What's Left for Public Schools, Part One

Gallup reports that:

Americans' confidence in the court has dropped sharply over the past year and reached a new low in Gallup's nearly 50-year trend. Twenty-five percent of U.S. adults say they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court, down from 36% a year ago and five percentage points lower than the previous low recorded in 2014. 

 

Since 2006, confidence has averaged 35% and has not exceeded 40% in any survey. 

 

Confidence in the Supreme Court is down by double digits among both Democrats (30% to 13%) and independents (40% to 25%) this year, but it is essentially unchanged among Republicans (37% to 39%).

Why might that be? A politicized Court? A majority of the Court wanting to be strict constitutionalists?  

Per the usual schedule, SCOTUS released a flurry of June decisions. But three of these have the power to fundamentally change the course of our country. One was about states making their own gun laws, another was about a woman's right to her own body (abortion) and one was about religion in schools. You can trace a line from another of these to public education. 

Guns, well, guns are being used to slaughter students and teachers in schools. (I have one guy on my Twitterfeed saying how safe schools are. Well, sure but NO kid should ever have to fear that in their school. EVER. That some accept this is beyond repulsive.) Congress did actually pass some gun controls but how much it will help is unknown. Highlights via Healthline:

• Provides $750 million to states to implement extreme risk protection order (ERPO) programs — also known as “red flag laws” — to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a threat to others or themselves. States can also use the funding for other crisis intervention programs.
• Closes the “boyfriend loophole” in the federal domestic violence law by including people convicted of a domestic violence crime against someone they have a dating relationship with, even if they don’t live with or have a child with them.
• Requires additional gun sellers to register as Federally Licensed Firearm Dealers; they would then need to administer background checks before selling a gun.
• Requires enhanced background checks for people under 21 years. This would include a review of juvenile and mental health records, as well as checks of state and local databases in addition to the federal NCIS database.
• Creates new federal statutes against gun trafficking and straw purchasing, in which someone buys a gun for a person who is unable to legally purchase one on their own.
• Provides $250 million for community-based violence prevention programs.
• Increases funding for school- and community-based mental health services for children and families and for improved school security.

Pregnancy fundamentally changes a woman - her body, her life plans, and, if there is no father to be in the picture, probably her parents' life plans. Having no choice about having a baby certainly puts women in a very different place in this country than men. Make no mistake about it - if you live in a red state, get pregnant and don't want to be, you are in deep trouble. Because not only would it be near impossible to get an abortion, you might be prosecuted for seeking it in another state or via the U.S. mail. 

And then there's religion. Now I had heard about this football coach when I was still living in Seattle. (A high school football coach was saying a prayer aloud, on the field, after every football game and urging spectators to join him. His district wanted him to stop.) What is just beyond the pale is Justice Gorsuch saying this was a "private" prayer. In the middle of a football field. After a game. With players who KNOW that not saying the prayer might mean less playing time or being ostracized by others.  From ABC News:

A federal appeals court called Kennedy's characterization of his prayers as brief, quiet and solitary as a "deceitful narrative," noting that they were clearly audible prayers surrounded by groups of students, amounting to unlawful religious speech as "a school official."

Yup.

I have to say, though, I will love the day a Muslim coach on a high school football field after a game turns to Mecca and kneels. 

As if teachers and administrators don't have enough on their plates, they have to wade into these issues.