Free Republic

ORANGE – Parents in Orange Unified received a letter at the beginning of the school year asking them to donate $40 for each day their child misses class to help offset the $5.5 million in attendance funding the district loses annually. Five months later, the district has netted $920.

CRANSTON, R.I. – A Rhode Island public school district committee on Thursday voted not to appeal a federal court decision ordering the removal of a prayer banner displayed in a high school in a lawsuit brought on behalf of a 16-year-old atheist. The Cranston School Committee voted 5-2 at a public hearing to discuss the suit involving Jessica Ahlquist, a junior at Cranston High School West. After the vote, she said, "I'm thrilled." The hearing lasted more than two hours. The banner, put up in 1963, has been covered since a federal judge last month ruled it was unconstitutional and...

The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing on the Student Success Act and the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act on February 16, 2012.

American universities tower high above China when it comes to producing human capital, by far America’s greatest comparative advantage.Consider two major news stories prominent in American discourse recently. First, China is rising. Second, American universities have had much abuse heaped upon them: declining standards, “neoliberal” corruption of academia and worries about universities exacerbating class divides.Both of those stories might be overblown. An American only a few years separated from college life and now a lecturer at China’s top university, I suggest that when it comes to higher education, American institutions are leaving China’s in the dust.No ComparisonThe weaknesses of the...

CRANSTON, Rhode Island (Reuters) - A Rhode Island school board voted on Thursday to comply with a federal court order to remove a prayer banner that has been displayed in a public high school for nearly a half century, saying the cash-strapped district cannot face a costly appeal.

Campaigning in Idaho on Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum suggested that he is opposed to a public school system overseen by the government. "We didn't have government-run schools for a long time in this country, for the majority of the time in this country," he said. "We had private education. We had local education. Parents actually controlled the education of their children. What a great idea that is." Santorum's campaign did not respond to multiple requests for an explanation of whether he was calling for an end to public schooling as it now exists. But the former Pennsylvania senator...

John C. Dvorak has been using, living, and writing about tech for decades. He’s seen many educational tech innovations come and go, and he doesn’t believe there’s anything that can resurrect the American Public Educational System. Dvorak believes technology can’t replace a good teacher. He also belives the teachers’ unions are too powerful and stand in the way of needed reforms. John was fortunate to home school two of his children, and while doing this involved a number of challenges, the results were as he expected, outstanding. However, homeschooling is not for everyone. There’s a large infrastructure in place to...

WAKE UP AMERICA AT LOOK AT OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM!     Where do our "home grown: terrorists come from?  Just take a look at this video and you will have the answer.         This woman is a former Muslim convert to Christianity. Her life has been threatened as she speaks out.         Everyone needs to see this!!!     Who said this: "Give me the children and I will change society in 10 years?"  Adolph Hitler, and now, the Muslims!         PLEASE WATCH AND FORWARD:     http://bcove.me/07uefz8c ACT for America Foundation...

It is said that the dinosaur had a tiny brain in a huge body, which undoubtedly contributed to its extinction. This huge body also required an enormous amount of food for its survival. The public education establishment has the same characteristics: small brain, huge body, enormous appetite for taxpayer money — its only means of survival. The government school is also obsolete, a product of 19th century utopian reformers who believed in the perfectibility of man and a secular government education as the means to salvation. None of their ideas have panned out. The idea of centralized, government-controlled education was...

RUSH: This is from Rayford, North Carolina. Carolina Journal. I'm gonna read it to you exactly as it printed out here: "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 US 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." Again, let me read this to you again: "The...

A decision was made during the Bradley County Commission work session Monday afternoon to place a resolution to call for a referendum on the question of whether a countywide motor vehicle tax (wheel tax) of $32 should be levied. Commissioner and Education Committee Chairman Jeff Yarber proposed the wheel tax resolution several weeks ago as a solution to funding requests for capital projects by the county school system. The county school system needs an estimated $25.5 million for a new elementary school, improvements and expansion for Walker Valley High School and Lake Forest Middle School and land for a third...

