I need to talk about what happened at the NC House K-12 Education Committee today, because it's a distillation of the arrogance and disregard with which the #NCGOP is leading the legislature right now. A 🧵 I was at the meeting because the Committee was considering SB49, colloquially known as the "Don't Say Gay" Bill. The Bill, as its sponsors acknowledge, is mostly just a recitation of rights parents already have. What's new are forced-outing mandates (and a few other bad things)

At the House K-12 education committee meeting, where they’ll be considering S49, the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. As usual, the chair is playing games wrt public comment; there’s still no sign up sheet despite the fact that there’s been a line at the door for almost an hour. Follow along as I live tweet. Th usual caveats apply: I’m not a reporter, I miss things. I type what I hear, paraphrase brutally, and only phrases with quotation marks should be considered actual quotes.

I’ve just arrived in the Committee room where they’ll be discussing the Don’t Say Gay bill. I’ve asked to be allowed to provide public comment, but they aren’t sure they public will be allowed to speak today. Mind you, this meeting was called upon less than 18 hours notice, at a time when all of the people it most harms — public school students — cannot attend.

So, there’s an argument flying around tonight about the gerrymandering decision, and I need to discuss it. In dissent, the Republican members of the NCSC said, among other things, that the court shouldn’t interfere b/c voters chose a GOP legislature, which means 1/ That they wanted the GOP to redraw the maps, knowing that they’d gerrymander the heck out of them. In essence, that the Court should assent to the majority’s desire to give their votes more weight than those votes would naturally have carried. This is silly for a few reasons. 2/

Ok, I'm waiting for this committee meeting to begin (NCGA House Select Cmte. on An Education System for NC's Future). On the agenda: a conservative activist group to talk about why the NC Constitution doesn't apply to the legislature. 1/? Also on the agenda: a discussion by committee members of what schools would look like if they had their way. I think it's worth noting who's being invited to take part in these meetings. Hint: not educators, education experts, or members of the public. Just hand-picked 2/

A follow-up #LeadWithLeandro thread. Last week, I talked about how extraordinary the NCGA's stance in the case is, and someone asked me what the Court can do to make the Legislature comply. I did some research over the weekend, and here's what I learned: 1/ First, most (possibly all) state constitutions guarantee the state's children the right to a public education, and unsurprisingly, there has been litigation in many states about what counts as a Constitutionally sound education, how it should be provided and what it costs. 2/