Free Republic

And not only might it be in your own living room, but it could become an excellent pathway toward taking back our beloved Republic from the insidious forces which have lurched us to the left for decades. There are compelling reasons for parents to yank their kids from the typical school, especially for those who love America and its founding values and principles: the rampant teaching that the United States is a racist and evil country and has been from its very beginnings, the precipitous decline in academic rigor and results which has increasingly plagued our schools for generations, and...

Los Angeles teachers’ unions tried to shut down a South Central charter school that had been very successful at teaching low-income black and Hispanic studentsIn my opinion, successful schools should not be shut down.Instead, they should be copied.Every child should be allowed to attend a school as good as this one.The fact that the teachers’ union tried to shut down this successful school, instead of copying it, is despicable.This is the complete article from the Wall St. Journal:https://web.archive.org/web/20081014175429/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122394095677630803.htmlCharter Success in L.A.School choice in South Central.October 14, 2008With economic issues sucking up so much political oxygen this year, K-12 education hasn’t...

At a time countless students face obstacles that could permanently stunt their learning growth, school choice provides one obvious solution to help mitigate a ‘lost generation.’At a time countless students face obstacles that could permanently stunt their learning growth, school choice provides one obvious solution to help mitigate a ‘lost generation.’ Impact on Suicide RatesThe study, released in December and conducted by a Cato Institute scholar and Western Carolina University economist, used two different methods to examine the impact of school choice on mental health. First, the researchers used examined variations in teenage (i.e., 15-19) suicide rates based on states’...

The academic achievement gap between black and white students has proven resistant to most educational policy changes. Some say that educational expenditures explain the gap, but is that true? Look at educational per pupil expenditures: Baltimore city ranks fifth in the U.S. for per pupil spending at $15,793. The Detroit Public Schools Community District spends more per student than all but eight of the nation's 100 largest school districts, or $14,259. New York City spends $26,588 per pupil, and Washington, D.C., spends $21,974. There appears to be little relationship between educational expenditures and academic achievement. The Nation's Report Card for...

Most Americans would probably be shocked and angry if they knew all the dirty tricks used to sabotage charter schools that are successfully educating low-income minority children. This is not "systemic racism." It is plain old selfishness on the part of traditional public school officials and teachers unions protecting their own vested interests. Most of us might see charter schools that succeed where traditional public schools have failed as welcome news, especially in minority communities where there is so much bad news. But, when there are a million public school students on waiting lists to get into charter schools nationwide,...

In a speech at Hillsdale College, Sec. DeVos conveyed that in American education, the fight has just begun to restore choice and freedom to every family. As most of the nation is transfixed on the looming presidential election, Sec. of Education Betsy DeVos remains laser-focused on the job at hand. “Education is the means by which we secure the God-given blessings of liberty,” DeVos told a gathering of more than 250 at Hillsdale College, in her home state of Michigan. Whether she has three months at her post, or the possibility of another four years, will be determined in the...

When public school districts have a monopoly, they can easily justify delaying school or implementing extended closures. School choice is the solution. Across the country, school districts are announcing delayed openings or full-on closures for the semester or year. In its place, they will offer virtual learning as they did in the spring.Despite President Trump’s clear opposition to this (or because of it), school district leaders insist that a risk of a COVID-19 outbreak is too great to safely reopen schools. This is doubtful, seeing that schools would have to be “guaranteeing that no one will get sick if schools...

or Laila Barakat’s children, school will be home, like other students in their district. But they won’t participate in distance learning. Their teachers will be mom and dad. Barakat has decided to homeschool her three school-aged children – one in first grade, one in transitional kindergarten, and one in pre-kindergarten – instead of connecting them to an online classroom. “We just decided to take the leap,” said Barakat, a stay-at-home mom and freelance writer in Elk Grove. “At first it seemed like a radical thing, and now more and more people are doing it.” Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article244232657.html#storylink=cpy

Thomas Sowell is a truth seeker who grew up in Harlem and is one of the wisest men of our times. In his new book, Charter Schools and Their Enemies — published on June 30, 2020, his 90th birthday — he exposes the hypocrisy of our politicians, teachers’ unions, and public school bureaucrats. To do so, Sowell compares New York City’s charter schools to its public ones. For example, Success Academy (47 New York City schools) and KIPP Academy (15 NYC schools), both public charter schools, have established the best K-12 schools in Harlem and have demonstrated the ability to...

The Los Angeles Teachers Union says its schools can’t open in the fall unless charter schools are closed and the police are defunded.These are the Marxist loons teaching your kids. Oh, and they want more money.83% of teachers voted to not reopen in the fall.But they still expect to get paid.Just the News reported: United Teachers Los Angeles, a 35,000-strong union in the Los Angeles Unified School District, made those demands in a policy paper it released this week. The organization called on local authorities to “keep school campuses closed when the semester begins on Aug. 18.”The union outlined numerous major provisions it says...

