Alabama's Republican Governor Kay Ivey has decided to fire or
compel the resignation of the top education official who
apparently endorsed a book that Governor Ivey didn't like.
A lot of right wingers get their feelings hurt over books these days,
and this is definitely a good example of that.
So Barbara Cooper, who was the head of the Alabama Department of Early Education,
was allegedly compelled to resign after Ivey basically shared that
she had an issue with a book that was being promoted.
So, Ivy's spokesperson identified the book as the National Association for
the Education of Young Children developmentally Appropriate Practice Book,
fourth Edition, which does not have a clunky title at all.
>> [LAUGH].
>> Just rolls right off the tongue.
But nonetheless, this isn't meant to be used as curriculum for early education.
This is just meant to be used as a guide for educators.
So the text in question is a widely-used resource guide for
early childhood educators that informs teachers that the early education
system is not immune from the forces of systemic and institutional
racism embedded in the history and development of the United States.
I'm gonna pause for
reaction cuz I'm curious Cenk what you think of the guide for the educators.
>> So, first of all, I'm just gonna double down on what Anna said,
it's not going to the kids.
So you gotta think, can grown up teachers handle that kinda information and
then make their own judgment call on how to present that within
the context of their teaching?
And Ivey and other Republican legislators all throughout the country are saying, no,
we don't trust the teachers.
We don't think that, the idea that institutional racism might exist,
that should not even enter the heads of the educators.
They should not take that into account.
They should assume there's no racism.
Well, first of all, that's just not true.
And then second of all, if you treat your teachers like their little children,
that's not gonna be helpful in the process.
And so, look at what they're saying.
Early education system is not immune from their force of systemic and
institutional racism.
Well, of course that could be true.
There are plenty of instances where you have folks that treat people differently,
whether it's based on race, whether it's, by the way,
a lot of times based on class, right.
So are we not allowed to talk about any of that cuz it offends people's feelings?
>> And it's not like this is being talked about in the context of preschools, right.
This is just to inform the educators about possible biases and
possible issues that could sway the way they handle teaching.
>> Yeah. >> Okay.
Or certain, here,
I'll give you an example, right. So,
a lot of schools have resource officers now, and
if you look at the data pertaining to who gets disciplined by the resource officers,
there seems to be a significant difference in, a disproportionate amount of
students of color end up getting punished by the resource officers.
That is an example, that's not meant to be taught to the preschoolers.
It's just something for the educators to keep in mind because sometimes we have
these biases that we might not be aware of.
They might be unconscious biases.
So I'm guessing that's part of what this.
>> 100%.
>> Is about.
Okay, but Governor Ivey not a fan of this.
And so the governor's office, in a press release, cited two examples from the book.
One discussing white privilege and
that the United States is built on systemic and structural racism, and
another that Ivey's office claim teachers LGBTQ plus inclusion to 4-year-olds.
Those sections discuss combating bias and
making sure that all children feel welcome.
The section on structural racism says, preschool is one place
where children begin to see how they are represented in society and
that the classroom should be a place of affirmation and healing.
>> Well, that does sound dangerous.
Affirmation and healing.
We wouldn't want that for the kids.
>> Yeah. >> Okay, so
I read the part where they mentioned the LGBTQ plus inclusion.
It wasn't directed at 4 year olds, it was directed at teachers.
And all it said was, remember, they also exist.
Wow, I didn't know they were that radical.
It's just stating that they exist as human beings, and they're saying,
hey, keep in mind, some of your students are not necessarily your demographic.
Right. They might be of a different race,
they might be disadvantaged economically, they might be LGBTQIA plus, et cetera.
Well, that's just a fact.
That's true.
Some of the students might be that way.
So you don't want them to know that?
This is just absurd, guys, and.
>> So.
>> Yeah. >> Let's go to what the governor
finally did.
So the governor's office said, Ivey first asked Cooper to send a memo
to disavow this book and to immediately discontinue its use.
Ivey's office did not say how Cooper responded, but that the governor made
the decision to replace Cooper and accepted her resignation.
So it sounds like she was compelled to resign.
>> 100%, which, by the way, is literal political correctness.
>> Yeah. >> She was factually correct
about structural racism and the fact that LGBTQ people exist, right.
But she was not politically correct.
The politically correct position is no, in schools,
we are to pretend that they do not exist and that there is no structural racism.
So, Republicans love political correctness.
So, look, guys, I'm in needless to say, one last thing here.
So, if Republicans just debated, was our country only founded to perpetuate racism?
They might actually win that issue in a debate in the country,
whether you agree or disagree with that,
but they never stick to the most extreme position.
They then say, no, not only was the country not founded purely on racism,
there was no structural racism.
But come on, guys, you're slavery, lynching Jim Crow.
There was no structural racism in America?
How could you possibly claim that?
Well, then you're just saying, it makes me uncomfortable.
So I don't want you to teach things that are true that are not debatable.
I know that they are true.
I don't want you telling kids that,
because they just wanna replace facts with propaganda.
And they're doing it now because they're desperate.
Younger voters are massively progressive and they're trying to figure out how to
stem that tide by doing very little propaganda in the schools.
>> Also, 55% of Republicans, according to a poll that recently came out,
say that fighting woke ideology in schools and businesses is more important
than protecting entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, what have you.
>> Guys.
>> It's political too.
Let's keep it real.
>> Of course that's the whole point of it.
So it's not just that Kay Ivey is racist.
I don't know what her inclinations are and I don't care.
She thinks this is gonna appeal to my base.
I mean Alabama and the Democrats have no chance of winning.
All I have to do is secure the most extreme part of my base and I'm gonna win.
And that, number is very clear.
It's Rebellion Pack, which I founded,
is about to run a poll that asks a very similar question.
Cuz I was wondering, do the Republicans care more about owning the libs or
actual government programs that directly help them?
And that is the tip of the iceberg in the questions we're gonna ask.
But in that tip, you see.
>> Yeah.
>> No, they would rather lose money, they would rather live demonstrably
worse lives as long as they can own the libs and attack the other side.
>> And this is a Wall Street Journal poll.
Let me give you one other detail that we've learned from this one poll.
This is graphic 8 27% of Republican voters say protecting Social Security and
Medicare benefits from cuts is more important to them.
So again, 55% of Republican voters, the majority of Republican voters according
to this Wall Street Journal poll, believe that pursuing anti woke policy is
more important than protecting these social spending programs from cuts.
>> Now I'm gonna say something that makes people uncomfortable, but
the Republican politicians are responding to those Republican voters.
>> They are, in this case they are.
>> Especially in the red states.
>> Yeah.
>> And the Republican voters say bash the other side.
That's, almost the only thing we want.
And so, Governor Ivey is giving them what they want.
>> A huge portion of kids in America can't read.
>> And we're worried about whether they're gonna find out that there was racism in
American history.
>> But also, look, at some point I want to do a story on this and
it's got to be a deep dive because there's a lot to it.
But, I'm so happy I didn't fall into this cohort that,
cuz in the 90s when I was going to school, grade school,
they moved away from phonics.
How stupid was that?
And it ended up being a disaster, a complete nutter disaster.
But they kept going with it.
I luckily was at a school that still believed in phonics, and
I learned to read that that way, thank God, cuz English is my second language.
But, we've got some deep issues with our education system.