Free Republic

ORANGE – Parents in Orange Unified received a letter at the beginning of the school year asking them to donate $40 for each day their child misses class to help offset the $5.5 million in attendance funding the district loses annually. Five months later, the district has netted $920.

CRANSTON, R.I. – A Rhode Island public school district committee on Thursday voted not to appeal a federal court decision ordering the removal of a prayer banner displayed in a high school in a lawsuit brought on behalf of a 16-year-old atheist. The Cranston School Committee voted 5-2 at a public hearing to discuss the suit involving Jessica Ahlquist, a junior at Cranston High School West. After the vote, she said, "I'm thrilled." The hearing lasted more than two hours. The banner, put up in 1963, has been covered since a federal judge last month ruled it was unconstitutional and...

A Chicago-based free-market think tank has prepared a strategy to sway the recall debate in Wisconsin, including detailing "the shortcomings of public schools," according to leaked documents that appeared this week on the Internet. "Operation Angry Badger" purportedly describes a Heartland Institute proposal that would cost about $612,000 and focus on promoting Wisconsin Act 10, which curtailed collective bargaining for most public-sector workers. "The recall elections of 2012 amount to a referenda on collective bargaining reform at the state level, making them of national interest," the document says. "Successful recalls would be a major setback to the national effort to...

CRANSTON, Rhode Island (Reuters) - A Rhode Island school board voted on Thursday to comply with a federal court order to remove a prayer banner that has been displayed in a public high school for nearly a half century, saying the cash-strapped district cannot face a costly appeal.

As The Chronicle reported today, Galileo High School celebrated Valentine’s Day with a “Love Fest” that featured same-sex marriage ceremonies and safer-sex games. In one exercise, students puts on goggles “that made their vision slightly blurry, simulating a drunken state.” A teacher told students “to put a condom on a wooden penis. Most of the students left air in the condom tip, which could lead to breakage, and that prompted an instructional rebuke from (teacher Raina) Meyers.”

A Colorado high school student quit the school choir after an Islamic song containing the lyric "there is no other truth except Allah" made it into the repertoire. James Harper, a senior at Grand Junction High School in Grand Junction, put his objection to singing "Zikr," a song written by Indian composer A.R. Rahman, in an email to Mesa County School District 51 officials. When the school stood by choir director Marcia Wieland's selection, Harper quit. "I don’t want to come across as a bigot or a racist, but I really don’t feel it is appropriate for students in a...

A mother in Hoke County complains her daughter was forced to eat a school lunch because a government inspector determined her home-made lunch did not meet nutrition requirements. In fact, all of the students in the NC Pre-K program classroom at West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford had to accept a school lunch in addition to their lunches brought from home. NC Pre-K (before this year known as More at Four) is a state-funded education program designed to “enhance school readiness” for four year-olds. The mother, who doesn’t wish to be identified at this time, says she made her daughter...

Investigators say a New York City teacher had her students make Christmas cards for an incarcerated felon. The special commissioner of investigation for city schools says Queens public school teacher Melissa Dean asked her fifth-graders to make holiday cards for someone who was lonely. The commissioner’s report was issued Wednesday. It says Dean mailed the cards to a friend serving time at the upstate Groveland Correctional Facility for weapons charges and violating an order of protection. Some of the cards included students’ names and addresses. The package of cards was intercepted by prison officials, who called the school principal. That...

RAEFORD, N.C. — A Hoke County preschooler was fed chicken nuggets for lunch because a state worker felt that her homemade lunch did not have enough nutritional value, according to a report by the Carolina Journal. The West Hoke Elementary School student was in her More at Four classroom when a state agent who was inspecting lunch boxes decided that her packed lunch — which consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips — “did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines,” the Journal reports. ... The student’s mother told the Journal she received...

RUSH: This is from Rayford, North Carolina. Carolina Journal. I'm gonna read it to you exactly as it printed out here: "A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious. The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips and apple juice did not meet US Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes in her More at Four classroom that day." Again, let me read this to you again: "The...

DENVER – Lawmakers in at least four US states are considering legislation that would make students repeat third grade if they can't pass state reading exams, reviving debates about whether retaining students boosts achievement or increases their odds of dropping out. A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Colorado introduced legislation early this month that would prod schools to hold back children in kindergarten through third grade who don't meet state reading standards. In the early grades, parents could insist the child be promoted, but at third grade, the school district would have the ultimate say. "The goal is not to...

