BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG
We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
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Showing posts with label Dept of Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dept of Education. Show all posts
TWO victories for We The People in our defense of our democratic Republic against the fascist drumpf / trump-musk-vance administration, the gop / greed over people-republican party and project 2025! The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the creation of a religious charter school in Oklahoma preserving the constitutional separation of church and state. These right wing "religious" extremist can impose their "christian sharia" in their own homes and churches but not in our schools. And a judge ruled the Dept of Education can not be closed and the staff must be reinstated. We must remain vigilant as the attacks against the separation of church and state as well as the Dept of Education will continue, but these wins keep our hope alive. From NPR.....
A deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court effectively blocked the creation of the nation's first religious charter school in Oklahoma, leaving in place a state Supreme Court ruling that declared the school violated the constitutional separation of church and state.
The vote was 4-4, and the order did not specify which justice voted which way. Justice Amy Coney Barrett had recused herself from the case.
At issue in the case were two Catholic dioceses in Oklahoma that tried to establish a publicly funded Catholic school, St. Isidore of Seville, as a charter school. That move challenged both the federal charter school law and similar state laws under which charter schools are public schools that are funded by the state, closely supervised by the state, and must be nonsectarian.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the creation of a religious charter would directly contradict the state and federal constitutional bans on state-sponsored religious indoctrination.
Barrett recused herself from participating in the case. As a professor at the University of Notre Dame, she was involved with a legal clinic that advised St. Isidore.
On Thursday, a federal judge in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction blocking President Trump and U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon from carrying out Trump's executive order calling for the secretary to close the Education Department.
The judge also told the administration to reinstate Education Department employees who lost their jobs during the reduction-in-force announced on March 11 and "to restore the Department to the status quo."
NOT MY pres musk, NOT MY pres drumpf / trump, NOT MY vice pres vance, not the gop / greed over people-republican party must be challenged, fought and stopped, they do not have authorization from the electorate or from the U.S. Constitution to destroy the Dept of Education. The ACLU has taken on this battle and needs all of us to join their campaign by clicking the link below and once you have done that if you can make the timefind your representative's e mail address click here, for your senator's e mail addresses ( e mail both ) click here, to e mail the White House click here, let them know you expect them to save and maintain the Dept of Education! Share this with family, friends and co-workers.
My e mail to Senators Warner (D-VA) & Kaine (D-VA) and Rep Subramanyam (D- VA10th District)
As your constituent, I urge you to stop Donald Trump from harming students and parents by dismantling the Department of Education. By closing key offices and conducting mass layoffs, President Trump is trying to bypass Congress by effectively gutting programs enacted by Congress to protect students' education and civil liberties. You cannot let President Trump overstep his power or threaten crucial protections for students and their parents.
The Department of Education is responsible for ensuring that every child has equal access to education, regardless of race, sex, gender identity, or disability. I am deeply concerned about the impact that these cuts will have on all students, particularly on students with disabilities who would lose access to key federal programs and support. This will leave all students with less support – including for IDEA and Section 504 services, Title I funding for schools serving lower-income communities, and students needing college grants and loans.
Gutting this Department would be gutting our public education system – and leave students and educators alike with less support and fewer opportunities. Our nation is falling farther behind the rest of the industrial world because America fails to adequately fund the education of our children. Tell NOT MY pres musk, NOT MY pres drumpf / trump, NOT MY vp vance and the gop / greed over people -republican controlled congress the funding for the Dept of Education is available in the billionaire's tax cuts and you are redirecting it from there to here!
We can't afford to let the Trump administration gut the Department of Education. This is an overreach by the executive branch, and the impacts will be felt by nearly every child and parent unless Congress acts now to protect our students and the civil servants who fight for them.
Thank you,
Donald Trump promised to dismantle the Department of Education – and he just gutted it. This is a direct attack on children and parents.
