Free Republic

The state's largest teachers union revved up its faithful Monday to lean on state lawmakers to extend current tax rates – and eventually increase them. The daylong rally by the California Teachers Association kicked off a week of budget lobbying, press events and teach-ins by the union. Their plans and those of anti-war protesters this week prompted stepped-up Capitol security over concerns that some activists might stage Wisconsin-style sit-ins at the Capitol or commit other acts of civil disobedience. Although law enforcement officials said the crowds were generally peaceful, they arrested about 65 protesters after warning them to leave the...

SAN DIEGO -- A state appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a San Diego schoolteacher who was fired for posting a sexually explicit ad and photos in the "men seeking men" section of Craigslist. Frank Lampedusa's firing had been overruled by a state commission that said the ad was unrelated to his ability to teach middle-school students. But the appeals court disagreed, saying Lampedusa's conduct showed he was unfit to teach and "serve as a role model" for his students. A teacher's private life can constitute grounds for dismissal if it demonstrates "indecency and moral indifference," said the Fourth...

A former high school band teacher in North Carolina was arrested on sex charges after a young woman wrote in an essay in her college newspaper that he got her pregnant — and took her to get an abortion — when she was his student. The essay, "I had an affair with my high school teacher," used some fake names but identified the Winston-Salem school, and the principal there tipped off authorities. It was originally written for a composition class at North Carolina Central University and appeared in the campus paper this month as part of an annual special section....

California lawmakers are demanding change after a state audit of the commission charged with cracking down on teacher misconduct... Among the cases cited.. • An educator was charged with exposing middle school students to pornography in a case the Commission on Teacher Credentialing became aware of in October 2008. The commission did not request documents from police for 17 months. • A teacher was arrested on charges for offenses ranging from prostitution to petty theft in 2007 – eventually pleading guilty to misdemeanor prostitution – but was permitted to renew his credential in 2008. It was revoked two years later....

Sarah Knopp, a Los Angeles teachers union leader (in the Tax the Rich shirt) and Megan Behrent a New York City teacher affiliated with the International Socialist Organization, explain how to push Marxism in the public school classroom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDeXhmTz_0M&feature=channel_video_title

Kerry Picket of the Washington Times went to ask Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray a straightforward question on the DC school voucher program. After she was finished, a man confronted her on her ‘bias’ and told her to “drop dead” when she asked for his name. The confrontation starts at the 3:07 mark within the video.

In the middle of a meeting called to discuss guns and safety at Berkeley High School, the deputy district attorney in charge of Alameda County's juvenile division stood up and announced that the community is not being realistic about how dangerous a place it is. . . .

ASBURY PARK, N.J. -- As President Barack Obama was set to depart on an overseas trip Friday, he faced some sobering news back home -- a school bearing his name was to be shuttered because of low enrollment. The Barack H. Obama Elementary School in Asbury Park, N.J., will close its doors this summer as part of a school district consolidation plan resulting from a declining number of students there, the Asbury Park Press reported. Students at the school, previously known as the Bangs Avenue School until it was renamed for Obama two years ago, will be reassigned to two...

WKOW reported yesterday that an investigation is ongoing to determine the veracity of more than 1000 doctor excuses that have been handed in by Madison teachers in an attempt to justify their absence from teaching duties that ultimately resulted in the closing of school for four consecutive days. The results of this inquiry will result in teacher suspension. "A new contract with Madison teachers says fraudulent excuses will result in a letter of suspension but won't require suspended teachers to be off from work." How is that for punishment! I mean really, if this is the ultimate result of any...

Department of Education (DOE) officials “are threatening school principals with lawsuits if they fail to monitor and curb students’ lunchtime chat and evening Facebook time for expressing ideas and words that are deemed by Washington special-interest groups to be harassment of some students.”

This video depicts kids chanting pro-Union, anti-Walker, and anti-war chants.

