Tag Archive for: education

Texas State Board of Ed. Approves the Bible in Public School Curriculum

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One vote can make an enormous difference. In Texas, it was a single vote that allowed biblical material to be included in the local public schools through the state-authored curriculum, Bluebonnet Learning (BL). On Friday, eight of 15 Texas State Board of Education members voted it through. Although it was not free from controversy, last week’s decision means the new curriculum will be available starting in the spring and likely put to use within the 2025 to 2026 school year.

Notably, the biblical material included in BL is optional. As The Texas Tribune summarized, “The curriculum was designed with a cross-disciplinary approach that uses reading and language arts lessons to advance or cement concepts in other disciplines, such as history and social studies.” Some of the specific Christian references and teachings integrated into BL is Jesus’s parable of “The Good Samaritan,” which can be found in Luke chapter 10, and the “Golden Rule,” found in Matthew 7. The Tribune noted that these parables are “about loving everyone, including your enemies.” The Golden Rule, as stated in the Bible, says, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.”

Those who voted against this curriculum included all four Democrats who are on the board, as well as three Republicans. According to The Daily Wire, several Democrats who voted against it felt concerned it would “force Christianity on public school children.” Of those Democrats, Staci Childs verbalized her belief that the curriculum will eventually find itself in court. She told NBC News, “[I]f a parent or a teacher who didn’t feel comfortable teaching this were to bring this up to a court, I believe they would be successful.” Childs also noted that, in her opinion, “these materials are [not] yet reflective of the experiences and the nuance of Texas students.”

Conversely, Republican board member Will Hickman celebrated the future of Texas public schools now that BL has been approved. “In my view,” he said, “these stories are on the education side and are establishing cultural literacy. … [R]eligious concepts like the Good Samaritan and the Golden Rule and Moses [are ones] that all students should be exposed to.” Apart from the board members, it appears parents were also divided on the topic. However, The New York Times reported on one mother’s opinion, in which she stated that the incarnation of Jesus “is and always will be the hinge of all of history.” This mother also posed the question: “How would the canceling of such fundamental facts serve the education of our children or contribute to shape them morally?”

To add to the conversation, Joseph Backholm, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement, offered a comment to The Washington Stand. “The classroom will never be values neutral,” he said. “We’ve seen the aggressive way some classrooms have pushed the Sexual Revolution, which is essentially just a different religion. [So,] the fact that the curriculum includes biblical stories doesn’t mean its teaching Christianity, just that they aren’t pretending there is something dangerous about biblical stories anymore.”

Backholm agreed that “the history of America is largely Christian. It’s not possible to have a clear understanding of American history without understanding the role faith played in the lives and beliefs of our founders.” According to Backholm, “This is just one of the many ways that biblical knowledge is [simply] part of a basic education. If you learn American history, you’ll learn about the Bible.”

Ultimately, Backholm believes parents should “be the primary shapers and guardians of children, [but] we don’t want our fear of ‘religious instruction’ to make us afraid of giving a real education. [Because] in the American context, knowing about our history and culture requires knowledge of the Bible.”

FRC’s Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow of Education Studies, also weighed in with TWS. “The folks who are concerned about ‘teaching Christianity’ in classrooms have likely never batted an eye over mindfulness lessons or practice for children, Greek and Roman mythology, and other types of religious content in schools.”

She continued, “Biblical or overtly Christian content is too controversial for use in the classroom when viewed through the ‘lens of inclusivity.’” Agreeing with Backholm, she noted, “There is simply no way to separate America from its expressly Christian foundation, [even] though the educational industrial complex continues to try.” At the end of the day, Kilgannon said she’s “grateful for the Texas school board members who voted to support this measure. We must continue to pray for America’s schools, families, and school children. We must also support local leaders who take a stand for God and country.”

Kilgannon concluded, “Education has always been about state and local control. It’s our duty to pay attention to local matters and make sure our perspectives are heard.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council,

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Here Are Donald Trump’s ‘Promises Made’ on Transgenderism and Abortion

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As once-and-future President Donald J. Trump strode to the podium to deliver his victory speech after winning the 2024 presidential election, he made his exuberant followers a solemn vow: “I will govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept.” President Trump, who made greater efforts to keep his campaign pledges as the 45th president than perhaps any modern president in decades, has vowed to protect children from irreversible surgeries, uproot extreme transgender ideology from government, enshrine parental rights, and end the weaponization of government against Christians and pro-life advocates.

Here are some of President-Elect Donald Trump’s most important 2024 campaign promises on transgender issues, abortion, and education.

President Donald Trump’s 2024 Promises on Transgender Ideology

The Biden-Harris administration’s advocacy of extreme transgender ideology did more to return the 45th president to office than any other issue. The Democratic polling firm Blueprint found that swing voters said the top reason they voted against the Democratic candidate in 2024 is that “Kamala Harris is focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class.” And Republicans spent $65 million on ads highlighting the Democratic Party’s transgender extremism in three months.

But long before the election, President Trump had vowed to reel in the radicalism of the Obama-Biden-Harris administrations.

“Probably number one on my list … I will sign a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation — think of it, sexual mutilation — in all 50 states,” President Trump promised during his speech to the 2023 Pray Vote Stand Summit. He denounced governors like Minnesota’s Tim Walz (D) and California’s Gavin Newsom (D) for signing “depraved new laws that strip parents of parental rights and that encourage minors to be transported across state lines for sexual mutilation. … We will prosecute those involved in this sick California scheme for violating federal laws against kidnapping, sex trafficking, child abuse, and the deprivation of their civil rights.”

President Trump has long recognized the overreach, and political value, of extreme gender ideology. No later than February 2023, President Trump included a robust, 11-point plan to end gender “madness” in his “Agenda47” blueprint for his next administration. Trump posted these pledges on the Trump-Vance campaign website and articulated these points in a video posted on Rumble on February 1, 2023.

“Here’s my plan to stop the chemical, physical, and emotional mutilation of our children,” said the president.

  1. “On day one, I will revoke Joe Biden’s cruel policies on so-called ‘gender-affirming care,” which Trump called “ridiculous.” As he did at the Pray Vote Stand Summit, he promised to oppose “a process that includes giving kids puberty blockers, mutating their physical appearance, and ultimately performing surgery on minor children.”
  1. “I will sign a new executive order instructing every federal agency to cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age,” he said.
  1. “I will then ask Congress to permanently stop federal taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or pay for these procedures and pass a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states,” he said, forecasting, “It’ll go very quickly.”
  1. ”I will declare that any hospital or health care provider that participates in the chemical or physical mutilation of minor youth will no longer meet federal health and safety standards for Medicaid and Medicare and will be terminated from the program immediately.” For instance, Boston Children’s Hospital received $1.4 million from the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) of Massachusetts for inflicting “gender transition services” between January 2015 and May 2023. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) also awardeda $3.3 million grant to build a website targeting young people in other states who identify as transgender.
  1. “Furthermore, I will support the creation of a private right of action for victims to sue doctors who have unforgivably performed these procedures on minor children,” said Trump. Within one week, two former victims of the transgender industry — Chloe Cole and Camille Kiefel — sued the doctors who misdiagnosed their mental illness as gender dysphoria and recommended surgical amputations.
  1. “The Department of Justice will investigate Big Pharma and the big hospital networks to determine whether they have deliberately covered up horrific long-term side effects of sex transitions in order to get rich at the expense of vulnerable patients — in this case, very vulnerable,” promised the 45th president. Economic considerations undeniably play a role in Dr. Shayne Taylor convinced Nashville’s Vanderbilt University to begin carrying out transgender surgeries, because “they require a lot of follow-ups. They require a lot of time, and they make money —they make money for the hospital.”
  1. ”We will also investigate whether Big Pharma or others have illegally marketed hormones and puberty blockers, which are in no way licensed or approved for this use,” said Trump about the off-label, experimental uses of drugs intended to temporarily suspend precocious puberty only until it could safely begin.
  1. “My Department of Education will inform states and school districts that if any teacher or school official suggests to a child that they could be trapped in the wrong body, they will be faced with severe consequences, including potential civil rights violations for sex discrimination and the elimination of federal funding,” he said.
  1. “As part of our new credentialing body for teachers, we will promote positive education about the nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers, and celebrating rather than erasing the things that make men and women different and unique,” said President Trump.
  1. “I will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female, and they are assigned at birth. The bill will also make clear that Title IX prohibits men from participating in women’s sports,” said the president-elect. The injustice of having female athletes like Riley Gaines lose scholarships, prizes, or other opportunities to middling male athletes drove voters toward the Trump-Vance ticket, polls show.
  1. “And we will protect the rights of parents from being forced to allow their minor child to assume a gender which is new and an identity without the parent’s consent,” Trump vowed. When one mother’s former lesbian partner began to teach her four-year-old son about extreme gender ideology, she said the boy’s preschool sent her “edicts by email,” with no consideration that he, or she, may not be fully committed to his social transition.

“No serious country should be telling its children that they were born in the wrong gender,” said President Trump.” Under my leadership, this madness will end.”

President Donald Trump’s 2024 Promises on Abortion

Although the Trump 2024 presidential campaign retreated to a less committed policy on protecting the unborn, the Trump-Vance ticket promised to end the weaponization of the federal government against pro-life advocates and left the door open to some additional pro-life measures.

After the 2022 Dobbs decision, the Biden-Harris administration stood by as Jane’s Revenge attacked pro-life women’s resource centers and churches. It then established a federal task force to prosecute peaceful — often elderly — pro-life sidewalk counselors on flimsy charges that they violated the 1994 Federal Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

“To reverse these cruel travesties of justice, tonight I’m announcing that the moment I win the election, I will appoint a special task force to rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who’s been unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration … so that I can study the situation very quickly and sign their pardons or commutations on day one,” President Trump told the 2023 Pray Vote Stand Summit. “Never again will the federal government be used to target religious believers.”

As president in 2017, President Trump strengthened pro-life policies that protected U.S. taxpayer funds from underwriting abortion around the world. He later enacted regulations preventing those who receive Title X funding from advocating abortion — which led Planned Parenthood to withdraw from the federal family planning program rather than give up abortion advocacy. The administration appears amenable to reenacting these measures. “On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood, look, I mean, our view is we don’t think that taxpayers should fund late-term abortions. That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around. It will remain a consistent view,” said Vice President-Elect J.D. Vance last month.

Vance also personally distinguished between a “national abortion ban” and a “minimum national standard,” such as a bill to protect unborn babies from abortion after 15 weeks — although Trump has not registered his support for the measure.

President Trump kept his promise after he became the first candidate to release a list of potential Supreme Court justices’ names during the 2016 election. After seeing the hand of God deliver him from two assassination attempts, President Trump has found a divine purpose in carrying out his campaign promises. If he keeps these promises, which won the Republican Party eight out of 10 white evangelical voters and more than nine out of 10 pro-life votes, he will go far toward his goal to make America great again.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson 

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

U.N. Election Interference, Abortion Facilities Freak Out, and More: The 4 Stories You Missed This Week

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As the nation reacts to the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election and looks forward to how the incoming Trump-Vance administration will shape up, numerous other important stories have slipped under the media’s radar.

