Free Republic

The number of Gen Z college freshmen who are entering universities without high school math skills is skyrocketing — as SAT scores are plummeting, a stunning new report has found. Even more shocking — many of the students can’t even do middle-school level math, meaning their skills are fifth grade or below. Experts say this phenomenon, combined with steadily rising high school graduate rates, show that the country is suffering a massive grade inflation problem. The University of California San Diego, for instance, has reported a staggering 30-fold increase in the number of students unable to do basic arithmetic over...

My 11-year-old son joined the elementary school band, and so I went to the parents’ orientation night held at a local high-school. As the night went on it became obvious why young men rage against the larger social system and why they might find a character like Nick Fuentes attractive. The classrooms were inundated with DEI messages and trans pride flags. On the walls there were posters, stickers and decorations that all invoked the various totems of diversity. Black Lives Matter messaging, decolonization messaging, LGBTQ+ messaging and basically every sort of race and gender social justice messaging you can imagine...

Malevolent kooks at the University of Minnesota are not the only educators in this Somali colony who really don’t like the native population. The state’s largest teachers union, Education Minnesota, offers professional development courses on such topics as Interrupting Whiteness: The “racial equity trainings” can be brought “to your building” when requested by Education Minnesota members, the union website explains, and offer instruction on topics like “Culturally Responsive Teaching With a Racial Justice Lens” and “Cultural Competency.” “Racial justice” is Liberalese for antiwhite race hate. “Cultural competency” entails subordinating American and European culture to less successful ones. In a state...

Upset father: ‘My son had no idea what any of this meant, but he knew that it was weird and sick and gross’ A 6th-grade student survey created by the Oregon Health Authority for asks participants, among other things, their “gender identity,” “sexual orientation,” and if they are “transgender.” The first question under the “Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation” section offers choices such as “Demigirl/Demiboy,” “Genderfluid,” and “Agender”; the second includes “Pansexual,” “Asexual or Aromantic,” and “Something else that fits better (Please tell us more).” “Demigirl/demiboy” is defined as someone who “partially identifies as a girl/boy or with femininity/masculinity, but...

Trust is like a bridge built over years but burned in moments. For generations, American parents have walked their children across that bridge each morning, delivering them into the care of teachers and administrators who promised to guard them like their own. But what happens when the guardians become the very danger parents sought to protect their children from? Across Colorado, that bridge is collapsing. School districts that once partnered with families in raising children have transformed into ideological fortresses, operating in shadows and silence. Parents send permission slips for field trips, imagining museums and monuments. They pack lunches and...

Students attending American public schools are struggling. Test scores from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), released this year, indicate that 33% of 8th graders—a greater percentage than ever before—are reading at the “below basic” level.Additionally, only 22% of high school seniors are proficient or above in math, down from 24% in 2019, and only 35% are proficient in reading—the lowest score since NAEP began in 1969—down from 37% in 2019. Also, a record-high percentage scored at “below basic” levels in both math and reading compared to all previous assessments.Parents across the country, especially in big cities, have...

Concerns are mounting in Maryland after a male teacher was found posting TikTok videos flaunting what he describes as his pregnancy and breast-implant fetish. Although the teacher has since locked down his social media accounts, the child-safeguarding organization Gays Against Groomers saved one of the clips and reposted it on X, where it has already racked up more than 30,000 views at the time of writing. Reduxx has identified the teacher in the controversial video as James Roman Stilipec, who instructs Grade 9 English at REACH! Partnership School 341 in Baltimore. In the clip shared by Gays Against Groomers, Stilipec...

The ACLJ is taking decisive action after a New York school district exposed seventh-grade students to pornographic images under the guise of an “art lesson” – and then attempted to downplay what happened. The Watertown City School District didn’t just fail its duty to protect children; it violated the constitutional rights of parents and traumatized children. We are now demanding immediate accountability. Our clients, Stephanie Boyanski and Jessy Roberts, were horrified to learn that their seventh-grade children were assigned to visit an unvetted website containing graphic sexual images as part of an art project. The teacher, Ms. Bridgette Gates, displayed...

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Teresa Crosslin went from what she called a day filled with joy to reliving one of the lowest points in her life within hours of being sworn in as the newest Clarksville-Montgomery County School Board member. Hours after taking her oath, Crosslin was told the district knew about a television appearance where she appeared to have sex on camera. She abruptly resigned without much explanation, and rumors soon spread about a possible appearance on the reality show "Gigolos," which aired more than 10 years ago. The next day, Crosslin published an article in Clarksville Now titled...

Several Colorado parents are suing their local school district after an overnight school trip allegedly tried to place a transgender-identifying male student in a hotel room — and ultimately the same bed — with an 11-year-old girl. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative legal organization that advocates for religious liberty, filed its opening brief Wednesday in "Wailes v. Jefferson County Public Schools" with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit on behalf of four families. The lawsuit alleges that the district, located near Denver, allows biologically male students to share overnight accommodations with girls based solely on gender...