The Philadelphia Inquirer's big story Feb. 4 was about how a budget crunch at the Philadelphia School District had caused the district to lay off 91 school police officers. Over the years, there's been no discussion of what has happened to our youth that makes a school police force necessary in the first place. The Inquirer's series "Assault on Learning" (March 2011) reported that in the 2010 school year, "690 teachers were assaulted; in the last five years, 4,000 were." The newspaper reported that in Philadelphia's 268 schools, "on an average day 25 students, teachers, or other staff members were...

“Constitution 101: The Meaning and History of the Constitution” is a 10-week online course presented by Hillsdale College. Featuring an expanded format from the “Introduction to the Constitution” lecture series with Hillsdale College President Dr. Larry Arnn, Constitution 101 follows closely the one-semester course required of all Hillsdale College undergraduate students. In this course, you can: watch lectures from the same Hillsdale faculty who teach on campus; study the same readings taught in the College course; submit questions for weekly Q&A sessions with the faculty; access a course study guide; test your knowledge through weekly quizzes; and upon completion of...

Alan Rosenfeld, a New York City typing teacher was suspended in 2001 for ogling female students and making inappropriate comments to them. The Board of Education thought that he presented enough of a threat, that he was barred from the classroom. However, they botched his disciplinary hearing and due to strict union rules, were unable to terminate the alleged deviant. As a result, Rosenfeld spent 10 years in the rubber room, a place where teachers who are awaiting hearings or cannot be discharged are kept, out of the public view and fully paid. During his suspension, he earned over $100,000...

Disgraced 'ogle' teacher retires The city's king of the "rubber room" has stepped down. Disgraced educator Alan Rosenfeld, 66, retired on February 3, after a decade of milking tax payers for a $100,049-a-year salary even though he hasn't set foot in a classroom since 2001, school officials said today. The retirement came just days after the Post ran a series of stories exposing Rosenfeld, including how he was banished to a "rubber room" in 2001 for allegedly ogling eighth grade girls -- but then spent his time working on a personal real estate portfolio worth up to $10 million. An...

“Constitution 101: The Meaning and History of the Constitution” is a 10-week online course presented by Hillsdale College. Featuring an expanded format from the “Introduction to the Constitution” lecture series with Hillsdale College President Dr. Larry Arnn, Constitution 101 follows closely the one-semester course required of all Hillsdale College undergraduate students. In this course, you can: • watch lectures from the same Hillsdale faculty who teach on campus; • study the same readings taught in the College course; • submit questions for weekly Q&A sessions with the faculty; • access a course study guide; • test your knowledge through weekly...

Back in 2010 before the hiring of Bibb County School Superintendent Romain Dallemand, I wrote an article called ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Dallemand and Mr. Hyde’ warning the citizens about the good doctor and what he has done in the past. Unfortunately, the ‘Macon Miracle’ plan is proving me to be correct. Below is a few of the things that Dallemand did before he came to Bibb County but I’ve updated it to show some things he’s done while he’s been here. It appears from every source that I have checked Dr. Dallemand is not a problem solver, but...

WASHINGTON — Education was historically considered a great equalizer in American society, capable of lifting less advantaged children and improving their chances for success as adults. But a body of recently published scholarship suggests that the achievement gap between rich and poor children is widening, a development that threatens to dilute education’s leveling effects. It is a well-known fact that children from affluent families tend to do better in school. Yet the income divide has received far less attention from policy makers and government officials than gaps in student accomplishment by race. Now, in analyses of long-term data published in...

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...

President Obama will waive central provisions of the No Child Left Behind federal education law for 10 states that have embraced his educational agenda and promised to raise standards, and improve accountability and teacher effectiveness, the White House announced on Thursday morning. The 10 states - the first group to receive the waivers - are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, New Jersey and Tennessee. New Mexico was the only state that applied for and did not receive a waiver, but it is working with administration officials to secure approval, the White House said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama today will free 10 states from the strict and sweeping requirements of the No Child Left Behind law, giving leeway to states that promise to improve how they prepare and evaluate students, The Associated Press has learned. The first 10 states to receive the waivers are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee. The only state that applied for the flexibility and did not get it, New Mexico, is working with the administration to get approval, a White House official told the AP.

