Weekend Snippets - March, 2009: Gender Segregation

Some snippets for your weekend perusal: 

Anti-Bullying Debate in North Carolina and Oregon. Popular, popular, popular. 

Here in Kentucky, if the legislators can negotiate it in confernece, it looks like we may get a new testing package. We are also possibly eliminating tenure at our community colleges. 

A Washington appellate court upholds a lower court decision denying relief to school districts in a special education finance case. But, Washington does move forward on its school finance reform in the Legislature. And, just one more from Washington, a community college there denies a student's request to post anti-abortion signs - student sues. 

A New York Times article on gender segregation in schools. 

Changes to Hartford, CT's school choice policy angers parents. 

An Illinois School Funding Q and A. 

South Carolina advances on their student - teacher sex law. 

And, Montana is moving toward a pretty big distance learning program. Nice to see rural states getting on board with this. 

Weekend Fun: The Dow was UP for the week. Can't believe it.  

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Weekend Snippets - What's In A Name

NCLB will likely get a new name.

Like universities, K-12 schools have resorted to recruiting students to stabilize budgets.

University of Arizona's College of Education is one of the first I have seen to go to program cuts.

Georgia's voucher proposal gets through it's first hurdle.

Gearing up for a second Georgia school funding lawsuit.

Districts with tax caps are struggling this year all over the place. But those that tied it to the Consumer Price Index are especially hurting.

Think your state's Board of Education is wacky ... Connecticut just put a WWE executive on their Board.

Illinois will appeal the Moment of Silence ruling. Good - that will make for some good caselaw.

UK College of Ed. graduate (yeah, yeah ... a little promotion) Ted Strickland seeks to change Ohio's school funding formula.

Texas is thinking of allowing concealed weapons on its college campuses ... um, no? These are the dumbest proposals.

The Supreme Court denied cert. to the Boyd County student that challenged a policy limiting criticism against homosexuality.

Tennessee is thinking about strengthening their anti-bullying law.

Weekend Fun: Kid is starting to get this online thing, so I have been spending a little time on PBSkids.org. Not so sure it will be fun for you, but it is fun for your kids.

Weekend Snippets - Now I Get It

Built a home office this weekend, so hopefully I can get a lot more weekend work done, including the snippets. Let's go ...

Corruption like this with these massive teacher pension systems always scares me.

Time to talk tuition hikes again. It will be interesting to see what the bad economy does to them. University budgets are thin, but its pretty bad PR to put out a 10% tuition hike.

Iowa, whose schools are becoming a little techy with all those Scott McLeod lectures, debates a potential cell-phone ban.

Minnesota considers a 18 year compulsory education law.

HBCU's are under assault. With a good friend of mine teaching at an HBCU by choice, I really feel for those poor professors.

Indiana is thinking of background checking everyone that has a relationship with the school.

If you haven't noticed, there is quite the education fight going on in Ohio. Here's the latest report that is against the Governor's plan.

Louisiana is starting to pay a price for its ultra conservative turn of recent years. Oklahoma City, though, I guess is safe for science conferences.

New Jersey is considering having criminal records follow students like academic records in school transfers.

Here is a bad, bad headline if you are a teacher. Just simply can't lose the PR war like this.

Autism only charter schools? Interesting idea. Not sure how that fits with the Least Restrictive Environment provision, but interesting nonetheless.

And your weekend fun: Wow, why couldn't they just explain the economic problem like this in the first place? Leave it to a graduate student I suppose ... 

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Weekend Snippets: What Should I Do With the Snippets?

I am trying to figure out what to do with the snippets, as my Friday's are becoming increasingly packed with meetings. I got a few ideas, but I would like to hear from all of you about what you think I should do. Whether you prefer the snippets on Friday or some other day, or not at all. I would love to pass this off to a graduate student, but I don't have a graduate student ... yet. So, especially any graduate students out there across the country that might be interested should contact me.

Anyway, a few for the weekend.

Ohio may be the next to ban corporal punishment. Not sure why states are so slow to adopt these.

I like this parent leave bill in Colorado. This could actually help the schools quite a bit.

Being a former Saluki, I am especially pleased by this announcement.

Georgia gets a voucher bill - although I'm unsure of it support.

