Maine governor stops rules for protecting transgender students – LGBTQ Nation

LePage needs to crawl back into the hole he emerged from and let the professionals do their thing.  As the article notes, "[t]he positive thing about this is most school systems are already moving in this direction anyway”.

Gov. Paul LePage is stopping the Maine Human Rights Commission and the Department of Education from issuing rules protecting transgender students. Schools instead are being given guidelines that lack the force of law.
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“The governor is violating the law by refusing to let the rule-making go forward,” she said. “He’s putting our students at risk.”

Richard Durost, executive director of the Maine Principals’ Association, said the vast majority of Maine’s high schools have already addressed the points in the guidelines, such as allowing transgender students to play sports with teams corresponding with their gender identity.

Maine governor stops rules for protecting transgender students – LGBTQ Nation

The Plight of Children at Risk in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Communities and the Failure of Government and Pandering Politicians to Protect Them | Marci A. Hamilton | Verdict | Legal Analysis and Commentary from Justia

Children in the United States are routinely sacrificed on the pyre of their parents’ faith by pandering politicians without a moral compass. Children don’t vote but insular religious communities often vote as a bloc mandated by the male officials at the top, and that fact is not lost on power-hungry politicians like those in Utah who let the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) patriarchs marry off girls and abandon boys so that the men will have a better place in heaven. The same relationship between elected officials and the ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities exists: there are known risks to children but these politicians look the other way as they are feted by the rabbis and a community that keeps children at risk.

It is the time of year when Jews observe a series of important religious holidays beginning with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I submit this column as a subject to be pondered in the midst of celebration and reflection.

As with the FLDS, the ultra-Orthodox communities have put children at risk due to inadequate medical treatment, educational neglect, and mostly undeterred child sex abuse. In an interesting twist, the gender most severely affected in this community is male. Boys are at risk of herpes infection from metzitzah b’peh, or MBP and boys are less educated than girls because their education is focused on the Torah rather than secular subjects. Both, however, are at risk of sexual abuse. As in every community, that risk is significantly higher for the girls than the boys. Therefore, boys and girls in this community need prompt attention from the authorities, and politicians pandering for bloc votes need a conscience check.

The Plight of Children at Risk in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Communities and the Failure of Government and Pandering Politicians to Protect Them | Marci A. Hamilton | Verdict | Legal Analysis and Commentary from Justia

Afghanistan probes 'poisoning' of 600 Herat schoolgirls - BBC News

Police in Afghanistan are investigating the suspected poisoning of hundreds of schoolgirls in Herat province.

About 600 students from different schools have been taken to hospital in the past two weeks, complaining of nausea, pain and shortness of breath.

It is not clear what caused the symptoms, although officials believe the girls may have inhaled a toxic gas.
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Many schools in Afghanistan have come under attack in the past, with officials suspecting that militants opposed to women's education were behind the incidents.

Afghanistan probes 'poisoning' of 600 Herat schoolgirls - BBC News

The Anatomy of an Unaccredited Christian School | The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

An interesting bit of detective work that shows the dangers of the fundamentalist Christian school movement and the intentional indoctrination and dumbing down of children.

There are tens of thousands of churches like Lewis Ave Baptist Church and thousands of these churches have schools that are just like State Line Christian School. Thousands of American children are being educated in unaccredited schools, taught by non-certified teachers. These schools use fundamentalist Christian textbooks that teach evolution is a myth and promote American exceptionalism and Christian nationalism. Some of these schools don’t even use textbooks, using instead a self-guided curriculum published by Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) or Bill Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute (ATI).

Secularists and humanists think educating children is vitally important. Having an educated populace is for our common good, and it is to everyone’s benefit to make sure every child is adequately, properly, and comprehensively educated. We expect the government to regulate schools in such a way that they provide a quality education for every child.

