Today Attorney General Jeff Jackson, Superintendent Mo Green, and State Board of Education Chair Eric Davis held a press conference to announce they were joining with two dozen other states in suing for access to nearly $7 billion in education funding that has been frozen by Trump’s Department of Education.
During the press conference, which you can view here, Attorney General Jackson explained that about two weeks ago, the night before over more than $165 million in federal funds were due to arrive, state officials received a three-sentence email from the Department of Education indicating the funds would be withheld for the foreseeable future. Since then, federal officials have refused to answer any questions from North Carolina officials about the sudden funding freeze.
According to Jackson, the unexpected funding interruption would impact vital services like after school programs for at-risk youth, suicide prevention programs, mental health services for students, and support for English language learners. Jackson added that the actions by the Trump administration may directly lead to the layoffs of 1000 North Carolina educators which of course would result in increased class sizes.
Jackson referred to the suit as “an open and shut case,” saying “Congress created these programs. It authorized funding for these programs. The Department of Education does not have the authority to now withhold those funds–Certainly not the night before they were set to arrive.”
“So we are taking them to court, and I am confident that we are going to prevail, because I think the legal argument here is very straightforward. For all of our teachers and students and parents at home, I know this has injected a lot of uncertainty, a lot of confusion. What I want you to hear from me is that we are going to try and resolve this as fast as possible, so that you can all get back to doing what you need to be doing, which is focusing on having a successful school year.”
Superintendent Mo Green expressed gratitude to Attorney General Jeff Jackson for joining the suit: “I appreciate that filing a lawsuit against the United States government is not an action one should take without considerable deliberation, as we reasonably expect our federal government officials to act in accordance with the United States Constitution, the laws of this nation, and–in this instance–what our nation’s government has obligated itself to do on behalf of our public schools.”
Superintendent Green explained that the negative impact of the loss of funding on North Carolina’s schools would be immense and would affect every student in every school. He called on federal officials to “lean into their better selves,” referring to the lawsuit as “a call for them to do what is right…to honor our collective promise, our commitment to our public school students.
You can read the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Rhode Island today, below:
When a pro wrestling executive with orders to dismantle the US Department of Education tries to use the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to bully states into abandoning efforts to provide children with equitable access to education, you need a leader who will stand on principle.
That’s what North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green did this week.
Earlier this month, the Dept of Ed sent a directive to all state departments of education requiring them to certify their compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal law which prohibits “discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.”
The Department of Education’s directive indicated any State Education Agency using diversity, equity and inclusion practices to “advantage one’s race over another” were in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The DOE threatened any such violations would be grounds for loss of continued federal funding (roughly 10% of district budgets), possible clawing back of previously disbursed federal funds, potential civil penalties and additional litigation.
Superintendent Green’s letter, which cc’s Governor Josh Stein, Attorney General Jeff Jackson, and the State Board of Education, affirms that North Carolina school districts are in compliance with Title VI, also noting that the Department of Education lacks the authority to “make unilateral changes” to that law.
The superintendent ends with a commitment to the children who are under his care as the leader of K-12 education in North Carolina:
“In North Carolina, we remain committed to ensuring our public schools provide environments free from discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. We will continue working to ensure fairness, remove barriers to opportunity, and make decisions based on merit and need. Public education is about opening doors, not closing them. Every decision we strive to make, whether about discipline, curriculum, hiring, or resource allocation—is grounded in fairness, providing access to equal opportunity, and is made in the best interests of all public school students.”
You can read Superintendent Green’s letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in its entirety below:
Amanda Gorman recites her inaugural poem, “The Hill We Climb,” during the 59th Presidential Inauguration ceremony in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. (DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II)
Last week we read Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb” in my 7th grade English class, as we have done every year since she performed it at the 2021 inauguration.
The poem fits nicely in the middle of our unit on the Harlem Renaissance and falls within Black History month. Students learn about the historic nature of Gorman being our nation’s youngest ever inaugural poet. They learn about her life, her struggling with a speech impediment that made it difficult to pronounce the letter R, and how she practiced by singing the song “Aaron Burr, Sir” from the musical “Hamilton” over and over until she trained herself to make the sound the right way.