<p>Dr. Thomas Sowell has just published "Charter Schools and Their Enemies." He presents actual test scores of students in traditional public schools and charter schools on New York State Education Department's annual English Language Arts test and its Mathematics test. Sowell gives the results of student tests in charter schools such as KIPP, Success Academy, Explore Schools, Uncommon Schools, Achievement First as well as the traditional New York City public schools. On the English Language Arts test, a majority of charter school students, most of whom were black or Hispanic, tested proficient or above. Their achievement ratio was nearly 5 to 1. On the Mathematics test 68 percent of charter schools' 161 grade levels had a majority of students testing proficient. In the traditional public schools, 177 grade levels, just 10 percent had a majority of their student testing proficient.</p>

On January 22, 2020, Joe Biden tweeted: “When we divert public funds to private schools, we undermine the entire public education system. We’ve got to prioritize investing in our public schools, so every kid in America gets a fair shot. That’s why I oppose vouchers.” On June 16, 2020, President Trump said, “We’re fighting for school choice, which really is the civil rights of all time in this country … Frankly, school choice is the civil rights statement of the year, of the decade, and probably beyond, because all children have to have access to quality education.” “A child’s ZIP...

For decades, there has been widespread anxiety over how, when or whether the educational test score gap between white and non-white youngsters could be closed. But that gap has already been closed by the Success Academy charter school network in New York City. Their predominantly black and Hispanic students already pass tests in mathematics and English at a higher rate than any school district in the entire state. That includes predominantly white and Asian school districts where parental income is some multiple of what it is among Success Academy students. New York’s charter school students are predominantly black and Hispanic,...

Saturday, May 23, 2020 President Trump had a phone call with Erdogan (I confirmed  the call per an article in Bloomberg). On June 13, some on Twitter were excited about claims being made about that call.  12:36 PM · Jun 13, 2020 https://twitter.com/Frank26689741/status/1271889209629032448 Tweeter FiestyQgrl @FQgrl  provided this Google translation of the Turkish news broadcast message "Met for the first time with Hillary Clinton (former US foreign minister and presidential candidate). He looks and loves us positively. If selected, the services here will be more comfortable. republicans are seriously against us."Another Twitter account, Scrappy-Doo aka Harpazo-girl#̷̧̢̼̤͈̼̫̋̾Q̸̼͔͕̗͚̟̉̄̄ @Scrappy94546226, offers the following...

Black politicians, civil rights leaders and their white liberal advocates have little or no interest in doing anything effective to deal with what's no less than an education crisis among black students. In city after city with large black populations, such as Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., less than 10% of students test proficient in reading and math. For example, in 2016, in 13 Baltimore high schools, not a single student tested proficient in math. In six other high schools, only 1% tested proficient in math. Citywide, only 15% of Baltimore students passed the state's English test....

Nearly 30 years ago, in a small town in southeast Minnesota, freedom-loving Americans on both sides of the political aisle opened the doors to our Nation’s first public charter school, enabling families to more effectively choose the best learning environment for their child. This historic action sparked a movement that now spans 44 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam. There are currently more than 7,400 public charter schools providing individualized education and learning opportunities to more than 3 million students and their families throughout our Nation. During National Charter School Week, we recognize the contributions of public...

... Only hours before Sunday’s debate, Mr. Biden’s campaign announced that he is “adopting Senator Sanders’ proposal”—from a bill Mr. Sanders sponsored in 2017—to fund tuition-free college for families who earn under $125,000 a year. This probably would cost hundreds of billions of dollars over a decade. It could devastate private colleges and liberal arts schools. It would banish economic incentives, forcing universities to compete, more than they already do, over whose climbing wall is the gnarliest. Lest Elizabeth Warren feel left out, Mr. Biden is adopting her plan “to fundamentally reshape our bankruptcy system.” To pick two of her...

As education goes, so goes nearly everything else: politics, culture, and social cohesion. And those who form the minds of teachers—who, in turn, instruct young minds—arguably wield even greater influence. It is unsurprising, then, that schools of education, where teachers receive their training, are at the epicenter of ongoing ideological battles. As the Martin Center’s Jay Schalin pointed out in his report released earlier this year, schools of education were politicized from their founding, but have become even more so over the years. Schools of education have particularly become the home of critical theorists—who aim to radically alter society according...

ATLANTA — The night before Democratic presidential candidates took to a debate stage here last week, black and Latino charter school parents and supporters gathered in a bland hotel conference room nearby to make signs they hoped would get the politicians’ attention. “Charter schools = self-determination,” one sign read. “Black Democrats want charters!” another blared. At issue is the delicate politics of race and education. For more than two decades, Democrats have largely backed public charter schools as part of a compromise to deliver black and Latino families a way out of failing district schools. Charters were embraced as an...

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign rally in Atlanta on Thursday was derailed by parents protesting the Massachusetts senator’s opposition to charter schools. The group of parents interrupted Warren’s event, which was aimed at courting black female voters, with chants of “Our children, our choice!” and “We want to be heard!”