaning counties essentially sacked their school superintendents over the span of one week.
It’s an incredibly difficult time to be a public school teacher. Collective action can help teachers realize that their problems are caused by systemic issues, not individual failings, and that the solutions require acting together.
Resisting the billionaire-ification of their city, workers and their families are offering a community-centered vision at Parker Elementary. And it’s working.
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