Students hear about how Gorman experienced writer’s block while trying to come up with her poem, which many of them experience in my own classroom from time to time. They learn about the events of January 6, 2021, when insurrectionists invaded the US Capitol and attempted to stop the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden, and how witnessing that horrific day play out on television jolted Gorman out of her writer’s block and inspired much of her poem. They find out why she chose her iconic yellow coat, and the backstory on the gold ring she wore that day, a gift from Oprah Winfrey and nod to previous inaugural poet Maya Angelou, author of the autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Then my students take turns reading Gorman’s beautiful poem aloud before watching video of her performance at the Inauguration. As a wrap up activity they share their reflections in writing about a “golden line” in “The Hill We Climb” that stood out for them and why.
This year was the fifth year in a row we have read this poem in my class, and it was a very different and somewhat surreal experience for me this time. I am always very careful to avoid sharing my own views when we have lessons that touch on politics, but as we read this poem Gorman delivered at a moment when our nation emerged from the first Trump presidency, my mind kept drifting toward what’s happening in the federal government right now.
Elon Musk taking a chainsaw to agencies that make our lives better, firing good people in the middle of the night. Donald Trump blaming Ukraine for its own invasion after having a heart to heart with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. NYC mayor Eric Adams getting a brazen quid pro quo Get Out of Jail free card. All of it and so much more in the first month, and undoubtedly just the tip of the iceberg.
It’s a hard time to feel optimism in the United States.
But when I read some of the “golden line” responses from my students, I realized that the messages of hope and resilience that Gorman delivered that historic day still ring true, even in what many of us see as an exceedingly dark and hopeless moment.
One student said the lines
When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
showed him there is hope in darkness.
Another noted the lines
We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover and every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful will emerge, battered and beautiful
remind us that we still have the power to make the United States a better place.
One chose the section of the poem that says
We will not march back to what was but move to what shall be A country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation
explaining it meant that in the face of injustice we do not have to back down–we must fight back.
And of course, many focused on the powerful, goosebump-raising close to “The Hill We Climb”:
For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it If only we’re brave enough to be it
with one student saying “she is telling people to remember that there will always be hope and that hope is possible even in the hard and dark times.”
We have a long, difficult road ahead of us in this nation, but for today I choose to embrace Gorman’s same optimism that was so palpable in 2021.
Today I choose to believe that eventually we will emerge, battered and beautiful, and begin the hard work of putting the pieces back together.
The world’s richest man’s funding cuts at the United States Department of Education are already harming North Carolina’s most vulnerable students.
In a Saturday Facebook post, Executive Director Dr. Kate Allman disclosed that millions of dollars in funding for Winston-Salem’s TEACH program–accounting for 80% of a program which functions as a pipeline for highly effective educators serving in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County’s Title I schools–was unexpectedly canceled last Thursday:
I’m reaching out with difficult news—Winston-Salem TEACH‘s $4.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, which funded 80% of Winston-Salem TEACH’s work, was unexpectedly canceled on Thursday. This is a devastating blow, as 75% of this grant directly supported stipends for our residents—aspiring educators who have committed to teaching in Title I WS/FCS schools. These stipends are a critical way we combat the key factors driving teacher turnover in Title I schools, most importantly the financial barriers that prevent talented educators from entering and staying in the profession.
Despite this setback, Winston-Salem TEACH has become deeply embedded in our community, and the outpouring of support we’re receiving is a bright spot in the midst of this challenge! It’s clear that so many people recognize the impact of this work and want to help sustain it.
The WS/FCS Forsyth Educator Partnership has set up a fund for Winston-Salem TEACH—if you feel led to give, you can do so by selecting our program from the dropdown at the link below: https://tinyurl.com/2h4v74tc Other city-wide fundraising campaigns led by some of our amazing partners are also in the works. Donors of $100 or more will be listed on our Winston-Salem TEACH website.
