Free Republic

We experienced an aggressive protest at UC Davis, but this is part of a disturbing, growing trend of censorship of conservative speech on college campuses. This is an extended version of an article from our last printed newsletter. Warning: This blog post includes strong language when directly quoting leftist protesters. On February 29th through March 1st at UC Davis, we faced our most aggressive, persistent, and unreasonable protest yet. As many of you know, our preferred way of doing outreach is to set up a simple poll table that asks questions like, “Should Abortion Remain Legal?” and provide options for...

The debate over the future of Detroit’s public schools took a nasty turn over the weekend when the editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press called for Republican state legislators to be murdered for disagreeing with him. “We really ought to round up the lawmakers who took money to protect and perpetuate the failing charter-school experiment in Detroit, sew them into burlap sacks with rabid animals, and toss them into the Straits of Mackinac,” wrote Stephen Henderson. The crime the lawmakers were guilty of? Supporting expanded choice for Detroit’s failing school system. “A sack. An animal. A lake. No...

News that a university lecturers’ union has banned straight, white men from attending their equality conferences in a bid to create “safe spaces” is deeply depressing. News that a university lecturers’ union has banned straight, white men from attending their equality conferences in a bid to create “safe spaces” is deeply depressing. ....excluding straight, white men from taking part in these conferences completely undermines their point. How are people expected to tackle minority issues when, in the most crass manner, one of the root causes of that problem is specifically excluded from participating – as though it didn’t exist? It...

Some female high school runners are questioning the fairness of the Alaska state track meet results after a biological male made it to the finals in the 100 meter and 200 meter dashes. Haines High School senior Nattaphon Wangyot, an immigrant from Thailand, was born male but identifies as female. She was allowed to compete on girls’ teams because the Alaska School Activities Association allows individual districts to decide how to handle transgender athletes on teams. Haines’ policy states “For the purposes of gender identification for interscholastic activities, the district will consider the gender identity based on the student’s consistent...

Philadelphia is the latest major school system to add Muslim holidays to its official calendar, but Americans with school-age children still aren’t sure that’s such a good idea, although support's up from a year ago. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 50% of American Adults with children of elementary or secondary school age oppose adding major Muslim holidays to the public school calendar in their community. Thirty-three percent (33%) favor adding these holidays to the official school list. Seventeen percent (17%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording,

With her campaign sinking in the polls, Hillary Clinton has launched a desperate attack against Trump University to deflect attention away from her deep involvement with a controversial for-profit college that made the Clintons millions, even as the school faced serious legal scrutiny and criminal investigations. In April 2015, Bill Clinton was forced to abruptly resign from his lucrative perch as honorary chancellor of Laureate Education, a for-profit college company. The reason for Clinton’s immediate departure: Clinton Cash revealed, and Bloomberg confirmed, that Laureate funneled Bill Clinton $16.46 million over five years while Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. pumped at least...

People sometimes tell me they would never send their children to a public university because the campuses are overrun with liberal feminists. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of these campuses are overrun with leftists posing as liberal feminists, not true liberal feminists. There’s a huge difference. A recent evaluation I found on Rate My Professors illustrates the distinction: "I took Mike Adams' class because I read his articles and heard about how horrific he was. And the truth is that he is by far the best professor I've ever had. He is hysterically funny and ridiculously smart....

Logan Autry, a nine-year-old from Fresno, California, is a big Donald Trump fan. However, his school is now blocking his right to wear a Trump hat. Autry was told by school officials his hat “brings negative emotions to the other children who don’t like him.” Autry’s hat is actually signed by the Republican candidate himself, so the hat is something cherished by Autry which he loves to wear a lot. He wore it to school three days in a row. On Friday before the weekend began, Autry was asked to leave school early because of the amount of “disturbances” being...

The University of Kansas has added a new dean to oversee diversity, equality, and inclusion for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Jennifer Hamer will start her appointment as Associate Dean on July 1st. Hamer is currently a professor in African and African-American Studies at KU. Officials told 13 NEWS that Hamer will work to strengthen retention of underrepresented students and faculty.

High school girls in Alaska are crying foul after a male sprinter took home all-state honors in girls’ track and field. According to local reports, it was the first time in Alaskan history that a male athlete competed in the girls’ state championships. Haines senior Nattaphon Wangyot advanced to the state finals in the 100-meter and 200-meter events. He won fifth place in the 100-meter dash and third place in the 200-meter. In both events, he competed against girls as young as ninth grade. One of the girls Wangyot beat out for a slot at the state meet, Hutchison runner...