On the eve of the 2024 election, the United Nations issued a report suggesting anything the U.N. deems “anti-LGBT rhetoric” — from political candidates and religious believers — be considered “hate speech” and to present LGBT-identifying people “as role models.” A Democratic campaign in the nation’s most significant swing state has sued to count the votes of unregistered voters. And late-term abortion facilities are worried that the 2024 election means they will soon have to close their doors.

1. Foreign Election Interference? U.N. Slams Politicians For ‘Hate Speech’ and ‘Gender Persecution’ on Eve of Election, Threatens Religious Liberty

The Biden administration praised a United Nations report dedicated to portraying the mainstream view of transgenderism as “hate speech” and encouraging social media platforms to silence politicians, and Christian believers, who espouse traditional Christian views of gender. It also asked for election observers dedicated to LGBTQ issues to patrol polling places.

“The human rights related to the electoral participation of LGBT persons may be violated in myriad ways,” including “bias-motivated … hate speech,” says the report.

“Intolerant rhetoric, based on animosity, fear-mongering and hate speech, may be directed at different targets … LGBT persons may be targeted specifically in campaign rhetoric, or hostility may be expressed in more general xenophobic terms,” says the report. “Discrimination and hostility are exacerbated when an LGBT individual is additionally targeted on the basis of other characteristics, such as race or religious beliefs, or as a migrant.”

President-elect Donald Trump leaned hard into advertisements showing that Kamala Harris supported taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for inmates and illegal immigrants. As a presidential hopeful in 2019, then-Senator Harris boasted that she changed the law to offer taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries to prison inmates when she was California attorney general. Former President Bill Clinton reportedly warned the Harris-Walz campaign of their vulnerability on the issue, and the Democratic polling firm Blueprint found no issue so motivated swing state voters as the notion that “Kamala Harris is focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class.” Other candidates picked up the theme, and “Republicans spent $143 million on the transgender campaign to cast Democrats as out-of-touch” in the 2024 election, reported “60 Minutes.”

The U.N. objects when voters democratically make their voices heard on extremist transgender proposals via ballot initiatives. “Referendums, often with provocative or misleading questions, are one mechanism used to radicalize political discourse, or to distract voters from other pressing issues,” it says.

The U.N. seeks to portray all discussion of extreme transgenderism as beyond discussion. It describes even the use of “the term ‘gender ideology’ as ‘part of an anti-rights discourse by political and religious leaders seeking to limit the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender-diverse persons.’” The term “‘gender ideology’ has emerged as a dominant catch-all phrase that falsely implies a sinister attempt to undermine the social order by tampering with gender norms. It is used to oppose reproductive rights and the rights of LGBT people,” claims the report.

The U.N. calls on governments and social media companies to crack down on religious objections to radical LGBTQIA+ ideology. “In one submission, it was noted how anti-LGBT rhetoric was sometimes positioned as religious speech protected by freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief. Profiling LGBT issues in campaigns, in order to generate a negative response and enhance political prospects, is often planned and purposeful.”

Among its 19 recommendations, the report calls on governments to:

  • “Promote the development and refinement of social media company policies on anti-discrimination”
  • “highlight the participation of LGBT persons in politics and to increase their perception as role models”
  • “educate the public on gender and sexual diversity and the human rights of LGBT persons”
  • Engage in “the proactive, prompt and efficient investigation and prosecution of hate crimes”
  • “Repeal laws against consensual same-sex conduct and review disenfranchisement based on criminal convictions”
  • “Adopt laws to guarantee legal recognition of gender identity on the basis of self-declaration”
  • “Develop guidelines and procedures for election day that promote the participation of LGBT persons, especially trans and non-binary persons”
  • “Support the capacity-building of civil society organizations focused on LGBT rights in election observation and advocacy”
  • “Support the capacity-building of international election observers on LGBT rights issues”
  • See “LGBT persons as a key component of international electoral assistance”

These proposals would at least smear all faith-based objections to extreme LGBTQ ideology as a form of hate speech. At worst, they would suppress the traditional, biblical doctrines of sexuality and gender held by nearly all the world’s Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Christians.

The report — titled “Electoral participation and protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity” and written by U.N. Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Graeme Reed — came out on July 15. Yet C-FAM noted that the United Nations insisted on addressing the issue on Monday, November 4, the day before the U.S. presidential election. How did the U.S. administration greet it?

“Your report is very timely, as it comes during the so-called global ‘year of elections’ including in my own country tomorrow,” said Dylan Lang, a U.S. delegate to the U.N. General Assembly. “Sadly, the United States is not immune from homophobia and transphobia in election campaigns.” He also noted the administration’s record of appointing “[p]eople like Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, the first out Senate-confirmed Cabinet Secretary; Karine Jean-Pierre, the first openly queer White House Press Secretary; and Admiral Rachel Levine and Shawn Skelly, the highest-ranking openly transgender government officials in United States history.”

The timing seems anything but coincidental. Does this constitute foreign election interference?

2. Bob Casey’s Election Denial Would Count Ineligible Voters?

Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who has devolved from a “pro-life Democrat” to just another pro-abortion liberal, lost his reelection campaign to Republican Dave McCormick this year. While the election’s razor-thin margin triggers an automatic recount under Pennsylvania law, it is unlikely to change the state of the race. In some cases, McCormick has actually gained votes. But not winning a majority of legal votes seems to be no reason for Casey to relinquish his vice-grip on power.

As of this writing, Casey — who regularly chided President Trump to accept the outcome of an election in advance — has not only refused to concede; he’s waging a legal battle to count the “votes” of unregistered voters. Several election boards in the state have voted to count mail-in ballots that have no date, in violation of state law and a recent state Supreme Court ruling. That’s not enough for the Casey campaign, which is fighting a court battle against the Republican National Committee to count the “votes” of unregistered voters, unsigned ballots, and those who do not live in the county in which they voted.

The Casey for Senate campaign sent a letter to one board declaring that it “challenges the rejection of provisional ballots based solely on the Board’s staff’s failure to find voters’ names on registered-voter lists.” This is apparently what the Left means when it claims it seeks to defend “Our Democracy.”

“Casey and the Democrats are sore losers. And they’re disrespecting our democracy,” says a 30-second ad crafted by the Fair Election Fund. “Tell Bob Casey it’s time to concede.”

3. University Turns on Democratic Rep, Then Flip-Flops

As online videos of blue-haired TikTok users show, Democrats are not handling the results of the 2024 election well. But some on the Left have at least the good sense not to let their convictions get in the way of receiving vast tranches of taxpayer dollars.

Tufts University threatened to cut all ties with the office of Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) after he dared to question whether the Democratic Party had gone too far in embracing extreme transgender ideology during the 2024 election.

After the results came in, Moulton — who briefly ran as a presidential hopeful in the 2020 Democratic primaries — committed what a U.N. observer might deem “hate speech”: He affirmed biological differences between men and women. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that,” said Moulton.

Tufts University decided not to wait for guidance from the U.N. It cut ties with Moulton’s office within 24 hours. “David Art, a Tufts professor who chairs the political science department, then called Moulton’s office Friday and threatened to block student internships” for students to work in Moulton’s office for credit, “according to internal Slack messages Moulton’s office shared with NBC News,” the outlet noted.

But backlash came swiftly, with calls to tax university endowments or take other legal measures against liberal universities. “We have reached out to Congressman Moulton’s office to clarify that we have not — and will not — limit internship opportunities with his office,” announced the university in a social media post on Tuesday.

“Imagine if one of these Tuft students actually wants to intern in a Republican office!” said Moulton.

4. Abortion Facilities Freak Out, Fear Going Out of Business

Among the constituencies that views itself as hardest hit by the 2024 presidential election is the abortion industry, especially those who carry out late-term abortions. But a fascinating, pre-election article in a liberal news outlet shows independent abortion facilities face their greatest economic squeeze, not from the incoming Trump administration, but from competitors in the abortion industry.

Shortly before the election, The New Republic carried an abortion industry fundraising letter posing as a news story warning that, even if Kamala Harris won the presidency, some abortionists who carry out third-trimester abortions may have to close their doors. Try to suppress your tears as you read:

“There are thought to be seven all-trimester clinics in the entire country. DuPont Clinic, an all-trimester provider in Washington, D.C., said it has lost more than $500,000 since July 1 after national groups put strict caps on patient funding. Karishma Oza, DuPont’s director of care coordination, said if that rate of loss continues and they don’t get support to close the funding gap, the clinic will have to close by the end of the year.

“‘Even though technically the clinic is a for-profit, we were never profitable,’ Oza said of the clinic, which opened in 2017. ‘But now with these cuts, we are going from pay period to pay period.’”

The story reveals what’s actually at play: a long-running turf war inside the abortion industry. Planned Parenthood has long sought to expand its abortion franchise locations, often in the same neighborhoods as non-affiliated abortion facilities.

“These clinics’ financial devastation is an upstream consequence of the National Abortion Federation and Planned Parenthood capping patient funding at 30 percent of their bill instead of 50 percent,” notes the story. The story hopes to keep these abortionists in business at your expense. One of the late-term abortionists — Dr. Diane Horvath of Partners in Abortion Care in College Park, Maryland — “expressed optimism that Maryland lawmakers could increase the amount Medicaid health insurance reimburses providers for abortion.”

The Trump administration should move swiftly to defund all abortionists, including Planned Parenthood. To use the abortion industry’s logic: Taxpayers have no responsibility to carry abortionists before the point of financial viability.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Abolishing Dept. of Education Will Be ‘Tremendous for our States’: State Education Official

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Some officials wait in trepidation to find out if President-elect Donald Trump will follow through with his campaign promise to abolish the Department of Education. Some wait with glee.

In an online video posted last July, then-candidate Trump promised that, if elected, “very early in the administration” he would begin “closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states. We want them to run the education of our children, because they’ll do a much better job of it. You can’t do worse.”

The promise echoes back to 1980, when Ronald Reagan promised to close the department, which President Jimmy Carter opened that May. Bob Dole made the same promise in 1996. But Trump’s allies believe the 47th president will be the man to follow through. “In his first term, President Trump moved the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as so many Republican candidates had promised before him. I am hopeful that closing the Department of Education will be President Trump’s second term version of that long-term promise keeping,” Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at Family Research Council and a former Trump administration education official, told The Washington Stand. “Nearly every Republican candidate for president has campaigned on this. It’s time to make good on that promise.”

Officials at the state level are already planning ways they can improve the quality of education once the federal government no longer dictates the curriculum, standards, and conduct.

“When he eliminates the federal Department of Education, it is going to be tremendous for our states,” Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters told “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” on Tuesday. “Literally every educational statistic has gotten worse since Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education.”