Every contribution helps us move closer to our goal of impacting over 20,000 Title I children in WS/FCS over the next five years. Thank you for your support during this critical moment
Title I schools are those which have large percentages of students living at or below the poverty line.
The purpose of Title I, first signed into law in 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson, is to provide “all children significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high-quality education, and to close educational achievement gaps.”
As Dr. Allman mentions in her post, if you’d like to help support the TEACH program you can follow the link below and click the drop down menu to select Winston-Salem T.E.A.C.H.
Today marks the 185th anniversary of the first public school opening in North Carolina.
The North Carolina General Assembly’s Common Law of 1839 allowed for each county in the state to hold a vote to determine whether a school tax should be collected from residents.
According to this law, if the vote passed, the state’s Literary Fund would provide $2 for every $1 the county raised. (This established the practice of funding education through a combination of local and state funding which we still follow today.)
The new law also created between 5-10 “superintendents” in each county to lead the schools, a structure which would later become local boards of education.
In elections held in late 1839, 61 of North Carolina’s 68 counties approved the tax. Notice of the first school opening in Rockingham County appeared first in the February 18, 1840 Greensborough Patriot and was reprinted later that month in the Raleigh Standard.
I went for a long run today, the last one before heading back to my 7th grade English classroom following a two-week winter break.
It was a timely and restorative break for many reasons, but mostly because I reconnected with many dear friends and family I hadn’t really spoken with in far too long. We had deep, meaningful conversations about purpose, about making mistakes, about work/life balance, about the importance of putting relationships at the forefront of everything we do. These human connections filled my cup so much that I realized how empty it had gotten. Or perhaps I should say how empty I had allowed it to get.
Today I ran by a railroad bridge I pass all the time. This time there was a new message I had never seen before spray painted on it in red letters: SOON WE WILL BE FREE.
As I continued down the trail, I couldn’t stop thinking about what the message said. Who wrote it? What did it mean? Was it someone in despair? After all, it probably wouldn’t be the first cry for help written on a railroad bridge.
Then the word “We” in the message came into focus. Not I, but WE.
There’s a thing I sometimes do when I am faced with challenges, and it’s isolating and trying to deal with it all on my own. Instead of tapping into the empathy and wisdom and experience that surrounds me, I tell myself I don’t have time for a text or a call or a coffee or a lunch, and I leave those relationships collecting dust on the shelf and try to muddle through life by myself.
That’s a choice.
There is freedom in knowing that I don’t have to do it all, that I have a whole village in my life on standby. But it takes me reaching out my hand. It requires me to remember the WE.
Today was an interesting full circle teaching day.
My English class took a break from our normal curricular routine to learn about mood and tone and read some classic poetry.
It’s a lesson I’ve done many times, six classes a year for probably15 the last years or so. We start by watching the original Mary Poppins trailer, analyzing how filmmakers use elements like music, color, movement, lighting, and sound to create feelings in viewers.
Then we watch this hilariously creepy fan-made Mary Poppins trailer, looking for impact on mood and contrasting with the original:
We talk about how writers create powerful feelings with none of those elements—just by choosing their words carefully. Then we read the simple and relatable poem “Days” by Karle Wilson Baker together and identify words that carry connotation. Finally students move into small groups and choose from 8 poems by Poe, Blake, Carroll, Wordsworth, Tolkien, Plath, etc. to analyze the poems for tone and meaning on their own in the same way.
A year ago I was teaching this lesson to my first period class and I had a stroke.
Strokes can cause lots of different symptoms, and for me the primary symptom was aphasia, the inability to communicate or understand communication. It was a cruel twist for an English teacher and writer, especially last December in the middle of a lesson about the power of words. At that moment I couldn’t remember how to talk. I just stood there pointing at the poem “Days” on the board while my students sat silently and wondered why I wasn’t saying anything.
Fortunately I had a co-teacher in my class that morning, and she stepped in and took over. In a couple of minutes, the clot that had been restricting blood flow to the part of my brain that controls communication apparently dissipated, and my speech returned.
I could have sustained permanent brain damage or paralysis. I could have died in my classroom in front of my students. But instead of handling it as a life and death situation, I didn’t even tell the other teacher the truth about what was happening. Instead, I just made an excuse about feeling dizzy and tagged back into the lesson.