A sign of the times at William and Mary (in honor of Scott McLeod - an alumnus).

Another state cyberbullying law proposal.

But, a proposal in Connecticut for more due process for students labeled bullies.

A little fun: Starting to Get Ready for the Derby. It's a little early, but you gotta like Midshipman's record, but I am not sure how that trip to Dubai will wear on him. Had he stayed in the States, he would be looking like a favorite at this point.

Friday Snippets - 1/30-09: Give me some.

The Stimulus has $12 billion in stopgap funding to keep schools operating and another $100 billion or so for other purposes. And, this week, every state started trying to claim their share. Just check your local paper, it's pretty much in every one. Here is a NY Times summary.

Also, Duncan agrees that Title I and IDEA are vastly underfunded (quite a change from the previous administration).

"This is righting a historical injustice, a historical wrong," he said. "These have been desperately underfunded, in some cases for decades."

A new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality this week has most states failing in their teacher policies. I'm not sure why every report has to have a "failing" and passing metric. It's silly.

Indiana is considering a teacher immunity law. I think that is a good idea. I really prefer states have a clear teacher immunity policy rather than letting courts define some ambigious policy that manifested itself out of the soverign immunity doctrine.

The protest over education budgets cuts speads beyond California to Arizona.

Maine's school consolidation mandate is not going that smoothly.

Teachers in Michigan can't challenge the schools' disciplinary decisions for students in court.

A teacher residency program (think medical school) in Ohio?

Virginia's legislature wants to give special education students a year (fed. req. 90 days) to appeal their special education hearing decisions to court.

The NAACP in Mississippi takes a stand against accountability provisions. Sort of nice to see - I wish they would take a larger role in a lot more states. I think they have a very good point in this case and it is good to hear it coming from them - as I think people assume AA groups are happy with more stringent accountability provisions typically.

Mississippi is also considering a sex-education mandate - currently none exists.

What happens when an Ed.D. is elected governor? This, for one.

The Oregon Supreme Court rejects a school funding lawsuit.

And, I don't really know how this happened, but cursive writing has really become a hot topic in the past few weeks. I don't write in cursive whatsoever.

For your Friday Fun: Learn to Change, Change to Learn - taken from Dr. McLeod's Oklahoma presentation.

Friday Snippets - 1/23/08 - A Moment of Silence for the Moment of Silence

First, sorry to go Saturday style on you again, but I was busy yesterday and I wanted to be sure that everyone read Rich Haglund's posts on time in law and education. You can read the whole scholarly series here.

Alright, let's do it:

Call me Arne.

Texas decides that teachers don't need to address the weaknesses of the scientific theory anymore.

Why I love the Internet ... everyday folks can help everyday folks. Here, sharing info on legislation in Alabama.

Enough is enough for desegregation money in Arkansas?

School bus seat belts get closer in Wyoming.

Illinois' moment of silence law ruled unconstitutional.

Interesting article on sex offenders and school boards.

Schools should teach about the benefits of marriage?

Utah is considering getting rid of its state law on teacher termination.

I always like tax credits for teachers.

Maine legislators are trying to protect athletics from the principal's budget axe.

Washington is closer to remedying their teacher-student sex law problem.

Finally, check out Mark W.'s good work this week on the Supreme Court decisions and I'll have more on the Supreme Court next week. 

Friday Fun: Simulation of air traffic worldwide.

Friday Snippets 1/16/08: Weather Caused School Closings in Hawaii?

Schools here in Lexington today were closed because of bone-chilling cold temps. Schools in Hawaii were closed this week because of high wind. I think I would prefer the wind.

Putting the sex, back in sex-education (nice, if slightly misleading title).

This is interesting on Newspapers.

Mandatory donations to get seats at a basketball game are becoming more popular. Louisville is "demanding" a $2,500 "donation" per seat, per year to be eligible to "purchase" seats. Once a donation becomes "mandatory" doesn't it cease to be a donation? This is a lawsuit in waiting.

Louisiana approves evolution teaching guidelines.

Watch for a whole lot of headlines like this one over the next few months.

Nevada's higher education budget cut proposals are the worst I have seen so far. A 36% proposed cut. Now, surely it will be less, but anything over 20% is unmanageable.

