Culture clashes cost school districts

Culture war issues such as racial discrimination, LGBTQ rights and partisan politics have been lightning rods for controversy at public school board meetings in the Inland Empire in recent years.

In 2023 parents, students and teachers sued the Temecula Valley Unified School District over its policies to prohibit the teaching of critical race theory and to require teachers to inform parents if students change their gender identity. Last February, a the judge allowed those policies to remain in placebut a new state law revokes the ban on parental notification.

Conflicts like these appear to occur in communities across the country and cost school districts billions of dollars a year in security, litigation and staff time, researchers at UC Riverside and UCLA reported in a recent study.

School conflicts escalated after the 2020-21 school year. following controversy over pandemic policies such as school closures and mask-wearing requirements. In the academic year 2023-24 culturally divisive conflicts cost public K-12 schools $3.2 billion nationwide, researchers estimated.

They calculated the total cost per 10,000 students based on a survey of 467 principals who ranked their experiences with issues including misinformation and bullying. The average was $249,765 for areas with low conflict, $485,065 for those with moderate cultural clashes, and $811,805 for areas with high levels of division.

While debate over training methods and materials is expected and often productive, the researchers wrote, “our measures assess conflict that violates these democratic principles, with particular emphasis on threatening behavior, violent rhetoric, and the spread of misinformation.”

CalMatters spoke with UC Riverside professor of education Joseph Kahne, a co-author of the study, about the cost of clashing culture wars in schools. His answers have been edited for clarity and length.

What are the key issues driving the culture war battles you studied?

These include learning about race and racism. How do you talk about slavery? How do you talk about Jim Crow? How do you talk about current issues of racism in society? You can also have issues with the culture war surrounding LGBTQ+ rights. Some school districts are trying to ban the books. They don’t want students to read about sexuality in the literature competition or about slavery and discrimination. You also see this around politics. There are people who complain about showing the State of the Union address in class; people think it’s biased.

How do these disputes raise costs for school districts?

Administrators have faced dozens or hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests. It takes time and money to publish this information online. Sometimes you have frivolous lawsuits, so the district has to hire lawyers to answer those things. You need security at school board meetings because people are yelling threatening things and you don’t know what’s going to happen.

How do cultural conflicts affect learning in the classroom?

It had a chilling effect, especially in some areas where the conflict was intense. You find that principals and superintendents do not encourage teacher education on topics such as the history of racial discrimination in the United States or climate change or whether the results of the 2020 election. were accurate. These are things about which schools would do well to provide students with opportunities for fact-based discussion using evidence and argument. This does not mean that everyone should think the same thing, but schools could provide students with tools for effective discussion. But teachers say they are not comfortable doing that.

What can members of the public do to defuse conflict in schools?

When school board meetings become particularly aggressive and violence is threatened and accusations are thrown, many parents and community members decide, “I don’t want to be a part of this.” But then there is a greater need for the community to come forward and structure a more productive conversation