WASHINGTON – President Obama is set to give 10 states a pass regarding an approaching deadline under the No Child Left Behind law, after the states struggled to meet the proficiency standards for reading and math. The executive action will circumvent Congress, which has been stuck on how to rewrite the law. A White House official confirmed to Fox News on Thursday that the 10 states will receive "flexibility" allowing them to miss 2014 targets for student proficiency. However, those states will be required to set new targets, and implement "comprehensive" plans to reward high-performing schools, punish low-performing schools, prepare...

The philosophies embedded in public school curricula today encompass a very humanistic point of view where government is the center of the universe, and the nurturing and indoctrination of its children its most important function. The only morality comes not from God, but from the sacred collectivist view of conformity to group values.

....Miramonte will reopen Thursday with an all-new slate of teachers and administrators as well as custodians and cafeteria workers. But L.A.Unified will continue to pay the old staff even as they wait out the investigations at a high school under construction a few miles away. It remains unclear how long this arrangement will last; the investigations are expected to take months to complete. The new hiring alone will run $5.7 million for the remainder of the school year, said district spokesman... But those costs are likely to pale when compared to potential legal liability that experts said could run into...

Freepers Everywhere! Will you be at CPAC? If so, I hope to meet you! Look for Pamela Geller table and Marinka Peschmann's table in the Exhibit Hall space on the lower level of the Marriott. I will be there and hope to meet you! Pamela Geller's MUST READ book, "Stop The Islamization Of America will be available. http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/atlas-articles/ Marinks Peschmann's MUST READ book, "The Whistleblower" (How the Clinton White HouseStayed in Power to Reemerge in the Obama White House and on the World Stage) will be available too! http://www.marinkapeschmann.com/2012/02/08/in-the-dc-area-come-to-my-book-signing-at-cpac/ Also look for the events on Friday that you won't want...

A recently released Angus-Reid Public Opinion Poll show that "...most people in the United States agree on the meaning of the Second Amendment, and half endorse the 'shall-issue' prerogative to carry concealed weapons in public." This most recent poll (taken January 17 - January 18, 2012) show that support for legal firearm ownership continues to grow. Fully 85% of Americans believe that individuals have the right to keep and bear arms. This belief matches the United States Supreme Court finding in the D.C. vs. Heller case from 2008. Also, now more than half of the United States are supporting concealed...

On the second anniversary of the campaign to fight childhood obesity, reflecting on how smart it was to target school lunch and food deserts. On the occasion of the two-year anniversary of Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign, it's time to reflect again on what the campaign means for the White House, for childhood obesity, and for the food movement. A year later, I summarized some of the campaign's accomplishments. From the beginning, I've been impressed with its smart choice of targets: to reduce childhood obesity by improving school food and inner city access to healthy foods. I'm reminded of the...

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...

LOS ANGELES — The entire faculty at Miramonte Elementary School, where two teachers were arrested last week on accusations of child sexual abuse, will be replaced by new teachers this week, the Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent announced Monday night. Speaking to hundreds of parents at a meeting called to address the crisis at Miramonte, Superintendent John Deasy announced the school would be closed Tuesday and Wednesday, and when students returned on Thursday, an entirely new corps of teachers and staff members would have been hired to greet them. All current teachers, administrators and staff members will be moved...

On January 27th, 2012 at the University of Michigan, President Obama outlined his plan to cut public college and university costs down by working with states, universities and Congress. Meanwhile, he also emphasized that he wants America“…to be a big, bold, generous country where everybody gets a fair shot, everybody is doing their fair share, everybody is playing by the same set of rules.” We can all attest to the rising costs that come with attending college, but does everybody need to go to college after all? Sure, people should get “a fair shot” and be judged based on their...

