And now for the not-so-good news from the election

My hearty congratulations to those across the country who brought in national, state, and local leadership that will better support public education!

(including Texas, where a former school board member will serve as the next Governor!)

If you're rejoicing this morning in the blue tsunami that swept the nation last night, I do not wish to take away from your joy, but I do want to point to some election results on ballot initiatives that are not good for kids.

I will update this when or if I find more.

• North Dakota voted down the ballot initiative that would add free school lunch to the state constitution. 
  I did see some mention online that some voters objected not to free meals, but to putting it into the state constitution, so we'll see where that goes. 
  
  
• Alabama put school prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance into the state constitution. 
  
  
• In a theme of continuing to target trans kids, Colorado passed, Nebraska passed, and Washington appears headed to pass a ban on trans girls' participation in sports; Arizona passed a student bathroom ban. 

And a cheer for Shawnee Mission School District in Kansas

 ...which has not only refused to sign an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education regarding their "investigation" into the district's inclusion of trans students, they also extensively questioned the grounds of the investigation, and concluded with this: 

“Finally, the resolution agreement you have provided contains provisions that are inconsistent with the values that inform our work of supporting all children in our communities. We will never issue a policy that devalues certain members of our diverse community.”

May we all be so bold in defending our students.*

_____________________
*I wish my alma mater were being so public and bold.

The Supreme Court endangers trans students through the shadow docket

 On Monday night, through their so-called shadow docket, in which a case isn't argued before them and they weigh in, anyway, the Supreme Court further endangered trans kids. The case is  Mirabelli v. Bonta out of California, in which parents are challenging the California law that bars school districts from outing trans kids to their parents. 

Things to read this week

 As always, a lot of this has come through on the microblogger sites, but for those who prefer somewhere else: 

how do we make sure it can't happen here: on Nex Benedict

Content warning: death of a trans student 

MTA button and sticker read "Protect Trans Kids" on a trans flag

I've been profoundly disturbed by the death of Nex Benedict since I heard of it.