Tag Archives: education

Court: Teacher Fired Over Dolly/Miley Song Can Sue

Courthouse News reports: A federal court in Wisconsin declined to dismiss a teacher’s First Amendment retaliation claim against the school district that fired her for publishing a tweet critical of its decision to prohibit her first-graders from singing “Rainbowland” by Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton at a school concert. She has shown that her employment was terminated for exercising her …

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Mother Of Boy Who Shot VA Teacher Gets Two Years

The Associated Press reports: The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Virginia was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for felony child neglect by a judge who chastised her for abdicating her responsibilities as a parent. The sentence given to Deja Taylor by Circuit Court Judge Christopher Papile was much harsher than the maximum six-month …

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UPenn President Resigns After Antisemitism Hearing

The New York Times reports: The president of the University of Pennsylvania, M. Elizabeth Magill, resigned on Saturday, four days after she appeared before Congress and appeared to evade the question of whether students who called for the genocide of Jews should be punished. Support for Ms. Magill, already shaken in recent months over her approach to a Palestinian literary …

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Florida Sinks In New SAT Rankings To 46th Place

The Orlando Sentinel reports: New rankings show Florida students are posting some of the lowest SAT scores in America. We’re talking 46th place. Down another 17 points overall to 966, according to the combined reading and math scores shared by the College Board. Florida trails other Southern states like South Carolina and Georgia. We trail states where more students take …

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New Pennsylvania County School Board President Gets Sworn In On Stack Of Frequently Banned LGBTQ Books

The Bucks County Courier Times reports: While most of the newly sworn in members to the Central Bucks school board chose to swear their oaths on a bible, incumbent Karen Smith brought a stack of books to Monday’s meeting. Smith stood out at the Dec. 4 reorganization meeting as she took her oath of office with her hand placed on …

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Feds To Allow All Schools To Order Free COVID Tests

Axios reports: The Biden administration for the first time will allow all schools to order free COVID-19 tests from the federal government ahead of the holidays, officials told Axios first. The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), an agency within HHS, has a stockpile of hundreds of millions of COVID tests. It is teaming up with the Department of …

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Christian Home School Sells HS Diplomas For $465

The Associated Press reports: Springfield Preparatory School, bills itself as an umbrella school for Christian homeschoolers. Most students there do attend the school to work toward an education through actual classes or tutoring. However, principal Kitty Sibley Morrison is also willing to grant a diploma to anyone whose parents say they were homeschooled, even years earlier. Morrison says she is …

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Iowa School District Sorry For Nazi “Loyalty” Quote

Des Moines’ CBS affiliate reports: The superintendent of Indianola Schools is apologizing after parents say a quote tied to Nazis was included in the morning announcements. On Monday, some Indianola parents shared an email with KCCI, which appears to be the day’s middle school morning announcements. At the bottom, it included the “Respect Quote of the Day,” which was “My …

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VA School Board Rejects Safe Space For LGBTQ Kids

The Lynchburg News reports: The Lynchburg City School Board has voted not to accept a $10,000 grant from an LGBTQ-focused nonprofit, a possible temperature gauge for the board’s upcoming consideration of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s model policies on the treatment of transgender students. At its meeting Tuesday, the board voted 7-2 against accepting the grant from the nonprofit It Gets Better …

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TX House Spurns Abbott, Votes Down School Vouchers

The Texas Tribune reports: The Texas House on Friday voted to strip school vouchers from the chamber’s massive education funding bill, effectively gutting Gov. Greg Abbott’s top priority from the legislation. The House voted 84-63 in favor of an amendment offered by Rep. John Raney of College Station, which removed the provision of the bill allowing some parents to use …

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FL Fires Nonbinary Teacher For Using “Mx.” Not “Ms.”

USA Today reports: AV Vary became a teacher to help teenagers through the painful experience of growing up and to teach some science along the way. Over the course of 15 years, Vary has taught in the Orlando area and in Maryland. Most recently, Vary taught at the Florida Virtual School, a statewide online public school. But on Oct. 24, …

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AP: 70% Of Moms For Liberty Fascists Lost Their Races

The Associated Press reports: Voters in some of the highest-profile school board elections across the U.S. rebuked conservative candidates in local school board elections who want to ban books and restrict classroom conversations on race and gender. The American Federation of Teachers said candidates publicly endorsed by conservative groups such as Moms for Liberty and the 1776 Project lost about …

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Largest US Christian College Fined $37 Million By Feds

Religion News Service reports: The country’s largest Christian university is being fined $37.7 million by the federal government amid accusations that it misled students about the cost of its graduate programs. Grand Canyon University, which has more than 100,000 students, mostly in online programs, faces the largest fine of its kind ever issued by the U.S. Education Department. The university …

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WY Hate Pastor Wins Right To Harass Queer Students

Wyoming Public Radio reports A Laramie preacher has won a federal lawsuit against the University of Wyoming (UW). He had sued the university for infringing on his constitutionally protected free speech rights. Last December, Laramie Faith Community Church Elder Todd Schmidt displayed an anti-trans banner in the UW student union, identifying an individual transgender student by name. The university banned …

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Police Kill “Active Shooter” At Wisconsin Middle School

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports: An “active shooter” incident occurred at Kennedy Middle School Monday night, the Germantown Police Department said. An officer with the department said no injuries occurred at the school, but the Wisconsin Department of Justice issued a statement around midnight saying the suspected shooter was shot by Germantown officers shortly after 6:36 p.m. Police initially responded to …

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TN May Reject Federal Ed Dollars Over LGBTQ Rights

The Associated Press reports: Tennessee Republican leaders are escalating their calls to reject millions of federal dollars rather than comply with requirements over LGBTQ+ rights, abortion access and other hot-button issues. Already this year, the Volunteer State has rebuffed federal funding designed to prevent and treat HIV and money that would help clinics serving low-income women. Now, GOP lawmakers are …

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Florida Seeks To Ban “Social Activism” At Universities

The Tampa Bay Times reports: A proposed regulation aimed at restricting diversity programs and social activism at Florida’s public universities has stirred confusion, with some saying its broadly worded passages could limit free speech. A draft version being circulated for feedback says in part that universities may not spend public money on activities that “advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion” …

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Texas GOP Begins Special Session On School Vouchers

Houston’s NPR affiliate reports: Yet another special session began in Austin on Monday, this time with Governor Greg Abbott asking state lawmakers to take up school vouchers — again. Or, as Abbott calls them, education savings accounts. The vouchers would use taxpayer dollars to allow some families to send some students to private schools. In many rural districts, there are …

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Alabama Sends “Woke” Pre-K Manuals To The Dump

The Birmingham News reports: After Alabama’s governor ousted a top state official over a “woke” pre-K training manual, officials dumped dozens of the books, totaling thousands of dollars, in the trash. A photograph shows more than 100 manuals, newly bought from the National Association for the Education of Young Children, scattered across the floor of a Montgomery waste recycling plant …

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Florida County Axes All Books With LGBTQ Characters

Popular Information reports: Librarians in public schools in Charlotte County, Florida, were instructed by the school district superintendent to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from school and classroom libraries. Charlotte County school librarians sought guidance from the school district about how to apply an expansion of the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, better known as the …

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