Trend – Critical Race Theory

During the 2022–23 school year, book bans occurred in 153 districts across 33 states, according to a PEN America report. (Getty Images)

First Amendment advocates fight growing number of U.S. book bans

BY: - October 6, 2023

WASHINGTON — One of Thomasina Brown’s favorite books is a memoir about a girl who deals with the grief of losing her father and struggles with her sexual identity. Brown, a 16-year-old student at Nixa High School in Nixa, Missouri, said in an interview that she felt a connection with the book, as she grieved […]

Ohio K-12 social studies curriculum goes under the microscope

BY: - May 17, 2023

Ohio legislators on both sides of the aisle are hoping to change how students learn about things like government affairs and history. On one side, Democrats and supporters presented their argument for changing the model curriculum for K-12 social studies in a Tuesday press conference, with members of education associations and minority advocacy groups pushing […]

COMMENTARY

A parents bill of rights for the rest of us

BY: - April 19, 2023

There’s no question that parenting has gotten harder in this country. Gun violence is now the leading killer of children in this country, a brutal fact made clearer with each new school shooting. Child care is out of reach for many parents, while the rising cost of college clouds the future for their kids. For many reasons, […]

Ohio bill limits, and mandates, what is taught in college in name of free speech

BY: - March 16, 2023

The following article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.   In the name of free speech, a massive college overhaul bill would […]

DeSantis, in Iowa, says GOP stance in culture wars will help win elections

BY: - March 14, 2023

IOWA – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told Iowa Republicans Friday that standing strong in the culture wars around issues like education, criminal justice, and health care in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic will help their party win elections. DeSantis, along with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, spoke to more than 600 Iowans at the Iowa […]

GOP bill mandating federal Parents Bill of Rights passed by U.S. House committee

BY: - March 10, 2023

WASHINGTON —- A national “Parents Bill of Rights” is headed for a full U.S. House vote after the House Committee on Education and the Workforce early Thursday approved the measure designed to empower parents to inspect books and other teaching materials in schools. Lawmakers on the committee debated the GOP-backed bill that would federally mandate […]

COMMENTARY

The GOP’s culture wars would be laughable if they weren’t deadly

BY: - February 24, 2023

Republicans are resorting to their age-old tactic of manufactured moral outrage to distract from the fact that they have no economic agenda other than to enrich the already wealthy. It couldn’t have been clearer than in the GOP response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. While the president at least paid some […]

Ohio GOP moves forward bill to strip powers from Board of Ed. after losing control to Democrats

BY: - November 21, 2022

The following article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.   Democratic-affiliated candidates won control over the State Board of Education in Ohio, and […]

Education advocates say Ohio legislature should focus on funding, not regulating curriculum

BY: - November 14, 2022

Groups keeping an eye on the Ohio legislature’s handling of education are hoping the General Assembly focuses on funding and appealing to new teachers, rather than bills regulating curriculum and “divisive” issues. The Ohio Education Association is continuing it’s push to eliminate mandatory retention from the third-grade reading guarantee, focusing their attention getting through to […]

DeWine appointee, fellow State Board of Ed incumbent unseated in general election

BY: - November 10, 2022

Two incumbents on the Ohio State Board of Education were not reelected in Tuesday’s general election. One unseated member was part of a movement on the board to rescind an anti-racism resolution that mired the state board in controversy, and the other was a governor-appointed member before he sought election to the board. Of the […]

COMMENTARY

Fear not education, but those trying to rob Ohio students of it

BY: - August 11, 2022

“Aristotle” has a great line that Aristotle never said or wrote: “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” This misattribution to Aristotle predates the Interwebs. The earliest it appears in print is in Lowell Bennion’s 1959 book, “Religion and the Pursuit of Truth.” The […]

As the school year begins, calls for book bans begin to accelerate in Ohio

BY: - August 9, 2022

The following article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland. With the culture war surrounding Critical Race Theory in full force in […]