Free Republic

Fewer than half of Michigan teachers will end up qualifying for retirement benefits under the state’s public school pension system. That means the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System, which carries a $26.5 billion unfunded liability, is not only a raw deal for taxpayers, it’s not a very good deal for most teachers either. According to one estimate, just 43.4 percent of teachers will stay in the system for the 10 years required to become fully vested. When teachers leave the system before that time — to move, switch jobs, stay home with children or for another reason — they...

More than 10,000 students are expected to benefit from a last-minute bill passed by legislators this week that makes Oregon only the second state (after Tennessee) to offer free community college. The idea, according to state Sen. Mark Hass (D-Beaverton), is that a lot of needy students who might like to attend community college are currently failing to apply for federal grants that could pay for much of their education. The new legislation, Senate Bill 81, offers a carrot: If eligible students apply for and receive federal grants for community college, Oregon will pay the balance of their tuition. The...

Detroit Public Schools has been in financial trouble for a long time, and ensuring that DPS can pay its bills is likely to require further state funding. As plans for fixing DPS are debated, school officials throughout Michigan have begun to worry that their state funding will be reduced when a bailout for DPS is finalized. What these officials don’t realize is that their districts are already paying to catch up on Detroit’s pension liabilities. Every school district is a cost-sharing member of the Michigan Public School Employee Retirement System, which is drastically underfunded. MPSERS costs are not calculated by...

What is wrong with the above picture?  Everything.  First, it gives the impression that small children gaining access to firearms is a big problem in this country.  It isn't.  The number of children under ten that fatally shoot themselves or others in firearm accidents each year is in the single digits.  Most of those are shot by an adult.  In a country of 313 million people and 347 million firearms, that is a remarkable safety record. So why the picture of a 4 year old with a revolver?  Simple.  Shock propaganda value aimed at the non-gun owner, and an...

It’s easy to point out which tactics won’t work to get American conservatives engaged in the fight against climate change. Recently I’ve critiqued arguments that climate hawks should extend a welcoming hand to right-wingers and that Pope Francis’s climate change encyclical will move any Republicans to embrace the issue. But merely knocking down others’ arguments is insufficient when they are trying to solve a real problem. And this problem is quite real: In order to pass comprehensive climate change legislation federally — and to get the right policies also working in tandem at the state and local levels — some...

Anti-gay comments could ‘trigger a thought’ in teachers’ minds about possible radicalisation says Nicky Morgan as she outlines anti-terror plans. Mrs Morgan said comments by children that they consider homosexuality to be “wrong” or “evil” could “trigger” concerns from teachers under guidance designed to help schools detect possible radicalisation. Traditionalist Christians said Mrs Morgan’s remarks implied that anyone who raised their children in line with conservative religious teaching on sexuality would now be viewed with suspicion. It follows moves to close two Christian schools after they were judged to have failed the Government’s new “British Values” tests introduced in the...

Cass Sunstein, the former Obama administration “regulatory czar,” has warned the campus crusade against “microaggressions” could potentially be enforced by a “new cadre of thought police.” […] Sunstein chastises the University of California at Berkeley for its “willingness to consider disciplining people for making one of a large number of statements, many or all of which most Americans would consider harmless or even correct.” He also mentions another university, the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, has taken a stand against microaggressions by publishing a list of “examples of racial microaggressions.” …

Tom DeLay appeared on Newsmax TV yesterday, where he told host Steve Malzberg that, just as he had predicted, all Hell is now breaking loose because of the Supreme Court ruling striking down gay marriage bans. Things are now so out of control, DeLay said, that he even knows about a "secret memo" from the Justice Department aimed at legalizing "12 new perversions," including bestiality and pedophilia. "We've already found a secret memo coming out of the Justice Department," DeLay claimed. "They're now going to go after 12 new perversions, things like bestiality, polygamy, having sex with little boys and...

“What I’ve got is F*****G Golden,” said jailed Democrat Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. He was referring to his opportunity to appoint an IL senator to Congress after then Senator Barack Obama became President in 2009. Well, pardon my hubris, but what I have is Golden also, in today’s Hades of Politically Correct Journalism. I have a FIFTIES JOURNALISM DEGREE from that same state, Illinois. Therefore, permit me to advise you budding cub reporters and “J Skul” students of some imperatives I was taught way back when Dinosaurs roamed Wright Street into Greg Hall. “Just the Facts, ma’am; Just the Facts,”...

As we sit in the midst of this progressive purge of our heritage, judging every instance of historical indiscretion beneath the microscope of political correctness, perhaps the most relevant question has yet to be asked: what would our forefathers think of America today? Yes, what would the architects of our liberties, values and government think about abortion, gay marriage, transgendered parents, internet pornography, strip clubs, drug abuse, urban poverty and violence, communism, media collusion, Hollywood, pop culture, video games, public education, petulant youth, absentee parents, modern feminism, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Benghazi, disparagement of military personnel, public surveillance, censorship, affirmative...

