cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/news/t/264623

Students at dozens of Houston ISD schools will return in a few weeks without librarians and to former libraries that have been converted into disciplinary spaces.

    • Today@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well…OK kinda depends on where you are, who you associate with, and what your expectations are. In cities we’re pretty ok. I feel bad for people stuck in rural areas. Went to a party last night at a friend of a friend’s house. Hour drive. Made a contingency plan on the way - if there’s a trump flag, we’ll text and say something came up. If there’s one bumper sticker, we’ll go in and feel it out. If either of us gets uncomfortable, we leave.

      Read a little about this HISD thing. Apparently 28 schools (8 high schools and the middle and elementary schools in their feeder patterns) chose to participate in this NESA (new education system aligned) plan. Teachers get extra help in their classrooms and follow standardized lesson plans. In those 28 schools, libraries will remain open and will have books/resources, but apparently will not have librarians. That seems stupid. HISD has 274 schools, so we’re taking about 10 percent of them doing this trial. i hope it’s in the bitchy, entitled, super-sensitive areas where they believe gay doesn’t exist and they say ‘Canadian’ because they can’t openly say N— anymore.

      • utopianfiat@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Still, the superintendent is the owner of a Charter School company. He’s basically a plant to destroy the public education system in Texas.

    • utopianfiat@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Apparently this guy is going to have a cage match with Houston’s mayor. He’s also basically the worst candidate for a superintendent of public schools ever- he owns a charter school company. Not “started and divested”- no, the corrupt Greg Abbott state government didn’t consider it a conflict of interest, it’s a qualification!

      Republicans everywhere are trying to ruin public education, and they’re making great strides in single party dictatorships like Florida and Texas. We need solidarity with public school kids the South.

      • GivingEuropeASpook@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Calling him a candidate implies democracy, but the superintendent was appointed by the governor with no input from the people of Houston. The move to turn libraries into juvenile detention centers seems to me like an attempt to persecute the children of his political opposition.

    • GivingEuropeASpook@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      A republican governor is seeking to rule, not to govern and used the excuse of one school that wasn’t meeting state standards as an excuse to strip democratic control of the Houston Schoolboard from his political opposition. Houston ISD is not controlled by the people of Houston anymore, this is the State Government being authoritarian.

      • hglman@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        It was falling 4 years ago and isn’t anymore. The takeover was blocked in courts, and this year, the state legislature passed a new law allowing the takeover of the whole district.