Minnesota weird – American Thinker

America really dodged a bullet when Kamala Harris and Tim Walz were defeated. Minnesota didn’t. Walz returned to national obscurity in Minnesota, but sane Minnesotans are certainly aware of him and his works. Among them are new teacher licensing standards that will go into effect in July.

Minnesota’s new “Standards of Effective Practice” require teachers to “[foster] an environment that ensures student identities,” including “sexual orientation,” are “historically and socially contextualized, affirmed, and incorporated into a learning environment where students are empowered to learn and contribute as their whole selves.”

Think that’s bad?  There’s more and worse:

Teachers must be able to help students learn about “power, privilege, intersectionality, and systemic oppression in the context of various communities,” according to the standards. They should also “[empower] learners to be agents of social change to promote equity.”

Teachers should also use “anti-racist” teaching methods, according to the standards.

Author” src=”https://images.americanthinker.com/pe/peikasi0et6j0jpw7w1x_640.jpg” />

Graphic: X Screenshot

These standards are aimed at ensuring all new teachers in Minnesota are woke to the bone. But they are also designed to give woke administrators the means to find non-woke, professional teachers in inevitable violation of state standards, the better to fire and replace them with people whose focus is not on effectively teaching their disciplines, but in sexually and politically indoctrinating kids. Any mandate to “promote equity” is a Marxist mandate to deny equality of opportunity and replace it with equality of outcome. It also eliminates merit, which is why so many blue states and cities are abandoning grading and recognizing kids for exceptional academic accomplishment.

That kind of anti-capitalist, anti-American thinking is producing the sorts of results one might expect. State reports from 2022 indicated only 12% of black eighth graders were reading proficient, only 15% of Hispanics were and white kids did little better with only 35% proficient.

I retired at the end of Covid lockdowns, and the dumbing down of education was already well under way. Suffice it to say I could never be certified to teach in Minnesota, nor would I want to be. Under these standards, I wouldn’t last a year.

Another substantial issue with the new Minnesota standards is they clearly run afoul of the First Amendment. Teachers can’t be forced to remain silent about issues that violate their beliefs, particularly not religious beliefs, nor can they be forced to speak or act in ways that violate them. They also give school district administrators and principals the encouragement and power to all but eliminate professional curriculum and teaching, replacing it with all manner of wokeness, rewriting history, and teaching everything through a racial, sexual, trans, anti-America lens.

Author” src=”https://images.americanthinker.com/k7/k7jqzevanexlbk4wulc7_640.jpg” />

Graphic: X Screenshot

Recently, federal judge Danny C Reeves struck down the Harris/Biden Administrations wholesale revision of Title IX, sanely noting the federal Department of Education (DOE) greatly exceeded its authority, an authority reserved for Congress. Reeves noted “gender identity” and “sex” as defined in the law, are not remotely the same thing. He also wrote:

“…the modifications overstepped teachers’ free speech rights by requiring them to use students’ preferred pronouns in the classroom.

‘The plaintiffs reasonably fear that teachers’ (and others’) speech concerning gender issues or their failure to use gender-identity-based pronouns would constitute harassment under the Final Rule,’ Reeves wrote. ‘Put simply, the First Amendment does not permit the government to chill speech or compel affirmance of a belief with which the speaker disagrees in this manner.’

Reeves’ ruling applies nationwide and presumably invalidates most, if not all, of the new standards, which will surely only encourage Walz and Keith Ellison, his Muslim, racialist Attorney General, to spend untold millions in a losing battle to defend them.

Minneapolis was a pioneer in “Defund the Police” lunacy. As a result, every officer that could has retired, fled for places where they are allowed to do their jobs or entirely quit the profession. Even though Minneapolis has lowered hiring standards, it can’t find qualified candidates. Before “Defund the Police,” Minneapolis had about 900 officers with a legally mandated minimum of 731. Now, they have about 580.

Even if the new standards are struck down, which will take years, teachers will likely follow the lead of Minneapolis’ police. Those that can retire, will. Those that can, will flee for saner pastures. Those that have unbreakable ties to Minnesota and those who know they’re unemployable elsewhere will stay, and the woke and incompetent will partially fill in the gaps, leaving the ranks of teachers, like the ranks of Minneapolis’ police, depleted. Unless, of course, minimum standards and expectations for teachers are lowered even more.

That ought to raise those reading scores.

On a different subject, if you are not already a subscriber, you may not know that we’ve implemented something new: A weekly newsletter with unique content from our editors for subscribers only. These essays alone are worth the cost of the subscription. 

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.