Free Republic

New regulations prohibiting schools from mandating masks and shifting to online-only learning have been announced by the Alberta government, which said many families have often been caught unprepared by these measures in the past two and half years. “Regulatory changes will guarantee students and parents have access to in-person learning. These changes also clarify that children and students cannot be denied in-person education by their school authority due to their personal decision to wear or not wear a mask,” the provincial government said in a news release on Nov. 24. “This change creates an inclusive environment by ensuring personal and...

The federal government showered government schools with money to stay open, but they’re shutting down anyway. It’s turned into a ruse and the victims are the children and the taxpayers. Ohio received more than $6 billion in federal COVID relief funds earmarked for keeping our public schools open. After two years of this pandemic, any schools who accepted this funding and still haven’t found a way to keep kids in class should be forced to refund their share of the money. Instead of reopening, many public schools in Ohio are returning to remote learning. While traditional homeschooling is terrific for...

It started in Chicago, where an incredible 91% of union teachers voted to go on strike and refused to do what they get paid to do, which is teach. Then the union walkouts spread to Maryland, New Jersey and California. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a liberal Democrat, has attacked the Chicago teachers unions for "holding kids hostage." She is right. Why doesn't she call a state of emergency and disband the union to save the children from the union terrorists? Or tear up the contract because the unions have violated it? If she did, she would be a hero. resident...

Angered teachers union factions are ramping up pressure on city officials to adopt remote learning amid an ongoing “nightmare” of COVID-19 infections in city schools. Progressive and left-leaning elements within the United Federation of Teachers have amplified their calls to temporarily shutter schools after the DOE recorded more than 12,000 new teacher and student cases Monday. With Mayor Eric Adams staunchly opposing any school closures and UFT boss Michael Mulgrew avoiding a war of words with City Hall, some union groups are intensifying their tactics. ... “This is a large union,” noted a union source. “People have to remember that....

Tarpon Springs teen shot, killed by police officers identified Amazon 'may have lied to Congress,' 5 lawmakers say Cafeterias in K-12 schools across the country have reportedly faced depleted food supplies and labor shortages because of the coronavirus pandemic, leading some school districts to consider a return to remote learning rather than forcing students to go hungry. An AL.com story on Monday said Alabama's education department reported every school district in the state is suffering from food and cafeteria workforce shortages. Other school districts throughout the country have faced the same problem, and federal agencies have scrambled to offer assistance....

The latest tyranny to come out of Rutgers University in New Jersey involves requiring all remote learning students to be “fully vaccinated” for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19).It was not enough for Rutgers to simply force the jabs on in-person students. Now, those who learn at home in isolation on their computers must also undergo experimental gene therapy in order to get an education.Junior Logan Hollar, who transferred to Rutgers in 2020, learned this the hard way. He currently takes virtual classes from his Sandyston home in Sussex County, which is located more than 70 miles away from the New Brunswick...

Teachers union president Randi Weingarten channels Marx calling Jews 'privileged' members of the 'ownership class' to justify the harm she’s doing to children.What is motivating teachers unions to keep public schools closed for as long as possible?We’ve constantly heard from the left about the need to “follow the science” in dealing with the coronavirus, as President Joe Biden has repeatedly pledged to do. Yet the gap between administration policies or even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and the scientific facts about how the virus is spread is considerable.Given that we’ve known since last summer that younger...

The radical Chicago Teacher’s Union is defying the school board that has ordered teachers to return to in-person instruction. But the teachers claim the schools aren’t safe to work in, and on Sunday, they voted overwhelmingly to continue to teach remotely.This isn’t sitting well with many parents — especially minority parents — in the 355,000-student school district. They aren’t stupid. They know their kids are falling farther and farther behind white suburban kids because there just isn’t any substitute for in-person learning.But teachers are resisting because the plans and procedures to keep teachers safe — the same plans and procedures...

For at least 40 years, MoCo politicians and school officials have invoked “closing the achievement gap” as a sacred goal which justifies the sacrifice of as many taxpayers as necessary. But that goal is not as sacrosanct as assuring that teachers continue to collect full pay while taking zero risks and leaving the most vulnerable students far behind. Since the county padlocked public schools earlier this year and shifted to unreliable “distance learning,” there has been a 500%+ increase in the number of black junior high students failing mathematics and a 600%+ increase in Hispanic students failing. The percentage of...

This spring, America took an involuntary crash course in remote learning. With the school year now winding down, the grade from students, teachers, parents and administrators is already in: It was a failure. School districts closed campuses in March in response to the coronavirus pandemic and, with practically no time at all for planning or training, launched a grand experiment to educate more than 50 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade using technology. The problems began piling up almost immediately. There were students with no computers or internet access. Teachers had no experience with remote learning. And many parents...