Free Republic

FULL TITLE: The rise of homeschooling in West Virginia, Crouse: 'I've seen a shift in how people view home school' CHARLESTON — As all eyes turned to public education during the historic statewide teacher strike, more parents are choosing to pull their students out of school and educate them at home. Enrolling a child in private school has traditionally been the most popular alternative to public school. But in recent years, data shows there has been a surge in the number of home-schooled students. “I’ve seen a shift in how people view homeschool, for sure,” said Kathie Hess Crouse. “Just...

The standards for teaching Science, and History, to Arizona schoolkids are undergoing their first revisions in more than a decade. A committee of 100 educators, parents and community members hammered out the Science document in a year-long process. But the Department of Education made unexpected last-minute changes, shifting from big ideas to vocabulary words and watering down the concept of evolution. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny reports, some experts are alarmed. If you think back to your grade school science classes and Schoolhouse Rock episodes, you might remember memorizing a lot of vocabulary words. But science is more than words. It’s about...

By 2014, California was the top state in eighth-grade algebra enrollment. Common Core erased all those gains almost immediately ... Before Common Core came along, California parents, faculty, and officials spent years developing some of the best-ranked K-12 math requirements in the nation. One result of their careful work was more than tripling the number of eighth graders who ranked proficient in math, and quadrupling the number of eighth graders taking algebra. By 2014, California was the top state in the nation in eighth-grade algebra enrollment. That was the year Common Core went into place. It erased all those gains...

The he Broward school district’s repeated, emphatic — and it turns out, false — statements that Nikolas Cruz had not been in a controversial disciplinary program fit a pattern of an institution on the defensive and under siege. Facing significant legal and political exposure over the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the district has tried to keep information from the public and put out untrue and misleading statements, frustrating parents who say this is the time for maximum transparency.

Police were called to a school in Connecticut after a student built a gun out of Legos, according to a local news report. Authorities were called to Jepsen Magnet School in New Haven after a student, who has not been identified, “made the gun and started pointing it at the other kids,” FOX61 reported. In a statement, a spokesperson for New Haven Public Schools told the news station that “school leaders and local police partners were able to investigate and resolve the issue internally with use of restorative practices.”

The Tennesee meatpacker which allegedly hired almost 100 illegals also ensured that 160 additional children could be enrolled in local schools, according to a count conducted by a pro-migration group. The huge number of foreign children who were brought into Hamblen County lifts a curtain on hidden costs which rogue employers and illegals impose on American communities. The costs divert scarce resources from the children of poor Americans to the children of illegal immigrants — even as the wages paid to American parents are forced down by competition from the cheap-labor illegal migrants. In turn, most of the economic benefits...

An Oregon school district reportedly forced an LGBTQ student to read passages from the Bible as a form of punishment The World in Coos Bay, Ore., reports that the student's allegations were detailed by the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) in a March 6 letter to North Bend School District Superintendent Bill Yester. The ODE is investigating claims that an LGBTQ high school student was forced by a school administrator to read the Bible while they were being “disciplined,” according to The World. It reported that ODE officials are investigating whether the forced Bible reading violated the student's First Amendment...

A New Jersey high school is facing heat from students and parents over a new policy that either everyone makes the cheerleading squad or no one does. Hanover Park High School in East Hanover enacted the change after a parent complained his or her child didn’t make the team after tryouts last month. […] Some parents say when they complained about the new policy, the principal threatened to disband the 10-member squad. …

A South Carolina high school is warning parents not to clap or cheer at graduation - or risk getting slapped with a $1,000 fine. During a recent assembly at Greenville High School, students were shown a slide that told graduating seniors their parents and other family members could receive a citation for yelling at the upcoming graduation, the Greenville News reports. 'Since graduation is a dignified and solemn occasion, graduating seniors and their guests should behave appropriately,' the slide stated. 'Please ask your guests not to call out, cheer, whistle or applaud during the reading of names and presentation of...

COBB COUNTY, Ga. - A 17-year-old high school student is facing charges after police said he recorded two Harrison High students in a school bathroom. The bathroom stall was closed when Steven Bahner reached over with his phone and started recording a 15-year-old girl perform a sexual act on a 16-year-old boy, according to investigators. “You can’t get rid of that. That’s sort of how videos work these days. Electronically, once it’s online, it’s very, very hard to get rid of,” said Trevor Worthy, a Cobb County Schools alumnus.

