Former Prince George’s delegate Angela Angel enters 4th District congressional race

Former Dels. Angela M. Angel (D), District 25 will seek the Democratic nomination to succeed Rep. Anthony G. Brown (D-Md.) in Maryland’s 4th Congressional District.
Angel, a lawyer worked on legislative policy. During her tenure in Annapolis, spoke of being grabbed, touched or treated inappropriately, without giving details or naming the perpetrators. Angel is expected to revisit and name names. This is the only way to change Annapolis General assembly once she becomes congresswoman. She is expected to challenge and change the culture of the congress.  

Bowie, Md, (Reform Sasscer) – Former Prince George’s delegate Angela M. Angel will seek the Democratic nomination to succeed Rep. Anthony G. Brown (D-Md.) in Maryland’s 4th Congressional District, she announced in a video Monday.

Angel, who served in the General Assembly from 2015 to 2019, will take on fellow current and former Prince George’s officials in the Democratic primary after Brown announced that he would not seek reelection and instead run for Maryland attorney general next year. During her tenure in Annapolis in the general assembly, Delegate Angel faced sexual harassment together with three other female lawmakers. At that time, the Three female lawmakers told a legislative panel in Annapolis that they’ve experienced sexual harassment while in office and called for an independent investigator to handle harassment complaints in the Maryland General Assembly.

In her campaign video, Angel highlighted her rise from a stint of homelessness in 2012 to her election to the House of Delegates in 2014, where she became a vocal advocate for victims of domestic violence, citing her own experiences.

“In June of 2012 I found myself in a homeless shelter, nine months pregnant, escaping an abusive marriage,” she said. “I know what it’s like to get knocked down. I also know what it takes to stand back up. By June 2014 I went from homeless to the House of Delegates, where I authored and passed bills protecting survivors of domestic violence, providing mental health services for our children and holding companies accountable for overcharging seniors for prescription drugs.”

If elected, Angel said, she would also prioritize fighting for universal prekindergarten and developing the Pennsylvania Avenue corridor that runs through the district. She also said she would work to bring the FBI headquarters to the district as federal officials consider a new location — a project that lawmakers in Maryland and Virginia have been jockeying to build in their districts in anticipation of major economic benefits.

She joins Del. Jazz Lewis (D-Prince George’s) and former Prince George’s state’s attorney Glenn Ivey in the Democratic primary. James Curtis Jr. is also running for the nomination.

There are reports, Glenn Ivey should step down in favor of one of the other candidates running for office as his family already controls all three branches of government. According to the doctrine of separation of powers, the U.S. Constitution distributed the power of the federal government among these three branches, and built a system of checks and balances to ensure that no one branch could become too powerful. With Glenn Ivey’s wife Jolene Ivey ​currently representing Council District 5 and their son Del. Julian Ivey who is a member of House of Delegates since January 9, 2019. It will be fair to give a chance to another family or families to wand off wide spread corruption in the county.

Given the deep-blue shade of the district, the Democratic primary is likely to attract more funds and energy than the general election. The district includes a large swath of Prince George’s, plus parts of Anne Arundel County — newly including Annapolis after the General Assembly passed a revised congressional map this month as part of the redistricting process.

Delegate Jazz Lewis will also seek the Democratic nomination to succeed Rep. Anthony G. Brown (D-Md.) in Maryland’s 4th Congressional District.

Mr. Glenn Ivey should step down in favor of one of the other candidates running for office as his family already controls all three branches of government.

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PGCPS Single Parent, County Advocate, and Global Influencer, demands equality.

Shaunesi DeBerry, former PG County Parent, former PGC-NAACP 2nd VP, and Global Influencer decided to create a change.org petition for the teachers and admin.

Bowie town center, (Reform Sasscer); A PGCPS Single Parent, County Advocate, and Global Influencer, Shaunesi demands equality for the safety of the PGCPS Teachers and Administrators as COVID-19 continues to grow rapid through the county and globally.

