Public school students in this state could soon be required to take gun safety courses

The Tennessee state legislature passed a bill, which is now headed to the governor's desk, requiring public schools to teach "age-appropriate and grade-appropriate" gun safety courses to students starting next year.

"We see this proposed legislation as a critical step in averting firearm related accidents while fostering greater awareness and responsibility among gun owners," the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Chris Todd, a Republican, said in a February hearing.

The Tennessee Senate passed HB 2882 in a 24-3 vote on Thursday after the bill made its way through the House in February. If signed by Gov. Bill Lee, the courses will begin in the 2025-2026 school year.

The gun safety classes would be taught primarily through videos and online resources and would teach things like firearm storage, school safety, and how to avoid getting hurt if a student finds a gun and to immediately notify an adult if a gun is found. The bill stipulates the lessons will "not include the use or presence of live ammunition, live fire, or live firearms."

"This curriculum would be developed to instruct children on how to properly stay away from a firearm if they happen to see a firearm, and what to do as far as reporting if they find a firearm," Republican Sen. Paul Bailey said during Thursday's session.

Bill Lee visits a Tennessee classroom
The Tennessee Senate passed HB 2882 in a 24-3 vote on Thursday after the bill made its way through the House in February. It now heads to Gov. Bill Lee's desk. (Office of the Governor of Tennessee)

The bill requires that lessons be "viewpoint neutral on political topics, such as gun rights, gun violence, and the Second Amendment."

Senate Republicans voted against an amendment that would have allowed parents to opt children out of the training.

Proponents of the legislation compared it to other mandatory safety training concepts like fire drills. But opponents say it does not adequately address the root cause of school shootings.

"Children are already bearing an incredible brunt of the escalation that we’ve seen in gun violence – that is widely reported in our own state government’s data. Data demonstrates that children are increasingly likely to become victims of firearms in homicides, suicides, gun violence, accidental deaths," Sen. Jeff Yarbro, a Democrat, said on Thursday. "But rather than deal with the fact that there are firearms that are negligently and recklessly left somewhere by adults, we’re trying to teach children how to deal with that negligence."

If passed, the Tennessee Department of Education, the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will determine the curriculum parameters, including ages and grade levels, for the lessons.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/public-school-students-state-could-soon-required-take-gun-safety-courses

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These States Are Pushing Back Against Biden's 'Brazen' New Student Debt Scheme

President Joe Biden again thumbed his nose at the Supreme Court this week when he announced another "plan" to reallocate as much as $475 billion in student debt from borrowers to the rest of the country's taxpaying citizens — and he again faces a federal lawsuit over his unconstitutional abuse of executive power to achieve what Congress won't approve.

Led by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a coalition of seven states — Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota, Ohio, and Oklahoma — filed their suit against Biden's latest attempt to buy votes via phony and unlawful promises of loan "forgiveness."

"With the stroke of his pen, Joe Biden is attempting to saddle working Missourians with a half trillion dollars in college debt," Bailey said in a statement provided to Townhall. "The United States Constitution makes clear that the President lacks the authority to unilaterally ‘cancel’ student loan debt for millions of Americans without express permission from Congress."

"The President does not get to thwart the Constitution when it suits his political agenda," Bailey emphasized. "I’m filing suit to halt his brazen attempt to curry favor with some citizens by forcing others to shoulder their debts. The Constitution will continue to mean something as long as I’m Attorney General."

The state attorneys general argue in their fresh challenge to Biden's runaway abuse of power that the Supreme Court has already "declared that the President cannot 'unilaterally alter large sections of the American economy'" while President Biden "is at it again, even bragging that 'the Supreme Court blocked it. They blocked it. But that didn't stop me.'"

Yet again, the President is unilaterally trying to impose an extraordinarily expensive and controversial policy that he could not get through Congress. This latest attempt to sidestep the Constitution is only the most recent instance in a long but troubling pattern of the President relying on innocuous language from decades-old statutes to impose drastic, costly policy changes on the American people without their consent.

As Katie reported on Monday, the Biden administration announced it would pursue loan "cancellation" (read: reallocation to American taxpayers) for a total of 30 million student loan borrowers. This sort of action, of course, even former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said the president lacked the authority to take. What's more, the Supreme Court already ruled that Biden did not have the authority to buy votes by pretending to erase (the debt is still there!) balances for millions of Americans ahead of November's election.

