Free Republic

Coordinated lawsuits are targeting schools and parents across the country. Biden launched his 2024 presidential campaign with an ad attacking Republicans for keeping a book featuring a 10-year-old performing sex acts out of schools. “’Lawn Boy‘, one of the books shown in the Biden ad, includes lines like, “I was ten years old, but it’s true. I put Doug Goble’s ____ in my mouth.” According to Biden, whose administration had previously colluded to investigate parents rallying against sexualizing schoolchildren with graphic materials like these as domestic terrorists, anyone opposed to having ‘Lawn Boy’ in schools is a “MAGA extremist”. While...

On the last day of 2015 the longest serving member of President Obama's Cabinet, Arne Duncan, quietly stepped down from his official position as what the Washington Post called "the most powerful education secretary in U.S. history." The federal government now provides about 10 percent of the money spent on public schools, and Duncan used that money, to an extent never before, to impose his will on local schools. Arne's departure is a good time to review what's wrong with America's public schools and how the federal government has made them worse. Instead of giving an account of his stewardship,...

When someone hears bureaucratic terms like “compliance, mandates and penalties,” they might think of the EPA, the IRS, or these days, the Department of Health and Human Services. But another federal government department is fast adopting the language of strict and onerous regulation. Annoyed that Indiana wants to extricate themselves from the Common Core education standards, the U.S. Department of Education is erecting procedural obstacles to make this as difficult possible. At stake for Hoosiers is $200 million in federal education funds. The Obama Administration is using “No Child Left Behind” waivers to warn Indiana officials of the penalties they...

President Barack Obama’s unprecedented initiative, known as the Insider Threat Program, is sweeping in its reach. It has received scant public attention even though it extends beyond the U.S. national security bureaucracies to most federal departments and agencies nationwide, including the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration and the Education and Agriculture departments. It emphasizes leaks of classified material, but catchall definitions of “insider threat” give agencies latitude to pursue and penalize a range of other conduct.

I’m still waiting for the Hitler quote. Or is there a minimum number of people that a dictator has to murder before he gets placement on a part of the Department of Education website devoted to kids. This isn’t a generic quote about education being a good thing. It’s actually a quote about the need for Communist indoctrination among Communist Party members. The full quote that the Department of Education cut down comes at the end of an essay on “The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War” “Whoever refuses to study these problems seriously and carefully...

In February, Texas announced that the state, along with the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum (TESCCC,) would enact major changes to the controversial curriculum management system dubbed CSCOPE. The system received a litany of complaints from faculty members and parents alike concerning its lack of transparency (parents were allegedly not permitted to review lesson-plans), lack of oversight from the State Board of Education, and for allegedly imposing oppressive working conditions for faculty members. CSCOPE was created so that teachers could frame their year around teaching points required by the state. Lessons, which are written by CSCOPE staff and current and...

<p>Children at Park Elementary School went home with a letter today explaining there was a disruption in school. Seven year old Josh Welch, and his father, say the disruption lead to a two day suspension for the second grader in Brooklyn Park.</p>

How did the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania get along from the beginning of the Republic in 1787 until 1978 — 191 years — and yet manage to educate its kids without the existence of the U.S. Department of Education? And, being one who is a graduate of both a Pennsylvania public high school and a Pennsylvania private college (Franklin and Marshall College, as it happens, dates from 1787) — how did the Commonwealth manage to educate the bulk of those kids well? Kids from all economic backgrounds, all races and both genders? The response will surely come — as it does...

HERE’S a story that is so screwy it sounds like a script from “The Simpsons,” but it’s real, and it’s about our federal government at work. That’s what makes it so scary. At 6 a.m. last Tuesday, a good citizen, Kenneth Wright of Stockton, Calif., was awakened by the clamor of about 15 armed SWAT team members breaking through the front door of his house. Wearing only his boxer shorts as he came downstairs, Wright was grabbed by the neck and put down on his lawn with an officer’s knee on his back. His kids, ages 3, 7, and 11...

Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn blasted the Education Department Wednesday for what he called “very significant inappropriate behavior in tipping hedge funds on short selling private education” and called on a key Senate panel to investigate the matter. Coburn was referring to documents released last week by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a watchdog group that has called for federal authorities to investigate market manipulation by famous Wall Street short-seller Steven Eisman. Coburn said the charges even could result in jail time for Education Department officials. “Utilization of facts in the Department of Education in advantaging investors...

When he led the Chicago schools, Arne Duncan kept a list of all the big shots who asked for help in getting certain children into the city's best public schools. The Chicago Tribune has reported that Duncan, now Obama's Secretary of Education, created a back door appeals system that helped the children of the Politically connected get first dibs on the best school slots. The list that Duncan kept included a compilation of politicians and influential business people who interceded on behalf of children during Duncan's tenure. It includes 25 Chicago aldermen, House Speaker Michael Madigan's daughter Illinois Attorney General...

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT - XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID - 14" LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts. The required date of delivery is March 22, 2010. Interested sources must submit detailed technical capabilities and...