The Philadelphia Inquirer's big story Feb. 4 was about how a budget crunch at the Philadelphia School District had caused the district to lay off 91 school police officers. Over the years, there's been no discussion of what has happened to our youth that makes a school police force necessary in the first place. The Inquirer's series "Assault on Learning" (March 2011) reported that in the 2010 school year, "690 teachers were assaulted; in the last five years, 4,000 were." The newspaper reported that in Philadelphia's 268 schools, "on an average day 25 students, teachers, or other staff members were...

Debbie Squires of the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association speaks to the House Education Committee. "Educators go through education for a reason. They are the people who know best about how to serve children. That is not necessarily true about an individual resident. Not saying that they don't want the best for their children, but they may not know what actually is best from an education standpoint."

CONCORD, Calif. — Instead of beating the bell between classes at Mount Diablo High, senior Charles Campos often finds himself waiting frantically for a chance to use a rare unlocked restroom on the sprawling campus. Relief has been hard to come by since beleaguered Principal Kate McClatchy closed all but one boys and girls' bathroom to the 1,400 students last year. Although McClatchy unlocked a second set of restrooms this week, the dearth of commodes may violate the state's education code. She refused to say why she did it, but district trustee Gary Eberhart said he's been told it's because...

Although the New York State Senate has passed an amendment that would reverse the New York City Board of Education and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to evict nearly 70 churches from the public school spaces they have been renting, many of them for years, most of these congregations are already packed up and prepared for an exodus as the deadline for departure is this Sunday, Feb. 12. The state Senate overwhelmingly voted Monday 52-7 in favor of Bill A8800A/S.6087A but the NY State Assembly also has to approve its own version of the bill to successfully block the City and...

Disgraced 'ogle' teacher retires The city's king of the "rubber room" has stepped down. Disgraced educator Alan Rosenfeld, 66, retired on February 3, after a decade of milking tax payers for a $100,049-a-year salary even though he hasn't set foot in a classroom since 2001, school officials said today. The retirement came just days after the Post ran a series of stories exposing Rosenfeld, including how he was banished to a "rubber room" in 2001 for allegedly ogling eighth grade girls -- but then spent his time working on a personal real estate portfolio worth up to $10 million. An...

An aide in an Horry County school is now facing an assault charge after reportedly scratching a child he was trying to help when the student pulled away from the school employee. The report stated the child told officers he did not want to change and Gordyk then came in and told the child he had to do so. The victim then said Gordyk pulled his shirt off and he struggled to get away from Gordyk, resulting in scratches. Officers then spoke with Gordyk to get his side of the story. Because Gordyk worked in a classroom with the child...

....Miramonte will reopen Thursday with an all-new slate of teachers and administrators as well as custodians and cafeteria workers. But L.A.Unified will continue to pay the old staff even as they wait out the investigations at a high school under construction a few miles away. It remains unclear how long this arrangement will last; the investigations are expected to take months to complete. The new hiring alone will run $5.7 million for the remainder of the school year, said district spokesman... But those costs are likely to pale when compared to potential legal liability that experts said could run into...

An attorney representing a student at Miramonte Elementary School said Friday children were pulled from after-school programs and other teachers' classes to take part in "tasting games" at the center of lewd conduct charges against fired teacher Mark Berndt. In these games, children were photographed while blindfolded and asked to taste a liquid that police now believe to be the semen Berndt, who was arrested Monday. Attorney Brian E. Claypool said his client was 9 when her photograph was taken by Berndt, although she was not his student. FULL COVERAGE: Mark Berndt Claypool said Berndt had two ways of getting...

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan got a $50,000 payout in unused sick and vacation leave when he left his job as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools system to join the Obama administration. According to a new report by the watchdog group Better Government Association, the secretary was able to take advantage of department policy to covert unused, accrued benefits into a cash payout. Since 2006, Chicago's school system has paid $265 million to employees under this policy, with $227 million for sick days alone. The policy was put into place by the Chicago school board and predates Duncan, a...

An Overton ninth-grade math teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave after a freshman student said the teacher threw a mechanical pencil at him. Overton Police Department Cpt. Clayton Taylor said a 15-year-old and his parents went to the police station Wednesday to file assault charges against the teacher. Taylor said the student, who has Tourette syndrome, told police that the teacher threw a mechanical pencil at him Monday afternoon. Clayton said the pencil left a cut on his lip. Overton ISD Superintendent Alan Umholtz said the ninth-grade teacher, whose name will not be released, was placed on paid...