Yet, almost giddily, Biden's Education Secretary Miguel Cardona "bragged about finding ways around the June 2023 Supreme Court ruling that declared Biden doesn't have the legal authority to reallocate debt," as Katie noted. "When the Supreme Court struck down the President’s boldest student debt relief plan, within hours, we said, 'We won’t be deterred,'" Cardona said. "We announced a new rulemaking process designed to provide borrowers relief under the Higher Education Act."

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2024/04/09/biden-faces-new-lawsuit-challenging-latest-student-debt-reallocation-n2637535

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Australia: Stark new figures showing Qld’s loss of teachers outstripping recruitment

The elephant in the room is the chaotic state of many classrooms -- with little or no effective discipline. So what is our genius government about to do? Make discipline even harder. No wonder teachers are giving up where they can

Queensland’s loss of teachers and teacher aides is outstripping the recruitment of new staff by 50 per cent, new figures reveal.

In response to a Sunday Mail report on a record exodus of educators from the state department, government frontbencher Meaghan Scanlon said that to date, the state government had hired more than 5900 new teachers and 2300 new teacher aides.

“The retention rate of teachers and of all teacher aides is around 95 per cent,” she said.

While the government was on track to meet its four-year teacher recruitment target, the new figures revealed a worsening resignation rate over four years.

Teacher and teacher aide resignations increased by more than 60 per cent from 2020-23.

Teacher resignations have spiked 54 per cent since 2020, with more than 2600 state school teachers ditching the profession last year, compared with about 1600 three years prior.

The number of teacher aides quitting is even more stark, with 1142 resignations last year compared with just 637 in 2020.

In total, 8646 teachers and 3729 teacher aides quit from state schools in four years.

This overshadowed the state government being on track to fulfil its 2020 promise to hire more than 6100 new teachers and 1100 new teacher aides by the end of this year.

Ms Scanlon said: “There’s a whole range of factors at the moment that are pushing people from all different industries to look at other types of jobs that are available.

“We also know there are teacher aides who are actually getting qualifications to basically become teachers as well.

“We are trying to attract our key workers to regional Queensland and there are a whole range of incentives out there.”

Education Minister Di Farmer said earlier there were various reasons why teaching staff resign including transitioning to a departmental role, returning to study, or family commitments.

“Queensland’s universities continue to deliver a pipeline of new teachers and help teacher aides transition to Registered Teacher positions,” a spokesman for Ms Farmer’s office said.

“We will continue to monitor trends in resignations within the Department of Education to ensure support services and training opportunities are fit for purpose.”

It comes as tensions remain high over the proposed amendments to the state’s Education Act, which were introduced last month, including changes to suspensions and exclusions.

They would see new appeal rights for students who had accumulated 11 days of short suspensions within a year.

They would also require student support plans for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, students with a disability, and Prep students who were suspended or excluded.

The powerful Queensland Teachers Union said its members were appalled.

“The Bill fails to contribute to the good order and management of state schools because it undermines the professional decision-making powers of school principals and will exacerbate excessive workload pressures on school leaders,” the QTU submission said.

Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland state secretary Edward Schuller said it would take decisions away from school leaders and give the power to bureaucrats.

“Beyond a basic question of functionality, the attempt to introduce a Department of Education managed appeals process is a slap in the face to principals and their schooling communities, and serves to worsen the issue of student discipline,” TPAQ’s submission said.

Ms Scanlon said the government had listened to the QTU and other organisations and taken on board the feedback from the parliamentary committee hearings.

“Of course, we’ll take on board any of (the parliamentary committee’s) recommendations, our principals’ powers in regards to suspensions haven’t changed,” she said.

“I think everyone expects that it’s reasonable that we ensure that young people who are facing suspensions get the support they need, but it’s important that we also support our teachers.

“We have increased some funding and started to do dedicated programs, particularly for young people who have seen a number of suspensions.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/queensland-education/going-backwards-teachers-quitting-faster-than-they-can-be-replaced/news-story/1ea9b9ab7fc989bd32cdd975e1fd9962

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