The most recent “Nation’s Report Card” — the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)’s long-term trends exam (LTT) — found that the average 13-year-old student’s math scores ranked the lowest in more than three decades. The number of high school seniors who did not read a single book for pleasure in the last year nearly quadrupled between 1976 and 2021-2022.

The United States is losing ground compared to other nations. “In 2022, there were 5 education systems with higher average reading literacy scores for 15-year-olds than the United States, 25 with higher mathematics literacy scores, and 9 with higher science literacy scores,” reported the National Center for Education Statistics, analyzing data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In the first year of PISA, 2000, only three nations had higher average reading literacy scores than the U.S., eight outperformed the U.S. in mathematics, and seven countries did better in science literacy.

The Department of Education “was formed to close the achievement gaps, and they have not budged one little bit,” former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos told Newsmax on Tuesday. American taxpayers “spent over $1 trillion … trying to do it, and we’ve gotten nothing but worse results. It’s time to do something different.”

Education results declined as per-pupil government education spending rose from $11,221 in 1979 to $17,700 in 2023 in inflation-adjusted dollars. The Biden-Harris administration boasted of the “largest annual spike in public school spending in over 20 years,” when per pupil spending increased 8.9% between 2021 and 2022. President Joe Biden — a longtime labor union ally who boasts that his wife, Jill, belongs to a teacher’s union — requested $90 billion in discretionary spending in his most recent budget, an increase of $10.8 billion or 13.6%. Congress appropriated $79.1 billion in fiscal year 2024.

“Abolishing the Department of Education is an important and necessary step in reforming the American education system. Returning the focus of power to the states demonstrates an understanding that families are the main ‘stakeholders’ when it comes to educating children and the next generation of American citizens and leaders,” Kilgannon told TWS. “Closing the U.S. Department of Education also proves that there are consequences for poor results. It’s a rejection of the overly credentialed, expert-reliant model of policymaking and a return to the basics of local control.”

“President Trump laid out the greatest vision for education in our nation’s history. It was bold. It was conservative. These were the reforms we needed,” Walters told FRC President Tony Perkins.

Walters noted that the federal government promoted radical left-wing curricula from the top-down. “Remember, that’s also the federal Department of Education that brought you” critical race theory, diversity, equity, and inclusion; and “Common Core math. They also brought in this anti-American hatred through the curriculum and through the grants that they pushed,” said Walters. Under Biden-Harris, the U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) taught CRT and extreme transgender ideology to the children of enlisted soldiers in its 160 schools in 11 countries.

“Only about 9% of the funding comes from the federal government, but 90% of the regulation comes from the federal government,” noted DeVos. Teachers unions used DOE “as a beachhead” and “exercise tremendous power over one party.” As it stands, the Department of Education does not act “to benefit the kids. It is only to benefit the adults.”

“My goal is to see the department closed down, phased out, and depowered,” in favor of universal school choice programs, she said. “The money should follow the kids.”

Education experts say the incoming Trump administration could use a host of policies to transfer power from Washington to states and, ultimately, to parents. DeVos noted the federal government may continue providing education funds to states, for instance, through block grants. “Until the Department of Education is closed, however, we need capable leadership from folks who will ensure the department’s focus and footprint is restrained. There are many ways to reduce the size of the department, putting it on a trajectory for eventual closure,” Kilgannon argued.

Walters agrees that parents should have the greatest voice in their children’s education. If given a block grant, he would assure the money goes to parents, to choose the schooling they find best suited for their children. “[E]very child is unique. God created us that way. And the people who are going to know best for what that individual child needs are going to be the child’s mom and dad,” he said.

“The closer we can get resources and decisions to the parents, the better,” said Walters. “That’s what the elimination of the federal Department of Education does.”

Walters has tasked a state advisory panel to guide the transition of educational authority from the national to the state level when the Trump administration closes the Education Department. “They’re going to help us put together recommendations for the state moving forward. When the federal Department of Education is gone, how can we direct those dollars? How can we make sure that families know about the options available?”

“We’re also rewriting our history standards. We want to make sure that we are pro-patriotism, pro-America,” and highlight “the role faith played in our country’s history. So we’re rewriting those history standards to make sure that takes place. We’ve also eliminated CRT, any kind of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our schools,” Walters told Perkins. He added that the state has instituted “merit pay for teachers. … We’ve also created an ability for us to navigate how many illegal immigrants are in our schools.”

He also announced on Tuesday that the state “created the Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism that will continue to navigate any time a teacher is persecuted because of his or her Christian faith. We will investigate it, and we will not stand for it.”

When asked about likely impending lawsuits from the ACLU and other secularist pressure groups, Walters replied, “We’re not scared of the teachers union or a Woke mob. We’re going to continue advancing the ball.”

“We are going to take back our schools. We will not allow a Marxist teachers union to control the future for our young people,” he said. Walters also asked Christians nationwide to “continue to pray for the students of Oklahoma, for the families. … Pray for our parents; pray for our teachers; pray for our kids.”

“Don’t believe the left-wing lies that the sky is falling” when President Trump formally signs legislation abolishing the Department of Education, said Walters. “We can’t wait to implement it for the betterment of our state.”

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Crimes against American Schoolchildren Rise as Illegal Immigration Increases

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Those who knew and loved Joshua Wilkerson described the 18-year-old as friendly, “solid in his faith,” and eager to help other students in his Houston-area high school. “Joshua had never been in a fight in his life,” said his mother.

That all changed on November 16, 2010.

A fellow student and acquaintance named Hermilo Moralez asked him for a ride home. Police say after they arrived, the 19-year-old illegal immigrant from Belize launched an unprovoked attack on Wilkerson, who had driven Moralez home numerous times in the past. Moralez, a skilled martial artist, punched Wilkerson in the face and “kicked so hard in the stomach that it sent his spleen into his spine, and sliced it in two,” his mother testified to Congress. Moralez beat him with a wooden rod and injured his classmate so extensively that police categorized the injuries as torture. Even Moralez called his assault “very violent,” court records show.

Moralez then tied Wilkerson’s body, drove Wilkerson’s truck to a remote location, and set him on fire. “At one point, Hermilo stated that Joshua kind of ‘melted’ into the ground,” say court documents.

While propounding numerous alibis, the killer tried to blame the victim. “The suspect claims Josh began to come on to him in a sexual manner and that’s how the fight started, but we don’t believe that information is very credible,” said Lt. Onesimo Lopez, a local police officer.

“This was our family’s 9/11 terrorist attack by a foreign invader,” his mother, Laura Wilkerson, testified to the U.S. Senate in 2015.

While her son’s killer has been convicted, sentenced, and will spend decades in U.S. prison, he is far from alone. A growing number of illegal immigrants has committed crimes against U.S. citizens or tried to turn America’s taxpayer-funded public schools into recruiting grounds for transnational criminal organizations such as Tren de Aragua.

A recent example took place in a familiar location: the Loudoun County public schools in Virginia. The school board became infamous after a male student wearing a skirt raped and attempted to sodomize a 15-year-old girl inside a restroom at Stone Bridge High School on May 28, 2021. When her father complained, school board officials had him arrested. They had transferred the teenage perpetrator to another school, where they say he victimized another female student.

The Loudoun County School Board built on his reputation for silencing parents’ concerns at its October 8 meeting, when parents complained about the district allowed a young man with a troubling history to return to school. Last year, police arrested the teenager — reportedly an illegal immigrant with ties to the violent criminal gang MS-13 — for bringing a gun to Blue Ridge Middle School and threatening to kill another student. Once again, when concerned parents spoke out, the board cut their microphones and ruled them out of order, citing the safety and privacy of the illegal immigrant.

“Where’s the protection and the safety for our children who are in school with other children who have [made] known threats, who have been arrested and who are back in the school?” asked a parent, Abbie Platt, at the school board meeting.

Even The Washington Post admits such parental fears are not misplaced. Members of MS-13 have murdered and assaulted numerous students in the nation’s high schools. During his first State of the Union address, President Donald Trump said the names of two MS-13 victims: Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens, killed by MS-13 in September 2016.

“She used to tell me, ‘Ma, they are taking over the school. It’s like they’re everywhere,’” said Cuevas’ mother, Evelyn Rodriguez.

“From New York to Virginia to Texas, schools in areas racked by MS-13 violence are now struggling with a sobering question. What to do when the gang isn’t just in your community, but in your classrooms?” asked the newspaper.

In addition to crimes, gangs use schools as recruiting grounds for minors, who cannot be tried as adults. “Definitely gang involvement is a real thing in some communities,” testified Sheena Rodriguez of the president of the Alliance for a Safe Texas at a June 4 hearing of the House Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee. “Many,” she said, “have criminal histories, affiliation with gangs, or are actually adults who are potentially infiltrating our communities and schools.”

The problem is only growing, as illegal immigrants have brought between 500,000 and one million students into the U.S. public school system. The surge of unexpected enrollments has depleted local tax bases, overwhelmed school officials, and too often deprived American students of a quality education. Yet America’s uncontrolled border is also claiming innocent American lives.

Sometimes the crimes involve adults who target teenagers. Last December, 23-year-old Rafael Govea Romero, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, stabbed 16-year-old high school cheerleader Lizbeth Medina to death in Edna, Texas. Authorities believe Romero, who was on probation for burglary at the time of his arrest for capital murder, broke into Medina’s apartment for robbery and, when he found the teenager at home, stabbed her in the abdomen. Medina’s mother was unaware of the crime until her daughter did not participate in the Christmas parade with the rest of her squad that afternoon and returned home to find her child’s lacerated body in her bathtub.

“This government continues to fail or even recognize that we have an issue. Americans are dying daily at the hands of criminals that we don’t even know are here,” Wilkerson boldly told U.S. senators. “You’re elected by Americans, not any other country. You should be for Americans.”

No one is certain how often illegal immigrants assault or kill American students. But “one is too many, and it was entirely preventable if the government had been doing its job and enforcing our laws,” Ira Mehlman, media director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), told The Washington Stand.

“There is also culpability at the local level, because” liberal states and cities advertise themselves as “proud sanctuary jurisdictions and bend over backwards to accommodate illegal aliens rather than cooperate with federal law enforcement on those rare instances when they actually want to remove somebody,” Mehlman told TWS. “Especially under this administration, Mayorkas has essentially said once you are here, unless you’re a truly violent criminal, they are not coming for you. So when ICE issues a detainer request, that ought to be a serious indication to a sanctuary jurisdiction that this poses a serious danger. And yet very often they ignore it.”

Not only do federal officials ignore the problem, critics say, they facilitate it. Wilkerson testified that under policies favored by Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris, her son’s classmate fit a preferred demographic in American society. “Hermilo Moralez was brought here illegally by his illegal parents when he was 10 years old, so he fit the ‘DREAM’ kid description,” she said. The 2024 Democratic Party platform and Kamala Harris have promised amnesty for DREAMers, as well as “a pathway to citizenship” for the rest of the nation’s illegal immigrant population.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives subsequently impeached the Biden-Harris administration’s Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, for his failure to control the southern border. But the Democrat-controlled Senate dismissed the charges without a vote.

