Educators “to serve as change agents”
by Michael Bielawski
The Vermont’s Ethnic and Social Equity Standards Working Group wants to make Vermont education more inclusive by changing school policies and curricula, which it says may require “unequal distribution of resources and services” across racial and ethnic groups.
They seek statewide standards for schools to follow aimed at what they consider equity and inclusiveness. The Group wants lawmakers to require equity training for school boards, they want a mandate that children can access certain library materials, and they want the state to collect more data on school disciplinary actions.
They may also require Ethnic Studies be taken courses for students to graduate.
The Group recently finished a final report of recommendations for legislators. It includes their desire “to embed an ethnic studies framework and criteria in the Educational Content Standards, PreK through Grade 12, with a focus on increasing cultural competency among students.”
There are four primary initiatives.
The first priority is getting everyone on board with the new policies. It states, “Designing evaluative tools and metrics that school boards, school staff, parents/caregivers, and local activists can deploy to assess school policies, curricula, alternative learning models, student disciplinary systems, and pedagogical practices in relation to Ethnic and Social Equity Studies.”
The second: materials and lessons in the classroom. They will be “Forming and supporting local curriculum committees with staff and community involvement to align curricula with the goals of Act 1 (2019) and, in time, with revised educational standards and State Board of Education rules.”
The third is getting teachers on board. It states, “Building professional development collaboratives that recruit Vermont educators to undertake postgraduate course work in ethnic/social equity studies and facilitating networks of educators who want to be part of a pedagogical support community and to serve as change agents.”
The fourth involves using online courses. They will be “Exploring the feasibility of offering virtual academic courses in Ethnic and Social Equity Studies to students, educators, and school staff and, potentially, to parents/caregivers and community members.”
In particular, they want to link “student performance and curriculum in alignment with the Ethnic Studies Framework, PreK through Grade 12.” In the framework’s language, they call for Vermont to “consider instituting an Ethnic Studies graduation requirement for high school students.”
The framework considers requirements for the composition of the state school board, calling for “a makeup of the State Board of Education that is representative of our diverse education system.”
The group put forth recommendations to the Agency of Education in April of 2022. It states that all students in public and independent schools “are afforded educational opportunities that are substantially equal in quality, equitable, anti-racist, culturally responsive, anti-discriminatory, and inclusive, and enable them to achieve or exceed the standards approved by the State Board of Education.”
The same report to the AOE includes a detailed definition of the word ‘equity’.
“Equity goes beyond formal equality where all students are treated the same,” it states. “To be achieved, Equity requires an inclusive school environment and may necessitate an unequal distribution of resources and services based on the needs of each student.”
Amanda Garcés of the Vermont Human Rights Commission recently told WCAX that these efforts are about “a holistic approach to our students’ safety,” she said.
The group is also asking that there be more investigation into how curriculums are funded and that districts hire more ethnic studies teachers.
These efforts occur despite mounting pushback against social justice in schools. Aaron Kindsvatter, a former professor in the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont, currently in private practice, is organizing local chapters for FAIR (Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism), a nationwide organization.
The author is a reporter for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
Categories: Education
…..Of course they do.
How about they simply propose killing Caucasians & people of European decent for all the pure evil we each have perpetrated?
Radical revolutionaries are these separationists of Vermont.
This is communism. Charitably speaking, these people are misguided. Historically speaking, these people are insane.
Aaron Warner, no. Arrogant. Dishonest. Callous. Evil.
Scott, I am not being cruel or disrespectful but if you study the social justice movement and read many documents and books, you come to the conclusion that equity is a form of neo-socialism with will result in a form of neo-communism. I have spent hundreds of hours reading and listening to academics speak on Social Justice and Equity as well as the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals, which are related to Social Justice. The documents on sustainability are very clear. The entities that control this agenda have stated clearly that they will control all production and consumption, which is only done in communist countries. For example, people will only be allowed to purchase 5-8 pieces of clothing a year, people will only be allowed to travel by plane 2-3 times every two years. There are endless restrictions planned on every facet of society. Aaron is not being arrogant, he is being honest. I hope my input does not offend you, as we are both consistent and valuable constructors to this VDC.
Correction: Historically speaking these people are a CLEAR & PRESENT DANGER.
Ultimately, this hogwash is about the state controlling everyone and everything, and (naturally) Democrats, leftists and fascists (but I repeat myself) controlling the state. And as long as the soft men of today acquiesce and surrender, the totalitarian left will succeed.
Domestic Enemies.
These misguided individuals will not be teaching my children. Homeschooling is the answer when families can make it possible.
Also, here is a good article on the foolish concept of ‘Equity’: https://www.newsweek.com/true-equality-reject-misguided-notions-equity-opinion-1588288
Aaron Walker, you took the words out of my mouth. Yes, communism, Bolshevism, is the greatest evil of our time. Sadly, those who are following this line are mainly, as you say misguided, or not well enough educated to see what is really happening. Or, very likely, unable to think truly critically, and with their hearts at the same time .The cabal is attempting to destroy family and human life both. They have been using propaganda, al a Bernays, and the Mockingbird media for generations. This is not new, but has been going on for centuries with the Jesuits and Western occult brotherhoods/lodges working together to defeat our humanity. I firmly believe that Truth, Goodness and Beauty will win, but it’s going to get bumpier until more awaken to what is facing us. Thank you for all the articles and comments you post!
Racist (noun):
“a person who is prejudiced against or antagonistic toward people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized”
Synonym of prejudice is bias
I would say it is biased to provide resources to one group versus another.
