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Everything posted by bolverk
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The destruction of America's public education system
bolverk replied to Captainant's topic in Cloak Room
Texas Senate panel advances bill requiring Ten Commandments in classrooms The committee also gave initial approval to a bill that would allow prayer in schools. A Texas Senate committee on Tuesday advanced bills that would require public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments and allow districts to provide students with time to pray during school hours. The vote sends the two bills to the full Senate for consideration and is the latest sign of confidence by conservative Christians that courts will codify their opposition to church-state separation into federal law and spark a revitalization of faith in America. That much was clear throughout the hearing, as supporters and some lawmakers argued that the legislation would reverse what they see as decades of national, moral decline. “Our schools are not God-free zones,” said Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Galveston Republican who authored the school prayer bill and has argued that church-state separation is not real. “When prayer was taken out of our schools, things started to go downhill in America.” The vote comes amid a broader push by conservative Christians to infuse more religion into public schools and life. In just the last few years, state Republicans have required classrooms to hang donated signs that say “In God We Trust”; allowed unlicensed religious chaplains to supplant mental health counselors in public schools; and approved new curriculum materials that teach the Bible and other religious texts alongside grade-school lessons. Last month, Texas senators also approved legislation that would allow public taxpayer money to be redirected to private schools, including parochial schools. Those efforts have come as the Texas GOP increasingly embraces ideologies that argue America’s founding was God-ordained, and its institutions and laws should thus reflect fundamentalist Christians views. Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers and leaders have continually elevated once-fringe claims that the wall between church and state is a myth meant to obscure America’s true, Christian roots. The argument has been popularized by figures such as David Barton, a Texas pastor and self-styled “amateur historian” whose work has been frequently debunked by trained historians, many of them also conservative Christians. Barton and his son, Timothy Barton, were both invited to testify in favor of the bills on Tuesday. Citing old documents and textbooks that mention the Ten Commandments, they argued that Christianity is the basis for American law and morality, and that their inclusion in classrooms would prevent societal ill such as gun violence. “It used to be there was a very clear moral standard that we could point to,” Timothy Barton testified, calling it “ironic” that children can be arrested for breaking the law — and thus, he said, the Ten Commandments — but that they should not be able to read them in schools. Other bill supporters and lawmakers said that there was a moral and spiritual imperative to introduce children to Christianity. Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, cited a study that found around 25% of children have been to church. “It’s absolutely horrific, and something we all need to work on to address,” he said. Other lawmakers similarly invoked declining Christian participation as a reason to support the bills. “There is eternal life,” said Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels. “And if we don’t expose or introduce our children and others to that, then when they die, they’ll have one birth and two deaths.” Texas is one of 16 states where lawmakers are pursuing bills to require the Ten Commandments in classrooms — pushes that supporters say have been enabled by recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions. In 2019’s Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, for instance, the court ruled in favor of a Washington state football coach, Joe Kennedy, who argued that his employer, a public high school, was violating his religious rights by prohibiting him from leading prayers on the field after games. Kennedy was among those who testified in support of the Texas bills on Tuesday. He was joined by Matt Krause, a former state House representative and current lawyer at First Liberty Institute, a Texas-based law firm that represented Kennedy and other high-profile plaintiffs in lawsuits that have allowed for more Christianity in public life. The Kennedy case, Krause testified, was a “huge paradigm shift” that allowed for the Ten Commandments to be in classrooms because of its historical significance to American law and history. Asked about the recent court decision that blocked a similar Louisiana law, Krause said he expected the Texas bill would be upheld if it were taken to the ultraconservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and, after that, the U.S. Supreme Court. The bills have been strongly opposed by religious history scholars and some Christian groups, who argue that they are based on mischaracterizations of early American history and amount to a coercion of religion upon students. Opponents also say that the Ten Commandments bill diminishes a sacred text by stripping it of its religious nature, and that introducing more Christianity into schools will exacerbate tensions and isolate Texas’ growing number of non-Christian students. “Since 2021, this Legislature has used its authority to impose increasingly divisive policies onto school districts, banning culturally relevant curriculum, forcing libraries to purge undesirable books and putting teachers into the crosshairs of overzealous critics,” said Jaime Puente of the nonprofit Every Texan. The bills “are two giant pieces of red meat that will further harm our schools.” Christian opponents also testified that the bills would erode church-state separations — a cause that has historically been championed by Baptists and other denominations that faced intense religious persecution in early America. “All Baptists are called to protect the separation of church and state,” said Jody Harrison, an ordained minister and leader of Baptist Women in Ministry. “Is it really justice to promote one type of Christianity over all schoolchildren?” Harrison’s comments were strongly opposed by Campbell, the senator. “The Baptist doctrine is Christ-centered,” she said. “Its purpose is not to go around trying to defend this or that. It is to be a disciple and a witness for Christ. That includes the Ten Commandments. That’s prayer in schools. It is not a fight for separation between church and state.” -
A surprisingly well-researched and well-written article in the Statesman about a pretty thoughtful-sounding cisgender male state employee with exemplary performance reviews getting fired (legally questionable on First Amendment grounds) for refusing to delete his pronouns from his sig-line in emails. Employee refused to remove pronouns from email signature. A Texas agency fired him for it. “I could not, in good conscience, contribute to those actions in any way — no matter how small," Zamora told the Statesman. "I'm talking about pronouns," Frank Zamora says of being fired for using "He/Him" on an email signature because he was born male and identifies as such. "That someone should be fired over it, that it's become this politicized and this weaponized, is not only ridiculous, but a little bit laughable.” At the same time, the 32-year-old feels his firing and the agency directive bear a sense of the absurd. “There have been multiple occasions when I stop and I ask myself, 'Is this really happening?’” he said in an interview two weeks after he was fired. “I mean, I'm talking about pronouns. That someone should be fired over it, that it's become this politicized and this weaponized, is not only ridiculous, but a little bit laughable.” **** Two weeks after being fired, Zamora doesn’t regret his decision. He said that, although the directive "wasn’t the largest-scale attack on trans and nonbinary voices" in Texas, it was an opportunity to stand up for those who might feel erased by the policy. He cited a peer-reviewed study by the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, which found that states that passed anti-trans laws on average saw a 72% increase in suicide attempts among trans and nonbinary youth. "If we continue this rhetoric of trans erasure, then we are playing a very dangerous game with the lives of our children,” he said. In contrast, Zamora said, he doesn't see how his display of pronouns "presents any kind of danger to public correspondence."
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Tough time with all of them but struggled through. Wordle 1,355 5/6 🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩⬛⬛🟨⬛ 🟩⬛🟩⬛⬛ 🟩⬛🟩🟩⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #633 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟩🟪 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🙂 Daily Quordle 1136 4️⃣9️⃣ 6️⃣7️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ 🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟨 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩 🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜🟨🟩🟩 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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AOC livestream on IG: https://www.instagram.com/aoc/live/?broadcast_id=18292736905245002
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If anyone wants to watch Slotkin (MI) give the Dem response: https://www.pbs.org/livestream/
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I refuse to watch, but I want to know what's being said. I figure that's the same for a bunch of us in this thread, so I'm just reposting updates for others to also know.
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Not much leadership among the Dems, and you know what they say, "Nature abhors a vacuum."
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