Fundamentalist Christian churches and schools have lobbied legislators and have used lawsuits to demand exemption from state laws that regulate what they can and can not do. In many states, they have been quite successful and this is why there are schools like State Line Christian School. Here in Ohio, any church can start a non-charted, unaccredited religious school. There are no regulations for such schools, and for families who choose to home school, the regulations are few. In others words, many states and local jurisdictions have abdicated their responsibility to regulate and investigate many of the schools that educate their children. (see How to Start a Non-Chartered Christian School in Ohio)

Even worse, right-wing politicians are working hard to pass voucher laws that enable private Christian schools to receive state funding with little or no oversight.  Thousands of American children have their private, religious education paid for by taxpayers. These voucher programs have caused a huge census and financial drain for many public school systems.

 The Anatomy of an Unaccredited Christian School | The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

Here’s what Jeb Bush really did to public education in Florida - The Washington Post

If you care about your child's education or your grandchild's, this is not the way to go.

Now that Jeb Bush is officially in the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, expect his campaign to talk a lot about school reforms he spearheaded in Florida when he was governor from 1999-2007, and about his role as a leader in the national corporate school reform movement. You will hear about his reforms — standardized test-based “accountability,” for example, and “school choice” — along with claims of success in helping to transform schools. But there are big questions about his claims: Did his Florida reforms really accomplish what he says they did? When he talks about helping schools, which ones is he talking about?

Here’s what you won’t hear — and what is vital to know to fully assess Bush’s education reform record and to understand why his critics call him a privatizer — and not a reformer — of public education.

Here’s what Jeb Bush really did to public education in Florida - The Washington Post

See also:

The Big Jeb Bush Charter School Lie: Why His Florida Education ‘Miracle’ Is Hogwash

In 1996, Liberty City was the place Jeb Bush chose to introduce his big change — charter schools, the privately managed, publicly funded schools that operate outside the oversight of democratically governed school systems. Bush created Florida’s first charter school in Liberty City in an attempt to salvage a faltering political image by building credibility on both the education and civil rights fronts. But Liberty City Charter School proved to be much more than a campaign prop, sparking as it did a bushfire of charter school startups across Florida that continues to this day. Now there are over 600 charter schools in the state, and Florida's policies for charter school governance – ranked in the nation's top 10 by charter industry advocates — are touted as models for the rest of the nation.
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 As charter schools began to pop up here and there around the country, there’s no doubt Bush was aware of the trend. In fact, according to a recent article by Alec MacGillis in the New Yorker, the same year Bush founded his own advocacy group, he also "joined the board of the Heritage Foundation, which was generating papers and proposals to break up what it viewed as the government-run monopoly of the public-school system through free-market competition, with charters and private-school vouchers."

ADDENDUM::Scott Walker’s $400 Million Arena Subsidy Belies His Tightfisted Image - Bloomberg Politics

Walker, 47, argues that the subsidy is a "good deal," partly because Wisconsin would lose revenue if the Bucks leave, as they had threatened. The owners of the Bucks, a team whose value Forbes pegged at $600 million, will pick up half the cost of the $500 million arena.

The governor has friendships among the team’s owners, including some who contributed to his presidential effort. Through a limited-liability corporation registered under his son’s name, Bucks co-owner Jon Hammes on May 27 donated $150,000 to the super political action committee backing Walker, according to state and federal records.

Hammes didn’t return a phone call to his office seeking comment on the donation.

The super-PAC also received $50,000 on May 15 from Ted Kellner, another Bucks owner, Federal Election Commission records show. Kellner didn’t return a phone message seeking comment on the deal.

Scott Walker’s $400 Million Arena Subsidy Belies His Tightfisted Image - Bloomberg Politics

ADDENDUM::Greens keep up criticism of Gloriavale school

I have been picking through the various articles concerning this Gloriavale cult out of New Zealand.  Here is another article focusing on the education of the young girls in the sect.

What female students at Gloriavale's school are being taught is a question that will be put to Government inspectors.

Catherine Delahunty, education spokeswoman for the Green Party, has entered into a war of words with the Christian community over how young people there are being taught.

She is concerned that students appear to be pressured into completing NCEA early so they can work in the community, saddling young women who would excel at university with "endless laundry".

The school has hit back and rubbished Ms Delahunty's earlier claims its students were not achieving NCEA, pointing to high pass rates achieved last year.

Officials from the Education Review Office (ERO) will appear before a select committee next week, and will face questioning over ERO's positive assessment of Gloriavale's school.