“may require “unequal distribution of resources and services” across racial and ethnic groups.”
We should definitely prevent racism by using more racism. Got it. This kind of thinking is a waste of oxygen.
I am so glad my granddaughter will never go to school in Vermont
Liberal running our schools, is like letting a pedophile run the schools,
It’s all about control !!
Parents beware, they think you’re the problem and they are the answer.
Meanwhile, the latest 2022 Vermont Agency of Education Performance Data was just released. Even with kids back in school post Covid, and higher than ever Statewide Property taxes, academic scores remain depressed. And, according to the data, the longer the kids have been going to school, i.e., the higher their grade level, the worse their relative grade level standing becomes.
https://vtdigger.org/2023/09/11/state-education-snapshot-a-mixed-bag-for-vermont-schools/
And the Vermont legislature wants all independent schools to operate the same way the public schools operate, apparently, to have everyone be incapable of meeting grade level standards.
That’s what ‘equity’ looks like. No discrimination. No bias. No nothin’.
You got it!
We must all bow to the lowest common denominator.
Such maintains absolute & complete control over everyone.
I wonder if Vermont students are being taught the meaning of “lowest common denominator,” both mathematically and figuratively.
I was coming here to say something similar. So thank you for always posting with receipts. Test sores are in the trash, but to them, “equity and inclusion” is more important. Vermont school system, collapse already.
The only way for Vermont public schools to collapse is for people to remove their children from these brainwashing cesspools.
That is not an understatement or an overstatement, it’s accurate.
I am going to sleep on the first goal reference training parents/caregivers. This goal can be tracked back to a World Economic Forum 2016 report titled The New Vision for Education: Fostering Social Emotional Learning Through Technology.
First I need to define the real intent of Transformative social emotional learning. Transformative SEL is the pscho-engineering tool being used to indoctrinate children into Social Justice, a new morality, giving them the biological foundation for global socialism to achieve global equity (equal outcomes).
Back to the WEF report. The report states that SEL needs to taught out of the classroom and taught at home. Parents and educators have a complementary role in development SEL skills. The report states that “Advancing SEL will require sustained effort from a multifaceted ecosystem of stakeholders who must collectively overcome unique cultural challenges as well as barriers that slow the development of SEL worldwide. Global obal organizations like OECD, UNESCO and the World Bank are advancing the objective.”
I recently checked and CASLE SEL programs are now available for adults. This agenda has been in the works for a long time.
Well….this equitable and inclusive approach will help reduce the current and future need for more bus drivers.
Leave the school’s along, teacher’s only job is to teach the subject they were hired for. Not your feelings or private matters from home. Keep the school’s as a place of education not a place for staff to push their beliefs. The school’s should ban every flag except for the US and state flag.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
“ ‘Comrades,’ he said, ‘I trust that every animal here appreciates the sacrifice that Comrade Napoleon has made in taking this extra labour upon himself. Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure! On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?“
George Orwell, Animal Farm
That pretty much sums it up. I’ve nothing more to add.
As long as families continue to forfeit their right to educate their kids…as long as their resources go to support schooling institutions instead of direct instruction from teachers & curriculum families have select, this citizen agony will continue. Being subjugated by government institutions is an unnatural state for citizens under our constitution and the source of our revolutionary fervor.
Stop paying taxes. I agree. If we all do it what can they do??
They will just cease to exist and cease to run our lives, and more importantly our children’s lives.
I know I say this at least once a week but this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard
I can’t stop thinking about the swastikas and antisemitic remarks that were spray-painted on the Brownington Old Stone House tower last weekend. Maybe the kids who did it weren’t taught in school that it was built a by a Black man, Alexander Twilight in the 1820s or about a Jewish man, Haym Soloman, who was the primary financier of the American revolution.
Jus sayin….
We are going to go through this again JayDee, really?
Or radical leftists vandalized the property knowing people like you would quickly make the false assumption it was people like us.
Whether economics or education, equity always leads to an overall decline, except for the elite. Shame on them.
So glad we yanked our kids from public indoctrination as the plandemic started. Wake up people, they’re making soldiers, fight for your rights against this crap before we have none and it’s to late.
“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” —Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
“Destroy the family, you destroy the country. The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation”. —Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
We’re at the point we aren’t allowed to have beliefs or opinions that differ from the groupthink in a communist society. Vermont is galloping toward becoming a Bud Lite education system…
Dear social justice warriors, spoiler alert: the real justice is coming like a boomerang when you least expect it. Enjoy dancing with those demon spirits while you can as the rug will abruptly be pulled out from underneath your clay feet. Declared and decreed.
“…they want a mandate that children can access certain library materials…”. Gee, I wonder what those materials might be? They couldn’t be referring to alphabet people authored degenerate grooming porn, could it?
Oh! So this is how civilizations collapse. I was wondering…
This is difficult to read the article about the actions and beliefs of this new committee. I’d venture that if you were to have an individual, face-to-face conversation with any of these “fine people” they would clearly believe all this drivel they spew. It is racist, not reverse racism, it is just plain racist. Period. Vermont is truly racing to the bottom.
Seems a whole lot people aren’t drinkin’ the cool aid, they’ll send y’all back to reeducation camp you keep talk in’ like that.
The federal government pays well for this movement. If the social experimenters didn’t make a substantial amount of money with this new trade, we wouldn’t see so many “education consultants”, jiving for position to collect grant funds/tax dollars. They average about $50k-$75k per school, and many of the school administrators serve on the non-profit boards to push the funds in their direction. It’s just too easy!