Preparing for the return of President-elect Donald Trump, the Los Angeles school board is moving quickly to reaffirm the nation’s second-largest school system as a haven for immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community and to propose a new high school curriculum that addresses current political events. .
These efforts come at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting in four emergency resolutions sponsored by board President Jackie Goldberg in her last regular public board meeting before her retirement.
“We’re not going to run in fear,” he said, referring to Trump. “We will fight you, every inch of the way.”
“My parting shot,” he said.
One of the resolutions aims to “Reaffirm Our Commitment to Students, Families, and Immigrant Workers,” as its title indicates, and revise existing district policy to “enforce the respectful treatment of all individuals to include gender identity and gender expression.”
The ruling describes the 2024 presidential race as the result of “the election of a candidate who campaigned on an anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ platform.”
Trump has promised to deport more illegal immigrants to the US as one of his priorities, accusing them of increasing crime and taking jobs away from citizens. On social media on Monday, he confirmed reports that he would order the military to take part in the evacuation as part of the declared state of emergency.
Public schools are required by federal law to enroll any student in their area, and in California, school officials are not allowed to ask about their immigration status. Many families have mixed immigration status – with some family members in the US legally but others not.
The resolution referred to “the documented rise of anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment in the United States,” saying “this narrative divides communities, increases risk factors, and jeopardizes mental health and school engagement.”
While noting that LGBTQ+ students are already expressly protected by the school district’s nondiscrimination policies, this decision would extend those protections to students’ family members as well as their staff and families.
“The children of gay women and children of non-binary women are going to feel a lot more negative in society at large,” Goldberg said. “And we just want them to know that we have their backs. We have their parents’ backs. We have the backs of their teachers. We have the backs of the restaurant staff – everyone who works for us and works with us and all the children and their families. We can’t really stop the extremists from being who they are, but we won’t let you face them alone.”
Under the banner of parents’ rights, Trump wants to end school board policies that limit the ability of school staff to notify parents if their child changes gender identity or pronouns at school.
Trump recently voiced strong support for the idea of parental rights at a conference organized by the conservative group Moms for Liberty.
“Some of these people on the boards, I think they don’t like children very much,” he said at that meeting. “You have to give the rights back to the parents.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill in July that protects teachers from retaliation for supporting the rights of transgender students and banning K-12 “forced disclosure” laws.
The second Goldberg ruling deals with the sanctuary of immigrants. And, it reaffirms the existing policy and aims again at Trump, calling him “a candidate whose previous administration created a brutal policy of separating immigrant families that irreparably harmed thousands of immigrant children and parents.”
Trump has defended the policy of separating immigrant children from their parents, calling it an effective deterrent to immigration.
The school system did the same by declaring schools as sanctuaries in 2017, early in Trump’s first term, designating LA Unified schools as “Safe Places for Families at Risk from Immigration Enforcement.” The previous ruling prohibited district employees from “voluntarily cooperating in any immigration law enforcement action, including sharing information about the immigration status of students and their families with any immigration agent.”
The new decision will direct LA Unified Supt. Alberto Carvalho to develop within 60 days a program that will include “the training of all teachers, administrators, and other employees on how to respond to government agencies and any immigrant workers who request information about students, families, employees, and/or who are trying.” to enter the school area, and a great effort to communicate with the District’s sanctuary policy and plan for all the families of the District in the language they speak.”
About one in five students is considered an English learner; many of them are immigrants, even though they are not actually in the country illegally.
Goldberg’s third decision is aimed at the education component of Project 2025, the think tank’s effort that lays out the policy goals of Trump’s second administration. Regarding education, there is a strong but incomplete alignment between Project 2025 and Trump’s statements on education.
Project 2025 strongly emphasizes giving parents the right to use their share of public education funds to fund private school tuition, a policy Trump supported in his first administration. The policy draft also calls for “rejecting gender stereotypes and critical race theory.” Supporters say they want to get rid of liberal politics and education in the classroom.
Critics see the policy proposal as an attempt to hide history, limit diversity of opinion and shut down discussion of controversial topics.
Goldberg’s resolution vows, “we will do everything in our power to protect and defend students, families, and staff from harm intended by Project 2025, and to protect the right of all students to a public education.”
Under this decision, Carvalho, within 60 days, will present a report “with a complete outline of all the policies of Project 2025 that affect public education and public school students, families, and workers, as well as a detailed review of the District’s protection plan.” public education and the students, families and staff we serve.”
Goldberg’s fourth decision is aimed at recent widespread efforts to remove discussion of controversial topics or current events from classrooms.
The decision states that, in order to make students “ready for the world,” they must be “critical thinkers, to be able to understand current events, to be able to understand how events affect our politics, to know the implications of certain policy proposals, and to be able to understand all sides of important political issues.”
In addition, “it is the task of the district to prepare students to be able to distinguish between news and opinions in an increasingly fragmented information environment full of misinformation, disinformation and questionable sources.”
England and France, Goldberg said, “begin what I would call political education in the upper elementary grades until the end of high school, and their children take better, in my opinion, what is happening in modern, contemporary political issues. .”
For example, he said, “what Trump can actually do, and what things he says he can do but actually can’t do.”
Within 160 days, Carvalho would have to report “on the feasibility of establishing a course on Contemporary Political Issues” at the high school level and whether it would be required for graduation.
The workforce analysis will also include “what credentials and professional development are needed to ensure the district has the staff to implement the new course, and what is the most appropriate grade or grade level for students to take the course.”
Also under review will be the necessary changes to the curriculum at all levels to prepare students for high school work in this area.
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