Ms Delahunty said she planned to ask ERO officials whether boys and girls have exactly the same subject choices available to them, and what NCEA internal assessments were being sat.

She is concerned the school's narrow curriculum prevented pupils, especially girls, from going on to tertiary study, and instead steered them towards domestic roles within the secretive West Coast community.

"I respect the benefits of a practical education, but am very concerned about the idea of young women being saddled with endless laundry and denied the opportunity to further themselves," Ms Delahunty said.

Greens keep up criticism of Gloriavale school

Alabama’s governor makes surprising — and scary — education appointment - The Washington Post

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has tapped someone to your state’s Board of Education who never attended public schools, publicly declared that his children never will either, and actively supported a successful effort to defeat a vote on a school tax in a divisive campaign in his home county?

Bentley, a Republican, named Matthew Brown, a 28-year-old design engineer at the Baldwin County Highway Department, to the Alabama State Board of Education. Brown graduated in 2007 from Pensacola Christian College and attended Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, graduating in 2011.
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Now, Bentley has appointed Brown, a man with absolutely no history of participation of even interest in helping public schools to represent his district on the state Board of Education.  In his announcement statement, Bentley said that he was “honored” to appoint Brown, who would bring “a unique perspective to the position.” Unique indeed.

As public education activist Larry Lee noted in a post on his education blog, Bentley “has appointed someone to state board of education with no known involvement ever with public schools (did not attend them and says his kids will not) and who led the battle in [March] to defeat a school tax vote in his home county and wants us to believe this is the best candidate in seven counties to make decisions about a statewide system with a $4.1 billion budget and 90,000 employees.”

Still think the 7 Mountains Mandate doesn't exist?  As I have noted before, 

Dominionism exist, there is no denying it regardless  of what some in the Reich may say.  Its "modern" roots can be traced primarily to Francis Schaefer, Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ fame and Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With a Mission; the time frame was the mid 70s.  Each were given a message:

That message was that if we are to impact any nation for Jesus Christ, then we would have to affect the seven spheres, or mountains of society that are the pillars of any society.

These seven mountains are business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, the family and religion. There are many subgroups under these main categories,,, In essence, God was telling these three change agents where the battlefield was. It was here where culture would be won or lost. Their assignment was to raise up change agents to scale the mountains and to help a new generation of change agents understand the larger story.

In regards to education, one must consider this,,,

The rise of the "voucher program" to fund private schooling and the increased push in the home school movement; both precipitated by funding cuts for public education.  "Teach the controversy" as well as Steve Green's initiative for a 4-year Bible-based curriculum also fall into this category.

How else can one explain the undermining of trust in public schools than to install leaders who are completely incompetent.

Alabama’s governor makes surprising — and scary — education appointment - The Washington Post

I Am an Adjunct Professor Who Teaches Five Classes -- and I Earn Less Than a Pet-Sitter | Alternet

Like most university teachers today, I am a low-paid contract worker. Now and then, a friend will ask: “Have you tried dog-walking on the side?” I have. Pet care, I can reveal, takes massive attention, energy and driving time. I’m friends with a full-time, professionally employed pet-sitter who’s done it for years, never topping $26,000 annually and never receiving health or other benefits.

The reason I field such questions is that, as an adjunct professor, whether teaching undergraduate or law-school courses, I make much less than a pet-sitter earns. This year I’m teaching five classes (15 credit hours, roughly comparable to the teaching loads of some tenure-track law or business school instructors). At $3,000 per course, I’ll pull in $15,000 for the year. I work year-round, 20 to 30 hours weekly – teaching, developing courses and drafting syllabi, offering academic advice, recommendation letters and course extensions for students who need them. As I write, in late June, my students are wrapping up their final week of the first summer term, and the second summer term will begin next week.

I receive no benefits, no office, no phone or stipend for the basic communication demands of teaching. I keep constant tabs on the media I use in my classes; if I exhaust my own 10GB monthly data plan early, I lose vital time for online discussions with my students. This, although the university requires my students to engage in discussions about legal issues and ethics six days a week, and I must guide as well as grade these discussions.

Three of my Philadelphia-area friends are adjuncts with doctorate degrees. One keeps moving to other states for temporary teaching posts. The others teach at multiple sites to keep afloat financially – one at no less than seven colleges and universities.

