The Latest from the Prospect
 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌


 

View this email in your browser
<[link removed]>

**JULY 31, 2023**

Kuttner on TAP

****

****

****

****

****

****

****

**** The War on Libraries

Far-right state governments fear allowing children to think for
themselves.

Houston is a city with a diverse, progressive electorate and an African
American mayor, Sylvester Turner. So it was bizarre when the new
superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, Mike Miles,
recently announced plans to fire librarians at dozens of schools
<[link removed]>,
while converting libraries into discipline rooms for misbehaving
students. The repurposed libraries will be called "Team Centers"
where closely monitored students join their classes by zoom.

Librarian positions are being initially eliminated at 28 schools as part
of Miles' New Education System (NES)
<[link removed]>,
which includes mandated lesson plans for teachers, classroom cameras for
discipline, and testing-based performance evaluations that affect
teacher pay. The libraries at those schools will stay partly open, but
schools will weed out objectionable books. The district, largest in
Texas, serves 189,000 students.

How could this have happened in progressive Houston? If you made a wild
guess that the state administration of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott used a
ploy to take over the local school system, you guessed right. The ACLU
is looking into a suit.

Miles was appointed Houston school superintendent on June 1 by Texas
Education Commissioner Mike Morath, who also replaced the district's
nine elected trustees with a state-appointed board of managers, alleging
mismanagement and "failing" schools. The plan, which takes effect in
the coming school year, also includes elimination of 2,347 school jobs,
and more cuts in libraries.

The Houston takeover is part of two far-right patterns in which
neo-fascist administrations try to compensate for the fact that they are
losing public opinion by destroying democracy and imposing thought
control. Demonizing libraries is one part of the scheme. Using state
pre-emption to override local city governments is another.

In Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law due to take effect
August 1, which allows criminal prosecutions against librarians and
booksellers
<[link removed]>
for allegedly providing "harmful" materials to minors. For now, in
response to a suit brought by the Little Rock library system, the ACLU,
and others, US District Court Judge Timothy L. Brooks issued an
injunction blocking the law from taking effect.

But this case, and others like it, will eventually get to the Supreme
Court, another center of far-right takeover; and good luck to that. Laws
restricting access to certain materials, such as those with LGBTQ
themes, or allowing court challenges to them, have been enacted in
several other states, including Iowa, Indiana and Texas.

Meanwhile, right-wing state governments are becoming more flagrant and
cynical in their use of state pre-emption to block progressives from
using home rule, in areas as far-flung as minimum wage ordinances, paid
sick leave, gun control, climate initiatives, and rent control. Some of
this state pre-emption, driven by corporate lobbyists, has occurred in
relatively liberal states.

Massachusetts, for instance, goes beyond federal law with paid sick
leave, but has blocked localities from banning natural gas hookups on
new construction, a long-sought climate goal to promote the shift from
fossil fuels to electricity. More right-wing state governments have
blocked a broad range of city climate laws
<[link removed]>,
including limits on plastic bags, pesticides, and fracking.

I recently wrote a piece pointing out that the efforts by rightwing
state governments to hunt down women who cross state lines to seek
abortion feels increasingly like the 1850s
<[link removed]>,
the era of the Fugitive Slave Act, the Underground Railroad, and
eventually the Civil War.

But our uncivil wars between states and cities goes deeper than that.
And like the runup to 1860, when slave states and their allies in the
federal courts protected slavery by crushing democracy, this struggle
will either end with the victory of democracy on all fronts or its
defeat.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
subscribe.  <[link removed]>

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter <[link removed]>

[link removed]

A Sick System
<[link removed]>

The business of health care in America is deeply out of whack. BY DAVID
DAYEN & MAUREEN TKACIK

[link removed]
My Life in Corporate Medicine
<[link removed]>
Meet a millennial family physician who is also a one-woman antidote to
private equity and the forces that have destroyed compassionate
treatment for patients. BY STEPHANIE ARNOLD & MAUREEN TKACIK

[link removed]
Shock Treatment in the Emergency Room
<[link removed]>

The Lehman-like collapse of a(nother) private equity-owned ER operator
has physicians calling louder than ever for a strike. BY MAUREEN TKACIK

[link removed] Ford
Says Electric Cars Just Aren't Affordable
<[link removed]>

What it doesn't say is that the potential buying public is badly
underpaid. BY HAROLD MEYERSON

 

[link removed]

Click to Share this Newsletter

[link removed]


 

[link removed]


 

[link removed]


 

[link removed]


 

[link removed]

YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
<[link removed]>

The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States
Copyright (c) 2023 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.

To opt out of American Prospect membership messaging, click here
<[link removed]>.

To manage your newsletter preferences, click here
<[link removed]>.

To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters,
click here
<[link removed]>.