When I was in college, a friend confided in me that she had an abortion after being raped at a party. That’s the moment I knew I was pro-choice. Up until then, I had never really thought about where I stood on the issue of abortion. That wasn’t something that was...
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Williamson County mom helps launch national campaign pushing back on ‘parents rights’ groups
Williamson County parent and advocate Revida Rahman has linked arms with a national campaign organizing parents against what they call "extremists trying to control what our families and kids believe, read and learn." The campaign, dubbed "Freedom to Parent 21st...
The Book-Bans Debate Has Finally Reached a Turning Point
Across multiple fronts, Democrats and their allies are stiffening their resistance to a surge of Republican-led book bans. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the past month have conspicuously escalated their denunciations of the book bans...
Granddaughter of longtime U.S. senator hopes to reverse legacy of anti-abortion policies
Ellen Gaddy, the granddaughter of former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, was raised in a conservative family, in the shadow of a man who championed an agenda that included fierce opposition to Roe v. Wade and any effort to compromise on the issue of abortion. For Gaddy,...
Op-Ed: How in good conscience can Rep. Tricia Cotham deny NC residents the abortion access she had?
Republicans in North Carolina have passed a sweeping abortion bill that further restricts access to abortion care — a bill filled with medical misinformation, misdirection and false narratives about abortion. In practice, it will ban medication abortion after 10...
Op-Ed: Lessons for Becoming a Public Scholar
Academics at many colleges and universities today face an uncertain future. Rising tuition and falling enrollments, the lack of tenure-track positions, the dwindling student interest in the humanities in favor of business and STEM degrees, and growing questions about...
What are local schools doing for student safety?
The list is long, as are our memories, of youths who have been victims of school shootings. And as the public cries for a solution become deafening, it is left to school districts and law enforcement to fortify schools with what amounts to bandaids as prevention as...
Abortion policies could make the Republican Party’s ‘suburban women problem’ worse
The 'suburban women problem' Polling shows a majority of Americans disagree with policies that outlaw the procedure, which has become a political liability for Republicans. And the biggest fallout could be with women, like Tiffany...
Students, authors fight censorship in PA schools
About four hours before the Central Bucks School District passed a new library policy in July, local high school junior Lily Freeman warned a crowd of about 100 what would follow. The policy, passed by a 6-3 vote, targeted books with explicit or implied depictions of...
The day the book banners lost in Pennsylvania’s culture wars
If you ban it, they will come. For the better part of an hour Saturday, dozens of teenagers and their parents snaked around the towering stacks of tomes inside Kutztown’s Firefly Books and sometimes spilled onto the sidewalks of this quaint Berks County college town —...
Recent Posts
Read This: How Conversion Therapy Hurts LGBTQ+ Kids and Teens
As we enter Pride month, we’re turning our attention to LGBTQ+ kids and teens. Their rights have been increasingly attacked lately, especially when it comes to being protected from dangerous threats including “conversion therapy.” What is conversion therapy? So-called...
Do This: Share What You’ve Learned About Local Government
Now that we’ve spent a few weeks learning about how local government works, let’s not keep this information to ourselves! We’ve created a shareable pdf that explains how local government shapes our daily lives, and even better – how we can get involved to make our...
Watch This: 9 Ways Local Government Impacts Us Every Day
You wake up every morning and immediately wash your face and brush your teeth with clean water running from the bathroom tap. Then you head out, driving your car or riding the city bus, on (hopefully) well-maintained roads, to get to work or drop the kids off at your...
Do This: Tell Congress to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act
Last month, we completed our Easy A series on gerrymandering, but we’re returning to the topic one more time with breaking news! On April 29, the U.S. Supreme Court issued their decision in Louisiana v. Callais, a racial gerrymandering case we previously told you...
Read This: How Local Government Shapes our Daily Lives
When we talk about politics, we might immediately think about the President or Congress. They certainly give us a lot to talk about! But many of the decisions that impact our daily lives, like roads, schools, and public safety, are actually made at the local level. So...