Yes, It Is Political: How School District Attackers Are Being Duped and Perpetuating Agendas and Fallacies
This month, Forest Hills Public Schools gained a second “attack group” in the community with an even more aggressive political agenda than the original group. FH Parents United is a spin-off filed with the State of Michigan by the same entity that filed FH for Just Education.
Each group is taking a unique path to achieve their end goals of overthrowing our Board of Education, defunding Forest Hills Public Schools and imposing one-sided, partisan agendas.
Here in this rundown, we’re covering all you need to know about this growing and rapidly evolving political attack on Forest Hills Public Schools and other public schools in Michigan.
Before reading further, we offer extremely helpful context in our recent blog post called “School Board Attacks: We Almost Lost $100,000 But Forest Hills Now Stands to Lose Far More.” In that deep-dive, we illustrate how the once “innocent” attempts to rally supporters through pleas about buses and recorded Board of Education meetings quickly progressed into book burning, claiming a ghost “CRT” curriculum in Forest Hills Public Schools, a request to turn away rare government funding specifically for FHPS and even a launch for local political candidacy with a harmful, divisive and extreme agenda that mirrors that of the gubernatorial candidates they’ve held anti-FHPS recall events with.
At the end of that earlier blog post, we connect clear dots between the nationwide school board attacks that were launched and inspired by a think tank that is ultimately trying to resurrect the continued, failing effort to standardize charter school programs in Michigan and the United States, which give hefty tax breaks to corporations.
What many people still don’t want to believe is that the “tools” and “topics” of books, race and mental health programs are being used to draw in support for this “school choice” program. This is akin to the way other lies and theories have perpetuated in society before being debunked (Q-Anon, which you’ll see in an article below). Look at the mini version of this experiment in our own backyard. Our original attackers tried to woo supporters with the “easy to agree-upon” topics of bus drivers and Zoom meetings – and once inside, the real agenda began.
“CRT,” books and mental health are the same thing. Follow the money and agenda.
We’re Here for the Facts
We reside in the birthplace of the school choice voucher fight. This is no secret.
National media has been sharing about the origins, intentions and evolution of these school and Board attacks sweeping the country. They’re ALL the same. That equals an agenda. And coincidentally, Michigan-based groups funding these attackers all have a “school choice” charter end game. NBC reports, “Parents protesting critical race theory identify a new target – mental health”. What do you know? That topic has picked up new steam this month in Forest Hills.
CRT, gender and books are the VEHICLE to get this conversation started and attempt to create a false need to yank students out of public education and funnel more money into charter schools.
After all, the fewer kids in public schools, the less the government has to spend there and can instead divert money into where students ARE going, right?
Those in favor of school choice charters don’t like that public schools are a window and a mirror of society and welcome ALL kids. Our neighbors in Indiana shine a bright light on the origins and intention of the charter and school choice movement to create a sterile, controlled setting that only teaches their agenda. Isn’t it interesting that CRT, books, gender and modern psychology all line up with the very topics school choice charters perpetuate? This is fine, but it shouldn’t be done on taxpayers’ dimes. According to the Washington Post:
“A charter school, such as The Lighthouse Charter Academy, can refuse to admit or expel students living in a home that includes “homosexual or bisexual activity” or “practicing alternate gender identity.
They can require attendance in a designated church, and they may select students based on other factors such as test scores, discipline records and the lifestyle of their parents.
Concerns regarding fundamentalist Christian voucher schools go beyond their exclusionary practices. Religious ideology often supplants facts in many of the history and science texts that are used by these schools.
The Huffington Post said the A Beka Books’s middle-school history text blames Satan for both the theory of evolution and modern psychology (mental health and empathy-focused Social Emotional Learning or SEL). They instruct that most slaveholders were good to their slaves, and the Klu Klux Klan used the burning cross to fight moral depravity.
The Lighthouse Christian Academy received over $665,000 in state funds to enroll 152 students.