On Sunday December 20, 2021, Governor Hogan explained on CNN his disagreement with Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) going virtual due to the growing numbers of COVID-19 cases. However, on December 21, 2021, Governor Hogan Contracted COVID-19. He has stated his symptoms are mild. However, Yvonne Brown longtime PGCPS English Teacher, Parkdale High School educator was unavailable for a statement, She lost her life to COVID-19.

 Shaunesi DeBerry, previously Prince George’s County Parent, former PGC-NAACP 2nd VP, and Global Influencer decided to create a change.org petition for the teachers and admin in the county.

Ms. DeBerry, a single mother of two former PGCPS honor students has been heavy in helping the PGCPS school system connect the missing links between Parents, Teachers and Students states that:

“I’m a honorary Prince Georgian and a single mother of two daughters. We moved to PG from North Carolina because it’s marketed to be one of the wealthiest counties for African Americans to progress. We don’t have any blood family. The only village my daughters have is a make up of PGCPS teachers, administration, security guards, janitors etc.”

For over 6 years I’ve worked with everyone from Dr. Goldson, PGCPS Board members, PGCPS Building Services to do walk throughs and clear up safety concerns pre-COVID 19.

Those buildings were unsafe before the pandemic, they definitely aren’t safe now! If Central Office and the students can stay home, why can’t admin and teachers not do the same?

“If I have to tell my daughters one of their honorary family members have contracted this deadly virus, it’s going to break my heart and theirs. In the middle of the holidays we are creating unwarranted anxiety and depression, that’s an emotional distress and it is illegal! I won’t stop until they fix this.”

DeBerry’s Petition went viral in less than 48 hours with over 19,000 views and over 500 shares. See below for the link to support the staff of PGCPS during this scary time:

https://www.change.org/p/pgcps-ceo-monica-goldson-it-takes-a-village-give-teachers-admin-the-full-virtual-option-too/dashboard?source_location=user_profile_started

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https://www.change.org/p/pgcps-ceo-monica-goldson-it-takes-a-village-give-teachers-admin-the-full-virtual-option-too/dashboard?source_location=user_profile_started

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PGCPS English Teacher and Mom of 2 Dies of COVID-19

A community is mourning after Yvonne Brown (left on a yellow t-shirt), a beloved Maryland English teacher and loving mother of two, recently died of COVID-19.

College Park, Md; (Reform Sasscer); A community is mourning after Yvonne Brown, a beloved English teacher and loving mother of two, recently died of COVID-19.

Brown a very joyful person taught in both Prince George’s and Montgomery counties in Maryland. She leaves behind her partner Mr. Neville Adams and their two daughters, who are 10 and 11 years old.

Her partner, Neville Adams, is sharing his grief and his plea for people to get vaccinated.

Adams says Brown always uplifted others.

“She would want them to feel like they’re fabulous and whatever it is that they want to do, to shoot for it,” he said.

Adams said Brown, a longtime English teacher at Parkdale High School, and their daughters tested positive for COVID-19 last month. When Brown had trouble breathing, she was rushed to a hospital. She developed strep and pneumonia, and she had to be put on a ventilator.

Her family was forced to say goodbye over Zoom.

“You need to talk to people who are sick, to try to give them the will to survive. So I told them to say things like, ‘Wake up, Mommy,’” Brown said.

But she never did. Brown died the day after Thanksgiving.

Adam says he tried many times to convince Brown to get vaccinated, but he says she believed conspiracy theories about the shots.

“It incenses me that there are people who are purposefully trying to misinform the public,” he said.

Support from the community is pouring in as he begins to raise his daughters as a single dad.

Adams says he wants everyone to remember Brown’s loving spirit.

“She never met anyone who wouldn’t say that she sparked them in their lives,” he said.

Brown was also an accomplished author. She wrote a book called “Crying Girl” and was the social media chair for the Toni Morrison Society.

