Education Law

Friday Snippets: 4/11/08 - Cuomo's School Lawyer Net Starting to Catch Fish

By Justin Bathon

At AERA, Kevin Brady, said that his review of the education psychology literature found the highest rates of bullying in middle school girls. I believe it. 2 stories this week: 14 year old is beaten up by 2 older girls & Teenage girls gang up on another student.

The NY School Attorney Scandal has cast a pretty wide net ... and they are getting quite a few fish. Perhaps 90 lawyers in 180 districts (so far) were improperly receiving state pension benefits and other compensation.

The homeschooling protests have moved outside California. "Hundreds" of homeschoolers protested a registration bill outside the Michigan State Capital.

The end has come for decentralized testing in Nebraska. Sad - I always sort of liked Nebraska's policy on this.

A new adequacy lawsuit starts in Iowa.

This Idaho politician being fined for speeding in a school zone is so ironic its funny.

Illinois Democrat's plan to double income taxes on those making over 250,000 failed. But, in Calif. Gov. Schwarzenegger may be leaning toward a tax increase.

The Evolution Debate continues in Florida.

Athletic Equity for Disabled Students passes in Maryland.

Guns and Kids don't mix, period, in one N.C. school -- so no more shooting team. (Gotta say that is probably a good idea).

Remember that big anti-teacher union billboard in NYC, yeah, that doesn't seem to be working.

If you can pay for it, this is a nice Green idea in Ohio.

Forced parental volunteering in schools?

Also, Lee Hochberg for PBS had a nice segment on the deadend that students of immigrants face at the end of high school.   

And, The Civil Rights Project has a new book out.


Around the Ed. Law Blogosphere:

Jim Gerl offers a compelling point about the connection between special education students and high divorce rates among parents. A sad reality.

Mark Walsh has a good blogging week. He has J. Scalia telling high school students they need to be Constitutional Law scholars. While J. O'Connor stuck to the script in addressing the NSBA, which disappointed both Mark and I. Also a Hartford, CT deseg case settlement, but a possible AA challenge in Texas and Oklahoma. Finally, Boyd County, KY winning a challenge to its anti-harassment (for sexual orientation) policy (that poor district has been through a lot).

Mitchell Rubinstein links to this NY Times article that finds many Muslim students being homeschooled. This follows up on a post I made earlier this week about a Muslim oriented Charter School in Minnesota being tarred and feathered. Little update on that post by the way, the school was also chided for not flying an American flag ... also on the front page of Drudge.    


And for your Friday Fun:

This week we are going to go with a music recommendation to spice things up a bit. You HAVE to check out Old Crow Medicine Show. They are sort of an old timey, progressive bluegrass, rock oriented, folk band - which probably doesn't do them justice. They are sort of unique but part of a growing genre of music that sort of combines lots of styles, but still manages to sound uniquely American. They are just super talented and sort of do their own thing. Got to love that. This is their song called I Hear Them All:



More Music (this is all uploaded videos, so forgive the inferior audio quality)

Wagon Wheel (probably their most popular song)
Down Home Girl
Minglewood Blues Live (Austin City Limits)
Gospel Plow (from their Woodsongs music hour at the Kentucky Theater in Lexington ... I can't wait to get there).

Google Document Link: Friday Snippets 4/11/08

Full post as published by Edjurist on April 11, 2008 (boomark / email).