Free Republic

Education: For the first time in many years, national math and reading test scores have dropped for elementary-school kids. Who's to blame? The better question is, who isn't?

While most of the country is paying attention to the 2016 presidential election, some local communities will have to make a few consequential decisions this coming November. One such community is Jefferson County, Colorado, home to a little over a half million people. A November ballot issue is to recall three conservative school board members half way through their four-year term. The Jeffco public school district provides K-12 education to 84,000 students. Even though Jeffco is tied for the 2nd best high school graduation rate among the 50 largest school districts in the nation, 29% of Jeffco graduates who attended...

The indictment of former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett closes a chapter in yet another sad tale of greedy, cheating city officials. Her lawyer says she has agreed to plead guilty when she appears in court, and I hope the judge throws the book at her. But ethical misconduct is only a part of BBB's legacy. The ex-CEO—along with the rest of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's crack team at the Board of Education—has left us with a whopper of a problem that could hit full force as soon as next month. I'm referring to the nearly $500 million hole in...

The 2015 American Federation of Teachers annual report shows a left-wing political machine humming on all cylinders — with teachers buying the gas. For the fiscal year ending June 30, the union reported $37.6 million in political activity and lobbying expenditures, a $12.7 million increase from the previous year. Even more political spending was tucked away elsewhere in AFT’s annual U.S. Department of Labor filing, reported as “Contributions, Gifts and Grants,” “General Overhead” or “Representational Activities.” AFT paid union president Randi Weingarten, one of the nation’s most prominent “progressive” activists, a total of $497,118. The union reported only 2 percent...

Emails released by the State Department Monday night show that the leader of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation's top unions, had direct access to the office of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Several emails show that requests from Tina Flournoy, union President Randi Weingarten's assistant at the time, for private meetings or phone calls were given priority by Clinton. For example, in a July 20, 2010, message to Clinton's private account "HDR22@clintonemail.com," Flournoy, using her American Federation of Teachers address, said: "Have a little issue I would like to discuss with you over the phone. Not...

Federal authorities indicted the former president of a Florida teachers’ union on fraud charges on Thursday, even as he faces additional charges in his home state over allegedly illegal campaign contributions to Hillary Clinton. The Justice Department charged former Broward Teachers Union (BTU) president Patrick Santeramo with two counts of mail fraud for his alleged role in embezzling more than $35,000 in payments from a local school district. “It is alleged that after the BTU received the $80,000 payment from the School Board of Broward County, Santeramo authorized payments from the [union’s] Accountability Program account for himself and at least...

Chicago Public Schools officials on Monday proposed a $5.7 billion operating budget for the upcoming school year that relies on $480 million in new funding from state government that might never come. School leaders conceded the spending plan contains a mix of “unsustainable” borrowing and limited classroom cuts that they say they must begrudgingly make because of a $676 million payment for teacher pensions that’s due at the end of the school year. There also are numerous fiscal wild cards in the mix, including budget adjustments that might ensue should CPS reach an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union on...

SOROS NAILED: Liberal Sugar Daddy George Soros May Face A ‘Monster’ Named, “Tax Evasion.” Which will Eat Away his Political Power. [ Full title]. George Soros is one of the left’s most powerful money men. In January of this year, Western Journalism reported on the millions of dollars that liberal billionaire George Soros and his politically involved foundations gave to help various groups of Ferguson protesters. “Buses of activists from a litany of organizations — all funded in part by Mr. Soros” showed up in the Missouri city scorched by riots related to the police-involved death of Michael Brown. Soros,...

The principal of an innovative West Harlem public school killed herself the day after her students took the state Common Core exams — which were later tossed out because she cheated ... Jeanene Worrell-Breeden, 49, of Teachers College Community School, jumped in front of a B train in the 135th Street station ... She was pulled out from under the train and taken to Harlem Hospital, where she died eight days later. The city Medical Examiner’s Office ruled it a suicide. The leap came at 9:20 a.m., less than 24 hours after her 47 third-graders wrapped up three days sweating...

City officials are pushing property-tax hikes, sales-tax hikes, and even a commuter tax and financial-transaction tax. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s wish for a $474 million sales-tax increase to help pay for the county’s growing pension debt has been granted. The hike pushes the sales-tax rate back up to 10.25 percent in Chicago – the same as it was when Preckwinkle took office in 2010. And that’s not the only new tax residents have to face. Preckwinkle is just the latest local leader to usher in a tax increase. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel created a new tax earlier this...