Last academic year, DIY education grew at nearly three times the average rate it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research. Whether called homeschooling or DIY education, family-directed learning has been growing in popularity for years in the U.S. alongside disappointment in the rigidity, politicization, and flat-out poor results of traditional public schools. That growth was supercharged during the COVID-19 pandemic when extended closures and bumbled remote learning drove many families to experiment with teaching their own kids. The big question was whether the end of public health controls would also curtail interest in homeschooling. We know now...

WASHINGTON — America’s largest teachers’ union accused Republicans of promoting “racist and transphobic troupes” in teaching materials for an upcoming training program, according to documents obtained by a conservative activist group. The National Education Association is hosting a training from Dec. 2-4 at an undisclosed location called “Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice and Transgender Advocacy” aimed at dismantling “strategic racism and transphobia,” the group Defending Education uncovered. The group released information on the training that is targeted for union staff and teams as part of the NEA UniServ and Organizing Training Program 2025–2026. Sessions will be aimed at “dismantling systems of privilege...

This is absolutely wild, y'all. 🚨#BREAKING: A white, liberal, Charlotte NC teacher with a nose ring says the hallways of her school are now a "ghost town" after Border Patrol's immigration enforcement.She also begins crying about how the school has only sent out videos, "in English..." pic.twitter.com/NTfziEN84T— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) November 20, 2025Yes, she's literally crying about THIS message from Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools 👇 Over 30,000 students were absent in the Charlotte area while ICE was in town. School officials say illegal aliens have "constitutional right" to "free" education. The feds show up in a few North Carolina cities and...

Conservatives on social media have erupted with fury over a 15-second video showing a Michigan official dodging a question about how many genders exist. The MAGA world has unleashed a flood of criticism against Superintendent Sue Carnell over her response to the interrogation by Republican state Rep Jay DeBoyer. 'How many genders are there?' DeBoyer asked Carnell during an October 28 hearing. Carnell smiled and did not answer, prompting the lawmaker to repeat his question. 'Different people have different beliefs on that,' Carnell eventually replied. DeBoyer hit back. 'Well, you can believe all you want, but science says there's two,'...

A woman broke down in tears during a Thursday school board meeting in Royal Oak, Michigan, where multiple left-wing speakers demanded that a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter be shut down. Officials at Royal Oak High School approved the chapter on Oct. 21, according to Fox News, prompting protests from left-wing students and groups, including a walkout. During the meeting, the woman claimed that the conservative-leaning student group would promote “radicalization” of students. “I’m a lifelong Royal Oak resident, a supporter of the Royal Oak community, as well as an advocate for young people. I too came to speak about...

A stunning report from UC San Diego has exposed a dramatic collapse in academic readiness that should alarm anyone who cares about California's education system. The numbers are jaw-dropping: between 2020 and 2025, the share of incoming freshmen requiring remedial math instruction for skills below middle school level surged nearly thirtyfold—from about 1 in 100 students to roughly 1 in 8. The 54-page report, released November 6 by the university's Senate-Administration Working Group on Admissions, paints a troubling picture. According to the report, these students arrive with solid high school math grades—many sporting 4.0 GPAs—yet can't handle arithmetic that elementary...

How do GSA clubs (“Gay Straight Alliance” or “Genders and Sexualities Alliance”) get into thousands of schools across America, Canada, and beyond?

The sabotage of K-12 education is easily implemented by rejecting methods that work, while simultaneously forcing phony substitutes into classrooms. QED: the experts embraced a far-left ideology that prefers control and leveling. Weirdly enough, our Education Establishment ends up promoting anti-education agenda. Here are the five most egregious examples of this totalitarian strategy in action. 1) Sight-Words Versus Phonics. All the main European languages are phonetic. You first learn the alphabet, then the sounds represented by the letters; and then the blends of those sounds. This approach has always worked. It's the method used in Hebrew, Arabic, Phoenician, Greek, and...

A group of Rhode Island high school students are rallying in support of Charlie Kirk after a teacher mocked the conservative activist's assassination and called him 'garbage.' Students at Barrington High School responded to the social studies teacher's callous September remarks by launching a Turning Point USA chapter to promote free speech and expression. 'What inspired me personally to start this Turning Point chapter was [what] the teacher at our school said after Charlie Kirk's death,' Brayden Ryan, vice president of the Turning Point USA chapter, told Fox News Digital. 'He made a TikTok about how he has no remorse...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has repeatedly slurred a federal judge by name, echoing President Trump's history of diatribes against judges even before the current Democrat started copying the former Democrat's social media style and insulting nicknames. The perceived contender for the 2028 Democratic nomination for president may cluck his tongue again when he sees the latest order from U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez in a lawsuit against The Golden State's alleged mandate on school districts to hide from parents their children's asserted gender identity at odds with sex. The President George W. Bush nominee ordered state Attorney General Rob Bonta...