Chattahoochee High School principal Timothy Duncan returns to work Friday with his record cleared. State Court Judge Victoria D. Moran on Thursday dismissed simple battery charges against Duncan after he was accused of slamming a middle school student against a wall in anger last September. Moran, after listening to testimony and watching a video of the incident, ruled that Duncan had immunity, which would allow him to touch a student to maintain order. “I am not sure she thought a battery occurred,” said Vic Reynolds, Duncan’s attorney. “She cited the immunity statute that he was acting in good faith. He...

WASHINGTON, D.C, January 26, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Homeschoolers in the U.S. have marshaled against Obama’s proposal in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday that every state should require that “all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn 18.” The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) has called the proposal ‘shocking’ and has urged its members to fight back with a clear message: “leave education decisions to parents.” The HSLDA is a nonprofit advocacy organization that defends and advances what they say is the constitutional right of parents to direct the education of their children. “There...

First Lady Michelle Obama received a warm welcome from the students and teachers at an elementary school Wednesday where she promoted new tougher nutrition standards for school meals. The students clapped and cheered as Mrs. Obama entered the cafeteria at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Va. The first lady, who was was joined by celebrity chef Rachael Ray and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, picked up food from the lunch line before sitting with the kids and teachers. Obama and Vilsack unveiled the updated nutrition standards for school meals required by the 2010 school nutrition bill.

First lady Michelle Obama on Wednesday unveiled tougher nutrition standards that school meals will have to meet starting this year. The new standards were required by the 2010 school nutrition bill that increased funding for school meals. The new regulations, according to the Department of Agriculture, will: Ensure that students are offered both fruits and vegetables every day of the week; Substantially increase offerings of whole grain-rich foods; Offer only fat-free or low-fat milk varieties; Limit calories based on the age of children being served to ensure proper portion size; and Increase the focus on reducing the amounts of saturated...

Hat Tip to Michigan Capitol Confidential: Teachers' Union Manual Shows How to Organize Illegal Strikes, Use Children During Bargaining This is evil, evil stuff. You want to know just how deep down the rathole that the school systems have gone? Take a look inside this crisis manual. On page 17 of the manual(searchable alternative link here) it says "Pick a target - personalize - and polarize the opposition" which is right out of Saul Alinsky. It was Horace Mann who said it best: We, then, who are engaged in the sacred cause of education, are entitled to look upon all...

School choice is changing the face of education in the United States in 2012. In spite of the increasing cost of public school education, parents are no longer satisfied that it is preparing their children for the competitive world of the 21st century. They are turning to home schooling or charter schools that meet their expectations.

<p>“A Tale of Two Missions” – a film by Juan Williams and Kyle Olson (and directed by Chicago-based Andrew Marcus) – tells the story of competing cultures in American education through examples from Chicago.</p> <p>While the fight for school choice rages across the nation, perhaps no better example exists than that of the Windy City. Traditional alliances are breaking down. Both political parties are pushing for education reform and expanded school choice. The status quo is under attack, because most reasonable people understand that thousands of Chicago students are trapped in failing schools.</p>

First Lady Michelle Obama is blowing the lid off her “personal” hush-hush White House mission to demystify the halls of power for young women. Shielded from the public eye until now is a program she started to solicit the most brilliant female minds in the White House to mentor high school girls. “It’s very personal,” Obama says in a cover story in the February issue of More magazine. “I mean, growing up the way that I did — kid from the South Side (of Chicago), going to public schools — the more my career developed, I realized how much I...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A class reading assignment infuriates the parents of a 14-year-old Valley Traditional High School student. They said their daughter's questions about the book left them speechless. The book is called "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." "She was masturbating and (describing) how to masturbate and how she did it and also giving a boy a (expletive) and going into great detail of how to perform it," said Vincent. Vincent took the book to her daughter's step-father, who became speechless. "Her being the age that she's in right now, you just freeze up. You don't know...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The revamped school lunches at Los Angeles Unified School District have won awards, commending them for improving the menu at the second largest school district in the nation. Too bad the students don’t agree. Rejecting healthful alternatives like vegetarian curries and tamales, quinoa salads and pad Thai noodles, students are throwing them in the trash by the thousands, bringing junk food from home and buying instant noodles and other decidedly unhealthy fare from the “black markets” that have begun to thrive at campuses across the district, according to the Los Angeles Times. The wholesale rejection to...