More teacher's unions asking for pay raises.  

Utah's Omnibus Bill lawsuit is an interesting one. The claim is that education bills should not have been lumped in together at the end of the session.

More states are competing to get out of state students with in-state tuition rates (and there's and SIU reference). Are we going to see a day when the out-of-state rate applies only to students coming from outside the State ... as in the United States.

Detroits schools are going to get the toilet paper they asked for. Ahh, Detroit.

A Hebrew language charter school? These charter schools have provided the space for a little langauge way because this follows on the Arabic language charter schools across the country. South Carolina has a charter school lawsuit that might see their Supeme Court.

Here's a problem for schools caused by the economy, more homeless students.

And, in 2009, I think I am going to cut back on the blogosphere links. I'll do a few that really catch my attention each week, but I am not going to run through all the ed. law blogs. 

There is a new blog I want to point you to this week: The Ability Law Blog by Randy Chapman. It focuses mostly on disability issues related to schools.

Leadertalk, another blog in the CASTLE empire, has officially moved over to an Education Week blog, so update your readers.

NASSP's Principal's Policy Blog has new guidance from ED. on choice and SES.

Friday Fun: The Wine Library -- this guy is awesome. Love to see people so passionate. 

Friday Snippets: 12/19/08 - Can I Get a Vacation?

This is scary for Colorado's higher ed. institutions. Not likely, but scary.

Air quality standards for Indiana's schools? No more building by interstates I guess.

Super interesting case at the N.C. State Supreme Court over whether students are entitled to a summer vacation or whether the district can unilaterally assign them to year-round school.

The Missouri law that resulted from the Drew cyberbullying case is being used quite a bit already.

The Georgia Bible Class law is not really being used much.

Why teacher's unions get a bad name.

Judge rules that Montana's legislature made a good faith attempt to fix their funding issues.

Around the Blogosphere:

Religion Clause has an interestingly defiant football coach in Texas that insists on praying.

Karl Romberger has a variety of Pennsylvania goodies this week. As does Pam Parker for Texas.

Wrightslaw examines the meaning of "day" for special ed. purposes.

Kevin Riley at Leadertalk reflects on how bullies invaded his school.

NASSP has some new legislation introduced by Sen. Clinton that could help school leaders.

For your Friday Fun:

Now this was a good use of time. I like it when people take pride in our founding documents.

(HD) A More Perfect Union from Andrew Sloat on Vimeo.

Friday Snippets 12/12/08 - Funding Issues

Arizona's Supreme Court heard arguments in their funding case this week.

Miami-Dade is starting a new school funding suit.

Montana's funding suit takes a set-back.

Missouri is debating whether teachers should retain Social Security in their retirement systems.

Iowa's trying to take a lot of sugar out of their schools.

Salt Lake shows that even when merit pay is approved, it doesn't mean it will be implemented.

A Connecticut bullying case has a strange 16th Century Russian twist.

A Nevada defamation case against a school for complaining about a corporate product.

Pre-employment drug testing is pushed in Texas.

Alabama makes a big investment in videoconferenceing. Like to see that in every school as well.

Mississippi legislation that would remove school board members from under-performing schools still in the works.

Kentucky Community College faculty push back hard against the elimination of tenure proposal.

A state FOIA case against a superintendent in Texas.

Around the Blogosphere:

Scott McLeod has Mike Petrilli (whose work I appreciate more and more) on the edublogosphere.

Jim Gerl asks some provocative questions on whether the due process system is too adversarial.

Finally, Mark Walsh has a good summary of the legal issues this week and since it is a really nice Saturday outside today and my son wants to play, I think I will leave it at that. Be sure to read Scott's two great posts below and I will have more over the next few days on some more interesting issues.

Friday Snippets: 12/5/08 - Freezes Ain't Funny

The debate over Education Secretary is heating up. David Brooks says it is a fight between "reformers" and "establishment." I think that is a little too simple of way of putting it. Two comments: 1: the pick is not as important as people are making it out to be, 2: the only candidate I am against is Arne Duncan. I think we have a pretty bad precedent (2) of bringing in an education secretary from the president-elect's home state, so I don't want to try that again. 

