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LOS ANGELES COUNTY - Figures from the Department of Public Social Services show that children of illegal aliens in Los Angeles County collected more than $21 million in welfare and more than $22 million in food stamps in March 2009 -- an increase of $1 million from the previous month, according to a news release from Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. Annually the cost of illegal immigration to Los Angeles County taxpayers exceeds one billion dollars, which includes $220 million for public safety, $400 million for healthcare, and $500 million in welfare and food stamps allocations, according to...

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has signed a formal educational partnership agrement with the Peoples Republic of China, a Communist regime that, according to the U.S. State Department, subjects political dissidents to re-education through labor. Duncan signed the 2009 Joint Statement of Exchange and Cooperation with the Chinese Minister of Education Zhou Ji on April 16. The documents signed by both Secretary Duncan and Zhou Ji include, among other items, the following initiatives: “The U.S. Network for Education Information (USNEI) Web site be expanded to include links to the academic accreditation Web site in China and other countries (timeline 2009...

A University of Pittsburgh reproductive biologist relied on the now-discredited stem-cell findings of a disgraced Korean scientist to win a $16.1 million federal grant last fall, according to federal documents and letters obtained by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Pitt's Gerald Schatten will use the money for an ambitious stem-cell research program that will occupy four of seven floors of Magee-Womens Research Institute's building, now under construction in Oakland, the documents show. The five-year grant, awarded to Schatten in September by the National Institutes of Health, is based in part on cloning experiments deliberately falsified by Hwang Woo-Suk, the documents show.

The nonprofit organization Students for Sensible Drug Policy announced late last week it has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education alleging that the department is refusing to release state-by-state data on the number of students affected by a law barring them from receiving financial aid because they have a drug conviction unless SSDP pays a hefty fee for the service. The student group wants information about the impact of the Higher Education Act's (HEA) drug provision, authored by arch-drug warrior Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), and in effect since 2000. SSDP is part of a large coalition of student,...

For "Stupid in America," a special report ABC will air Friday, we gave identical tests to high school students in New Jersey and in Belgium. The Belgian kids cleaned the American kids' clocks. The Belgian kids called the American students "stupid." We didn't pick smart kids to test in Europe and dumb kids in the United States. The American students attend an above-average school in New Jersey, and New Jersey's kids have test scores that are above average for America. The American boy who got the highest score told me: "I'm shocked, 'cause it just shows how advanced they are...

Indiana Senate Democrats this morning unveiled a long-term strategy aimed at improving the state's education system by focusing on early childhood development The Start Smart initiative includes implementing a four-year phase-in of voluntary full-day kindergarten, establishing a grant program for innovative practices, establishing a public-private partnership to provide free reading books to all children from birth to age five. Source: Inside INdiana Business Press Release INDIANAPOLIS – Calling for the state to renew its commitment to educating children, today Indiana Senate Democrats announced a comprehensive long-term strategy aimed at revolutionizing the state’s education system and ensuring every child’s long-term success....

He wasn't able to get out to vote for himself, but lots of others did. And a prison inmate was elected to a school board Tuesday in southern California. Randy Hale received 831 votes, earning one of three open seats on the Romoland School Board, even though he's behind bars. Hale violated his parole after being convicted of spousal abuse and drug possession. He was returned to prison in September, and isn't due to be released until mid-February. His wife Penny says "this is wild." The district's superintendent says he's consulting lawyers to figure out how to handle the situation....

TUCSON, Ariz. (July 11) - A high school in Vail will become the state's first all-wireless, all-laptop public school this fall. The 350 students at the school will not have traditional textbooks. Instead, they will use electronic and online articles as part of more traditional teacher lesson plans. Vail Unified School District's decision to go with an all-electronic school is rare, experts say. Often, cost, insecurity, ignorance and institutional constraints prevent schools from making the leap away from paper. ''The efforts are very sporadic,'' said Mark Schneiderman, director of education policy for the Software and Information Industry Association. ''A minority...

FORT MYERS, Fla. - A federal judge refused to allow a 15-year-old girl to distribute anti-abortion pamphlets at school, saying the divisive issue could turn the hallways into a "battlefield." Cypress Lake Middle School eighth-grader Michelle Heinkel wanted to hand out the literature to classmates on a "day of remembrance" for abortion victims - despite being barred last year because the Lee County school district's blanket policy bans student distribution of pamphlets. In a 21-page order, U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington on Friday ruled that if the school board allowed Heinkel to disseminate the pamphlets, then they would...

Bill and Rebecca Hardin sat in a Cypresswood court recently, waiting to find out whether they would be fined as much as $500 each because their son was allegedly truant from school. On the same day, a 17-year-old Spring High student was hauled off to the county jail for at least a day for failing to honor a contractual promise to attend school. And some students who played hooky during the school year are spending days of summer vacation washing school buses under court order. The youths and their parents have been landing before judges as part of an anti-truancy...

