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Teacher’s Satirical Note On 'Don’t Say Gay' Enrages Right-Wing Outfit

Teacher’s Satirical Note On 'Don’t Say Gay' Enrages Right-Wing Outfit


The American conservative “advocates for parental rights in schools,” known as Moms for Liberty, have been busy working on making sure your children are protected from things like critical race theory (CRT), and any talk about gender identities (and LGBTQ+ stuff). Florida’s transphobic and homophobic and childhood-phobic conservatives scored a big legislative victory in March when state legislators were able to pass the “Don’t Say Gay” bill through into law. Its official name is the “Parental Rights in Education” bill and while it technically never mentions the word “gay,” the bill is a pretty obvious overreach into the rights of entire swathes of the American public. As such, lawsuits are already being filed against the Sunshine state.

Moms for Liberty’s Twitter account posted what they are calling a letter template for rebellious teachers to send home in regard to the new legal guidelines they are now forced to deal with as a result of the general pig-headed phobias of people like Moms for Liberty. Writing “A teacher in Palm Beach County, FL shared this template with us. It is being shared among teachers to use for grades K-3. How do you feel about this? What will you do when this arrives home in your child’s backpack? Time to take a Stand,” the letter is a little slice of genius, and the responses to this conservative freakout have been [takes a meditative breath] beautiful.

The letter serves to point out how, in its vague language, the bill’s authors have attempted to veil their bigotries and fears under the guise of parental rights. It does this by using the law’s truly banal purposes against the very parents who are pretending that this law isn’t very specifically about being homophobic and transphobic and queerphobic.

First the letter:

Dear Florida parent/caretaker:
The Florida house of Representatives has recently ruled that “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”

To be in accordance with this policy, I will no longer be referring to your student with gendered pronouns. All students will be referred to as “The” or “them.” I will no longer use a gendered title such as “Mr.” or “Mrs.” or make any references to my husband/wife in the classroom. From now on I will be using the non-gendered title “Mx.”

Furthermore, I will be removing all books or instruction which refer to a person being a “mother,” “Father,” “husband” or “wife” as these are gender identities that also may allude to sexual orientation. Needless to say, all books which refer to a character as “he” or “She” will also be removed from the classroom. If you have any concerns about this policy, please feel free to contact your local congressperson.Thank you, Mx. XXXXXXXXXX

Whether this is a real “template” being handed out to teachers who see the don’t say gay bill for what it really is or if this is just one of those great memes that has truly pressed these “Moms for Liberty’s” buttons does not matter. Bridget Ziegler, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, Fox News talking face, and precinct committeewoman for the Republican Party of Sarasota County retweeted the letter, writing, “Once again, it’s unfortunate our students and their education are being hijacked by the Left’s culture wars. Thank goodness more educators, many whom are parents of young children, are speaking up and pushing back!”

The responses have been wonderful:



And here’s a new one to me—but maybe it’s been around for a while.



Teachers Union Chief Backs Mandatory Vaccination In Schools

Teachers Union Chief Backs Mandatory Vaccination In Schools

Teachers should be required to get COVID-19 vaccines, the head of the American Federation of Teachers said Sunday. The union currently favors vaccinations on a voluntary basis, but its president Randi Weingarten said her views have changed as COVID-19 case numbers have spiked nationwide. She’ll urge the group to revisit its stance when she meets with other leaders this week. “As a matter of personal conscience, I think that we need to be working with our employers, not opposing them, on vaccine mandates,” Weingarten told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The delta variants are alarming. And the spread ...

Kansas Educators Upset Over School Funding Bill

Kansas Educators Upset Over School Funding Bill

By Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times

It seemed like a victory for Kansas educators when the state Supreme Court ruled last month that Kansas had created “unconstitutional, wealth-based disparities” among its school districts, and ordered the state to remedy the problem by July 1.

But the way the state has gone about complying with that decision leaves some educators feeling that they may be losing as much as they gain.

A school funding bill, passed by the Legislature after lengthy negotiations, awaits the signature of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. It finds money to increase state aid to poorer districts, but also takes away aid to at-risk and non-proficient students. It also ends due process for public school teachers and gives businesses a tax credit for creating scholarships at non-public schools.

The legislation also allows wealthier districts to raise more money for their schools, which may in fact increase disparities between school districts, educators say.

“One of our issues with it is that they took money from at-risk funding in order to help pay for it,” said John Robb, a lawyer who represented the parents and students who had sued the state in the school funding case. “They took it from Peter to pay Paul.”

The Supreme Court decision was the culmination of years of legal wrangling about education funding in Kansas; the case that Robb litigated was the second such case to reach the state’s high court in the last decade.

In Kansas, the state decides how much each school district can spend on education, and then gives aid to districts that cannot come up with the money themselves.

But during the recession, the state cut that aid, making funding per student unequal in poor and rich districts, Robb argued in the case, Gannon v. Kansas. He also argued that Kansas does not adequately fund education, but that part of the argument was sent back to a lower court for review.

Many lawmakers in the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature seemed loath to comply with the Supreme Court ruling. Rep. Marc Rhoades resigned as House Appropriations Committee chairman March 31 in protest of the bill.

“None of the spending is tied to measurable education outcomes,” Rhoades said in a statement about his reasons for stepping down.

The final bill was passed after a long weekend of negotiations that sometimes dragged on until 1 in the morning. Teachers unions are frustrated because the bill ends a process through which teachers are allowed to make their case at a special hearing if they are fired, something that was never publicly debated in the Legislature. A state teachers union has said that it will sue school districts that take advantage of this change.

“Many took great offense at the way this bill was handled, with stifled debate, votes occurring in the overnight hours, and an unannounced meeting of the committee after the press had left,” said Judith Deedy, one of the organizers behind a parents group, Game On for Kansas Schools.

The bill allows school districts to increase the amount they spend on education, but Deedy says that will only help wealthier districts that can raise taxes to pay for school. Poorer districts won’t be able to pass any new taxes on to residents.

The bill cuts funding for at-risk students who are 19 and over, which affects districts such as Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools, where many refugees attend school. About 90 percent of that district’s students are classified as at-risk. It also cuts funding for districts with non-proficient students, who are students who perform badly on tests but who are not poor.

“It’s a wash; we come out about $16,000 ahead,” said David Smith, a Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools spokesman, about whether the district will actually gain more money from the bill. “To me, it’s bad public policy, it’s bad policy-making.”

Brownback, up for re-election this year, has indicated that he will sign the bill.

Photo: J. Stephen Conn via Flickr

Florida Governor Dismisses Teachers Union’s Class Action Suit

Florida Governor Rick Scott said the three percent pay cut for teachers in the state does not violate any contractual obligations and called it “the right thing to do for the state,” dismissing a class action lawsuit filed today by the Florida Education Association. The three percent pay cut would help pay for teachers’ pension plans and balance the state budget.

“The participation by people in their pension plan makes all the sense in the world,” Scott said. “”It’s what’s fair to the private sector. Very few private sector employees have pension plan that is 100 percent. It’s the right thing to do for our state.” [The Miami Herald]