Liberal schools sometimes respond by punishing American students for speaking out, even in a joking way. School officials gave Christian McGhee — a 16-year-old student at Central Davidson High School in Lexington, North Carolina — a three-day suspension for using the term “illegal alien.” His English teacher had given an assignment to write about an alien, to which he asked, “Like space aliens or illegal aliens without green cards?” When some of his Hispanic fellow students took offense, his teacher allegedly accused him of “racism,” although McGhee did not mention any ethnicity.

On behalf of those targeted by illegal immigrant crime, Wilkerson wants not merely America’s grief but its protection. “I know you will sympathize with our story, but I want more than that. I want you to be angry that America’s borders are wide open. America does not know who is in this country. It is time to put Americans first. Close the borders, figure out who is really here. Keep statistics. Realize that we are at war right here in this country,” Wilkerson testified.

Mehlman said the federal government has robust resources at its disposal, if it wished to use them.

An incoming president should “repeal those policy memos that Mayorkas put out in 2021 essentially making all illegal aliens untouchable by ICE. He basically said unless you meet certain very narrow criteria, you are going to be allowed to stay here,” Mehlman told TWS. “The other thing is, they can go after sanctuary jurisdictions. Under a law passed in 1996 sanctuary jurisdictions are actually outlawed, but nobody ever enforces that law against those jurisdictions that shields illegal aliens and violent criminals.”

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 encoded into federal law (8 U.S. Code §1373) that “a [f]ederal, [s]tate, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.”

“These sanctuary jurisdictions are always looking for federal grant money,” noted Mehlman. “That’s how you enforce it.”

The victims agree that action is overdue. “Sanctuary city policies scream to the criminal element of illegals in this country: ‘Come to our town USA, we’ll protect you from our terrible policemen. We’ll protect you from these tough American laws,’” said Wilkerson.

Former President Donald Trump has vowed to “carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” if elected.

“I will outlaw sanctuary cities. They will be over,” the 45th president told a responsive crowd in Greenville, North Carolina, early Monday evening. He pledged to end all migrant flights, which have imported illegal immigrants into 45 U.S. cities, approximately two-thirds of them in Republican-leaning or swing states — including an estimated 326,000 to Florida. “And I will ban all welfare and federal benefits for illegals. I will restore every Trump border policy and immediately expel all illegals who violate our border.”

Experts like Mehlman say these policies will add new layers of protections to help safeguard U.S. citizens, especially young people, from illegal immigrant crime. But those already affected will never be the same.

“Our family is shattered,” Wilkerson testified. “My surviving kids have changed. Everything about us has changed. It’s by the grace of God that in our broken hearts we have a stream of memories of the loving relationship that we had with Joshua.”

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: The Government Has Become the ‘FedEx of Children from the Border to Traffickers’: Expert

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Number of Homeschooled Children Increases in America

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According to a recent report, homeschooling is on the rise across the U.S. The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy’s Homeschool Research Lab published data analysis last month looking at how homeschooling is faring across the nation.

“Twenty states either do not collect or do not report homeschool participation data, and we know little about trends in those states,” the report’s author, Angela R. Watson, wrote. She continued, “The other thirty states do collect and report, and we have reports from twenty-one states so far and expect the other nine to report over the next few months. Of those twenty-one states, nineteen reported an increase, but the patterns of those increases are most interesting.”

Watson observed that homeschooling “grew rapidly” when schools were closed due to COVID-19 lockdowns, but students were largely anticipated to “return to more traditional schools” once lockdowns ended. However, the number of homeschooled children across the analyzed states has actually increased, instead of declining or returning to pre-COVID levels. “What we see with the most recent increases in state-reported homeschool participation is something new — these numbers are not driven by the pandemic,” Watson noted.

The report pointed to New Hampshire as an example of what was expected: the state saw a massive leap in homeschooled children, from roughly 3,500 in 2019-2020 to over 6,000 in 2020-2021. Since then, the number of homeschooled children has gradually decreased to slightly lower than before COVID lockdowns.

However, even here, homeschooling may not have decreased so much. Watson noted that “insider reports indicate that the decline in New Hampshire is likely related to the state’s Education Freedom Account (EFA) and how homeschool students who receive public funding are no longer counted as part of the state’s total homeschooling number.” She added, “So, this decline may not truly reflect a decrease in actual homeschool participation, but may be just a change in how students are counted in this state.”

In fact, New Hampshire is one of only two states that showed a decline in reported homeschooling. Three states — Louisiana, South Carolina, and South Dakota — showed evidence of what Watson called “continued, growth,” meaning that there was no decline in homeschooling following COVID closures. In Louisiana, the number of children being homeschooled rose to just over 15,000 during the 2020-2021 academic year, but has only continued to increase.

In South Carolina, the number of children being homeschooled went from just over 20,000 in 2019-2020 to just shy of 30,000 the following year, and has risen to well over 30,000 since then. South Dakota saw over 6,600 children being homeschooled in 2020-2021, up from barely 5,000 the year before, but over 10,000 children are being homeschooled now.

“The other sixteen states show a rebounding trend, meaning that there was a post-pandemic decline, in some cases several years of a decline, and then, in 2023-2024, the number of homeschoolers increased again,” Watson explained. Arkansas had about 22,000 homeschooled students from 2019-2020, but that number rose to over 30,000 from 2020-2021. The number dipped down in 2022-2023 but is on its way back to 30,000 as of 2023-2024. Delaware saw similar trends, rising from approximately 3,000 homeschooled students in 2019-2020 to nearly 5,000 in 2020-2021. Again, the number declined to just under 3,500 in 2022-2023, but climbed again to approximately 4,500 in 2023-2024.

A number of states also reported “the highest-ever number of homeschoolers” on record, Watson noted. She continued, “These include the continuous growth states and North Dakota, a rebounding state that reported a record number of homeschooled students in 2023-2024 and a 24% increase over the prior year.” She added, “Rhode Island, also a rebounding state, reported a 67% increase over the prior year, while Wyoming also hit an all-time high with an 8% increase over the prior year.” Watson also observed that the actual number of children being homeschooled may be higher than what the state reports, adding, “we consider these counts as the minimum number of homeschooled students in a state.”

Watson pointed out that the numbers being reported are the actual number of homeschooled students, not percentages. “So the increase is even more interesting because the overall number of U.S. students is declining due in part to declining birth rates. In other words, ultimately we see that the number of homeschooled students is going up as the total number of U.S. students in going down,” she wrote. She also observed, “While there is a clear growth trend in homeschooling, the reason for that growth is unknown. What is clear is that this time, the growth is not driven by a global pandemic or sudden disruptions to traditional schooling. Something else is driving this growth.”

The Washington Stand asked Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at Family Research Council, what might explain the growth in homeschooling trends across the country. “The reason for homeschooling is often quite simple: parents not trusting their children’s education and moral formation to public or private schools,” Kilgannon answered.

“This can be motivated by academic performance, chaotic classroom environments, a child being bullied, or something even more personal like a child’s physical or mental health challenges,” she continued. “As federal, state, and local governments increase regulations on private school and charter school options, more families may find homeschooling the public school alternative that is right for them.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand. ©2024 Family Research Council.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Chicago Teachers Instructed to Pass Migrant Students Despite ‘Severe Academic Deficiencies’

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Teachers in Chicago are the latest to voice their concerns over how illegal immigration is changing the landscape in America. Or in this case, how it’s shaping what’s happening in the classroom.

According to WGN Radio, teachers in the city have revealed that “they were instructed by school administrators to give their migrant students a 70 percent in every subject and pass them on to the next grade … even if their migrant students displayed severe academic deficiencies.” It appears “Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez assured that migrant students were held to the same standards as Chicago’s American students.” However, it was only last month that a study from the University of Illinois System proved there was not much of a standard to live up to.

Even beyond the migrant students, many of whom reportedly do not speak English, numerous students throughout the city of Illinois “are still struggling to catch up academically from the learning loss that occurred when schools were forced to close” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the study found, “[O]nly about one-fourth of all public-school students are back to pre-pandemic performance levels in English language arts while even fewer have returned to pre-pandemic levels in math.”

So, while it’s not looking good for the Chicago Public Schools as it is, teachers have further admitted that part of their orders to pass migrant students has led to “deliberately falsifying grades” — which applies to both classroom grades and academic standardized testing scores.

Sylvia Snowden, a reporter who spoke with several Chicago teachers, explained, “When the tests have been proctored, after they’ve been evaluated, the teachers are able to see the scores. And when the teachers saw the scores, they saw that the students were not at grade level, yet they were instructed to give them 70 percent in every single class, which is the minimum C and pass them on to the next grade.” When asked for an explanation, the Chicago Public Schools responded with this vague statement:

“Chicago public schools aims to provide a rigorous, welcoming, inclusive pre-K through 12 environment for all students, including those who are newly arrived in Chicago with their families from around the globe. As a district, we have high expectations for all students and policies and promotion guidelines in place that are modified to serve the specialized needs of our English language learners, and offer in school, after-school year-round interventions developed with the principal/counselor/teacher and parents to target the students described deficiencies.”

As Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at Family Research Council, shared with The Washington Stand, “This report of teachers being instructed to pass students should invoke concern regardless of the type of student involved.” She emphasized that “moving underperforming students through the system robs them of their education” because “they are denied the chance to understand, comprehend, and build understanding and command of facts that build culture and the ability to contribute to society and one’s own success.”

But amid the ongoing learning issues at hand and the concerns that go with them, a quick glance at what Chicago has endured in recent years demonstrates how their education department is not the only area tainted by the border crisis.

Millions of illegal immigrants have flooded into the country and Chicago, being the self-designated sanctuary city that it is, has taken in nearly 50,000 migrants since 2022. In only two years, $400 million have gone toward funding the migrants, which has put a significant dent in the city’s money and resources. Nearly all aspects of life in Chicago have been affected by the newcomers, and allegedly, has caused city residents a great deal of frustration.

“People are angry about the lack of resources in their community,” said Richard Wallace, a man involved with organizing community affairs. “People are angry about joblessness. People are angry about the cost of living skyrocketing.”

Evidently, the decisions affecting the American education system and overall quality of life are not free from having long-lasting consequences — particularly for the younger generations, Kilgannon emphasized. Considering the failing test scores and poor learning environments, she concluded, “When Gen Z ‘quietly quits,’ they are simply following the example that was set for them by a public school system that quietly quit teaching them.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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Teacher Fired For Praising United States

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

LGBT Group Walz Founded Wants to Trans Kids, Defund Police, and Abolish Borders

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Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has boasted of founding the local chapter of an organization that demands the “abolition of the police, abolition of borders,” “reparations for all indigenous and black peoples,” placing males in female correctional institutions, and transgender procedures for minors without parental consent — all while concealing children’s transgender identity from their parents. An LGBTQ website has said Walz’s behavior toward his students would get him labeled a “groomer” today. Walz’s wife, Gwen, is equally supportive of indoctrinating children in this group’s agenda, because she considers it part of her religious faith that “God created … some people gay.”

