Divisions in a single California faculty district will likely be thrust into the nationwide highlight right now.
The superintendent of the Berkeley Unified Faculty District, Enikia Ford Morthel, is about to look earlier than members of a congressional committee in the newest spherical of Republican-led inquiries into campus antisemitism.
Although the Home Committee on Training and the Workforce has grilled many college leaders in comparable hearings, this would be the first time that major and secondary faculty leaders have been the main focus.
The Oct. 7 assault by Hamas on Israel and the ensuing battle in Gaza have sown uncommon tensions in Berkeley, a neighborhood identified for progressive beliefs and inclusiveness. There’s been controversy over how the Israel-Palestine battle is taught in lecture rooms and over how the district has responded to claims of antisemitism. Individuals on all sides now say they concern for his or her security.
“There’s a particular fracture,” a father or mother in Berkeley advised my colleague Kurt Streeter. “Individuals who have been simply marching collectively for Black lives at the moment are at one another’s throats.”
Learn Kurt’s full article about how tensions exploded within the Berkeley public faculties and what it might imply for the house of the free speech motion.
Ford Morthel is scheduled to testify together with the chancellor of the New York Metropolis faculties and the president of the varsity board in Montgomery County, Md. The ambiance is prone to be tense. Maladroit performances at comparable hearings final 12 months led to the resignations of the presidents of Harvard and the College of Pennsylvania.
“It’s exhausting to think about a much less welcome invitation,” Justin Driver, a professor at Yale Legislation Faculty who’s an skilled on how constitutional regulation applies to varsities, advised my colleagues Dana Goldstein and Sarah Mervosh.
The college district leaders are prone to face questions on free speech and the purpose at which protests about Israel could cross a line into antisemitism. Lesson plans that embody critiques of Israel are additionally prone to be introduced up, in addition to political speech by lecturers. As Dana and Sarah wrote, the witnesses must stroll a tightrope.
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When you’d prefer to submit a love letter to your California metropolis, neighborhood or area — or to the Golden State as a complete — please e mail us at CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll hold sharing your missives within the e-newsletter.
And earlier than you go, some excellent news
After the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, just a few California sea lions started hanging out on Pier 39 in Fisherman’s Wharf, part of the San Francisco waterfront that’s standard with vacationers. Finally the pier turned the ocean lions’ everlasting residence.
