Supreme Court denies hearing for fired 'honk for peace' teacher

S.F. Chronicle reports:

An elementary-school teacher who was dismissed after telling her class on the eve of the Iraq war that "I honk for peace" lost a U.S. Supreme Court appeal Monday.

The justices, without comment, denied a hearing to Deborah Mayer, who had appealed lower-court decisions upholding an Indiana school district's refusal to renew her contract in June 2003. The most-recent ruling, by a federal appeals court in Chicago, said teachers in public schools have no constitutional right to express personal opinions in the classroom.

A teacher's speech is "the commodity she sells to an employer in exchange for her salary," the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in January. "The Constitution does not enable teachers to present personal views to captive audiences against the instructions of elected officials."

The appellate ruling is binding only on federal courts in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, but is one of a series of recent decisions taking a narrow view of free speech for teachers, other government employees and students.

Imagine a world without government funded schools.