SEX EDUCATION SHOULD not be outsourced to outside agencies, such as Catholic groups, said supporters of a new bill which seeks to overhaul such teaching in Irish schools. Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger said her legislation, if passed, seeks to remove religious ethos from sex education in schools. The proposed Bill comes following the minister’s announcement yesterday that a review of the sex education programme is to be undertaken. “The way sex education is taught to young people in school is not fit for purpose,” said the TD, who was flanked by members of the National Women’s Council, the Rape Crisis...

I want to share with you the most disturbing thing I have read in a very long time. You need to know about it. I learned about it via the Twitter feed of a UK radical feminist. In Britain, radical feminists, including TERFs (Trans-Exclusive Radical Feminists) are taking an insane amount of abuse from transgenders and their allies. But on that issue, they’re right. This particular feminist has uncovered something shocking — beyond shocking — about how pedophiles intend to use the same strategy that worked, and is working, for LGBTs, for the sake of legitimizing pederasty. Look:

A new study from the Public Religion Research Institute reveals just how badly social conservatives are losing the battle over marriage and sexuality. Not only do two-thirds of Americans polled support so-called gay marriage, but even among evangelicals, support is rapidly growing. The majority of evangelical youth now reject Christ’s teaching on the subject. Outcomes like this surprise too many of us because we underestimate both the power of rhetoric and the extent to which conservatives willingly submit ourselves and our children to it. Anyone who is competent in the art of rhetoric knows the value of “frame,” deliberately using the...

The latest screamfest from the various teacher's groups is that they're "grossly underpaid." Well, no. First, let's not forget that teachers are paid for 12 months but work 9. Indeed the "standard" school year is 180 days. The standard man-year of work is 2,000 hours -- 40 hours across 50 weeks. But 180 days is 1,440 hours, not 2,000, or 72% of a standard work-year. And before you talk about "overtime" do realize that professionals don't get paid overtime. I never did as a professional writing code or building networks for other people. It's a professional job, and is exempt...

A Florida father is challenging high-school officials over inappropriate content his daughter was forced to deal with in her anatomy class. Omar Austin, whose daughter attends Westside High School in Jacksonville, released a video on Facebook expressing his anger over the following graphic sexual scenario presented to his daughter in a homework assignment: “Ursula was devastated when her boyfriend broke up with her after having sex. To get revenge, she had sex with his best friend the next day. Ursula had a beautiful baby girl 9 months later. Ursula has type O blood, her ex-boyfriend is type AB blood, and...

California is about to implement compulsory new classes encouraging children as young as six to “question their sexual orientation and gender identity”, while teaching them how to use a range of vegetables for purposes other than for which they were created, and promoting deviance as “normal”. Acts too obscene to be presented on a Jewish news site are performed before and taught to California school children. YourNewsWire.com’s Baxter Dmitry reports on the California Healthy Youth Act in 2015, the controversial provisions of which are starting to take effect in classrooms. “Under the auspices of health,” Baxter writes, “the law says...

At this point, there is no doubt that the police in Broward County, Florida failed to keep the people safe. The rank and file cops on the street can’t be held responsible for everything. Leadership starts at the top and the Broward County Sherrif deserves a lot of the blame. But, so does the school board. The school officials failed in some alarming ways to protect the students in Parkland. For some reason, the media has failed to hold the school accountable. However, now one student journalist is taking matters into his own hands. From BizPac Review: The media has...

As thousands of Colorado school teachers get ready to descend on their state capitol this week to demand billions of dollars in education funding, lawmakers are proposing jailing them if they even consider going on strike. The proposed law pitched by two Republican legislators threatens jail time for any educator caught "directly or indirectly inducing, instigating, encouraging, authorizing, ratifying, or participating in a strike against any public school employer."The jail term proposed by the prime sponsors of the bill, state Sen. Bob Gardner and Rep. Paul Lundeen, is six months. "Clearly it's an attempt to limit the voices of educators,"...

Parents in Orange County, California may not opt their children out of lessons related to gender identity or sexual orientation, according to a memorandum written by the school district’s general counsel. “Parents who disagree with the instructional materials related to gender, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation may not excuse their children from this instruction,” read the memorandum from Ronald Wenkart to the Orange County Board of Education. A school district spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the memorandum sent to us by a parent.

America's taxpayer-funded schools have become the promoters of these unhealthy behaviors, while replacing traditional education California lawmakers are not only bulldozing classic liberal education, they are legislating more LGBT lifestyle and pornographic perversion in education curricula. At the same time, they are also trying to outlaw homeschooling, removing all doubt that the left is indoctrinating your kids, and using them as revolting sociological experiments. Friday April 27 is the annual GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) pro-homosexual “Day of Silence,” celebrated on K-12 public school campuses across the country. I remember my introduction to this agenda when my son’s...