Tim Walz founded the local chapter of the GSA Network at Mankato West High School in the late 1990s. Numerous delegates highlighted Walz’s connection to the organization as he prepared to speak on the third night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“I want to hear from the man who stepped up to create the Gay-Straight Alliance in the late ‘90s — the coach who stood up for the kids who needed him,” a teary-eyed Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told MSNBC’s Joy Reid early Wednesday evening. In a video that night, the Minnesota governor’s wife, Gwen Walz boasted, “When one of our students started the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, Tim agreed to serve as faculty adviser, because he knew how impactful it would be to have a football coach involved.”

Both called the group by its former name, the “Gay-Straight Alliance.” But the organization renamed itself the Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network (GSA Network) in 2015 to prove that its 4,000 affiliates “have moved beyond the labels of gay and straight, and the limits of a binary gender system.” (The Mankato West chapter has also changed its name.)

The GSA Network codified its political beliefs in a document on its resources page titled “Truth Nine Point Platform.” The platform calls for “the Abolition of the Police,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), “Borders and the Judicial System”; “an End of the Cisgender Heterosexual Patriarchy”; “Reparations for all Indigenous and Black Peoples,” including “Indigenous reclamation of stolen lands”; and “free and non-compulsory education for all ages.”

“We demand abolition! Abolition of the police, abolition of borders and ICE, abolition of the current punishment-based justice system. [sic.] We demand for our communities to be empowered to take care of themselves, for no borders, for rehabilitation and healing justice,” the manifesto declares.

The diminutive revolutionary screed claims that it “builds upon the Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program,” although the FBI has confirmed that the Black Panther Party “advocated the use of violence and guerilla tactics to overthrow the U.S. government.”

“We are in a moment which calls for us to bravely and ferociously fight for our communal liberation,” which will be launched “in the name of our transgender and gender nonconforming ancestors who struggled before us,” proclaims the GSA Network’s document. “The revolution is a relationship.”

The Walz family signaled its solidarity with the George Floyd/BLM riots, which touched off in Minnesota in May 2020. Gwen Walz said she inhaled the smell of burning tires through her open window in order to feel close to the revolutionary BLM movement. Whistleblowers say Tim Walz ordered police to abandon the third precinct to arsonists, whom Kamala Harris urged her followers to bail out of jail.

The organization’s revolutionary platform, adopted in 2018, is anything but a dead letter: The GSA Network referred to “our TRUTH Nine-Point Platform” last November (specifically, its call for reparations) and quoted the manifesto in its most recent press release in March. (The November press release also demanded U.S. taxpayers furnish “aid to Gaza” and decries “the ongoing colonization and cultural genocide of black and brown peoples.”)

The GSA Network’s Extreme Transgender Agenda

The GSA Network believes in promoting transgender ideology and facilitating children’s transgender “transitions” with or without parental consent. “Know the laws in your state around students’ privacy rights and what you do and don’t have to tell parents/ guardians/families. This is important so you don’t inadvertently out a student as a member of the GSA,” states the GSA Advisor Handbook, aimed at public school teachers like Walz. “When calling youth, it may not be safe to mention ‘GSA club’ or another trans or queer reference.”

The Nine-Point Platform also states “trans youth” should have “self-determination” over “all aspects of our lives.” The GSA Network slammed state laws that protect children from the predatory transgender industry. Laws against “providing gender-affirming healthcare to trans youth … effectively deny trans youth basic human rights and dignity,” claimed GSA in 2020.

At the local level, Mankato West High School’s GSA chapter walked out of class in April 2022 to protest Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, which says teachers should not “encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” before the fourth grade.

The GSA Network also believes in placing teenage boys who say they identify as transgender in female juvenile detention facilities. In a 2017 report co-authored by the Soros-funded Center for American Progress, the GSA Network complained, “LGBTQ youth are frequently placed in facilities according to the sex on their birth certificate or based on their genitalia. … [T]ransgender youth should be housed based on the gender identity they express rather than based on anatomical sex or the sex on their birth certificate.”

Tim Walz has put many of the GSA Network’s political priorities into action as governor of Minnesota. He signed a bill (House File 146) that would take minors into state emergency custody if the child has been “unable to obtain gender-affirming health care” because his parents objected, as well as banning compassionate therapeutic care for people suffering from unwanted transgender feelings. The roots of these policies date back to Walz’s days as a teacher.

Walz’s Action Would Get You Called a ‘Groomer’: LGBT Website

Walz has said publicly that Mankato students came to him about founding a GSA chapter — but his advocacy of the LGBT agenda predates his time at Mankato West High School. While teaching at a high school in Nebraska in the early 1990s, Tim and Gwen Walz took a student who identified as homosexual to a concert by the Indigo Girls, an openly lesbian folk rock group.

The LGBTQ website Them stated that, today, the Walzes’ behavior would be “liable to get you called a ‘groomer.’”

In 1997, two years before the founder of Mankato West’s GSA chapter ever thought of the idea, Gwen Walz announced “out of the blue” on the first day of her 10th grade English class that it would be “a safe space for gay and lesbian students,” according to former student Jacob Reitan. He reportedly told Mrs. Walz about his sexual preference before he told his own parents.

Tim Walz also encouraged children to have frank discussions about adult subject matter at school. One of Walz’s former students, 2004 graduate Seth Elliot Meyer, remembered that Walz “wanted me to be OK with who I was” by embracing a bisexual identity as an impressionable teenager. Another of Walz’s former pupils — Micah Kronlokken, who described himself as “a young, closeted, queer kid” when Walz coached him in the seventh grade — said Tim Walz believed that teenagers should be “treated a little more like adults and trusted to have tricky conversations, and that high school is a microcosm for our world at large.”

Walz later confessed, “To create a culture in a school that was welcoming, open, and understanding” of the LGBTQ movement and its aims “was something that Gwen and I always strove for.”

“Both Tim and Gwen were incredibly supportive of their gay students,” said Reitan, who is now a lawyer and LGBTQ activist. Walz “showed the bully a better path forward, and I can think of no one better than Tim Walz to show that better path forward for America.”

Walz did not defend these policies during his debut on the national stage Wednesday night. Instead, the Harris-Walz campaign appears to be relying on media tropes that brand their political enemies as intolerant hatemongers. In the DNC video, Walz’s former student Noah Hobbs said Walz “stands up to bullies,” repeating the common LGBTQ activist tactic of bullying people of faith, who do not celebrate extreme transgender ideology or sinful sexual relationships, as “bullies.”

Walz has used the same language throughout his political career. While running for governor, Walz asserted that he — as “an older, white, straight, married football coach” — could assure “that there’s no bullying.” During his 2023 his State of the State address, Walz alleged that Republicans “want to put bullies in charge of your health care,” while he would “put bullies in their place. And that’s why we protected access to gender-affirming health care.”

Walz, who has been accused of opportunism, may believe his association with the GSA Network boosts his standing with the Democratic Party’s left-wing base. In a 2018 campaign ad for governor, Walz cited his founding of his school’s GSA chapter as proof that he “can actually deliver on those progressive promises,” because he had “done it in the past.”

Walz’s ties to GSA would send a more concerning signal to the parents of children suffering from Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD). Yaeli Martinez first encountered transgender ideology at an LGBTQ high school club. In time, she began to identify as a boy named “Andrew” and ran away from home. Upon learning that her mother, Abigail Martinez, did not support her gender transition, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services put the underage Yaeli into a group home. In 2019, Yaeli committed suicide by stepping in front of a moving train. (Her heartbreaking story is illustrated in the movie “Gender Transformations: The Untold Realities,” an original production of The Epoch Times.)

The Walz Family: ‘God Creates People … Gay or Straight’

Stories such as these, or those of other detransitioners left with the scars of poor adolescent decisions facilitated by adults, seem unlikely to sway Tim Walz and his wife, who appear to have a religious devotion to LGBT ideology.

“For Ms. Walz, being an ally for gay students was a matter of living up to the tenets of her Christian faith,” reported The New York Times. A spokeswoman for Gwen Walz, Claire Lancaster, told the newspaper that Mrs. Walz holds a “strong belief that God creates people in the way they are supposed to be, whether that is gay or straight.” President Joe Biden has expressed similar sentiments.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has described Tim Walz as “steeped in the Catholic social justice traditions of his parents.” However, the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that sodomy is a grave sin that can never be approved:

“Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”

If Tim Walz rejects the Roman Catholic Church’s binding doctrine on faith and morals, he is also out of step with U.S. voters. Earlier this month, former President Donald Trump contrasted Walz’s extreme views with the mainstream of the American electorate. “This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner,” said Trump. “He’s very heavy into transgender — anything transgender he thinks is great.”

“He’s not where the country is on anything,” Trump concluded.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Tim Walz Doubles Down on Pornographic Books in School at DNC

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Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz sided with radical LGBTQ activists and public school administrators in their bid to make pornographic books available to minors during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Wednesday night.

Walz, the governor of Minnesota, told the assembled DNC delegates he happily opposed parents’ wishes to protect their children’s innocence. “While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” said Walz.

The book “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, which is consistently reported as the book parents object to the most, contains multiple graphic images illustrating homosexual sex, sometimes between adolescents.

Another controversial book, “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison, features a character who casually reveals that, as a child, he performed fellatio on a grown man. “I was in fourth grade. It was no big deal,” the character said. “It wasn’t terrible.”

Concerned parents would like to see these books, which are often available to minors of any age, moved to an age-restricted area of the library, where they would be available to minors only with their parents’ permission. But Democrats have repeatedly accused them of censorship and voted to keep the books on school shelves.

“This is a big part of what this election is about: freedom,” said Walz in a 17-minute address. “When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office.” It was not clear if Walz’s comments referred to transgender procedures for minors or abortion-on-demand until the moment of birth, both of which he favors.

Accusing parents who refuse to furnish pornography to their children of supporting “book bans” has been a leitmotif of the 2024 Democratic convention, with former First Lady Michelle Obama sounding similar themes on Tuesday. Just before Walz took the stage, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) — whom Harris ruled out as a potential running mate to avoid offending anti-Israeli protesters — defined children’s ability to override their parents’ wishes vis-à-vis reading sexually explicit material as an essential component of freedom.

“It’s not freedom to tell our children what books they’re allowed to read. No, it’s not!” said Shapiro. “And it’s not freedom to tell women what they can do with their body.”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg concluded his speech Wednesday night by shouting that Democrats “embrace the leaders who are out there building bridges and reject the ones who are out there banning books!”

Longstanding talk show host and New Age practitioner Oprah Winfrey made her first appearance at a Democratic convention Wednesday night and joined in on the “book ban” bandwagon, decrying “people who want to scare you, who want to rule you, people who would have you believe that books are dangerous.” She also warned about “tricks and tropes meant to distract us from what really matters.” Democrats often define GOP opposition to left-wing culture wars as a “distraction.”

