0:05

Tonight on PBS News Weekend, the

0:07

debate over using school voucher programs

0:10

to pay tuition at religious schools

0:12

with taxpayer dollars, then

0:14

the effect on students of gun

0:16

violence just outside school walls. We

0:19

found 9,000 shootings near schools

0:21

that were in small towns and

0:23

thousands of shootings even in

0:26

rural areas. So really

0:28

there's kind of nowhere you can go

0:30

to avoid this

0:32

phenomenon. And how

0:35

climate change is affecting family planning

0:37

and reproductive health in Bangladesh. Good

0:53

evening. I'm John Yang.

0:55

Voters in Iran will head back to the

0:57

polls next week. In Friday's balloting to choose

1:00

their successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, who was

1:02

killed last month in a helicopter crash, three

1:05

candidates split the hard-line vote. That allowed

1:07

a reform candidate to take first place,

1:09

but short of the majority he needed

1:11

to win. Many voters

1:13

said they're dissatisfied with their choices, but

1:15

said it's still important to cast a

1:17

ballot. The

1:20

young generation has requests on economic,

1:22

cultural and social issues. Implementing

1:25

these requests isn't difficult, but there is

1:27

a lack of attention towards them, particularly

1:29

towards the youth. I

1:32

realize I can defend my country by

1:34

voting, so I chose to vote. Friday's

1:38

voter turnout was the lowest in the

1:40

country's history. The runoff is set for

1:42

next Friday. Ten Ukrainian

1:44

civilians are returning home tonight, thanks in part

1:46

to the Vatican. Russia had

1:48

held them in annexed portions of the

1:50

country for years, some since before the

1:53

full-scale invasion two years ago. President

1:55

Volodymyr Zelensky said mediation by the Vatican

1:57

led to the release of the prisoners,

2:00

include two Catholic priests. Today, Pope

2:02

Francis gave thanks, but said he's

2:04

filled with sorrow for those still

2:06

in captivity. Elsewhere in the

2:08

country, at least 12 people were killed

2:10

by an airstrike as Russia targets villages

2:12

along the front line. This

2:14

is rescue efforts continue in the city

2:17

of Dnipro, where a strike destroyed an

2:19

apartment building. One

2:21

man is dead and another suspect on the

2:23

run after an officer guarding the Israeli embassy

2:26

in Serbia was shot with an arrow. Local

2:28

media say the man approached the officer

2:31

asking for directions before pulling out a

2:33

crossbow. The officer shot and

2:35

killed the attacker before being rushed to

2:37

a hospital for surgery. Serbian and Israeli

2:39

officials are calling it an act of

2:41

terror. This morning,

2:43

an asteroid the size of a skyscraper passed

2:46

between the earth and the moon. It

2:48

came within 180,000 miles of earth. That's

2:51

about three quarters the distance to the moon. Scientists

2:54

say there was no chance it would hit the

2:56

earth, and if you missed it, there's still a

2:58

chance to spot it tonight after sunset. Still

3:01

to come on PBS News Weekend, the

3:03

life-changing effect of gun violence just beyond

3:06

school grounds, and how

3:08

climate change is altering family planning

3:10

in Bangladesh. What do

3:12

you want from the climate? What are

3:14

you doing? This is PBS News

3:16

Weekend from WETA Studios in

3:18

Washington, home of the PBS

3:20

News Hour, weeknights on PBS.

3:26

This week, the debate over religion in

3:29

publicly supported schools has been playing out

3:31

in Oklahoma. The state school

3:33

superintendent mandated that public schools teach the

3:35

Bible and Ten Commandments. Days

3:37

before, the state Supreme Court blocked what

3:40

would have been the nation's first religious

3:42

charter school. While the Supreme

3:44

Court has been opening the door wider

3:46

for public money to flow into religious

3:48

schools, a lot is already going through

3:50

school voucher programs. A Washington

3:53

Post analysis concluded that nationwide,

3:55

the vast majority of school voucher money

3:57

is going to religious schools. We

4:00

get two perspectives on this. Robert

4:02

Enlow is president of CEO of

4:04

EdChoice, a nonprofit school voucher advocacy

4:06

group. And Richard Katzky is

4:09

the director of Duke University's appellate litigation

4:11

clinic and the former vice president of

4:13

Americans United for Separation of Church and

4:16

State. Richard, let me start with you.

