{"id":10008,"date":"2024-04-10T05:03:39","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T05:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=10008"},"modified":"2024-04-12T06:38:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T06:38:49","slug":"wisconsin-directs-federal-idea-funds-toward-racism-equity-workshops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=10008","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Directs Federal IDEA Funds Toward Racism, Equity Workshops"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/wisconsin-directs-federal-idea-funds-toward-racism-equity-workshops\/tcsquare\/2024\/04\/10\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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by Brendan Clarey<\/h5>\n

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A project housed under the Wisconsin Department of Education is using federal special education funds to pay speakers to provide instruction to teachers on race, equity and Black queer feminist methodology.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin\u2019s Educational Equity Network\u2019s virtual events feature presentations from authors and activists, including notable and controversial writers such as Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, about racism, inequity and marginalized gender or sexual identities.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Educational Equity Leadership Institutes are funded through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, passed in 1990.<\/p>\n

The purpose of the federal education law, according to the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s website, is \u201cto ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction supports the Educational Equity Network. It is also called \u201cThe Disproportionality Technical Assistance Network.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0DPI\u2019s website<\/a>\u00a0says the network \u201cworks with preK-12 educators, schools, districts, and other community partners to reduce racial disproportionally in special education through a multi-tiered system of free and low-cost compliance activities and improvement supports.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Educational Equity Network works with PreK-12 educators, schools, districts and other community partners to address racial disparities using approaches that uplift equity, systemic change, evaluative mindsets, inclusivity, and cultural responsiveness in order to reduce racial disproportionality in special education,\u201d the Network\u2019s\u00a0own website<\/a>\u00a0reads.<\/p>\n

It is not immediately clear how the Network\u2019s Education Equity Leadership Institutes relate to the purpose of the federal law governing special education funds. The Department of Public Instruction did not respond to Chalkboard in time for publication after repeated requests for information. (Chalkboard News is published by the Franklin News Foundation, which also publishes The Center Square.)<\/p>\n

According to a description of the Institutes, the series of virtual workshops do not have a direct tie to special education but are instead focused on \u201cdifficult conversations\u201d around race and oppression which started in 2020.<\/p>\n

Since then, dozens of state legislatures have passed or debated legislation prohibiting the teaching of critical race theory in classrooms, specifically ideas that one class or race is inherently superior or inferior to another.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis unique series was designed to increase educators\u2019 capacity for co-creating belonging in all learning spaces,\u201d the Network\u2019s website reads. \u201cThe Educational Equity Leadership Institutes support inclusive learning for authentic self-reflection and engagement while exploring the application of \u2018difficult conversations\u2019 about race, equity, inclusion, and systemic oppression.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cParticipants are challenged to understand the dynamics of race and racism in education and other forms of exclusion\/oppression and transform their educational practices,\u201d the\u00a0Network\u2019s website<\/a>\u00a0reads.<\/p>\n

A description of the 2023-24 Leadership Institutes does not mention students with disabilities, instead focusing on what educators can learn from speakers including bestselling authors Robin DiAngelo (\u201cWhite Fragility\u201d) and Ibram X. Kendi (\u201cHow to Be an Antiracist\u201d).<\/p>\n

Neither the DPI nor the Network have yet responded to Chalkboard\u2019s questions about the cost of speakers, which comes from taxpayers nationwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticipation in the Institutes is entirely fee-free,\u201d the Network\u2019s website reads. \u201cA scholarship, funded through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA), has been applied to the administrative and instructional fees.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Educational Equity Network is inviting all Wisconsin educators to continue and deepen their equity work and join our 2023-2024 Educational Equity Leadership Series,\u201d the description reads. \u201cA cadre of local and national authors, professors, practitioners, and community leaders have been invited to share their wisdom with Wisconsin educators as part of this series. All presenters are knowledgeable in navigating our current racialized landscape from a place of strength and resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past, most speakers did not discuss students with disability. They instead focused on ideas like abolitionist and liberation teaching and how \u201cthe everyday notion of love operates as a tool of oppression and perpetuates white supremacist ideology to shape our social realities, desirability, and diminishes our possibilities for social transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January, DiAngelo spoke on \u201cNice Racism\u201d in which she identified \u201cmany common white racial patterns and breaks down how well-intentioned white people unawarely perpetuate racial harm,\u201d according to a description of the lecture.<\/p>\n

Kendi\u2019s presentation is forthcoming later this year.<\/p>\n

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Brendan Clarey is a contributor to The Center Square.\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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The post Wisconsin Directs Federal IDEA Funds Toward Racism, Equity Workshops<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/wisconsin-directs-federal-idea-funds-toward-racism-equity-workshops\/tcsquare\/2024\/04\/10\/ by Brendan Clarey \u00a0 A project housed under the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10009,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10008\/revisions\/10009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}