The University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point has released a list of microaggressions it expects new faculty to read. The list can be found on the university's official website.The titled of the document is "Examples of Racial Microaggressions" and outlines types of "racist microaggressions," examples of them, and what they are "actually" saying. In the section "Color Blindness: Statements that indicate that a White person does not want to acknowledge race," the quote, "America is a melting pot" is said to be racist. According to the document, whites try to force others to "assimilate/acculturate to the dominant culture" when they say...

A network of pastors is expressing concern about the ongoing influence of Islam into local communities, most recently a public school in Pennsylvania. The American Pastors Network points to a recent workshop in Lebanon, where 50 public school educators visited a local mosque to learn about the Islamic religion - all at taxpayers' expense. Pennsylvania pastor Gary Dull, an American Pastors Network board member, says that's just one example of how Islamic ideology is creeping into classrooms and local governments across America.

The Michigan Education Association is directing people to a website that insults and vilifies a 37-year member who authored a widely distributed letter explaining why she wants to leave the state’s largest teachers union. Lansing School District teacher Mary Davenport wrote a letter that was sent to thousands of teachers to alert them that if they want to quit the union it would only allow them to do so in the month of August. Many teachers have complained about this so-called August window. Since Davenport’s letter was distributed, the website MEAMatters.com has invited union members to respond online. The website...

Karen D. Twomey, a member of the Ferndale Public Schools Board of Education and a teacher in Bloomfield Hills Schools, and Thomas Pedroni, an associate professor at Wayne State University, make their own pitch on how to fix Detroit Public Schools in a recent guest article for the Detroit Free Press. Among the recommendations, they say the state should “invest in teaching staffing” and say “what little funding the district retains” is steered from the classroom to administrators. ForTheRecord says: Detroit Public Schools in 2013-14 spent 25 percent more than the state average on instructional salaries and benefits. DPS spent...

A former Hillary Clinton campaign fellow is accusing the Democratic frontrunner of hypocrisy for relying on unpaid interns and fellows while publicly calling to for increased wages. Carolyn Osorio writes in a new USA Today opinion piece that she joined the campaign as a fellow after Clinton announced her bid in April, adding that she had to move to Nevada and work there for free. "I had hoped a trailblazer would be more willing to break the mold of indentured servitude that haunts my generation," she writes. "Finding out that Hillary perpetuates the exploitation known as unpaid internships was like...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) plans to sign two new laws on Wednesday that expand the rights of gun owners by removing a 48-hour waiting period for those looking to purchase a firearm and allowing off-duty or retired police officers to carry concealed weapons at public schools. This action will come one week after a suspected gunman shot and killed nine people in an African American church in South Carolina, yet again prompting a national discussion about gun laws in the U.S. Walker plans to sign the two pieces of legislation — Senate bills 35 and 70 — at a...

1) Conservatives are racist! Nonsense. Conservatives welcome all races and colors in our quest to defend our founding ideals. Likewise, we unilaterally reject divisive victimization propaganda used to incite animosity and discord along racial and economic lines. Although there are racist elements in all facets of America, such endeavors are intrinsically destructive and invite future bigotry upon yourself and peers. Why else would “racist” Republicans support Allen West, Ben Carson, Mia Love, and Marco Rubio, let alone embrace the lives and transcendent wisdom of Booker T. Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. and Thomas Sowell? Not supporting Barack Obama’s Marxist agenda...

<p>Charles Blow asks important questions, "Who radicalized Roof? Who passed along the poison? We must never be lulled into a false belief that racism is dying off with older people."</p> <p>Hi. Perhaps I am being naively simplistic, however, I am thinking if more people, in particular single females, begin to responsibly raise children who are fairly happy kids, maturing into teens and adults who DO NOT flood popular music with lyrics depicting hate, disrespect, violence, poison drug sales, and very little respect for females who more often than not, are characterized as witches and bhoers, or less than human, undeserving of respect, much like the ignorant Americans of our past who embraced the human ignorance we call racism...</p>

According to numbers taken from the Guttmacher Institute and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), some 53 million legal abortions were performed between 1973 and 2013 (inclusive). This number is an approximation as California, New Hampshire and Maryland have refused to supply state abortion numbers during recent years. It is known that the number of abortions has declined over the past several years, for example, from 1.31 million in 2000 to about 984,000 in 2013. Though liberals are undoubtedly distraught that, in a year to year comparison, nearly 300,000 escaped the convenience of wholesale genetic profiling, a few unadulterated whack-jobs...

Why Is Hillary Rodham Clinton Harming The American Composers and Performers She Once Loved? Mrs. Hillary Clinton unabashedly stated to the American public, “For a lot of well-meaning, open-minded white people, the sight of a young black man in a hoodie still evokes a twinge of fear." Mrs. Clinton, in his 2015 Grammy award winning rap performance, "I", American Rap Performance Artist Kendrick Lamar reveals, "I've been dealing with depression ever since an adolescent." In a January 20, 2011 LAWeekly interview (Google search), American rapper and Grammy winner Kendrick Lamar, born in 1987, the same year songwriter Suzanne Vega wrote...