The College Fix

They’re requesting public records! They’re making school board meetings longer!

The K-12 education establishment is trying a new tack against conservative parents and community members: Their concerns about what’s going on in their kids’ schools are costing districts billions of dollars.

A new study by UCLA’s IDEA, the Institute for Democracy, Education and Access, says controversies surrounding race and LGBTQ+ issues cost American schools over $3 billion during the last school year.

According to its website, IDEA is “a research institute seeking to understand and challenge pervasive racial and social class inequalities in education.”

The study’s press release notes two-thirds of the “467 school superintendents” surveyed reported “moderate to high levels of culturally divisive conflict that is disrupting school districts” which “needlessly cost […] schools millions of dollars that could better be used to serve students.”

“Direct and indirect” district costs include things such as increased security at school board meetings, more communications staff “primarily to combat misinformation,” and expenses associated with “public-records requests,” according to an Education Week report.

“On average, a school district serving 10,000 students and experiencing Moderate levels of conflict is spending nearly $500,000 annually,” IDEA says. “Those districts experiencing High levels of culturally divisive conflict are spending an average of $812,000. If a district with a High level of conflict decreased to a LOW level of conflict ($250,000), the district would save roughly $562,000.”

The press release also worries about “the well-being of superintendents” (half of whom allegedly dealt with at least “one instance of harassment” last year), and how they and other staff deal with the “plague” of  “disinformation,” “baseless allegations,” and other instances of “personal harassment.”

In the study itself, an alleged “award-winning” superintendent named Steve Machi (a pseudonym) says he’s upset “extremists” have been elected (note: elected) to his school board with the backing of groups like Moms for Liberty … and that they’ve dared to “challenge” district LGBTQ+ policies.

MORE: School boards group wanted National Guard, military to monitor parents

Machi claims these “extremists” spread “false propaganda” and engage in “fear mongering,” and that parents who complain schools “are indoctrinating kids” with “ideologies around sexual health” are responsible for stretching board meetings up to “five and a half hours.”

And there’s more:

[Another superintendent] traces much of the contention in her district to an incident during which one of her secondary students went to class and communicated messages that many teachers and students viewed as homophobic. The principal called the student out of class, explained why others felt unsafe, and encouraged the student to express his ideas in different ways.

The student refused this request and, with support from his parents and attorneys from a conservative legal advocacy group, began to speak out publicly about how he felt the school was abridging his freedom. Realizing that the issue was dividing the district into distinct ideological camps, Barron released a statement “pleading with my community to not … become a battleground for politics—that all we wanted was to create safe schools for our children.” But the student’s story went viral on social media. Soon, it was featured on national conservative media outlets and far-right politicians in other states were tweeting about his case.

Make note that Machi is upset about democracy — you know, the thing which progressives continually clamor is threatened — because it resulted in victorious candidates of whom he doesn’t approve. (Remember School Board Partners CEO Carrie Douglass who essentially has the same beefs as Machi — in other words, the democratic process is terrific … as long as it produces what they want.)

And “mis/disinformation”? Sorry, but that ship long has sailed, and you can thank the Left for that.

The swarmy wording of the second superintendent’s complaint also struck me — a student “communicated messages that many teachers and students viewed as homophobic”? Why no specificity? What precisely was “communicated”?

This to me indicates the student likely said something along the lines of “There are only two genders” or “Men can’t have children,” both of which send progressives into a tailspin of rage.

The fact that a legal group and right-leaning media got involved makes this even more probable. (Does anyone believe the student would be supported if he/she came into class yelling “fa**ot” or something similar?)

If school districts really are concerned about money (remember, parents and community pay teachers’ and administrators’ salaries), they’d quit putting out cash for vacuous DEI-related nonsense like “Courageous Conversations,” etc.

End of story.

MORE: Local school board flips back to far-left, but hey that’s democracy

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