A Texas teacher turned herself in to authorities this week after she allegedly sexually assaulted a 13-year-old student and then had an abortion to cover it up. Alexandria M. Vera, 24, allegedly had an on-going relationship with a 13-year-old male student while she was teaching eighth-grade English at Stovall Middle School near Houston, Texas. Vera turned herself into police on Wednesday, posted bond and was released, The Woodlands Villager reports. She is charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child, a felony, according to police. According to court documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle, Vera said she and the boy...

Washington State public schools have approved health education learning standards that include teaching gender expression to kindergarteners. The new K-12 health and physical education learning standards were quietly adopted by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) on March 25 without issuance of public notice or press release, according to the Daily Caller. The Daily Caller reports that the controvesial standards will include teaching "Self-Identity" — which includes educating students on numerous ways to express gender — to students in kindergarten. According to the state’s health education glossary, gender is defined as “a social construct based on emotional, behavioral,...

Editor's note: This column was co-authored by David Wojick, head of DEWA, a cognitive science and policy analysis consultancy. In an outrageous fit of activism the Portland School Board has banned the teaching of climate science. Of course they have not banned climate science by name, but their new order effectively bans teaching much of what we know about climate, especially the potential role of natural variability in global warming and climate change. In fact they appear to have ruled out the teaching of climate science that is specifically required by the State of Oregon. This is bad news for...

A public school in California ordered a 7-year-old boy to stop handing out Bible verses during lunch – and they dispatched a deputy sheriff to the child’s home to enforce the directive. “This is a clear, gross violation of the rights of a child,” said Horatio Mihet, a Liberty Counsel attorney representing the first-grader who attends Desert Rose Elementary School in Palmdale. They are also representing his parents, Christina and Jaime Zavala.

Whether we've got the time, or not, we have to educate, and we have to implement the battle tactics of a republic - not that of a democracy. Otherwise, the period through which we reside in bondage may be fiercer, and longer in time “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”—Benjamin Franklin “A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.”—James Madison At a meeting of patriots I attended, where the attendees were the kind of people who desire to either reclaim the republic, or survive...

DENVER -- A first-year Denver elementary school teacher was placed on leave from her classroom with just a month left in the school year, but Denver Public Schools won’t say why. Parents and former co-workers of Gabrielle Campiformio say she should have been removed at the beginning of the school year, not the end. During a monthlong investigation, the FOX31 Denver Problem Solvers learned Campiformio never had a Colorado teaching license and was suspected of being under the influence of drugs in the classroom by former co-workers and some parents. Cellphone footage shot by Campiformio’s last teaching assistant, who requested...

With her campaign sinking in the polls, Hillary Clinton has launched a desperate attack against Trump University to deflect attention away from her deep involvement with a controversial for-profit college that made the Clintons millions, even as the school faced serious legal scrutiny and criminal investigations. In April 2015, Bill Clinton was forced to abruptly resign from his lucrative perch as honorary chancellor of Laureate Education, a for-profit college company. The reason for Clinton’s immediate departure: Clinton Cash revealed, and Bloomberg confirmed, that Laureate funneled Bill Clinton $16.46 million over five years while Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. pumped at least...

Short, intense directed apprenticeships that teach students how to learn on their own to mastery are the future of higher education. So it turns out sitting in a chair for four years doesn't deliver mastery in anything but the acquisition of staggering student-loan debt. Practical (i.e. useful) mastery requires not just hours of practice but directed deep learning via doing of the sort you only get in an apprenticeship. The failure of our model of largely passive learning and rote practice is explained by Daniel Coyle in his book The Talent Code (sent to me by Ron G.), which upends...

No, this is not from The Onion. In an apparent attempt to make math more relevant to the young people of Alabama, a teacher at Burns Middle School in Mobile, required eighth-graders to take a math quiz that drew complaints from parents about inappropriate themes and racist overtones.As The Washington Post reports, nearly 900 students are enrolled at Burns Middle School, about 50 percent of them black and 40 percent white, according to state data. Forty-three percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. "Dwayne pimps 3 ho’s," reads one question on the quiz given to students at Burns Middle School...

By fall 2017 Washington state public schools will begin teaching gender expression to kindergarteners under newly-approved health education learning standards that designate sexual health a “core idea” of public K-12 education. While some aspects of sexual health aren’t taught K-12 (HIV prevention begins in fourth grade), one component of sexual health titled “Self-Identity” begins in kindergarten, where students will be expected to “Understand there are many ways to express gender." The state’s health education glossary defines gender as “A social construct based on emotional, behavioral, and cultural characteristics attached to a person’s assigned biological sex.” Gender expression, meanwhile, is defined...