Free Republic

Rebecca Friedrichs, a teacher and former member of the California Teachers Association, spoke at the event at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 12, 2014. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr) (CNSNews.com) – Teachers who left labor unions connected with their jobs said on Tuesday that they felt “bullied” for their opposition to compulsory membership and payment of dues that funded political activities. “We literally felt like little children being bullied on a playground,” Rebecca Friedrichs, a teacher and former member of the California Teachers Association, said at the event at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. Friedrichs, who is also...

The teachers’ union representing the Douglas County school system has lost one-quarter of its membership since last year, signaling a growing frustration within the ranks that dues are used to finance politics instead of professional development. The significant drop in membership of the Douglas County Federation (DCF) was revealed in a July 21 letter from the board of education to Courtney Smith, union president, and was based on the union’s most recently released tax returns. The letter pointed to the drop in membership as undeniable proof that teachers had chosen the district over the union and the need for major...

Teachers unions are struggling to protect their political clout, but as the midterm elections approach, they’re fighting back with their most popular asset: the teachers themselves. Backed by tens of millions in cash and new data mining tools that let them personalize pitches to voters, the unions are sending armies of educators to run a huge get-out-the-vote effort aimed at reversing the red tide that swept Republicans into power across the country in 2010. The unions have plenty of money: They spent $69 million on state races in 2010 and are likely to top that this year. But as they...

ORLANDO – A federal judge has given a secular organization the green light to distribute more atheistic and anti-Christian materials to Florida public school students, in spite of the materials’ graphic content and offensive language. As previously reported, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) learned last year that a Christian ministry had made Bibles available to Orlando high school students on “Religious Freedom Day.” To counter the Bible distribution, FFRF sought permission from the school district to give students a variety of atheistic and anti-Christian materials. According to reports, the Orange County School Board permitted FFRF to distribute several books...

The new president of the largest teachers union in the country will become the voice of roughly 3 million teachers at perhaps the most critical moment in the National Education Association’s history. First item on the agenda: Win back the public. Union watchers say the newly elected Lily Eskelsen García — a former school cafeteria worker teacher, folk singer and Utah teacher of the year — has a “hell of a job” ahead of her. She faces court cases challenging teacher tenure and job protections, the defection of historically loyal Democrats, growing apprehension over the Common Core, diminishing ranks, public...

Teacher isn’t fired after giving teen gifts, sending ‘love’ texts By Susan Edelman A Queens middle-school teacher let a 14-year-old student drive his car, gave him cash and expensive gifts, and exchanged hundreds of texts behind his parent’s back. But, over the objections of the outraged parents and principal, the teacher can keep his job, an arbitrator has ruled. James Rampulla Jr., 44, who taught at Irwin Altman MS 172 in Floral Park, sent some of the 513 texts to the boy after 11 p.m. and included the words “I love you,” according to evidence presented at the teacher’s administrative...

the state’s ability-to-function-in-a-modern-economy rate among graduates hovers at a dismal 37 percent. That is, according to the state Department of Education, only 37 of every 100 students who entered high school in 2009, and stayed long enough to graduate, learned enough by last June to do college-level academic work — or to enter the workforce in any meaningful way. And in New York City, the ratio was one in four. So let’s cut to the chase: If 75 percent of New York high-school seniors get diplomas, but only 37 percent are academically or economically functional ... Per-student spending — just...

This picture of a prom ticket for a Chicago High School proves that the school has a serious problem. Paul Robeson High School is in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago and is one of the poorest and most dangerous schools in the city. See below via EAG News: That image came from veteran investigative reporter Chuck Goudie, who posted this image on his Facebook page. Some people might enjoy mocking the irony of the gross misuse of vocabulary. But unless the organizers of the prom festivities planned the wording this way as a joke, there’s nothing funny about the situation....

Sixteen percent of all teachers are considered chronically absent, missing 18 days or more per year, a new study said. A Think Tank in Washington, D.C. looked at 234,000 teachers in 40 of the country's largest school districts. It found teachers miss an average of 11 days. In Sacramento, more than 51 percent of teachers are chronically absent. In San Francisco, the number is more than 41 percent. And in San Jose, it is about 45 percent. Uber, Lyft and Sidecar Operate at SFO Illegally The study looked at short-term absences and did not count absences for serious illness, or...

There probably aren't many Michigan teachers who are members of the National Education Association who have heard of America Votes. Or that money they pay in dues helps fund the left-leaning political organization. Yet, the NEA is a major supporter of America Votes, which came under national scrutiny this week after a report by The Center for Public Integrity portrayed it as a "secret liberal group" that was financing liberal causes. Michigan teachers who belong to the Michigan Education Association pay $180 a year to the NEA as part of their dues. America Votes is just one of the many...