BARNEGAT, N.J. – Teachers unions during the past decade have known their share of scandal. Add the case of Wayne Wedderman Jr. to the list. This Monday, June 29, Wedderman, treasurer of the Barnegat Education Association, pleaded guilty in Ocean County, New Jersey Superior Court to theft from the union. He had been arrested last November for stealing roughly a combined $23,000 from two union accounts in the wake of a county probe begun the previous month. A grand jury in February subsequently indicted Wedderman on two counts of thefts and one count of computer theft. Sentencing is scheduled for...

The presidents of America’s two largest unions have vowed to fight tooth and nail against a lawsuit now in front of the U.S. Supreme Court which, if successful, could strike down a California law permitting mandatory union membership. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit assert that the mandatory-dues law forces teachers to finance union political positions. Thus, the plaintiffs say, the law violates the First Amendment rights of teachers who disagree with the union’s politics. The Supreme Court granted certiorari for the suit, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, on Tuesday. “We are disappointed that at a time when big corporations and...

A couple of weeks ago, we reported that the war waged by the Jeffco teachers union against school district staff, particularly those in the communications office, was the most vitriolic in history. We couldn’t figure out why the union would be such abusive bullies to staff members – not even elected officials. And, now, the reason is clear. Documents recently uncovered show that the teachers union and other school staff were using the Jeffco Schools communications department as a de facto campaign headquarters – and had been since at least 2003 (see last picture of memo). With a contentious election...

Hillary Rodham Clinton told the president of the National Education Association that she would listen to teachers if elected president, a simple promise Monday that impressed the president of the nation’s largest labor union. “She used the most important word that I was personally looking for, the word ‘listen’,” said Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the NEA, which represents mostly K-12 teachers and paraprofessionals and has 3 million members. Garcia met privately with Clinton, a Democrat who is running for president, at NEA headquarters as part of the union’s endorsement process for the 2016 campaign. The NEA has invited both...

Hours after a chaotic end to the 2015 legislative session, Gov. Mark Dayton said he wants to summon lawmakers back to the Capitol to fix an "insufficient" education funding bill. Dayton renewed his promise Tuesday to veto the $17 billion spending bill that had yet to cross his desk, noting it left out his top priority of universal preschool. That means lawmakers, who came within $25 million of a deal that didn't materialize before the end of the legislative session Monday, will have to come back to St. Paul in the coming weeks for a special session held somewhere other...

14 hours after the 2015 session wrapped up, Governor Mark Dayton addressed the media and confirmed what most of us already knew; he is going to send the education bill back to lawmakers. The biggest sticking point is the measure didn't include his request for $171 million in additional funding for universal prekindergarten which he says will help 47,000 four-year- olds get a head start on education. The House and Senate passed the bill on Monday, despite an earlier warning from the Governor. The Governor says it's astonishing with a $1.9 billion surplus the legislature didn't include his request and...

Two of the country’s most powerful and politically influential labor unions are backing President Obama in the recent court challenge to his 2014 executive action on illegal immigration, saying they support the president’s effort because "undocumented workers" need more workplace protection and their participation helps the U.S. economy. The AFL-CIO and the National Education Association on Monday each filed so-called amicus briefs in a federal appeals court case in which Texas and 26 other states are challenges the president’s 2014 memorandum on illegal immigration. The memorandum essentially expands work authorization and delayed-deportation programs for illegal immigrants. And it provides similar...

ATLANTA — After more than five years of controversy and five months of testimony, a prosecutor used seven words on Monday to recap the accusations against the dozen Atlanta educators seated in a courtroom here. “They cheated,” the prosecutor, John E. Floyd, told the jurors in Fulton County Superior Court. “They lied. And they stole.” Mr. Floyd’s scornful summary came near the start of what will be days of closing arguments centered on whether significant increases in standardized test scores in Atlanta’s public schools came about because of endemic cheating and what prosecutors say was criminal misconduct that included racketeering....

Denver Public Schools had four times the number of administrators as any other large metro area districts last year, and salaries and benefits for those staffers are $22 million more than the next largest metro district, Colorado Department of Education figures show. The teachers’ union president reviewed the data Watchdog.org obtained and said the nearly $68 million paid to DPS administrators would be better spent on students. “We need to be talking about keeping dollars closer to classroom when it comes to public education,” said Henry Roman, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. “Should they be putting the money...

KING, Wis. — At the old union hall here on a recent afternoon, Terry Magnant sat at the head of a table surrounded by 18 empty chairs. A members meeting had been scheduled to start a half-hour earlier, but the small house, with its cracked walls and loose roof shingles, was lonely and desolate. “There used to be a lot more people coming,” said Magnant, a 51-year-old nursing assistant, sighing. The anti-union law passed here four years ago, which made Gov. Scott Walker a national Republican star and a possible presidential candidate, has turned out to be even more transformative...