EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a series of stories running this week in The Valdosta Daily Times. The first group of stories ran in the Tuesday, Feb. 21, edition.

The nation’s cultural divisions have made their way into schools across the country in recent years, causing many teachers to say they feel policed and fearful.

Political attacks on public school educators are driving people away from the profession of public education, said Laura Boyce, executive director of Teach Plus Pennsylvania, an advocacy group for developing leaders in education.

Most teachers continue in the profession because they’re doing work that they believe in, Boyce said.

But those same teachers can be accused of grooming children when fostering an inclusive environment, or are being challenged and denied the ability to teach history with details both accurate and uncomfortable, she said.

“It’s really, for some, the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Boyce said of politics causing teachers to quit.

Over the past two months, reporters from CNHI Newsrooms nationwide have sought to examine the growing shortage of teachers in some geographic regions and some subject areas and to identify the issues that may be driving it for this multi-part special report, “Leaving the Classroom.”

Boyce said some lawmakers have capitalized on political tensions in the field of education as they seek to restrict what teachers can teach and open up how involved parents can be.

“It absolutely affects how the profession is viewed,” Boyce said. “I hope we don’t have to find out — because teachers continue to resign at higher levels and the crisis continues to get worse — and we have to find out the hard way the consequences of these actions.”

Critical race theory

According to Education Week, lawmakers in nearly 20 states have implemented legislation or restrictions that limit how teachers can discuss race topics since 2021. In recent years, critical race theory has become a mainstream political talking point since 2020.

CRT asserts that the law and legal institutions in the U.S. are inherently racist, creating social, political and economic inequalities. It is not taught in the majority of K-12 curriculum.

“Teachers are not doing any of this,” said Jami Jackson-Cole, a Duncan, Oklahoma, classroom teacher.

“We’re trying to teach basics… People are scared to go into education because you’re threatening to pull people’s licenses. You’re threatening their jobs. You’re threatening their livelihood. So why would anyone subject themselves in this profession?”

Teachers say legislative efforts to restrict CRT could have an impact on their ability to teach topics such as the civil rights movement, as well as on overall morale.

The University of Massachusetts-Amherst polled 1,000 U.S. adults in December 2021 on how much public schools should teach about racial inequality. Approximately 34% responded “a lot,” 28% responded “some,” 13% “a little” and 25% “none.”

Legislation approved last year by the Republican-controlled New Hampshire Legislature — dubbed the “divisive concepts” law — limits how teachers can discuss racism and discrimination in the classroom.

It also allows disciplinary action against educators who violate the policy, and encourages parents to file complaints.

Teachers unions, which are suing the state to overturn the law, say it’s discriminatory, confusing and ambiguous, and they argue it could result in censorship in school classrooms while increasing the possibility of violence against teachers.

Supporters of such laws said it prevents racial division among students in classrooms.

“We can teach U.S. history, the good, bad and the ugly without dividing children along racial lines,” said Georgia Sen. Butch Miller, who led Georgia’s new law in 2022.

“(CRT) is wrong and it views American history through a racial sense. It’s a filter that focuses on victimhood, not triumph. We don’t defeat racism with racism….we must teach patriotism, that America’s good, though not perfect.”

LGBTQ and gender identity

Educators in various states are also being restricted from discussions and instructions that entail gender identity or sexual orientation issues, following in the footsteps of Florida’s dubbed “Don’t say gay bill.”

“Classroom instruction (and discussion, according to the preface) by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3,” the law states.

In December, attorneys general in 14 states — Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Texas, Indiana, Kentucky Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia — signed onto an amicus brief in support of Florida in a lawsuit from a group representing Florida parents, teachers and students challenging the law on claims of First and Fourteenth Amendment violations.

According to Movement Advancement Project, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas already have some form of a law preventing discussion about gender identity or sexual orientation, and proposals are underway in others.

“In an age in which the number of teenage girls who are finding themselves with gender dysphoria has doubled recently, we simply want to make sure that in appropriate cases, that parents know what’s going on with our children, and that educators and administrators are not hiding that fact, except when it’s appropriate,” said Tom Rawlings, a child welfare attorney who helped draft Georgia’s proposed bill.

“We’re trying to limit the exposure that a person would have on a child regarding gender,” said Cordele Republican Carden Summers, the sponsor of Georgia’s proposal added.

Texas Resource Center CEO Cece Cox called the Texas proposal another attempt by politicians to further marginalize and erase LGBTQIA+ youth at school.

“Nobody is asking for learning standards that are not accurate and age-appropriate. This bills seems like just another political stunt that will end up harming kids,” Cox said.

Local control desired

When it comes to curriculum, surveys indicate most teachers prefer to have more input and less dictation from state administration and politicians.

A report by the Charles Butt Foundation found that some teachers cited lack of autonomy in their lesson plans as one reason they have considered leaving the profession.

“I think more autonomy is huge. I think one thing that teachers hate is feeling policed,” said Sally Stanhope, a high school teacher in Chamblee, Georgia.

Lauren Holcomb, executive director of the State Charter Schools Commission of Georgia, said some teachers have left public schools for charter schools in order to have more autonomy over curriculum and instruction.

“I know a lot of teachers we have in our (charter) schools have left their traditional district schools, not because they didn’t love the community and love working there, but they just felt like there was a lot of bureaucracy in their traditional districts,” she said.

A 2022 survey of 4,600 educators by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators found that approximately 75% say curriculum decisions should be made at the local level, not by state or federal governments. More than 90% believe school-level educators should participate in curriculum decisions, the survey found.

“They don’t ask our opinion. They don’t want our opinion,” said Jackson-Cole, the Oklahoma educator.

“It’s easier to make us out to be these evil people who are trying to indoctrinate and teach something called CRT that I don’t even know what that is.”