Walz and his fellow Democrats went on to include the ability to take unborn life as an unalienable aspect of “freedom.” Walz boasted, “We also protected reproductive freedom” in Minnesota, where he signed a bill essentially codifying abortion until birth, with no protections for the unborn child at any stage of development.

“We are the party of real freedom,” Shapiro declared to his fellow Democrats. “Real freedom comes when [an American] can join a union, marry who she loves, start a family on her own terms,” a euphemism for abortion-on-demand. In a video aired at the DNC on Wednesday evening, a man said he defined freedom as being able to love his “husband.”

Winfrey tied the availability of abortion to the American dream. “If you do not have autonomy over this,” she said, gesturing to her midsection, “if you cannot control — women — how you choose to bring your children into this world and how they are raised and supported, there is no American dream.”

Walz and others went further, comingling their support for the taking of unborn life (and, at times, for sodomy) with the Golden Rule and other biblical themes. “We respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make — even if we wouldn’t make these same choices for ourselves. We’ve got a Golden Rule: Mind your own damned business,” said Walz, misquoting the Golden Rule laid down by Jesus to love all human life.

Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who acted as emcee for the evening, also invented Bible verses as he vowed Kamala Harris would support “LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, the right to marry who you love, the right to be free.”

“We’re not going to lose our faith,” Booker said. “I believe in America, because our elders told us, as the Gospel says, ‘We shall overcome.’” The Bible does not say, “We shall overcome,” which is the title of a Gospel song that became associated with the 1960s civil rights movement.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who would be the next Speaker of the House if Democrats take control of the lower chamber, alternately quoted Taylor Swift and the Book of Psalms as he promised to “protect our DREAMers, and always protect a woman’s freedom to make her own reproductive health care decisions.”

“We are one nation under God,” said Jeffries just moments later. “In the Old Testament, Book of Psalms, the Scripture tells us that weeping may endure during the long night, but joy will come in the morning.”

His predecessor, Speaker of the House Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) saluted Kamala Harris as “a person of deep faith,” a trait for which Harris has not been known. “She is a leader of strength and wisdom and eloquence on policy, most recently demonstrated fighting for a woman’s right to choose” abortion on demand. Pelosi also saluted Harris for “quickly securing the nomination.”

In a speech MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called “weird and meander-y,” 78-year-old former President Bill Clinton put the fight for abortion and sexual liberation in a different worldview. “We know that we’re being asked to fight the same fight that the forces of progress have had to fight for the last 250 years,” he insisted.

Buttigieg, who often accused his opponents of using “faith as a cudgel” during the 2020 primaries, said Wednesday night that his Republican foes support “darkness — darkness is what they are selling.”

“I believe in a better politics,” he said, citing his Episcopalian church background. Proof of a brighter future, to him, came in the nation’s rapid about-face on redefining marriage. The legal recognition of same-sex marriage “was literally impossible” 25 years ago, he noted. “This kind of life went from impossible to possible … in less than half a lifetime.”

Buttigieg also claimed same-sex marriage triumphed through “persuasion” and “politics.” In fact, voters in 31 states (including California) protected natural marriage, only to have their elections overturned by judicial activists on the Supreme Court in 2015’s Obergefell opinion.

Kamala Harris will deliver her acceptance speech on Thursday night.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Biden-Harris Economy Pushing Parents into Debt with Back-to-School Shopping, Experts Say

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A new school year is right around the corner, which means parents are busy making sure their kids are prepared for the first day of class. For most, this includes back-to-school shopping, in which index cards, notebooks, pencils, and other items take up most of the room in the shopping cart. This year, however, parents are struggling with the fact that providing basic needs for their children is more expensive than ever. Others are being pushed even further into existing debt.

A July survey conducted by Bankrate found that, out of 2,300 adults, “nearly 1 in 4 shoppers will incur credit card debt, while around 1 in 8 shoppers will utilize buy now, pay later schemes that involve purchasing an item through a series of installments.” Also according to the survey, 32% claimed “inflation did” or “will change the way [they] shop,” 21% said they did or planned “to buy cheaper brands than usual,” 19% said they planned to buy less supplies this year “due to the cost,” 18% felt this year’s costs will “put a strain” on their budget, and 14% felt “pressured to spend more” than they’re “comfortable with.”

As The Daily Caller reported, “While year-over-year inflation has recently fallen below 3% … for the first time since 2021, the rate remains well above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2% and more than double the 1.4% rate from when President Joe Biden first took office.” And to elaborate on the role inflation plays regarding these struggling parents, Dave Brat, Liberty University’s senior vice president of Business Engagement, shared with The Washington Stand, “In sum, prices went up, but have never come down.”

Brat noted, as the Bankrate analysis highlighted, that “the rate of inflation [has come] down from 9% to 3%.” However, “That means that prices are still going up by 3%” and that, ultimately, “nothing has come down.” According to Brat, “[E]veryone knows that reality.” In addition to that explanation, Joel Griffith, research fellow in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, also commented to TWS, “It’s no surprise that school supplies — which easily total more than $500 per child — aren’t such an easy feat for parents this year.”

Griffith continued, “The inflation families are dealing with today is a direct result of the explosion of spending beginning in 2020 and continuing today,” and “much of this was financed by the Federal Reserve printing dollars to purchase government debt.” When analyzing these inflation rates, Brat argued it’s important to acknowledge that “the Biden-Harris team is responsible for ALL of the inflation and higher spending that caused it.”

“There’s a $7 trillion budget … owned by the White House,” he added, and “that spending was ‘validated’ by the Federal Reserve Bank, which printed and still has about $7 trillion on its balance sheet. The money creation is THE cause of inflation.” Ultimately, “[T]oo much money, chasing too few goods, causes inflation,” and what we’re seeing now has happened before, “but the press will cover none of it,” Brat argued.

So, what’s the way forward to decreasing inflation? As Griffith explained, “A return to growing prosperity requires the federal government living within its means rather than be financed by borrowing and the printing presses at the central bank. Otherwise, the threat of yet more inflation and stagnant income growth continues.”

Additionally, Brat emphasized the fact that “the American people are partly to blame.” He argued that voters can’t “keep electing politicians who overspend and appoint the wrong people to the Federal Reserve.” It’s voting “the right way” that helps prevent these financial catastrophes from occurring in the future, as well as prevent people from “having to work two or three jobs to pay for food and school supplies,” Brat contended.

Meg Kilgannon, FRC’s senior fellow for Education Studies, shared with TWS that parents don’t have to wait to start making a difference in the home. “Whether you are getting a child off to college or sending a child back to elementary school,” she said, “increasing prices due to reckless government spending cannot be avoided.” It stands to reason that “parents want to give their children the resources and support they need to succeed, and those supplies come at a much higher price this year.”

But ultimately, Kilgannon underscored, “The very best support children have in school are parents who love them, engage with their teachers, encourage healthy living in both body and soul.” And so, she concluded, when money becomes a source of stress, it’s a helpful reminder that “many of the best and most meaningful things in life don’t cost money, but do require investments of time and attention.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: Michelle Obama Endorses Porn in Schools and Transing Kids on DNC Day 2

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Michelle Obama Endorses Porn in Schools and Transing Kids on DNC Day 2

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Former First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated “children” identifying as transgender, vilified concerned parents’ efforts to remove pornographic books from children’s sections of school libraries, and embraced life-destroying fertility methods during the most celebrated speech of the Democratic National Convention to date Tuesday night. Her husband, former president Barack Obama, promised a Harris-Walz administration would sign a bill extending abortion to all 50 states. Kamala Harris made a virtual appearance to accept the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

Here are the most notable events of the second day of the Democratic National Convention.

Michelle Obama Supports Transing Kids, Porn in Schools, Abortion, Bible Verses

Democratic delegates gave the warmest welcome of the evening to former First Lady Michelle Obama, who supported transgenderism for children and derided parental efforts to safeguard underage children from exposure to pornography — often LGBTQ porn — in graphic novels aimed at pre-teens and adolescents as “banning our books.”

“Demonizing our children for being who they are and loving who they love, look, that doesn’t make anybody’s life better,” she declared, using euphemisms to endorse child transgender confusion. The vast majority of Americans believe children should not be subjected to the experimental products of the predatory transgender industry — including potentially-sterilizing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone injections, and life-altering surgeries.

“Shutting down the Department of Education, banning our books — none of that will prepare our kids for the future,” Michelle declared as an audience of Democratic VIPs roared in approval. Nationwide, parents have objected that minors should be able to check out books like “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe — which features “detailed illustrations of a man having sex with a boy,” as well as “fellatio, sex toys, masturbation, and violent nudity” — and “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison, which “describes a fourth-grade boy performing oral sex on an adult male” and remembering the experience fondly.

Parents have asked public school administrators to return these books to an age-restricted part of the library, where minors cannot be exposed to them without parental permission. Yet in recent years liberals have so objected to protecting children’s innocence that beleaguered parents have felt forced to defend themselves.

“I’m not looking to ban books or burn books,” one such parent, Bruce Friedman, told “Washington Watch” host Tony Perkins. “It’s not Kristallnacht.”

On Tuesday, Michelle Obama also made one of her first public statements that she conceived one or more of her children through in vitro fertilization. “Cutting our health care, taking away our freedom to control our bodies, the freedom to become a mother through IVF, like I did — those things are not going to improve the health outcomes of our wives, mothers and daughters,” said the former first lady.

She was one of several Democratic speakers who attacked a non-existent “ban” on IVF. “If they win, Republicans won’t stop at banning abortion. They’ll come for IVF next,” averred Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) earlier in the evening. “They’ll prosecute doctors. They’ll shame and spy on women. If you think that’s far-fetched, just look up what happened in Alabama this year.” In reality, the Alabama Supreme Court did not ban IVF. Its 8-1 ruling allowed grieving parents to file a civil lawsuit against an IVF clinic where unauthorized personnel killed the frozen embryos of wanted children the parents had stored in the facility under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

Most children conceived by IVF are abandoned or destroyed in time. Statistics show “93% of the embryos created through IVF never result in a live birth,” noted Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council.

Michelle Obama’s abortion-affirming comments came moments after she praised late mother, Marian Shields Robinson, who taught her “that all children, all people have value,” as well as to “do unto others” as you would have them do unto you and to “love thy neighbor.” The Obamas and others also supported sexual liberation. “We believe the government should help you prosper, not police who you’re sleeping with,” declared Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.

As the crowd hooted its approval, conservative critics bristled at her remarks. “Michelle Obama is a gifted orator. But she’s fanning the flames of race and class conflict, and hurling some really unfair accusations,” assessed Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah). “She’s railing on those who ‘go small’ and ‘hit low,’ but that’s exactly what she’s doing. She’s doing everything she purports to oppose.” Brigitte Gabriel, a former host of Pat Robertson’s “World News,” called Michelle Obama “[t]he most divisive and hateful First Lady in U.S. history.”

