Tracy O’Connell Novick: "after taking office and examining hundreds of pages of curriculum, Gore was shocked by what she found — and didn’t find. The pervasive indoctrination she had railed against simply did not exist." www.texastribune.org/2024/05/15/t...

"after taking office and examining hundreds of pages of curriculum, Gore was shocked by what she found — and didn’t find. The pervasive indoctrination she had railed against simply did not exist." www.texastribune.org/2024/05/15/t...

A GOP Texas school board member campaigned against schools indoctrina…www.texastribune.org Courtney Gore, a Granbury ISD school board member, has disavowed the far-right platform she campaigned on. Her defiance has brought her backlash.

and note the related article: Gore has gone public with "an effort by wealthy conservative donors to undermine public education in Texas" www.texastribune.org/2024/05/15/t...

Former far-right hard-liner says pro-voucher billionaires are using s…www.texastribune.org The largesse from billionaires Tim Dunn and brothers Farris and Dan Wilks has made its way into local politics. Courtney Gore, a Republican school board member in Granbury, says it’s part of their st…

It's long been the case that people from the "reality-based community™" are not welcome on the right... their feelings don't care about facts

The article says that defunding public schools and moving to vouchers "is the end goal." How is that an end goal? These billionaires obviously see a means for profit beyond just school money. What happens when all these kids end up in these schools? What kind of adults do they become?

Haha also Midlands Classical Academy uses John Morris' *Geology* as a textbook, so I guess dinosaurs are off the menu.

Obedient, is the theory, I think. Different private schools are for different populations. Vouchers will pay for relatively cheap religious schools, where kids are taught not to question. Vouchers aren't enough for the expensive schools of the billionaires' kids, where they acquire a superior air.

segregating the children of the rich from the poor and the poor from those who invariably slide into the prison system

But the rich are already separate. Private schools exist. The idea is that NO public schools will exist at all.

Education is the great equalizer. They don't want that.

exactly - describing reality as it is doesn't mean they don't want to make it worse

He who owns the youth owns the future. It doesn't escape these people that the youngest generations oppose them the most. They want to change that.

I've taught in public school and I've been to charter schools. Charter schools have 0 oversight.

Oh, they'll have oversight, but not by big mean liberal government

The end result is kids from poor communities, especially minority students, don't go to school with their kids. It's an end of special education as we know it and an end to regulation. It's schools teaching religion and having no accountability for standards or conduct.

These private schools that get vouchers can teach religious indoctrination. They don't have to teach real history or science. And when public schools are destroyed the only way for poor kids to get an education will be scholarship to unregulated church schools.

Yeah that's definitely just a mid-goal

This is a fascinating case of ideological difference. She's conservative and a bigot--she was *relieved* there's no gender identity continent in the curriculum--but she's still living in reality enough to see when it's not there. So, conservative bigot but not fascist bc fascists would just lie.

More to the point, a fascist would never admit "victory." They would insist the insidious danger remains everywhere and only they can save us.

@brooklynmarie.bsky.social

Not entirety sure I have to hand it to someone who's main argument is "they're not teaching kids about gays and blacks, thank God!" as their whole pivot. Especially with the added "of course she hates masks and vaccines" at the start

That is…unusual. Normally if they don’t find something, they’ll make it up

In the article it does mention how her constituents were annoyed in her change of stamce

She’s the only person who doesn’t get that her job is to dynamite public schools. If her wild-ass claims don’t hold up then she needs to make up new ones

And they (cops, politicians, bureaucrats) usually will! To keep their job

Yeah this quote is so naive it's almost pitiable

Not just annoyed, they threatened her with violence.

Wondering how long ago she herself was a teacher, "The former teacher and mother of four." She should've known better to begin with, but especially if she'd been teaching school herself she damn sure should've known the smears were all bull shit.

Anyone can be fooled; anyone can be a victim of disinformation, especially if they're home most of the time and their major social connections also embrace fringe beliefs. The fact that she believed in public schools & had been a teacher is probably what saved her when she reviewed the lesson plans.

I'm just glad she came around but I'm sorry. I find the transformation to believing that to begin with to be somewhat incredible.

I understand that, but indoctrination relies on fundamental human neuro-social vulnerabilities, and no one is immune. People who professionally research sudden personality change have had to flee cults that they infiltrated to study as participant-observers (see, e.g., Snapping; Battle for the Mind)

I don’t believe Tom4 is saying it can’t exist so much as, for an entire public school system to be overtaken seems extreme. And are the people fleeing for their safety from the members? Or to maintain their own sanity?

This response does not appear to be based on the article. You need to do the reading before you come to class if you expect to understand the material and do well on the exam.

I understand your empathy, but this space is full of grifters and bad actors. Additionally is is a rare case, once people start believing this studies have shown that most will use the sunk cost fallacy to double down. A lot of right wingers have not shown the character to admit they were wrong.

You harm yourself and society if you refuse to believe in redemption. You are describing causes, not solutions, and people absolutely can be saved from these harms and understand how they were fooled. Our humanity is shared; the human project is shared; we are in this together. Read about solutions.

You harm society if you lower your expectations like this. This is an ignorant person who rallied against something she knew nothing about, who campaigned on ignorant hate, who influenced others. She gotta do a lot more than say oops. Real change is appreciated. The moment of realization is empty

She has since campaigned on the actual issues, formed political alliances with her former opponents, spread information about the problems, and continues to serve in defense of public education. She is on the path. What do you require of her to demonstrate real change beyond empty realization?

I wondered that too. I wondered if she had been a teacher in a religious school and if she had any formal training to be a teacher.

Can you even imagine a world where the reporter who wrote this article would give us this information?

you are not immune to propaganda

Yes So I suspect her version of teacher is homeschool

Yeah, she knew it was trash from the get-go. All the libs claiming that "It could happen to you, too," are just making excuses for having voted for Genocide Joe.

She’s gonna be floored when she follows up on allegations of widespread voter fraud.

‘Gore rushed to share the news with the hard-liners who had encouraged her to run for the seat. She expected them to be as relieved and excited as she had been. But she said they were indifferent, even dismissive, because “it didn’t fit the narrative that they were trying to push.”’

Incredibly brave woman. It takes courage to admit you were wrong. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to publicly stand up to heavily armed Christofascists who threatened your life.

And, judging by the comments here, she’s also going to have to face a lot of people on the other side who prefer to call her an idiot for falling for it in the first place rather than be willing to help her fix the problem

And before any more reply guys come into my mentions: bsky.app/profile/blam...

idk, if seven people are trying to stab me and one of them changes their mind, puts their knife down and starts trying to talk the others down, I'm not going to punch that person? I'm going to keep my attention on the six actively trying to harm me. It's a question of priorities. But you do you.

gasp

In every instance, “liberal indoctrination” actually means “lack of conservative indoctrination,” and even some conservatives not realize that. Same way “we not want activist judges legislating from bench” only ever meant “we want *our* activist judges legislating from bench.”

She didn’t understand that outrage and hatred are the goal, not the means.

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