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To no one's surprise, the annual National Education Association convention voted six-to-one (7,390 to 1,153), to endorse John Kerry for President. The head of the NEA, Reg Weaver, opened the annual convention in July in Washington, DC with a call for public school teachers and employees to mobilize to defeat President Bush this fall. He said the union's political activism "takes center stage," and he predicted that "our 2.7 million members can be the X-factor in this election." For the 2004 political campaign, the NEA will "partner" with the leftwing organizations MoveOn.org, ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now),...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

Socialism's march across America Americans were appalled when Castro nationalized private property in Cuba, and led the nation into socialism. Many but not all Americans were appalled when the governments of Zimbabwe and Namibia confiscated private property for redistribution. But a new generation of Americans has emerged who never learned what socialism is, or why their fathers and grandfathers fought so hard to prevent it in America. For the benefit of those who didn't learn it in school, < a href = http://www.merriam-webster.com/>Socialism is: 1). : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration...

Why Morality Matters by Steven C. Bonta, Ph.D. It is my conviction that the greatest threat to our free republic is moral decline. It is becoming fashionable nowadays to discount or ignore completely the relationship between morality and political liberty. Perhaps this is because the deteriorating moral culture in the modern United States of America seeks to be its own justification. Freedom, some believe, can flourish independently of moral standards, as long as we allow every man uninhibited license in his so-called “personal lifestyle choices.” This badly flawed notion is going to be the death of our republic, unless...

GENEVA — DeSales High School’s director of recruitment was fired yesterday because of her letter to the editor that ran in the Times May 6. “I feel like I was stabbed in the back by the administration,” said Kathy Peters, former director of recruitment, retention and public relations. “I just knew [I was in trouble], but I didn’t think they were going to fire me. I thought I was going to get a reprimand.” Peters, of 17 Huff St., Waterloo, had held the position for two years. Previously, she served as principal of St. Michael School in Newark for nine...

<p>State affiliates of the National Education Association, a sponsor of last weekend's pro-choice March for Women's Lives, are fighting members who have invoked federal antidiscrimination laws against the union's use of their dues to support abortion, contraception and homosexuality.</p> <p>Shawn Austin, a part-time school-transportation secretary in Saranac Community Schools District near Lansing, Mich., was ordered to appear before a four-member local union committee yesterday to convince fellow NEA members of her "bona fide religious-objector status."</p>

Thousands of pro-life teachers and school staff required to belong to the National Education Association across the country are offended by the union's co-sponsorship of a pro-choice march in Washington this Sunday. The NEA headquarters on 16th Street NW near the White House will act as a hospitality center for the March for Freedom of Choice while the union's nearby state affiliates in New Jersey and elsewhere are organizing buses to bring demonstrators for the event. The march is being organized by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the American Civil Liberties Union, National Organization for Women, NARAL Pro-Choice America...

WASHINGTON (April 6) - Americans may say they know a lot about sexually transmitted diseases but they do not practice what they preach when it comes to defending against them, according to a survey published Tuesday. While one in four Americans will be infected with an STD -- and up to half of younger adults will be -- most of those surveyed believed they were not personally at risk. This is precisely why STDs spread so easily and so pervasively in society, said the American Social Health Association, which published the survey. ''The findings in our survey are quite disturbing....

Most charter schools currently operate without a union, and a study last July by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research showed that charter schools slightly outperformed public schools serving similar student populations. The nations largest teachers union has announced an aggressive campaign to organize charter-school teachers, beginning in California, one of the first states to allow charter schools.

Tax-Funded Attacks Against White House Employees?! [Call for Action!] Imagine you take a temporary job with your local school board, and that you are trying to encourage better educational standards. Let's say some school employees don't appreciate your changes to the curriculum. So, one Sunday afternoon, they grab the keys to a few school buses, fill them with a couple of hundred activists and impressionable kids from their classes, and truck on over to your house. These activists unload the adult instigators and the kids, and they surround your house and pound on your windows and scream at you all...

TRUTH WITHOUT INTERRUPTION DAY ( www.choice4truth.com/twid.htm ) On April 21, homosexual activists and their supporters will hold "Day of Silence" events on high school and college campuses throughout the country, sponsored by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. (For more details, see www.dayofsilence.org.) It will be a silent vigil and the usual victimhood and "gay" rights claims. Participants will hand out material promoting homosexuality, bisexuality and cross-dressing. How would you like to hold a counter-event the same day? We are calling it the Truth Without Interruption Day! Finally - a chance to get a word in edgewise! If...

