❌

Normal view

There are new articles available, click to refresh the page.
Before yesterdayMain stream

Rep. James tries to drum support for federal education tax credit legislation

✇WDET 101.9 FM
By: Colin Jackson
30 August 2024 at 14:23
Michigan Republican Congressman John James is working to build support for federal legislation that would offer tax breaks in exchange for donations to groups that offer educational scholarships for K-12 students. Those scholarships could go toward expenses like tutoring or private school tuition.
James said it’s time to re-think the country’s education system.
“The Education Choice for Children Act will empower parents, not bureaucrats, not union bosses, or a system that has cheated and denied millions of children, overwhelmingly minority children, overwhelmingly on the socially economic low end in both rural and urban areas,” James said.
Under the federal proposal, the scholarships would be available to kids in households under 300% area median gross income — a measure of the midpoint of an area’s income distribution.
The plan isn’t far off from proposals floated in Michigan in recent years — though public school advocates point out the state constitution bans public money from funding private education.
Supporters of the scholarship program say it would be different from a voucher program that would directly compensate families for private school tuition.
But critics, like Jennifer Smith, the director of government relations for the Michigan Association of School Boards, disagree.
She criticized the plan as a school voucher program by a different name.
“The idea is the same. They’re trying to shift money from the public tax collections and public money to the private schools. And even though it may be called a tax credit, it’s going to have the same effect,” Smith said.
With only a few months left before the general election and Democrats in control of the U.S. Senate and presidency, it’s unlikely the federal proposal will advance much further this session.
 
But supporters hope it comes back next year.

The post Rep. James tries to drum support for federal education tax credit legislation appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

Whitmer signs bill to ban ‘gay panic’ defense in assault cases

✇WDET 101.9 FM
By: Rick Pluta
29 July 2024 at 14:40

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill this week that bans the use of what is sometimes called the “gay panic” defense in cases of crimes, particularly violent offenses, against LGBTQ people.

The new law instructs courts that the discovery of a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression cannot be used by a defendant to justify a crime.

“This makes Michigan the 20th state to outlaw the panic defense in court,” said Whitmer Press Secretary Stacey LaRouche. “And really what this does, in effect, is it closes a loophole to prevent violence against LGBTQ Michiganders, helping to keep more people safe.”

LaRouche noted the governor has already signed laws to expand Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include LGBTQ protections and to outlaw conversion therapy for minors.

Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the LGBTQ+ Project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, says there is no specific data on the use of the “gay panic” defense in Michigan. But he said the law is needed.

“This makes it clear to judges and to courts that this type of defense where you look at the victim, [that] somehow some characteristic of the victim might provide justification for committing a crime, is no longer acceptable,” he said. “We do know that we have a sorry history within our legal system in the past.”

The controversy over the “gay panic” defense dates back to 1995 and the murder of Scott Amedure by a friend in Lake Orion. Amedure had confessed to a crush on the friend in an appearance on a tabloid TV show. The crush, Jonathan Schmitz, said on the show that he was flattered but as a straight man, not interested. Amedure later left a suggestive note on Schmitz’s apartment door.

Schmitz then purchased a shotgun, went to Amedure’s home and shot the man twice in the chest. His defense in court was that he was profoundly embarrassed by the public disclosure of the crush.

Schmitz was charged in Oakland County with first-degree murder but convicted by a jury of the lesser offense of second-degree murder. He was released from prison in 2017.

Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.

WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.

Donate today »

The post Whitmer signs bill to ban ‘gay panic’ defense in assault cases appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

❌
❌