The theme this week is universities cutting budgets. No different here. In fact, Kentucky may end tenure in community colleges.  

It means class sizes will get bigger. 

Indiana's new school funding suit was before their Supreme Court this week. 

Mississippi is still recruiting new teachers. 

A Washington state lawsuit over union fees and union spending on political issues settles. 

The DOJ is going after Texas for their treatment of disabled students. 

Paying parents to teach their own kids? Shouldn't they do that anyway? 

The New Jersey Superintendent's suit against regulations limiting their perks was thrown out this week. Look for more of this in a state near you. 

I hate stories like this. Apples and Oranges. 

Merging away HBCU's ... talk about controversial. 

Around the Blogosphere:

A good discussion at Leadertalk about getting the Ph.D. in education. My thought is why not? But, find the right program.

Mark W. has the details on the Title IX arguments before the Supreme Court. I told Mark when I saw him a couple weeks ago how jealous I am of him getting to cover these Supreme Court cases. 

Jon Becker has a provocative post about the whiteness of blogging. 

Jeff Marcus informs us of some new special ed. regulations. 

Pam Parker had a good post last week on schools marketing themselves I didn't want to let slip by. Relatedly, BoardBuzz has a shocking post on classroom advertising. 

Jannifer Marquis has a good FMLA update. 

For your Friday Fun: Funny or Die. Specifically Prop 8: The Musical.

Friday Snippets - ELA 08 Edition

Shorter edition this week as it is midnight already and I have 8:00 sessions tomorrow.

A California court declares a statute requiring sex-offenders to live at least 2,000 feet from a school or park unconstitutional. Interesting to see how this one plays out. It could have a big impact if it stands up on appeal.

Schools don't understand open records laws? - No kidding!

Great article on pushing the drug testing barriers in the NY Times.

I'm in Texas, so might as well link to another story on their evolution fight.

USAToday runs a bullying article.

New Jersey's Supreme Court commissions a fact finding investigation on the state's new plan to fund schools. New Jersey's Supreme Court is running their school system in a lot of ways and this is just more evidence of that.

You are going to see a lot more of this coming up in higher education.

A bill would require all public school students to wear uniforms in Nevada.

Not sure I agree with this article's premise on female teacher misconduct. I am not sure there is more of it, or that we just care more these days. Interesting idea though.

This is an encouraging article: Georgia is phasing OUT their graduation exam.

That's it for tonight folks. I will catch up with the ed. law blogosphere next week. But, let me recommend Mark Walsh's write up of my presentation at ELA earlier this week in the meantime. It has been a real pleasure to meet Mark here. He is a really nice guy and it is always nice to finally put a face and personal connection with the blogging conversations.

More liveblogging on ELA tomorrow.

Friday Snippets: 12/14/08 - Weddings on my mind.

The majority of the education news stories around the country this week were on the economic crisis and how that is hurting schools. Folks, everyone is hurting and everyone is looking for ways to save money. That means reduced programs, capital projects on hold, and a lack of filling positions. NY is even going to reduce their school bus routes. Meanwhile California says no more bake sales (now what are they supposed to do?) -- That is just where we are at now as schools begin to shape their budgets for next year. If things are looking this bad now, they will look even worse in the Spring when districts actually release their budgets. Settle in. This is going to get worse before it gets better for schools. 

In the future, we are going to see more legal action on obesity. The research is starting to build. 

More good energy incentives for schools to conserve. I like what I am seeing on this front. 

A Native Hawaiian admissions policy is being challenged as against federal law. Proof the Civil Rights laws are more than just about African Americans with regard to race and ethnicity.  

University of Illinois students have taken their mascot into their own hands. 

One more thing for our school administrators to worry about ... insecticide use laws. 

Louisiana's conservative movement is now heading to higher education. Outputs, people, Outputs! But, the union is beginning to fight back - at least what's left of it. 

A New Jersey court rules that student cars can be searched without a warrant. 

Ohio is getting closer to promised funding reform. 

Around the Blogosphere:

Mitchell R. points us to 1) D.C. making an effort to eliminate tenure (in your dreams) and 2) a drug using student seeking to be classified  under IDEA.  

