Free Republic

After wasting millions of dollars on losing Democratic candidates in this month’s midterm elections, the American Federation of Teachers has completely gone off the deep end and banned Coca-Cola and Coke products from its events and facilities. The teachers union — America’s second largest — based its prohibition on America’s best product and, certainly, its best export, on allegations of human rights violations that were described in a trio of books published several years ago... Larry Sand, president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network, a group that frequently stands athwart teachers unions, spells out the motivation more clearly: ”Obviously, they...

NODAWAY COUNTY, Mo. – A homeschooling family has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit after they say their home was illegally searched by the sheriff’s department. The Home School Legal Defense Association is aiding Laura and Jason Hagan. Their house was raided by Nodaway County Sheriff Darren White and Chief Sheriff’s Deputy David Glidden.

The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation announced today that Brighton Area Schools and the local union “have removed illegal language from a contract in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of a Brighton High School teacher who said the union and district were violating his freedoms under Michigan’s right-to-work law.” The union president for the Brighton Education Association blasted the lawsuit when it was filed last week. "It would behoove Mr. Neuman and the Mackinac Center to check their facts before filing and publicizing this lawsuit that is 100 percent untrue," Ellen Lafferty told the Livingston Daily Press & Argus....

Eighty-eight teachers over the last decade have been permanently removed from Colorado classrooms for sexual improprieties – the vast majority violating young victims from their own schools. ... not a single teacher lost their license for simply being a weak educator of children. To get decertified, records show it usually takes felony-level criminal allegations or lying on the teaching certificate application about lesser crimes. Karla Danzeisen says she spent years teaching Spanish to Denver high school students in a fog of pain pills, cocaine and methamphetamines. She told Halsne, “I was using drugs every day. I was going to teach...

The National Education Association is highlighting October as “Bullying Prevention Month.” "I hope to never hear an educator or a parent or a Sunday school teacher say to a frightened bullied child, 'Just ignore it.' Schools that are seeing a decrease in bullying are not ignoring it. They are acting," NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia said, according to the NEA website. Kudos to the union for focusing on the problem, but it might be taken a little more seriously if its rhetoric didn’t ring so hollow. When it comes to public school governance, the NEA and its state and local...

Two former school district employees, including the one who oversaw its affirmative action policies, filed race discrimination suits in September, saying they were fired because they're not Hispanic. Bernice Marshall, the former human resources manager, and Edmund Treadway, the former transportation manager, argue in Superior Court filings that the Perth Amboy School District is favoring Hispanic job candidates and employees. "No one's paying attention to the kids," said Marshall, who is African-American

Taxpayers on hook for millions in retirement benefits unrelated to teaching . Thanks to a loophole created by the Illinois legislature, retired teacher union leaders are getting pension credit for the years they did union work after leaving the classroom. The arrangement has put taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars in retirement benefits unrelated to teaching, and further drained an already overburdened state pension fund. ... The union bosses collecting the payouts had jobs at the National Education Association (NEA), the Illinois Education Association (IEA) and the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) after their teaching careers. Most got...

Two teachers have taken Pennsylvania’s largest teachers union to court over its attempt to decide which charities may be supported by teachers as an alternative when they decline to join the union on religious grounds. The teachers, Chris Meier from Lancaster County and Jane Ladley from Chester County, are required—as a condition of employment—either to be a member of the Pennsylvania State Education Association or pay a nonmember “fair share” fee of $435. Last spring, PSEA accepted Meier and Ladley’s status as religious objectors. In lieu of paying membership dues, state law instructed the teachers to pay a “fair share”...

Opponent Mary Burke weighed down by jobs plan plagiarism allegationsMary Burke weighed down by jobs plan plagiarism allegations. Gov. Scott Walker is casting himself as a turnaround artist, seeking re-election with a pitch to voters that he revamped the state’s spending and business climate in just four years. For a governor with presidential aspirations, it’s a case he’s likely preparing for a national audience as well — but first he’ll have to get through a tighter-than-expected re-election race against Democrat Mary Burke, a former state secretary of commerce. As if that wasn’t enough, analysts say that his race could also...

Speaking at the National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver on July 3rd, Colorado Education Association (CEA) President Kerrie Dallman referred to the school district of Jefferson County (JeffCo) – where teachers have staged a “sick-out” and students left classes to protest throughout last week – as one of three in her state in which the teachers’ union was “working against hostile school boards.” “I also want to say thank you to the staff and leaders from the 18 states around the country who were sending in 48 staff under the NEA shared staffing...