4:19

Should money from public school voucher programs

4:21

be able to go to private religious

4:23

schools? There are all sorts

4:25

of problems with money going to private

4:27

schools. One of the big ones is

4:30

that when money goes to private religious

4:32

schools, those schools, and by the way,

4:34

all private schools that take vouchers, can

4:36

pick and choose which students they will

4:39

allow to attend. They

4:41

won't serve kids with disabilities because they're

4:43

more expensive to go there. They won't

4:45

serve kids of different faiths. They'll make

4:47

the kids and the families sign statements

4:49

of faith and agree to live according

4:52

to them. If you have an LGBTQ

4:54

student or a student whose

4:56

parents are a same-sex couple, the

4:58

schools can say, we don't want your kind

5:01

here. We won't let you do that. It's

5:03

really about schools making choices, not about parents

5:05

making choices. Robert Enlow, schools making choices rather

5:08

than parents making choices. What do you say

5:10

to that? What we know in history right

5:12

now around America is that the courts have

5:14

said that no dollar crosses the Rubicon of

5:17

a private school without the truly private

5:19

choice of a family. So it's families who

5:21

are choosing these options. And here are the

5:23

options they're choosing. In Indiana and the School

5:25

of Outreach Program, more than half

5:27

the kids who are attending Catholic schools are non-Catholic.

5:30

In Florida, the way they have their

5:32

program with 700 new private schools has

5:34

started since the beginning of the program.

5:36

If you're Jewish, if you're Catholic, if

5:38

you're progressive, if you want to go

5:40

to the Albert Einstein Academy, which is

5:42

specifically for children with LGBTQ

5:44

backgrounds, or if you're special needs, they have

5:46

special needs schools that are starting up. The

5:49

vast majority of the programs and voucher programs right

5:51

now, about 15 of them are

5:53

specifically set up for special needs families.

5:55

And so what we're finding with choice

5:57

programs in America is that pluralism is...

6:00

actually working. Families are getting to choose options

6:02

that are working for them. And that's the

6:04

schools that they're choosing. It's not school choice

6:06

by the schools. It's school choice by the

6:08

parents. And the last thing I would add

6:10

is, you know, our traditional schools right now,

6:12

they pick and choose by a situation called

6:14

economic segregation. If you can afford a house,

6:16

then you can choose. And we also know

6:18

that there are tons of magnet schools. So,

6:20

the concept of choice in which schools choose

6:22

is much more complex. But we know from

6:24

school choice programs right now that families are

6:26

choosing, and over a million of

6:29

them are doing so right now. People talk

6:31

about school vouchers, money going to

6:33

religious schools as public money going

6:35

to religious schools. Do you

6:37

see it as public money or do you see it once

6:40

it gets in the parents' hands as their money? So,

6:42

I think as taxpayers, we have decided that

6:45

we want to fund the education of the

6:47

public. I think for too long we said

6:49

we're going to fund the education of public,

6:51

but only through a government-run school system. What's

6:53

happening now across America is we say we

6:55

believe in the public funding of education, but

6:58

letting parents choose where they spend those dollars.

7:00

So, that's what's happening. That's why it's growing

7:02

so much. That's why it's gone from 500,000

7:04

in 2019 to a

7:06

million now. That's why there are 75 programs

7:08

operating in 33 states. And

7:10

it's why, out of the 52 legal cases for

7:13

school choice at state level, 47

7:15

have been ruled in favor of school choice.

7:17

So, the fact is, is we're wanting to

7:19

say that public funds, the taxpayer funds, should

7:21

go to families to make truly private choices,

7:23

much like they do in higher ed and

7:25

much like they do for a host of

7:27

other government programs. Richard, do you have any

7:30

First Amendment establishment clause concerns

7:33

about this, about these voucher funds

7:35

going to private religious schools? Sure.

