Free Republic

Anthea Butler, the Ivy League religious studies professor who called God a white racist after the Trayvon Martin verdict last week, doubled down on her statement and denounced the conservative media outlets that criticized her. Butler, an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote a blog post for Religious Dispatches last week arguing that most Americans worship a “white racist god with a problem” who is “carrying a gun and stalking young black men.” “As a historian of American and African-American religion, I know that the Trayvon Martin moment is just one moment in a history...

Attorneys for Christian parents who fled Germany in order to home school their children but have been denied U.S. asylum said they are preparing to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case and were working with Congress to try to change asylum law. The Romeikes (roh-MEYE-kees) moved to Morristown in eastern Tennessee in 2008 after an escalating fight with German officials that led to fines totaling €7,000, or more than $9,000. Uwe and Hannelore Romeike said they feared that if they stayed in Bissingen an der Teck in the state of Baden-Württemberg, their children could be taken away...

By now almost everyone knows that the U.S. has fallen badly behind other advanced nations in the kind of health care and education it delivers to its citizens. We spend twice as much per capita than most other countries on health care and don't get better outcomes as a result. We also spend twice as much per full-time equivalent student on higher education than other OECD countries, and 38 percent more on elementary and secondary education with disappointing results in terms of what students know at the end of the process, according to international assessments of learning. What has been...

Fellowship of Minds publishes my article "No Matter What Color You Are" http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/stop-blaming-racism-for-your-own-bad-behavior/ I received email challenging the fact that black Americans owned black slaves. Here is a research source:http://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2013/05/ultra-short-history-lesson-on-slavery.html

Few, if any, of the confrontations captivating Washington this summer will affect daily life in America more than a subdued regulatory process that will begin Friday in an office building far from the capital's downtown power centers. On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission will start restructuring the "E-rate" under which Washington provides funds to help schools connect to the Internet. This seemingly obscure decision could trigger an education revolution by enormously accelerating the deployment of tablets and other digital tools into classrooms. Even lawyers' eyes may glaze over when confronted with the gray columns in the "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking"...

The teenager that was the last to speak with Trayvon Martin has announced she will move forward with an opportunity presented to her by national radio DJ Tom Joyner. Jeantel, a South Florida high school student and friend of Trayvon Martin who was the last person to speak with Martin, was ostracized by the court of public opinion, her character attacked along with her appearance. The teen, who was thrown into the spotlight then berated for her speech, mannerisms and “lack...

So the Zimmerman/Martin case verdict is in and America, lead on by a commercially desperate media, retreats to its predictable corners. CNN and MSNBC have their tune and FOX has its tune. Go to your own comfort zone for the twain will never meet. Of all that has been written and spoken about the case–its origins, the investigation, the charging decisions, the politics, the media circus, the evidence, and the verdict–it cannot be stated often enough that the jury was the only entity that heard all the evidence. Not Limbaugh. Not Maddow. Not Matthews. Not O’Reilly. Not Morgan, or any...

I have been computer-less at home for five weeks. My brand-new laptop went belly up and had to be sent back. During the frustrating wait (which I suspect will lead to a later column), I have returned to writing with a pen and spiral notebook. It's been a flash to the past, reminding me of my younger days when every assignment, story and poem were handwritten. Are the days of writing by hand on their way out? Having beautiful, cursive handwriting used to be a source of immense pride. Handwriting skills were taught right alongside reading and math. Prizes were...

To be exact, the shameful truth is that 93% of African-American murders are committed by other African-Americans. That is breathtakingly awful when you consider how incensed the African-American community is about the Trayvon tragedy, no matter what you believe about Zimmerman’s guilt. Let’s do the gruesome math, not out of morbidity, but because it manifests the incredible self-centered insanity of people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. 8,000-9,000 African-Americans are murdered each year. 93% of them by other African-Americans. That’s 7,905 (from average) That’s 21.65 murdered each day by other African-Americans. And these racebaiting culture-hustling microphone-pimps only get riled up...

As school districts around the state prepare to bring the Common Core standards into their classrooms this fall, Douglas County’s school board is putting its opposition to the standards on the record. The Douglas County Board of Education last night unanimously passed a resolution arguing against the implementation of the standards both across the state on principle and in their district specifically. The board argues that the spirit of the Common Core violates the broad discretion on standards and curriculum that Colorado districts are granted in the state constitution. And the resolution further argues that the standards laid out in...

