Public School Boards Demystified: How Parents Can Influence the Board’s Decisions

Along with cold weather and hot cocoa, the “holiday season” brings with it a renewal of a roaring, ongoing debate. The debate that December consistently reignites is between those who believe that public schools should be allowed to teach religion, as long as all major religions are covered, and those who argue that public schools should refrain from any discussion of religion whatsoever.

What Some Say: We Should Teach and Celebrate All Religions in Public Schools

Some argue that public schools should be allowed to display religious imagery and teach students about the beliefs and customs of various religions, as long as the school celebrates and acknowledges all of the major religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and atheism, as well as any other religions that are a major presence in a given school community).

Many public schools seem to subscribe to a version of this argument during the holiday season. It is not uncommon to find elementary school students learning in December about Hanukah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and Ramadan. Teachers and administrators often believe that by teaching about various holidays, they are honoring the diversity of religions that their students may practice at home, as well as teaching all students a valuable lesson about religious inclusiveness.

This was the line of thinking that Indiana public school officials followed when they taught second graders a song for a holiday performance that required the students to sing the line “Allah is God.” Fox News Radio reports

In the United States, the typical kindergartener is five years old. If a child turns five in March or April of a given year, it is highly likely that he or she will start kindergarten the following September. However, for parents whose children’s birthdays fall in the latter half of the calendar year, the question of when to enroll a child in kindergarten becomes more complicated. The practice of “redshirting,” or delaying a child’s enrollment in kindergarten so that the child is slightly older than some of his or her peers, is common

As an article in the New York Times Magazine explained, American children are eligible to start kindergarten based on a birthday cutoff date that is determined by the state, or in some cases, by the local school district. Birthday cutoff dates vary greatly; the Times reports that in Indiana, a child must turn five by July 1 of the year he or she starts kindergarten, while in Connecticut, a child must turn five by January 1 of the year he or she is enrolled in kindergarten.

Although children are generally not allowed to enroll in kindergarten earlier than the cutoff date dictates, they are allowed to wait and enroll a year later if their parents so choose.

The practice of holding a child back so that he or she is slightly older than some of the other students in a classroom is known as “redshirting.” The popular Newsweek blog

Students enrolled in special education programs must face many obstacles on a daily basis. Not only must they learn to manage their physical, emotional, mental, or learning disabilities, but they simultaneously overcome the academic challenges all students face.

Unfortunately, several new reports indicate that special education students may also have to deal with another problem: they are more likely than their non-special-education peers to be targets of school violence.

This video looks at what works for special needs students.

The Problem for Special Education Students in Public Schools

Higher Risk of Being Victims of Gun Violence

In Fall 2009, Chicago public school officials analyzed more than 500 cases of gun violence that had occurred within the past five years. The goal was to identify patterns that indicated which students were most likely to be victims of gun violence. The study's findings, as reported by the New York Times, showed that while special education students make up only 16% of the city's overall public school population, they comprised 24% of the victims of gun violence.

Rodney Estvan, an outreach coordinator at a Chicago-based disability rights group, told Northwestern University's Medill Reports that special education students will often "by their very nature be more confrontational. They will be more likely to be arrested. They will be more likely to be suspended from school. They will be more likely to

You'd better watch out for the offensive classroom Christmas tree. You'd better not pout about prohibiting reindeer images in class. You'd better not cry about banning candy canes for your students - and we'll tell you why. Santa Claus is no longer...politically correct.

Over the past several years, the public has been divided over whether words and images related to religious holidays, such as nativity scenes, Santa, candy canes, and menorahs, are appropriate in public schools. The debate shows no sign of stopping, and recent events in Connecticut and Oregon underscore the fact that emotions can run high when it comes to discussions about politically correct winter celebrations.

Christmas Party Changed to "Celebration of Winter" in Connecticut

In Waterbury, Connecticut, an elementary school principal drew fire from school board members when he replaced the school's annual Christmas party with a "celebration of winter," according to Connecticut's Hartford Courant. The principal defended his choice to remove Christmas from the winter celebration, stating that he runs a public school and that he has to "do things that include every child."

However, two members of the district's school board took offense to the politically correct winter celebration. One of them complained that "there seems to be a war specifically targeted against those of the Christian faith," with the implication that the removal of Christmas words and images from the winter party constituted another battle wound in this war.

This video shows how to hold a politically correct holiday