- Presumptive ban on homeschooling? A bad idea for so many reasons, especially when the presumption should be of liberty [Erin O’Donnell, Harvard Magazine; Kerry McDonald, Cato] Harvard Law School is hosting a June conference on homeschooling and the law dominated by advocates of placing new legal restrictions on the practice [Corey DeAngelis] A recent HLS grad who was homeschooled weighs in [Alex J. Harris]
- Equity versus achievement: U.S. Department of Education urges schools working remotely to teach new content rather than just review the old [Andrew Ujifusa, Education Week, earlier on controversy; Hans Bader on Arlington, Va. schools]
- “A politically progressive caucus within the [teacher’s] union is calling on its leaders to push for ‘less academic work’ during the coming months, and to lobby for a moratorium on student grades and teacher evaluations.” [Dana Goldstein and Eliza Shapiro, New York Times] San Francisco school board to vote on plan that would give students in grades 6-12 a grade of A in all subjects [KGO; Alison Collins and commenters; related on mass social promotion, Andy Smarick, The Atlantic]
- Those copyright license issues that keep church congregations from incorporating music into their online services also complicate the lives of educators trying to carry out online instruction [Mike Masnick, TechDirt]
- Before, or at least separate from, the crisis: “Should Students Be Excused from School for Political Activism?” [Jim Geraghty, National Review] “Public Education as Public Indoctrination” [Ilya Somin] Group that wants regulatory stringency of federal school lunch program to be decided in courtroom rather than at ballot box ironically styles itself “Democracy Forward.” [Lola Fadulu, New York Times]
- Split Sixth Circuit panel rules that Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects a fundamental right to a “basic minimum education,” a holding that seems unlikely to survive Supreme Court review given such precedents as Rodriguez, Glucksberg, and DeShaney [Jonathan Adler, Josh Blackman]
Posts Tagged ‘school lunch’
Schools and childhood roundup
- Most kids find whole milk the most palatable and there’s now evidence that it can also be a healthier choice for many. So why should the federal school lunch program prevent localities from offering it? [Change.org petition, Alice Park, Time 2016; Skeptical Cardiologist; Philip Gruber, Lancaster Farming] Don’t expect much from new changes to federal school lunch program [Baylen Linnekin]
- Even when one parent’s a pediatric emergency room doc, a family can still be vulnerable to having their infant seized by Child Protective Services over ambiguous indicators of physical injury. A Wisconsin nightmare [Mike Hixenbaugh, NBC News; Lenore Skenazy]
- Economist Emily Oster speaks on her book Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool [Cato event video, joined by Julie Gunlock and Chelsea Follett, and related Cato Daily Podcast with Oster and Caleb Brown]
- “A 2019 report found that the number of small family child care providers (one person caring for children in his/her own home) declined by 35 percent from 2011 to 2017. … Unsurprisingly, during this same time child care licensing requirements increased dramatically.” [Angela Rachidi, AEI; earlier here, here, here, etc.]
- On requirements for “community service hours” before graduation: “My line is that community service is for convicted criminals, but high school students are innocent.” [Arnold Kling]
- “Florida 6-year-old arrested, handcuffed for elementary school tantrum” [Ebony Bowden, New York Post in September] “Pointing a finger gun lands 12-year-old Johnson County student in handcuffs” [Mará Rose Williams, Kansas City Star]
Schools roundup
- Progressive law school opinion has never made its peace with Milliken v. Bradley, which is another reason not to be surprised that the coming campaign cycle might relitigate the whole school busing issue [Em Steck and Andrew Kaczynski, CNN on 1975 Elizabeth Warren article]
- Irony? School “anti-bullying specialist” seems to have bullied students over officially disapproved expression [Robby Soave, Reason; Lacey Township, N.J. students suspended over off-campus Snapchat]
- How Abbott and other New Jersey school finance rulings wound up plunging the state deep in debt [Steven Malanga, City Journal; earlier here and at Cato on New Jersey and more generally on school finance litigation including here, here (Kansas, etc.) and at Cato (Colorado)]
- “Pennsylvania School District Warns Parents They Could Lose Kids Over Unpaid School Lunches” [AP/CBS Philadelphia]
- “Educational Freedom, Teacher Sickouts, and Bloated Higher Ed” [Cato Daily Podcast with Corey DeAngelis, Neal McCluskey, and Caleb Brown]
- No shock, Sherlock: New York law suspending statute of limitations for suing schools results in higher insurance premiums for public districts [New York Post]
Food and paternalism roundup
- “Sandwiches and main meal salads will be capped at 550 calories, ready meals will be capped at 544 calories and main courses in restaurants will be capped at 951 calories.” Guidelines from Public Health England aren’t mandatory yet, but expect U.K. government pressure on supermarkets and restaurants [Christopher Snowdon, Baylen Linnekin, Scott Shackford, Ryan Bourne]
- “We are not saying they can never give children a chocolate or biscuit ever again,” says the Public Health England official. “But it cannot be a daily occurrence.” And more from “2018: The [mostly U.K.] nanny state year in review” [Snowdon]
- Research paper on Philadelphia soda tax: cross-border shopping completely offsets in-city reduction in beverage sales, “no significant reduction in calorie and sugar intake.” [Stephan Seiler, Anna Tuchman, and Song Yao, SSRN via Caron/TaxProf] More: owner blames tax for closure of Philly supermarket [Eric Boehm]
