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Give the Boot(s) to critics and let the show go on! Thousands of Fairfax residents are looking forward to seeing an amazing student musical at West Potomac High School (buy tickets here) about allyship and finding common ground with people who have different ideas and come from wildly different backgrounds. Meanwhile, a teeny-tiny group of parents are freaking out that Kinky Boots is somehow deviant or “sexual.” I don’t want to give their complaints air because they are so nonsensical, but unfortunately far right publications are giving these people and their wild conspiracy theories publicity they do not deserve. These publication authors are not talking or listening to the students, teachers, administrators, and parents who have worked months on this production Kinky Boots and who know its value. They aren’t talking to families, grandparents, and citizens who are looking forward to this production, and who enjoyed the more raucous and risque version of this musical production on Broadway or the 2005 British movie (from the same folks who brought us the Full Monty). (Wait a second…how old am I to just learn that Chiwetel Ejiofor, lead actor from Amistad and 12 Years a Slave, played Lola!) Well, listen to the student reporters at The Wire who are reporting on this wonderful show: “The musical follows the story of a shoe factory owner, Charlie Price, who seeks out the assistance of a drag queen named Lola to produce high-heeled boots in order to save his struggling business.” “In the show, you’ll notice that the characters start out really divided… towards the end they all come together in a really beautiful way....This is really a story about acceptance and community.” -- Mr. Omar Cruz, West Potomac theater teacher Kinky Boots evening shows run at 7 pm Friday 4/26-4/27 and Thursday 5/3-5/4 with two 1 pm Saturday matinees (4/27 and 5/4). There are special events planned for the matinees: April 27th, a discussion with FCPS Pride about the history of drag has been planned to take place in the Auditorium after the show and on May 4th at 12 pm, a family-friendly drag brunch will be held in the Kogelman Theatre (details here). Student reporters at The Wire also reported on a bomb threat that forced everyone out of the school for hours on Wednesday of this week. I have heard no official news that this bomb threat is connected to fringe anger about the Kinky Boots production run by West Potomac students, parents, and teachers; however, it is hard not to think that they are connected when they occurred on the same day as the Daily Signal story with this title. (UPDATE: Opening night, originally 4/25, has been postponed until Friday 4/26. Also, the bomb threat this week was not related to the show.) In fact, I have heard that some at West Potomac High School have suggested canceling some Kinky Boots events or shows. I’ve also heard that Mount Vernon School Board member Mateo Dunne stepped in to advocate for the show to go on. (Many thanks, Mr. Dunne!) I am sorry to see people attacking students, the arts, and our first amendment rights. As a parent, education advocate, and co-leader of FCPS Pride, I plan to attend this play and the drag brunch. To be honest, I’m not really an aficionado of drag performance; however, I would like to learn more about this art form and its history to hopefully expand my horizons. I appreciate having my preconceptions challenged, which enables me to grow and be a more compassionate member of our Fairfax community. Please consider joining us and attending West Potomac High School’s age-appropriate version of Kinky Boots. See the students sing, dance, and act while they teach us about allyship and finding commonality among our differences. Don't forget that music and lyrics are by Cindy Lauper! You can purchase tickets here.

The Virginia General Assembly reconvened in Richmond as originally planned on April 17, 2024 but adjourned early, after only one day. Originally, this session was to address changes made by the Governor to both the bipartisan budget bill and dozens of legislative bills that were unresolved were passed by the General Assembly in the 2024 session that adjourned on March 9 but were not yet resolved. Before any discussion on the budget or bills, the House of Delegates used a procedural maneuver to vote down all the amendments Governor Youngkin made to their Budget bill. This action was a compromise with Governor Youngkin that extended the timeline for resolving the budget and offered a reset for the unproductive and often contentious budget process in play over the past few months. The new, not yet developed, compromise version of the state budget will be addressed in Special Session 1 that will begin May 13. Major sticking points in Virginia’s two-year budget included the Governor’s desire to cut taxes versus the legislature’s desire to more fully fund K-12 education. Governor Youngkin had cut funding in the General Assembly’s Conference budget for a number of K-12 priorities, including reducing funding for at-risk students’ programs and the Commonwealth’s contribution intended to increase the number of teachers for English language learners. It appears that a willingness to compromise and extend the budget deadline was in response to news that the general fund has grown by 6.2% for the fiscal year to date, so there may not be a need for a tax increase or dramatic cuts to K-12 education. The tax deadline is May 1 and the new deadline for the two-year budget has been extended to May 13. Also planned for the upcoming special session is finalizing a number of unresolved K-12 education bills. In addition to the bills that the Governor has either signed or vetoed, the Governor made recommendations to other bills that were subsequently rejected by the initiating chamber. The rejected recommendations were communicated to the Governor and he has until May 17 to act on those bills. To follow the updated status of the K-12 legislative bills, go to this link.