Nearly a decade ago, voters approved a $25 million annual property tax increase for Denver Public Schools to fund performance and retention pay for teachers who help students learn. But now, 90 percent of eligible DPS teachers are receiving the additional compensation, according to a database obtained by Watchdog.org under state open records laws. And that’s in a district where this year 22 percent of teachers were deemed as not achieving the “effective” teaching standard, DPS data shows. Critics say the ProComp tax increase was always about collecting more tax revenue for the district than rewarding teachers who truly help...

As the House Select Committee on Benghazi prepares for its first hearing this week, a former State Department diplomat is coming forward with a startling allegation: Hillary Clinton confidants were part of an operation to “separate” damaging documents before they were turned over to the Accountability Review Board investigating security lapses surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.

The school teachers lounge is a respite from more than just bratty kids. It’s a safe zone from the long arm of Michelle Obama’s food police. Students are already revolting against the newly-implemented school snack regulations that affect what is sold in vending machines. They will probably be equally upset to learn the vending machine just across the hall – in the teachers lounge – is exempt from the regulations.

Rebecca Friedrichs, a teacher and former member of the California Teachers Association, spoke at the event at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 12, 2014. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr) (CNSNews.com) – Teachers who left labor unions connected with their jobs said on Tuesday that they felt “bullied” for their opposition to compulsory membership and payment of dues that funded political activities. “We literally felt like little children being bullied on a playground,” Rebecca Friedrichs, a teacher and former member of the California Teachers Association, said at the event at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. Friedrichs, who is also...

The teachers’ union representing the Douglas County school system has lost one-quarter of its membership since last year, signaling a growing frustration within the ranks that dues are used to finance politics instead of professional development. The significant drop in membership of the Douglas County Federation (DCF) was revealed in a July 21 letter from the board of education to Courtney Smith, union president, and was based on the union’s most recently released tax returns. The letter pointed to the drop in membership as undeniable proof that teachers had chosen the district over the union and the need for major...

Teachers unions are struggling to protect their political clout, but as the midterm elections approach, they’re fighting back with their most popular asset: the teachers themselves. Backed by tens of millions in cash and new data mining tools that let them personalize pitches to voters, the unions are sending armies of educators to run a huge get-out-the-vote effort aimed at reversing the red tide that swept Republicans into power across the country in 2010. The unions have plenty of money: They spent $69 million on state races in 2010 and are likely to top that this year. But as they...

ORLANDO – A federal judge has given a secular organization the green light to distribute more atheistic and anti-Christian materials to Florida public school students, in spite of the materials’ graphic content and offensive language. As previously reported, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) learned last year that a Christian ministry had made Bibles available to Orlando high school students on “Religious Freedom Day.” To counter the Bible distribution, FFRF sought permission from the school district to give students a variety of atheistic and anti-Christian materials. According to reports, the Orange County School Board permitted FFRF to distribute several books...

The new president of the largest teachers union in the country will become the voice of roughly 3 million teachers at perhaps the most critical moment in the National Education Association’s history. First item on the agenda: Win back the public. Union watchers say the newly elected Lily Eskelsen García — a former school cafeteria worker teacher, folk singer and Utah teacher of the year — has a “hell of a job” ahead of her. She faces court cases challenging teacher tenure and job protections, the defection of historically loyal Democrats, growing apprehension over the Common Core, diminishing ranks, public...

Teacher isn’t fired after giving teen gifts, sending ‘love’ texts By Susan Edelman A Queens middle-school teacher let a 14-year-old student drive his car, gave him cash and expensive gifts, and exchanged hundreds of texts behind his parent’s back. But, over the objections of the outraged parents and principal, the teacher can keep his job, an arbitrator has ruled. James Rampulla Jr., 44, who taught at Irwin Altman MS 172 in Floral Park, sent some of the 513 texts to the boy after 11 p.m. and included the words “I love you,” according to evidence presented at the teacher’s administrative...

the state’s ability-to-function-in-a-modern-economy rate among graduates hovers at a dismal 37 percent. That is, according to the state Department of Education, only 37 of every 100 students who entered high school in 2009, and stayed long enough to graduate, learned enough by last June to do college-level academic work — or to enter the workforce in any meaningful way. And in New York City, the ratio was one in four. So let’s cut to the chase: If 75 percent of New York high-school seniors get diplomas, but only 37 percent are academically or economically functional ... Per-student spending — just...