David Banks, chancellor of New York City Public Schools, testified Wednesday at a House Education Committee hearing on anti-Semitism. He was joined by Karla Silvestre, president of the Montgomery County Board of Education in Maryland, Emerson Sykes, an attorney with the ACLU, and Enikia Ford Morthel, superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District in California.
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David Banks, chancellor of New York City Public Schools, testified Wednesday at a House Education Committee hearing on anti-Semitism. He was joined by Karla Silvestre, president of the Montgomery County Board of Education in Maryland, Emerson Sykes, an attorney with the ACLU, and Enikia Ford Morthel, superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District in California.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Republican lawmakers expanded their fight against anti-Semitism in education on Wednesday, with mixed results.
Members of the House Education Committee questioned leaders of three K-12 public school districts about their handling of recent incidents that some lawmakers say have left Jewish students feeling unwelcome and in danger.
Republicans, who control the House and called the hearing, were clearly hoping for the kind of headlines they have scored in similar hearings with elite university presidents. At one of those hearings, the chairs struggled to answer questions about anti-Semitism. Another hearing, centered on Columbia University, helped spark a wave of protests on campuses across the country.
But Wednesday’s testimony offered few surprises in comparison, as K-12 school leaders held their ground in answering Republican questions.
The three education officials — from New York City Public Schools, California’s Berkeley Unified School District and Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools, a suburb of Washington, D.C. — represent districts that are politically liberals.
As on many college campuses, all three also witnessed real tensions between students, parents and staff over how to talk about Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 and Israeli retaliation in Gaza. This includes isolated examples in each school system of students and, in some cases, staff saying and doing things that could be considered anti-Semitic.
The hearing began with a whirlwind series of yes-or-no questions about the October 7 killing of Israelis by Hamas. Republican lawmakers then turned their attention to David Banks, chancellor of New York City Public Schools, the nation’s largest school district. country.
Republican Lisa McClain of Michigan asked Banks whether the swastika drawings and the statements “Death to Israel” and “Kill the Jews” were anti-Semitic, and the chancellor was unwavering in his responses, saying they were. .
New York City has been the target of the harshest criticism, largely over the district’s handling of a November protest at a high school in which students targeted a teacher who said his support for Israel on social networks. Banks said several students were suspended and the school principal was removed.
Time and again, Republican lawmakers have called for accountability and firing of teachers and staff involved in or enabling anti-Semitic incidents in schools. At one point, in a slip of the tongue, a lawmaker asked whether students had been fired; asked another, perhaps thinking he was still in a higher education audience, if any. professors had been fired.
In perhaps the most heated exchange of the hearing, Republican Elise Stefanik of New York appeared to think she had caught Banks lying, saying he had said he had fired the director of this high school in New York. In fact, he had said that the director had been “removed” and “moved”, that is, reassigned to another role.
Ultimately, Banks tried to argue that teachers and staff have a right to due process.
For their part, Democrats took advantage of the hearing to question the political motivations of their Republican colleagues.
In her opening remarks, Democrat Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon said: “Many of my colleagues claim to care about the rise of anti-Semitism in this country, but when white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, with burning torches and chanting: “The Jews will not do it.” ‘Replace us,’ then-President Donald Trump said there were very good people on both sides.
Bonamici then listed a number of things Trump has said or done that could be considered anti-Semitic. She called on Republicans present at the hearing to disavow Trump’s statements. None did.
Throughout the hearing, Banks and the other teachers repeatedly returned to what they see as one of the most significant challenges they currently face: developing effective classroom lessons to help students learn. students to reject anti-Semitism and hatred in all its forms.
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