House Republicans Turn To K-12 Schools After Months Of Rattling Colleges

Republican lawmakers incensed over antisemitism on college campuses are now directing their wrath at elementary and high school administrators.

School officials from California, New York and Maryland are set to testify before a House Education and the Workforce subcommittee on Wednesday to address what conservatives describe as a streak of hateful rhetoric in K-12 schools that’s intensified during the Israel-Gaza conflict.

The magnitude of the campus protests, the myriad ways school leaders have responded to them and House Republicans’ ability to tap into concerns about antisemitism have plunged higher education into a political crisis. The GOP is now attempting to draw a parallel with officials in left-leaning enclaves whose schools have seen student protest walkouts and allegations of harassment, but not the televised drama that has gripped a swath of elite private and public universities.

“Antisemitic incidents have exploded in K-12 schools following Hamas’ horrific October 7 attack,” said Florida Republican Rep. Aaron Bean, a member of the House education committee who will lead Wednesday’s hearing. “This pervasive and extreme antisemitism in K-12 schools is not only alarming — it is absolutely unacceptable.”

The Education Department also says it has opened roughly three dozen civil rights investigations in public school districts across the country since the Hamas attacks against Israel. Some Democrats and school officials still say this week’s proceedings are designed to score political points rather than serve a more productive purpose.

“I would ask for Congress to figure out a way to bring people together from across the nation, to help to solve for this insidious level of hate,” David Banks, the chancellor of the New York City school system, recently told reporters. “Putting a spotlight on any particular individual and sometimes trying to create gotcha moments and viral moments is not how you ultimately solve problems that you deeply care about.”

Republicans will prod Banks, as well as Karla Silvestre, president of Maryland’s Montgomery County Board of Education, and Enikia Ford Morthel, the superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District in California. The committee also invited Emerson Sykes, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.

New York City

The nation’s largest school system has been rocked by a series of incidents in recent months, including a riot against a Jewish teacher at a Queens high school. There was also a pro-Palestinian high school student walkout across the five boroughs demanded a ceasefire in Gaza last year and accusations of widespread antisemitism at a Brooklyn school in March. (Officials have repudiated the allegations.)

The Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a prominent Jewish organization, and Walden Macht & Haran, a New York-based law firm, recently sued the city’s Department of Education on behalf of a teacher and a campus administrator at the Brooklyn school. Activist organizations like End Jew Hatred also rallied in January accusing officials of failing to tackle antisemitism in schools.

In the wake of the high school walkout, where some students yelled “Fuck the Jews!,” a Queens lawmaker and the head of the City Council’s Jewish Caucus blasted a Brooklyn school board — whose president may now be removed — for violating state rules in promoting the protest.

Banks — who earlier this year launched a plan to tackle hate in schools — last week told POLITICO a number of officials have been helping him prepare, including Jackie Schechter, senior writer and editorial director in the chancellor’s office, and Department of Education press secretary Nathaniel Styer.

He has also engaged the agency’s general counsel, deputy chancellors and members of the senior leadership team as well as City Hall officials and the city Law Department. Banks, a longtime friend of Mayor Eric Adams, also spoke with Montgomery County’s school board president on Thursday.

“We are not a perfect system,” he said during a media Q&A at the city’s Education Department headquarters in Lower Manhattan, referring to what he plans to share before congressional lawmakers. “But I think the test of leadership of an administration is how we respond when these things rear their heads and I’m very proud of our team and the way that they have responded during this very challenging moment.”

To get ready for his testimony, he also watched previous hearings where lawmakers grilled presidents of elite universities. Banks expressed confidence in his capacity to handle questioning from House lawmakers, citing his New York roots, and joking that facing off against New York City Council Member Lincoln Restler, a progressive Democratic lawmaker, at hearings, is solid preparation.

The head of the city’s influential teachers union said he’s focused on ensuring students and staffers’ safety and using the “horrible situation” as an educational opportunity.

“It’s really up to us to help you understand that all we need is better adults, it’s ‘cause the adults really are failing dramatically,” United Federation of Teachers President Mulgrew told reporters Tuesday. “Any time there’s been an instance of any sort of harassment, either way, we have jumped on it very seriously and quickly. I think the chancellor has done a good job on this issue.”

Berkeley, California

National attention was drawn to the school district in Berkeley when the Anti-Defamation League and Brandeis Center in February requested a federal civil rights investigation into what they characterized as unchecked antisemitism expressed by students and teachers in the deeply liberal city. On Tuesday, the two organizations said the Education Department had opened a formal investigation into the school district.

The groups alleged that students have chanted “Kill the Jews” without intervention from staff, and that teachers attended and encouraged a pro-Palestinian walkout in October — bringing classes to a halt.

On Monday, they expanded their complaint to criticize teachers’ lessons that referred to “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians while also denouncing the ADL as Israel’s “attack dogs” in the U.S.

“There’s been a complete absence of forthright and moral leadership from the district,” said Marc Levine, a regional director for the Anti-Defamation League who was previously a Democratic assemblymember in the California Legislature, in an interview. “The complaint that we filed against Berkeley USD has been helpful in bringing attention to the district, and for the superintendent to testify this week.”

One teacher has already been placed on leave as a result of an incident mentioned by the ADL and Brandeis Center, according to the updated complaint.

The claims against the district are disputed. A group of pro-cease-fire Jewish parents in the district have organized a media campaign to push back against what they call a “defamatory” complaint that “fabricates or exaggerates a majority of incidents described.”

“These congressional hearings are not about Jewish students’ well-being,” the group wrote in a statement. “This is part of the MAGA Republican war on education that is restricting public school students’ right to learn.”

A lawsuit from a parent who was denied a copy of curriculum related to the war in Gaza has added to the scrutiny facing the district of 9,000 students and Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel.

The superintendent’s office declined to comment and pointed to an April public statement confirming that, “although she did not seek this invitation,” Ford Morthel would attend the hearing.

“As our Superintendent has shared many times, Berkeley Unified celebrates our diversity and stands against all forms of hate and othering, including antisemitism and Islamophobia,” spokesperson Trish McDermott said in the statement. “We strive every day to ensure that our classrooms are respectful, humanizing, and joyful places for all our students, where they are welcomed, seen, valued, and heard.”

Montgomery County, Maryland

The U.S. Education Department in February opened a civil rights investigation into Montgomery County Public Schools, a system just outside Washington, D.C. But a major Jewish organization wants federal authorities to open another probe.

The Zionist Organization of America last month filed a 28-page complaint with federal authorities that asserts Jewish children in the district of more than 160,000 students “have been subjected to years of antisemitic harassment and intimidation” that district officials have known about but have failed to effectively address.

Their complaint cited the experience of students who were subjected to harassment or hateful language, as well as repeated incidents of swastikas, or other Nazi term and symbols, being graffitied on school property. The district’s initial responses to the Oct. 7 attacks were also inadequate, the organization stated.

The school system also placed four staff members on administrative leave in light of remarks and actions they made following the attack. But when they were later reinstated, the organization said the moves had the effect of “sending the message to the community that antisemitism would be tolerated in the district, regardless of how hurtful and harmful the impact on Jewish students and their families.”

The district did not make Silvestre available for an interview this week in advance of Wednesday’s hearing.

A district spokesperson added the school system “takes this and all complaints of this nature seriously” and was reviewing the one filed by the Zionist Organization of America.

“We are committed to combating antisemitism, hate-speech, and racism wherever and whenever we see it,” board spokesperson Christie Scott said in a statement. “We are working hard to address this issue in partnership with our community. We continue to evaluate our policies and our actions to ensure all students and families feel safe and welcome in our schools.”