What happened this week? Looks like charter-school questions are back on the docket for 2020. Also some stories about racist professors . . .  and of course anti-LGBTQ chicken. Enjoy!

Sen. Booker bucks the trend, jumping back on the charter-school train, at NYT.

So it is largely up to Democrats — especially those of us in this presidential primary race — to have a better discussion about practical K-12 solutions to ensure that every child in our country can go to a great public school. That discussion needs to include high-achieving public charter schools when local communities call for them.

Sen. Warren talks with charter-school protesters, at Chalkbeat.

In that meeting, [Howard] Fuller, former Milwaukee schools chief and advocate for private school vouchers, told Warren that her language is helping anti-charter efforts across the country. A number of states, including California, Illinois, and Michigan, have recently moved to limit charter schools or cut their funding. . . .

“Your plan starts out with an attack on charter schools,” he tells Warren.

“What you may see as an attack is designed to say everybody’s got to meet the same standards,” Warren counters.

• Were those protesters stooges for Wal-Mart? At GOTW.

Indiana University makes a tough call: Condemning a professor’s racist comments while defending his right to free private speech. At IHE.

“We cannot, nor would we, fire Professor Rasmusen for his posts as a private citizen, as vile and stupid as they are, because the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution forbids us to do so,” [Provost Lauren] Robel said. That’s “not a close call,” either.

Leading historian describes the long tradition of conservative evangelical politics, at WaPo:

White evangelicals’ pragmatic and self-serving approach to political power has been consistent for at least a century, dating to fundamentalists’ adoration for Warren G. Harding in the 1920s. . . . Harding and Trump have much in common. They are among the most allegedly corrupt presidents in U.S. history. Their Cabinet teams have been racked by scandal. Like Harding, Trump’s personal morals are the antithesis of what religious Christians profess to demand. But, like Harding, Trump maintains the support of the faithful because of his policies and the attention he lavishes on Christian voters and their faith leaders.

• We at ILYBYGTH ask again: Why does the myth of apolitical evangelicals never die?

Does Jordan Peterson save the internet from racism? Or does he serve as a “gateway drug?” At HxA:

these data support the notion that those who are already affiliated with the alt-right eagerly engage with and promote Peterson’s content. . . . participants in Peterson’s comments sections on YouTube migrate twice as quickly to alt-right YouTube channels over time relative to controls (see Figure 2). In other words, it appears that participating in Peterson’s YouTube channel predicts increasing flirtation with alt-right content.

Chik-fil-A stops funding anti-LGBTQ allies, at NBC.

“Staying true to its mission of nourishing the potential in every child, the Chick-fil-A Foundation will deepen its giving to a smaller number of organizations working exclusively in the areas of education, homelessness and hunger,” the organization announced Monday.

The conservative response:

• Rod Dreher: “I love Chick-fil-A, but it’s going to be a while before I go there again. This is nothing but gutless surrender.”
• Mike Huckabee: “[Chik-fil-A] betrayed loyal customers for $$.”
• Christianity Today: “The strategic shift has disappointed evangelicals who admired the chain’s stance and leaders at Salvation Army, who say its outreach supports members of the LGBT population facing homelessness and poverty.”
• Some guy: “[Chik-fil-A] backstabbing the people who made them successful.”

How does Chik-fil-A’s decision echo evangelical anti-racism efforts from the 20^th century? Here at ILYBYGTH.

Fuller Seminary gets in hot water for expelling non-heterosexual student, at LAT.

Though the college does allow same-sex relationships, it does not allow “homosexual forms of explicit sexual conduct” and has made clear that it believes sexual intimacy is reserved for a marriage between a man and a woman….

• I admit it. I’m stumped. Even knowing the world of evangelical higher ed, this story doesn’t make sense to me, at ILYBYGTH.

Student reporters at Brigham Young University—Idaho pressured to squelch a story, at RNS.

Two days before BYU-Idaho formally announced the change on Nov. 15, the school’s student newspaper, the Scroll, published an article highlighting frustration among students whose requests to use Medicaid as an alternative to the student health plan were rejected by the school. Students are required to have insurance or use the student health plan in order to enroll in classes.

In-depth articles on the controversy at the Scroll then abruptly stopped, with coverage mostly limited to the school’s official statements on the matter as BYU-Idaho was beset with backlash over the decision.