Friday Snippets: 3/14/08 - Drug Testing and Deer Urine

Here are the Friday Snippets for March 14 - 2008:

The outrage against the California ruling against Homeschoolers begins ... and continues .. (this is not going away any time soon folks) ... and the California Department of Education reassures them nothing is going to change.

Kentucky is moving forward on anti-bullying legislation. (See my video on Indiana's Anti-Bulling Policy at Edjurist Media)

According to this article, a 1/4 of all foundation spending goes to education. (Really?)

Ahh ... parent-teacher conferences ... I remember them ... fondly? (One of my least favorite things about teaching. The format is all wrong.)

Apparently putting deer urine in air vents makes students sick (yes I am one of those that has intentionally put deer urine on myself in the past, it is accepted behavior in some parts of the country, believe it or not).

The election is filtering into high schools.

Some Florida State Senators are tired of kids wearing baggy pants.

Illinois likes charters in Chicago and wants more ... at the expense of "downstate" (as a native Southern Illinoisan, that is the most insulting term).

A Judge in New Orleans hears a controversial desegregation case.   

Strickland and Zelman go at it in Ohio.

Texas considers second chance ... vouchers?

And ... George Carlin riffs on Education in this video (and pensions and power and ... well, its George Carlin) (warning - explicit).

And in the Ed. Law Blogosphere:

First, Mark Walsh has the scoop on the big news out of Washington State where the Supreme Court has ruled against random drug testing of student athletes ... something the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed.

And Mark has also been doing a great job following Louisville's reconstituted racial diversity plan, which won a legal challenge this week.

Jim Castagnera at the Higher Ed Law Prof Blog has a series on Harassment and Hazing. #1, #2, #3, #4

The Butt-Artist case has settled, Jonathan Becker reports at the Gate.

Jon also has a cool look at the digital horse race between states.

You thought national standards were bad, well David Hoff reports that some folks are murmuring about International Standards. (and see AfterEd News second story on the issue).

Mitchell Rubinstein criticizes another IDEA ruling
that fails to award money damages to the special education students and
parents ... even when the school openly admits they are wrong.

Michelle McNeil reports that Sen. McCain may finally be getting a little more help on education - which he desperately needs (check out his autism statements at Education Election.)

And
finally ... sorry ... I am going to waste a lot of your time here, but
I was excited about it ... so ... Full Episodes of the Office (and
other NBC programs) are now available online. Now I will never get the
dissertation done!

Google Document Link: Friday Snippets 3/14/08