Controversies Over the Pledge of Allegiance in Public Schools PDF
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Controversies Over the Pledge of Allegiance in Public Schools: Case Studies Involving State Law, 9/11, and the Culture Wars Citation Montgomery, Jennifer J. 2015. Controversies Over the Pledge of Allegiance in Public Schools: Case Studies Involving State Law, 9/11, and the Culture Wars. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Permanent link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:16461048 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAA Share Your Story The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Submit a story . Accessibility Controversies Over the Pledge of Allegiance in Public Schools: Case Studies Involving State Law, 9/11, and the Culture Wars Jennifer J. Montgomery Julie A. Reuben Meira Levinson David Schimmel A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Education of Harvard University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education 2015 ii ©2015 Jennifer J. Montgomery All Rights Reserved iii Dedication To Frank A. Cummings and Carol J. Montgomery In Memory of Robert H. Montgomery iv Acknowledgements I owe a debt of gratitude to my adviser Julie Reuben, who shared generously of her intellect, expertise, and time. I am similarly indebted to David Schimmel and Meira Levinson, who also served as readers on my dissertation committee. David provided an invaluable sounding board on legal issues, in particular. Meira’s expertise in civic education and analytical criticism also proved invaluable, and she greatly advanced my understanding of the politics of civic education. I want to give all of them credit, as well, for their excellent teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Their classes were among the best in my doctoral experience, and this dissertation in great part reflects what I learned from them about history, citizenship, civic education, and education law. Cheers, too, to Kathleen Donovan, my go-‐to research librarian in Gutman Library. In addition to being endlessly knowledgeable about how and where to track down information, she provided excellent insight and support in thinking about how to approach research questions. Thank you to Jane R. Pole, who provided technical assistance and advice during my visit to the Legislative Library at the Minnesota State Capitol. And thank you to David Sheehan, a master history teacher, who provided professional perspective and connected me with sources in the field. I also will be forever grateful to my community-‐of-‐practice colleagues Michelle Forman, Thomas Tomberlin, and Jennifer Zeuli. Finally, I want to thank my family, friends, and former students, without whom this experience would not have been possible. My husband Frank Cummings has been endlessly patient, encouraging, and creative in his support; in addition to being wonderfully protective of my time and energy relative to completing this dissertation and degree, he demonstrated again and again and again his faith in me and in my ability to see this through to its conclusion. My brother Lee Montgomery has also been a great friend and supporter in this process. And my dear friends Kathy Eide, Linda Keys, and Vera Larkin also contributed endless moral support. And finally, cheers to my amazing mom, Carol Montgomery, from whom I gained so much of my interest in the world. v Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... viii Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Historical Context ..................................................................................................................... 4 Present Tense: Pledge Mandates, Patriotism, and the (Multi)Culture Wars ..... 18 Overarching Relevance of the Mandate Debates ........................................................ 26 Research Methods and Preview of Cases ....................................................................... 35 Ch. 1: Minnesota 2001—Before & After 9/11 ...................................................... 42 Mandate Politicking Pre-‐9/11: A Proxy in the Culture Wars .................................. 45 9/11 Lends Urgency and Local Voices to Pledge Debate in 2001 .......................... 73 Local Focus: Public Pressures and Pedagogical Priorities in ISD 196 ................. 76 Local Focus: Conservative Concerns in a Multicultural Community ................... 83 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 90 Ch. 2: Minnesota 2002—The Pledge and Only the Pledge ............................... 93 Mandate Debates Post-‐9/11: Surge in Patriotism Changes Playing Field .......... 94 Political Leverage of 9/11 Trumps Senate’s Delaying Tactics ............................. 100 Senate Floor: Broader Patriotic Content v. Pledge as ‘Ethos’ of The Nation .... 108 Multicultural Complexity: ‘Bleeding-‐heart’ Liberalism or Valid Concerns? .... 116 The Dark Side of Patriotism and References to the Thought Police .................. 136 The ‘Heaviness around Here’ Continues ...................................................................... 150 The Ventura Veto: ‘No Law Will Make a Citizen a Patriot’ ..................................... 152 Conflict Arises When New Governor Signs Pledge Mandate Bill in 2003 ......... 157 In Retrospect: Moua Reflects on Mandate and Patriotism Post-‐9/11 ............... 161 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 172 vi Ch. 3: Colorado Passes Rigid Mandate with Barnette Bypass ...................... 