Feb. 6, 2012 - Vice President Joe Biden will speak at Florida State University later this morning and will talk about college affordability certainly; an important topic in a college town like Tallahassee. We're told that the Vice President will discuss the importance of tackling rising college costs to ensure America's students and workers can obtain the education and training they need. The Obama administration says this is crucial so that this country will have a workforce prepared for the jobs of the 21st century. In his State of the Union address, President Obama laid out a blueprint for an...

It's an election year, and the MSM wants to make sure Obama looks good. So they will repeat any lie the administration feeds the public without ever pointing out the truth. So when the administration released the news that America has added 243,000 new jobs in January, and that the unemployment rate fall to 8.3%, instead of questioning it, they repeat it as fact. The problem is that the MSM is not reporting that the number of people out of work who fell off the benefit rolls. See, the government reports are written to make politicians look good, and Obama...

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...

A reading teacher at Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach has been accused of screaming at a Haitian student in her class last year, telling him to shut up and calling him a "little chocolate boy" and a "chocolate that nobody wanted." According to the district, Leslie Rainer, 46, of Deerfield Beach, has been spoken to twice before about her remarks to minority students, including an incident in which she allegedly told a student, "I wish they would put you in a boat and send you back where you came from."

An attorney representing a student at Miramonte Elementary School said Friday children were pulled from after-school programs and other teachers' classes to take part in "tasting games" at the center of lewd conduct charges against fired teacher Mark Berndt. In these games, children were photographed while blindfolded and asked to taste a liquid that police now believe to be the semen Berndt, who was arrested Monday. Attorney Brian E. Claypool said his client was 9 when her photograph was taken by Berndt, although she was not his student. FULL COVERAGE: Mark Berndt Claypool said Berndt had two ways of getting...

L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy has called for changes to laws that protect the rights of teachers accused of heinous acts, saying they should be subject to faster dismissal and the loss of pay, benefits and pensions. Deasy made his comments on KNX-AM (1070) radio in response to reports by The Times that a former teacher charged with lewd conduct with nearly two dozen students receives lifetime health benefits from the L.A. Unified School District and a pension of nearly $4,000 a month from the state teachers’ retirement system.

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.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan got a $50,000 payout in unused sick and vacation leave when he left his job as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools system to join the Obama administration. According to a new report by the watchdog group Better Government Association, the secretary was able to take advantage of department policy to covert unused, accrued benefits into a cash payout. Since 2006, Chicago's school system has paid $265 million to employees under this policy, with $227 million for sick days alone. The policy was put into place by the Chicago school board and predates Duncan, a...

The Michigan House Education Committee is considering lifting the enrollment cap on the number of families that can take advantage of publicly funded cyber charter public schools. No more than 2,000 students may enroll in these schools under current law. Below is an interview with Brian Kevelin, a parent who sends his children to one of Michigan’s two cyber charter schools — Michigan Virtual Charter Academy. Why did you seek out this alternative form of public schooling? "It started out because of a safety issue that the public school did not correct. The child brought a knife to school and...

There is the subtle, but ever-present socialist indoctrination that is gradually turning our kids into passive, submissive, obedient government serfs. From the time a child enters primary school they are programmed to group-think. Individualism is discouraged, along with awarding grades based on individual achievement.

What a great time for the Wall Street Journal to bring up this topic. After all, the Republican candidates in the nomination battle have focused their arguments on actual competition-based reform and results, right? Oh, wait … we’ve been too busy discussing 1997, 2003, and the finer points of class-warfare attacks on private enterprise and consulting. That may be the reason for the WSJ’s attention: Louisiana is already one of 12 states (including Washington, D.C.) that offer school vouchers, but its program benefits fewer than 2,000 students in New Orleans. Governor Jindal would extend eligibility to any low-income student whose...