- Alternative headline: feds act to curb food waste by giving local schools more freedom to offer lunches kids will willingly eat [Jaden Urbi, CNBC]
- “Los Angeles councilmember Paul Koretz [has] introduced a bill that, if passed, would require entertainment and travel venues around town to put at least one vegan dish on their menus.” [Clint Rainey, Grub Street; Scott Shackford]
- “Dollar stores are the latest target of advocates who want to improve food offerings by limiting them” [Baylen Linnekin]
Schools roundup
- Social justice education: on the march and coming to a school system near you [Frederick M. Hess and Grant Addison, National Review]
- New wave of institutional reform litigation aims to replace democratic oversight of public schools with governance by courts, lawyers, and NGOs [Dana Goldstein, New York Times]
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, trying to force a student to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, ignores 75 years of Supreme Court precedent [Scott Shackford] “My Daughter’s Middle School Plans to Teach Her Meek Compliance With Indiscriminate Invasions of Privacy” [Jacob Sullum]
- “The Regressive Effects of Child-Care Regulations: More strenuous requirements raise child-care prices but have little apparent effect on quality” [Ryan Bourne, Regulation and Governing]
- “Denver Schools Stopped ‘Lunch-Shaming’ Kids Whose Parents Didn’t Pay. The Results Were Predictable.” [Hess and Addison]
- Wisconsin public union reform: “A school district’s implementation of Act 10 is associated with an increase in math proficiency on average. The positive impact … is consistent across small town, rural, and suburban school districts.” [Will Flanders and Collin Roth, Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty]
- “Look to the Dutch for true educational pluralism” [Charles Glenn, Acton Institute]
December 13 roundup
- Cakes and coercion: “Endorse the state’s right to coerce speech or conscience and you have ceded a principle that can so easily come back to haunt you.” [Andrew Sullivan, New York mag] “The legal course has some advantages. You can use state power, ultimately the barrel of a gun, to compel people to do what you think is right.” [David Brooks] Yes, courts have often found a constitutional right to discriminate, so scratch that Masterpiece Cakeshop talking point [Eugene Volokh]
- Fugitive Kentucky lawyer and disability-fraud king Eric Conn arrested in Honduras [Bill Chappell/NPR, earlier here and here]
- As White House belatedly consults, heeds seasoned counsel, lawsuits against travel ban begin running out of steam [Ilya Shapiro, The Hill]
- Cheers for restoring schools’ discretion to serve 1 percent chocolate milk, USDA, and next bring back whole milk [Stephanie Ebbs and Erin Dooley/ABC News, earlier]
- Court hears oral argument on sports betting and state commandeering case Christie v. NCAA [Ilya Shapiro/Cato, Jacob Sullum, earlier]
- At recent federal court showdown with Waymo, things went from bad to worse for Uber’s lawyers [Cyrus Farivar, ArsTechnica]
“[It was] just a butter knife”
The Florida first-grader didn’t understand that bringing a butter knife to lunch would get her in trouble with the school. She was suspended under the school’s nondiscretionary discipline policy for possession of “dangerous items.” “We’re just here for the safety and security of all our students and that’s our number one goal,” explained principal Pamela Jones. [WHJG; DeFuniak Springs, Fla.]
Schools and childhood roundup
- Cafeteria nudge dud: questions raised on efficacy of USDA Smarter Lunchrooms Movement, launched in 2010 [Caitlin Dewey, Washington Post; Elizabeth Nolan Brown/Reason]
- “Florida Legislator Wants to Make It a Crime to Leave Your Kid in the Car for Just One Minute. But Why?” [Lenore Skenazy] “Dad Teaches Kids to Ride the Bus. But CPS Says He Can Never Leave Them Alone, Ever.” [same, Canada; more] “Court Upholds Dad’s Conviction for Making 8-Year-Old Son Walk Home Alone” [same, California]
- Judge: Arizona lawmakers not free to end Mexican-American studies program in schools if motivated by animus [Michael Kiefer, Arizona Republic]
- “Former Los Altos baseball player sues coach after being benched, claims bullying” [Hayley Munguia, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Calif.]
- Oft-told story of residential schools as ruin of Native American life might admit of some complication [Naomi Schaefer Riley, Education and Culture, reviewing Dawn Peterson, Indians in the Family: Adoption and the Politics of Antebellum Expansion]
- New York initiative on suspensions likely to make schools less safe [Max Eden, New York Post] “Another Obama Policy Betsy DeVos Should Throw Out” [Jason E. Riley, WSJ]
Food roundup
- Good: Incoming Agriculture Secretary Perdue to introduce “flexibility” into Obama-era school lunch mandates [Tony Mecia, Weekly Standard; Baylen Linnekin, Reason; Joe Simonson, Heat Street; Pat Roberts letter; earlier]
- Also good: FDA delays mandate for calorie labels on prepared food [Tim Devaney/The Hill, WSJ editorial, Seyfarth Shaw, earlier]
- And your hot dog isn’t from Frankfurt or Wien either: consumer class actions claiming beer names are geographically misleading struggle to convince judges [Greg Herbers, WLF]
- “We must destroy the ice cream man,” Senators told at hearing [Renae Ditmer, Indian Country Today]
- Canada recalls batch of liquor for having too much alcohol. Way to set up a sure-fire punch line [Canadian Food Inspection Agency]
- Yet another blow to oft-refuted “food deserts” theory [Christine Vaughan et al., RAND Corporation, earlier]
“Bologna is in the same category as cigarettes”
An American Cancer Society spokesman is quoted giving cover to an animal rights group’s lawsuit demanding the removal of cured meat from school cafeterias [San Diego Union-Tribune] More on the soi-disant Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and its publicity stunts here and here.