Can there be a winner in the school culture wars?
In a typical back-to-school season, markers and poster board might be on a classroom supply list. This year, they鈥檙e also hot items for protesters attending their local school board meetings.听
Mask mandates, critical race theory, 鈥測ou name the issue and people want to speak out,鈥� says Heath Miller, a high school band director听in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who considers this the most stressful period of his 20 years teaching.
In recent weeks, individuals in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,听 outside a school board meeting. Pro-mask protesters in Fort Worth, Texas, staged a outside the school board president鈥檚 home in August.听The critical race theory debate continues to burn after erupting last spring, with听new laws passed in听听banning teachers from covering 鈥渄ivisive topics鈥� and multiple other states considering restrictive measures.听Loudoun County, Virginia, saw contentious clashes over the district鈥檚 expansion of transgender student rights.听
Why We Wrote This
Schools have long been a battle ground for contentious societal ideas. But what does a 鈥渨in鈥� look like in today鈥檚 polarized debates over masks, critical race theory, and gender identity?
The latest fights are raging in part because they touch on differing views of social values and what it means to be an American, experts say, and are driven by desires to win local victories and to change national narratives. Yet despite the long history of culture wars in education in the United States, the question of whether these wars are really winnable is one that鈥檚 rarely asked, says Adam Laats, a historian at Binghamton University in New York who studies cultural battles in education.听
鈥淚 think there鈥檚 a bunch of seeming paradoxes when it comes to winnability,鈥� Dr. Laats says. 鈥淚f there is a winner, whoever the winner is will not claim it as a victory but instead try and rally the troops under the threat of whatever it is next.鈥澨�
Conflict over the idea of what America stands for often intensifies during periods of change, says Andrew Hartman, an Illinois State University professor of history who studies culture wars.
鈥淚t does seem that we鈥檙e in another period of mass reflection on this larger question of what it means to be an American. This stems from the rapid changes in how we think about gender identity, certainly the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he current culture wars in schools, particularly with regards to race, critical race theory, sex education, and gender, are stemming from these changes that are taking place not just politically, but in people鈥檚 consciousness.鈥澨�
Polling shows some of the divides. In August, a by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 58% of American adults favor mask mandates for students attending K-12 schools in person, with about 30% of Republicans supporting mask mandates compared with about 80% of Democrats. (Support rose to 65% of Americans supporting mask mandates for students in an early September听 by USA Today/Ipsos; results were not broken down by political party.)
A Morning Consult-Politico in June found that less than a majority of Americans knew about critical race theory,听a decades-old idea targeted by conservative activists that considers the ways race and racism influence American politics, culture, and law.听Among those Americans who are aware of it, Republicans are more likely to view it unfavorably.听
Cultural wars around education happen in part because of the role schools play in the parent-child relationship, says Dr. Hartman. 鈥淏y sending your kid to a public school you鈥檙e conceding in part the raising of your kid to the state, at least in theory or principle. You can see why conflicts would develop over schools for that reason.鈥澨�
鈥淣ot above the fray鈥�
Disputes over education in America are as common as reading, writing, and arithmetic 鈥� from the 1920s Scopes Monkey Trial that dealt with the teaching of evolution to the 1962 Engel v. Vitale Supreme Court case that ruled school prayer unconstitutional, to 1990s battles over proposed national history standards.听
Long-term trends in culture wars tend to favor progressive causes, says Dr. Laats of Binghamton University. But conservatives can claim victory over the fact that education still follows a traditional format in most places and that local activists have succeeded at changing curricula, he says.
