Public School Policies

A new bill aimed at the Arizona senate would punish public school teachers who violated Federal Communication Commission guidelines by using profanity and obscenities in the classroom. The bill was introduced by Arizona State Senator Lori Klein, after a parent complained about a teacher who used foul language in his daughter’s class. However, not everyone is in favor of the bill; some say it is an unnecessary measure that should be handled by districts, rather than at the state level.

Origins of the Bill

According to a report at News Day, the original complaint came from Floyd Brown, a parent of a high school student and a long-time Republican strategist. Brown was responsible for the infamous “Willie Horton” ad during the 1998 presidential campaign that some thought played a major role in Michael Dukakis losing the election. Brown told News Day that his daughter, a sophomore, came home from school upset one day because one of her teachers was using the F-word in class.

Brown took the issue to school administrators, but told CBS News that the educators did not take him seriously. When his complaints went unaddressed, he pulled his daughter out of the high school, and she is now being homeschooled.

“I’m not going to subject my daughter to that kind of environment,” Brown told CBS News.

Next, Brown took his complaint about the teacher’s language to Klein, since she represented his Arizona district. Klein called the language “totally inappropriate”

As deadlines for No Child Left Behind program began to press on schools nationwide, many states have realized that they would simply be unable to make the standards set by the federal legislation in the time frame allotted. As a result, President Barack Obama has granted waivers to 10 states that requested them, allowing them to free themselves from the sweeping requirements of NCLB. In exchange, these states have pledged to continue their work on academic improvement, both in terms of student performance and evaluation.

Why Waivers Were Necessary

No Child Left Behind was the highly touted and bipartisan legislation signed into law by President George W. Bush. The purpose of the law was to ensure every student in the country was proficient in math and reading by 2014, including traditionally underserved students like those from low-income areas, minorities, students with disabilities and kids still learning the English language.

However, many have complained that the federal system of accountability did not allow states sufficient flexibility in developing systems that worked for their kids, and that it encouraged teachers to simply “teach to the test.” Many states are also showing signs already that they will be unable to meet the federal guidelines in a timely fashion, which has prompted the request for waivers in many states. President Obama recently called No Child Left Behind “an admirable but flawed effort that hurt students instead of helping them,” at CBS News.

By providing waivers

When Roy Roberts became the emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools, he took on the nearly impossible challenge of turning around a system that wasn’t doing justice to the nearly 70,000 students currently enrolled in the district. However, instead of shying away from the challenge, Roberts took the proverbial bull by the horns and embarked on a major shake-up that is slated to occur during the next school year. While some are applauding Roberts’ efforts, others are concerned about what the changes will mean to students, teachers, and the neighborhoods that many of these schools call home.

School Closures Just the Beginning

From overcrowding in Detroit Public School classrooms to facing bankruptcy, the challenges abound for this Michigan school district. According to the Huffington Post, Roberts plans to close nine public schools next year and convert four more into charters in an effort to repair a broken system. This move is predicted to save Detroit Public Schools $7.5 million in annual operating costs – money that Roberts hopes to put towards educating children rather than maintaining empty classrooms.

"Rather than continue to support buildings that are far underutilized…we will consolidate,” Roberts was reported saying at Huffington Post. “We have been using an outdated educational model that we must discard,” Roberts added.

The Detroit Free Press reports that by this fall, Detroit Public Schools will be downsized to around 50,000 students – down from the nearly 70,000 currently in the school district and

School dress codes are not a new idea. Many of those guidelines include rules for hair, makeup and jewelry, as well as the clothing ensembles students don to head to class every day. In one Michigan high school, the rules regarding boys’ hair is very clear: “Hair must be clean, neat, free of unnatural or distracting colors, off the collar, off the ears and out of the eyes.” The rules also state that students who fail to follow the dress code may be subject to an out-of-school suspension. So why is one suspended student who refused to adhere to the dress code in this high school now receiving national support for his actions?

A Good Cause

The reason for his long hair is why people nationwide have come out in support of this seemingly rebellious teenager. J.T. Gaskin is a 17-year-old cancer survivor, who, until just recently, attended Madison Academy near Flint, Michigan. Gaskin is about to celebrate his final pediatric check-up for cancer, and he decided to commemorate the event by doing a good deed for a charity that helped him when he was a cancer patient. Gaskin decided to grow out his hair until it was long enough to cut and donate to Locks of Love – a charity that uses real human hair to create wigs for low-income cancer patients.

“I just want to give back to the charities that have given to me,” Gaskin was reported to say in the New

While some public schools have made their classrooms decidedly politically correct, including banning Christmas carols on campus, other states seem to be headed in the opposite direction. A number of states around the country are introducing legislation to bring the Bible back to school – purportedly as a resource for teaching the history of the United States, rather than advocating a particular religion. Still, many believe that biblical studies of any kind in public schools are a flagrant First Amendment violation. Which side is right? It turns out the matter may be too complex for a single, easy answer.

The First Amendment

The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

“Largely because of this prohibition against government regulation or endorsement of religion, diverse faiths have flourished and thrived in America since the founding of the republic,” states the Anti-Defamation League. “Indeed, James Madison, the father of the United States Constitution, once observed that, ‘the [religious] devotion of the people has been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.”

The words of the Constitution sound relatively straightforward, but they have been hotly debated for generations. Determining what constitutes the separation of church and state is not an easy task, particularly when First Amendment issues enter into the public school forum. Prayer, Bible study, and teachings on creationism and evolution have all become hot-button issues in school