Governor Youngkin continues to feed Virginians misinformation after he gutted the K-12 Education component of the Bipartisan General Assembly’s Conference Budget. Sadly, the Governor is gaslighting Virginians with untrue statements about how the Commonwealth funds public education in an attempt to rationalize his actions. Although he has been corrected repeatedly that his criticisms of the JLARC reports are unfounded, he continues to use that rationale to gut Virginia’s K-12 Education budget. This Virginia Education Association's Fact Check of Governor Youngkin’s error filled 'Fact” sheet is eye-opening. A‌lso, The Commonwealth Institute compared the Proposed Budget by Governor Youngkin from December 2023 to the Conference Committee Budget from March 2024 (endorsed by 4 Public Education) and the Governor’s amended budget he sent back to the General Assembly in April 2024. The K-12 Education budget starts on page 3. Governor Youngkin's amendments impacts vulnerable students the most. Funding for high poverty schools, English Language Learners, Community Schools, School breakfast, Community Leaders and Literacy support are the most impacted by the Governor’s amendments. The governor increased support for the controversial new Accountability and Assessment Systems (read more about them in this week’s blog) and, although it is difficult to find it in the budget, the Governor appears to have allocated $85 Million for his controversial Lab schools. Next week 4 Public Education president Cheryl Binkley will share her analysis of the Virginia Lab Schools and how they take money away from your public schools.

“The best thing for being sad is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.” ― Merlin to King Arthur in The Once and Future King by T.H. White, As we approach the time of year when students have a special Thanksgiving lunch, and families make plans for their big four day weekend, here at 4 Public Education we are thankful for many things: For our families, Since last Thanksgiving, there have been many graduations, weddings, moments of health stress, and joyous rites of passage for the 4 Public Education team and our families. We are glad to have shared them all and hold one another’s lives with thoughtfulness as we continue to navigate life and our work. For our communities, Regardless of the crises at any given moment, we have always met people who stood to protect all students’ right to learn. From national sister organizations to religious communities, to neighborhood parents and local community groups that are active in our schools on a daily basis, partners have supported our schools and the students in them with kindness, consideration, and generosity. For our schools themselves and the students who learn in them, Our grateful thoughts extend to the staff and policy makers whose life’s work is to support the chance for students to learn. Most of all we have watched in allied awe as students across Virginia participated in the defense of their own schools. Students have rallied, spoken at school board meetings and state board of education sessions, formed their own organizations, campaigned for pro-public schools candidates, and gathered friends for walkouts and protests. Most of all, they have continued to learn. In spite of pandemics and culture wars, beyond controversies and intrusions into their learning spaces, students have pursued their studies and allied with anyone who would help them protect and defend their right to learn. We are grateful for their wisdom, activism, and dedication to learning. So at this Thanksgiving holiday season, we at 4 Public Education wish you and yours a bounteous harvest of learning, plenty, and care. We invite you to join us as we all pause to count our blessings.

