Much discussion of the Parkland, Florida school shooting has centered on how the discipline policies of the Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) may have been designed not to make the schools safer, but to make the schools' statistics on suspensions, expulsions, and referrals to law enforcement look better. Better to whom? To a great extent, to the federal government during the Obama administration. This tragic case illustrates what tends to happen when the federal government meddles with local or state policies.
In a book Deconstructing the Administrative State: The Fight for Liberty that we co-authored with Emmett McGroarty, we detail how the federal government influences or even dictates local policies by various means, including 1) issuing "guidance" that localities are encouraged to implement as if it were legally binding; 2) creating multi-agency initiatives that leverage federal power to force local policy changes; and 3) making grants directly to local entities.
Deeper scrutiny is needed to uncover how all this played out in Broward. But what we do know suggests substantial - and ultimately harmful - efforts to appease the federal government with respect to school discipline.
Federal Influence on State and Local School-Discipline Policies
To identify troubled students and avoid a Columbine-type crime, the Florida legislature adopted a strict "zero-tolerance" law in 2002. The law required schools to report felonies and violent misdemeanors committed by students to law enforcement. During the Obama Administration, the law was amended to reflect new discipline programs and policies encouraged by the U.S. Department of Education (USED). Reporting requirements for student misdemeanors were loosened. Unfortunately, had these changes not been made, the Florida shooter would have been arrested long before the tragedy on Valentine's Day.
Instead of accomplishing what the bill was originally intended to accomplish - keep schools safe by removing criminal students - it appears these amendments did the opposite. They shielded the Florida shooter from law enforcement's radar screen.
As discussed below, the changes made to Florida's "zero-tolerance" were most likely prompted by federal policies intended to encourage and incentivize the reduction of suspensions, expulsions, and arrests of troublesome students (especially minority and disabled students). An early signal of the new federal policies appeared in the infamous Race to the Top program, which "included a program requirement that districts with students of color or students with disabilities overly represented in the district's discipline rates must conduct a root cause analysis and develop a plan to address these root causes."
But the ball really got rolling in July 2011, when two federal departments - USED and the Department of Justice (DOJ) - announced a "collaborative project" called the Supportive School Discipline Initiative. The goal was "to coordinate federal actions to provide schools with effective alternatives to exclusionary discipline [read: suspensions, expulsions, and arrests] while encouraging a new emphasis on reducing disproportionality for students of color and students with disabilities."
As part of the Initiative, DOJ awarded $840,000 to the Council of State Governments to launch the School Discipline Consensus Project. This sum was matched by private foundations including the NoVo Foundation which, by the way, is a major player in the Social Emotional Learning scheme (teaching attitudes rather than academic content). The goal: "dismantle what is commonly named the 'school-to-prison pipeline.'" In other words, do everything possible to keep criminal students in school and out of jail.
Education Weekpublished an article this week about how Google has taken over the classroom over the last five years. This raises student data privacy concerns.
If you're seeing Google reign in your child's classroom, Matthew Lynch writes there are three reasons why.
Google devices are cheaper. Lynch writes, "Instead of laptops and tablets that were priced outside of what most schools could afford, Google presented the cheaper Chromebook that came complete with a host of free apps for students and teachers."
Google Apps makes it easier for students to create and share information. Anyone can get a free account, but they also offer paid services at a special price point for schools. Lynch writes, "Students can create a variety of documents through the Google Docs platform and make their content available to share with others in real-time. The sharing extends not just to classmates, but also to educators who can keep better tabs on what their students are doing and learning on any given day."
Teachers can be more involved with Google. Lynch writes, "The Google Admin panel allows educators to be more involved in what their students are doing on their Chromebooks. They can monitor controls, upgrade software, enroll new students, and otherwise manage the devices handed out to their class with relative ease. Teachers are firmly in control of what their students can and cannot do on their Chromebooks, an attribute that grows increasingly rarer with all of the modern inventions in technology."
I can attest to Google apps being a useful tool, I use them myself. I've been able to play around with Chromebooks (I currently use a MacBook Pro). I also teach government for a local homeschooling co-op, and often students will send me papers using Google Docs.
Even though they offer useful and inexpensive tools with Google's assent in the classroom there are obvious data privacy concerns.
Joseph Turow, a communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote for Fortune:
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High school teacher placed on leave after questioning school's stance on anti-abortion walkout
A California high school teacher was placed on paid administrative leave after she questioned if officials would support the anti-abortion March For Life in the same way they encouraged participation in the National School Walkout promoting gun control.
Rocklin High School history teacher Julianne Benzel said the punishment came after she asked her students days before the nationwide protest if it was appropriate for their school to support that protest while remaining neutral about the annual pro-life march.
"If you're going to allow students to get up and walk out without penalty, then you're going to have to allow any group of students that wants to protest," Benzel told FOX & Friends Friday morning.
But as students began walking out Wednesday, Benzel received a letter placing her on administrative leave
The complaint, Benzel said, came from two students and one parent, and her penalty was given without corroboration from other students. She said the administration "basically targeted" her.
Ohio student suspended for staying in class during walkouts
HILLIARD, Ohio - An Ohio high school student says he tried to remain nonpolitical during school walkouts over gun violence and was suspended for a day because he stayed in a classroom instead of joining protests or the alternative, a study hall.
Hilliard senior Jacob Shoemaker says school isn't the place for politics, and he wasn't taking sides Wednesday.
The district says it's responsible for students' safety and they can't be unsupervised.
Jacob's citation for not following instructions was shared online by a friend, prompting a flood of messages to his father.
High School Students Allegedly Suspended for Snapchat Photo of Visit to Gun Range
Two High School students in New Jersey's Lacey School District were allegedly suspended for posting a Snapchat photo of a visit to the gun range.
NJ.com reports that photo showed "four rifles, ammunition [magazines], and a gun duffel bag." One of the students captioned the photo with "Fun day at the range."
The photo was passed among students and eventually caught the attention of the Lacey Township High School administration. The two students subsequently received in-school suspension for five days, for allegedly violating the school's weapons policy.
The school immediately faced a backlash over the suspensions, with the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs (ANJRPC) sending a cease and desist letter to the school district. They noted that the school district has a policy in place that allows students to be suspended for up to a year if "reported to be in possession of a weapon of any type for any reason or purpose on or off school grounds."
