Education Florida Republicans and Dixiecrats strike back against public education

play sports with Black kids.

By Chuck Hobbs

When I arrived at Morehouse College in 1990, one of the occasional dorm debates that used to intrigue me was when schoolmates would argue that they did not consider Florida to be “part of the South.”

Even more curious was when some of those same classmates would argue that they didn’t really consider Maryland, my home state before our family moved to Florida, or Virginia, the state in which the Hobbs family lived before moving to Maryland, to be part of the South, either.

As a history major who was equally adroit at geography, I would always remind my schoolmates about the MasonDixon line and the fact that while Maryland, south of said line, did not join the Confederacy prior to the Civil War, that it still remained a slave holding state, the same as Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, and Washington, D.C.

I also would remind my Brothers that Jim Crow segregation was very much in full effect in those states and in D.C., too, well into the late 1960’s by law—and still in custom long afterwards!

Now, my words often fell on deaf ears as many of my schoolmates hailed from those very slave holding, Jim Crow practicing enclaves; perhaps they wished to “wish away” the past in their minds? I’m not sure, but what I was very sure of as a son of parents who grew up in Jim Crow Florida was that while the Sunshine State loved to praise itself in the 1980’s as being the

JUUL

From nature of its products. Part of the $7.1 billion supported antismoking programs, but Juul and Altria have noted in court that lawmakers spent much of it to fund state government.

The 2019 lawsuit against Juul alleges consumer

From 3 home of Mickey Mouse, orange juice, and pristine beaches, it was still the home of some whites who proudly called themselves “Florida Crackers” while discussing the “good Ol’ days” along the “S’wanee River,” an homage to the racist state song by Stephen Foster that featured “darkeys,” or Black minstrels, pining for the “old folk at home” on the slave plantation.

Today, as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis joins thousands of other Republicans across America in reestablishing what I often call Jim Crow 2.0, I am reminded more than ever that in some respects, the original Jim Crow never really went away.

You see, as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 led to a rapid integration increase in Florida’s 67 public school counties, what often goes unmentioned is that while Black students, faculty, and administrators began mixing with whites, that those self proclaimed “Florida Crackers,” Dixiecrats who soon turned Republicans, were steadily creating private schools to keep their little white children from mixing with little Black children.

Seriously, if you check the founding dates of private K-12 schools in Florida and across the South, most were established after 1954. If you’re asking, “so, what happened in 1954,” I remind that the United States Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision was handed down on May 17th of that year—a decision that signaled the “legal” end of Jim Crow segregation in public schools.

Lest we forget that while Southern white politicians and lawyers did their best to stall the implementation of the Brown decision that in the interim, they started building and staffing all sorts of “Christian,” “Catholic,” and “Prep” schools to keep the government from forcing their kids to learn and fraud, creating a public nuisance, unjust enrichment and a conspiracy with Altria that “preyed upon and enticed Minnesota’s children, through deceptive and illegal tactics, to buy a product that may sentence them to a lifetime of nicotine addiction and other destructive behaviors.”

The state’s brief said Juul’s marketing was designed to ensnare children by attracting “cool kids” and using social hostility that followed it. It is a miracle that the victims–weary dark souls long shorn of a venerable and ancient identity–have survived at all, stymied as they are by the blocked roads to

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Right here in Tallahassee, the Florida legislature, fearing integration, started earmarking funds at a torrent pace to build brand new Black high schools as if to say, “see, our facilities are separate—but equal.” These Florida segregationists figured that if there were brand new buildings or additions at, say, FAMU High School and Lincoln High School in Tallahassee, or Havana Northside High and Carter-Parramore High Schools in Quincy, Florida, that “The Blacks” wouldn’t dare enter the hallowed all-white public schools like Tallahassee’s Leon High School or Florida High School, or nearby allwhite Quincy High School!

History shows that with the exception of FAMU High School, the other Black schools were closed or demoted to middle school status, with Black students then forced to attend previously all-white Leon High School, Florida High School, or the brand new Rickards High and Godby High in Tallahassee, and Shanks High School in Quincy.