Yvonne was also an accomplished author and the archivist/social media chair for the Toni Morrison Society. More ahead on News4 this afternoon https://gofundme.com/f/for-yvonne-brown-children?qid=3efdb0a44912dac583e09b7865ddf56c…

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‘It’s on me’: PGCPS CEO Goldson addresses issues in front of Questionable school board task force

Dr. Monica Goldson was named the new CEO of Prince George’s County Public Schools. Tuesday, June 18, 2019 amid outcry of public corruption in which she is part of it.

Upper Marlboro, (Reform Sasscer); ( — With Prince George’s County school buildings closed just days before winter break and CEO Monica Goldson, Ed.D who was appointed under public corruption defended her actions in a news conference. She appeared before more community members during the county’s questionable school board task force Tuesday night.

The group was established by County Executive Angela Alsobrooks to make recommendations on how to revamp the school board as it has been plagued with infighting and investigations. However, Considering a number of the members have been cited in our https://pgcpsmess.wordpress.com/, the recommendations from the Task Force won’t be credible to many of us. Our children need leadership not another cursory report — especially not from those who helped create the #PGCPSMess as we know it.

The task force meets with different stakeholders to ask questions about the school system to determine what would be the best format for the school board. However, with some questionable members such as
1.) Doris Reed, executive director of the Association of Supervisory and Administrative Personnel, 2.) Verjeana McCotter-Jacobs, chief Transformation Officer, National School Boards Association. Ms. Jacobs left PGCPS due to her reckless behavior and public corruption. 3.) Christian Rhodes, chief of staff, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, U.S. Department of Education left due to public corruption. 4.) Maryland State Education Association should be excluded after various misconduct involving it’s officers over the years starting with Ms. Dudley, this taskforce is a joke. The final meeting of the year comes at the same time as the school system returned to virtual learning because of an increase in COVID-19 cases and major fights across the county schools.

“I’m probably praying more than anyone that this thing ends very soon,” said Goldson.

During one question, she used the pandemic as a way to explain how beneficial the relationship between the school system and county government has been. Angela Alsobrook the current county executive helped to cover up public corruption for Goldson.

“To be able to pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, I need to get teachers vaccinated’ and Kaiser said, ‘Hey this is the limit we have’ and then to contact the health department and they can supplement and to understand the sense of urgency in getting it done, was key,” said Goldson.

The task force also wanted to know about how politics, local and statewide, can play a role in the CEO’s decisions.

“I have been very honest and forceful and say, it all falls on me, so when it all goes bad, it’s on me, so allow me to make those decisions and they have done that,” she said.

She also said she also sends lawmakers the same guidance she sends to parents so everyone is on the same page.

While she recognizes that not everyone may agree with her decisions, like the one to revert back to virtual learning before winter break, she stands behind it.

The newly formed School Board Transformation Task Force continues to have meetings despite all the reservations cited earlier. Considering a number of the members have been cited in https://pgcpsmess.wordpress.com/, the recommendations from the Task Force won’t be credible to the public. Our children need leadership not another cursory report — especially not from those who helped create the problems such as Ms. Verjeana McCotter-Jacobs, Doris Reed, Christian Rhodes and others tied to them including CEO Monica Goldson as we know them as #PGCPSMess.

Our children need leadership not another cursory report — especially not from those who helped create the problems such as Ms. Verjeana McCotter-Jacobs, Doris Reed, Christian Rhodes and others tied to them including CEO Monica Goldson who is acting as fox in a chicken house.

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MD Gov. Hogan Gets COVID-19, Blasts School District’s Decision To Go Fully Remote

Prince George’s County Public Schools begun testing random groups of students for the coronavirus around October, whether they have been vaccinated or not.

Upper Marlboro – (Reform Sasscer); Prince George’s County Public Schools will move fully to remote learning through Jan. 18, and recently, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan made it known: He’s not for it.

Hogan, who recently tested positive for COVID-19, said it’s a “big deal and terrible mistake and something that we’re very opposed to,” according to NBC Washington.

“We all want to keep our kids safe but we’ve got protocols in place. There’s a hundred cases in Prince George’s County out of 131,000 students.”

