| | | | |  | | By Juan Perez Jr. | With help from Mackenzie Wilkes
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Rep. Ayanna Pressley is the sponsor of the “Books Save Lives Act,” legislation that proposes requiring libraries to maintain a “diverse collection of books” and classify bans as violations of federal civil rights laws. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | ‘A DAMNING COMMENTARY’ — In case you’re keeping score, count Rep. Ayanna Pressley among the Democrats who think their party should oppose book bans to bolster 2024’s election prospects. — The Massachusetts Democrat spoke with your host last week after addressing a rapt audience in Washington during an Education Trust rally organized to oppose school curriculum and library book restrictions across the country. Yet Pressley wants to be clear about something: She believes debates over pulling books from school shelves is about more than education policy. — “I know it to be at the intersection of all these coordinated attacks — from school boards to city halls and state legislatures to Congress and the Supreme Court,” she told Weekly Education. — Pressley is the sponsor of the “Books Save Lives Act,” legislation that proposes requiring libraries to maintain a “diverse collection of books” and classify bans as violations of federal civil rights laws. That’s a sweeping idea with no chance of garnering conservative support in this Congress, to be sure. — But Pressley wants Democrats to think of the party’s political messaging on library material restrictions not as a narrow issue targeted at a slice of liberal voters — but as an extension of the party’s stance on abortion, diversity and LGBTQ+ rights that can both rally the party’s base and build persuasive messages for moderates. — “We said that Dobbs was a frightening precedent and bellwether of what was to come — we found that to be true,” Pressley said. “First it was abortion access. Then it was birth control. Now it's IVF. That's the same argument that you can make when it comes to the banning of books: It won't end there.” — In research published last week, the free speech advocacy group PEN America tabulated more than 4,000 instances where book titles were removed from access in a school district during the first half of this school year — a number the organization says exceeds the amount recorded during the entirety of last school year. — The issue continues to animate conservative state policymakers. Florida’s Board of Education approved a rule change last week that would punish school principals for removing books — or allowing school employees to do so — without first determining if the works were inappropriate under state law. State officials say the rule is meant to prevent “activist” educators from “pulling stunts” like removing all books from classroom libraries. — “We're in the midst of this long march towards fascism, towards a national ban on abortion and bodily autonomy — and so they're looking to ban bodies and looking to ban books,” Pressley asserted of her Republican opponents. “It's a damning commentary and issue, but it's a winning issue for all those reasons for Democrats. It’s another way in which we can make the affirmative case for Democrats.” IT’S MONDAY, APRIL 22. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. The House passed a bill Saturday that could force the sale of the ultra-popular video app TikTok. The foreign aid bills that include the TikTok provision now head to the Senate, where it’s expected to pass since it’s considered priority legislation for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Reach out with tips to today’s host at jperez@politico.com and also my colleagues Bianca Quilantan (bquilantan@politico.com) and Mackenzie Wilkes (mwilkes@politico.com).
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| | |  President Joe Biden’s office has waded into campus conflicts over the Israel-Gaza war with a sharp rebuke of violent rhetoric and antisemitism as a sense of chaos surrounds Columbia University and its top official at the start of Passover this week. | LEONARDO MUNOZ/AFP via Getty Images | ‘NO PLACE ON ANY COLLEGE CAMPUS’ — President Joe Biden’s office has waded into campus conflicts over the Israel-Gaza war with a sharp rebuke of violent rhetoric and antisemitism as a sense of chaos surrounds Columbia University and its top officials at the start of Passover this week. — “While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous – they have absolutely no place on any college campus, or anywhere in the United States of America,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement on Sunday. — “And echoing the rhetoric of terrorist organizations, especially in the wake of the worst massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, is despicable,” Bates added. “We condemn these statements in the strongest terms.” — The administration’s remarks came as Columbia/Barnard Hillel called on the institution to “do more to protect students” — but said it did not believe Jewish students should leave campus) — and university President Minouche Shafik faced new criticism over campus safety and the arrest of more than 100 pro-Palestinian student protesters. — The Columbia Jewish Alumni Association said it fears "violence against Jewish students is imminent" in its own letter to Shafik, citing reported threats against students. A rabbi associated with Columbia University’s Orthodox Union Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus recommended that Jewish students “return home as soon as possible and remain home”, CNN reported. — “Over the past few months and especially the last 24 hours, Columbia’s leadership has clearly lost control of its campus putting Jewish students’ safety at risk,” Rep. Elise Stefanik said in a statement on social media Sunday that called for Shafik’s resignation. — “It is crystal clear that Columbia University - previously a beacon of academic excellence founded by Alexander Hamilton - needs new leadership,” she added. “President Shafik must immediately resign. And the Columbia Board must appoint a President who will protect Jewish students and enforce school policies.” — The top Republican on the House education committee meanwhile called on Columbia officials to address the chaos, citing the "disturbing videos, photographs, and accounts from students that have emerged in recent days." — "If you do not rectify this danger, then the Committee will not hesitate in holding you accountable," House education committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) wrote Sunday in a letter to Shafik and Columbia trustees. — Academic organizations are also voicing opposition to Shafik’s leadership. American Association of University Professors President Irene Mulvey said Shafik “trampled on students’ associational and free speech rights” by declaring outdoor protests as a “clear and present danger” to the university. — “President Shafik’s silencing of peaceful protesters and having them hauled off to jail does a grave disservice to Columbia’s reputation and will be a permanent stain on her presidential legacy,” Mulvey said in a statement on Friday. Barnard and Columbia’s AAUP chapter denounced the administration’s actions, the Columbia Daily Spectator reported.