Former President Carter said Tuesday that the Florida jury that acquitted George Zimmerman of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin made the “right decision.” "I think the jury made the right decision based on the evidence presented because the prosecution inadvertently set the standard so high that the jury had to be convinced that it was a deliberate act by Zimmerman and that he was not defending himself and so forth," Carter said Tuesday in an interview with Atlanta TV station WXIA. "It's not a moral question; it was legal question, and the...

The UC regents voted Wednesday to appoint a UC Berkeley student government leader as the next student regent, despite strong opposition from some Jewish and pro-Israel groups angered by her past advocacy of divesting university funds from Israel. Sadia Saifuddin, who will be the first Muslim to be student regent, won approval of all the regents except for Richard Blum, who abstained. He said he was concerned her nomination to be the student voice on the board in 2014-15 was too divisive and that he did not know enough about her views. But other regents said they thought Saifuddin would...

This is a powerful video. Pastor Manning lays out the truth about why blacks blame George Zimmerman for the death of Trayvon Martin and why Trayvon Martin got himself killed that night. It is a must listen video. I give Pastor Manning a thumbs-up for standing up and being courageous for telling the truth.

Plan 2020 strives to use where students are now as starting point Beginning this fall, Alabama public schools will be under a new state-created academic accountability system that sets different goals for students in math and reading based on their race, economic status, ability to speak English and disabilities. The state's new Plan 2020 will replace No Child Left Behind, the much-maligned, Bush-era accountability program. Plan 2020 emphasizes getting students college- or career-ready and closing the achievement gap that exists between impoverished minority students and students who are better off socioeconomically. It sets a different standard for students in each...

At least 22 children have died and dozens more have fallen ill after eating lunch at a school in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.The poisoning occurred in the village of Dharmasati Gandaman, 80km (50 miles) north of the state capital, Patna. The free Mid-Day Meal Scheme aims to tackle hunger and boost attendance in schools, but suffers from poor hygiene. Angry parents joined protests against the deaths, setting at least four police vehicles on fire. An inquiry has begun and 200,000 rupees ($3,370) in compensation offered to the families of each of the dead. Twenty-eight sick children were...

The idea of forcing children to attend school is outdated and should be scrapped in favor of a system that encourages learning by choice, state Sen. Aaron Osmond said in calling for an end to compulsory education in Utah. “Some parents act as if the responsibility to educate, and even care for their child, is primarily the responsibility of the public school system,” the South Jordan Republican first wrote on a state Senate blog on Friday. … Osmond said that in the current state of public education, teachers do not receive meaningful support from parents, while at the same time...

If only every 16-year-old had the courage and grit of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban last year for advocating girls' and women's education. Last Friday, she spoke to the United Nations and said education could change the world, Reuters reported. I would add that it is an absolutely essential ingredient to establish and maintain any free people and society. Thomas Jefferson put it this way: "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Pakistan is not...

From trans fats to Big Gulps, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has insisted that the city’s interest in “public health” excuses his overreach on things like dietary choices. This seems a bit hypocritical for a mayor who just last year told a crowd, “The government should get out of your personal life!” Unfortunately, the Mayor’s duplicity doesn’t stop with targeting those who frequent the city’s restaurants. Parents should also beware. The New York Times reported that the city is now distributing free “morning after” pills in more than 50 high school buildings. In 13 of the schools in which...

School segregation remains a reality: “74 percent of African Americans still attend majority nonwhite schools, compared to just over 76 percent in the late 1960s,” writes The Nation‘s Greg Kauffman. But there’s a demographic reality to consider, responds Matthew Yglesias in Slate. U.S. schools are running low on white kids. Non-Hispanic whites were 54 percent of the under-18 population in 2010, compared to 74 percent in 1980, according to the Census Bureau. Furthermore, among kids under the age of 5, non-Hispanic whites are a minority. [...] We can’t integrate our way to better school performance, agrees Sara Mead. That includes...

Cronyism: Homeland Security honcho Janet Napolitano announced she'd quit her cabinet post on Friday to take a $750,000-a-year job as president of the University of California system. Is this the best the regents can do? Instead of appointing a world class scientist, leading medical expert, respected academic or distinguished public servant — such as the truly qualified Condoleezza Rice — to lead the great University of California system, the UC regents opted for a political hack of no academic merit whatsoever. Their pick, Janet Napolitano, has presided over one disaster after another at the Department of Homeland Security. Dubbed Big...

