Anne Lutz Fernandez

School Vouchers and the Threat to Religious Freedom Using school vouchers to weaken the wall between church and state

Don't let your state take a bribe to introduce a mechanism that provides tax breaks for the wealthy, tuition for well-off parents with kids already in private schools, forced tithing by taxpayers to religious institutions, discrimination, and the breakdown of the wall between church and state.

Democrats weigh Trump school vouchers, with billions at stake Democratic governors, under pressure, must decide whether to participate in the new federal voucher program, which offers dollars for public and private school students.

The money is not worth it. Make sure your governor hears from you.

“Those who’ve chosen Anthropic as a pro-democracy signifier should reconsider…not only is it far from an ethical company, but it embodies the very worst, most corrosive aspects of AI’s impacts on modern society, from creative exploitation to political opportunism to, yes, military lethality.” 🙏🏼

It is being heavily marketed especially to special education teachers (& parents) to WRITE IEPS. There's no universe in which I'd agree to my son's entire medical history, cognitive & school evals being input into an LLM. 1/

"Burn Order," the new @ms.now podcast from @maddow.bsky.social on Japanese American internment in WWII, is gripping, dramatic ...

𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨.

Read my review at densho.org/catalyst/mul...

#skystorians #lawsky #history #bluesky #podcasts

Father of Georgia school shooter found guilty of murder and manslaughter | CNN Colin Gray, the father of Georgia school shooter Colt Gray, was found guilty of murder and manslaughter charges Tuesday in a case testing the limits of who is responsible for a mass shooting.

"Teachers Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo were killed."

The jury rejects the passive voice.

And then move on to Cuba.

Another American War of Choice The US launched another war of choice in the Middle East and everyday people are paying the cost

"...our sympathies should be with the civilians across the region who are being killed, injured, and displaced in this conflict. Whatever governments decide, it is ordinary families, children, and workers who bear the immediate and irreversible cost."

unallowable pet expenses

Milton Friedman argued parents, if given govt $ to spend on education, would invest in kids' human capital. His model excluded pets.

Drawn from multiple ESA accounts, some of my favorite pet expenditures. Did you know they make wrinkle cream for bulldogs & frenchies? Or that dog DNA kits exist?

More here:

Special Education Law Needs Reform | National Review Growing rosters and excessive accommodations are making special education less effective for students who truly need it.

As part of its authoritarian project, MAGA is working to make K-12 school discipline more harsh to force fear and conformity upon children. It's the subtext of many of their policies. It's part of the text here: "reform" of special ed means budget cuts but also making harsh discipline easier.

There has been and continues to be an amazing show of naivete by so many about how AI might "democratize" knowledge and learning. But it's what happens when you worship at the altar of technology.

For all the "They'll be surprised when they accidentally ban the Bible" and "They won't like it when they have to fund Islamic schools" people: they have always been and remain prepared for that.

Texas sued over excluding Islamic schools in voucher program The federal lawsuit argues Texas officials are engaging in religious discrimination by preventing Islamic private schools from accessing state voucher money.

They will find every way they can to make sure their voucher programs give them what they want and only what they want: tax breaks for the wealthy and private school for Christians.

because some parents are men

How have crime rates in the United States changed over the last 50 years? Both violent and property crime are far below their 1990s peak, but some crimes see periodic rises.

Looking at the 2024 crime figures, it's absolutely insane how Trump, tech billionaires, and centrist pundits fooled everyone into thinking Biden had turned the U.S. into some Hobbesian hellscape.

50-year lows for violent crime, armed robbery, property crime. Second-lowest homicide rate.

Arizona’s voucher system has so little oversight that parents are using the taxpayer funding for personal/intimate products.

Many people’s HSA wouldn’t even cover this.

Reminder: parents have to keep their kids out of public school to be eligible to spend this

Sadly relevant again too soon based on what I saw last evening on MSNOW.

Authoritarianism Feeds on a Bloated Military Budget | Common Dreams Squeezed domestic spending and extravagant military spending have widened inequality, with dire consequences for democracy.

...which taken together has helped bring us to where we are, a nation run by fascists able and willing to wage war everywhere at home and abroad.

...It's also that how we pay for wars -- through debt -- leads to higher economic and social inequality in war's aftermath...

The President’s FY 2026 Discretionary Budget Request

...with just 25% of Trump’s 2026 budget request left for Americans’ other needs, including transportation, housing, disaster response, cancer research, education, and more...

Trump’s Budget: Starving Everything Except the Military Donald Trump’s federal budget for 2026 would funnel more money to the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security — and proposes deep cuts to almost everything else.

...it should be enough because we're at the point where three-quarters of US discretionary spending goes to war-making...

War Is Expensive for the Little People Operation Epic Fury will cost billions that could have been put to much better use

It's not just how much we spend on stupid and deadly wars and not just about how we could spend it instead, though that should be enough...🧵

😞

If you're not following @costsofwar.bsky.social, now is a good time.

ProPublica Sues Education Department for Withholding Records About Discrimination in Schools Under Secretary Linda McMahon, the work of the Office for Civil Rights, which aims to protect students from discrimination, is cloaked in secrecy.

ProPublica has sued the U.S. Department of Education
W/ @jsmithrichards.bsky.social

www.propublica.org/article/educ...

well-being = conform to the market
authority = conform to parents and political leaders
self-respect = conform to society
providence - conform to the church

Then at the end they remind everyone that vouchers and charters aren't enough, right-wing propaganda needs to be in the public schools. Beautiful.

Yeah, no shit.

"I would just add that [H]eritage has, we have model legislation for state policymakers and school boards on what civics education should look like."