In the 50 years since, however, those early integrated days across Florida dissolved due to, 1. White flight and 2. Increased private school options.

When I was growing up in Tallahassee during the 80’s, both Rickards and Godby High Schools, established in the 60’s, were already majority Black due to whites fleeing the Southside and Westside for the more affluent areas in North Tallahassee.

Today, Leon County Schools, a system that was still litigating integration cases in Tallahassee in the early 1970’s, has over 70% minority enrollment—with 31.5% of students identified as economically disadvantaged media and celebrities to act as “pushers” of its addictive products. “Defendants claim their conduct was in the name of helping ‘aging smokers’ to stop smoking. That claim is false; it is a smoke screen,” it said.

Juul said Minnesota’s insistence on going to trial has deprived its citizens of some of the nearly $440 million in settlement money other states are using to reduce tobacco use.

“Effective interventions economic equality. Lest we forget that Robinson also conducted a highly publicized 27-day hunger strike in 1994 to protest America’s longstanding policy of detaining and repatriating Haitian refugees seeking political asylum—a policy that was far stricter than the ones in effect for many of their fairer skinned neighbors from Cuba. Due to his efforts, the Clinton administration conceded to allow more access, but still not to the extent that the obvious racial distinctions between

From 3 making,” said Princess Moss, vice president of the National Education Association, which represents about half a million educational support staff The NEA, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, last year released data that showed fulltime school support staff earned an average salary of $32,800. Delaware had the highest salary for full-time K-12 support staff ($44,738), while Idaho had the lowest ($25,830), but salaries vary widely by state. They can also vary by metro area and even within school districts, depending on how long a person has been in a job. per U.S. News & World Report’s latest rankings.

Now, those numbers do not account for the thousands of white students that attend charter schools and private high schools, like Maclay School, John Paul II Catholic School, and North Florida Christian School.

And while those institutions enroll Black and other racial minorities, the populations remain overwhelmingly white, affluent, and subject to whatever curriculum whims of the governing boards of the same.

Further, those Tallahassee private schools are filled with the children of prominent politicians, politicos, and other wealthy professionals, including some who are among the leading critics of public school education and proponents of limiting what can be taught at the same!

What strikes me as perverse about the last sentence of the preceding paragraph is that those critics, men like Gov. DeSantis and all of his acolytes, either have their children enrolled in private schools— or their children are (or were) enrolled at the patrician public schools that look and operate like private schools.

But the problem is that while DeSantis and others realize that full out legal segregation would not pass constitutional scrutiny even among the heavily conservative Roberts Supreme Court, their pernicious aims to “Make America Great Again,” which I have always interpreted as make America look and feel like it did circa 1954, can be achieved by white washing the Black out of America’s torrid racial history, while diminishing the rights and privileges that have been granted based upon religious tolerance and the LGBTQ community.

Such is why I remain concerned that Florida to address underage use of all tobacco products in Minnesota, including vapor, depends not on headline-driven trials, but on evidence-based policies, programs, and enforcement,” Juul’s statement said.

Richmond, Virginiabased Altria Group — which makes Marlboro cigarettes and other tobacco products and was formerly known as Phillip Morris Cos. — said it bought a 35% stake in Juul Labs in 2018

Cuban and Haitian immigration were fully ameliorated.

Randall Robinson and his wife, Hazel, left America for St. Kitts due in large measure to his beliefs that racism in the United States had morphed from the overt oppression of the Jim Crow era to a more covert—but still potent — form of oppression in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. In addition to his wife of 36 years, Robinson, 81, leaves to mourn his passing three children, Anika, Jabari and Khalea Robinson. Fitting to hire more tutors. In recent years, staff also have found themselves on the front lines of enforcing pandemic protocols or helping students struggling with their mental health or behavior.

Republicans, along with Tallahassee Democratic State Rep. Gallop Franklin II and Jacksonville Rep. Kim Daniels (D), recently pushed through a voucher bill that will only bolster the coffers of private schools— potentially at the expense of the state’s public schools.