Barack Obama: Harris Will Sign a National Abortion Expansion Bill

Michelle Obama concluded her speech by introducing her husband, former President Barack Obama, who promised that, if elected, Kamala Harris will sign a bill expanding abortion-on-demand to all 50 states.

Barack Obama said Kamala Harris, whom Michelle Obama called “my girl,” is “running for president with real plans” beginning on day one. She will “sign a law to guarantee every woman’s right to make her own health care decisions,” the Democratic Party’s preferred euphemism for abortion. Harris has not endorsed any protection for unborn children at any moment until birth. Barack Obama called this a sign of “freedom.”

“We believe that true freedom gives each of us the right to make decisions about our own life — how we worship, what our family looks like, how many kids we have, who we marry,” he thundered. “And we believe that freedom requires us to recognize that other people have the freedom to make choices that are different than ours.” Obama later opined that former President Donald Trump “doesn’t seem to care if more women lose their reproductive freedoms since it won’t affect his life.”

Abortion, under the term “reproductive rights,” recurred throughout day two of the DNC. “Do we want a Republican Senate that assaults reproductive freedoms?” asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Schumer attempted to deflect allegations that the Democratic Party has a problem with Jewish voters, pointing to a tiny blue patch pinned to his blue suit. “Donald Trump, this is a guy who peddles anti-Semitic stereotypes,” insisted Schumer about Trump, whose daughter, Ivanka, converted to Judaism before marrying Jared Kushner and giving their three children a Jewish upbringing.

Obama, who retains an oversized impact on the administration’s policy, apparently filled in part of the Harris-Walz foreign policy agenda. “We shouldn’t be the world’s policemen,” said Obama, who sent U.S. troops to fight in Libya without congressional authorization, an operation that resulted in Muammar Qaddafi being replaced by terrorists affiliated with ISIS. The issues tab of Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential election website remains empty.

Shortly before slamming politicians who “scold and shame and out yell the other side,” Obama made a hand gesture apparently intending to minimize the size of President Donald Trump’s genitalia.

DNC Abortion Toll Reportedly Climbs to 25: ‘Satan Is Pleased’

These events transpired as the death toll at Planned Parenthood’s mobile unit outside the Democratic National Convention reportedly climbed to 25. Multiple sources on the ground said Planned Parenthood officials told them the number of free abortions they carried out had risen by 15 on Tuesday.

“CONFIRMED: 25 babies have been killed by Planned Parenthood at the DNC,” reported Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America at 7:38 p.m. EST Tuesday evening.

Riley Gaines mourned the loss of the first day, posting, “10 child sacrifices on day 1 of DNC. Satan is pleased.” Author David Limbaugh posted the words of Romans 1:18-25, which begins by declaring, “the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.”

“Planned Parenthood is at the DNC, handing out chemical abortions that kill a baby by starving the developing child of nutrients. Share the Abortion Pill Reversal hotline 877-558-0333 and help save a life!” implored Lila Rose, founder of Live Action.

Harris Appears to Accept Presidential Nomination, Skips Husband’s Speech

Even though Democratic delegates formally nominated Kamala Harris for president with a virtual vote last month, the second evening of the DNC featured delegates going through a roll call vote, complete with a DJ soundtrack.

One of the New Jersey delegates — a man dressed in drag who announced he uses “pronouns she/her/hers” as he took the mic — stated, “I’m proud to stand with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, because they stand with the LGBTQ community!” California Governor Gavin Newsom (D), thought to be a leading rival to Harris had the Democrats held an open primary instead of allowing President Joe Biden to coronate Harris last month, declared California “the great state of Nancy Pelosi.” He went on to insist that “Kamala Harris has always done the right thing,” including advancing “LGBTQ rights, the rights of women and girls” before casting his state’s votes for Harris.

Harris, who made a brief in-person appearance at the first day of the DNC, made a virtual appearance from Milwaukee on day two to accept the redundant nomination.

Harris did not show up at all for the speech of her husband, Doug Emhoff, skipping his fawning, family-focused address. Emhoff praised his blended family and acknowledged his divorce, although he did not mention the baby he conceived with his children’s nanny, who apparently either aborted Emhoff’s child or placed the child in adoption. Kamala Harris “connected me more deeply with my faith, even though it’s different from hers,” said Emhoff, who is Jewish.

Former President Bill Clinton and presumptive vice presidential candidate Tim Walz are scheduled to speak Wednesday.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Experts Point Out Harris’s ‘Double Standard’ in Speeches and Actions

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Media interviews, press briefings, and Q&As are opportunities for public figures to share their values, goals, concerns, and personalities with the world. In the public square, it’s particularly beneficial for candidates and political figures to use their media presence to both connect with their voters and convince others to vote for them. With a presidential election around the corner, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, as well as his running mate Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), have made frequent public appearances to keep voters up to date on their beliefs. Vice President Kamala Harris, however, has been conspicuously absent.

Harris, who assumed the Democratic presidential nomination after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, appears to be dodging the media. As guest host Jody Hice pointed out on Thursday’s episode of “Washington Watch,” other than various campaign ads, scripted rallies, and some brief statements here and there, the vice president “has not offered herself for an extended interaction with the press since June 24th.” However, Hice added, “If Vice President Harris won’t provide answers to the press, if she won’t provide answers to you on where she stands on all the issues, then we will.”

Meg Kilgannon, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Education Studies, joined Hice in the discussion of what kind of message Harris’s absence sends to the American people. “Well,” Kilgannon said, “it says to me that she’s not interested in asking for my vote.” It’s becoming increasingly clear that “she’s delivered remarks exclusively to audiences that are places … she’s comfortable with.” But as Kilgannon emphasized, “[S]he’s not offering herself in venues where” someone outside her normal demographic “might notice her.”

“That’s a great point,” Hice noted. Ultimately, the press recognition is all “about reaching out to the voters.” The questions and the interviews are “about letting the people know where she and her running mates stand on the various issues.” And “when they hide,” Hice speculated, “it raises all sorts of questions.” But when Harris does emerge from the shadows, Kilgannon emphasized that much of what she has said publicly is nothing short of dishonest.

For instance, Harris made a comment during her speech at the American Federation of Teachers (ATF) Convention regarding some of the issues that differ between Democrats and Republicans. “Just think about it,” the vice president chortled. “So we want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books.” But as Kilgannon clarified, with that statement, Harris “set up this false choice.”

She continued, “[O]f course we don’t want to ban books. We simply don’t want pornographic material to be presented to school children as educational.” And “this is not anything any reasonable person doesn’t understand.” But evidently, Harris “wants to gloss over all of this to” characterize it as some kind of “religious right [push] to ban books,” and “that’s not exactly honest.” Not to mention, as Hice highlighted, when Oklahoma put into effect the requirement of teaching the Bible in public schools, the Left, “surprise, surprise, wants to ban the Bible.” And many of them, Kilgannon added, also want to ban “prayer in school.”

At the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) convention, Harris stated the Democrats are in “a fight for the future, and ours,” she specified, “is a fight for freedom.” But as Hice said, her comment begs the question: what does “freedom” mean in this case? According to Kilgannon, one of the freedoms most attacked in the U.S. is religious liberty. However, Harris “does not mention that in her list of freedoms that she feels like are under attack.”

Rather, Kilgannon said, the “main theme is freedom on … Democratic Party terms.” In other words, “freedom, not of people to practice their faith and to live out their faith, but rather freedom to abort your babies.” Or the so-called freedom “to present sexualized material to children. Freedom … to castrate … [and] sterilize [children] in these ridiculous so-called gender-affirming care experiments.” Really, she urged, “Those are the kinds of things that [the Harris] administration has advocated for, and that’s the kind of freedom that she imagines for the country.”

At the end of the day, Hice explained how “it sounds good to talk about freedom. But life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, [and] all of those things are freedoms that [Harris] restricts in what she and the Democratic Party … are trying to advance.” All of this, Kilgannon argued, points to “why it’s important to consume alternative media, [and] to listen to other voices who can add some context and some facts to this word picture that they’re painting.” Because “Kamala Harris [encouraging] her audience to fight for our country” carries an entirely different meaning than if “former President Trump or any Republican [were] to say the same.”

And the same is true of how the Democrats talk about the Biden administration’s Title IX rewrite. As evidenced by the White House briefing on Wednesday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described the new rule that allows biological men into private women’s spaces to help “everyone” feel safe, as well as “an important” step in ending sexual assault. And yet, Kilgannon urged, “[T]hat’s certainly not what the rule” does.

She elaborated, “[I]t does not protect women and girls. It does not protect every student. It prioritizes some students over other students,” which “is certainly not the original intent of Title IX, nor is it supported by any kind of common sense.” The theme Harris “hits in her stump speech over and over again [is] this idea that, somehow, the Right is going to roll back protections for people,” but “it really is confession by projection.”

Because, ultimately, “[T]hey are the ones who are putting people in jail for praying in front of abortion clinics. They are the ones who have sponsored the lawfare that has harassed President Trump for all of these many, many months and years,” which also affects “other people around him [due to] ridiculous and pointless lawsuits. … [T]hey are the ones who are weaponizing government … not us.”

Kilgannon concluded, it’s “a clear double standard, but we’re kind of used to that” by now.

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Educators Grapple with Classroom Lawlessness as School Year Approaches

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As a new school year approaches, teachers, school administrators, and students are continuing to grapple with an exponential rise in verbal harassment, classroom disruptions, and physical aggression since the broad return of in-person education after the school closures imposed in 2020-2021 amid the COVID pandemic. Experts say that policies that dispensed with punishments for classroom misbehavior in the name of “restorative justice” and racial “equity” are largely to blame for the rise in lawlessness in schools.

In a newly published report from former teacher and education policy expert Daniel Buck, he argues that “lawlessness in American schools post-pandemic is perhaps the most consequential story in education that receives little to no coverage.” In March, Buck reached out to almost 200 teachers across the country to ask them about their experiences with school discipline. He was inundated with descriptions of constant fights “with little consequence,” “persistent anxiety” as schools “teetered on the precipice of chaos,” and teachers being “cussed out, threatened, and disrespected every single day.”

One woman described the environment in her school building as a “spiraling, out-of-control situation” in which “students consider themselves to be the authority.” She further noted that she had been called “more names and gotten more threats this year” than in the previous 26 years of her teaching career.

Experts point to the Obama administration’s 2014 “Dear Colleague” letter that threatened schools with legal action in response to racially disproportionate disciplinary measures as the beginning of the modern rise of behavioral problems in schools. As has been demonstrated, this “restorative justice” approach likely allowed Parkland high school shooter Nikolas Cruz to remain unpunished for numerous crimes and threats for years before he carried out the massacre of 17 students and staff in 2018. As noted by Buck, a subsequent “RAND report found that while restorative justice does indeed decrease disparities in suspensions, such ‘improvements’ come with an uptick in bullying and classroom disruptions.”