I had three more classes to teach that day. If I didn’t do it, who else would?
For the last twelve months I have thought about how I handled that moment many times. I constantly preach to other educators to set boundaries, practice self care, don’t take work home, etc. For the most part I follow my own advice. That day I made the wrong choice, and it was my choice and mine alone.
As I’ve reflected on this episode over the last year, I’ve come to realize that sacrificing my own health for a job is a choice. But it’s a choice that is driven by a broken education system that expects so much from educators that it encourages us to put the job in front of essential personal needs–sometimes with catastrophic results.
Today I taught that lesson on poetry and word choice with no hitches.
Several months after my health problems began, my neurologist spotted a shadow in my carotid artery and suspected it might be a rare condition called a “carotid web” which generates clots and sends them shooting up to your brain. In July I had surgery to stent the artery, and I have had zero problems since.
Today after my last class on the power of words I went to Presbyterian Radiology downtown and had an ultrasound and MRI on the artery to check how the stent is integrating into my body. The scans look great, and I am hopeful that this health chapter of my life is closed (and extremely grateful for the friends and family that supported me in various ways through this unexpected and frightening experience).
As I enter the new year, one of my goals is going to be improving at setting boundaries and not sacrificing my health and well being for a profession that—if one doesn’t watch out—will keep taking until there is nothing left to give.
Here’s to a healthy and balanced 2025!! 🍎
first half marathon, Charlotte Marathon 2024, one year after suffering my first stroke
The 2024 North Carolina General Assembly session has barely begun, and already Republican legislators whose favorite reelection campaign tactic is punching down on public schools are taking aim at our state’s long-suffering teachers.
Only weeks after the Department of Public Instruction released data showing North Carolina teachers are quitting in record numbers (1 in 9 resigned last school year), and just in time for Teacher Appreciation Week, four House members have filed a bill titled “Academic Transparency” which would force all teachers to post their lesson plans online with their names attached “no later than 10 days after the lesson was given.”
The bill’s primary sponsors are Jake Johnson of Polk County, Union County’s David Willis, Hugh Blackwell of Burke County and Allen Chesser from Nash County.
All four of these distinguished gentlemen have histories of fanning fake culture war flames and encouraging the public to distrust public schools because they believe it may help their chances at being reelected and holding on to power.
Johnson neglected to tell voters that he made his campaign video flexing about this billeight monthsafterGovernor Cooper vetoed it. Whoops!
In a statement about that veto, Cooper said “The legislature should be focused on supporting teachers, helping students recover lost learning, and investing in our public schools. Instead, this bill pushes calculated, conspiracy-laden politics into public education.”
David Willis of Union County was a founding member of Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson’s 2021 FACTS Task Force. FACTS was Robinson’s witch hunt to root out indoctrination in North Carolina’s schools by encouraging the public to file complaints about teachers online. Those complaints were then published with no substantiation or redaction.
(Side note: most of the submissions to the FACTS web portal were from people roasting Robinson over his obviously political stunt.)
When he’s not hunting witches, Willis is talking about how much he loves public school teachers, who he says “deserve our respect, our support, and need to be more highly valued.”
Know anyone who’s in a position to make that happen, Representative Willis?
House Bill 187 would restrict classroom discussions on race and sex–for example preventing any student from feeling discomfort or guilt about their race and specifically absolving them of responsibility for any actions carried out by their ancestors.
Representative Chesser’s campaign website celebrates the success of his efforts to ban indoctrination in North Carolina classrooms–which raises obvious questions about why he’s still fighting indoctrination in North Carolina classrooms (pssstt–It’s because there is no indoctrination in North Carolina classrooms, and this is simply a fake campaign issue to pitch to gullible voters).
North Carolina teachers are so used to serving as the punching bag for state Republicans like these four that this legislation doesn’t really qualify as front page news. But there are some real problems with the bill, apart from the fact that it’s driven by cynical politics rather than an actual need.