This week, the Trump administration closed key offices and fired half of the Department of Education's workforce, putting millions of students' education and civil rights at risk. Congress can and must put a stop to this – and it is up to all of us to make sure they do: Send a message to your reps and tell them to protect the Department of Education now.
We knew that Trump was willing to use our very education system to push his own political agenda. Our legal team already filed a lawsuit in response to the president's threats to slash funding to schools that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
Now, Trump is blatantly attempting to bypass Congress to eliminate the government's commitment to ensuring every student – regardless of where they live, their family's income, or their race, sex, gender identity, or disability – has equal access to education.
This reckless move will make it much harder for students to seek justice when their rights are violated – and also puts key federal grant programs at risk, including IDEA funding for students with disabilities, federal student loan programs, and Title I funding for schools serving low-income communities.
The administration has already cut the agency’s workforce by nearly half. Totally shutting down the agency would require congressional action.
President Donald Trump is set to sign a much-anticipated executive order Thursday aimed at closing the Education Department, the White House said, though administration officials have acknowledged that shuttering the agency would require congressional approval.
A White House fact sheet to be released Thursday says the executive order will direct Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps” to facilitate the closure of the department “and return education authority to the States.”
The order has been expected for weeks. Trump campaigned on a promise to close the department and slash its budget. Already, the agency has reduced its workforce by nearly half, mostly through layoffs, and worked to cancel dozens of grants and contracts.
During her Senate confirmation hearing, McMahon agreed with Democrats that only Congress, which created the department in 1979, can close the agency. But McMahon suggested moving some functions to other government agencies, a decision experts say would also require congressional approval. Closing the agency or transferring operations that are assigned to it by law would require 60 yes votes in the Senate, something considered highly unlikely given Republicans hold 53 seats.
Any effort to close the department or move its functions without congressional approval is expected to face legal challenges.
Trump has repeatedly cast the effort to reduce the federal footprint as returning education to the states. In fact, education has long been the responsibility of state and local governments, which provide about 90 percent of the funding and set most of the rules. The department does not dictate curriculum or have a hand in most school policies.
White House spokesman Harrison Fields said in a statement that the order “will empower parents, states and communities to take control and improve outcomes for all students.” The order is expected to reference low test scores as justification for reducing the federal role. But administration officials have not explained how reducing the federal role in education will improve outcomes.
The Education Department administers federal grant programs, including the $18.4 billion Title I program that provides supplemental funding to high-poverty K-12 schools, as well as the $15.5 billion IDEA program that helps cover the cost of education for students with disabilities. And the department oversees the $1.6 trillion federal student loan program and sets rules for what colleges must do to participate.
A senior administration official said Wednesday that these programs, which make up the bulk of the Education Department’s budget and work, “will NOT be touched.” It’s not clear what that means or how the White House expects significant change without touching those programs. McMahon has said she does not support cutting federal spending on Title I or IDEA.
The fact sheet also accuses the Biden administration of using the Education Department to press an ideological agenda, such as promoting racial equity programs and barring schools from discrimination based on gender identity. But the Trump administration has done that in the opposite direction, with its own limits on how schools can address issues of race and gender.
The executive order also will repeat the administration’s directive that no program that advances diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) or “gender ideology” receive Education Department funding.
USA Today first reported that the president plans to sign the order Thursday.
National Education Association President Becky Pringle said Trump’s order would gut programs that impact all students. “If successful, Trump’s continued actions will hurt all students by sending class sizes soaring, cutting job training programs, making higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle class families, taking away special education services for students with disabilities, and gutting student civil rights protections,” she said.
Maegan Vazquez, Natalie Allison and Cat Zakrzewski contributed to this report.
There have been bears visiting a few times this year at my mom's house in Scandia, PA. Very cool no matter where you see them as long as it is not a surprise for them and you know how to act and react around them. Followed by the rest of the stories in the NPR daily news letter for 3 JUL 18.