鈥淭he sense I get is it鈥檚 more about exerting political influence and illustrating or demonstrating that your group is highly motivated on this issue and therefore a force to be reckoned with,鈥� rather than changing others鈥� minds, says听Neal McCluskey, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington.听
The system is working the way it鈥檚 supposed to, with local control of education and mechanisms to voice concerns through school board meetings and elections,听says Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow who studies K-12 education at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-of-center think tank in Washington.听鈥淓ducation is not above the fray, it is the fray,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t should surprise no one that in a diverse and divided country, people are going to bring those divisions to their schools in the forms of these heated debates.鈥�
鈥淎 long process鈥�
When Revida Rahman attends school board meetings in Williamson County, Tennessee, she鈥檚 on the side with people holding posters reading 鈥淩acism hurts us all.鈥� Brett Craig typically sits with people holding up signs like 鈥淢y Child. My Choice.鈥澨�
Both local parents say they鈥檙e turning out to urge school leaders to do what鈥檚 best for kids, but they differ in their ideas about what it means to win.
鈥淲inning for us isn鈥檛 like a football game win, where you make the play and it鈥檚 over. This is a long process,鈥� says Ms. Rahman, co-founder of One WillCo, a group that advocates for racial equity in schools.听听
鈥淎 win to me would be to 鈥榣ive and let live.鈥� That鈥檚 the American bargain. You鈥檙e free to have absolute convictions about whatever you want, but you鈥檙e not free to impose convictions on me,鈥� says Mr. Craig, a public relations volunteer with the local chapter of the conservative group Moms for Liberty. He favors parent choice on masks and removing curricula he sees as politically motivated.听
A recent NBC News of school districts where disputes are flaring over critical race theory found that many of the districts are in locations where demographics are diversifying. In Loudoun County, Virginia, the share of students of color in the average white student鈥檚 school has increased by 29.5 percentage points since 1994, above the overall national rise of 11.2 percentage points.听
Patti Hidalgo Menders, president of the Loudoun County Republican Women鈥檚 Club and mother of a high school junior, pushes back on the implication that disputes stem from changing demographics. She鈥檚 a daughter of immigrants from Cuba, and she says her parents taught her to assimilate and be proud Americans.
Ms. Menders听organized recent 鈥淓ducation, Not Indoctrination鈥� rallies and is involved with an effort to recall six members of the Loudoun County school board. Among other things, she鈥檚 upset the district has limited what she calls the 鈥渇reedoms鈥� of parents and students, such as choices around masks and vaccinations. She feels like her side has 鈥渘ot won anything.鈥�
Many grassroots activists hope they will win policies advancing their causes, at least on the local level, by attending school board meetings and organizing to elect school board members that represent their values, says Dr. Hartman, the education historian. Some politicians, lobbyists, and members of the media intentionally stir up cultural battles to gain votes, fundraising, or ratings, he says.听
鈥淪ome people profit and benefit and enjoy fighting these culture wars and some see it as more existential and think they can win,鈥� says Dr. Hartman.听听
Ms. Rahman in Tennessee started working to improve her children鈥檚 schools after she and her husband chaperoned their sons on field trips to a plantation about five years ago and were dismayed by the lack of information about slavery and the lack of compassion shown by others on the trip.
鈥淭hey were showing empathy for the 12-, 13-year-old [Confederate] soldiers who were fighting, but the same empathy wasn鈥檛 shown to the slaves that were on the plantation,鈥� says Ms. Rahman, who identifies as Black. Ms. Rahman says her two sons and their classmates of color continue to face incidents such as white children using racial slurs on the school bus.听听
She and other parents went to the district with their concerns and have succeeded in some of their goals, such as having the district start a cultural competency council. She views the latest disputes in Williamson County as less about 鈥渃ulture wars鈥� and more about long-standing racism in America. She thinks it would be a win for people to continue the reckoning with racism that was started after the death of George Floyd rather than 鈥渆veryone retreating to their corners,鈥� as she鈥檚 seeing now.听
Ms. Menders is also trying to get people to come together. She recently gathered friends and acquaintances from a range of political and racial backgrounds to discuss their different positions.听
鈥淚 would love to have more dialogue like that,鈥� she says, even though one person in the group decided they didn鈥檛 want to participate in the future. 鈥淥ur goal was to help each other understand the other people鈥檚 point of view.鈥�
