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2 special elections could bring more bad news for Britain's governing Conservatives_我的网站

一 |     Oklahoma's Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond on Friday sued to stop a state board from establishing and funding what would be the nation's first religious public charter school after the board ignored Drummond's warning that it would violate both the state and U.S. constitutions.Drummond filed the lawsuit with the Oklahoma Supreme Court against the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board after three of the board's members this week signed a contract for the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School, which is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.“Make no mistake, if the Catholic Church were permitted to have a public virtual charter school, a reckoning will follow in which this state will be faced with the unprecedented quandary of processing requests to directly fund all petitioning sectarian groups,” the lawsuit states.The school board voted 3-2 in June to approve the Catholic Archdiocese's application to establish the online public charter school, which would be open to students across the state in kindergarten through grade 12. In its application, the Archdiocese said its vision is that the school “participates in the evangelizing mission of the Church and is the privileged environment in which Christian education is carried out.”The approval of a publicly funded religious school is the latest in a series of actions taken by conservative-led states that include efforts to teach the Bible in public schools, and to ban books and lessons about race, sexual orientation and gender identity.Oklahoma's Constitution specifically prohibits the use of public money or property from being used, directly or indirectly, for the use or benefit of any church or system of religion. Nearly 60% of Oklahoma voters rejected a proposal in 2016 to remove that language from the Constitution.A message left Friday with Rebecca Wilkinson, the executive director of the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, was not immediately returned, although Wilkinson has said previously she wouldn't comment on pending litigation.A group of Oklahoma parents, faith leaders and a public education nonprofit already filed a lawsuit in district court in July seeking to stop St. Isidore from operating as a charter school in Oklahoma. That case is pending.Oklahoma's Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who earlier this year signed a bill that would give parents public funds to send their children to private schools, including religious schools, criticized Drummond's lawsuit as a “political stunt.”“AG Drummond seems to lack any firm grasp on the constitutional principle of religious freedom and masks his disdain for the Catholics’ pursuit by obsessing over non-existent schools that don’t neatly align with his religious preference," Stitt said in a statement.Drummond defeated Stitt's hand-picked attorney general in last year's GOP primary and the two Republicans have clashed over Stitt's hostile position toward many Native American tribes in the state.The AG's lawsuit also suggests that the board's vote could put at risk more than $1 billion in federal education dollars that Oklahoma receives that require the state to comply with federal laws that prohibit a publicly funded religious school.“Not only is this an irreparable violation of our individual religious liberty, but it is an unthinkable waste of our tax dollars,” Drummond said in a statement.The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, a nonprofit organization that supports the public charter school movement, released a statement Friday in support of Drummond's challenge.。    LONDON -- Voters are casting ballots Thursday in two special elections in England that could add more misery to the beleaguered governing Conservative Party as it prepares to fight a national election next year.The Conservatives won both Tamworth in central England and Mid-Bedfordshire, north of London, by large margins during the last national election in 2019. But both constituencies’ lawmakers resigned under a cloud.Tamworth legislator Chris Pincher quit after Parliament’s standards watchdog recommended he be suspended for “completely inappropriate” behavior after groping two men at a London private members’ club. Then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson’ s reluctance to sanction Pincher when the allegations emerged helped trigger Johnson's ouster at the hands of his own party last year.Mid-Bedfordshire member of Parliament Nadine Dorries resigned over the treatment of Johnson and her own failure to be appointed to Parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords. Dorries is a strong ally of Johnson who has blamed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for helping to topple the former leader.The Conservatives acknowledge they face “difficult headwinds” in both seats. Polls close at 10 p.m. (2100GMT), with results announced early Friday.The main opposition Labour Party and the smaller Liberal Democrats hope to win the seats but have tried to manage expectations, noting that the Conservatives won substantial majorities in 2019. Labour has called both districts “super-safe Tory seats.”Losing either one would add to pressure on the governing party, which has lost several byelections since Sunak took office just under a year ago. He replaced Liz Truss, who quit in October 2022 after her plan for unfunded tax cuts sent financial markets into turmoil and rocked the economy.Truss spent just seven weeks in office after winning a party leadership contest to replace Johnson, who quit after three years in office when scandals over money and ethics turned party lawmakers against him.Sunak steadied the economy but has not managed to boost the party’s rating in opinion polls, where it consistently lags between 10 and 20 points behind Labour.The Conservatives have been in power nationally since 2010, years that saw austerity following the world banking crisis, Britain’s divisive decision to leave the European Union, a global pandemic and a European war that has triggered the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades.Polls show the Conservatives are losing support across the country, from affluent southern voters turned off by Brexit to working-class northern voters who switched from Labour in 2019 after Johnson promised to spread prosperity to long-neglected areas.Sunak has tried to rally support by arguing he has a long-term vision and is prepared to make tough decisions to change Britain.Earlier this month Labour won a special election victory over the Scottish National Party in Scotland. Winning seats in Scotland, where the pro-independence SNP has long been dominant, is key to Labour’s attempt to secure a majority in the next national election, due by the end of 2024.。

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