Quick survey: What are parents and community members more concerned about? Lessons on systemic racism that might make white students feel guilty? Or kids dropping dead after catching COVID-19 in their mask-free schools?
If you’re a Republican member of the Wisconsin Legislature, you probably picked option one.
Hence the recent “critical race theory” circus in the Capitol, during which rightwing blowhards from Fox News showed up to lend their support to bills that penalize school districts and universities for teaching “that an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, bears responsibility for acts committed in the past by individuals of the same race or sex.”
The absurdity of GOP tinkering with curricula was best illustrated by Rep. Donna Rozar (R-Marshfield), who recently introduced a bill to require that school districts give parents advance notice before they teach any lesson involving sexual orientation, gender or gender identity. Rep. Sondy Pope (D-Mount Horeb) asked whether a lesson on Harvey Milk — the late San Francisco supervisor, gay rights icon, and subject of a Hollywood biopic starring Sean Penn whose image is on a U.S. postage stamp — would trigger a parental warning. Rozar responded, “I’m not familiar. Is that a real person?”
Q.E.D.
This sort of thing would be kind of funny — especially since Gov. Tony Evers is sure to veto the GOP’s know-nothing education agenda — if only the stakes were not so high.
It’s bad enough that Republicans are nurturing ignorance and hate, creating a toxic atmosphere for kids (as the Burlington school district urges parents to stop letting their kids use racial slurs at football games). But the real problem is that our legislative leaders are doing their best to distract us and stir up controversy so people don’t notice they’re avoiding the absolutely urgent matters that confront us.
In mid-September Fort Atkinson middle-schooler Danny Rees died after testing positive for COVID-19 and becoming acutely ill. The Fort Atkinson school board was spurred to action, imposing a mask requirement for the first time this year.
Anti-maskers have been targeting school board members with harassment and intimidation for daring to impose safety rules during the pandemic, and state Republicans have pretty much made fighting for “freedom” from any sort of common-sense public health measure their brand. The same week the news broke about Danny Rees, Rep. Barbara Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) introduced her “medical freedom” bill to help parents switch schools to avoid mask mandates.
And not only do they oppose protecting students and teachers from the current COVID surge, Republicans on the Assembly education committee refused to wear masks in a hearing on Sept. 14, forcing their Democratic colleagues to walk out and watch the proceedings remotely.
This was despite the fact that one of their colleagues, Andre Jacque (R-De Pere), an outspoken opponent of masks and vaccine requirements, was hospitalized and placed on a ventilator after contracting COVID-19 and potentially infecting the people around him at the Capitol with the virus.
“The choice is to risk your life and that of your family members, or don’t participate,” said Pope who, with her Democratic colleagues, watched the hearing on WisconsinEye after leaving the room.
The subject of that hearing was a bill to impose new reading tests on school districts — something the statewide school board association regards as an “unfunded mandate” — another effort by the Legislature to micromanage school curriculum and take away local control, without putting any money forward to help defray the costs.
The backdrop to all of this is the Legislature’s refusal to put money into Wisconsin’s schools, decimating Evers’ proposed budget and insisting that districts fill in the gaps in a brutal austerity budget with federal COVID-relief funds.
Never mind that they want to play teacher, GOP legislators, despite the state’s projected multibillion-dollar surplus, are starving the schools and doing everything they can to make them unsafe.
You would think they were against public education. And you would be right. For decades, they have lined up with the state’s powerful school choice lobby to find ways to siphon taxpayers’ money into private schools.
But the COVID fight might be a bridge too far. As COVID rates rise and more kids get sick, the Republicans’ anti-mask stance looks increasingly like political suicide. Unfortunately, they seem determined to take us all with them. n
Ruth Conniff is editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Examiner.
