New Kentucky Law Allows Public Schools To Offer Optional Bible Course

Last Friday, a Kentucky bill signed by Republican Gov. Matt Bevin allowing public schools to offer elective classes teaching the Bible went into effect.

“The idea that we would not want [a Biblical literacy course] to be an option for people in school, that would be crazy,” said Gov. Bevin at the signing ceremony on June 27. “I don’t know why every state would not embrace this, why we as a nation would not embrace this.”

House Bill 128, signed by the governor in the state’s Capitol Rotunda, allows “local school boards the option of developing a Bible literacy class as part of their social studies curriculum,” according to Louisville-based WRDB.

The bill, which had 12 Republican sponsors, passed the Kentucky State House in February with an 80-14 vote in its favor.

Those in support of the bill’s passage recognize the importance of Biblical literacy in the United States due to the book’s influence in building and defending Western culture.

“It really did set the foundation that our Founding Fathers used to develop documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights,” Kentucky Rep. D.J. Johnson told WRDB. “All of those came from principles from the Bible.”

The new law requires Kentucky’s board of education to regulate and establish an elective Bible course, covering the Old and New Testaments as well as “Biblical content, characters, poetry, and narratives that are prerequisites to understanding contemporary society and culture.”

However, the ACLU of Kentucky expressed concerns about the state’s new law.

“A Bible literacy bill that, on its face, may not appear to be unconstitutional, could in fact become unconstitutional in its implementation,” said the group’s advocacy director, Kate Miller. “We want to make sure that teachers can teach and make sure that they don’t go in to preach.”

Gov. Bevin and Rep. Johnson both dismissed such concerns. “You could be an atheist, and you would appreciate there’s a lot of wisdom in the Bible,” stated the governor. “As long as we’re careful with the curriculum itself, there won’t be any constitutional issues,” said Rep. Johnson.

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Three quarters of British graduates will never pay off student debt

Three quarters of graduates will never repay their student loans and the poorest face the biggest debt, according to a comprehensive analysis.

The trebling of tuition fees in 2012 means students now finish university with average debts of £50,000, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. They are liable for repayments once they earn more than £21,000. After 30 years, the balance is written off.

Some 77.4 per cent were not expected to repay their debt including interest, the IFS said, compared with 41.5 per cent before 2012. Hundreds of thousands face repayments into their early 50s.

Gains for the taxpayer have been at the cost of students from the poorest homes, whom the government promised to protect when tuition fees rose from £3,000 to £9,000.

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Australia: Teachers to be taught WRESTLING techniques and how to block punches to combat surge in attacks from students

An incredible development from the Left-led collapse in discipline

Teachers are being taught how to put students in wrestling holds and how to block punches to combat a surge in violence in NSW classrooms.

The Department of Education has enlisted the help of US-based company Crisis Prevention Institute to train primary and secondary school teachers in wrestling techniques, a department spokesperson told Daily Telegraph.

The institute trains prison officers in controlling violent inmates and will teach leverage-based tactics designed to force agitated students into submission.

They will be taught how to hold violent students in order to move them from location to another without physically harming them.

'Any restraint should be only that which is reasonably necessary to prevent a real and immediate threat of injury or serious damage and where there is no other practical way of preventing the likely injury or damage,' the spokesman said.

Eighteen students from public schools were physically subdued in the first half of 2016, according to the department, with teachers being bitten and hit by children multiple times at one primary school.

If a student tries to physically violate a teacher through a hold or a strike, the CPI trains them to block or dodge the punch and use leverage tactics which are not meant to be painful.

If all else fails, a teacher in crisis can call on a second teacher for help.

'They (the student) might say 'I know where your car is' or 'I know your daughter is in year one'. Then it's time to call in a second teacher for support and evacuate the classroom,' CPI instructor Paula Elliott told the Telegraph.

Teachers can also 'restrict the student's liberty of movement to minimise harm' if a student is intent on assault or self-harm, by adopting six techniques with increasing pressure. 

'The use of restraint is frowned on but sometimes it's necessary if the child is looking to self-harm or is a threat to their teacher or other children,' CPI Country Manager Peter Hickey said.

Teachers from both primary and secondary schools are being trained.

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