You may be just a few hours away from the Fourth of July holiday. Now, may we present to you a video of a bear that is truly channeling the spirit of a mellow summer BBQ.
This encounter happened on Friday afternoon, just as Mark Hough of Altadena, Calif., was settling into a relaxing margarita. Suddenly, a bear appeared in his backyard.
It could have been a terrifying event — until Hough noticed the bear had lowered itself into his hot tub and was having a "grand old time," he told The Associated Press. He started filming.
Video of a bear lounging in a California hot tub only tells part of the story. Read more of the margarita-lapping bear's antics here: http://apne.ws/rXRAhG2
The bear splashes around in the sunshine and appears to dunk its face in a jet, plays with the chlorinator and munches on flowers.
After that, Hough tells the AP, the ursine bather "popped out of the bushes, walked right over to the margarita, knocked it over and lapped it."
The bear was spotted a short time later in a tree, perhaps sleeping it off. "So he had his margarita, he had his Jacuzzi, and now he's ready for an hour nap," Hough said.
Mounting evidence suggests coffee — including decaf — is totally good for you. For instance, coffee drinkers have a lower risk of early death. (Quick, someone tell Mugs of NPR!)
The president promised voters he’ll put only pro-life justices on the Supreme Court … and now says he doesn’t have a litmus test. Yes, the president changes his mind with some frequency, but NPR’s Ron Elving says that’s not what’s happening this time.
Fifty years ago, the pope declared artificial birth control “intrinsically wrong.” But most American Catholics think contraception is A-OK. Has the disconnect changed how Catholics view the church?
The missing Thai soccer team has been found alive (!) in a flooded cave system (!!) more than a week after they went missing (!!!) … but they’re still trapped (!!!!). Rescuers are sending supplies and trying to figure out how to get them out safely. Stay tuned.
IN THE NEWS: Digging deeper
Flawed Teachers' Grant Program Is Still Mired In Mistakes
The Education Department is reviewing what happened with a federal program that was intended to supply grants to teachers who agreed to teach a high-need subject in a school that serves low-income families. The federal grant is supposed to help the teachers pay for college or graduate school. NPR has reported that, to their shock, thousands of teachers learned their grants were converted into loans, which they're expected to pay back. Many teachers can't afford to pay back the loans.
Now NPR has learned that the government ordered an outside company to fix the problem for teachers whose grants were wrongly converted. This effort was led by the company whose mistakes caused the problem in the first place. So the Education Department hired a second company to repair the problem, but it turns out that this effort crashed, too. And that's on top of the discovery that thousands more teachers were affected by the surprise loan conversions than initially believed.
A group of 19 U.S. senators has now written Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, citing NPR's reporting and demanding that the mistakes be fixed. The Education Department has released a statement, saying it's "committed to improving this program, and is currently reviewing all aspects of its administration of the program to ensure that we provide students who want to teach in underserved communities the resources and support they need." But the agency is telling affected teachers to call the student loan ombudsman office.
If you believe you’ve been affected, you can also reach out to NPR reporters to share your story — details are at the bottom of our latest piece.
POP QUIZ!
What country makes the vast majority of fireworks used in the U.S.? Boom. Which country supplies the most humanitarian aid in the world? Give it a go.
BEFORE YOU GO
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Flags will be flown at half-staff to honor the victims of the Capital Gazette shooting — after a request for the honor was initially denied.
Actor Steven Seagal and Russian President Vladimir Putin are BFFs. How’d that happen? Meet matchmaker Bob Van Ronkel, the “Forrest Gump” of U.S.-Russia relations.
DEET, definitely. Citronella? Nah. Perfume? Actually … yeah. Just in time for your holiday barbecue, here are the mosquito repellents that actually work.
The news never stops, but the newsletter is taking tomorrow off to throw some pork ribs (for Korva) and veggie burgers (for Camila) on the barbecue. Happy July 4! Send news tips, grilling tips, or any other tips that come to mind tocdomonoske@npr.org.
