Free Republic

A Colorado high school student quit the school choir after an Islamic song containing the lyric "there is no other truth except Allah" made it into the repertoire. James Harper, a senior at Grand Junction High School in Grand Junction, put his objection to singing "Zikr," a song written by Indian composer A.R. Rahman, in an email to Mesa County School District 51 officials. When the school stood by choir director Marcia Wieland's selection, Harper quit. "I don’t want to come across as a bigot or a racist, but I really don’t feel it is appropriate for students in a...

RAEFORD, N.C. — A Hoke County preschooler was fed chicken nuggets for lunch because a state worker felt that her homemade lunch did not have enough nutritional value, according to a report by the Carolina Journal. The West Hoke Elementary School student was in her More at Four classroom when a state agent who was inspecting lunch boxes decided that her packed lunch — which consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips — “did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines,” the Journal reports. ... The student’s mother told the Journal she received...

State agent inspects sack lunches, forces preschoolers to purchase cafeteria food instead RAEFORD — A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious. The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes in her More at Four classroom that day. The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services...

Debbie Squires of the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association speaks to the House Education Committee. "Educators go through education for a reason. They are the people who know best about how to serve children. That is not necessarily true about an individual resident. Not saying that they don't want the best for their children, but they may not know what actually is best from an education standpoint."

Principal encouraged cheating, staffers sayBy Kristen A. Graham and Dylan Purcell Inquirer Staff Writers Posted: Sun, Feb. 12, 2012, 6:35 AM Teachers got the message in meetings and during visits to their classrooms in the days before they were scheduled to administer state exams. Multiple staffers at Cayuga Elementary said they were instructed by principal Evelyn Cortez to do what they had to do in their rooms to get good scores. Cortez, reached Friday night, was emphatic: "I disagree with these allegations." The school, in a tough Hunting Park neighborhood, produced strong test results for several years running, and Philadelphia...

Well, at least the kids weren’t singing – everybody now – “Mmm mmm mmm…Barack Hussein Obama.” But the latest example of Big Education fawning over Barack Obama isn’t much better. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Cass Elementary School in Livonia, Michigan aired a video of still images of Obama, with a speech by King and – strangely – a Bob Marley song playing in the background. Watch video at Big Government (don't know how to incorporate a video here). The students looked about as interested as if they were watching paint dry. It’s unclear how long the song actually...

The hypocrisy of opponents of school choice schemes has never been a big secret. But rarely has that quality been so brazenly exhibited as by Vincent Giordano, the head of the New Jersey Education Association, in a recent interview on New Jersey public television. When asked why he opposes giving poor parents the same opportunity to take their kids out of failing public schools and into successful private or religious institutions the wealthy have, the teachers union boss, who makes more than half a million in salary and other compensation, replied: "Life's not always fair." Giordano, who has been a major antagonist of New...

New York (CNN) -- A New York teacher's aide previously accused of distributing child pornography has been arrested again, this time on a charge of making such pornography, possibly on school grounds. Taleek Brooks, 40, had been employed at Weeksville Elementary School in Brooklyn since 1995 and volunteered at an after-school program there with the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club. The Department of Education had suspended him without pay after learning of the initial arrest on January 13, when the FBI charged him with distributing child pornography. He was rearrested Tuesday and is being held without bail. According to...

The grades are out – Wisconsin is the worst in the United States when it comes to science curricula in the classroom. In the words of a recent study, our state’s science standards are “simply worthless.” A 2012 report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute gauged the strength of science programs across the nation. With several different approaches to teaching science in the classroom, every state presented a different challenge to students and analysts. This study, authored by a cabal of notable researchers, broke down the difference in science standards throughout the country. Without a “Common Core” of data standards...

When parent Jeff Travis saw a lesson sheet his son received in social studies class, he was shocked. Using propaganda that could have been disgorged by the KGB, the flier seemed to elevate communism over “capitalism.” Distributed in Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa, the lesson sheet includes a cartoon (portion shown below) that purports to illustrate the differences between the two systems. In the left panel are two unhappy-looking workers with balls and chains tied to their ankles who toil away on one side of a machine while all the profit spills out the other side into...