Now, all is not doom and gloom, however, as I was pleased yesterday to see that the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s enjoining of Gov. DeSantis’ (above) Stop Woke Act for now. But I remain concerned that the 11th Circuit, or the only after Juul assured Altria “and announced to the world” that it had made meaningful changes to its marketing. Juul Labs launched in 2015 on the popularity of flavors like mango, mint and creme brulee. Teenagers fueled its rise, and some became hooked on Juul’s high-nicotine pods. Amid a backlash, Juul dropped all U.S. advertising and discontinued most of its flavors in 2019, losing popularity with teens. Juul’s of a legendary lawyer, lobbyist, and writer, Robinson penned his own epitaph with the following words in his book Makeda: “…son, you won’t need to talk to my headstone in order to talk to me. I won’t be there. I’ll be in the air and the Earth. I’ll be in the stars that light the African heavens. I’ll be watchin’ over you and your family. My spirit will always be close enough to touch and protect you all. So, do not grieve for me. My body will die, but my soul will live on. For my soul cannot die. share of the now multibilliondollar market has fallen to about 33% from a high of 75%. Juul is now appealing the Food and Drug Administration’s rejection of its application to keep selling its vaping products as a smoking alternative for adults. Juul is still being sued by New York, California, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Alaska, Illinois, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

25. The package would also include more full-time positions and an expansion of healthcare benefits.

Roberts Supreme Court, could side with the madding MAGA crowd at some later date—and place public education, the type that serves Florida’s minorities primarily, into greater peril. Stay tuned… Hobbservation Point is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

Always remember that my soul is the spark of God in me.” Rest in eternal peace, Mr. Robinson… Subscribe to Hobbservation Point By Chuck Hobbs · Hundreds of paid subscribers “Real Politics in Real Time” Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

North, Minneapolis,

Amid staff shortages exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have struggled to hire during a strong labor market, adding to the burden on the staff that remain.

A RAND survey of school leaders last year found that around three-fourths of school leaders say they are trying to hire more substitutes, 58% are trying to hire more bus drivers and 43% are trying

More than half of the nation’s public schools started this school year feeling understaffed, with many struggling to fill key support staff jobs, especially in transportation and custodial work, according to an Education Department survey. Asked about the biggest challenges, roughly four in 10 said candidates felt the salary and benefits weren’t good enough. Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union represents about 30,000 LAUSD teachers’ aides, special education assistants, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other support staff. The union says many live in poverty because of low pay or limited work hours while struggling with inflation and the high cost of housing. Support staff including many who work part-time, earn about $25,000 a year, according to the union, which is asking for a 30% raise. The school district has offered a cumulative 23% raise, starting with 2% retroactive as of the 2020-21 school year and ending with 5% in 2024-

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has accused the union of refusing to negotiate and said that he was prepared to meet at any time.

Leaders of United Teachers of Los Angeles, which represents 35,000 educators, counselors and other staff, have pledged solidarity with the strikers.

Experts say it is unusual for different unions in the same school district to band together but the unified labor action in Los Angeles could mark an inflection point.

“The idea of the teachers union and service personnel union saying we can do better if we stick together, could be a contagion in other communities looking and saying, ‘Hey, they did it in Los Angeles — maybe we can do it,’” said Lee Adler, a lecturer and expert on education union issues at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

The fight for higher wages has been brewing in other school systems.

In one example, food service workers in Hastings, Minnesota, have been on strike for six weeks over higher wages and other issues. The union representing the 35 workers says the starting wage is less than $15 an hour in the suburban school district, which serves about 4,300 students.

“There’s a growing movement to fight for a living wage,” said Rebecca Kolins Givan, an associate professor at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations. “Schools can’t function without workers in these roles. And it’s a fiction to suggest that people don’t need to live on the wages they earn.”

With 26 years’ experience as a bus driver, Carl Kirchgessner earns $20.35 an hour driving for a school system outside Rochester, N.Y. His Rush-Henrietta Central School District is still struggling with driver shortages coming out of the pandemic, when many had to double up on routes. He said he can afford to make ends meet only because his wife also works.

“If it was just me alone,” he said, “no way.”

Binkley reported from Washington, D.C.

The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.