PGCPS started closing all buildings starting yesterday Dec. 20 and will move to virtual learning for three days ahead of their winter break which will start on Dec. 23 due to multiple fights by students running uncontrollably throughout the district.

Schools will remain in virtual learning through Jan. 14. They will return in person on Jan. 18, following Martin Luther King, Jr. day. Students in the K-6 Virtual Learning Program will return Monday, January 31.

“Over the past few days, I have remained in daily contact with the Prince George’s County Health Department regarding appropriate steps for maintaining safe environments across more than 200 school communities.” Said Monica Goldson, Ed.D., Chief Executive Officer of PGCPS who was selected under a cloud of public corruption.

Last week PGCPS saw a high of 155 cases of COVID-19 reported in a single day among students and staff even though there has been a growing movement among the students and staff to take a break due to these many fights which have gone amok.

It becomes the largest school district in the country to go close all of its schools and turn to remote learning due to the pandemic and other issues combined.

Click here to Donate and sign up for Reform Sasscer Movement (RSM) news alerts to help change the county and the world.

Read more >>> Major Drama as Fights Break Out at Suitland High School and others.

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Believe in the power of investigative journalism? Donate today and help us inspire and cultivate a global community of reporters and readers who believe journalism can bring about positive change. We also need money to upgrade our site and to help with transportation as we interview witnesses. The current website has run out of space and we can no longer upload pictures and videos directly.

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Prince George’s parents frustrated over schools suddenly reverting to virtual learning

Nikki Weiss’ son is a first grader at Yorktown Elementary in Bowie. He is home now trying to do virtual learning. (Nikki Weiss)

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, Md. (7News) — Nikki Weiss’ son is a first grader at Yorktown Elementary in Bowie. He is home now trying to do virtual learning.

She shares several pictures with us of how its going so far. “Not great,” she says.

And as she struggles to work and find ways for him to be online she expects it’ll get worse.

“He’s not only going to be in virtual in first grade when he can’t read and can’t type, he’s going to miss even more instruction because there’s going to be some days he can’t get on,” she says.

Weiss speaks for a number of parents who’ve reached out to 7News On Your Side to express frustration with the sudden decision at the end of last week to move to virtual schooling until January 18.

“I mean just the timeframe,” she says. ”How can you expect parents, or students for that matter, to get any kind of information on a Friday night at 5 pm that starting Monday you have to find care for your kids or not go to work or whatever to go virtual for what?”

Today during a COVID update we took her concerns straight to schools CEO Monica Goldson and County Executive Angela Alsobrooks. Both say the numbers, nearly 1,000 students testing positive, 16,000 quarantined, made the move necessary even as challenging as it is.

“I agree completely with Dr. Goldson,” says Alsobrooks of the decision to close.

Goldson says, “If we could have waited to allow time for parents to make those changes and work around daycare we would have, but in consultation with the health department we felt it was important to begin to make sure that our students were safe in their home.”

Goldson also insists the closure is temporary and that students will be back in school January 18.

Read more >>> Major Drama as Fights Break Out at Suitland High School and others.

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Believe in the power of investigative journalism? Donate today and help us inspire and cultivate a global community of reporters and readers who believe journalism can bring about positive change. We also need money to upgrade our site and to help with transportation as we interview witnesses. The current website has run out of space and we can no longer upload pictures and videos directly.

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Major Drama as Fights Break Out at Suitland High School and others.

Suitland High School is a public magnet high school located in the Suitland census-designated place in unincorporated Prince George’s County, Maryland, United States, near Forestville. It is a part of Prince George’s County Public Schools. It is long regarded for its Visual and Performing Arts magnet program.

Suitland – (Reform Sasscer); Suitland High School of Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) was on lockdown recently after multiple fights took place in the school. The school is known to be the epicenter of fights spreading uncontrollably in other high schools in PGCPS such as Dr. Henry A. Wise Jr. High School in Upper Marlboro, Gwynn Park High School in Brandywine and Friendly High School on Allentown, Fort Washington. There are other schools in the county which have had major fights recently during the covid-19 pandemic which have led schools among other issues to close early.