Some may laugh and others may joke about it. Others will blame it on a system that needs more money. But for those (this essayist included) who have been speaking out against America’s steady degradation of education, Rachel Jeantel is the poster child for exactly what we’ve come to expect from public education. Jeantel was advertised as the star prosecution witness in the George Zimmerman trial. You know – the one where “a white Hispanic brutally gunned down an unarmed African-American simply because he was black.” (Excuse me while I throw-up.) At least once every year we witness teacher strikes...

Janet Napolitano is resigning as head of the Homeland Security Department and seeking a post as president of the University of California, the long-time Obama confidant announced Friday. Officials told Fox News that Napolitano does not plan to leave her post until September. But she announced the move on Friday after it began to break in the media, revealing that she has been nominated to lead the California university system. "For more than four years I have had the privilege of serving President Obama and his Administration as the Secretary of Homeland Security," she said in a statement. "The opportunity...

NEW YORK (MainStreet)—Secretary of Education Arne Duncan defended his Common Core standards during an address at the annual convention of the American Society of News Editors at the end of June. He admonished his critics. Secretary Duncan noted ...

NEW YORK (MainStreet)—Congressional inaction resulted in an increase, as of July 1, in the interest rates of new subsidized Stafford Loans. The rate went from 3.4% to 6.8%. This resulted in a hue and cry from the Beltway. The Obama administration is intent...

Everybody talks about education -- the politicians loudest of all, until they get bored with the subject -- but the education, and the miseducation, of our children continues as the concern dearest to the hearts of parents. Everyone, Republican and Democrat, liberal and conservative, male and female, agree that "somebody has to do something." The argument, angry and contentious, is about the who and the what. Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City who has solutions to problems we don't yet have, arrived fresh from his first election three terms ago with the announcement that he wanted to be...

Yes, definitely. But hear me out. Every homeschooling parent knows about the “S” word—socialization. We’ve all had conversations with concerned relatives who wonder if our kids are being properly socialized. Read any article about homeschooling in a mainstream media source and inevitably, the comments section will fill up with concerns about it. Never mind that we also talk about socializing puppies or that it’s something we do at after-work Happy Hours, and that children who are caught socializing too much in school are reprimanded. People who don’t know anything about the homeschooling family down the street have “grave concerns” about...

Studies of Children With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Find Little Change It's no longer shocking to hear of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder—and others simply facing a big test—taking ADHD medicine to boost their performance in school. But new studies point to a problem: There's little evidence that the drugs actually improve academic outcomes. Stimulants used to treat ADHD like Ritalin and Adderall are sometimes called "cognitive enhancers" because they have been shown in a number of studies to improve attention, concentration and even certain types of memory in the short-term. Similar drugs were given to World War II soldiers to...

The following was a difficult read because it’s also what liberal blacks call “dirty laundry”: bad stuff about black folk never to be said around whites. The essay was posted on Craigslist and it’s the kind of truth that often is taken back out of PC fear…. Essay by a teacher in a black high school *This is a repost from the rants and raves section from the Mobile, Alabama craigslist.* The truth is usually a tough thing to accept, so I understand if this is flagged. It would be a cowardly thing to do, but I understand it. Some...

Educators boogie to 'When it's over you ain't gon need ya vibrator' (WARNING: This story includes a video and rap song lyrics of a sexually explicit nature and may offend some readers.) At its 2013 national convention in Atlanta last week, the National Education Association encouraged teachers to dance to a sexually explicit rap song that featured the “N”-word and declared, “When it’s over you ain’t gon need ya vibrator.” The NEA, a nationwide labor union that represents public school teachers, played the song titled, “Wobble,” by V.I.C. at its “Raise Your Hand” conference – which was publicized as an...

As if more evidence were needed about the tragedy of black education, Rachel Jeantel, a witness for the prosecution in the George Zimmerman murder trial, put a face on it for the nation to see. Some of that evidence unfolded when Zimmerman's defense attorney asked 19-year-old Jeantel to read a letter that she allegedly had written to Trayvon Martin's mother. She responded that she doesn't read cursive, and that's in addition to her poor grammar, syntax and communication skills. Jeantel is a senior at Miami Norland Senior High School. How in the world did she manage to become a 12th-grader...

