Free Republic

AZ is finally nbr 1 in education advances. The state just passed a law allowing total school choice for parents and the cost will be offset by a present of $7,000 from the governor. Public school, religious school, private school and home school all covered.. Nationwide movement to be expected.

NEW YORK CITY- Fear not, America. While you’re paying $5 a gallon for gasoline, can’t find baby formula in most states, and are paying $24 for an order of chicken wings, sleep soundly knowing the city of New York feels your pain. In yet another case of the government apparatus pissing away taxpayer dollars on dumb stuff, such as conducting torturous experiments on poodles, giving smartphones to illegal aliens, abandoning $80 billion in sophisticated military equipment in Afghanistan, and indoctrinating school children to hate America, there is the Big Apple. According to the New York Post, the city that never...

I'm in NY and my daughter's schools just recently put out their "school supply lists" -- what students have to have for each class and supplies they "share" like tissues, whiteboard markers, colored pencils. My kids are in high school and Jr High. It cost me $206 for school supplies! And we spend about $17,000 per year per student in this district! Wayyy over taxed!! My parents couldn't have afforded this for 4 kids. I told the Superintendent this was ridiculous. She tried to steer me to a "charity" group that could help me get the supply's. I said I'm...

  From Pennsylvania Right-to-Work:Most readers are already aware of a growing scandal involving the pro-forced unionism Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) in New York, Baltimore, Washington, and now, California. For those who missed it, ACORN representatives were caught on camera giving advice to undercover journalists on how to open an illegal brothel, launder its profits, and commit a host of other illegal activities.According to The Washington Examiner, teacher union officials have contributed over 1.3 million dollars (in mostly forced union dues) to ACORN since 2005.We decided to do a little digging into union financial disclosure forms on...

A bill that changes the information in School Accountability Reports, which Gov. Bill Ritter signed last week after it landed on his desk, was new to Ritter but familiar to the desk. Democrats, taking advantage of having one of their own in the governor’s office for the first time in eight years, repassed 33 bills this year that once were vetoed by former Republican Gov. Bill Owens. Ritter, the first-year Democratic governor, has signed 16 so far, including the aforementioned House Bill 1345. Some are exact replicas of deceased forebears, while others have been changed. But the fact they are...

827 Seattle students informed they will be freshmen again... Nearly one in four Seattle Public Schools sophomores is missing required credits and has been reclassified as a freshman, potentially delaying graduation. The move, effective this semester, was part of a package of changes the district announced in October to help better prepare high school students to pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning and graduate. Under district policy, high school students have to complete five credits a year to advance to the next grade. At some schools, the rate was far higher than one in four students. At Rainier Beach...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ Catholic churches statewide are planning to blitz Albany like never before with up to 1.5 million postcards calling for a tax credit to offset religious- and private-school tuition. The effort would also provide tax credits for families with children in public schools and for all public- and private-school teachers to offset classroom expenses. Supporters emphasize this isn't a voucher program, in which some states have allowed families to apply government per-pupil funding toward nonpublic school tuition. The proposals would provide a tax credit of up to $3,000 a year for a family with two or more...

Court kills N. Haledon's bid to leave Manchester Regional Thursday, August 12, 2004 North Haledon must remain in the Manchester Regional School District, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, but the district's funding formula must be retooled.The ruling ends the borough's attempt to withdraw from the district, but it portends lower school taxes for its residents.The court's decision, written by Chief Justice Deborah Poritz, found that while North Haledon's attempt to withdraw was not racially motivated, students from all three sending districts would suffer from the reduced diversity that would result from North Haledon's departure."This decision's going to have a...

Fed up with redistributionist school taxes, leaders of Killington, Vermont have settled on a bold new strategy: Secession. Their plan is to take their town all the way out of the left-leaning New England state and join with its more conservative neighbor, New Hampshire. Free Staters were ecstatic to hear the news and are planning a "shadow advertising" campaign to support Killington. If the Killington bid succeeds, New Hampshire would gain a new, tax-hating municipality. If it fails, Free Staters figure they can recruit many of the towns residents and other disgruntled northeasterners to move *themselves* to the Free State....

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Plants paid more than $1.5 million last year; city hopes to build desalination plant at Barney Davis If American Electric Power moves forward with plans to close its three Corpus Christi power plants, it won't go _unnoticed. The three power plants alone paid more than $1.5 million last year in property taxes to local taxing agencies and schools. About 90 people would lose their jobs. And the most valuable plant, Barney Davis in Flour Bluff, houses a state fish hatchery; it is the hope of city officials who want to build...