Mark Walsh, who I am looking forward to meeting next week at ELA, posts his Ed. Week story about the crazy Utah Monument case. I agree with Mark that it is a fun one. He also has the Morse settlement. 

Jim Gerl continues in his series on whether court decisions affect special education much (um, they absolutely do!). 

Miguel Guhlin & Wesley Fryer post about fair use of videos and documents in response to the Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Media Literacy Education. 

BoardBuzz asks whether education is becoming post-racial. 

Secretary Spellings if blogging at Eduwonk. Good for her, its nice to see her making an effort to communicate with this increasingly powerful conversation going on in the blogosphere. 

For your Friday Fun:  In honor of my sister whose wedding shower is this weekend back in Illinois ... don't let it drive you crazy, don't get too bossy, but remember, it could always be worse. 

Friday Snippets: Nov. 7, 08 - Let's Gamble

Education Week has the issues that will face the next president (subscription required).

Its budget cut time. Kansas. Alabama. Indiana. California. Rhode Island. Everywhere. In response states are turning to gambling.

In light of tight budgets in Hawaii, they are proposing closing schools for a week.

Universities are not safe from record industry lawsuits.

The New Jersey cap lawsuit keeps churning.

Around the Ed. Law Blogosphere: 

Mark Walsh has the Supreme Court's broadcast indecency case.

Reverse Due Process ... it happens as Wrightslaw explains.

Jim G. has some OSEP action on state performance plans.

Mitchell R. has a good new LRE case.

Pamela Parker has a some lunchtime legal issues for teachers which is sort of cool.

ASCD Inservice brings up my critical comments of Detention Slip in the past, which I stand by.

NASSP's Principal's Policy Blog has the substantial cost of teacher absences.

And for your Friday Fun:Pandora. Its a free music service that customizes your playlist to the type of music you enjoy. I have been pretty pleased with the customization around progressive bluegrass and I find myself using Pandora more and Rhapsody less.

Friday Snippets 10/24/08 - Mad Librarians

Wow - this is highly concerning.

A 16.2 million dollar hazing ruling against UT -Austin.

The N.J. Senate approved the severance pay cap we have been watching lately.

N.J. is also considering taking the compulsory attendance age up to 18.

Arkansas has a lawsuit claiming forced transfers of students because of race. Interesting to see what happens with this one after Parents Involved.

Schools as political pawns ... always frustrating.

What can happen with bad information and panicky text messages to every student.

Taking library fees to the extreme. Reminds me of this Seinfeld episode.

I am going to keep pointing these out, because alternative energy s just a great idea for schools.

This is funny.

Schools are canceling class more because of safety concerns on voting day. I am okay with that. Sends a good message to students that voting is pretty important.

Hit a Jew Day ... What the? h/t Scott McLeod

Around the Blogosphere:

Mark Walsh has teacher and employee speech cases. Always fun.

Jon Becker (who I feel is probably tired of exchanging emails with me) found time somehow to do this online technology presentation.

Title IX blog has a good case on inadequate facilities.

Jeff Marcus has three good special education cases, including one on settlementenforceability.

Mitchell Rubinstein has the 2nd Circuit refusing to extend Title VII to sexual orientation discrimination. Still not there yet.

Pam Parker at Texas Teacher Law gets a new purple page. Be sure to update your readers.

And your Friday Fun:

In honor of the world series ... The United Countries of Baseball - I love pictures like this. Nice to see the team with one of the smallest nations in the Series. I am a national league guy (a Cardinals fan for life), but you can't root against the Rays here.

Friday Snippets: 10/17/08: No Tattoos!

Lots of stuff this week, so let's get started:

The administrator retirement caps issue in New Jersey hits formal hearings. If I were school administrators, I would watch this closely as this could be a "coming soon to a state near you" kind of issue.

Painful layoffs in Dallas. They are also fighting over evolution in Texas ... still. And worried about finding ways to teach the Bible. Ahh, Texas, it's like a whole 'nother country.

There is a bi-lingual bill on the Oregon ballot this time that would limit bi-lingual instruction to 2 years. After that English only.

Some pushback on attendance, special education and NCLB passage rates. This was a nice story and it was on page A1 of the Washington Post ... Kudos, folks.

A 45 year school desegregation case in Macon, GA finally comes to a close.  They won't know what to do without it.

Another defamation case ... this time against a teacher union's political activities in getting a state senator with ethical issues kicked out.

The voucher fight in Utah continues (you can pretty much book a snippet about this every week)... please, someone write a book about this.

New Hampshire school funding suit is dismissed by their Supreme Court as moot.

And h/t Scott McLeod: No teacher tattoos in Joplin, MO.

Around the Ed. Law Blogosphere:

Jim Gerl finally gets something out of the candidates ... although not much.
 
Mark Walsh has his story on the AEI/Fordham legal history of education forum. It sounds really cool and I wish I could have gone. They said they would put the video up, but I have not seen it yet. If I do, I will post it.

Mark has a nice detailed post on the immunity issue in front of the Court now.

Title IX blog has a concerning Georgia teacher harassment case.

Couldn't agree more with Charles Fox on the political symbol that is Trig Palin.

The Connecticut Ed. Law Blog has a good point that the ADA amendments may require changes to 504 forms as well.

Stanley Fish, Sherman Dorn, Andrew Rotherham, & Joanne Jacobs weigh in on the NY political speech controversy. If that case was all about making a widely distributed political statement ... mission accomplished.

For your Friday Fun: Last weekend I made applebutter (and like I said last week, I burned my hand). Anyway lots of people in my office this week wanted to know about how you made it, so here is a good video from Southern Illinois about our traditions and how we made it (we cooked ours in the kettle but started with whole apples instead of boiling down the day before). We made 150 quarts of applebutter last weekend and only I was injured ... so that's pretty good.

Photocredit: Mommylolly

Google Document Link:Friday Snippets: 10/17/08: No Tattoos!

Friday Snippets 10/10/08 - The Slow Down

As if teacher pension systems were not in enough trouble ... excess executive travel too? What about borrowing against the pension funds? There is just no way this doesn't get really, really ugly.

An example of how schools are contributing to the economic slowdown and how the economic slowdown can affect learning.

A "gay friendly" high school" in Chicago?

Polling school vouchers in North Carolina.

Schools are starting to figure out ways to deal with cell phones outside of a blanket ban.

Around the Ed. Law Blogosphere

Mark Walsh is keeping a close eye on the Supreme Court activities.

Wrightslaw has cases of deliberate indifference under Section 504 against the Hawaii BOE.

Jeffery Marcus at Developments in Special Education Law has an LRE case out of the 2nd Circuit.

Howard F. has a long-haired Kindergartener winning against a district.

Jim Gerl has some info on the National Council on Disability and more IEP Implementation.

Jennifer Marquis at the Connecticut Ed. Law Blog has a little on the new ADA.

And for your Friday Fun:

Had a weird urge to play Scrabble this week. This is where I did it and it was fun. I hadn't played in years.

Google Document Link: Friday Snippets 10/10/08 - The Slow Down

Friday Snippets - 10/3/08 - Officially a Resident of the Bluegrass

A quick edition this week. Spent today getting my Kentucky driver's license (which was surprisingly easy) and writing. Lots and lots of writing lately. I am realizing that more and more the professional career choice I made was ... author ... as I do more writing than just about anything else. 

First, an update on the ed. law academic job market. Well, its not looking good so far. I added another position to my list this week, but still it is a little bleak. The real missing players are the large state schools. Maybe they will be coming on the market soon. I will keep my eye on it, but so far the academic market just looks to be depressed generally this year. Speaking with my colleagues around the country, many of them reported to me that their universities are just not in a position to fill openings. Could have something to do with this. 

Someone needs to write a history of the Utah school vouchers fight. There is just too much juicy stuff not to. 

Making a "Blue" political statement in school? 

Been hearing way to much about sex ed and Alaska lately. 

Arizona considers affirmative action in law schools. 

Texas scientists say don't water down evolution in the state science curriculum. As I told my students last night ... the fight for Intelligent Design may be nearly over, but the fight against evolution generally is as strong as ever.

As Maryland shows, certification of all child care workers is on the horizon.

The nationwide crackdown on teacher sexual misconduct laws hits California this week.

Normally, I don't touch much higher ed., but the firings at the University of Iowa are really causing a stir.