I Am an Adjunct Professor Who Teaches Five Classes -- and I Earn Less Than a Pet-Sitter | Alternet

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott picks homeschooler to chair State Board of Education

Anti-intellectualism at it's finest or can a balance be struck? 

The issue is not homeschooling versus traditional schooling per se but, that someone may have an agenda that is detrimental to a child's education as a whole.  An issue Amanda Marcotte notes for Slate:

Bahorich is one of the quieter members of the board, largely going along with the board's radical right-wing agenda, which has included voting to approve history textbooks that claim Moses helped shape democracy, show sympathy with Joseph McCarthy, and argue country music is culturally relevant but hip-hop is not,,,.  But the school board battles that Republicans have been waging in Texas have nothing to do with improving the quality of the state's public schools. Most of these efforts are about making the education experience less educational, by injecting conservative propaganda into history class and religious dogma into science class. Texas is bent on undermining public schools, not fixing them. This appointment only serves as further proof.

An individual with a background with homeschooling might, conceivably be a good candidate - as in fixing issues that caused them to choose that option - but not if that person denounces the public school system. Nobody belongs in a job they don't believe should exist.

According to Texas Public Radio, Bahorich homeschooled her own sons before sending them to a private high school.

The Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog group, warned that Bahorich would “put culture war agendas ahead of educating more than 5 million Texas kids.”

“If Gov. Abbott wanted to demonstrate that he won’t continue his predecessor’s efforts to politicize and undermine our state’s public schools, this appointment falls far short,” Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller said in a statement. “The governor has appointed as board chair an ideologue who voted to adopt new textbooks that scholars sharply criticized as distorting American history, who rejected public education for her own family and who supports shifting tax dollars from neighborhood public schools to private and religious schools through vouchers.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott picks homeschooler to chair State Board of Education

Scottish Government: creationism banned from science class | Herald Scotland

And what year is it, that a governmental agency has to legislate (provide "guidance") that creationism is not a "scientific principle"?

The Scottish Secular Society (SSS) lodged a petition with the Scottish Parliament calling for guidance to be issued to bar the presentation of creationism as a viable alternative to evolution in schools.

Earlier this month, MSPs on the Education and Culture Committee ruled out introducing new guidance, saying that schools should rely on teachers exercising their professional judgment, rather than introducing legislation.

However the SSS have pointed to a letter sent to the committee by Alasdair Allan, minister for learning and science, which stated there are already a number of safeguards in place designed to ensure young people receive a balanced education.

The letter added: "Guidance provided by Education Scotland, set out in the "Principles and Practice" papers and the "Experiences and Outcomes" documentation for each of the eight curriculum areas does not identify Creationism as a scientific principle. It should therefore not be taught as part of science lessons."

Chemistry Professor Paul Braterman, scientific advisor for the SSS, said the Scottish Government's official position had previously stopped short of giving any guidance about the teaching of creationism in science lessons.

He said: "Now we have, at last, a clear statement from the responsible minister that creationism should not be taught as science."

Scottish Government: creationism banned from science class | Herald Scotland

ADDENDUM::What Eye Thynk - Politics: University to Pre-School, the Republican Disdain for Education

Last week I posted concerning Booby Jindal slashing university budget figures, from $3,500 per undergraduate to $660 per undergraduate.  In the course of that post, mention was made of Kansas, Texas and Wisconsin. 

What Eye Thynk has put together a good overview of of Republican disdain for education, with a comment adding this to the discussion:

It's all part of the republican plan-- keep people stupid, which makes them easier to manipulate with fear and hatred. That accounts for their bizarre position of being anti abortion AND anti sex ed/birth control. More single moms = more low wage workers, more kids brought up in poverty. They want to eliminate the middle class (fickle voters) and raise a society of proles.

What Eye Thynk - Politics: University to Pre-School, the Republican Disdain for Education

LSU drafting 'academic bankruptcy' plan in response to state budget crisis | NOLA.com

In January I wrote this, ",,,the Reich wants people under-educated or even uneducated and unable to think for themselves; just follow the party line. Consider the debacles that are Texas (formerly under the control of Rick Perry and his crew) and Kansas (still under Brownback's control)."

