Justice Department sues on behalf of Muslim teacher, triggering debate

From Jerry Markon of The Washington Post on March 22:

BERKELEY, Ill. — Safoorah Khan had taught middle school math for only nine months in this tiny Chicago suburb when she made an unusual request. She wanted three weeks off for a pilgrimage to Mecca.

The school district, faced with losing its only math lab instructor during the critical end-of-semester marking period, said no. Khan, a devout Muslim, resigned and made the trip anyway.

Justice Department lawyers examined the same set of facts and reached a different conclusion: that the school district’s decision amounted to outright discrimination against Khan. They filed an unusual lawsuit, accusing the district of violating her civil rights by forcing her to choose between her job and her faith.

As the case moves forward in federal court in Chicago, it has triggered debate over whether the Justice Department was following a purely legal path or whether suing on Khan’s behalf was part of a broader Obama administration campaign to reach out to Muslims.

The decision to take on a small-town school board has drawn criticism from conservatives and Berkeley officials, who say the government should not be standing behind a teacher who wanted to leave her students.

The lawsuit, filed in December, may well test the boundaries of how far employers must go to accommodate workers’ religious practices — a key issue as the nation grows more multicultural and the Muslim population increases. But it is also raising legal questions. Experts say the government might have difficulty prevailing because the 19-day leave Khan requested goes beyond what courts have considered.

Read more.

Michelle Rhee’s agenda: Fix “broken” education system, a “bureaucracy about adults”

From the Orlando Sentinel on Jan. 10:

Michelle Rhee, now an education adviser to Gov. Rick Scott, today released her new organization’s agenda for fixing America’s “broken” education system.

Rhee, the former chancellor for Washington, D.C. schools, launched the group StudentsFirst last month to push for her brand of education reform.

Her plans, not surprisingly, mesh with many of Scott’s ideas. The two, as we noted last week, toured a charter school in Miami on Friday and announced a partnership. Rhee said other governors, including those in Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico and Tennessee are in discussions with her group as well.

Her agenda takes aim at an education system she thinks “has become, bit by bit, a bureaucracy about adults.”

Not surprisingly it quickly drew criticism from the country’s two big teachers unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. The AFT said Rhee presented a “false choice” while the NEA said her agenda “lacks facts and research” and ignores the collaboration already underway in places like Florida.

Read more.

The 12 days of winter

From fgilly on Dec. 6:

On the 5th day of winter my teacher taught to me ... DI-VERSI-TY!

DREAM Act would cost taxpayers $6.2 billion per year, group says

From Stephen Clark of Fox News on Dec. 2:

A group advocating for tighter immigration laws estimates that a hotly debated bill that would give tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who attend college or join the military a path to legal status would cost taxpayers $6.2 billion a year and "crowd out" U.S. students in the classroom.

A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies says the so-called DREAM Act, which would give more than 2 million young immigrants brought to the United States before the age of 16 a chance to become legal residents, could erode the educational opportunities available to U.S. citizens.

The report, "Estimating the Impact of the DREAM Act," comes as Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, seeks an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office of the legislation's cost before there's a vote. King, who issued a letter Wednesday afternoon to CBO, claims Senate Democrats are hiding an analysis that shows the legislation will cost upwards of $20 billion.

But Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano said Thursday the CBO scored the current version of the bill in the House as neutral.

"The cost argument really doesn't hold water anymore," she said during a conference call.

The CIS says its $6.2 billion estimate is conservative and does not include the "modest" number of illegal immigrants expected to attend private institutions. The report assumes that most illegal immigrants would attend state universities and community colleges schools where both funds and slots are limited.

Read more.

Semper fi

Proposal: Palm Beach County School District to pay fine for election law violations

From Marc Freeman of the Sun-Sentinel on Dec. 2:

The Palm Beach County School District violated state election laws and must pay a $750 fine, but Superintendent Art Johnson won't take the heat for it, according to a proposed settlement agreement.

The agreement would resolve a complaint by conservative political activist Jack Furnari, of Boca Raton, who accused Johnson and the district of distributing political materials to students and employees concerning the School Board's recent voter referendum to continue a special property tax.

"The fine should have been higher, but the school district's admission of guilt is significant," Furnari said. "Local governments have now been put on notice that using taxpayer money to produce political propaganda for any reason is forbidden."