The next time people try to tell you how much the data-driven education reform programs of President George W. Bush (No Child Left Behind) and President Obama (Race to the Top) have raised academic standards in America, suggest that they take a look at the Jan. 24, 2012, New York State English Regents exam. This year, for the first time, high schools students must score at least 65 on the English exam, as well as on four other state tests — math, science, global history and United States history — to earn a diploma. The three-hour English test includes 25...

The teacher posts: "Governor Scott Walker AKA Fascist Bastard. What an undemocratic assh*le. Wisconsin, will you please get this horrible excuse of a person out of the fold of office? This man (Walker) is outrageously out of control. He represents no one except himself.Shame on Wisconsin for allowing his election, and further shame if they allow his continuance."

Would any concerned parent willingly send their children to an average public school in this country if there was an option available? The word “concerned” in the question should be a tipoff that the answer is no. Still, states, localities and the federal government continue to dump billions of our hard-earned tax dollars into a system that is rotten to its core. Don’t think things are that bad? A student in Washington state named Austin took a video camera into his school’s cafeteria and asked students basic questions about U.S. history. The answers, although funny, are pathetic. Progressives say it’s...

Did you know that “bin Laden” is the vice president of the United States, or that the Civil War led to America’s independence? How about that Canada’s a state? Well, that’s what some local students at (what appears to be) a Washington state high school think. In a video that’s probably a few hours from going viral, a young man decided to question classmates for a video called “Lunch Scholars.” It is anything but scholarly.

NEW ULM, Minn. - A few weeks ago, rape tag was a game no school official or parent in New Ulm, Minn. had ever heard of. After some swift action, it’s game they don’t expect to see elementary school students playing again. Last month, a parent alerted Washington Elementary principal Bill Sprung to the game being played by a handful of fifth grade students. Sprung told KEYC-TV in Mankato he took swift action to put an end to the game, alerting recess supervisors and having teachers speak to their students. The school said rape tag is game similar to freeze...

They raise chickens. They grow vegetables. They knit. Now a new generation of urban parents is even teaching their own kids. In the beginning, your kids need you—a lot. They’re attached to your hip, all the time. It might be a month. It might be five years. Then suddenly you are expected to send them off to school for seven hours a day, where they’ll have to cope with life in ways they never had to before. You no longer control what they learn, or how, or with whom. Unless you decide, like an emerging population of parents in cities...

What did you think when you read this teaser on the cover of the February 6 issue of Newsweek magazine? If you are like me, your blood pressure began to rise, you began marshaling all of your “liberal media” talking points, and then you remembered that Proverbs probably says you should read the darn thing before you go nuts on your Facebook page. So then—yes only then—you read the article. Then you repented. Because the title was intentionally provocative, but the article is a positive, even pleasant story about “why urban, educated parents are turning to DIY education.” You may...

A federal judge ruled this month that the prayer's presence at Cranston High School West was unconstitutional, concluding that it violated the principle of government neutrality in religion. In the weeks since, residents have crowded school board meetings to demand an appeal, Jessica has received online threats and the police have escorted her at school, and Cranston, a dense city of 80,000 just south of Providence, has throbbed with raw emotion.

CLIFTON PARK - The year 2012 starts with a renewed firestorm over an old controversy -- sex education -- at Shenendehowa schools. The district pulled Planned Parenthood experts from its health curriculum after 20 years. But the group of parents that wanted Planned Parenthood out is now asking the district to go a step further by implementing Sexual Risk Avoidance Education. This type of program, advocates say, would include state-mandated information on AIDS, sexually transmitted infections and contraception, while encouraging abstinence.

America is in shambles from sea to shining sea. Unemployment is nearly at Great Depression levels. The real estate is still week and near collapse. And, of course, our U.S. Triple A credit rating is gone for the first time in history. But this is National School Choice Week and all of that terrible economic news is child’s play (excuse the pun) compared to our failing government-run education system. The accelerating and dramatic decline of our public school system is the shame of this once great country. I call our public school system "Every Child Left Behind." The failure of...

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendant, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker,...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Last night in his State of the Union address President Obama called on all states to raise their school compulsory attendance age to 18, unnecessarily adding to bureaucratic requirements for homeschoolers. Homeschool advocates at the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) are dedicated to protecting the educational relationship between parents and their children. Parents—not the federal government and certainly not the president—are the ones who should decide how children are educated and when they’re ready to graduate from high school. But President Obama presumptively spoke on behalf of parents and the states: “So tonight, I am proposing that every...