Cell phone video surfaced on social media shows an officer with the county schools Department being hit by a student with a fist during the many brawls recently to the dismay of onlookers nearby. It all happened while multiple fights were breaking out in several of these schools.

“They just said it was a fight that broke out in the cafeteria between two students. A chair was thrown, and then multiple fights got to breaking out,” said parent who wanted to remain anonymous.

In a recent viral video circulating on social media, a woman identified as Prince George’s County, Suitland High School administrator Eileen Mayfield can be seen on the ground in the school building tugging on a student in a gray shirt, yelling “I’m going to kill y’all” and attempting to grab what looks to be a hair weave component.

“There is a thing called fight Friday” students in various schools plan various fights on this day either at school or outside these schools. Many students in the county are aware ahead of time concerning such fights and are usually ready for them. However, there is little response from the county police rushing to the scene or school security to stop these outside fights among other issues.

No serious injuries have been reported. Personnel for this blog obtained a video of a young woman student apparently knocked out and another student was shown to have been hit hard to the ground.

“Every day since school (has) been in, it’s been ongoing. Fight, people getting ready to fight others. They fight all day in the schools. Parents bring other kids up here to fight kids. It’s out of control,” said parent who did not want to be identified.

Some parents are upset at how the situation was handled. One mom, who dropped everything when she saw all the flashing blue lights, says being able to get to her son was a huge relief, especially after hearing about how officers tried to get everything under control.

“My baby called me and told me that she couldn’t breathe and that she was on the way to her next class and they pepper-sprayed her,” said Ms. Johnson.

Although no one was badly hurt, another parent says her student will not be returning to class.

“They are not allowed to come back here anymore, (because) they can’t control the school,” Ms. Johnson said.

A quick search on LinkedIn about Ms. Eileen Mayfield, is listed as an assistant principal for PGCPS, however, it is unclear if she is still with the school system and or how long she has been a PGCPS employee.

Further research on Twitter shows that, students and alum of Suitland High School have been raising concerns of toxic behavior and tension between both students and Eileen Mayfield for over a decade.

Because the administrator has on a mask in the video and Charles Flowers High School C/O 2024 president confirmed on Facebook that this situation in question was from the week of Dec. 6, 2021, it is unclear as to what has really been going on in the PGCPS schools during in person learning. This way, there is a plan during a global disease to protect the overall mental and physical safety of the students, staff in regard to the pandemic, physical, verbal, and emotional abuse or exposure to it.

As of Dec. 17, 2021, CEO Monica Goldson made an announcement to close all schools until mid-January 2022 to students due to the increase in COVID-19 numbers. However, CEO Goldson has advised teachers that they still must come in the building even though the buildings need a proper clean up. She appears powerless with no clue to reality as just last week scheduled a Christmas party in the middle of the school day. After criticism from the staff on social media, she cancelled the said virtual party.

Additional photos show the growing number of fights in PGCPS with or without school system employees around as indicated above. The poor leadership of CEO Monica Goldson who was selected under cloud of public corruption is all there for all to see.

We must demand more transparency from PGCPS in regard to incidents like the one that included Eileen Mayfield and others. This is very triggering and traumatizing to the students, parents, and community to watch.  While we would never want to see a teacher, student, or staff member assaulted, it is very disturbing to hear an administrator confidently threaten to kill all of the students in her reach especially if she’s been in the county over a decade. This incident confirms a lot of parents’ allegations about the PGCPS employees that have been employed for years confidently and boldly having no regards for human life or accountability of their actions. A school system is not the place for that mindset. Parents, students and staff must have peace of mind as they perform their roles.

There is no record of PGCPS, Monica Goldson, or County Executive Angela Alsobrooks addressing this incident as of Dec. 19, 2021. We have had enough. Enough is enough! We demand immediate actions to help save lives.

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Ms. Eileen Mayfield, is listed as an assistant principal for PGCPS. She is said to have yelled, “I’m going to kill y’all” and is seen attempting to grab what looks to be a hair weave component.

