Free Republic

Dropouts Seek a Boost From Equivalency Exams Numbers Seeking a Degree Swell -- But Gains May Be Limited A growing number of Americans are taking high school equivalency tests in their hunt for any leg up in a bleak labor market. Adult-education centers across the country report backlogs and waiting lists for prep courses cramming dozens of topics and years of lessons into weeks or months. But the potential for a better job and pay that drives many to seek a General Educational Development diploma comes with a caveat: The certificate generally is of limited value unless students use it...

The soaring costs of a college degree are prompting colleges to consider a three-year degree program. Britain has long granted a degree for three years of college. I would like to suggest a one-year degree program. And I don’t mean an associate’s degree. Here are some hard facts most colleges will never tell you and most parents could not tolerate hearing. The general requirements of the first two years at most colleges are what high school should have been. That is what junior should have learned had he not been busy getting high, getting drunk, and being socially promoted. Better...

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....

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...

My dear fellow homeschoolers and homeschool supporters. Over the last few years, I have been honored to have known you and have you as part of my homeschool ping list. However, over the last year or so, I have not been as faithful to ping you to news and information as I should have been. I've got two kids I'm homeschooling now and have been very busy. Someone has offered to take over the list and I'm so appreciative. DaveLoneRanger has graciously offered to assume the task. DLR, perhaps you could tell you a bit about himself? My friends, I...

Teen boy, mother with baby had been arrested after confrontation with shouting, 'crazy' officer Not only have the charges against a South Carolina teenage boy and a homeschooling mother stemming from a confrontation with a plainclothes police officer been dropped, but the officer involved has been fired. The two were arrested – the boy for carrying a concealed weapon and the mother for assaulting a police officer – after the cop confronted the boy in a picnic shelter where a homeschool support group had gathered for socializing and play. As WorldNetDaily reported, the incident occurred at Simpsonville Park in Simpsonville,...

A homeschool group in South Carolina is beginning to raise funds to help defend two of its members – a teenage boy and a mother – who were arrested after a confrontation with a plainclothes police officer at a park. The incident occurred at Simpsonville Park in Simpsonville, S.C. last Wednesday. A group of mothers and children from Upstate Homeschoolers Unlimited were socializing and playing in the park – a common activity for homeschool support groups. After a call came in to police about someone in the park having a knife, a plainclothes policeman rushed into the picnic shelter where...

Homeschoolers in several states are faced with aggressive attempts to take away their freedom. HSLDA and homeschool families are fighting back. The majority of state legislatures have started their 2005 session, and not surprisingly the regulation of homeschooling has been a hot issue. Several states have introduced bills that would restrict the freedom to homeschool. Attempts to Impose State Assessments on Homeschools For example, both New Mexico and South Dakota filed bills that would force homeschool students to take state-selected standardized tests in the public school or under the supervision of a certified teacher. These bills violate a federal prohibition...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- In a new study of high school students ironically released the day after the historic democratic elections in Iraq, basic freedoms such as the freedom of speech and of the press found in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution were found to be unimportant to them. Commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and conducted last Spring by the University of Connecticut, the survey of 112,003 high school students, 327 principals, and 7,889 teachers from 544 public and private high schools found an ignorance concerning fundamental constitutional rights in the United States...

OCALA -- Two boys were arrested for making pencil-and-crayon stick figure drawings depicting a 10-year-old classmate being stabbed and hung, police said. The children, charged with a felony, were taken from school in handcuffs. The 9- and 10-year-old boys were arrested Monday and charged with making a written threat to kill or harm another person. They were also suspended from school. One drawing showed the two boys standing on either side of the other boy and "holding knives pointed through" his body, according to a police report. The figures were identified by written names or initials. Another drawing showed a...

PHOENIX (AP) -- A parental rights issue that pitted school officials against law enforcement advocates apparently is being settled with a compromise. A bill (SB1044) to give districts legal authorization to adopt notification policies -- policies that many districts already have adopted -- easily cleared the Senate K-12 Education Committee last week. The legislation, introduced by Republican Sen. Linda Gray of Glendale, comes a year after lawmakers failed in efforts to work out a compromise to deal with the conflicting concerns about parents' rights and effective law enforcement. Many districts had already adopted a long-standing policy recommended by the Arizona...

  HOME SCHOOL LEGAL DEFENSE ASSOCIATION   HOME SCHOOLING / INTERNATIONAL Germany January 7, 2005 "Homeschooling Illegal" Declares German School Official Seven homeschool families in Northwest Germany are being forced to enroll their children in public school. The Paderborn County school board has levied fines against these families and ordered the children to attend school by Monday, January 10, or the police will forcibly take them to school. Any resistance by the parents will result in the removal of these thirteen elementary age children from their homes and into state custody! Despite the lack of state recognition in Germany for...

We have been discussing inexpensive ways to fast track kids through high school to avoid the liberal agenda: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315730/posts?page=84#84 The thread title was not well thought out, because some parents might instinctively skip over it due to attached stigma, whether real or imagined.

I've been getting asked more and more about my position that high school is a waste of time and my recommendation for parents to give their children a choice to skip high school. This is in response to the liberal agendas now prevalent in high schools as well as the simple fact that such a strategy would give kids a 4 year head start on their peers. Below are some useful links for investigating this option. I will repost my own experience under that. http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/school/equivexam.html UCB Parents Advice about School Taking the High School Equivalency Exam Advice and recommendations from...

I was sitting at our neighborhood pool New Year’s morning, enjoying the great South Florida weather while trying to grind out a couple of chapters for my new book, when three high school girls took the chaise lounges next to me and started talking about their New Year’s Eve party with their high school mates. Seemingly still semi-drunk from the party, the 16- and 17-year-old girls began to recount how much coke, weed, vodka, guys and girls they did the night before. Listening to the F-bomb riddled report of the previous night’s peccadilloes left me thinking, how sad … and...

A 12-year-old New Hampshire boy who wanted to jolly up his junior high dance by dressing in a Santa suit instead got a lesson in political correctness when his Scroogelike principal turned the student away, fearing he might offend his classmates.

A public school district in Texas has informed its students and parents of a ban on candy canes with religious messages, pencils with the name of Jesus inscribed on them, and -- of all things -- red- and green-colored decorations at holiday parties. That action has resulted in a pair of surprise gifts under the district's tree: a federal lawsuit filed by parents and students -- and an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. According to a press statement from the Plano, Texas-based Liberty Legal Institute, an "unconstitutional censorship policy" is being enforced by the Plano Independent School District....

On Hannity and Combs, Sean responded to the liberals keeping the declaration of independence out of the schools, by calling for parents to take thier kids out of government schools. Home school bump.

BREAKING NEWS The Associated Press Updated: 11:17 a.m. ET Nov. 24, 2004VALPARAISO, Ind. - A Valparaiso High School student used a knife to cut eight students at the start of school on Wednesday, police said. None of the injuries was believed to be life-threatening. The student who committed the attack was in custody and the school about 20 miles southeast of Gary had been placed on lockdown, Valparaiso police spokesman Michael Grennes said. "At this time, we've got a number of students who have been injured," Grennes told The Times of Munster. "They've all been transported to the hospital and...

Nov 15 - Funding for a controversial Bush administration plan to submit the nation's school children to mental health testing and drug treatment may end up reaching the Senate floor this week, as GOP congressional leaders look to clear the legislative slate in order to set the table for George W. Bush's second term. The plan, called the New Freedom Initiative (NFI), is the keystone of a package of initiatives by the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, a group of doctors and mental health care professionals established by the Bush Administration in 2002.