We can now add Louisiana to the list (remember that Walker's Wisconsin is also playing Jenga with education as well):

LSU and many other public colleges in Louisiana might be forced to file for financial exigency, essentially academic bankruptcy, if state higher education funding doesn't soon take a turn for the better.

Louisiana's flagship university began putting together the paperwork for declaring financial exigency this week when the Legislature appeared to make little progress on finding a state budget solution, according to F. King Alexander, president and chancellor of LSU.

"We don't say that to scare people," he said. "Basically, it is how we are going to survive."
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The Louisiana Legislature is closing out its meetings this week without having made much progress in finding more funding for universities, colleges and others. Louisiana's higher education community is facing an 82 percent funding cut if no extra state money is found.

The change would bring state funding for LSU from around $3,500 per undergraduate student to $660 per undergraduate student next year.

"States around the country spend more than that on their community colleges," Alexander said.

So when will this experiment with conservative economics end?  When will willful ignorance stop being a source of pride?

__

A good education opens the mind to differing world views allowing for solutions to problems through the use of analytical thinking. It provides a flexibility in thought that allows one to adapt and change. Ignorant people have an easier time judging others and perpetuating hate. The more ignorant a population the easier it is for a demagogue to rise to power.

Mike Papantonio - Ring of Fire (paraphrased)

 LSU drafting 'academic bankruptcy' plan in response to state budget crisis | NOLA.com

The right’s fear of education: What I learned as a (former) conservative military man - Salon.com

My first college experience was failing half my classes at the University of Nevada Las Vegas in 1992. The highlight was getting a “D” in English 101. Like many small town kids, I was overwhelmed and underprepared. I dropped out of UNLV, joined the military and got married. Being a 20-year-old father and “enlisted” man showed me exactly how not to live, so I started a backward, fumbling and circuitous process of getting my undergraduate degree. In seven years, I attended four community colleges, a university on a military base and attended military journalism school. I pieced the whole mess into a bachelor’s degree from Excelsior College, a credit aggregator that caters to military members.

Modern conservative politics push the notion that people who flip switches, burgers or bedpans don’t need “education.”  They instead need “job training.”  In Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s budget, someone crossed out this phrase: “to extend knowledge and its application beyond the boundaries of its campuses and to serve and stimulate society.”  And added this instead: “to meet the state’s workforce needs.”  Walker backed down on the language change when it was exposed, claiming it was a “mistake.”  Really it was just one more tired attack on the idea of education as a public good, one that helps people find fulfillment and meaning

I value education more than many people, because I struggled so hard to get it. I had a bad elementary school experience, failed the fifth grade, muddled through high school and dropped out of college. Teachers were always kind to me, saying things like, “He’s clever, but lazy.” They were wrong about me, just like when Republicans are always wrong about poor people being lazy or stupid. When I failed out of college the first time I was working a full-time job far above 40 hours a week, while also going to school. I was most worried about making a living, and my skill set mirrored that of so many in the working class: Work hard, day in and day out and be grateful. Educational success has little to do with innate intelligence or “goodness” and almost everything to do with class, upbringing and privilege.

I also viewed education with suspicion bordering on paranoia. I came from a rural mining town in Nevada where I knew mostly blue-collar men who neither needed nor wanted a college education. Listening to adults talk they always had a favorite villain: the person who jumped ahead in line and got a job or promotion, only because he or she had a college degree.

[,,,]
Some people on the right are very educated. Rick Santorum holds an MBA and a JD (with honors, no less), and his vehement hatred of college seems to stem from his kooky take on religion.  Modern politics is drawing bizarre new battle lines between “family values” and a halfway decent education.  American Christians may dislike “Islam,” but they share a lot of opinions with the radical Islamic group “Boko Haram,” a name that itself translates into “education is forbidden.” In our own country, we have a massive and growing group of people who would rather have illiterate children than let their kids learn anything that contradicts their most extreme religious views.

The right’s fear of education: What I learned as a (former) conservative military man - Salon.com

Teachers not included in mandatory vaccination efforts - Local: In The Peninsula

Student vaccination rates and immunization records have been in the news for months, but important data is missing from the statistics: that of teachers and administrators who are around children five days a week.