It's called "soft dictatorship" – government's attempt to control every aspect of American life for your own good or for the good of the children. The ultimate issue is power. This week's example: government's assault (at all levels) on the homeschool movement, which now includes threats to send homeschool parents to jail. Government's great fear in this matter is not that the kids are being short-changed or abused – it's that they might be getting a better education than the government-educrat de facto monopoly can provide and that the word might get out. Yes, government has an obligation to ensure...

Cost-adjusted school district revenues for elementary and secondary education totaled $319.7 billion in 1997–98, or about $7,028 per pupil. State governments provided nearly half the total (49 percent)—about $155 billion, or about $3,413 per pupil. Local governments provided the second-largest share (45 percent)—about $144 billion, or about $3,167 per pupil. The federal government provided the remaining 6 percent of revenues—more than $20 billion, or about $447 per pupil. School District Revenues for Elementary and Secondary Education: 1997–98 Joel D. Sherman, Barbara Gregory, and Jeffrey M. Poirier This article was originally published as the Executive Summary of the Statistical Analysis...

Trenton, NJ (LifeNews.com) -- Mary Kreiss-Papalski was shocked to open her New Jersey Education Association newsletter and find an announcement that the teacher's union was inviting members to join the union in supporting and attending the pro-abortion March for Freedom of Choice Rally in Washington D.C. this April. Not only was the invitation published in the March 2004 NJEA review, the announcement also stated that the Association's Women in Education Committee, "with approval form the NJEA Executive Committee, will charter two buses for members." "When I read this I was quite upset," said Kreiss-Papalski, an NJEA member and guidance secretary...

What passes for educational enlightenment these days boggles the mind. Matt Gouras, of The Associated Press, writing in the Jan. 5 Seattle Times tells a story about Tennessee schools. The success of some students has made other students feel badly about themselves. What're the schools' responses? Public schools in Nashville have stopped posting honor rolls. Some are considering a ban on posting exemplary schoolwork on bulletin boards. Others have canceled academic pep rallies, while others might eliminate spelling bees. Nashville's Julia Green Elementary School principal, Steven Baum, agrees, thinking that spelling bees and publicly graded events are leftovers from the...

Home schooling has often been dismissed as a fringe activity, its practitioners caricatured as head-in-the-sand reactionaries and off-the-grid hippies. The most vocal and organized home schoolers have tended to be religiously motivated, most often conservative Christians. But a newer breed of home schooler is emerging, motivated not by religious belief or countercultural philosophy. Uppermost for such parents are concerns about violence, peer pressure, and poor academic quality in their schools. Back in 1980, home schooling was illegal in 30 states. It was not until 1993 that all 50 states made the practice lawful. But in recent years, the practice of...

Labor Department Investigating National Education Association Reports WASHINGTON (AP) - A teachers union that spends heavily to support political candidates is acknowledging for the first time that the government is investigating whether all its expenditures have been reported. National Education Association general counsel Bob Chanin confirmed the Labor Department investigation began in April 2002, the same month a conservative law firm complained to the Bush administration that millions of dollars in political spending went unreported. "We believe we reported all political expenditures properly," Chanin told The Associated Press. "We concealed nothing. I am confident we'll get a clean bill...

Is NEA a 'terrorist organization'? Posted: February 27, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern By Brannon Howse© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com On Feb. 23, 2004, at the National Governor's Association meeting in D.C., United States Secretary of Education Rod Paige called the National Education Association "a terrorist organization." The firestorm has started and Paige will be asked to apologize – but should he? Before the NEA gets up on their soap box about being called a terrorist organization, they should remember that they and many of their liberal members have spent years hurling insults at moms, dads, taxpayers and teachers that have been fighting for traditional academics...

SYRACUSE, NY--Can Queen Latifah help high school students understand the writings of Karl Marx? Can Sean "P. Diddy" Combs help them appreciate the work of towering historical figures like Galileo, Michelangelo and Leonardo DaVinci? The Syracuse school district thinks they can. The district has sent a 12-page packet to each teacher at its four high schools that suggests ways to incorporate hip-hop performers and their work into their teaching. The packet, put together by two teachers and the district's coordinators of fine arts and social studies, is intended to harness the energy the March 10 Hip-Hop Summit is generating and...

ORLANDO - Education Secretary Rod Paige again apologized Friday for calling a teachers union a "terrorist organization," yet repeated his criticism that the National Education Association obstructs federal education policies. "In this post 9/11 world, the word I used obviously has a grave and sad meaning," Paige said at a convention of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. "I wish I had used different words to express my point, and for the insensitive choice of words, I express my deepest regrets." Paige touched off the controversy Monday, when he made the "terrorist" remark at a gathering of governors. The...