A 15-year-old Wisconsin boy who wrote an op-ed opposing gay adoptions was censored, threatened with suspension and called ignorant by the superintendent of the Shawano School District, according to an attorney representing the child. Mathew Staver, the founder of the Liberty Counsel, sent a letter to Superintendent Todd Carlson demanding an apology for “Its unconstitutional and irrational censorship and humiliation” of Brandon Wegner. Wegner, a student at Shawano High School, was asked to write an op-ed for the school newspaper about whether gays should be allowed to adopt. Wegner, who is a Christian, wrote in opposition. Another student wrote in...

<p>“A Tale of Two Missions” – a film by Juan Williams and Kyle Olson (and directed by Chicago-based Andrew Marcus) – tells the story of competing cultures in American education through examples from Chicago.</p> <p>While the fight for school choice rages across the nation, perhaps no better example exists than that of the Windy City. Traditional alliances are breaking down. Both political parties are pushing for education reform and expanded school choice. The status quo is under attack, because most reasonable people understand that thousands of Chicago students are trapped in failing schools.</p>

The story is shocking enough, even without bringing race into it: on the way to school in Ocala, FA, a thirteen-year-old girl was beaten unconscious and reportedly went into a seizure after being attacked on the school bus by a group of fellow students. The girl reportedly was riding the bus for the first time. Someone threw a shoe at her, and she threw it back, hitting a student. That's when the beating began. At least seven students surrounded the girl, punched her, held her head to the floor by her hair, and kicked her. The bus driver pulled the...

NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) - A school in southern Arizona was put on lockdown after a group of apparent illegal immigrants was spotted walking near the campus

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A class reading assignment infuriates the parents of a 14-year-old Valley Traditional High School student. They said their daughter's questions about the book left them speechless. The book is called "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." "She was masturbating and (describing) how to masturbate and how she did it and also giving a boy a (expletive) and going into great detail of how to perform it," said Vincent. Vincent took the book to her daughter's step-father, who became speechless. "Her being the age that she's in right now, you just freeze up. You don't know...

By the time they leave elementary school, children should be able to “define sexual orientation,” and by the eighth grade be able to “define emergency contraception and its use,” according to a report containing controversial new recommendations for sex education in U.S. public schools. “Ideally, comprehensive sexuality education should start in kindergarten and continue through 12th grade,” says the “National Sexuality Education Standards” report, drawn up by a range of advocates, academics and public education officials. The Future of Sex Education (FoSE), an initiative started by sex education advocates, developed the standards “to create a strategic plan for sexuality education...

As of Tuesday, programs like elementary music, art and physical education are gone and libraries are closed. School days are shortened to just 5 1/2 hours -- leaving kids less time for instruction, and working parents scrambling. "What are kids gonna do with that big window of time when their parents are still working and all that idle time that they still have, to do God knows what?" parent Jeff Bodziony said. Hot school lunches are also thing of the past. In fact, lunch is a thing of the past. Students used to have lunch in the noon hour. Instead...

The rivalry between two South Carolina high schools boiled over after a basketball match, with two fans of the victorious side reportedly beaten up by opposition supporters for "Tebowing." The Wando High School pair were attacked after their school had inflicted a 20-point defeat on West Ashley High in Charleston, during which they had copied the Denver Broncos quarterback's iconic prayer pose, The Post and Courier reported Saturday. They were punched and kicked in a parking lot, to the point that one was left vomiting from being hit repeatedly in the stomach. Lara Isaac, whose 17-year-old son was one of...

CHARLESTON, South Carolina -- Rick Santorum has no more loyal base than the crowd of home-schooled children and their parents who gathered here Thursday night. Not only are all of Santorum's children home-schooled by his wife Karen, but the family is committed to holistic medical treatments, health food, and Christian-inspired learning, popular causes with home-schoolers.The topics covered at the Charleston town hall varied widely, but the conversation always returned to education. And Santorum, whose late grassroots rally in Iowa was built on the foundation of endorsements from various home school advocacy groups, was all too happy to rally the...

