Free Republic

What is the Wisconsin Legislature trying to do to public education in Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s state? State Superintendent Tony Evers has gone on record accusing lawmakers of moving toward new legislation “that erodes the basic foundation of Wisconsin’s public school system.” How? By legislature efforts that include refusing to spend more money on public education for the first time in more than 20 years while while giving millions of dollars more to expand a private voucher program, slashing higher education funding, and weakening licensing rules for teachers.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) recently proposed the Parental Choice in Education Act as a way to provide more opportunity for parents in choosing which schools would be the best fit for their children. The legislation would use $70 million in taxpayer money to create an education tax credit for families making $60,000 or less. Parents who qualify could receive up to $500 in a tax credit or refund for each student attending a private school. Among other benefits, it would also encourage more private school scholarships. "This is about fairness and this is about parents choosing the school that is...

One of every four retired workers from the state of Illinois, the city of Chicago and the Chicago Public Schools is getting a pension of more than $60,000 a year. That’s 80,365 people in all. For 13,240 of them, those checks provide a yearly income of $100,000 or more, a Chicago Sun-Times/Better Government Association analysis of pension records has found. An additional 20,004 have pension incomes totaling between $80,000 and $100,000 a year. ... the root of the problem is that government officials kept promising lifetime benefits to workers — and, in many cases, to their surviving spouses should they...

Two students are recovering from injuries suffered in a shooting on their school bus in Jacksonville. Jacksonville Sheriff's Office officials say two males shot into the bus.... at least one [of the girls] was shot in the face. Police didn't release their names but said the girls are 14 and 15. No one else was injured. Police say the bus was stopped by two suspects when they apparently tried to fight with someone on board.

Over a year ago, I posted a column here titled “Why Equal Opportunity Is Immoral And Wrong.” http://clashdaily.com/2014/02/equal-opportunity-immoral-wrong/ As I expected, my message sailed over some readers’ heads. Multiple commenters weighed in with the typical, programmed response: “Well, it’s bad to try to force equal outcomes — but guaranteeing equal opportunity is good and right, and what our system is about,” etc. Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. I had tried to explain that if the doctrine of equal opportunity is really applied in principle, some third-party entity (government, of course) would by necessity always have to step in to...

(CNSNews.com) – Attorney General Loretta Lynch vowed on Tuesday to continue the Obama administration’s push for public schools to abandon their “zero tolerance” discipline policy, because critics claim it is aimed disproportionately at minority students and other “at risk” youth, including migrants and LGBT students. “We are working with our partners in the private sector, and of course, the federal government, including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, to end the school to prison pipeline that sends too many children on the well-worn path from the schoolhouse to the jailhouse,” Lynch said at the National...

On a panel promoting pre-Kindergarten programs at a conference recently in Austin, Texas, a pair of government officials–one local, one federal–made their case. Representing the City of New York, Richard Buery suggested that employing universal preschool is the number-one issue for Mayor Bill de Blasio. To critics of increasingly centralized learning schemes, Buery had something to say. “There are people who do not want us to succeed for a variety of reasons,” he acknowledged. “People speak ill of government so often.” But apparently there is nothing about which to worry because “[g]overnment is doing big things for people.” Far-left Democrats...

When Gov. Rick Snyder recently proposed creating a new school district organization to serve Detroit schoolchildren, he cited a “lack of educational success” and “failing academics” and pointed out that Detroit is the “nation’s lowest performing urban school area.” However, the Detroit Public School district's most recent evaluations of its own teachers paint a picture of success in 2013-14. The district gave 8 out of 10 teachers the highest evaluation possible — “highly effective.” Full email response from DPS Spokeswoman Jennifer Mrozowski. Starting with the 2011-12 academic year, school districts have been required by state law to report on their...

HOOKSETT, N.H. – The New Hampshire Union Leader published a guest op/ed from a teacher who identifies herself as a liberal.  Diane Sekula is a teacher in Hooksett, NH and she was responding to a published article that said Common Core is a conservative flashpoint. Sekula writes:I come from a staunch Democrat family. By most people’s standards, I would be considered liberal. I am also, however, very much against Common Core. Public dissatisfaction with Common Core is not a partisan issue. It is a matter of importance for anyone interested in doing what’s best for the children of New Hampshire.She points...

When 8th grade student Jared Marcum got dressed for school this morning, he says he had no idea that his pro-Second Amendment shirt would initiate what he calls a fight over his First Amendment rights. … It was the image of a gun printed on Jared’s t-shirt that sparked a dispute between a Logan Middle School teacher and Jared, that ended with Jared suspended, arrested and facing two charges, obstruction and disturbing the education process, on his otherwise spotless record. Jared’s father Allen Lardieri says he’s angry he had to rush from work to pick his son up from jail...