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Reform Sasscer Movement (RSM) investigations are supported by readers like you. If you believe investigative journalism has the power to rock the world, join our RSM Insiders community today! With a gift of any amount, you’ll receive the Insiders benefits.

Donate (opens in a new tab)

Believe in the power of investigative journalism? Donate today and help us inspire and cultivate a global community of reporters and readers who believe journalism can bring about positive change. We also need money to upgrade our site and to help with transportation as we interview witnesses. The current website has run out of space and we can no longer upload pictures and videos directly.

Investigative journalism is costly, risky, and time-consuming, and RSM believes this work is more important than ever. Your gift directly helps us continue this work. As a thank you for your donation of any amount, you’ll become an RSM Insider earning you exclusive invitations to events, behind the scenes content, and more.

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PGCPS students return to virtual learning amid ‘stark rise’ in covid cases

Monica E. Goldson, chief executive of Prince George’s County Public Schools, shown in April, announced the return to virtual learning on Dec. 17. (Robb Hill for The Washington Post)

Via Washington Post: Students in Prince George’s County will switch from in-person classes to virtual learning until mid-January as coronavirus cases surge and schools in the Washington region increasingly restrict student activities.

Monica E. Goldson, the chief executive in Maryland’s second-largest school system, announced the change Friday afternoon, citing a “stark rise” in cases as she laid out a plan for students to return to in-person classes Jan. 18, following the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

The decision marks the first major shift of the school year to remote instruction by a large public school system in the D.C. area — and likely a disappointment to parents who had hoped for more of a traditional learning experience for 2021-2022.

But, in recent days, some school systems have reported a significant jump in infections. Earlier this week, Goldson had called the trend alarming, saying that a week earlier that the two-day total was fewer than 100 cases, compared to this week’s high of 155 cases in one day.

As covid surges, D.C.-area schools cancel activities and go virtual again

She said educators and others in schools “must be able to deliver in-person instruction and other activities in conditions that prioritize their own health, as well as the well-being of the school community. The increased positivity rates have significantly challenged the ability to do so, causing anxiety among many school communities and disruption to the school day.”

Prince George’s previously had suspended in-person instruction at two middle schools and a charter school.

According to the plan Goldson outlined Friday on the school system’s website, Prince George’s students will move to virtual learning next week, from Dec. 20 to Dec. 23. Winter break will follow, ending Jan. 2, after which students will again return to virtual instruction from Jan. 3 to Jan. 14.

Students who have been enrolled in a virtual program throughout the fall will remain in remote mode through Jan. 31.

Other local systems have sent classes, grade levels or individual schools home. Late Wednesday, D.C. Public Schools moved Whittier Elementary School back to virtual learning until after the holiday break, making it the first public school in the District to do so this academic year. Private schools in D.C. and Maryland, including Georgetown Preparatory School and Sidwell Friends, have also closed classrooms.

At least for now, Prince George’s is an outlier in its systemwide closure. But other Maryland counties enacted fresh restrictions this week in response to covid surges and fears of the omicron variant.

Montgomery County’s school system announced Friday that it will halt in-person, nonathletic extracurricular activities outside the school day starting Monday and lasting through Jan. 7. Athletic practices and games can continue into next week, but during the winter break, from Dec. 23 through Jan. 2, games will be canceled, with optional practices allowed.

That move follows Howard County’s decision Wednesday to suspend its own sports contests, concerts, plays and other extracurricular activities, citing cases that were surging at an “alarming rate.”

Northern Virginia counties have not taken such steps, although they have canceled some sporting events. A spokeswoman for Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia’s largest school system, said Friday that officials there “are watching our numbers closely but are holding steady at this point.”

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Maurice Cunningham: Beware the Koch-Funded “Parents Groups”

Prominent Republican political figures are rushing in to support the anti-critical race theory parent activists, hoping that these local battles will mobilize conservative voters in next year’s midterms and beyond.Matt Williams / for NBC News

Maurice Cunningham is a retired professor of political science in Massachusetts who specializes in following the trail of Dark Money into school issues. He was a major influence in turning the public against a state referendum to expand charters in 2016; he revealed the Dark Money behind the charter advocacy and that revealed the lies behind the rosy rhetoric.