January 12, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A group of progressive education organizations in league with the family planning and homosexual lobby have released a new set of sex education “guidelines” that they are pushing on schools nationwide. The guidelines, published Monday in the Journal of School Health, were authored by the American Association of Health Education, the American School Health Association, the National Education Association – Health Information Network, the Society of State Leaders of Health and Physical Education, Advocates for Youth, Answer, and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. The document is being touted as “the...

News from the Pacific Justice Institute Less than a week after California’s gay history mandate went into effect, a new pro-LGBT bill introduced last week promises to stir even more controversy. AB 266, sponsored by Assemblyman and comedian Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), would require schools to allow students to participate on sports teams according to their “gender identity,” not their biological sex. This is no joke. That means that a boy who claims that he identifies as female would have the right to try out for the girls’ basketball team, potentially taking away an opportunity from a girl who might...

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (CBSNewYork) – Parents in a Connecticut suburb are outraged over disturbing disciplinary actions at a local elementary school. They claim students are being locked in unsupervised “scream rooms,” where some children have harmed themselves, reports CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez. The Middleton School District is on the hot seat as furious parents are demanding to know what’s going on behind closed doors at Farm Hill Elementary School. “My daughter is telling me that there’s kids being taken out in ambulances, by stretcher,” parent Sean Archer told CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez on Wednesday. Disturbing allegations have surfaced of teachers locking...

Young elementary school pupils should use the proper names for body parts and know by the end of fifth grade that sexual orientation is "the romantic attraction of an individual to someone of the same gender or a different gender," according to sexual education guidelines released Monday by health and education groups. The nonbinding recommendations to states and school districts seek to encourage age-appropriate discussions about sex, bullying and healthy relationships, starting with a foundation even before second grade. Most U.S. children enter first grade at age 6. By presenting minimum standards that schools can use to formulate school curriculums...

Students in California public schools may not be leading the nation in their knowledge of the “three R’s,” but they are well on their way to being experts in deviant lifestyles. Under a law signed last year by Gov. Jerry Brown (D), all public schools in the state are now required to promote homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality, and same-sex “marriage” at every grade level, including kindergarten — and to do so without parental consent or even notification. Known as the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act, the law adds “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender [LGBT] Americans” to the list...

MIAMI (AP) — Seven central Florida teenagers were arrested after authorities said they punched and kicked a 13-year-old until she was unconscious while on a school bus. The victim told authorities that Friday was her first time riding the bus and no one would let her sit down. About 75 children were riding the bus bound for a middle school in Ocala, a rural city north of Orlando. The victim said someone threw a shoe at her and she threw one back, according to an arrest report. One girl allegedly asked students if they wanted to hit the victim, then...

A drama teacher has been arrested for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old student after a school play. Alexandra McLean,28, who had recently joined Englewood High School in Denver faces two charges of sexually assaulting a child from a position of authority. A police report says the alleged consensual sexual encounter happened when the boy stayed late at school and McLean, who is reported to be engaged, offered to drop him home. When questioned, the student told police McLean would drive him home after play rehearsals for 'Lend me a Tenor' and that, eventually on November 18, he had sex...

An Alabama schoolteacher was jailed on charges of sexually abusing a fourth-grade female student, and police said Thursday the man told them he molested more than 20 other girls over his 25-year career. Alabaster police said Daniel Montague Acker Jr., 49, was charged with three counts of sexual abuse, and additional charges were possible. "This is not a one-time event," said Deputy Chief Curtis Rigney. "This happened over a period of 25 years." Acker taught fourth grade at three schools and drove buses in the Shelby County school system from 1985 until he retired in 2009. He was investigated on...

NAPLES — A 15-year-old who fatally stabbed his school mate will no longer face criminal prosecution. A judge’s ruling, made public Tuesday, granted a motion to dismiss the second-degree murder charge against Jorge Saavedra in the death of 16-year-old Dylan Nuno on the grounds that he acted in self-defense under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. The State Attorney’s Office has indicated that it will not appeal the ruling. Nuno’s family and friends criticized Collier County Circuit Judge Lauren Brodie’s decision, calling it “unbelievable” and “heartbreaking.” “We know this wasn’t the right decision,” said Dylan’s aunt, Adriana Nuno.“(The judge) is showing...

