Nebraska parent involvement hearing devolves into talk of slavery, CRT, porn and Bill Gates

Murman’s hearing lumped together input on Legislative Resolutions 147, 148 and 149, which seek interim studies of parent involvement in education, how the Department of Education has used COVID-19 pandemic relief funds and the concept of social and emotional learning. He said his goal for the hearing was to improve and help him pass his “parents’ bill of rights,” Legislative Bill 374.  

Murman spelled out his belief that some schools and school districts are preventing parents from reviewing objectionable books and materials in libraries and keeping some from pushing back against parts of the curriculum that involve discussions of race and gender. School leaders, including some who testified Monday, have said that isn’t true.

The Education Committee heard testimony from two local school board members, 27-year Millard Board of Education member Mike Pate and Central City school board member Lisa Wagner. Both said the state already offers parents a chance to review and opt their children out of parts of what schools teach. 

“We already have a state statute that requires Nebraska school districts to have a policy related to parent involvement,” Wagner said. “Schools are already committed to and actively soliciting public transparency. … We also have other policies that address library content and curriculum.”

‘Complete history’

Murman and several testifiers faced pushback from State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, an Education Committee member. At one point, she asked whether Murman believed that some African Americans benefited from what they learned while enslaved, as some have characterized Florida’s new state academic standards as stating.

Murman said no, but later added: “We need to have a complete history, so we teach both the good and the bad. … Slavery is wrong. I mean, there’s no doubt about that. But you know, hopefully, we all benefit one way or another from our background.”

State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha, one of two African American members of the Legislature, said in late July that people who care about how Florida addressed slavery in its educational standards needed to pay attention to the debate in Nebraska over critical race theory and social and emotional learning because of the common thread of race. 

The Nebraska Department of Education defines social and emotional learning as an educational approach that provides children and adults a process to “understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships and make responsible decisions.”

He was one of three senators hosting a competing forum Monday in another State Capitol hearing room, defending social and emotional learning, along with State Sens. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha and Carol Blood of Bellevue. SEL, one testifier said, has become “a boogeyman” for some conservatives.

What should be taught and who decides

Kirk Penner, a former Aurora school board member who now serves on the Nebraska Board of Education, speaking for himself and not the board, told the committee that the core of the issue to him and many conservatives is “what should be taught in our schools and who is allowed to decide what is being taught.”

Penner, in one of several terse exchanges with Conrad, described SEL as a gateway to teaching critical race theory in schools. Critical race theory posits that the U.S. must be viewed through a lens conscious of color and its impacts on a person’s life, rather than being blind to it.

Conrad asked why Penner focuses so much on social issues like SEL and describes books in school libraries as pornographic when he acknowledges that the teacher shortage and academic performance are more important. He said the social issues matter, too.

“Do you have any knowledge of any academic studies which show that social-emotional learning hinders academic performance?” Conrad asked at one point.

“I don’t,” Penner replied.

Fights over books, student privacy

One testifier, Sue Greenwald of the Protect Nebraska Children, objected to Nebraska’s legal protections for school librarians who select or allow objectionable books. Her group, which operates a political action committee, has been criticized for activism against LGBTQ-themed books.

Her Facebook-fed group has been organizing Nebraska parents in much the same ways that conservatives have motivated and connected parents in other states, including Virginia and Texas in recent years. In other states, those efforts have boosted turnout and helped Republicans win more races.

Librarians and public health experts have defended access to books that deal with mature topics as a means of helping students broach or learn about topics they might feel uncomfortable discussing with parents or grandparents.

Greenwald and Conrad found one of the day’s slivers of common ground over mutual objections to how technology companies collect data about students, including surveys. Both said they were willing to work together on solutions protecting student privacy.

A matter of trust

Murman, Penner and Greenwald tried to steer attention away from individual teachers, criticizing the unions that represent teachers instead. But Penner said even a new law protecting parents’ rights wouldn’t be enough to prevent “Big Education” from “infecting” local schools.

They pointed to a clandestinely recorded video of Omaha Westside Superintendent Mike Lucas in which school officials can be heard saying they will try to teach concepts about race and privilege regardless of what they are called or whether the state tries to outlaw the subjects.

Westside officials contend that the video was edited and that remarks were taken out of context.

Said Penner: “Even if you had full transparency of the curriculum and know every sentence in their curriculum on every subject, you can still be infiltrated with teaching and classes that are supported by those who control what is being taught.” 

‘We live for these students’

New Nebraska Education Commissioner Brian Maher didn’t offer the committee a lot of answers Monday, saying he needed more time on the job to get the specifics they requested about what the department links to on its websites and how it shares information with school districts.

He warned the committee about the potential legal risks of limiting speech by educators.

The committee also heard from conservative State Board of Education candidate Lisa Schonhoff, an English language learning teacher in Bennington, who said she did not like the way newer SEL lessons had changed over time to incorporate more discussions of race and gender.

Nearly 20 people spoke in support of social and emotional learning at the forum. Several speakers, including Rachel Gibson of Omaha, defended the value of SEL. The former career counselor and mother of two said it helped her young children think through their emotions and “how not to be mad.”

Two Omaha-area students defended the learning as helpful.

Abby Burke of Omaha, an educator who spoke at the forum, encouraged senators to dig into resistance to comprehensive sex education, critical race theory and now social and emotional learning. She sees an intentional and strategic targeting of the education system.

“We eat, sleep and breathe as educators, Saturdays and Sundays,” Burke said. “I mean, we live for those students, so it really broke my heart that those folks are being vilified.”

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