Culture War Battleground: Our Schools (Gettysburg Times op-ed)
During the 1950s and 1960s, a fever was sweeping the country. It was not of the medical type but of the political variety. The communists were taking over the country, and your child’s teacher could be a communist. The John Birch Society had a profound influence on the politics and culture of the US.
Society members successfully targeted schools in their effort to combat communism. They sought to remove the ‘communist-influenced’ textbooks. They encouraged members of their communes to become involved in school boards and PTAs to influence curriculum and school policy. If the work of the John Birch Society sounds familiar, it should.
They employed the same tactics used today by a growing network of well-funded, national right-wing groups intent on removing school library books that hint at sex and our racial past. Teachers have been summarily dismissed, and the works of nationally acclaimed poets have been trashed.
Florida appears to be the seat for many of these attacks on learning. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida described American schools as a cesspool of Marxist indoctrination. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida wants to eliminate “ideological conformity.” His school platform calls for the removal of ‘critical race theory’ instruction, a theory not taught in public schools. Also, what is now his most infamous policy, commonly known as “Don’t say gay.” However, NONE of the claims have been supported by examples or evidence
These insidious, inflammatory, vote-getting remarks by politicians have no place in our public discourse, and they need to be renounced and denounced. Those who take their insipid and destructive comments seriously believe our schools lack the necessary expertise to address these matters. Some people think parents are the supreme arbiters of what our schools teach and read. Placing parents in this impossible position undermines and
effectively removes the authority, knowledge, goodwill, and expertise school administrators and teachers exercise and have nurtured for decades. Finally, school boards are the authority that legally control policies.
No parent should be given the prerogative to remove books in the library provided for all. They do not teach in the school and have no responsibility for delivering the curriculum. Teachers do. Books in school libraries are there to support the curriculum, not parental biases.
Let’s not be fooled. These efforts are not directed toward the enrichment of our children’s learning. This entire enterprise of conspiracies is nothing more or less than a bankrupt scheme to generate votes at the ballot box. The politicians want to pose as defenders of your children against an amorphous but insidious enemy.
In Florida, it is Moms for Liberty, Americans for Prosperity Florida – founded by the Koch brothers, and Florida Citizens Alliance – an organization with longstanding ties to the DeSantis campaign. In Texas, it is the Patriot Mobile Action. According to, at least 50 groups nationwide are working to remove books from school libraries.
Then there are the national organizations, the Heritage Foundation – whose roots date back to the John Birch Society — and the Alliance Defending Freedom. Grants from the DeVos family, the Koch brothers, and the Mercer family have funded both organizations. In Oklahoma, the Governor is calling for a ban on the financing of Public Television because of a show on Sesame Street.
Let’s not forget the too often overlooked Pico case from 1982, (Board Education Island Trees Union Free School District V. Pico) in which the Supreme Court stated: “Our Constitution does not permit the official suppression of ideas.” The ruling affirmed the “special characteristics” of the school library, making it “especially appropriate for the recognition of the First Amendment rights of students.”
The central holding of Pico was “(L)ocal school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek by their removal to prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.”
The Pico decision further recognized that the school board used a highly irregular removal process that ignored literary experts, district superintendents, librarians, and teachers.
Let’s be honest. A book alone cannot force someone to behave in a manner that contradicts their morals. Banning books will not eliminate the ideas and voices of those who wrote them. The ideas are out there in the conversations young people have every day. Children need to be prepared to deal with a complicated world, and they can’t do that shielded by fear and hate. But what children fear most is that they may not return home alive. Rather than banning books, gun violence may be a better target of parental concern.