Study of the New and Old Testament may be coming into public schools if the Arizona House Education Committee is able to convince the rest of the Legislature that The Bible and its Influence on Western Culture, will use Books of the Bible as part of literature and history courses.

Now we know that computers don't help children learn and that drugs don't help them concentrate, because the establishment mandarins who sold us the computers and drugs have conceded failure. In the January 29 New York Times, [1] a prominent professor of child development shows that attention-deficit-disorder drugs only harm the three million children who take them. One out of 10 American children have been diagnosed with so-called Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and most of them have been medicated. [2] Some months ago, the Times reported that test scores lagged in school districts that invested massively in digital education. [3] It...

John Deasy is no pushover. Neither are the taxpayers of Los Angeles. Put them together in one room and you have an explosive town hall meeting like last week's Daily News-sponsored "Thrilla in Woodland Hilla" at El Camino Real Charter High School featuring Los Angeles Unified school board member Tamar Galatzan on the under-card and Superintendent Deasy as the main event. As referee for the evening I had a ringside seat - always risky, since I'm famous for my glass jaw. I was constantly on guard to block Galatzan's lightning-quick right hook and Deasy's devastating left jab. I was bobbing...

Perdue to stump for NC educationSue Book January 28, 2012 6:42 PM North Carolina’s governor may not be running for re-election but she intends to actively campaign statewide in 2012 for education funding. “This is personal,” Gov. Bev Perdue said in New Bern Saturday. “This is about the future of North Carolina and I intend to lead the fight. “I care so deeply about kids and their future. I am going to go all over the state. I am going to use the bully pulpit. I am going to call out all North Carolinians and, at the end of the...

Excellent article adapted from a speech given by Charles Murray regarding the need for the Department of Education: THE CASE FOR the Department of Education could rest on one or more of three legs: its constitutional appropriateness, the existence of serious problems in education that could be solved only at the federal level, and/or its track record since it came into being. Let us consider these in order. (1) Is the Department of Education constitutional? At the time the Constitution was written, education was not even considered a function of local government, let alone the federal government. But the shakiness...

Yes, there's plenty to celebrate with the USDA's new school meal standards, promoted Wednesday by First Lady Michelle Obama at a Virginia elementary school. Still, French fries will flow in school cafeterias. The new rules are the first such standards to include whole grains and limits on sodium and trans fats, and they'll "double the amount of fruits and vegetables" served to kids, said Margo Wanker, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. This makes them the "best ever," she said. And yet, there are a couple of things she was less...

School lunches are about to get much healthier. First Lady Michelle Obama announced today that soon the meals will have less sodium, and will include more whole grains and more fruits and vegetables as sides. The new rules, which will go into effect in the 2012-2013 school year, will also allow schools to serve tofu and other soyfoods and soymilk to children who regularly consume them at home. Obama said that children who are on a sugar high or have a tummy filled with high-sodium, greasy food have difficulty focusing on their schoolwork. "As parents, we try to prepare decent...

Shawano, WI – Liberty Counsel is representing the Wegner family after school officials at Shawano High School censored and punished Brandon Wegner, a 15-year-old, for writing an op-ed article explaining the Biblical view of homosexuality and supporting natural mother-father adoption. Liberty Counsel sent a letter to the school demanding it apologize for its unconstitutional and irrational censorship and humiliation of Brandon. Brandon quoted several verses from the Bible regarding homosexuality. After Brandon wrote this article he was pulled into hours of meetings with school administrators and staff, without his parents’ knowledge. This caused him to miss exam preparation classes and...

Gov. Pat Quinn--following on President Barack Obama's Tuesday call to raise the dropout age--will ask the Illinois legislature next week to boost the age students have to stay in school from 17 to 18. "I like the fact that the president said kids have to stay in school until they are 18. Jobs follow brainpower. We have to understand that investing in education, including community colleges, is the key to a nimble economy," Quinn said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday morning. Quinn's office said in a Friday release he will propose hiking the drop-out age this year in his...