7:38

So, look, the Supreme Court has said that

7:40

if you have a system of true private

7:42

choice, that where there are actually

7:44

real options for people, then the

7:46

money going to the parents and turning around and

7:49

using it at a private

7:51

religious school doesn't cause a federal

7:53

constitutional problem. Might well cause state

7:56

constitutional problems, but it's also the

7:58

case that the Supreme Court Supreme

8:00

Court premised that idea on

8:03

there being real options

8:05

for everybody. My

8:07

family is Jewish. If I live in a

8:09

community where there aren't any Jewish schools, yeah,

8:11

sure. Robert is right that I could send

8:14

my kids to a Catholic school to get

8:16

a Catholic education or a Baptist school to

8:18

get a Baptist education, but that's not really

8:20

a reasonable choice for most people. It's

8:23

also a funny thing to talk

8:25

about the way that the

8:27

public is hungry for these programs

8:30

when school vouchers have been on

8:32

ballot initiatives going all the way back

8:34

to about 1972 and not a

8:37

single time has the public ever voted

8:39

in favor of a voucher program. Right

8:42

now in Nebraska, they put in a

8:45

tuition tax credit program last year, the

8:47

legislature. So the people,

8:49

the public, actually rose up and

8:51

got the signatures to put a

8:53

ballot measure for the state election

8:55

to ask the question, should we

8:57

get rid of that program? The

9:00

legislature, which gets a ton of

9:02

money from billionaires pushing voucher agendas,

9:04

turned around and made little niggling changes

9:07

to the statute so that they could say, oh,

9:09

now it's not the same statute, so you can't

9:11

challenge it. You can't

9:13

bring it up in a ballot

9:16

initiative. This isn't about the public.

9:18

This is about billionaires financing an

9:20

agenda that includes defunding and deconstructing,

9:23

taking apart the public schools and

9:25

pushing a particular religious agenda that

9:28

just doesn't include most Americans. Robert

9:31

respond to that. Not about the public.

9:33

It's about other agendas. So

9:35

in Arizona, when the ESA program, the

9:38

Education Saved Account program passed and everyone is

9:40

then free to choose, the

9:42

opponents of school choice tried to put it on the ballot to

9:44

get rid of it. They failed in their

9:46

attempt to do so. And the program

9:48

has grown dramatically. But I think it's most

9:51

important about the potential for school choice and

9:53

what we're seeing in places like Florida and

9:55

Arizona is you could start

9:57

new schools. This incredible growth

9:59

of micro-schools. schools, for example, is happening,

10:01

and it's mostly non-religious, right? So what

10:03

we're finding is, in school choice states

10:06

that are mature, like Indiana, like Arizona,

10:08

like Ohio and other places, you're beginning

10:10

to see new schools start. And

10:13

that's the point. Families having more options

10:15

and more freedom to choose, and that's what we're

10:17

seeing across the country. And we'll

10:19

find out in the fall if Nebraska

10:21

and Kentucky actually show that the public

10:23

can pass a referendum. Robert,

10:25

let me ask you, after the Supreme

10:28

Court ruled that the Maine tuition program

10:30

could not exclude religious

10:33

schools, as I understand

10:35

it, Maine started using their human

10:37

rights law, that all schools have

10:39

certain non-discrimination levels, and that if

10:42

you do discriminate, you can't participate,

10:44

which did knock out some of

10:46

the religious private schools. What do

10:48

you think about that? Most school choice

10:50

programs already follow the title of the

10:53

non-discrimination title of the U.S. Supreme Court.

10:55

So if you look at the laws

10:57

that are created around the country, you'll

10:59

see non-discrimination clauses in them across the

11:02

board. And so most private schools are

11:04

already required to follow federal jurisprudence, and

11:06

they do. And if they don't,

11:08

then they generally don't participate in the program. What

11:11

I think it's important to remember here is,

11:13

it's state legislators who are voted in by

11:15

the public that are making these determinations, and

11:17

this is where the public is supporting it,

11:19

because they're supporting it by hiring their state legislator

11:21

to do these bills. Robert, Richard, I'm afraid we're

11:23

out of time. We've got to leave it there. Thank

11:26

you both very much. Thank you. Thanks

11:28

for having me. This

11:44

week, the Surgeon General declared gun

11:46

violence a public health crisis. He

11:49

cited the estimated 50,000 Americans

11:51

who die every year in gun-related

11:53

incidents. According to the Gun Violence

11:55

Archive, there have been more than 8,200 gun deaths so

11:57

far this year. nearly

12:00

700 of them, children

12:02

and teens. With school shootings

12:04

on the rise over the past

12:06

two decades, children and parents are

12:08

increasingly worried about the safety inside

12:10

the classroom. But, as William

12:12

Brangham tells us, a new analysis

12:15

finds that more and more incidents

12:17

of gun violence are happening just

12:19

beyond school walls. From

12:21

2014 to 2023, communities across the country saw

12:25

more than 188,000 shootings within

12:29

500 yards of a school. That

12:31

is an average of 57 shootings per day. This

12:35

comes from a new analysis done by

12:37

The Trace, which is a nonprofit news

12:40

organization that covers gun violence. Analyzing

12:42

data from almost 150,000 public

12:46

and private schools, The

12:48

Trace found that just last year, six

12:51

million kids had a shooting occur

12:53

near their school. Olga

12:55

Pierce is one of the journalists who did

12:57

this analysis. Olga, thank you

12:59

so much for being here and sharing

13:01

this really tremendous piece of reporting with

13:04

us. When we think about school shootings,

13:06

I think most people think of the

13:08

massacres that happen, Newtown,

13:11

Uvalde, Columbine, et

13:13

cetera. But you guys chose to

13:15

broaden the lens and look at

13:18

shootings outside of schools. Why that

13:20

focus? Obviously,

13:23

school shootings inside the school building

13:25

are a traumatic and dramatic event

13:27

and they deserve our attention, but

13:30

those are very rare compared

13:33

to the frequency of shootings

13:35

we found around schools. And

13:38

something we had heard anecdotally from teachers

13:40

in our reporting was, I

13:42

wish that we could take some of this attention

13:45

and these resources we're taking to

13:47

prepare for shootings in the school

13:49

and devote them to protecting kids

13:52

outside the school building. And

13:54

I mentioned some of your findings that

13:56

how millions of kids go to schools

13:58

where a shooting happened. nearby in just

14:00

one year. I mean, two of my own kids

14:02

fall into that same exact category. What

14:05

else did you find in your reporting? DR. KAREN

14:07

TUMULTY We were interested in the geographic

14:10

distribution of schools. And

14:13

the first thing we found is

14:15

that the schools that experience this

14:17

the most are in the places

14:19

you would expect, so places like

14:21

Chicago and Philadelphia that have well-documented

14:24

gun violence problems. A

14:27

thing that really surprised us was

14:29

how frequent these shootings are outside

14:31

the places you would expect. So

14:33

we found about 40,000 shootings

14:35

that were adjacent to suburban

14:37

schools. We found 9,000 shootings

14:40

near schools that were in small

14:42

towns and thousands of shootings even

14:44

in rural areas.

14:46

So, really, there's kind of nowhere

14:49

you can go to avoid

14:52

this phenomenon. separate

14:54

from this really horrifying data that you

14:56

guys are digging up, what

14:59

were some of the personal stories that you

15:01

heard from these communities? DR. KAREN TUMULTY

15:03

One of the saddest stories we heard was

15:05

from a middle schooler in Philadelphia who

15:07

said that she's afraid to sit next

15:09

to the window in her classroom because

15:11

she has so frequently heard gunshots

15:14

outside the building and

15:16

heard screaming. Imagine

15:18

trying to learn if that's your reality,

15:20

if you're just a middle schooler. I

15:23

mean, tell us a little bit more about that. What

15:25

does the research indicate about, even

15:27

though you're not directly involved in the shooting,

15:29

you're not the perpetrator or the victim or

15:32

even necessarily know the victims,

15:34

what does this pervasive violence in

15:36

a community do to kids? DR.

15:39

KAREN TUMULTY We know, first of

15:41

all, that it harms learning outcomes.

15:43

So kids who are exposed to

15:45

violence, even things like memorials on

15:47

the street that we see, tend

15:50

to have lower test scores. For

15:52

example, so it's just hard

15:55

to focus and hard for a brain

15:57

to develop normally when there's exposure to

15:59

this. On top of that,

16:02

people told us that what

16:04

often gets interpreted as behavioral issues

16:07

is actually just

16:09

a really normal response to seeing violence all

16:11

around you all the time. As

16:13

you were reporting this and talking with

16:15

parents, did were parents aware of this?

16:17

I mean, was this something that they

16:20

were cognizant that was going on in their communities?

16:22

Did they feel that their children were safe at

16:25

school? So, in

16:27

some communities, there have been

16:29

really high-profile incidents, like students

16:31

getting shot, leaving the

16:33

school building, for example. And

16:35

I think those parents are in general aware.

16:38

But one thing we did find in

16:40

our reporting is that schools often are

16:42

not great about communicating to parents when

16:44

there is an incident. So,

16:47

I would recommend any

16:50

parent who doesn't know to maybe initiate a

16:52

conversation. And, actually, in our story, if you

16:54

go to our Web site, there's a tool

16:56

where you can look up any school, which

16:59

could help with that conversation. And

17:01

what kind of a response did you

17:03

hear from local officials and school officials?

17:05

I mean, I, Gaben, these are things

17:08

happening outside of the school walls, but

17:10

are school officials aware of this and

17:12

trying to take measures to help protect

17:14

kids? Yes, so we

17:16

went to a school in Philadelphia that

17:18

was one of the most affected schools,

17:20

and they had done things like put

17:23

bulletproof blankets in the windows. No

17:26

adult was allowed in the school, not even

17:28

parents. Kids have to be brought outside. So,

17:32

obviously, there are things the school

17:34

can do, but the

17:36

real long-term solution is to reduce

17:38

the frequency of gun violence everywhere.

17:41

All right. That is Olga Pierce, reporter for The

17:44

Trace. Thank you so much for sharing your reporting

17:46

with us. Thanks so much. Thank

17:51

you. Few

18:03

places in the world are suffering more from

18:05

the effects of climate change than Bangladesh. Most

18:08

of the country, which is slightly smaller than

18:10

Iowa, is a flat plain, no higher than

18:12

about 50 feet above sea level.

18:15

That makes it vulnerable to the sort

18:17

of severe flooding that's now affecting more

18:19

than 2 million people after weeks of

18:22

monsoon rains. And now there's

18:24

another effect. Women are changing

18:26

the way they think about having children. Sally

18:29

Dicerman is a senior researcher for

18:31

IPAS, which is a reproductive justice

18:33

organization. Sally explained to

18:35

us how these effects of climate

18:37

change are affecting women's health and

18:39

Bangladesh, and especially women's reproductive health.

18:42

Yeah, thank you for that question. So

18:44

what we found in our research along

18:46

the Bay of Bengal and these communities

18:48

that have been really hit hard by

18:50

cyclones is that the climate

18:52

crisis is impacting everyone, but certain

18:54

groups, especially women and

18:57

girls, are feeling those

18:59

impacts disproportionately. And

19:01

that includes direct impacts on

19:04

their sexual and reproductive health

19:06

outcomes. For instance, experiencing increased

19:08

miscarriage, pregnancy complications, and premature

19:10

labor during these intense storms

19:12

and flooding. A lot

19:14

of women have to go to these cyclone

19:17

centers where they shelter during the storms, and

19:19

there's not nurses and doctors, medical

19:22

supplies, or even sanitation materials for

19:24

those women who do go into

19:26

labor, which is quite common. And

19:29

so they have to give birth

19:31

in these unsanitary conditions without a

19:33

health care professional present. And

19:36

how is this affecting their decisions to have children?

19:39

Yeah, so women are facing the

19:42

difficulty of having to

19:44

evacuate and putting

19:46

their families before their own

19:49

health and well-being. So for instance,

19:51

women traditionally are the caregivers in

19:53

this context. So they have to

19:55

make sure that their children and

19:57

elderly people and people with disabilities

20:00

in their community evacuate first,

20:02

which means sometimes they

20:04

are the last ones to be

20:07

thinking about their own safety. And

20:09

so what they see is that

20:11

other pregnant women are experiencing

20:14

prematurity, pregnancy complications,

20:17

stillbirth and miscarriage during these

20:20

cyclones. And it's scary

20:22

for them. And so they think, well,

20:24

you know, I'm not ready to have

20:27

a child when there's so much instability

20:29

and these extreme weather events happening.