In the wake of the killing of George Floyd in 2020 and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests and riots, the demand for restorative justice in schools was magnified, and schools across the country began implementing a hands-off approach to discipline. But recent studies have shown that severe behavioral issues have climbed precipitously as a result. Last month, the American Psychological Association reported findings showing that 80% of 15,000 surveyed teachers and school personnel reported verbal harassment (up from 65% from pre-pandemic levels), with 56% reporting acts of physical aggression directed at them.

As observed by Buck, “Other representative surveys confirm that rates of violence directed at both students and teachers have doubled from pre-pandemic levels. Student behavior regularly tops the list of teacher concerns — over and above teacher pay — even on internal union surveys.”

Still, some states are pushing back against the trend through legislation. Buck points to states like Alabama and Florida that have passed “Teachers Bill of Rights” laws that enhance the ability of teachers to remove disruptive students and require the allocation of consequences. In addition, “Louisiana passed two laws that compel teachers to remove disruptive students and requires expulsion for incidents involving knives and drugs as well as recurring suspensions,” Buck added.

“School discipline is a prerequisite for teaching and learning,” Meg Kilgannon, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Education Studies, told The Washington Stand. “When class is disrupted by misbehaving students, it impacts the entire class’s ability to learn. The U.S. Department of Education has helped to create a stigma around student discipline that fed into a relaxing of standards in schools nationwide — to put it mildly. But the isolation experienced by students who were kept out of class during the COVID shutdown of schools, prolonged by the Biden-Harris administration, has compounded the problem.”

Kilgannon continued, “Efforts in Louisiana to post the Ten Commandments in schools are a significant reminder to students, faculty, and staff that order and law come from God. Even so, consequences for students who disrupt others’ learning or disrespect teachers are a minimum standard that every school can adopt.”

“As Christians, we need to pray for our schools and all families,” she concluded. “At the root of this crisis of school violence is a crisis of the American family. We need to acknowledge that and do everything we can in our prayer life, in our community engagement, and with our vote to support healthy families so our children and our nation can thrive.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Gettysburg Hero: The Study of Christianity in Public School Is Not Unreasonable

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On June 30, 1881, a Norway, Maine newspaper called The New Religion published an address given before the Maine Congregational Conference by the president of Bowdoin College, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. He was well-known as a Civil War hero in his home state of Maine where he would serve four terms as the Republican governor. At Gettysburg, Chamberlain led his men in the defense of Little Round Top, saving the Union Army’s left flank. In his address, Chamberlain was at liberty to speak on a subject of his choosing. He chose to speak on an issue “which every public teacher and every good citizen and well-wisher ought to feel in a church…” — namely, church and school.

The issue of teaching the Bible in public school is one that has recently received much attention. On June 19, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry (R) signed HB 71 into law which requires all publicly funded schools and colleges in the state to display the Ten Commandments. The Left was apoplectic in response. On the same day the bill was signed by Landry, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced that they, alongside other groups, would file a lawsuit. Just earlier this week, a federal judge blocked the bill from being enforced until November.

But is it so unreasonable to display the Ten Commandments in public schools? Is it an outrage to teach American youth about Christianity? Chamberlain thought not.

He began by arguing that the church has made America much of what it is, “the land of liberty and law — a country, which seeks, at least, through all its toils and struggles, to establish righteousness among men — which is the end of law as it is of liberty, the end of government as it is of religion.” Chamberlain saw clearly the Christian church’s important influence on the establishment and formation of the American republic. “The church has a work for society as well as for the individual.”

But in what way does the church have a work for society? Chamberlain specifically had in mind the education of America’s youth. “The church’s care for education — this, it seems to me, is one of the saving influences in our country.” He continued, “If the national character is to be founded and built upon the Christian virtues, then the Christian church must be the guardian, or at any rate, the watchful friend and guide of education. The influence of the Christian church in this way is essential to the prosperity and even to the existence of a free Christian people.”

Chamberlain then pointed to a few examples of how the church’s role in public education was playing out at the time in other countries within Christendom. He first mentions France, where the Roman Catholic nation had moved to take the schools out from the control of the church. He found it curious that this decision in freeing French schools “from religious trammels of any sort” still planned to instill “common virtues of social civil life — virtues that we are accustomed to call Christian virtues…” He observed, “It is sad, rather, to see this depth of sincerity in the isolated standpoint of the individual soul, this restless groping of the mind seeking in itself the standard of highest right and highest good. God grant them the better revelation!” And in Protestant Holland, a similar movement was happening to make education secular and religious teaching neutral.

Yet, across the channel in England, just the opposite was happening. The educational act of 1870 made it clear that the English wanted more religion in their schools. Quoting the London school board, he noted they urged teachers to “use every opportunity earnestly and sympathetically to bring these religious principles home to the minds of children.” But he would point out that England had an established church. The United States did not. If America is a nation made up of so many different races and religions and our Constitution prohibits the establishment of religion by Congress, then how could American education teach Christianity?

Chamberlain would declare, “[W]e are a Christian country. More than any people known to history, we are founded and built upon the principles of Christianity. … We have no religious tests for our citizenship or its offices, but that is not saying that we are a people without a religion, or that all beliefs and all religions and no religion stand in utter indifference in our eyes. It is only necessary to look at our statute laws, to see that it is not regarded as a hardship to be compelled to recognize and respect Christian practices and Christian virtues.”

Yet, it is this very suggestion by Chamberlain that is most dreadful in the eyes of the ACLU and like-minded groups. To them, America has no religion and never has. They see no direct correlation between Christianity and the laws and ideals of America. They think it completely unreasonable to display any portion of the Bible in American schools. Chamberlain would disagree:

“[I]t would seem not unreasonable to let the instruction in these doctrines and principles have place in our system of common education. How otherwise can we keep our foundation firm? How otherwise shall our youth become and continue upright and efficient members of a great Christian nation? How otherwise shall we go on or even hold together as a Christian nation? It seems to me it is folly and suicide to stand by idly and see our institutions undermined.

“The country was built upon strong foundations. …If people want to enjoy the immunities and advantages of this Christian land, let them at least not be allowed to undermine its foundations. If people do not want to come to a land Christianity has made so prosperous and conform to its Christian spirit, then we can do without them.”

While Chamberlain expressed that he was not arguing for a state-church or an established national religion, he was advocating for the “study of the broad truths of Christianity,” saying it “would not be unreasonable nor oppressive for the youth of a Christian country.”

So what about the church’s work for society in light of all this? Chamberlain elaborated, “The very fact that as a Christian people we cannot, as they do in England, secure such instruction by law, makes it all the more important that we secure it by influence. We do not want the church to govern the state, as organizations. But we do want society persuaded by Christian principles and the Christian spirit. This must be done then by personal and organized Christian effort. …For the church is not merely to look to its own salvation. It is the great guardian and minister of glad tidings and good among men — to the littles ones also.”

If America is to remain true to its foundations, its people must be familiar with its Christian origins. Of these origins, the church was historically independent of the state and remains so to this day. But that does not mean public schools are to be void of all mentions of our Christian roots, far from it. Movements like we see in Louisiana to incorporate teaching on our nation’s Christian foundation is a step in the right direction. America’s second president, John Adams, remarked “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People.”

The integrity of the republic depends on, as Chamberlain would say, the church “by all the influences and forces at its command to keep the foundations of our education pure, and the foundations of character and of liberty sound and sure.”

AUTHOR

Jacob Kersey

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Are Publishing Giants Pulling Back from Pushing LGBT Material?

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In June, Scholastic, the world’s largest children’s book publishing company, put their push for LGBT ideology front and center when they released their 2024 guide to their “Read with Pride” initiative. As reported by The Washington Stand, the guide was to be a “resource” for “supporting LGBTQIA+ youth” by promoting books with radical ideological themes, including transgenderism and taking relationships “to the next level” with sexual intercourse. It also had a glossary of definitions for LGBT terminology such as “agender,” “allocishet,” and “genderfluid.” And yet, despite their unapologetic stance on this agenda, recent developments have caused some to wonder if the company has begun to pull back.

In addition to Scholastic, Pearson, the world’s largest academic publisher, has also prominently promoted LGBT material. But as The Washington Times reported last week, both publishing giants seem to “have distanced themselves from a push to replace biological sex with gender identity in K-12 classroom discussions.” This came after The Heritage Foundation’s Senior Research Fellow in Education Policy Jonathan Butcher exposed Scholastic’s promotion of LGBT ideology to “small children.” As The Washington Times added, Scholastic’s controversial guide “vanished” from their “website at the end of June without explanation, leaving only the ‘Read with Pride’ page” — the section containing the book recommendations.

Scholastic spokeswoman Anne Sparkman insisted the “Read with Pride Guide was a resource for adults available for Pride Month and is not a textbook for students.” However, those who saw the guide while it was still available online have pointed out that it specifically emphasized it had information and recommended materials geared toward “educators, caregivers, and advocates” and children as young as pre-school.

Similarly, Pearson’s editorial guidelines on “genderism” and “antiracism” were also exposed by Butcher last year, which they removed shortly after. According to Butcher, “The pushback on these ideas is strong and the publishers don’t know how to defend them when reporters, policy analysts or parents question what they are doing.” Considering this, he finds it unsurprising that they’re slowly removing some of their most controversial content. And as Sheri Few, founder and president of U.S. Parents Involved in Education, emphasized, “Not everyone is going along with this illusion that there are more than two sexes, both of which are biologically determined.”

In comment to TWS, Joseph Backholm, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement, added to Butcher and Few’s sentiments: “We’ve seen a lot of evidence the public is pushing back against the Sexual Revolution.” As he explained, “The public was convinced to go along with it on the basis of ‘tolerance,’” but as time goes on, it’s become increasingly clear this is “a movement that aggressively recruits children.”

According to Backholm, “The public didn’t want it then and doesn’t want it now,” which could likely “be part of the reason we are seeing modest retreats in cases like” Scholastic and Pearson. Ultimately, “They’ve reached further than the public is willing to tolerate.” But even amid what seems to be a drawback from these leftist publishers, Backholm noted that “it might be one step back before they take two steps forward.”

“Of course,” he continued, “it’s good they’re being less aggressive, but … the Sexual Revolution has made most of its progress by behaving in ways that are shocking, retreating slightly, and then doing the same or worse in the near future when the public is no longer shocked.” Given this pattern, Backholm explained that “if we’re really going to solve the problem of grooming kids, we’re going to have to start actively pursuing what is good rather than focusing on how much evil we’re willing to tolerate.”

Backholm noted “human history teaches us” that enough exposure to something — even something harmful — can cause that practice to become normalized. For instance, “If we see children’s books grooming kids enough, it ceases to be shocking so we cease to resist.” However, he added, “if our standard is creating an environment that is good for children,” then “we won’t get used to things that harm them” — even if a large portion of society has allowed it to become commonplace.

“We must resist evil,” Backholm concluded, “but more than that, we must pursue what is good. If we are actively pursuing what is good, we’ll never get used to what is evil.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This The Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.