The transgender agenda appeared to run aground in the liberal United Kingdom last month, when the UK Supreme Court declared that men who say they are female are NOT ‘women.’ WND.com reported that the high court’s “stunning” decision “reversed an agenda that long had been making inroads into society there.” Top UK news source, The Telegraph, described the decision as a “landmark ruling.” Author JK Rowling hailed it as a “victory.” The unanimous 88-page decision stated that “the concept of sex is binary,” under the UK’s Equality Act of 2010. And the court action didn’t stop there. According to Scotland’s The National, a judge in that country has ruled that “Scottish schools must have single-sex toilets.” This ruling came as the result of a lawsuit by parents “who had withdrawn their child from Earlston Primary School” after officials planned for the school’s new building to only include “unisex lavatories,” a policy the court found to be illegal. The parents further shared their fear that their child would be punished if he “misgendered” a trans student, and that they “felt they had no choice” other than to take him out of the school, which they said “left him devastated.” The child’s mother raised concerns in 2023 when the school pushed for the “social transitioning” of a student who was then allowed to participate “in sports day races based on ‘gender identity.’” The parents expressed gratitude over the victory, but aptly noted that “common sense says we should never have been in this position in the first place.” The ruling covers all schools in Scotland.

On May 19, the organizations Defending Education, Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, Protect Kids Colorado, Do No Harm, and Dr. Travis Morrell filed a federal lawsuit against Colorado state officials for a new law these groups say violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Colorado’s H.B. 25-1312 forces citizens “to use language endorsing the State’s views on highly contested and highly political matters of sex and gender.” The law promotes gender ideology; specifically, “the notion that sex is not fixed at birth,” that individuals can be “born in the wrong body,” and that those “experiencing gender dysphoria should use potentially irreversible procedures (including hormone treatments and surgery) to change their body to conform to an internal sense of gender identity.” Section 8 amends Colorado’s “Anti-Discrimination Act” to compel citizens to call those claiming to be the opposite sex by their “chosen name” and any other words by which the individual “chooses to be addressed.” Persons failing to do so are guilty of a “discriminatory practice” under the new law, and also if they “’publish, ‘display,’ ‘circulate,’ or ‘mail’ any communication that ‘indicates’ that a person’s presence at a place of public accommodation is ‘unwelcome, objectionable, unacceptable, or undesirable’ because of ‘gender expression.’” Which means individuals can dress or act however provocatively they wish despite any rules of decorum a business or other entity may have in place. The law also prohibits Coloradans who own or work in “a place of public accommodation from publishing or sending materials that refer to a transgender-identifying individual by their birth name (i.e., not their ‘chosen name’) or use their biological pronouns (i.e., not their preferred pronouns).” The plaintiffs say they are bringing this legal action “to protect their rights, their members’ rights, and the rights of every person in Colorado who does not want to be punished” for their sincerely held views about sex and gender. They further assert that the contested provisions of the law “should be declared unconstitutional, and Defendants should be enjoined from enforcing them.” Education Reporter will follow the progress of this litigation.

Disturbing student test results paint a failing picture in both blue and red states. The watchdog group, Wirepoints, reports that according to 2024 data, not one student tested proficient in math in 80 Illinois schools. In reading, not a single child tested proficient in 24 schools. However, these same schools “graduate nearly 70 percent of their students,” according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2024 “Illinois Report Card.” As Wirepoints notes: “Teaching students the basics of reading and math is the bare minimum function of an educational system. Unfortunately, an increasing number of Illinois schools don’t accomplish that, even though covid is one more year behind us.” Two states away, students in the red state of Kansas fare somewhat better but demonstrate disappointing results nonetheless. The Kansas Policy Institute (KPI) reports that the state ranks #15 in education spending but 34th overall in student achievement. “Once again,” they write, “the data disproves the education lobby’s claim that spending more money is the key to achieving better outcomes.” For example, KPI charges that the Kansas Association of School Boards claims the state’s public schools rank #13 in achievement, “but that’s not true.” Rather, the Kansas NAEP proficiency rankings “range from #29 to #44, and ACT demographic scores are in the mid-30s.” In 2023, Kansas spent $19,885 per student, adjusted for the cost of living, while Illinois spent $24,979. In contrast, of the states referenced in The South May Rise Again, Louisiana spent $17,724, Alabama spent $16,884, Mississippi spent $16,106, and Tennessee spent $15,631. While the education debacle in Illinois has been well publicized, observers point out that public education costs are extremely high across the country when compared to overall low student achievement. Illinois and Kansas, among many other states, may want to learn from their southern neighbors, who are spending thousands of dollars less per-pupil annually while achieving far better academic results.

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