20:31

But then there's also the other side of

20:34

that where one woman even talked in our

20:36

research, even talked about how she

20:38

wanted to have more children to

20:40

protect against potential childlessness in

20:43

the case of her child being killed

20:46

during one of these storms, because children

20:48

are also very vulnerable during evacuation. Has

20:50

there been a marked difference in

20:52

child mortality? So child

20:55

mortality linked directly to these storms

20:57

is something that's still being researched.

20:59

You know, the point here really

21:01

is that women and girls, including

21:03

youth, are feeling

21:05

those impacts disproportionately to other people

21:07

in the community. And so it

21:09

really is causing them to reconsider

21:11

when they have children and how

21:14

many children they have. What

21:16

other effects are there of these effects of

21:19

climate change, how they're affecting life in Bangladesh?

21:22

So in Bangladesh and in all nine

21:24

countries where we've done this research, we're

21:27

finding direct links between the conditions caused

21:29

by the climate crisis and increases in

21:31

child marriage. So when the

21:35

climate change undermines the economic

21:37

sectors like agriculture, there's increased

21:39

economic instability and crisis in

21:41

these families. And so women

21:43

told me that child

21:45

marriage, marrying off one's daughters, is

21:47

being used as a coping mechanism,

21:49

both to receive additional money from

21:52

dowry payments and also to have

21:54

one less mouth to feed. And

21:57

is there also a connection or an effect

21:59

with violence? against women? Yeah,

22:02

so violence is increasing for two

22:04

reasons. First, this economic instability causes

22:07

so much stress in the family,

22:09

and that leads to more intimate

22:11

partner violence. But also, women, and

22:13

especially young girls, talked about how

22:16

in cyclone centers in Bangladesh where

22:18

they're sheltering from storms, there is

22:20

really poor security, poor lighting, and

22:23

the lack of separate spaces and

22:25

toilets for men and women. And

22:27

so these toilets and these spaces

22:29

are a hotbed for sexual harassment

22:32

and violence. And so young girls told

22:34

us that they hold their urine for

22:36

hours on end because they're afraid of

22:38

using the bathroom at these cyclone centers.

22:40

And that leads to a lot of

22:42

problems and pain. Are Bangladeshi

22:45

women responding in some way? Are they

22:47

organizing, making demands, or

22:49

calling for changes? Yeah,

22:52

so in our research, women talked

22:54

about a few things that they

22:56

want. And they are getting involved

22:58

in helping their communities adapt to

23:00

the climate crisis and helping them,

23:02

for instance, be part of these

23:04

disaster risk management committees. So they

23:07

can feel prepared and ready to

23:09

evacuate in a safe and timely

23:11

manner. But women are asking for

23:13

decent work opportunities, access to sexual

23:15

and reproductive health services in

23:17

these cyclone centers and outside of them.

23:20

And these are just two things that

23:22

women are demanding. As

23:25

the globe warms, as the temperatures around

23:27

the world are rising,

23:30

do you think this situation we're going to

23:32

see replicated in more and more places

23:34

around the world? Yes,

23:37

absolutely. I mean, extreme

23:39

heat is extremely dangerous. Exposure

23:42

to extreme heat is very dangerous for

23:44

pregnant women. And that is

23:46

something that we're seeing across the

23:48

globe, whether you're in Bangladesh, Mozambique,

23:51

Indonesia, or in Texas. This

23:53

exposure to extreme heat for pregnant

23:55

women has been linked to miscarriage,

23:58

stillbirth, low birth weight. on

24:00

prematurity. Sally Dykerman of I-PASS,

24:02

thank you very much. Thank you.

24:21

Now on the NewsHour Instagram page,

24:23

how residents of the Ukrainian capital

24:25

city of Kiev live day to

24:27

day with limited electricity. All

24:29

that and more is on the NewsHour Instagram

24:32

page. And that is

24:34

PBS News Weekend for this Saturday. I'm John

24:36

Yang for All My College. Thanks for joining

24:38

us.