Before the parade passes her by, Tiffany Hasley will stand up for her right to perform with the Beatrice High School marching band. She'll be on the corner of 13th and Court streets in Beatrice at 8:30 a.m. this morning, all lined up for today's Homestead Days Parade. Clarinet in hand, standing tall in her stiff new band shoes, she plans to leave quietly when school officials tell her she cannot march. Because the home-schooled eighth-grader does not want to make a scene, just a point. That is: Home-school students should be allowed to participate in any public school activity,...

Philly Schools to Require African History Class to Graduate NewsMax.com Wires Thursday, June 9, 2005 PHILADELPHIA -- City high school students will be required to take a class in African and African American history to graduate, a move that education experts believe is unique in the nation. The requirement in the 185,000-student district, which is about two-thirds black, begins with September's freshman class, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Thursday. The yearlong course covers subjects including classical African civilizations, civil rights and black nationalism, said Gregory Thornton, the district's chief academic officer. The other social studies requirements are American history, geography and...

Drug Czar Favors Testing Teens If school boards institute random drug testing in the public schools, the use of illegal drugs among teens would be sharply reduced, said John Walters, the director of National Drug Control Policy. President Bush's drug czar has called for catching alcohol and drug abuse early in the teen population, particularly by instituting random drug testing. Random drug screening is an effective measure that local school boards should consider adopting, said John Walters, addressing the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors on Friday in Bal Harbour. "[Random drug testing in public high schools]...

Substitute Teacher Fired for Taping Mouths TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - A substitute teacher who was fired after putting small pieces of tape across the mouths of first-graders because they would not stop talking said she did not mean any harm. Vigo County schools officials fired Sheryl Smith this week after parents told them that she had taped six children's mouths at Fuqua Elementary School. "A substitute teacher used extremely poor judgment," said John Orr, director of human resources. Smith had put the tape on vertically, and it did not cover the children's mouths, although they could not talk. She did...

Sisters give birth at 12, 14, 16 Three schoolgirl sisters have given birth aged 12, 14 and 16. The Williams sisters, who live with their mother in a council house in Derby, feature in a BBC3 documentary called Desperate Midwives. Natasha, the oldest, Jade and Jemma, the youngest, are reported to receive £600 a week in benefits. Their mother Julie Atkins, 38, who said the girls were too young and had ruined their lives, blamed schools for providing poor quality sex education. Mother defiant Jemma was first to give birth, to T-Jay in February last year, and weeks later Jade...

BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS Bibles banned on playgrounds Legal group challenges restriction on student activity during recess Posted: May 12, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com     An elemenatary school principal who barred students from reading the Bible during recess after a complaint from parents is violating the Constitution, according to a public-interest law firm challenging his actions. In a letter to the Knox County School District in Tennesee, the Alliance Defense Fund declared the principal of Karns Elementary School is on "shaky constitutional ground."   "The Constitution does not prohibit Bibles during recess; it prohibits the wholesale banning of...

(CNSNews.com) - A junior at Fillmore Central High School near Buffalo, N.Y., has filed a federal lawsuit against his school district for ordering him to remove his pro-life T-shirt in violation of his free-speech rights. The Thomas More Law Center, a Michigan-based public interest law firm, and the American Catholic Lawyers Association are representing the student, Kevin Dibble, who was told by the school principal that the message on his T-shirt was offensive and therefore prohibited. The T-shirt read, "Abortion is Homicide. You will not silence my message. You will not mock my God. You will stop killing my generation....

Police will be out in force in the Penn-Harris-Madison schools today. The school security team is taking no chances with a message written on a high school bathroom wall last month. The message reads that people will die May tenth, which is today. Saint Joseph county sheriff Frank Canarecci says there's no way to know whether it's a joke, so police mean business. Since the message targeted athletes first, Penn will havesecurity at tonight's track meet, softball, and tennis matches.

Politicians of the Texas State House took the time this week to pass HB 1476 which will put an end to "sexually suggestive" performances by middle and high school students. The bill, all 219 words of it, didn't bother to define what a sexually suggestive performance may be. Here are the main portions of the bill: Sec. 33.088. SEXUALLY SUGGESTIVE PERFORMANCES PROHIBITED. (a) A school dance team, drill team, cheerleading team, or similar performance group may not perform in a sexually suggestive manner at an athletic or other extracurricular event or competition sponsored or approved by a school district or...

FRAMINGHAM -- Two Framingham High seniors arrested in January after they were ordered off high school property because they were building a snow fort were found guilty yesterday of trespassing. Jenna Schroeder and Jason Osorio, both 18, now face a maximum of 30 days in jail after the two-day trial in Framingham District Court. The jury of three men and three women deliberated for about three hours before they reached a verdict. Judge Douglas Stoddart will sentence the pair May 16. Although punishable by a maximum of 30 days in jail, according to Massachusetts General Law, an offender can also...