Choosing a Reading Curriculum that Works In 2022 the Virginia legislature passed The Virginia Literacy Act, often referred to as VLA. It was sponsored by such unlikely co-sponsors as lead Senate Democrats Louise Lucas from Portsmouth and Jennifer McClellan, and Siobhan Dunnavant, Republican firebrand from Henrico. The House sponsors were Carrie Coyner, a Republican from Chesterfield, and Kaye Kory, a Fairfax County Democrat. What could have brought legislators from such varied perspectives and parts of the Commonwealth together on an education bill that will directly define what and how students in elementary schools across Virginia are taught? The Virginia Literacy Act (VLA), as being implemented by the Virginia Department of Education, dictates that all schools in Virginia will teach literacy as distinct from language arts and will use state-approved, “evidence-based” materials. Whether the materials are locally developed, or purchased, they must be approved at the state level. As a result of VLA, schools all around Virginia are reviewing and changing their elementary language arts materials and resources, and national vendors are advertising and adapting their materials to suit the Virginia Department of Education’s specifications. To date, there are 11 commercial products approved for use in Virginia schools. Seven of those are for the full span of K-5. They are from traditional education companies such as McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin and from more recent companies such as Amplify, which was founded and later sold by Rupert Murdoch. Savvas, which is on the list, was formerly Pearson but was bought and retooled by hedge fund Nexus Capital in 2022. The VLA change marks perhaps the largest direct mandate in classroom instruction since the establishment of the Standards of Learning in 1995. The VLA materials adoptions will heavily determine what happens for the language arts portion of students’ days (usually a 90-minute to 120-minute daily block), and move teaching techniques toward scripted lessons and complete “fidelity” to the prescribed curriculum in order to collect data on whether the curriculum materials are working. So, what prompted the legislature to get involved at this level? In three words: phonics and test scores. Closing the achievement gap and test scores that confirm all students are reading at a high level has been the holy grail of education since at least the initiation of the NAEP in 1996. Despite programs, initiatives, and ever-increasingly rigorous tests and accountability, the grail has remained elusive, and scores have continued to correlate most closely with the affluence of school neighborhoods. Then came Dr. Hollis Scarborough’s reading rope and the Science of Reading. Though the Reading Rope was developed in 2001, it took time for it to become an almost universal image of reading pedagogy. The reading rope includes strands related to comprehension and fluency, but the basic letter and word approach skills (phonemic awareness and phonics) receive far more emphasis in the public and legislative discourse, and the Science of Reading is explicitly stated as the goal of VLA, since the act calls for materials to be scientifically based reading research. Will the Virginia Literacy Act prove to be “The Answer” to reading, poverty, and access to success in Virginia? It’s a tall order, never reached before. Yet, teachers are already reviewing and looking for ways to choose and make the newly adopted materials engaging and exciting for their students. Though the Science of Reading has a substantial body of studies, there are those, like Dr. Nancy Bailey, who challenge the notion that it is entirely science based. Will the state and localities provide the support to help both the teachers and students succeed? Will students respond positively to the new approach? We can only hope.

Reflections on Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday 2024 This past September, I attended the PEER conference in Memphis Tennessee for groups and activists advocating for equitable public school funding. The trip was more of a pilgrimage than I expected. The hotel where I stayed was very near the Lorraine Hotel where Rev. King was assassinated. We toured the Lorraine Hotel, now a civil rights museum, and during the stay we stopped at the Masonic Temple where Rev. King gave his last speech to the sanitation workers who were on strike.  I was deeply touched to be in those spaces. It brought back many memories of that year when so much happened: Our first black teacher in my all-white hometown, the dark news of Dr. King’s assassination, followed shortly by the assassination of Bobby Kennedy whom I had just heard speak at Vanderbilt University, and the ongoing riots on the TV at night.  Being at the Lorraine Hotel and the Masonic Temple felt like being on hallowed ground. There has been much progress since that fateful year.  Black students enroll and graduate from colleges and universities that were still mostly off-limits then. Our first Black President, Barack Obama, was elected and served two terms, and this November, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy, elected the largest Black Caucus in history , including Don Scott as the first Black Speaker of the House. But, several things about the PEER conference and the continuing work that needs to be done reminded me all too vividly of how much there is left to do.  We heard from Justin Jones and Justin Pearson,  the two black Tennessee legislators who had been expelled from the legislature for protesting gun violence in a school (They were re-elected). While there, we had dinner with the people of Earle, Arkansas,  a small town whose public schools were under siege from Governor Huckabee and the conservative state legislature. Earle’s fight to save their schools from closure seemed all too reminiscent of the challenges faced in Dr. King’s day.  So many political and educational leaders insist that education policies are data-driven. However, that claim is untrue if the data shows that we still have too many separate and unequal schools in 2024. The fact that 56 years after Dr. King’s death we still cannot say with any integrity that our schools are equitably funded or that Americans of color have the same access to  home loans  and healthy environments as white families, shows twenty-first century America stands as an embarrassing coda to Dr. King’s Christian ministry to our nation. Here is the  speech  he gave at the Masonic Temple, the night before he died. He was sick and had not planned to appear, but there were so many people his aides went back to the hotel and asked him to come anyway. He did. Standing in Memphis vividly brought home, we have much work to do before we can face ourselves and say we have brought Dr. King’s Dream to fruition and contend we are a place where all children have equal access to the American Dream.