After the Florida Elections Commission agreed last month to investigate the claim, Johnson requested negotiations for a settlement of the case.

The agreement states that the district violated state law by using public funds for a political advertisement in support of the referendum. But the settlement also dismisses the complaint against Johnson "because he did not direct the development of the flier at issue."

It's now up to the School Board to vote Wednesday on accepting the settlement, called a Consent Final Order.

Read more.

Election funds avoided limits

From Jacob Gershman of The Wall Street Journal on Nov. 13:

During the peak of the election season, the state's largest teachers union quietly channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the re-election bids of three Senate Democrats who had been targeted by the charter-school movement.

To counter a surge in independent expenditures and donations from charter advocates, New York State United Teachers created a new committee that was less restricted by campaign-finance limits than the union's political arm.

Spending more than $360,000 to help three incumbent Democrats, including Sen. Bill Perkins, defeat primary opponents, the committee didn't file its first disclosure statement until 10 days after the September primaries.

In September and October, the committee received three lump-sum contributions totaling about $370,000, according to the most recent campaign filings. Nearly all of the money went to Red Horse Strategies, a Democratic consulting firm that works closely with Senate Democrats, and was earmarked for three races. The money paid for phone-banking, mailings, fliers and other services provided by Red Horse leading up to the primary.

No one is accusing the union of violating election law. But NYSUT's maneuver is the latest indication of how independent expenditures are shaping state politics following the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Citizens United ruling, which struck down restrictions on such political spending by corporations and unions.

"NYSUT proceeded very carefully based on the record that was before us from the court, which we are confident allowed us to set up an unauthorized committee to make independent expenditures. And that's exactly what we did," said Richard Iannuzzi, the president of the union.

Still, it isn't clear how the union, which didn't publicize any major fund-raising effort, was able to generate so much money so quickly.

Read more.

Scott, Sink education plans differ greatly

From Dave Weber of the Orlando Sentinel on Oct. 29:

The direction of public education in Florida could hinge on Tuesday's election of a new governor, who will have wide influence on decisions affecting the schools.

Republican Rick Scott wants to continue former Gov. Jeb Bush's reforms and kick them up a notch.

Democrat Alex Sink says continued improvements to schools are needed, but it is time to reconsider how they should be made.

Unlike some past campaigns, education issues have played a small role in this year's race despite the power over the schools that the governor wields.

The governor appoints members of the state Board of Education who, along with an appointed commissioner, steer education. The governor can trump efforts by the Legislature to direct the schools by vetoing its proposals. And even legislation that becomes law is open to wide interpretation by the state board and commissioner who are under the governor's wing.

Although the topic has been low key, Scott and Sink each have detailed education platforms worked up in part by their closest allies on the issue.

For Scott that was former Gov. Jeb Bush's Foundation for Florida's Future, which lobbies for education reforms. The Florida Education Association, the teachers' union, had input on Sink's platform.

From the FEA's perspective, Sink's strength is her plan to involve teachers, school administrators and parents in determining such issues as merit pay plans for teachers. Many recent education reform efforts such as merit pay have been too top down and left out those most affected, said Mark Pudlow, FEA spokesman.

"It has got to be a merit pay plan that teachers can buy into and understand, and can't be based on a sole test," Pudlow said.

Pudlow said Sink also is dedicated to maintaining a public school system amid pushes to have private, charter and virtual schools replace public classrooms.

Conversely, Scott wants to ramp up more school choice options for parents, including charters. He raised some eyebrows among his backers worried that his plan to end corporate income taxes would kill funding for the Tax Credit Scholarships that allowed 32,000 low income children to go to private schools this fall.

But officials with the Foundation for Florida's Future say they have been assured that Scott will find another way to fund the scholarships.

"Rick Scott's plan to provide parents with choice and to expand virtual and online education is very good for Florida," said Patricia Levesque, executive director of the foundation.

Here are the highlights of each candidate's education platform:

Read more.

Should the American Flag Be Banned -- in America?

Your options are:

• No. This is a lame decision. Teach the kids what the flag means, instead of banning it.
• Yes. The safety of students comes first.
• Not sure, but of all things to ban, the American flag would seem the least "incendiary."
• Other.

I thought the most common answer was obvious, but apparently I'm wrong.

Based on 1,090,306 votes, the winner so far is:

Yes. The safety of students comes first.54%

Really? What do you think? Cast your vote here.