In this post, he describes the role of Koch money behind “parent groups” harassing educators in Newton, Mass.

He writes:

On Friday Travis Anderson of the Boston Globe reported that two Black principals in Newton had received “racist and confrontational” messages for doing their jobs: to help their students process the verdicts in the Kyle Rittenhouse and Tracy McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan Jr. (murderers of Ahmaud Arbery) trials. The hate came rolling in after the educators’ teaching methods were blown up in the right wing media network. Yes it’s terrible but it’s also deliberate.

The Globe reported that the hateful messages came after the radical right Breitbart News ran a heated misrepresentation about the Newton educators. Similar bulldust was published by conservative provocateurs Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, and The Federalist.

The generator of the story to the right wing propaganda network was Parents Defending Education. PDE is run by veteran Koch operative Nicole Neily, who refuses to discuss who funds the outfit (she can’t; it’s bad for business). PDE has ties to the Council for National Policy (CNP) which, as Anne Nelson has shown in Shadow Network, manages and coordinates strategy and tactics for an array of radical billionaire funders and Christian nationalist activists.

PDE is working on a model Koch and CNP have long used to attack college professors. Isaac Kamola explains how it’s done in “Dear Administrators: To Protect Your Faculty from Right Wing Attacks, Follow the Money.” Some information is received (PDE encourages anonymous tipsters) and then twisted or taken out of context. This works best if the educator is a woman, person of color (like the Newton principals), or LGBTQ. Then fringe outlets like Breitbart, Daily Caller, Federalist pick it up and publicize it. (With a little luck and the CNP’s connections, it might get on Fox). Post it online for the lip reading haters who act on this garbage and just sit back. The racist hate mail, phone calls, and social media posts will flow.

It’s depressing right? But it’s also intentional. This is part of a coordinated right wing attack on public schools (Critical Race Theory, anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, billionaire funded “parent” groups) and an assault on our government and American democracy. Parents Defending Education, Campus Reform, Moms for Liberty, Breitbart, Federalist—they all know what they’re doing and they know the results that eventuate from their tactics.

This is a hard story for daily journalism to tell, but it has to find a way. American democracy doesn’t have much time left.

We all need to stand up for our democracy and our public schools.

Cunningham recently published a new book, Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization.

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Nora de la Cour: The Great American Teacher Exodus

Low pay and grueling conditions are causing public school teachers to leave the profession at an alarming rate. (NeONBRAND / Unsplash)

Nora de la Cour is a high school social worker and a former teacher. In this article, which appeared in Jacobin, she provides a trenchant overview of the strains and pressures that drive dedicated teachers away from a profession they love.
She writes:

This school year has been marked by a flood of reports of dire school staffing shortages, including stories about schools shutting down because there are simply not enough adults in the building to keep kids safe. The seemingly ubiquitous theme of educators resigning mid-year has even become its own TikTok genre.

Kristin Colucci, who teaches English in Lawrence Public Schools in Massachusetts, described the situation at her high school to Jacobin: “One teacher quit, another retired, and there have been no teachers assigned to those classes. Students are literally sitting there by themselves. The message being sent: the class and the students are not worthy of this education.”

Edu-conomists who warn against teacher pay increases like to point out that shortages are district-specific and that overall teacher turnover may actually be lower right now than in recent years. That’s not saying much.

Teacher turnover has been on the rise in the United States since the mid-1980s. In the last decade, we’ve seen a growing crisis of teacher vacancies and declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs. Due to racialized problems like high student debt and poor working conditions, people who are not white are less likely to enter the profession and more likely to leave it, meaning students are deprived of the significant benefits of exposure to a diverse teaching workforce.

Shortages of qualified teachers interfere with learning, inflicting outsize harm on special education students and students in high-poverty districts and racially isolated schools. But the hardships that disproportionately impact marginalized groups of students and teachers are indicative of broad underlying ills that make it harder for all kids to experience the learning conditions they deserve.