This week is Public Schools Week, so it’s a great time to share some of the things that make public schools important and wonderful. Public schools are and have always been a microcosm of our communities. They are where poor and rich students sit side by side, eat together, ride the same buses and have access to the same teachers, books, and media of any given community. From public schools, we develop our plumbers and our doctors, our electricians and our car designers, our merchants and our delivery workers, our ministers and scientists, and our next generation of teachers. Regardless of one’s ethnicity, gender, defined abilities, or economic privilege, in the public school one can gain access to what serves their interests: the great thinkers of all time, the keys to the math-cosmos, the strategists and changers of all history, the stories of our inventors and creators, and the deepest understandings of the human condition and heart. Without our public schools the progress we have made as a civilization, from engineering to medicine, to space and the depths of the ocean would not have been possible. All of our human accomplishments are seated in a kindergarten classroom, an eighth grade class, and a high school graduation before they come to the Pulitzer or Nobel prize, the Capitol, or the board room. In 1900 only 4% of people graduated from high school. By 2019 90.1% of people in the US had graduated by 25 Across a similar timeline people’s life spans increased from 47 years to 79. During that same period we developed flight, went to the moon, and now probe the depths of the universe with our telescopes. We wiped out the worst communicable diseases that decimated our communities, and we built highways that connect the nation. Our infrastructure brought water, heat, and electricity into virtually all homes and now connects us to the rest of the world in an instant. We learned how to provide mass food production that allowed people to do a wide variety of jobs and avocations. It is no accident that during the time period of mass education, both the timelines of our most massive progress and a major life expectancy-gain occurred simultaneously. Our public schools are our treasure, and our gateway to the best possible future. They hold the potential to solve our most difficult problems, and the chance to fulfill our brightest dreams. We must care for our public schools, support them, and pour our best ideas and hearts’ desires into them. Only by doing that will we develop the future we and our children hope for.

Courtesy of Cappies NCA Why Schools Should have a full-time dedicated Theatre Arts teacher in every K-12 school Spring Productions are underway!  Let me detail why a Theatre arts program is one of the most important elements in a school's repertoire of offerings. In the Theatre all are welcome and students learn to be accepting of the wide array of humanity and their beauty.  It has always been and will remain a safe place for all our unique, commonplace, variedly able, and divergent students to learn that they have a place to be their authentic selves. Theatre arts is an executive functioning class A student learns to clean up after themselves. It is a cardinal rule of the theatre to leave your tools, and work spaces in clean and good working order for the next person. They learn to memorize and recall what they have learned, and to improvise when that memory fails. Theatre students learn to ask themselves, “Why did I do that, that way, and how should I do it next time?”  Theatre Arts is a CTE and project management class Students learn the importance of deadlines and the sequencing of projects from design phase, through trial and adjustment, to performance, and replication of product.  In theatre, a student learns how to safely use a variety of tools. There you will find carpentry tools, such as levels, measuring tapes, and hammers, and power tools such as drills and saws, and sewing machines. Students paint varied surfaces and items, and learn the proper use of a variety of cosmetic and make-up materials, including prosthetics and wigs. They have the opportunity to learn a variety of  sound boards and system components, and lighting boards, instruments, and wiring. Every school theatre space is a makerspace. That has much wider application than one employer, or one sector of the economy. The performing arts are an over $216 billion dollar business and supply 5.1 million jobs a year. Theatre is a high culture and humanities class Theatre encompasses the vast array of world literature and multicultural stories: From ancient Greek tragedies to African and Native nations folk stories, Japanese Kabuki, and Chinese Opera. Theatre incorporates both the events and the details of various cultures. Theatre classes improve academic performance Studies show that students who participate in drama are more likely to attend other classes and less likely to drop out. Theatre classes can close our most  persistent achievement gaps , and contribute to student resilience and social-emotional well-being.  Students who participate in drama performance score substantially higher on the verbal component and the math component of the SAT.   High school electives and staffing decisions are a finite space. Policy makers need to keep this in mind as they consider the sales pitches of those who want districts to adopt programs and policies that take up a crowded space in students' learning days. It is important to remember to protect and promote the solutions we know work.