Wiretapping buses? Maybe in Pennsylvania. Frankly, this Arkansas turning buses into virtual classrooms idea makes a LOT more sense. If we are going to be wiring up buses, let's do it with something that actually helps kids. 

    

Around the ed. law blogosphere:

Mark W. has the Supreme Court's education law cases roundup so far for this term. That kind of effort is very helpful to folks like me, so thanks Mark. Mitchell R. points us to where NSBA is tracking the possible ed. law supreme court cases here.   

Charles Fox has info on the ADA Amendments that became law this week. 

Howard F. has a school's "folding Jesus under" being approved.  

Erin B. has the Indiana transgender prom dress case surviving dismissal motions. This is an interesting little case and I am glad Erin is keeping an eye on it.    

Mark Ames at the Principal's Policy Blog has some good posts on recent federal activity worth reading.

Jim Gerl continues in his quest to get the candidates to answer special education questions. Me? I'm giving up. Its getting too close to the election for the candidates to be responding to inquiries like this now. My tact was to specifically target Obama and McCain education surrogates and try to get a response from them. But, even they are apparently instructed to stay away from special education law. This whole quest by Jim and I is sort of a sad story on the place of special education in this county. It takes one of the candidates to actually have a disabled child for anyone to actually pay attention to it and even then, they don't come up with policies or really even talking points. Very revealing (and disappointing).   

And finally, I recommend this post at my sister blog Dangerously Irrelevant on the legal accessibility of public information ... in an information age. 

For your Friday Fun: I registered to vote today, in some part aided by this video and the upcoming deadlines (not that I am easily convinced by celebrities).

Google Doc. Link: Friday Snippets - 10/3/08 

Friday Snippets: 9/26/2008 - Interesting Times

We are sure living in some interesting times, no? Everyday lately we get word of news that would have consumed months of newscycles. Last night hearing that Washington Mutual failed ... I didn't even blink - this is old hat by now. What are we going to do next year when all this settles down again? 

Boy, this Chicago thing just gets more interesting all the time. Now, Rep. Meeks, the boycott leader is threatening to have 6,000 protesters outside Wrigley Field for the first MLB playoff game. 

Georgia's school funding suits take an odd new turn. The Governor has asked for an inquiry of whether districts may use taxpayer dollars to fund these lawsuits. 

Why the N.J. Supreme Court should not be administering their school funding system. 

A challenge to the Texas minute of silence law. 

An Indiana AG candidate proposes including school related (but not employed) personnel (like bus drivers) in child protection laws. 

Can't be both a teacher and on the school board at the same time in Nevada. 

Illinois loses $221,000 in lost governmental contributions for every dropout. And they have a lot of them, according to a new study.

More evidence on why Supp. Educ. Services are not working like they thought they would. 

A FOIA case for a college administrator. 

Health Insurance costs are a problem in Arkansas. 

This was odd. Vetting, anyone? 

Around the Ed. Law Blogosphere:

A new ed. law blog to report this week: Developments in Special Education Law. H. Jeffrey Marcus has been posting for a while, but I just came across him now. He seems good at providing briefs on special education cases that come down. I added him to my blogroll. If you know of other ed. law blogs I don't have in my blogroll, please let me know. 

Wrightslaw has a N.C. special education student abuse case. 

Erin Buzuvis has a good post on ending the Title IX Blame Game. 

Mitchell R. points out a good resource for folks interested in getting a law school job: Legal Scholarship Blog. Here is a link from the Legal Scholarship Blog (RSS) of Law School Based Legal Conferences in Education Law. 

Mitchell also pointed out this revealing clip of Greta can Susteren talking about law school grading. 

Connecticut Ed. Law Blog has a case on cross-examining witnesses at sch. disciplinary hearings. 

Pamela Parker has guidelines on class sizes in Texas. 

The Integration Report is back after a couple month hiatus. 

Friday Fun: Apparently, its a bad idea to lie to David Letterman - especially when he finds out in the middle of the show. I love Keith Olberman's face during this whole thing. Like I said, we live in interesting times lately.  

Google Document Link: Friday Snippets: 9/26/2008 - Interesting Times.

Friday Snippets: 09/19/08 - In the market for land?

A forgotten element in this financial crisis: teacher's pensions. 