| | |  First lady Jill Biden speaks at the 2023 International Summit on the Teaching Profession on April 26, 2023 in Washington. | AP | FLOTUS NEEDLES TRUMP — First lady Jill Biden is tapping the country’s teacher unions to support the president’s reelection bid — and taking direct aim at Donald Trump as part of her messaging. — The White House’s highest-profile educator underscored the partisan battle over schooling and young people in Minnesota on Friday night, during a union-led rally that showcased how President Joe Biden’s campaign hopes to marshal educators to fundraise, mobilize voters and sharpen the Democratic Party’s response to conservative education policy. — That includes a striking tone from the first lady, herself a union card-carrying community college teacher, toward the former president. — “Donald Trump is dangerous to our students, to our educators, and to our country,” she said Friday during remarks that were occasionally interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters demanding a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war. “We cannot let him win.” — “Donald Trump doesn’t want to strengthen our public education system, he wants to destroy it.” she added. “He doesn’t support educators, he actively undermines us.” — Friday marked Biden’s first shot in a new “Educators for Biden-Harris” organizing initiative that the campaign says will host events in every battleground state — starting with events in Nevada, New Hampshire and Michigan — and use canvassing, phone and text banks, plus back-to-school events as part of its efforts. Trump’s team panned Biden’s remarks. — “With all due respect to Jill Biden, the only man running for President who has proven to be dangerous to America is her mentally incompetent husband who has allowed an open border invasion of millions of illegal criminals and is leading our country into World War III,” Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
| | REQUESTING A HEARING — The top Democrat on the House education committee wants the panel’s chair to hold a hearing on the progress of school integration efforts ahead of the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. — “It is imperative that this Committee examine whether our nation’s schools are meeting the charge given by the Supreme Court and evidence-based policies to eradicate the vestiges of school segregation,” Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) wrote in a letter to Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) ahead of the May 17 anniversary of the Supreme Court decision which held that racially segregated schools are inherently unequal. — “While the decision was lauded as a victory to right constitutional wrongs, the fact is that the massive resistance movement that followed and other factors slowed the efforts to eradicate decades of legal segregation,” Scott wrote. “As such, we have yet to achieve equity in education that was promised in 1954.” — A 2022 government watchdog report commissioned by Scott found that more than a third of public school students attended schools that were largely racially and ethnically homogenous during the 2020-21 school year. That means roughly 18.5 million public school students attended a school where 75 percent or more of the student body was of a single race or ethnicity. — But a hearing is unlikely. A committee spokesperson confirmed that Scott’s letter was received and said that the ranking member will “have the opportunity to highlight this issue and his concerns” when Education Secretary Miguel Cardona testifies before the House Education and the Workforce Committee. The panel has typically held an annual oversight hearing with the secretary after the president’s budget for the Education Department is released.
| | | | BERKELEY’S TURMOIL — University of California, Berkeley’s leaders are under tremendous pressure from Democrats at home as turmoil stemming from the war in Gaza shows no sign of easing, POLITICO’s Blake Jones reports. — Liberal members of the state’s legislative Jewish caucus have publicly castigated UC Berkeley for its handling of hostility toward Jewish students and professors amid the war. They’re pushing state laws targeting antisemitism in response to the events — including a violent protest of an Israeli speaker in late February that forced Jewish students to be evacuated. — The institution is one of six universities nationwide facing an antisemitism probe from the Republican-led House education committee — plus the school is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights arm. — The bicoastal criticism has magnified the challenges roiling UC Berkeley — the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement in the 1960s — six months after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The tense confrontations, doxing of student activists and interfaculty disputes — including a viral incident with a student activist during a graduation celebration in the backyard of law school Dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s home — are emblematic of tensions that continue to tear apart American campuses. — It’s unlike anything the California university has seen in recent memory.
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