A measles outbreak at Vista Murrieta High School in Riverside County, Calif., required the state to review student immunization records. Although the documentation with students’ vaccine information was easy to find, that of their teachers and the school’s staff was not.

“The staff was required to provide proof that they had either had measles or were immunized,” said Karen Parris, a representative for Vista Murrieta High School.

Because some of the staff is older, their records were not easily available. The California Department of Public Health worked with the school and said those born before 1957 were considered to have immunity from measles because of its prevalence in past decades.

California schools have no laws requiring teachers to provide immunization history.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there are legislation changes soon for what is required for teachers after these measles outbreaks,” said Renee Lang, the communications director for the National Association of State Boards of Education. “But no legislation has been written or proposed just yet.”

Teachers not included in mandatory vaccination efforts - Local: In The Peninsula

A Theocratic Campaign Against Public Education in South Carolina

This is an older article (2014) by Fredrick Clarkson detailing the ideology behind the Reich's war on public education. In the current piece Clarkson excerpts from an older work from 1994. Make no mistake, the underfunding of K-12 and the massive cuts experienced by universities in Kansas and Wisconsin are not a fluke but part of an overall strategy being implemented by the Reich.

Similarly, the Christian "home schooling" movement is part of the longterm revolutionary strategy of Reconstructionism. One of the principal home schooling curricula is provided by Reconstructionist [the late] Paul Lindstrom of Christian Liberty Academy (CLA) in Arlington Heights, Illinois. CLA claims that it serves about 20,000 families. Its 1994 curriculum included a book on "Biblical Economics" by Gary North. Home schooling advocate Christopher Klicka, who has been deeply influenced by R. J. Rushdoony, writes: "Sending our children to the public school violates nearly every Biblical principle.... It is tantamount to sending our children to be trained by the enemy." He claims that the public schools are Satan's choice. Klicka also advocates religious self-segregation and advises Christians not to affiliate with non-Christian home schoolers in any way. "The differences I am talking about," declares Klicka, "have resulted in wars and martyrdom in the not too distant past." According to Klicka, who is an attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association, "as an organization, and as individuals, we are committed to promote the cause of Christ and His Kingdom."

A Theocratic Campaign Against Public Education in South Carolina

Helping the Poor in Education: The Power of a Simple Nudge - NYTimes.com

There are enormous inequalities in education in the United States. A child born into a poor family has only a 9 percent chance of getting a college degree, but the odds are 54 percent for a child in a high-income family. These gaps open early, with poor children less prepared than their kindergarten classmates.

How can we close these gaps? Contentious, ambitious reforms of the education system crowd the headlines: the Common Core, the elimination of teacher tenure, charter schools. The debate is heated and sometimes impolite (a recent book about education is called “The Teacher Wars”).

Yet as these debates rage, researchers have been quietly finding small, effective ways to improve education. They have identified behavioral “nudges” that prod students and their families to take small steps that can make big differences in learning. These measures are cheap, so schools or nonprofits could use them immediately.

There are enormous inequalities in education in the United States. A child born into a poor family has only a 9 percent chance of getting a college degree, but the odds are 54 percent for a child in a high-income family. These gaps open early, with poor children less prepared than their kindergarten classmates.

How can we close these gaps? Contentious, ambitious reforms of the education system crowd the headlines: the Common Core, the elimination of teacher tenure, charter schools. The debate is heated and sometimes impolite (a recent book about education is called “The Teacher Wars”).

Yet as these debates rage, researchers have been quietly finding small, effective ways to improve education. They have identified behavioral “nudges” that prod students and their families to take small steps that can make big differences in learning. These measures are cheap, so schools or nonprofits could use them immediately.

Helping the Poor in Education: The Power of a Simple Nudge - NYTimes.com

Gov. Scott Walker seeks $300 million in university cuts, but $220 million to build Bucks a new arena

Educating Wisconsin's residents, however, is just a gigantic money drain. How does getting an education help anyone? How does having a college-educated workforce help Wisconsin, especially when compared to the revenues that could be gotten by wooing hotel visits by visiting sporting teams? No sir, you young people and educated people need to learn that we in America can no longer afford to have nice things these days. If you wanted a high-paying career or want to work in a well-appointed, state-funded venue that the politicians of the state can devote themselves to building, you should have done something decent with yourself and become a member of a prominent sporting team and/or the owner of a sporting team. You know, a real career. Grab a ball, junior, and hope you make the cut.

