Rep. David Marshall says “Jesus is better than a psychologist,” as if prayer is an adequate substitute for professional mental health care. Meanwhile, Sen. Wendy Rogers, a known far-right extremist with ties to white nationalism, is leading the charge to erase the separation of church and state entirely—because, in her words, “that’s a myth.”
Let’s be clear: this bill isn’t about helping students. It’s about using public schools to funnel state-sanctioned religious propaganda to kids. Republicans claim there’s a “spiritual deficit” causing student mental health struggles—not economic inequality, not school shootings, not climate anxiety, not lack of access to healthcare, but a lack of religion.
This bill: ⚠️ Violates the First Amendment by forcing religious figures into public schools. ⚠️ Endangers students by replacing licensed counselors with untrained chaplains. ⚠️ Opens the door for Christian Nationalism while silencing minority faiths (or, let’s be honest, outright banning non-Christian chaplains).
Meanwhile, Democrats have been fighting for more school counselors, psychologists, and social workers—REAL solutions to the youth mental health crisis. But the GOP would rather ignore science, shove their religion down kids’ throats, and strip public education for parts.
Public schools should be secular, mental health support should be evidence-based, and the government should NOT be a pulpit.
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Tennessee lawmakers just voted to advance a bill turning public schools into immigration checkpoints. The GOP-led Senate Education Committee approved a measure to verify students’ immigration status and bar those who can’t prove legal residency unless they pay tuition—despite warnings that it could cost the state federal funding and violate the Civil Rights Act.
At least three Republicans joined the lone Democrat in opposing it, but the bill still moves forward, setting up a legal and ethical disaster.
In case you haven’t heard, an assistant principal was recently fired because he chose to read the children’s book “I Need a New Butt” to a group of students.
Toby has shared his thoughts on this announcement in a thread of Tweets, posted here for your enjoyment.
On April 28th I had a chance to speak in front of the Hinds County School District Board. The following thread contains a story that sums up what happened. Thank you – Toby Price 1 of 22 pic.twitter.com/VOHtxVIK8k
I’ll just say this right now: with the content of most children’s books out there, to fire someone over a book about butts requires a special kind of an asshole.
There is a spot reserved in hell for administrators, parents, and members of the general public who think it’s ok to fire a teacher over reading a wildly popular children’s book that is available everywhere books are sold.
I would rant more on this but I can’t. It’s just dumb.
Public education is facing an unprecedented level of hatred from conservative Americans right now. New laws are being crafted to punish teachers for teaching content that is not “approved” by parent groups or might be offensive and entire curricula and books are being banned.
Now, some schools are banning access to digital books from repositories like Overdrive and Epic, removing thousands of resources from the hands of students and families.
Thousands of schools and public libraries use these services to provide a much wider array of books than they could within the limits of the physical space in their buildings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, families easily accessed books from home comfort to keep their kids engaged and learning while sheltering.
Enter the fear mongers.
With new laws in place requiring that any book used in a school be reviewed and chosen by a faculty member, the number of books available will drastically decrease.
With over two million titles, trying to get someone to review every book in Overdrive is not only an impossible request, it’s downright foolish.
No one could review all that content and approve it for student usage.
How much longer will we abide by such unsubstantiated fear and hatred?
“That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also”
Heinrich Heine
Colophon
Latine non loquor
Currently writing:
Volume 1: The Heretic Chronicles – a fantasy story about a girl, her sword, and extreme fundamentalist religion (WC: 15,457)
Untitled Sci-Fi novel – a group of students race across the stars, avoiding an evil empire (WC: 275)
Sci-fi short story – earth as a farm for aliens (WC: 492)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Mike Paul, and include a link to pikemall.tech.
Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.
Cory Doctorow’s work at Pluralistic inspired the layout, focus, and work displayed here. Hat tip to Cory for all his fine work.