174 The Pledge as Loyalty Oath and Builder of Moral Character ................................ 177 Colorado Senate: Decidedly Different Conceptions of Compelled Behavior ... 186 As Predicted, The Court Intervenes on Behalf of Students and Teachers ........ 203 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 211 Ch. 4: Pennsylvania—Viewpoint Discrimination in Opt-‐out? ..................... 216 A Sweeping Mandate with Punitive Parental Notification ..................................... 217 Courts Reject as Contrivances State’s Argument for Parental Notification ..... 224 Regardless of Rulings, Conflicts Continue to Arise in Pennsylvania Schools .. 232 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 235 Ch. 5: Florida—Pledge Pressures Remain in State Law ................................. 236 Florida Repeatedly Declines to Align State Law to U.S. Constitution ................. 237 The ‘Big Desk-‐Little Desk’ Incident: Cameron Frazier Remains Seated ............ 246 Public Reaction Swells; Frazier urged to go to Iraq ................................................. 250 Pledge Politicking, Hot-‐button Hyperbole, and Threats of New Legislation ... 253 ‘Liberal’ and ‘Activist’ Court Rules Resoundingly for Frazier ............................... 259 Appeal to 11th Circuit Yields Confusing Concession ................................................. 264 Denial of Certiorari Petition Leaves ‘Stain’ in Tact .................................................. 271 Pledge-‐related Conflicts Continue to Occur Well after Frazier ............................ 277 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 284 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 286 Appendices ................................................................................................................... 294 Appendix A—Summaries of Related Lower-‐court Cases ........................................ 294 Appendix B—Minnesota Pledge Legislation for 2001 & 2002 ............................. 296 vii Appendix C—Current Pledge Law in Minnesota (Passed in May of 2003) ....... 304 Appendix D—Information on the Pledge to the Earth ............................................ 305 Appendix E—Signed Version of Colorado Bill HB03-‐1368 .................................... 306 Appendix F—Revisions to Colorado Pledge Mandate ............................................. 308 Appendix G—Florida Pledge Law as of 2015 ............................................................. 309 Reference List .............................................................................................................. 310 Vita .................................................................................................................................. 331 viii Controversies Over the Pledge of Allegiance in Public Schools: Case Studies Involving State Law, 9/11, and the Culture Wars Abstract This dissertation examines state-‐level efforts to mandate the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools, especially following 9/11. Despite longstanding Supreme Court precedent declaring mandatory flag salutes unconstitutional, various state legislatures sought to institute or strengthen pledge mandates irrespective of students’ civil liberties. Driven by personal conceptions of patriotism, fears about cultural unity, and desires for political advantage, legislators pushed to institute new pledge mandates or defend existing ones without substantive consideration of their impact on students and schools. While the full impact of these laws has not yet been seen, some students have experienced harsh discipline and bullying due to pledge mandates, school personnel have needed to negotiate constitutionally questionable state law, and legislative persistence has yielded political victories and also resulted in an 11th Circuit-‐endorsed qualification of students’ civil liberties regarding compelled pledging. Using historical methods, this dissertation examines efforts to mandate and/or enforce pledging primarily following 9/11. Case-‐study locations include Minnesota, which experienced a three-‐year battle over its mandate legislation; Colorado, which attempted to curtail opt-‐out rights of both students and teachers; and Pennsylvania and Florida, both of which undertook court cases to protect state laws that constrained students’ rights to freedom of expression regarding the pledge. ix In designing this study, I expected mandate supporters to be advocating a form of civic education labeled by scholar Joel Westheimer as "authoritarian patriotism" and mandate opponents to be advocating a different form of civic education, labeled by Westheimer as "democratic patriotism." I assumed the debate over mandated pledging would largely be a debate over the best form of civic education that was already occurring in schools. While echoes of these debates occasionally occurred, legislators rarely addressed the educational aspects of this issue or its relationship to citizenship development. Instead, legislators emphasized broader concerns about threats to the culture and unity of the nation and focused frequently on gaining political advantage. In essence, little consideration was given to the effects of these laws on students and schools; instead, these legislative debates and laws served more as symbolic ammunition in what other scholars have identified as the "culture wars.”
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