And this is why we cannot have nice things, and why Scott Walker will run for president on a platform of doing for the nation what he did for Wisconsin, which is to explain to all the little people that they should not expect to have nice things and then setting about to prove it to them good and hard.

Gov. Scott Walker seeks $300 million in university cuts, but $220 million to build Bucks a new arena

Home Schooling: More Pupils, Less Regulation - NYTimes.com

Until recently, Pennsylvania had one of the strictest home-school laws in the nation.

Families keeping their children out of traditional classrooms were required to register each year with their local school district, outlining study plans and certifying that adults in the home did not have a criminal record. At the end of the year, they submitted portfolios of student work to private evaluators for review. The portfolio and evaluator’s report then went to a school district superintendent to approve.

But in October, after years of campaigning by home-schooling families in the state as well as the Home School Legal Defense Association, a national advocacy group, Pennsylvania relaxed some of its requirements.

“We believe that because parents who make this commitment to teach their children at home are dedicated and self-motivated, there’s just not a real need for the state to be involved in overseeing education,” said Dewitt T. Black III, senior counsel for the Home School Legal Defense Association, which has close ties to local Christian home-school associations. Mr. Black wrote an early version of the bill that eventually passed here.

[,,,]
Pennsylvania educators fought the recent changes, which eliminated the requirement that families submit their children’s portfolios, as well as the results of standardized testing in third, fifth and eighth grade, to school district superintendents. The new law also allows parents to certify that their children have completed high school graduation requirements and to issue homegrown diplomas without any outside endorsement.


“Here we are loosening standards for a subset of students while at the same time giving them the same credential as all other students,” said Jim Buckheit, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. He noted that the home-school law had been weakened at the same time that public school students were being held to more rigorous academic standards and teachers were being judged by the performance of their students.


Home Schooling: More Pupils, Less Regulation - NYTimes.com

South Carolina Catastrophe | Americans United

Not one legitimate issue is being discussed. No education, no dealing with the poor, no improving of the infrastructure.

Issues up for discussion:

Education

• Senate Bill 24 would create tax incentives that allow parents to deduct the amount spent on private school tuition from their state income taxes.
• Senate Bill 72 would allow students to be released from public school classrooms to receive religious instruction at a private school while still receiving public school class credit.

Marriage Equality

• Senate Bill 116 would allow a government clerk to deny a same-sex couple a marriage license if the clerk objects to it for religious reasons
• House Bill 3022 would prohibit any taxpayer or public funds to go towards activities related to the licensing and support of same-sex marriage, as well as prohibiting government employees from recognizing, granting, or supporting these unions.
• Senate Concurrent Resolution 31, would call for a constitutional convention to amend the U.S. Constitution to establish that marriage is only the union of a man and a woman.
• House Bill 3150 extends past government officials. It would prohibit the government from penalizing any individual or entity that refuses to provide goods and services in connection with a same-sex marriage.
• House Joint Resolution 3135 would amend the South Carolina Constitution by removing the article that states that the only domestic union recognized is between one man and one woman.

Legislative Prayer

• Senate Bill 233 is likely a reaction to the Supreme Court case Greece v. Galloway. The bill reaffirms the ability of state and local government bodies to start a meeting with a prayer or invocation given by religious leaders, chaplains, or a public official.
• Senate Bill 127 would amend South Carolina’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to prohibit restrictions on the free exercise of speech or religion during any locality, municipality, county, or other state instrumentality proceeding.

Anti-Sharia Law Ban

• Senate Bill 101 would prevent South Carolina courts from enforcing foreign law.

Student Groups Discrimination

• Senate Bill 210 would exempt religious student organizations at public universities from anti-discrimination policies. It would require that the public institution recognize and fund religious student groups even if they discriminate against fellow students based on religious belief when determining membership and leadership.

South Carolina Catastrophe | Americans United