Call to Action: Send Virginia DOE Accreditation Input ASAP While many of us were enjoying Spring Break, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) pulled a fast one and rolled out their latest “Accountability Listening Sessions.”  These sessions may sound innocuous or ignorable, but they will have a huge and possibly negative impact on the reputation and funding of your local public schools, so ignore at your own peril. 4 Public Education attended the first listening session about revamping Virginia’s public school accountability and accreditation system last December. We were tentatively hopeful that Dr. Lisa Coons intended to follow through on her gracious promises of open engagement and listening to parent and educators; however, recent news about VDOE plans approved by the Virginia Board of Education sound like they are simply repackaging Niche-esque grading systems of schools while ignoring that such systems are swayed more heavily by poverty than aptitude and education. This is reaffirmed by Dr. Anne Holton’s 3/29 social media comments that: The “new rules will grade schools on A-F- type scale, mostly on how students do on our flawed SOL tests” The VBOE “Ignored clear research that growth measures should be heavily factored into any school grading system.  Failure to do so can make school segregation -  and thus achievement gaps.” The Board did this with an “unprecedented, rushed process.” That last one point means that these so-called listening sessions were set up a week ago, with inadequate notice to parents, educators, and taxpayers. So much for the importance of parental involvement that Governor Youngkin promised--instead of “parents first,” this is “parents ignored.” If it is not obvious, I’m angry. I feel betrayed by those who are paid and appointed to support public education and be responsible with taxpayer money. I am enraged that the VBOE and VDOE have thrown students and educators under the bus for a system that ignores the fact that poverty drives Niche-esque rating systems versus the skill and of teachers and quality of the students. If you care like I do, please attend one of the six remaining listening sessions by registering at the VDOE link: Thursday, 4/4 Region 4: Innovation Elementary School, 8250 Ashton Avenue Manassas, VA 20109 Monday, 4/8 Region 1: Chesterfield Technical Center, 13900 Hull Street Rd, Midlothian, VA 23112 Tuesday, 4/9 Region 2: Torggler Fine Arts Center (TFAC), 1 University Pl, Newport News, VA 23606 Thursday, 4/11 Region 3: James Monroe High School, 2300 Washington Ave, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 Wednesday, 4/17 Region 6: Salem Museum, 801 E Main St, Salem, VA 24153 Thursday, April 18 Region 7: Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center, 1 Partnership Cir, Abingdon, VA 24210 I registered to attend tonight's hearing in Manassas, VA, as everyone should, if they can. Just don’t try to add it to your calendar using their registration page because it is woefully broken, like I suspect this process is. Since it is likely already too late to attend these sessions–which makes me question if the VDOE even cares what we the parents, educators, and taxpayers have to say–please send your comments ASAP by clicking the button below. Be forewarned that the Feedback Topics (see right) offered by the VDOE are nearly incomprehensible for the average parent or taxpayer, so feel free to choose your own comment topics. Last December I ended my hopeful blog about the listening sessions with the following question and answer: “What is the true purpose of revamping Virginia’s public school system accountability and accreditation? In my experience, accountability is often applied only to public schools, whose processes, personnel, and performance is already transparent and excessively scrutinized while private and charter schools get a pass on any measurement of accountability–don’t even get me started on the lack of metrics on homeschooling. “ I’m sad to say that I was correct to be concerned about this VDOE initiative. Dr. Coons’ and VDOE’s initial professed intent of “transparency” is turning out to be a trojan horse for voucher efforts that suck more money from our public schools and taxpayers for unaccountable private institutions, charter schools, and homeschooling efforts. UPDATE: This quick turnaround by the VDOE was caused by the VBOE rushing this process and eliminating the first and final review, which means that all input needed to be collected immediately so that they can vote on the changes next month. Or, to repeat Ms. Holton's (a VBOE member) words: The Board did this with an “unprecedented, rushed process.” 4 Public Education learned this detail at the 4/4 Learning Session in Manassas. We will be reporting out on this meeting next week.

The Budget Conference amended version of the proposed state budget, Budget Bill HB 30, was adopted by the General Assembly on March 9th with bipartisan support from both chambers of the General Assembly. This amended version of the Governor’s Budget showed that our legislators recognized the critical needs for k-12 funding and that it should take priority over some of the Governor’s preferred budget items. However, Governor Youngkin is threatening to veto or severely amend the budget bill, putting necessary funding for public education in jeopardy. Thankfully, the House of Delegates and Senate took to heart the recommendations made by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) on how to resolve the deficiencies in public school funding and the teacher pipeline. Unfortunately, the Governor has mistakenly dismissed those reports as unfounded, although JLARC is a non-partisan and highly respected commission that was directed by the General Assembly to conduct an audit and review of the school funding report. 4 Public education wholeheartedly supports the K-12 education budget offered in HB30, and invites advocates for public education to convince the Governor to prioritize public education. Thank you for answering these easy-to-do calls to action that are listed below and for sharing the links with your networks. Ask our Republican senators to Vote YES on HB30’s critical K-12 education funding Ask our Democratic Senators to Vote YES on HB30’s critical K-12 education funding Ask our Republican Delegates to Vote YES on HB30’s critical K-12 education funding Ask our Democratic Delegates to Vote YES on HB30’s critical K-12 education funding