Year in Review: The four biggest education controversies of 2022 – msnNOW
An eventful 2021 saw education issues thrust into the national spotlight in a way previously unseen, but 2022 provided brand new fodder as education policies generated some of the biggest political controversies of the year.
From federal policymaking from the Biden administration that could have forced the closure of hundreds of charter schools, a Title IX regulation that critics say will gut due process rights, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s public battle with Disney over a parental rights law, and the never-ending saga of Virginia’s Loudoun County Public Schools, 2022 reinforced the notion that the classroom has become one of the main battlefields of the culture war.
HOW LOUDOUN COUNTY BECAME THE EPICENTER OF THE PARENTAL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
DeSantis vs. Disney
Perhaps the most high-profile education-related controversy of the past year was the enactment of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, which banned classroom instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation from kindergarten through third grade.
While it was under consideration in the state legislature, the law was dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critics, who said the legislation would hurt the mental health of gay and transgender youth. The bill generated a wave of national controversy as a number of Democratic politicians and liberal pundits denounced the bill. The word “gay” was not included in the bill’s text.
The most high-profile controversy to stem from the Parental Rights in Education Act was a confrontation between DeSantis and the Walt Disney Company. With Florida home to Disney World, a host of Disney employees expressed anger that the company had not opposed the legislation and demanded the company speak out publicly against the bill.
© Provided by Washington Examiner Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs the Parental Rights in Education bill. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
The corporate leadership and then-CEO Bob Chapek obliged and vowed to fight for the law’s repeal, a position that irked DeSantis and state Republicans, who criticized Disney’s “woke” response. DeSantis and Florida Republicans retaliated against the company by repealing Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, which essentially allowed the company to serve as the local government within the boundaries of Disney World.
The spat with DeSantis sparked a conservative boycott against the “House of Mouse,” and Chapek was ultimately fired by Disney’s board of directors. Former CEO Bob Iger was brought in to retake control of the company in November.
The Federal Charter School Program
In a surprising case of bipartisanship, the Biden administration’s attempted rewrite of the federal regulations governing the distribution of funds provided by the Federal Charter School Program was widely panned, even by members of his own party.
The original proposal, released in March, would have enacted a series of strict criteria for charter schools applying to receive the program’s funds. The proposal prohibited schools operated by for-profit companies on a contractual basis from receiving funds under the program, as well as enacting a host of new requirements for new charter schools seeking eligible funding.
© Provided by Washington Examiner Sen. Tim Scott. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Experts warned that the proposed regulation would likely lead to the closure of as much as 10% of the nation’s charter schools, and Republicans and Democrats alike urged Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to temper the proposed rule and eliminate the onerous requirements.
The finalized rule was released in July 2022 and differed greatly from the initial proposal, with many of the more restrictive requirements eliminated. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools said the finalized rule was “less harmful than what was originally proposed, it is not without impact.”
Earlier this month, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) sponsored a bill that would have repealed the regulation under the Congressional Review Act. However, the effort failed after no Democrats supported the legislation.
Title IX and women’s sports
June 23, 2022, marked the 50th anniversary of Title IX, a landmark civil rights law that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in educational settings. The Biden administration’s Department of Education marked the anniversary by releasing a new regulatory proposal that would substantially overhaul the Title IX regulation enacted in August 2020 by the Trump administration and former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
The proposed regulations reinterpret the prohibition on discrimination on the basis of “sex” to include gender identity and sexual orientation, and also substantially overhaul or eliminate many of the due process provisions that had been enacted by the DeVos-led department.
© Provided by Washington Examiner Transgender woman Lia Thomas (left) of the University of Pennsylvania stands on the podium after winning the 500-yard freestyle. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
Students who are accused of sexual misconduct or assault would no longer be entitled to a live hearing with cross-examination as they were under the previous rules, and a single investigator would be allowed to adjudicate a dispute and enact disciplinary measures. The DeVos regulation required the investigator and the adjudicator to be separate parties.
In releasing the proposed regulations, the Department of Education also said it would be undergoing a separate rulemaking process for athletic competition. The reinterpretation of “sex” to include gender identity and sexual orientation would have required school athletic programs allow transgender athletes to compete based on their claimed gender identity rather than their biological sex.
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male, made national headlines by winning a race at the NCAA championships while competing as a woman, a first for a transgender athlete in swimming. Thomas’s success brought the issue of biological men in women’s sports to a forefront, and a number of states passed laws requiring student-athletes to compete based on their birth sex.
The department has not provided a timeline for when it will release its proposed rule for athletics.
Loudoun County Public Schools
The saga of Loudoun County Public Schools began in 2021 after a male high school student sexually assaulted two female students at two different schools last year, but 2022 provided new chapters to the still-unfolding situation that catapulted the northern Virginia school district to national headlines.
Shortly after taking office in January 2022, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and state Attorney General Jason Miyares vowed to investigate the school district’s response to the two assaults.
© Provided by Washington Examiner Dr. Daniel Smith (left) takes his place on the board after being appointed interim superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools at an emergency board meeting at LCPS Administrative Offices. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
In the spring, Miyares impaneled a special grand jury to investigate the school district’s response to the assaults. The school district initially vowed to cooperate fully with the investigation but later filed a lawsuit in an attempt to shut the investigation down.
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In December, the special grand jury released an explosive report that said the school district had “failed at every juncture” in responding to the assaults. The next day, the school board fired Scott Ziegler, the district superintendent, who was indicted on three misdemeanor charges stemming from his response to the assaults. The grand jury also indicted the district’s public information officer Wayde Byard on a felony perjury charge.
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Tags: 2022: Year in Review, Title IX, Department of Education, Public Schools, Ron DeSantis
Original Author: Jeremiah Poff
Original Location: Year in Review: The four biggest education controversies of 2022