One is that it’s labor intensive. Teachers are currently so overworked due to having to cover for the extraordinary number of job vacancies (thanks, Republicans!) that this onerous requirement will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for some. With record numbers of teachers leaving, we need our elected officials to focus on how to make the job more attractive rather than making it worse.
Secondly, many teachers spend hours developing their own supplementary materials due to the subpar curriculum they’re often saddled with. The materials they create are their intellectual property, and they deserve to have some control over who has access to it.
Another point to consider is that this burdensome requirement applies only to public schools but not to the private schools that Republicans are keen to pour billions of taxpayer voucher dollars into. Why should public schools be required to make their materials freely accessible to private schools that are already siphoning away our desperately-needed funding? Why not require private schools to do the same?
Finally, dropping a bill with “transparency” in the title at this moment is terrible timing–and I’m not talking about Teacher Appreciation Week.
Buried in last year’s budget bill was a provision that exempted state legislators from state public records law. The law gives legislators like the four who filed the Academic Transparency bill the power to determine if any documents produced while working on behalf of the people qualify as a public record and whether to retain or destroy it. This law shields them from having to post their “lesson plans” even after they’ve left office. So yeah, this bill stings a little more than the usual anti-public school legislation coming out of the North Carolina General Assembly because it’s just so damn hypocritical.
I’d bet my bottom dollar that the four House members who filed this bill don’t actually believe there is socialist indoctrination going on in North Carolina’s schools. This is nothing more than a lazy boogeyman campaign tactic by individuals who should be out there talking about the actual improvements they’re bringing to their districts in the way of things like more jobs, better health care, etc.
But for anyone who really DOES want to see what’s happening in North Carolina’s public schools, allow me to suggest that you come on down to one of them and offer to volunteer.
Shortly after he took over as North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor in 2021, current Republican candidate for governor Mark Robinson launched a task force to root out indoctrination in our public schools.
Robinson claimed indoctrination was a widespread problem and set up an online portal to solicit complaints about educators from the public. The majority of the submissions Robinson received were from people who took issue with his politically-motivated witch hunt and saw an opportunity to roast him over it.
As for the actual complaints about educators, Robinson published those online without substantiating a single one and didn’t bother to redact names of educators or worksites. Those complaints were dominated by white racial resentment (remember, this was at the height of the fake outrage over critical race theory) and included suggestions such as canceling Black History Month and not talking so much about slavery because it’s “getting old.”
In terms of actual indoctrination unearthed, Robinson’s witch hunt was a complete nothing burger.
Private schools are legally able to discriminate against children, and many of North Carolina’s Christian schools deny admissions to students based on religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or learning disabilities.
For example, Fayetteville Christian School, which pocketed nearly $2 million in voucher dollars this school year, expressly bans students who practice specific religions like Islam and Buddhism, and they also bar LGBTQ+ students–whom they brand “perverted”–from attending.
North Raleigh Christian Academy won’t accept children with IQs below 90 and will not serve students who require IEPs (a document which outlines how a school will provide support to children with disabilities).
If this public funding of widespread discriminatory school practices rubs you the wrong way, I have bad news for you.
It gets worse.
That harmful indoctrination Mark Robinson was howling about a couple years ago in his disingenuous attempt to generate political momentum? Turns out it’s real. It just isn’t happening in the traditional public schools Robinson was targeting.
Daniel Academy’s mission is to “raise the next generation of leaders who will transform the heart of our nation” by equipping students “to enter the Seven Mountains of Influence.”
The Seven Mountains of Influence (also referred to as the Seven Mountains of Dominion or the Seven Mountains Mandate) refers to seven areas of society: religion, family, education, government, media, arts & entertainment, and business. Dominionists who follow this doctrine believe that they are mandated by God to control all seven of society’s “mountains,” and that doing so will trigger the end times.
The Seven Mountains philosophy has been around since the 70s, but it came to prominence about ten years ago with the publication of Lance Wallnau’s bookInvading Babylon: The Seven Mountains Mandate. Wallnau touts himself as a consultant who “inspires visions of tomorrow with the clarity of today—connecting ideas to action,” and his book teaches that dominionists must “understand [their] role in society” and “release God’s will in [their] sphere of influence.”