Teachers at a Skokie school forced a 6-year-old with a broken leg and a concussion to crawl back to his classroom across an icy playground, then failed to call for an ambulance, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. Kindergartner Rahul Chandani slipped on a mound of snow and hit his head in the playground at Devonshire Elementary School on Jan. 3 last year, but didn’t get any medical help until his mom came to get him, the lawsuit filed in Cook County circuit court by Chandani’s parents Pritam and Priya alleges. “His teacher told him, ‘You’re a big boy —...

(CNSNews.com) – On Jan. 1, the California Department of Education started implementing a new law that requires all children in the state’s public schools to study the “role and contributions” of “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans” to the “development of California and the United States of America.” This law, according to the pro-family group SaveCalifornia.com, will require the schools to promote “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans as role models” and mandate that “children as young as kindergarten must be taught to admire persons who engage in homosexuality.”

St. Louis Today reported: When is the line crossed between better health and surveillance? In early 2012, wristwatch-like devices called Polar active monitors will be used by older students in PE classes at all 18 Parkway elementary schools. District officials say the devices should help improve the students’ fitness and academic achievement. Later this school year, the district plans to collect data about activity levels and even sleep patterns for a week at a time. It will have the students wear the devices round the clock. Some parents and legal experts are raising privacy concerns about at least that aspect...

Police shot and killed an armed eighth-grader who "engaged" officers in the main hallway of his middle school on Wednesday, the South Texas school district said.

Imagine if your child’s assigned elementary school had puddles of urine in the bathroom, mouse droppings in the cafeteria, and clogged water fountains. Now imagine if your complaints were rejected by the principal. Parent Revolution, the Los Angeles-based group at the center of the “Parent Trigger” or “Parent Empowerment” movement, reports that these were the deplorable conditions at Washington Elementary School in Lynwood, Calif., when parents organized to help turn things around. The parents put pressure on school officials and formed a committee to help develop solutions. This idea — empowering parents to take ownership of reforms long overdue at...

Parents…Are You Doing Your Job? Dec 30th, 2011by Gary Zimak. Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family.  God values family life so highly that He willed that the Savior would be born into an ordinary family.  In fact, Jesus spent the vast majority of His life living an ordinary life with Mary and Joseph.  Rather than go with the obvious “feel good” message about family life, I’m choosing instead to use this opportunity to remind all parents of their responsibilities to their children.  In today’s society, the family is under constant attack and it’s all too easy to...

Officials with the Thomas More Law Center say they have filed a federal lawsuit against the Howell Public School District in Howell, Mich., and teacher Johnson "Jay" McDowell for punishing and humiliating a student after he responded to McDowell's question about homosexuality with his biblically based perspective. "Rather than teach the required economics curriculum for which he is paid, McDowell, with the full knowledge of school officials, used his position of authority to promote his homosexual agenda at taxpayers' expense," said Richard Thompson, chief of the law center. The case developed, according to the complaint, when McDowell told a student...

KENT, Wash. -- A Kent Meridian High School teacher and coach accused of offering a 16-year-old student $50 for sex and sending her a photo of his penis has been charged with a felony sex crime.

The Planned Parenthood abortion business in Wisconsin is going beyond the pale in its efforts to push its pro-abortion agenda on kids and teenagers — by hiring them to push its sex education agenda on their peers.Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin recently posted a job listing indicating it is looking for children as young as 14 to work as sex educators.“Planned Parenthood of WI (PPWI) is hiring Youth Health Educators at PPWI (there are 7 positions available),� the new listing reads. “Youth must be between the ages of 14-24, hold a current leadership position in a youth-serving Community Based Organization (CBO)...

Fake reading theory is the slave trade of our era. Conscience demands that it be opposed. A hundred books, perhaps two hundred, have been written on the reading wars. Finally those millions of words come down to a few dozen. English is a phonetic language and must be learned phonetically. Whole Word, the opposing theory, is a mirage, without merit. The great sophistry of the 20th century was to create the illusion that Whole Word could actually work or, one step lower, that there was a legitimate choice between the two approaches to reading, as there is between fahrenheit and...