Sheriff's deputies arrested a Northern California mother for allegedly grabbing a fifth grader by the throat after her son pointed him out as the student who was bullying her younger daughter. Delia Garcia-Bratcher was booked Saturday into Sonoma County Jail on a felony charge of inflicting injury on a child a day after deputies took her into custody at Olivet Elementary Charter School in Santa Rosa. Christie Smith reports Sheriff's deputies arrested a Northern California mother for allegedly grabbing a fifth grader by the throat after her son pointed him out as the student who was bullying her younger daughter....

The public schools in Washington, D.C., spent $29,349 per pupil in the 2010-2011 school year, according to the latest data from National Center for Education Statistics, but in 2013 fully 83 percent of the eighth graders in these schools were not "proficient" in reading and 81 percent were not "proficient" in math. These are the government schools in our nation's capital city -- where for decades politicians of both parties have obstreperously pushed for more federal involvement in education and more federal spending on education. Government has manifestly failed the families who must send their children to these schools, and...

U.S. teachers are nowhere near as diverse as their students. Almost half the students attending public schools are minorities, yet fewer than 1 in 5 of their teachers is nonwhite. New studies from the Center for American Progress and the National Education Association are calling attention to this “diversity gap” at elementary and secondary schools in the United States. The groups want more to be done to help teachers more accurately mirror the students in their classrooms. …

A retired school teacher with 30-plus years of service says he has to choose between food or medicine due to a law repealing tax exemptions for some pensions. But James Pearson, a 66-year-old retired teacher from Milford High School with 33 years of service, is likely collecting enough compensation from a pension and Social Security alone to put him above the average state income. He is also eligible for both Medicare and the state’s retiree health insurance, which should pay for most of the costs for medicine. Pearson has become the face of protesters complaining about the pension tax, being...

...The National Education Association (NEA), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), and National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), among other organizations were instrumental in bringing together teachers to provide specific, constructive feedback on the standards.

When you think about bullying in public schools, it's generally in the context of a bigger kid picking on a smaller kid.  According to Susan Kimball, a kindergarten teacher of 20 years in the Sikeston Public School District, it's administrators and fellow teachers bullying and intimidating her, all because she opposes Common Core. At yesterday's Senate Education Committee hearing, Kimball testified she has suffered from bullying and intimidation since she began speaking out about the controversial standards. [caption id="attachment_25492" align="aligncenter" width="639"] "You have no idea what I have been through over the past six weeks because of my stand." -...

When a Democratic president can’t count on full-throated support from the National Education Association (NEA), the largest teacher’s union, something may be very wrong with his education reforms. “At the 2013 NEA convention in Atlanta, union leadership promoted Common Core standards,” The Education Reporter reported. “Delegates introduced from the floor — but failed to pass — two measures that condemned Obama’s education policies outright and were critical of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; both measures called on Obama to fire Duncan.” “Teachers’ representatives expressed dissatisfaction with Common Core (CC) at the 2013 convention and they have continued to do so,...

Democrats and many in the media routinely complain about money spent in politics, and they regularly lash out at conservatives and big business. Turns out, unions are the top spenders in politics. Twelve of the top 20 political donors from 1989 to 2014 have been unions, which overwhelmingly support Democratic causes, according to an analysis done by OpenSecrets.org's Center for Responsive Politics. Seven of the top 10 donors overall give almost exclusively to politicians or groups on the left. ActBlue, a political action committee that raises money for Democrats and progressive causes and features Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer...

If anyone wanted to pick a time and place where the political left's avowed concern for minorities was definitively exposed as a fraud, it would be now — and the place would be New York City, where far left Mayor Bill de Blasio has launched an attack on charter schools, cutting their funding, among other things. These schools have given thousands of low income minority children their only shot at a decent education, which often means their only shot at a decent life. Last year 82 percent of the students at a charter school called Success Academy passed city-wide mathematics...

Unions are finding sneaky ways to exact dues — but workers are fighting back. Two Michigan teachers will finally be allowed to end their union membership in the Michigan Education Association and will be refunded any dues they paid during this school year, according to a settlement agreement signed this week. William “Ray” Arthur, a teacher and wrestling coach at Petoskey Senior High School, and Miriam Chanski, a Coopersville kindergarten teacher, tried to quit the teachers’ union after Michigan adopted legislation to become the 24th right-to-work state in the U.S. Both Arthur and Chanski wrote letters informing the MEA that...