Alabama’s federal funding could be stripped away by Biden administration over trans bathroom demands

Undeterred by repeated losses, the Biden administration’s war on red states and our "Neanderthal thinking" rages on. This month, my colleagues and I are fighting Biden and his comrades at the United States Department of Agriculture in court to protect the right of states to run their public schools as they see fit. This time, the fight isn’t over curriculum or masking — it’s whether states still possess the paltry authority to require boys to use the boys’ bathroom at school.

The United States Constitution leaves no doubt as to the states’ broad authority over their own public schools, but the Biden administration supposes that everything — even schoolchildren — has a price.

The USDA is the federal agency that directs the myriad "cooperative" federal food programs — including the Supplemental Food Assistance Program (SNAP), the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program (WIC), and the Child Nutrition Program (including the school-lunch program). These programs both tug at the heart strings and come with a hefty price tag for states, so the Biden administration has found them to be ideal vehicles for forcing genderlessness into our state governments, and more particularly, our public schools.

By issuing a USDA memorandum and accompanying administrative rule, the administration has waged a campaign to impose the left’s extremist "gender identity" agenda on schoolchildren with the implied threat that if states resist, their programs and public schools will get less money from the federal government.

It is important to understand how compliance with the left’s radical gender identity agenda would destroy the educational experiences of students — girls in particular. The Biden administration’s own fact sheet about its guidance indicates that preventing a boy from using the girls’ restroom would be discrimination if the boy identifies as a girl. Similarly, the fact sheet suggests that preventing a boy from trying out for the girls’ cheerleading squad would be discrimination if the boy identifies as a girl. This is what the left wants to see in Alabama’s schools.

Alabama parents — the taxpayers who fund our schools — do not share the Biden administration’s goal of genderlessness in our classrooms. That is why the people of Alabama have supported laws that protect girls’ sports and girls’ bathrooms, as well as laws that prohibit sexual indoctrination in the classroom.

The federal government’s ever-increasing control over primary and secondary education offends our American constitutional system. The root cause is coercion through federal funding, upon which states have been far too willing to blindly accept and jealously rely.

The Biden administration’s actions seeking to impose the left’s gender identity agenda on schoolchildren are illegal and unconstitutional. But even if they were not, and federal funding was at risk, the duty of state leaders is not to dollars. We are meant to serve the interests of the people of our states — and the people of Alabama have clearly spoken, through their elected representatives, that they do not wish for sexual politics to be thrust on their children by the far-left in Washington.

While I hope to preserve every penny of federal funding being threatened by this administration, Alabama’s sovereignty is not for sale.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-administration-demands-alabama-embrace-genderless-schools-or-else-we-arent-giving-in

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Homecoming season is here — and for many young people in parts of the South, that means homecoming mum season is here, too.

Now, however, mums — which started off as simple corsages, essentially — have become bigger than ever.

And it's why photos of teenage girls wearing large decorative flowers continue to flood the internet year after year.

Here’s the story behind the "homecoming mum" phenomenon. Homecoming mums are said to have hit the scene in the 1930s in the South — sharing a longstanding tradition in states like Texas.

Kisha Clark, the founder of Mums Inc., spoke with Fox News Digital about the phenomenon and how it began.

"If you go all the way back to where it began, [these] were actually live flowers that evolved over time to a silk flower," the Texas mum maker said.

This flower, normally given to a girl by her homecoming date, was a symbol that she had a date to the homecoming football game and school dance.

Over the years and even decades, these small live flowers turned into huge, over-the-top decorative pieces.

Clark has been making mums for 20 years, using 1,700 square ft. in her Little Elm, Texas, home as a workspace.

Ten years ago, she started Mums Inc., an organization of mum makers across the country who share trends, tips and supplies. A mum, at the time, would have a decorative ribbon, the homecoming dates’ names, the high school name, etc. and one fake mum flower positioned at the top.

"Somebody somewhere added a feather boa. I’m not even sure who that was … Now I can’t make the boa situation end."

Clark said she began to see a shift in the types of mums people were ordering. Clients wanted their mums to be much larger than before. "We started to see a shift in design where people wanted a more custom product," she said.

Clark said that cutting machines were new around the same time, which changed the game for mum makers.

As the years went on, the mum flower on the designs doubled to two, then three — and on and on from there. Customers also wanted stuffed animals incorporated, plus cow bells for noise, lights for fun — even feather boas for flair.

"Somebody somewhere added a feather boa. I’m not even sure who that was," said Clark.

"Now I can’t make the boa situation end," she said.

And in case anyone needs proof that everything really is bigger in Texas, Clark said a mum she made recently took her three days to complete and cost over $400.

She also said the COVID pandemic, interestingly enough, has played a huge role in mum development.

"COVID changed our industry," she said. "A lot of these people do not want their children to miss out on the ability to have some sort of normality in their lives."

Clark said mum sales have only increased since the lockdown.

"It’s almost as if people made a new connection to spirit at school because they didn’t have it," she said.

Tara O’Donnell owns Tarariffic Mums in Houston, Texas, and makes an average of 60-80 mums each season.

"After the chaos of the last few years, my mum orders this year definitely express each student's personality," she shared with Fox News Digital.

O’Donnell said "themed mums" have been more specific this year, with one student even requesting the center mums resemble a paw print.

"Whether the mom is in tears over her daughter’s senior mum or the student squeals in delight — knowing that I have made their vision a reality is a satisfying conclusion to the process," she said.

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/high-school-homecoming-mums-word-southern-tradition-takes-texas-big-way

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Longer school day, master teachers could solve Australia's education productivity problem

Changing the length of the school day and employing master teachers are among the solutions the Productivity Commission has put forward to improve the performance of Australia's education system.

Australia is spending more than ever per student on education and yet national literacy and numeracy achievement is stagnating.

A new report by the Commission investigates why this problem exists and what can be done across the school and higher education system to solve it.

One in five Australians have low basic skills, impacting on their job opportunities, capacity to learn further skills and wages.

Productivity Commission deputy chair Dr Alex Robson said the while spending had grown, Australian students' results were not improving.

"One of the issues could be that the best practice is not becoming common practice," Dr Robson said.

"So diffusing what works and, just as importantly, what doesn't work in the classroom in different circumstances, that's one of the things we focus on."

The report said classroom teachers spend much of their working time on low-value administration tasks that could be reduced or reassigned to support staff.

Technology also has a role in relieving this burden and improving student outcomes but it needed to be introduced carefully.

"It's not a silver bullet... there's a digital divide where some schools have access to the technology and others don't, but then also in terms of how it's used and what's more effective in different circumstances," Dr Robson said.

An increase in the numbers of support staff and lower student-to-staff ratios don't appear to have had any impact on student results.

The report suggests improving consistency of professional development for teachers and employing master teachers to spread best practice teaching across schools.

It also suggests trialling more radical changes, such as extending the length of the school day or adopting the United Kingdom's model of academy schools to improve under-performing public schools.

"Maybe some of these more forward-looking ideas are possible solutions, but we're definitely not saying that that's the exact answer," Dr Robson said.

The report also suggests a HECS-style system for vocational education could reduce some of the up-front costs and disincentives for students to go down that path that could be more appropriate for their career ambitions compared to university.

The commission was highly critical of the changes to university course fees under the Coalition's job ready graduates reforms, stating that price signals for in-demand fields didn't work under the income-contingent loan system.

The commission is seeking feedback on the report by October 21 and will hold roundtable discussions.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7929419/longer-school-day-master-teachers-could-solve-australias-education-productivity-problem/

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My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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