Supreme Court Overturns Roe and Miranda Rights

Diane Ravitch's blog

As expected, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which stood for half a century as a guarantee of women’s reproductive rights. About half or more states have already passed or are about to pass laws banning abortions, even for women who were victims of rape or incest, even for women whose life is in danger. The “right to life” so prized by anti-abortion activists does not include the life of the woman.

As was not quite so expected, the Supreme Court gutted the Miranda rights of people who are arrested. Police may fail to tell prisoners of their legal rights, including their right to remain silent.

The Trump Court is remaking and redefining the law in a radical way. There is nothing “conservative” about their willingness to toss out precedent. There is something very radical about the jackhammer they are using to change social and legal norms.

Women…

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NC Charter School Mandate, “Skirts for Girls as Fragile Vessels,” a No-No.

deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

On June 14, 2022, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, “On Rehearing En Banc” (meaning by the entire full court of judges “when there is a particularly significant issue at stake”), decided that a North Carolina charter school could not require female students to wear skirts even as it allowed male students to wear more functional, less restrictive pants.

The Court ruled that doing so violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

Brought by two parents of minor children attending North Carolina’s Charter Day School (CDS) in 2015, the 103-page Peltier case demonstrates the slippery manner in which charter schools present themselves as “public schools” when doing so benefits the organization, yet when being a public organization is not beneficial, the same charter school is willing to argue that it is a private entity and therefore exempt from accountability mechanisms used for oversight of public schools.

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Florida: Synagogue Sues to Overturn Abortion Law Because It Violates Religious Freedom

Diane Ravitch's blog

A synagogue in Florida has sued the state of Florida to overturn the recently passed abortion law because it violates the freedom of religion of the members of its synagogue.

The law bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A new Florida law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks with some exceptions violates religious freedom rights of Jews in addition to the state constitution’s privacy protections, a synagogue claims in a lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed by the Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor of Boynton Beach contends the law that takes effect July 1 violates Jewish teachings, which state abortion “is required if necessary to protect the health, mental or physical well-being of the woman” and for other reasons.

“As such, the act prohibits Jewish women from practicing their faith free of government intrusion and this violates their privacy rights and religious freedom,” says the lawsuit, filed Friday in Leon…

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Do Parents Really Want Control Over What Students Learn?

It hasn’t happened yet in my school district, but it could be coming soon. Knowing what to look for and expect is the best way to prepare for it, if it does. This article helps with that preparation.

Teacher in a strange land

What’s driving the screaming matches at local school board meetings—the ones where organized parent groups show up to have their say about everything from critical race theory to bulletproof doors?

There are a lot of overlapping factors: A nation that’s bitterly divided. The pandemic we’re still dealing with, and its impact on children. Racism, sexism and the fear of losing “rights.” Gun violence. The political upheaval resulting in an insurrection, which played out live, on national TV.

And, of course, money and support from outside sources and organizations, which perceive these ongoing crises as an opportunity to chip away at public education.

I’m no stranger to parent-led fireworks at Board meetings. I’ve witnessed verbal storms over sex education and teacher strikes and girls who wanted to lift weights with the wrestling team.

During my second year of teaching, in October, the School Board decided to lay off 20 teachers (including…

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The Moral Collapse of Today’s Republican Party

Diane Ravitch's blog

Peter Wehner, once a loyal and very conservative Republican, now excoriates the moral collapse of the GOP.

He writes in The Atlantic:

The sheer scale of Donald Trump’s depravity is unmatched in the history of the American presidency, and the Republican Party—the self-described party of law and order and “constitutional conservatives,” of morality and traditional values, of patriotism and Lee Greenwood songs—made it possible. It gave Trump cover when he needed it. It attacked his critics when he demanded it. It embraced his nihilistic ethic. It amplified his lies. When House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy—a man who for a few fleeting hours after the January 6 insurrection dared to speak critically of Donald Trump—traveled to Mar-a-Lago a few days later to kiss his ring, it was an act of self-abasement that was representative of his party, his morally desolate party.

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David Taylor: Why Not Classify Guns the Way We Classify Drugs?

Diane Ravitch's blog

Retired educator David Taylor, who lives in Texas, has a novel idea for improving gun safety: classify guns.

Classify guns the way the government classifies drugs, with appropriate restrictions.

He begins:

In 1970, the government passed the Federal Controlled Substance Act. “The goal of the Controlled Substances Act is to improve the manufacturing, importation and exportation, distribution, and dispensing of controlled substances.” It has now been over 50 years since this act was passed. In recent years. there has been some refining of it processes and procedures. Schedule I and Schedule drugs are the most highly regulated. Pharmacy are required to keep a database of users and prescriptions issued.

I’m not sure why this is not possible with firearms. I know the answer is money, politics and the gun lobby.

The broad categories of guns are

1. Revolvers
2. Handguns
3. Rifles
4. Shotguns
5. Machine Guns
6. Assault Rifles

If there were scheduled…

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Glen Beck Accuses North Carolina Schools of Sexually “Grooming” Kindergartners

Diane Ravitch's blog

Many people have pointed out—since the brutal massacre of little children and their teachers in Uvalde—the absurdity of the anti-critical race theory campaign and of the efforts to frighten parents about “pedophile teachers” grooming children to be transgender. These are phony propaganda ploys meant to undermine public schools, where dedicated teachers are doing their best to educate children every day. Someone is paying to frighten parents, and we can guess who.

Just when you thought that the attack on public schools couldn’t get more bizarre and extreme, along comes rightwing provocateur Glenn Beck with an outrageous slander against the public schools of North Carolina.

In this linked video, Beck asserts that public schools are “grooming” little children to become transgender. You will see him present “documents,” but the pieces of paper do not identify any school or district. They supposedly ask children as young as kindergarten to identify their gender…

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Videos Attacking Disney and Pearson for Sexually “Grooming” Children

Diane Ravitch's blog

The same organization that produced the Glen Beck video in the previous post also produced videos attacking the Disney Corporation and Pearson for their alleged role in “grooming” children to change their gender identity.

With the recent rash of horrific school shootings, you would think that these zealots could think of better uses for their time and resources.

How about making videos about the need for gun control? Reduced class sizes? Health clinics in school for families?

No, these people are obsessed with sex. That’s all they think about.

The good news is that parents are on to them. They don’t love Pearson, but they love their teachers. They are not fooled by nutty propaganda.

The Destroy Public Education crowd is in league with some seriously whacky people.

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What Teachers Do

deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

This week, I mended school uniform pants for three students.

I fed a student who missed the opportunity to buy breakfast.

I shuffled an already hectic weekend schedule to make time to attend the senior play because it mattered so much to one particular student.

I bought a little congratulatory treat for each of my seniors who participated in what was a wonderful production of Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz.

And I used part of my weekend to do school work.

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There are Lies and Then There are Breitbart Lies

Uncommon Sense

The Breitbart internet “news” site ran a story claiming a Virginia boy committed suicide because of COVID mandates and critical race theory.

They left out a few things, for example, that the boy had graduated from high school the year before the pandemic broke out and that his school doesn’t teach Critical Race Theory.

Here are the details: Breitbart Claim: Boy Kills himself due to Critical Race Theory and COVID Mandates

If the freedom of the press shall not be infringed, what about the freedom to lie through the press? Is that protected, too?

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