NEW YORK -- Parents at a Brooklyn elementary school are furious over a fifth-grade teacher’s bathroom policy that prohibits students from jetting to the john more than three times a week. The stringent policy is limited to the Coney Island classroom of PS 90 teacher Stephanie Warner and is not schoolwide, reports The New York Post. However, the teacher’s in-depth e-mail explanation of the program to school principal Greta Hawkins earlier this month did not appear to meet with any resistance on the part of the school administrator, according to the paper. Under Warner’s potty policy, students are given three...

A new study of nearly 20,000 middle schoolers has found that kids who attend schools that sell junk food such as soda and doughnuts do not gain more weight than students who attend schools where that type of food isn't avai

More than a third of the students in Boston public high schools were chronically absent last year, even as the city undertook additional efforts to lure students to school, according to a Globe analysis. At East Boston High School, half of the students missed at least 19 days, more than 10 percent of the school year. The rates of chronic absenteeism were even higher at Brighton High, Charlestown High, and Dorchester Academy. Across the city, 7,400 high school students were chronically absent. The figures illustrate the enormous challenges most local high schools face in keeping students in class, and more...

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (CBSNewYork) – Parents in a Connecticut suburb are outraged over disturbing disciplinary actions at a local elementary school. They claim students are being locked in unsupervised “scream rooms,” where some children have harmed themselves, reports CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez. The Middleton School District is on the hot seat as furious parents are demanding to know what’s going on behind closed doors at Farm Hill Elementary School. “My daughter is telling me that there’s kids being taken out in ambulances, by stretcher,” parent Sean Archer told CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez on Wednesday. Disturbing allegations have surfaced of teachers locking...

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley proposed Tuesday that the state spend $372 million on new school construction next fiscal year, unveiling a key initiative in his push to increase capital spending during the 2012 General Assembly. The proposed funds would be the second-most allotted by the state and would be well above the state-recommended minimum of $250 million for annual school construction. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, will recommend the spending as part of his proposed budget, which he will introduce this month. The assembly is expected to amend and pass a budget during its 90-day regular session, which begins Wednesday. “These...

The possibility that Muslim students in the West Shore School District might be allowed to pray during the school day has angered some parents, even though nobody is sure that it's happening. The issue came up when a parent was on Bob Durgin's radio talk show with a letter from a staff member who attended a training session on multicultural awareness Dec. 9 at the school district. The session addresed, in part, the issue of Muslim prayer, according to the letter. Durgin devoted several of his talk shows to the subject. District officials are not saying much about it. Spokesman...

Third graders in in Gwinnett County, Ga., were given math homework Wednesday that asked questions about slavery and beatings. Christopher Braxton told ABC News affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta that he couldn't believe the assignment his 8-year-old son brought home from of Beaver Ridge Elementary school in Norcross. "It kind of blew me away," Braxton said. "Do you see what I see? Do you really see what I see? He's not answering this question." The question read, "Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?" Another math problem read, "If Frederick...

Students in California public schools may not be leading the nation in their knowledge of the “three R’s,” but they are well on their way to being experts in deviant lifestyles. Under a law signed last year by Gov. Jerry Brown (D), all public schools in the state are now required to promote homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality, and same-sex “marriage” at every grade level, including kindergarten — and to do so without parental consent or even notification. Known as the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act, the law adds “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender [LGBT] Americans” to the list...

An Alabama schoolteacher was jailed on charges of sexually abusing a fourth-grade female student, and police said Thursday the man told them he molested more than 20 other girls over his 25-year career. Alabaster police said Daniel Montague Acker Jr., 49, was charged with three counts of sexual abuse, and additional charges were possible. "This is not a one-time event," said Deputy Chief Curtis Rigney. "This happened over a period of 25 years." Acker taught fourth grade at three schools and drove buses in the Shelby County school system from 1985 until he retired in 2009. He was investigated on...