Wallnau does caution his followers that messaging about taking control over all seven areas of society on behalf of God might freak out non dominionists, saying in 2011 that “If you’re talking to a secular audience, you don’t talk about having dominion over them. This … language of takeover, it doesn’t actually help.”
Daniel Academy doesn’t use that kind of inflammatory rhetoric about dominionism in public, although it’s clear the Seven Mountains are behind their stated goal of raising “the next generation of leaders who will transform the heart of our nation.”
Nicole Barnes, Daniel Academy’s Dean of Administration & Spiritual Development, confirmed by email that Wallnau’s doctrine is at the center of its approach to the Seven Mountains, telling me “As a school we have taken the 7 Mountains of Influence, teaching by Lance Wallnau, and have broken it down for the students to comprehend.”
So why should North Carolinians care that their tax dollars are subsidizing this sort of indoctrination of children through private school vouchers?
I posed that question to Frederick Clarkson, a research analyst who has studied the confluence of politics and religion for more than three decades and lately has been focusing on the violent underbelly of Christian nationalists who want to achieve Christian dominion of the United States at all costs. Here’s what Clarkson said:
North Carolina taxpayers should be concerned that they are helping to underwrite an academy for training children to become warriors against not only the rights of others, but against democracy and its institutions. The idea of the Seven Mountain Mandate is for Christians of the right sort to take dominion — which is to say power and influence — over the most important sectors of society. It is theocratic in orientation and its vision is forever.
This is not something that is about liberals and conservatives . Most Christians including most evangelicals, Catholics, and mainline Protestants are deemed not just insufficiently Christian, but may be viewed as infested with demons, and standing in the way of the advancement of the Kingdom of God on Earth. And they will need to be dealt with.
Back in 2021, when Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson released his nothing burger of a report on indoctrination in public schools, he said it was his “attempt to stop the abuse of the teaching profession by a few who are using that profession to put undue pressure on young minds,” adding that students don’t come to school to be indoctrinated and “this is about ending that.”
Robinson recently won his primary race for governor and stands a decent chance of taking over North Carolina’s office next year. Since North Carolina voters deserve a clear understanding of what our candidates stand for, now would be a great time for Robinson to reiterate that he believes the use of public dollars to support indoctrination is wrong, and that if schools want to influence students to be warriors for God fighting to control every facet of society–possibly taking out some demon-infested folks along the way–they need to do so on their own dime.
A Union County pastor is under fire for saying from the pulpit that he would not convict a rapist if his victim were wearing shorts. And if you’re a taxpayer in North Carolina, you are funding his organization.
“If you dress like that and you get raped, and I’m on the jury, he’s gonna go free…I can’t help if you don’t like it, I’m right. Cause, y’know, a man’s a man. A man’s a man.”
Tabernacle Christian School has received voucher dollars every school year since 2014-15 for a grand total of $3,649,766 in public taxpayer funds (that data available here).
In the past two years alone, Bobby Leonard’s organization has received nearly $2,000,000 ($902,315 in 2023-24 and $923,328 in 2022-23).
I would venture to say that the vast majority of North Carolinians would prefer NOT to have their hard-earned tax dollars subsidizing institutions that espouse hateful and violent philosophies like Bobby Leonard’s.
Unfortunately, private schools are legally permitted to discriminate against students based on factors like religious beliefs and sexual orientation, even when they’re receiving public funding.
And discriminate they do.
This voucher-receiving school in Fayetteville, NC specifically bans “Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, non Messianic Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists” and refers to homosexuality as “deviate [sic] and perverted.”
Freedom Christian, also in Fayetteville, only takes students whose parents have a “vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ” and who demonstrate “a desire to learn.” It’s unclear whether Freedom Christian uses a rubric to objectively measure the vibrance of that relationship.
If the notion of your money ending up in the pockets of Bobby Leonard or any of these other institutions that discriminates against children makes your skin crawl, please be ready to channel that energy into electing pro-public education candidates in 2024.
