If you want a loaf of bread, you could grind your own wheat flour, milk your own cows, and harvest your own eggs -- or, you could visit a bakery and let a pro do it.
Author: Frank LoMonte
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: If the public meeting seems staged, reporters should ask for tickets to the “rehearsal”
When I was a reporter in Florida covering that state's (now-defunct) Board of Regents, a remarkable statistical oddity dawned on me.
Eleventh Circuit applies Hazelwood, turns aside Georgia college student’s claim of religious viewpoint discrimination
A Georgia college did not violate the First Amendment in ordering a would-be school counselor to complete remedial training to learn how to set aside her personal disapproval of homosexuality when counseling gay and lesbian students, a federal appeals court has ruled.Jennifer Keeton failed to show that Augusta State University punished her for expressing religious views, or compelled her to espouse acceptance of homosexuality contrary to her beliefs, a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit U.S.
Toledo Blade editors come to the defense of student newspaper’s candid discussion of homosexuality
The Toledo Blade's resounding rebuke of the censors at Sylvania Northview High School should be required reading in every school district office in America:
School officials took a teachable moment and made the message: Stay in the closet.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: A reminder that FERPA privacy of disciplinary records isn’t all-or-nothing
A New Jersey court ruling released this week reinforces the now-well-established point that the public is entitled to disclosure of records from schools -- even sensitive ones that schools would prefer to classify as confidential -- with minimal edits to remove student names where necessary.In K.L.
Judicial deference to school officials’ “judgment” begs the question: What “judgment?”
Last month, federal appeals-court judge Richard Posner told a gathering of education lawyers that the judiciary should exhibit greater restraint before overriding the management decisions of school administrators:
We certainly have no experience running schools.
School attorneys working hard to tip the balance against students like Emma Sullivan
A high school student makes a coarse remark about a prominent politician on Twitter.The post comes to the attention of her principal, who gives her a stern lecture about civility but recognizes that his authority goes no further, and that any punishment must come from the student’s parents.This is a delicately balanced system of freedom versus authority at work – and in the case of tweeting Kansas teen Emma Sullivan, the system did work.Emma received a chewing-out for her unkind (but constitutionally protected) message about Kansas Gov.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Some arresting journalism about bad guys with badges
German Bosque has been accused of stealing a car, possessing counterfeit money, sneaking into a woman's house, carrying a loaded gun through airport security and beating up several people.
Dept. of Education tweaks FERPA rules, fails to address media concerns over “directory” access
New federal rules released Thursday purport to give schools and colleges greater discretion to limit access to student directories to select users for select purposes.However, it isn't clear how much practical effect -- if any -- the rules will have in public schools and colleges, where student directories generally are already obtainable through state open-records laws.The U.S.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Document trail reveals how ‘green energy’ left S.C. college in the red
The story of the University of South Carolina's attempts to turn wood chips into too-cheap-to-meter electricity reads like a chapter out of "The Worst-Case Scenario Handbook: Government Contracting Edition."According to detailed accounts published over the past two months in the Columbia, S.C., newspaper, The State:
- The construction of a $20 million biomass power plant got rolled into a pre-existing contract for electricity, without the competitive bids that would normally have been required for a building of that size.
- The plant was months late in powering up, in part because that sole-bidder construction company failed to apply for the necessary permits.
- It only worked about once every five days.
- Oh, and one time, it exploded.