As if more evidence were needed about the tragedy of black education, Rachel Jeantel, a witness for the prosecution in the George Zimmerman murder trial, put a face on it for the nation to see. Some of that evidence unfolded when Zimmerman’s defense attorney asked 19-year-old Jeantel to read a letter she allegedly had written to Trayvon Martin’s mother. She responded that she doesn’t read cursive, and that’s in addition to her poor grammar, syntax and communication skills. Jeantel is a senior at Miami Norland Senior High School. How in the world did she manage to become a 12th-grader without...

A high school principal in Queens has come under fire for allegedly using racist language about two black teachers and unfairly firing them. The principal, Minerva Zanca of Pan American International High School in the lower-middle class neighborhood of Elmhurst, allegedly described the teachers as “big-lipped,” “nappy-headed” and “gorillas,” reports CBS New York.

As EAGnews reported previously, the data compiled through Common Core will yield all sorts of non-education related information about students for bureaucrats: family income, religious affiliation, discipline problems, number of hours worked per weekend, medical laboratory procedure results, amount of non-school activity involvement and computer screen name. How would voters react if they knew an aspect of Common Core is to collect this sort of information on kindergarteners?

NEW YORK (MainStreet)—What happens when students - or their co-signer parents - are having difficulty repaying a student loan? Is getting a second mortgage, obtaining a home equity loan or a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) an advisable option to repay the debt? Yes and no, say the experts. This unfortunate ...

(RNS) When KellyAnne Kitchin began home schooling her three sons three years ago, she had difficulty finding curriculum programs that fit her atheist and humanist beliefs. So Kitchin, 33, cobbled together what she could. She left out one geography textbook’s description of the earth as God’s creation and another’s disdain for Darwin, and substituted her own point of view — that no supernatural powers guide human beings, who alone have the power to improve the world. She also found many online forums for home-schoolers were unwelcoming. Some had statements faith members needed to agree to. On others she was made...

(Paris) "You will never be able to build a free nation with the Catholic Church." This wasn't uttered by Voltaire or Georges Danton, but the reigning French Education Minister from a  2008 interview, Vincent Peillon,  at the launch of his book, La Révolution française n'est pas terminée (The French Revolution is Not Yet Over), as Tempos reported. Spiritual Revolution According to Peillon "a revolution can take place not only in material terms. They must also take place in the mind. Now we made the revolution mainly politically, but not the moral and spiritual. We have left the morality and spirituality...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers approved a bill Wednesday that would require public K-12 schools to let transgender students choose which restrooms they use and which school teams they join based on their gender identity instead of their chromosomes. Some school districts around the country have implemented similar policies, but the bill's author says AB1266 would mark the first time a state has mandated such treatment by statute.

According to the official White House website, the end goal of schooling is to “help restore middle-class security.” Such a stance is a surprisingly honest one in a political environment built on deceit. The Obama administration makes no attempt to hide the fact that mandatory public schooling is a state tool for manipulating class structure. This is both a historical and economic fact. Modern American schooling stems from two sources. First the Prussian school system which was used by the Nazis to limit and control legal access to information while psychologically training students in order to promote fascist ideology. The...

I hope President Barack Obama is tuning in to the George Zimmerman murder trial. It is showing off his greatest failure. Last week, media pundits, trial commentators, and internet racists ridiculed Rachel Jeantel, the 19-year-old star witness who was on the phone with Trayvon Martin right before Zimmerman shot the boy. This cruel crew made fun of her manner of speech and her embarrassing admission that she cannot read or write in cursive. Her shortcomings personify the first African-American commander-in-chief's refusal to help this nation's blacks obtain the same opportunities he and his wife had. First-class education helped the first...

I never understood Barack Obama -- or even some of my friends -- until I read The Amateur by Edward Klein (Regnery Publishing 2012 -- paperback June 13, 2013). But first you also need to remember the plague of "self-esteem" based education. And finally it all makes sense. The self-esteem movement hurt our public schools and degraded the curriculum. The self-esteem time bomb is now coming full circle, as the victims of our schools, colleges, and universities have moved into leadership of our country. Barack Obama is the ultimate "A for effort [D for performance] President." Obama's ineptness is exceeded...

