T.I.R.E.
In his first week in office, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin further outraged and terrified public school teachers by asking parents to report teachers who were in violation of his executive order number one, which prohibits “the use of inherently divisive concepts, including Critical Race Theory.” Putting aside the question of how many of Virginia’s K-12 educators are teaching CRT, as well as the subjectivity of the phrase “inherently divisive,” and even the very real pedagogical usefulness of discomfort (which our own NC legislature tried to regulate), let’s look at the core of this action. What’s the real goal here?
First, obviously, Youngkin is doubling down on the empty promises of his campaign, which were to assure (white) parents that they would be “empowered” to make decisions on school choice, whether their kids wear masks at school, and what their kids learn and read (his campaign infamously and embarrassingly featured a mom who didn’t want her son reading Beloved in an AP English class).
“School choice” has a long, racist history in this country, and particularly in Virginia, where places like Prince Edward County closed the schools (ushering in white-flight private schools that literally stole the public school desks and books) rather than integrate following Brown vs. Board of Education (you can read more about this in Kristen Green’s excellent Something Must Be Done about Prince Edward County). And school districts that allow parents and children to “make their choice” about wearing masks have been near-paralyzed by teacher shortages and Covid spread. I read this week about a Texas high school where a single teacher was asked to manage a gymnasium of 150 kids working on laptops.
My brother, a high school history and government teacher who is currently taking time off to care for his young kids, told me this week that under these conditions, he wouldn’t know how to teach some of the history and historical context that are part of the curriculum—and necessary for producing functional, educated young people. What would happen when parents complained? Sky is a National Board Certified teacher with nearly twenty years of experience as a public high school teacher. He’s also male, six-three, heterosexual, and white—in some ways, the picture of privilege. So if he feels like he could be targeted by angry, conservative parents, imagine how it would feel to be a new teacher, a BIPOC teacher, an LGBTQ+ teacher, a Black woman teacher in Virginia?
I believe that this paralysis is intentional, and what it reminds me of, more than anything, is T.R.A.P. laws. T.R.A.P. stands for Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers, and before the right loaded the Supreme Court with extremists, this was a primary strategy for making abortions inaccessible to people who needed them. TRAP laws put unnecessary regulations on abortion providers, restricting where abortions can be provided, requiring admitting privileges at local hospitals for doctors who provide them, requiring non-medical counseling of patients, and requiring unnecessary extra “oversight” for some procedures. In North Carolina, when performing abortions after sixteen weeks, doctors were required to send ultrasound images of patients’ uteruses to NC’s Department of Health and Human Services (this law was in effect from 2015 until 2019, when SCOTUS declared our post-20-week ban unconstitutional). This incredibly invasive law was specifically meant to intimidate abortion providers, who work at significant personal risk and for low pay (often part-time while working in other practices) to provide an essential service to patients.
Significant personal risk? Low pay and second jobs for educated, highly-trained professionals? And still Republicans want to make your job so hard that you quit?
Sound familiar?
I was a K-12 teacher for eight years, teaching in public and charter schools in New York, North Carolina, and D.C. Two schools where I taught were high poverty, and in those schools I worked the longest hours—never less than fifty hours a week, and often more like sixty. The most I ever made, as a certified teacher with two master’s degrees, was $63,000 a year, and in North Carolina the most I ever made was $45,000. (It’s not uncommon, in North Carolina, for teachers who have kids to receive Medicaid for their kids.)
While Virginia teachers make more than NC teachers, they still make more than ten percent less than the average salary of workers in the state. According to a recent survey, that makes Virginia the second-worst place in the country to choose teaching as an occupation. That was before Youngkin did away with mask mandates and forbade school boards from enforcing them (some are wisely defying him) and set up his fascist tell-on-your-teacher email complaint line.
Again, this is by design. The Republican idea is: if abortion has to be legal, let’s make it close to impossible for doctors to provide them, which makes it close to impossible for people in many places to obtain them. Let’s trap them.
And if we have to have public schools, let’s make it as difficult as possible for anyone to teach there. Let’s underpay and wear out the substitutes, the bus drivers, the teachers. Let’s tire them out.
That’s what appears to be happening, and this is the acronym I propose: Targeted Intimidation and Regulation of Educators. TIRE. The end game of TRAP laws is overturning Roe. The end game of this war against teachers is defunding public education. I have more to say about how “school choice” and “parent empowerment” is a big racist lie (as well as an empty promise), which I’ll share next week, but in the meantime let’s brainstorm. How are you supporting teachers? Can we resolve to do one thing by tomorrow that will show our public school teachers (in Virginia, NC, and elsewhere) how much we value them?
Here are a few ideas:
1. Most importantly, get a booster and get your kids vaccinated. Less than 20% of eligible 5-12 year olds are fully vaccinated, more than two months after the shots became available.
2. Send in extra kids’ K95 masks, if you have them.
3. Send a note (tomorrow) telling your child’s teacher something specific that you appreciate. When I was a teacher, this was the most meaningful gesture. If you send this as an email, copy the principal.
4. Join the PTA and find one way you can help.
5. Remind your kid that things are hard right now, that everyone’s job is hard but especially the jobs of teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and other school staff. I tell Bea that her biggest job, right now, is to be as helpful as she can—to her friends, her teachers, and anyone she sees at school. I am proud of her for all of her amazing accomplishments and new knowledge, but I’m most proud to hear things like “Bea is a friend to all.”
6. Support political candidates who support teachers and kids. Here in NC, I am giving to Cheri Beasley’s campaign, and I invite you to do the same. Her national impact on maintaining and strengthening our (not strong enough) senate majority cannot be overstated.
P.S. Please watch this Democracy Now! feature on Dawn Porter’s TRAPPED, which highlights the devastating effect of TRAP laws on providers:
Porter, whose work focuses on Black professionals working in critical but underfunded jobs in the South, also made the incredible documentary Gideon’s Army, about public defenders.
See you Tuesday with a how-to from Beatrice and an update on our weekday vegetarianism.
Thank you for another fabulous post. I love the list of suggestions about what we can do.