FALLS CHURCH, VA, May 12, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Hundreds of parents accused Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) members of endangering their children and caving to the Obama administration as the school board voted to allow transgender teens to use the locker rooms and bathrooms of the opposite sex.The new policy may also allow transgender teachers to show their gender dysphoria openly in the classroom.The motion to add "gender identity" as a protected class– which passed 10-1, with one abstentation – was sparked by the Obama administration's threat to deny the district $42 million in federal funding.According to FoxNews.com and The...

Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday proposed the idea of public boarding schools, saying there are “just certain kids we should have 24/7.” “One idea that I threw out … is the idea of public boarding schools,” Duncan said at the National Summit on Youth Violence Prevention in Crystal City, Va. “That’s a little bit of a different idea—a controversial idea—but the question is do we have some children where there’s not a mom, there’s not a dad, there’s not a grandma, there’s just nobody at home? There’s just certain kids we should have 24/7 to really create a safe...

Likely GOP presidential contender Jeb Bush says he will try to convince grassroots groups of parents who oppose the Common Core standards to flip-flop and embrace the education initiative. When Megyn Kelly of Fox News Channel’s The Kelly File observed how unpopular the Common Core initiative is with grassroots conservatives in particular, Bush responded: “Common Core means a lot of things to different people, so they could be right, based on what’s in front of them…but the simple fact is we need higher standards; they need to be state-driven. The federal government should play no role in this – either...

Hundreds of Detroit public school teachers broke the law Thursday when they skipped school to protest Gov. Rick Snyder’s announcement in Lansing proposing an overhaul of the Detroit public school system. The action caused 18 Detroit public schools to close and more than 12,000 students to miss a day of classes. The action is considered a strike, which is illegal for government employees in Michigan, according to Patrick Wright, senior legal analyst for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Source - Detroit Federation of Teachers website. On the Detroit Federation of Teachers’ website, the union urged all DPS employees to...

We have previously mentioned the re-write of the AP guide for History. The new AP guide for teaching History is nothing less than (yet another) declaration of war against the very essence of America. Elizabeth Price Foley over at Instapundit has termed the MiniTru approved truth as “the oppression narrative.” An apt label for an education system that tears down American civilization as an “evil” and replaces it with a Howard Zinnified version of reality. As Foley notes: “How about just teaching our children about the founding, the Constitution, and the major historical eras? It isn’t a cultural anthropology or...

.....Shelton High School students were shocked and upset with what they heard in school on Friday. In an announcement over the school’s PA system, students were told that prom dresses with slits, open backs and revealing low cuts would not be allowed at this weekend’s junior/senior prom. Shelton’s high school headmaster Beth Smith is threatening to turn students away at the door, though students say Smith encouraged them to show her a photo of the dress they were planning to wear so that she could approve it or deny it. “I’m not showing her because I know it will be...

Across Massachusetts – and across America – thousands of schoolchildren are given sexually graphic, psychologically intrusive surveys by the public schools without parents’ knowledge. These surveys also ask youth to reveal their criminal activity, personal family matters, and other intimate issues. This is done in the public middle schools and high schools during school hours. At best, parents are told about the surveys in vague terms, but are rarely allowed read them beforehand. The surveys are “officially” anonymous and voluntary. But they are administered by the teacher in a classroom and (according to teachers we’ve talked to) there is often...

Results of the “Nation’s Report Card” released this week by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that only 18 percent of 8th-graders are “proficient” or above in U.S. history, and only 23 percent are proficient in civics. Despite hundreds of billions of dollars poured into education programs in the United States via the U.S. Department of Education, the “Nation’s Report Card” states that 8th-graders’ average NAEP scores in U.S. History, Geography, and Civics demonstrated no significant change since 2010 when students were last assessed. In geography, just 27 percent of U.S. 8th-graders performed at or above the proficiency...

Officials with the Crane Independent School District are meeting to discuss their sex education program after nearly two dozen cases of Chlamydia were reported among the high school student body. KOSA-TV reported the Crane Independent School District sent a letter to parents last week regarding 20 cases of chlamydia among the Crane High School student population, which totals about 300 students. Those letters were sent to the parents of both senior and junior students as a precaution. The Texas Department of State Health Services notified both Crane and Upton County officials after a significant numbers of cases were identified. The...

After Big Government has consolidated control of healthcare it will inevitably move on to food. For an idea of what this will entail, look to public schools, where food is already provided by the government: Several students and parents shared photos of their recent disgusting cafeteria lunch at West Virginia’s Philippi Middle School.They featured … severely burned burritos covered in melted plastic. Don’t worry. Local educrats say it won’t happen again: “I am aware of the situation that happened in Philippi Middle School regarding lunch and on behalf of the Board of Education and myself I extend an apology to...