It's been drummed into the heads of Americans for going on a century: Getting a college education is the best way to ensure future career and financial success. Couple that mantra with government-backed programs keeping student loan rates low and what do you get? The monster known as American college tuition, something that's grown well past the rate of inflation for more than five decades. And it also has spawned a trillion-dollar student loan debt, much of which will never be repaid. The taxpayers will be left holding the bill, just like they were when the housing market went bust....

In a situation that could previously only be conjectured as happening in North Korea, Nazi Germany, or some other tyrannical nation, schoolchildren are going to be used as pawns of the State to promote Obamacare. Where is this Orwellian event occurring, you ask? It's happening in the big government loving state of California. It seems that the Los Angeles school district is using a state grant to teach students to be "messengers" for the law. The district was awarded $990,000 for this purpose, and the California health insurance exchange is spending $37 million in grants overall according to the Heartland...

For one group of women, Saturday was the first time they ever shot a gun, but it was for a good reason! A special group was in Humbolt to help teach the group about self-defense when using a firearm. At Hunter's Point Shooting Club, over 50 women of all ages were taking safety to a whole new level. “I don't want to be scared, I want to be prepared,” said Kara Williams, Brandon. Williams and her friend Candace Berndt were just two women taking part in Saturday's firearms self-defense class. The woman said they've wanted to learn how to safely...

A few weeks ago I wrote something criticizing public schooling over this incident. It got the ire up of friends and family members, many of whom have spent decades of their lives teaching and working in public schools. They vehemently disagreed with my portrayal of public schooling. I reflected on what, exactly, bothered me about public schools and other activities or institutions like them, and I came up with a simple thesis:For many hours each day, you cede your authority and parental care to others while letting other children socialize your children.In the case of public school, those “others” are bus drivers, teachers,...

Phylicia is seemingly a normal teenager at Oklahoma’s Town & Country School: she interacts with other students, participates in class, and, as her mother notes, she “wakes up wanting to go to school.” However, Phylicia has not always been this energetic about learning. Phylicia is a teenage special-needs student with Asperger’s Syndrome. In an article written by Brandon Dutcher, vice president of policy at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA), Phylicia’s mother shared that her daughter was bullied in her public school to the point where “she would literally crawl in a ball because she did not want to...

The U.S. Department of Education, under the guidance of ED Secretary Arne Duncan, has released a “Dear Colleague” letter with a pamphlet to support academic achievement for pregnant and parenting students under Title IX. The document was submitted to school districts across the nation to offer information on “school retention” issues relating to problems with young parents and pregnant mothers. While the directive focuses primarily on secondary schools, it also applies to post-secondary institutions that receive federal financial assistance. “We need to do more to help the hundreds of thousands of students who become mothers and fathers each year graduate...

NEW YORK (MainStreet)—It seems that many students - and their parents - are wading into a miasma of college tuition financing they are ill-prepared to understand. All too anxious to start attending the college of their choice, indeed often the college of their dreams, students and parents know little about the terms of the loans they obtain for tuition. One would have thought somewhere in all the high school honors courses and all those science and math courses SOMEBODY would have mentioned ...

WASHINGTON—The United States spends more than other developed nations on its students' education each year, with parents and private foundations picking up more of the costs than in the past, an international survey released Tuesday found. Despite the spending, U.S. students still trail their rivals on international tests. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development—which groups the world's most developed countries—writes in its annual education report that brand-new and experienced teachers alike in the United States out-earn most of their counterparts around the globe. But U.S. salaries have not risen at the same pace as other nations and the United...

As dissatisfaction with the U.S. public school system grows, apparently so has the appeal of homeschooling. Educational researchers, in fact, are expecting a surge in the number of students educated at home by their parents over the next ten years, as more parents reject public schools. A recent report in Education News states that, since 1999, the number of children who are homeschooled has increased by 75%. Though homeschooled children represent only 4% of all school-age children nationwide, the number of children whose parents choose to educate them at home rather than a traditional academic setting is growing seven times...

NEW YORK (MainStreet)—When SLM Corp., the largest education financing entity in the country more commonly known as Sallie Mae, announced in January that profits for the fourth quarter of 2012 decreased to $343 million, from $506 million earned in the same quarter in 2011, it was a conspicuous reminder of how lucrative the student loan business is....