Not if it’s for class assignments. They are basically saying that this can’t be in the curriculum. As distasteful as it is, the kid can go home and write a letter or hundreds of them or they want, they just can’t do it as part of their school work.
This is the blueprint, an unengaged citizenry. MAGA School Board Faces Backlash in Colorado | History News Network
Once upon a time individualism and Hayek (Fredrick not Selma) were guide posts of conservatism and central government control was bad.
It bans those things as "make part of a course." If I was very concerned that someone in Texas was basically looking for ways to jam me up as a teacher, and all of those teachers should be thinking that exactly, that would suggest that the mere concept must not enter the room. Not just making it an assignment. So sure, I suppose a teenager could figure it all out on their own and then follow through on trying to contact a legislator. In fact, they could do basically all things that way. There is no secret knowledge about civics, it is all readily available to an enterprising person. The chemicals in the lab are also nothing exotic. They are all well understood and described at absurd length via limitless non-school resources. The kids just need to take it on themselves to learn that stuff and then choose not to maim themselves and others for life.
I think Texas is framing it as a grooming indoctrination by communist/woke liberal teachers issue. I wonder if DeS is gonna go all "Me, too," about it.
Its amazing how much of right-wing politics now is just protecting rich and powerful people from being confronted with the consequences of their actions or policies. Like just receiving a letter from some school kids you can ignore is too uncomfortable.
They are pulling out all the stops. Taking away freedom by a thousand cuts. This is your party(right) at work.
Interesting, but I'm not sure that passes the test. There are a plethora of things I am speech restricted on in the classroom that I would not be outside. I wholeheartedly agree with you and @ursidman on the principle. I just dont know that it fails the legal test.
All understood. But we ban all sorts of speech in a classroom, including what can be taught. Not sure how this is different.
It conditions/trains/grooms students that elected officials are not to be approached or questioned. Flies in the face of a republic with an engaged populace.
The teaching is within the walls, so my thought would be no. If a teacher was telling kids they CANT do it, that would cross a legal line I assume, but just never being allowed to tell the kid to speak to a rep in the first place seems legal. It's like in baseball. You can't anticipate a double play in the official scorekeepers book. Can you actually say a child had his 1A right violated if the child never tried to speak? One could argue that an assignment that required them to contact a rep was forcing speech which sort of violates 1A.
If, indeed, the issue is that "Texas bans students from interacting with elected officials." for school assignments, then yes... it stifles free speech. If it prohibits private schools from making assignments that require interacting with their reps, then that stifles free speech. If it's limited to public schools by "curriculum standards", then maybe. It is awful, but maybe.
Well one could argue that an assigned essay as homework is compelled speech too lol, I should have used that one in school.