Conversely, public schools are not indoctrination centers. The Department of Education and governing entities in a state must adhere to a strict system of checks and balances to develop and adopt an approved curriculum. Charters do not and that is why taxpayer dollars should not be freely peeled away from public schools to perpetuate these exclusive agendas.
In sum, it’s easy to see how if you can get citizens to start fighting for and agreeing with topics like discriminating against who can be accepted to your school, who their parents are, what they read (Books), and what they’re taught (Curriculum, Mental Health) – then shifting to support school choice opportunity scholarships via tax-friendly corporate and church charters STARTS TO SOUND AWFULLY GOOD, DOESN’T IT?
That’s exactly what Let Mi Kids Learn and the entities that founded our attacking groups are advocating and hoping for. It’s a lot more grassroots fun and successful to draw people in with the WHY and get them fighting to support this movement to create a groundswell than simply asking for a signature in a CVS parking lot.
Leaders of United proudly publish online they do not use “government schools.” In YouTube videos hosted by dark money groups, they proclaim that School Choice Vouchers are the only way to go – so let’s support the circulating petition, shall we?
What We’re Up Against
FH Parents United is one of the many “dark money” 501(c)(4) groups that can take funding from larger dark money organizations without reporting it, unlike a political action committee. They’ve already come straight out and spoken for school of choice while saying that public schools like FHPS are no place for the 100% opt-in books or Global Learners Initiative. (But why does it matter if their students don’t even attend?)
They are listing librarians, principals and GLI advocates by name online who they want to take down with FHPS and the Superintendent. These are professional educators who LOVE their field and kids.
United and Just members are literally campaigning with gubernatorial candidates who support school choice vouchers, platform around cutting public ed in Michigan, and circulate petitions for a universal school choice program via paid circulators from Florida.
Support FHPS Stance
We believe that:
Public schools are a window and a mirror to the communities they serve. That’s why they need to offer content that is available to students whose lives mirror what they see in books or programs. There are places that can narrow their thinking and attendee base – such as charters and private schools, but those institutions should be privately funded.
Charters, religious schools, and other private schools are important and serve a role. It’s interesting to note that most Support FHPS members attended private religious schools and understand the benefits. However, we relocated here or chose Forest Hills Public Schools for our children because we appreciate the opportunity to expose our kids to diversity of thought that is not tied to one specific religion. We also wanted diversity of student body.
Public schools such as Forest Hills Public Schools deserve more funding, which is considered critically low. Teachers are purchasing their own supplies and we have to host multiple fundraisers to keep the district afloat.
© 2020 Michigan Education Justice Coalition
Parents can and should offer feedback and choice on their child’s educational experience in public schools. Read our blog post called “Parents and Educators Together.” In this vein, parents have to option to know what their kids check out from the library, place restrictions with school librarians for titles they don’t like, or sign an opt-out form for lessons - like a worksheet on how microaggressions about someone’s body or life could hurt another student’s feelings. Public school parents have always had a say. It’s also important to remember that as students explore their age-appropriate feelings, they have access to public resources to learn and seek answers until they are ready to talk with an adult. Forcing them to bottle up and hide feelings is unhealthy.
Decorum needs to be restored at BOE meetings. There is a time and place to advocate for school charter topics. It is not at school board meetings, wasting the personal time of attendees, our Board and Superintendent by feeding into the intended 501c4 agenda to rile up public anger and misdirect it at Boards of Education or Superintendents, whose roles are to set goals and visions for a district, not micromanage a library.
Whether attackers know they are perpetuating this larger school choice voucher agenda or not is not up to us to say, however it IS our duty as Support FHPS to relay facts that help the broader public learn more about the dynamics facing our district and ballots.
We encourage the community to join us in respectfully advocating for issues that fall within our core values of Support, Safety and Success for all students. Our values are rooted in the protection and growth of Forest Hills Public Schools and the diverse body of students who attend.
Our next post will introduce the first three topics within each of those values we will be promoting to our Board of Education. Continue to follow along!