Utah's turning its attention from vouchers to merit pay?

Big Ten network is now featuring professors on politics. (Suddenly I like conference networks a whole lot more ... bring on the SEC Network!)

Illegal immigrant in-state tuition lawsuit could spread beyond California ... Kansas, your next. 

Election issues for a Prop. 13 type proposal in Nevada. 

Onward in the S.D. funding suit (the testimony in this case is pretty extensive).

When charter school leadership goes bad ...

The Florida Supreme Court slaps some hands in Florida over the voucher ballot mess. 

Slashing special olympics? Gutsy.

Meeks, the leader of the Chicago boycott, gets his meeting with the Governor. 

Getting rid of abstinence education money ... in Kentucky? 

Wanna check inspection information about your kid's bus online? You can in NJ. 

Now that's ironic. 

Around the Ed. Law Blogosphere:

I'm envious of Jim Gerl. So, Jim ... why no robe? Might as well go full blast! Come to think of it, maybe hearing officers would get more respect if they wore a robe? Jim also has part II  in his series on special ed. eligibility. 

Mark W. has a kid being disciplined for a fake MySpace page. Rightfully so, I think. Anyway, a good off-campus case. Also, OCR weighs in  on race-neutral admission policies. 

Howard F. has a N.C. District looking to add creationism to the curriculum. So, are we done with Intelligent Design? 

Should students spy on their teachers with camera's ... Wrightslaw takes it on. 

Patrick Fanelli has a good overview  of the Penn. homeschooling case. 

Michelle Laubin has ED giving some advice on FERPA. 

Campaign K-12 finds that Palin thinks she is a product of Title IX. 

For your Friday Fun: 

With the market crashing, maybe it is a good time to buy land? It's cheap right now. Hey, I can dream, right? Me and Delmar:  

I'm gonna visit those foreclosing son-of-a-guns at the Indianola Savings & Loan, slap that money on the barrelhead and buy back the family farm. You ain't no kind of man if you ain't got land.

Google Document Link: Friday Snippets: 09/19/08 - In the market for land?

Friday Snippets: 9/12/08 - The Palin Chronicles

Here is a story you didn't see on the front page, but it should have been.

It is hard not to feel bad for California's schools. Legislators won't reach a budget, plus another education secretary resigns this week. There seems to be a real lack of leadership at the state level ... ahem, governator?

The Paducah shooter is asking for a new sentence.

Testimony in the S.D. School Finance suit continues. Montana's school funding suit goes back to court.

In Arkansas, a law prohibiting sex between teachers and students is upheld, even if the student is over 18.

The Chicago $$ reward system.

The judge in the NJ school administrator pay and pension lawsuit is hoping for a settlement.

No advertising on public school buses in S.C. - hadn't heard of that before.

Rumblings under the surface in the Utah voucher epic.

Ken Starr just can't seem to stay away from education. (Couldn't he prosecute a President or something ... maybe one that lied to the American public?)

Student loan companies get an ethics code. 

A Pennsylvania property tax constitutional challenge case is heard.

This is interesting ... if I ever find myself on death row ... no way am I going to burn.

A group in Indiana suggests free community college. 

And, a group of Palin inspired stories:

    Paying for praying for pipelines in Alaska.

    Sex Ed. ... (1) ... (2) ...

    If you want to talk more about Palin or any education aspects of the election, feel free to do so in the forum.

Around the Blogosphere:

Mark Walsh has this interesting panel discussion. I am going to try to make it, but I have a different meeting scheduled against it at the moment.

Mark also has another black armbands case.

Erin B. has an update on the Title IX case before the Supreme Court this term. This is going to be a very important case, so keep an eye on this one and I will have more on it as it gets closer.

Howard F. has another Good News Club case, this one out of Minnesota.

Jim Gerl is getting impatient with our Candidate Request and starting to make quips ... "Is pig lipstick more important than special education"

Dan Meyer is upset with a recent statement by the unions ... and sets the blogosphere abuzz.


For your Friday Fun:

BoardBuzz pointed us to this latest astounding presentation by Michael Wesch. The Superstar Anthropology Professor from K-State on the Anthropology of YouTube.


Google Document Link:Friday Snippets: 9/12/08