… The overwhelming majority of school board races around the country are nonpartisan. This was the case in Tennessee until Republican lawmakers, during an emergency session called to deal with Covid-related issues, rammed through legislation permitting county parties to hold primary elections to select school board nominees, who can then […] Read more »
No Public Consensus on How Schools Should Discuss Sexuality and Racism
Americans are largely divided about the role of public schools in teaching children about issues related to sexuality and racism, according to a new poll from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. While several state and local governments […] Read more »
LGBTQ issues are at center stage. What does the public think?
In the years after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, the Republican Party seemed to gradually conclude that it had lost the battle over LGBTQ rights — and that it wasn’t really worth fighting anymore. … But it’s possible that, in the years since Obergefell v. Hodges, LGBT […] Read more »
As the COVID-19 Pandemic Enters the Third Year Most Adults Say They Have Not Fully Returned to Pre-Pandemic ‘Normal’
Conventional wisdom may be that Americans are ready to put COVID-19 in the rearview mirror and cast precautions aside, but the latest KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor report finds that most adults have not yet resumed all of their normal pre-pandemic activities and most continue to mask regularly in public places. […] Read more »
Book bans move to center stage in the red-state education wars
The escalating red-state efforts to ban more books mark a new stage in the struggle to control the educational experience of America’s kaleidoscopically diverse younger generations. … Though battles over access to controversial titles traditionally have been fought district by district, and even school by school, Republican-controlled states including Florida, […] Read more »
Republicans are winning the culture wars
… Progressive Democrats have staked out ideological territory on cultural flashpoints ranging from race and gender to affirmative action, crime and policing, education, and COVID restrictions that are out of the political mainstream. Some of these fights, like the battle over inclusive language (like the much-discussed debate over Latinx) end […] Read more »