NAPLES — A 15-year-old who fatally stabbed his school mate will no longer face criminal prosecution. A judge’s ruling, made public Tuesday, granted a motion to dismiss the second-degree murder charge against Jorge Saavedra in the death of 16-year-old Dylan Nuno on the grounds that he acted in self-defense under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. The State Attorney’s Office has indicated that it will not appeal the ruling. Nuno’s family and friends criticized Collier County Circuit Judge Lauren Brodie’s decision, calling it “unbelievable” and “heartbreaking.” “We know this wasn’t the right decision,” said Dylan’s aunt, Adriana Nuno.“(The judge) is showing...

St. Louis Today reported: When is the line crossed between better health and surveillance? In early 2012, wristwatch-like devices called Polar active monitors will be used by older students in PE classes at all 18 Parkway elementary schools. District officials say the devices should help improve the students’ fitness and academic achievement. Later this school year, the district plans to collect data about activity levels and even sleep patterns for a week at a time. It will have the students wear the devices round the clock. Some parents and legal experts are raising privacy concerns about at least that aspect...

28 Signs That U.S. Public Schools Are Rapidly Being Turned Into Indoctrination Centers And Prison CampsDecember 30, 2011 It has been said that children are our future, and right now the vast majority of our children are being "educated" in public schools that are rapidly being turned into indoctrination centers and prison camps. Our children desperately need to focus on the basics such as reading, writing and math, but instead a whole host of politicians, "education officials" and teachers are constantly injecting as much propaganda as they possibly can into classroom instruction. Instead of learning how to think, our children...

A California educator says parents, not schools, need to "step up" and get involved in the health of their children. Since school officials decided to introduce healthier foods to the district's menu, students in the Los Angeles Unified School District have actually been eating more junk food. The Los Angeles Times reports that the attempt to encourage healthier alternatives -- such as black bean burgers, vegetarian curries, quinoa and tamales -- over chicken nuggets and corn dogs has been less than successful. Students have begun bringing their own lunches, which often consist of chips and soda. "It seems to me...

Would it bother you to know that the federal Centers for Disease Control had been shown your daughter’s health records to see how she responded to an STD/teen-pregnancy-prevention program? How about if the federal Department of Education and Department of Labor scrutinized your son’s academic performance to see if he should be “encouraged” to leave high school early to learn a trade? Would you think the government was intruding on your territory as a parent? Under regulations the Obama Department of Education released this month, these scenarios could become reality. The department has taken a giant step toward creating a...

The Kindle and Nook may make for not only the most important advance in reading since Gutenberg, but also, quite likely, a major lesson in unintended consequences. Especially for the educational establishment, because for the first time in history, Americans should be able to envision a future without public-school teachers -- indeed, a future without public-school administrators or state departments of education with their rigidly enforced, politically correct social-transformation curriculum. A future without onerous school taxes, "education president(s)," self-preening school boards, or million-dollar classrooms. But most happily, a future without a single supercilious finger wagging in our face as we're...

A history teacher received a lesson in criminal justice Thursday after being arrested for having a year and a half long sexual relationship with one of his own 8th grade students. And it was his wife who dropped the dime on him.

The road to gastric hell is paved with first lady Michelle Obama’s Nanny State intentions. Don’t take my word for it. School kids in Los Angeles have blown the whistle on the east wing chef-in-chief’s healthy lunch diktats. Get your Pepto Bismol ready. The taste of government waste is indigestion-inducing. According to a weekend report by the Los Angeles Times, the city’s “trailblazing introduction of healthful school lunches has been a flop.” In response to the public hectoring and financial inducement of Mrs. Obama’s federally subsidized anti-obesity campaign, the district dropped chicken nuggets, corn dogs and flavored milk from the...

<p>Santa Claus has been “suspended” at one New Jersey school, after some parents complained it was religious discrimination.  Picture day with Santa is a long-standing tradition at Calabro Elementary School.  But this year, one parent, who is Jewish, pointed out other traditions weren’t being represented, reports CBS 2’s Kathryn Brown.</p>

A Florida middle school teacher is facing a battery charge after she threw an assortment of food items back through a drive-thru window following a dispute with a McDonald’s employee, according to cops. The incident, which was captured by a restaurant surveillance camera, occurred around 9:45 Saturday morning at a McDonald’s in Lakeland. Simone Paolercio, 39, had ordered about $20 worth of food when she got into a dispute with a worker manning the drive-thru window. The video can be found below. Jessica Balderas, a McDonald’s worker, told cops that “there was a disagreement over two hashbrowns,” according to a...