Empowered by a new presence on the state school board, backers of Gov. John Kasich today forced out Ohio's state superintendent of education. A tearful Deborah Delisle resigned this morning. "Last Friday it was made known to me by two members of the governor's staff that my tenure was limited," Delisle said during a board meeting today. "They said they have the votes to replace me." The resignation takes effect April 30. "This is disgusting," said member Robin C. Hovis, a Republican dumped earlier in the meeting as board president and replaced by a Tea Party proponent. "I denounce it."...

Parents across the metro area, in different school districts, have similar stories to tell when it comes to the way their children were treated after reporting they were bullied. “The other kid jumped in and had the boxcutter up and threatened to stab her over and over again,” Tina Williams said. “And he said, ‘I wouldn't stab a girl, but I'd stab a b**** and I'm looking at one right now,’ when he looked at my daughter.” “At lunch I am kind of afraid that they are going to threaten me again,” said Williams' daughter, Kayla. “She's heard jackass, b****,...

Last week, my main point was that liberals couldn't care less about changing anything in public schools because they are producing exactly what liberals want. And that biased programming will deepen in the minds and hearts of America's young people unless we patriots stand up in every community, resist those progressive tides and demand alternatives. There are ways to improve national academic imbalances. In Part 2 here, I give seven ways to counter that torrent of progressivism. Among the list of correctives that have been proved to work are the following: 1) Vocalize your opinions to local, state and federal...

This is the first in a two-part series on our educational system in the United States.Some e-mail messages seem to float around the Internet forever. Most of them, especially the ones about Lindsay Lohan, low mortgage rates, or offshore pharmaceuticals, serve only to clutter up your inbasket. But every so often, a message appears with some valuable nuggets of information. One of these reappeared on my computer last week. The message starts by listing America’s ten poorest cities, based on the percentage of people living below the poverty line. It then identifies what all ten cities have in common: They...

Thanks to a controversial legislative maneuver, Wisconsin's Republican Governor Scott Walker's plan to end collective bargaining for his public employees passed the state senate Wednesday night. Now, in a stunning show of solidarity with their teachers—who, as union members, now have no bargaining rights—Wisconsin's high school students are planning a grassroots school walkout, and they want to take their protest national. Wisconsin Students in Solidarity is asking for the nationwide walkout to happen this Friday, March 11, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. local time. Less than 12 hours after being formed, the Facebook event, Nationwide Student Walkout, has almost 2,000 "attendees"...

Just confirmed on WTMJ, TEACHERS and students from madison West matching on Capitol building. Students carrying signs, nice to know they still have art class. I hope someone in Madison is taking pictures of the teachers, because they need be be terminated. This is the second time they have a led a walkout and illegally removed students from class.

Explicit cartoons, films and books have been cleared for use to teach sex education to schoolchildren as young as five. A disturbing dossier exposes a wide range of graphic resources recommended for primary school lessons. The shocking material – promoted by local councils and even the BBC – teaches youngsters about adult language and sexual intercourse. Among the books singled out in the report is How Did I Begin? by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom which has a cartoon image of a couple in bed in an intimate embrace. It is accompanied by an explanation – using frank and adult...

An estimated 82 percent of U.S. schools could be labeled as "failing" under the nation's No Child Left Behind Act this year, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday Department of Education estimates the number of schools not meeting targets will skyrocket from 37 to 82 percent in 2011 because states are toughening their standards to meet the requirements of the law. The schools will face sanctions ranging from offering tutoring to closing their doors "No Child Left Behind is broken and we need to fix it now," Duncan said in a statement. "This law has created a thousand ways for...

The key thing about student achievement in the United States is there isn't much of it. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) publishes comparative education statistics for the OECD's 34 members and selected other countries. The latest was in 2009. In reading, U.S. students ranked 17th of 70 countries, at about the OECD average. In mathematics, U.S. students ranked 30th, at a level significantly below the OECD average. In science, U.S. students ranked 23rd, at about the OECD average. ------------------------------- These statistics make teacher unions look bad. So a defender has invented one he thinks makes them...