When educators accumulate years on the job, they acquire invaluable knowledge about how to gain students’ respect and make high-level scholarship possible. Unfortunately, circumstances stemming from chronic disinvestment and a corporate reform model that punishes poverty make it untenable for many teachers to remain in the classroom.

Teaching is a hard job. Planning and executing lessons that will motivate students with divergent interests and skill sets takes a great deal of time, research, and imagination. Then there’s the labor of evaluating and thoughtfully responding to work from up to ninety students across multiple different classes, providing tailored instruction for English learners and special education students, building rapport with shy or angry kids, fairly dividing one’s attention, maintaining order and ensuring safety, collaborating with colleagues and families, and staying abreast of new developments in the subjects one teaches and the field of education generally.

Nevertheless, many teachers are eager to meet these challenges. The very fact that anyone pursues teaching when, with comparable education, they can earn significantly more money in other fields demonstrates that people are willing to give up a great deal because they are drawn to the vocation of nurturing young minds.Every step of the way, teachers are prevented from actually performing their vocation.

The trouble is that, at every step of the way, teachers are prevented from actually performing this vocation. Their “other duties as assigned” include playing nonteaching roles like bus and lunch cop, because districts are unable or unwilling to hire more staff. Teachers are required to attend meetings at which they playicebreaker games and watch clips of cartoon animals so their administrators can get credit for giving professional development. They may have a single forty-minute preparation period in which to plan and grade for four or five different classes (which is laughable). But they frequently find they can’t use that time for planning and grading because paperwork is piled on them, often at the last minute. In addition to myriad clerical and administrative tasks, they must document instructional interventions and, at many schools, submit detailed weekly lesson plans designed to satisfy their bosses’ checklists rather than excite and challenge learners.

The teacher exodus has coincided with the rise of a culture of micromanagement, as government presses administrators to watch teachers, measure their output, collect data about them, and see if they meet goals. District leaders, state leaders, federal leaders send teachers a demoralizing message: we don’t trust you. If no one watches, you might be a shirker. If kids get low test scores, it’s not because they were absent or didn’t do their homework, but because they have bad teachers. You.

All that data collection moves up the chain of command, to be reviewed by someone who never was a teacher.

I became an English teacher because I wanted to help students explore thrilling story-worlds, weave airtight arguments, and unravel sophistical rhetoric. Like an alarming number of my peers, I left the profession after just five years, finding I wasn’t allowed to teach in a way that could inspire my students. Instead of facilitating deep inquiry and lively debate, I was forced to make rushed deposits of scripted curriculum in order to meet standards written by Bill and Melinda Gates–funded reformers.Like an alarming number of my peers, I left the profession because I wasn’t allowed to teach in a way that could inspire my students.

I was willing to work weekends and ten-hour weekdays for shabby pay in the service of my students — but not in the service of my administrator’s need to convince her bosses we’d “covered” RI.11-12.1 through SL.11-12.6. I was told it didn’t matter if my classes only got to experience fiction through decontextualized excerpts; my job was to “teach the standard, not the book.” But I wanted to teach the books: whole, breathing texts can fascinate young people and ignite their genius. State standards grids make them yawn and pull out their phones, or boil over with justified indignation.

The pressure to raise test scores has undermined teaching and learning. It has produced ”play deprivation,” which is not developmentally appropriate and leads to students acting out. Over-testing has driven joy out of the classroom.

President Joe Biden’s Department of Education could address this problem by attempting to follow through on Biden’s campaign commitment to end the use of standardized testing in public schools. Instead, the department has opted for business as usual. Never mind that under corporate education reform and state disinvestment, business as usual has been steadily draining K-12 classrooms of the vibrant, beautiful things that make students and teachers want to wake up in the morning and come to school.

De la Cour insists that the teaching profession could be revived and restored. She summarizes the few but vital steps that are necessary to restore the dignity and prestige of teaching.

Open the link to find out what they are.

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