Sarah Smylie
sarahsmylienc.bsky.social
Sarah Smylie
@sarahsmylienc.bsky.social
Board Member, Orange County Schools (NC). Opinions my own. Dedicated to educational equity and audacious hope.
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
It's great to read about the ingenuity & resiliency of school leaders finding new ways to deliver basic mental health services to students. But again, it would be great if articles like this would note how the Leandro Plan would address these issues if legislators would simply fund the Plan

#ncpol
From pilot program to statewide model: How the Medicaid Learning Collaborative is helping districts expand mental health support for students
The Medicaid Learning Collaborative helps districts learn how to bill Medicaid for school-based mental health services.
www.ednc.org
December 3, 2025 at 4:14 PM
A little Friday PM humor slash horror! What a week, folks. G'night!
November 21, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
This story is nuts.

"ICE agents then surrounded the judge’s car and demanded everyone to exit the vehicle, threatening to smash in the windows if they did not comply."
November 21, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
This particular caravan of federal agents may have left, for now, but we still have work to do to create a state where everyone can live freely, with dignity and without fear. Join us tomorrow at 6 PM in Charlotte and Raleigh. Stay posted for next steps at defendandrecruit.org/nc
November 21, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
SNAP has existed for 60 years. Benefits have gone out every single month over those six decades, including during government shutdowns. Until now.

Make no mistake: The money is available to fund SNAP during this shutdown. Trump is making a choice to withhold it.

Don’t forget this.
November 6, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
Media orgs are confused and upset about last nights Democratic wins.

I don’t recall a “questions remain” after Trump or GOP wins.
November 5, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Your Republicans in Congress are depriving our struggling neighbors of food to eat. Why? Well, they simply MUST make other neighbors' health care more $$$, you see. (My kingdom for a government that, like, gives a shit about people.)
Crunching numbers on SNAP in NC.

Belts of rural counties in the south & northeast will see anywhere from a quarter to a third of their residents without food assistance. Ten of the state’s 99 counties have 25% or more of its residents enrolled in SNAP. #ncpol
ncnewsline.com/2025/10/29/l...
Looming SNAP pause will impact rural and urban North Carolinians • NC Newsline
The SNAP food assistance program helps feed a total of 1.4 million North Carolinians. They will all stop receiving benefits this week.
ncnewsline.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
Donald Trump deleted this from the government website.

Let's be clear: there's funding available to cover SNAP benefits next month. Trump is stopping SNAP benefits because he wants to. He is forcing mommas and babies to go hungry.
October 28, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
its remarkable to see random suburbanites in their fucking PJs have more courage than the vast majority of america's political, social, and civil elites
More from the scene
October 25, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
To understand the Trump administration’s vision for American education, @megomatz.bsky.social and I studied dozens of hours of political appointees’ speeches and podcasts and essays. What emerged is a desire to dismantle the nation’s system of public schools.
These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department.
Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of publ...
www.propublica.org
October 9, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Abolish ICE.
My god.

“Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers…’It was heartbreaking to watch…seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.’”
Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'
The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.
chicago.suntimes.com
October 2, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
From 1939-1945 German officers also listened to speeches from civilians about how the laws of war didn’t apply to them. And then they participated in the Holocaust, starved millions of prisoners of war, destroyed villages and cities, and were defeated.
Hegseth: "We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement."
October 2, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Both of my kids played Jane Goodall in their 2nd grade wax museum. A family hero of ours. 💔
Jane Goodall was not only a pioneering primatologist, she also campaigned more relentlessly and selflessly for the natural world than anyone I know.

A great soul if ever there was one
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, dies aged 91
Jane Goodall Institute says ‘tireless advocate’ for natural world died in California during US speaking tour
www.theguardian.com
October 2, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
Just gonna keep tapping the sign*

*𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦
October 1, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
Here is the image with alt text
September 28, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
That power wasn't originally there then, but it's originally there now.
September 26, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
COLUMN: Hillsborough mayor Mark Bell and former mayors Tom Stevens and Jenn Weaver write in support of the first amendment at a time where many feel that freedom is under attack.

Read the latest Viewpoints here:
Viewpoints: Be Loud for the First Amendment - Chapelboro.com
The First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the ri...
chapelboro.com
September 19, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
i think that if the FCC threatened to revoke ABC’s license unless it replaced Jimmy Kimmel with Kevin Hart to diversify the network, Ilya Shapiro would be able to identify the issue here
This really is the final expression of "libertarianism" as it is practiced in the US today.
September 18, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
Here’s my write up on the most racist decision to come out of the Supreme Court in a while. The court approved of Trump’s racial profiling of Latinos with Brett Kavanaugh saying being harassed based on the color of your skin is “common sense.”
My latest in @thenation
The Supreme Court Just Gave the OK to Racial Profiling
The court’s ruling allowing ICE to resume its indiscriminate round-ups of LA’s Latino residents can only be described as one thing.
www.thenation.com
September 8, 2025 at 7:31 PM
So so so proud of the learning and growth happening in OCS.
In the student growth data recently released by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, two out of the three districts that fully reached their growth goals are local: Orange County Schools and Chatham County Schools.
Orange County, Chatham County School Districts Set Student Growth Records in 2024-25 - Chapelboro.com
Two out of the three districts that fully reached their 2024-25 growth goals are local: Orange County Schools and Chatham County Schools.
chapelboro.com
September 5, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
This is the value of local journalism. Chase (AFAIK) was the only reporter in the room, who noticed an unusually worded response from an official, and asked questions. AI can't do this.

indyweek.com/news/northca...
Valerie Foushee “Will Not Accept” AIPAC Money in 2026 Election
At a town hall this week, Representative Valerie Foushee shifted her stance on American-Israel PAC contributions and discussed her 2024 visit to Israel.
indyweek.com
August 8, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
🚨ACTION OF THE DAY🚨
@standupforscience.bsky.social

Day 6! Leave a public comment opposing the repeal of the EPA Endangerment Finding.

✍️ Comment here: www.regulations.gov/commenton/EP...

🧠 Learn more here: www.cnn.com/2025/08/03/p...

🌿 Here is a script (copy and paste alt text for ease!)
#31days
August 6, 2025 at 10:58 AM
I mostly browse bsky to be a better-informed citizen, but I enjoy the miscellaneous content as well. So, a contribution: My 4 ft tromboncino! This majestic, season-fluid vegetable can go summer or winter squash. A delight.
August 6, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Reposted by Sarah Smylie
the difference between Dem politicians like Beshear & Walz (who say supportive things about LGBTQ ppl) and the Newsoms, Emanuels & other Dem politicians/pundits throwing trans ppl under the bus isn't "strategy", it's that the latter group is transphobic
If the (wildly popular) governor of Kentucky can say this with his whole chest then what excuse does the (wildly unpopular) governor of California have?
July 23, 2025 at 3:24 PM
SCOTUS majority once again revealing themselves to be a bunch of chickens. Explain yourselves!

(Not a lawyer, but like...also it would be good to understand their reasoning? For like, posterity and future legal decision-making and stuff?)
Since April 4, #SCOTUS has issued 15 rulings on 17 emergency applications filed by Trump (three birthright citizenship apps were consolidated).

It has granted relief to Trump ... in all 15 rulings.

It has written majority opinions in only 3.

Today's order is the 7th with no explanation *at all.*
Here we go again: Over an acerbic dissenting opinion by Justice Sotomayor (joined in full by Justices Kagan and Jackson), #SCOTUS, with no explanation, grants a stay in the Department of Education RIFs case—effectively clearing the way for the Trump administration to dismantle much of the agency:
July 14, 2025 at 8:40 PM