Free Republic

The president of the country's largest labor union, Lily Eskelsen Garcia of the National Education Association, told delegates at her organization's annual gathering that they would not work with the Trump administration because the president and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos could not be trusted to do what is in the best interests of children. Eskelsen Garcia just addressed the 96th NEA Representative Assembly meeting in Boston, accusing President Donald Trump of residing "at the dangerous intersection of arrogance and ignorance" and labeled DeVos as "the queen of for-profit privatization of public education." She said in part: "Let me say this...

In the face of racism, anti-immigrant rhetoric and legislation, Islamophobia, trans-phobia, and a host of other phobias and –isms that affect millions of U.S. students and educators, NEA educators committed to racial and social justice are meeting in Boston this week during NEA’s annual Conference on Racial and Social Justice.“Every year at this conference, I’ve seen you choose to be in the room…You want to be the best human beings you can be. I’m telling you now—it’s not enough,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García Wednesday morning. “It’s not about you being a better person, it’s not about me being...

Socialist theater group has received $461,000 from the NEA The National Endowment for the Arts is spending $20,000 for a musical about a lesbian illegal immigrant who is in love with an ICE agent. The San Francisco Mime Troupe, a self-described socialist theater group, received the funding in the first round of grants awarded under the Trump administration. Jane Chu is the current chairman of the NEA, who was appointed by former president Barack Obama in 2014. The musical is entitled "WALLS!" and stars a "bad hombre," mocking a phrase used by Trump to describe criminal illegal aliens during a...

Despite spending more per pupil than all but two large school districts in America, at least half a dozen government schools in Baltimore were unable to produce one single student who was proficient in either English or math last year. The shocking results, uncovered by Project Baltimore, show a monumental tragedy unfolding in the city that represents a microcosm of the damage being inflicted on children across America. The proficiency tests put students in five categories, with four and five considered proficient, and one through three considered not proficient.

The professoriate is fighting what it perceives as federal budget cuts to higher education proposed by the Trump Administration. Yet and still, it is difficult to find those cuts in the Trump budget proposals. "We already knew from the Trump administration's initial 'skinny' budget proposal, released in March, that higher education would be on the chopping block," Kelly Hand writes on the academe blog maintained by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). "The fleshed-out budget proposal released on May 22 details cuts that would have a devastating impact on student aid, the arts and humanities, scientific research, and international...

BALTIMORE (WBFF) -- A Project Baltimore investigation has found five Baltimore City high schools and one middle school do not have a single student proficient in the state tested subjects of math and English.We sat down with a teen who attends one of those schools and has overcome incredible challenges to find success.Navon Warren grew up in West Baltimore. He was three months old when his father was shot to death. Before his 18th birthday, he would lose two uncles and a classmate, all gunned down on the streets of Baltimore.“I’ve lost a lot of people, so I’m used to...

Wherever you live in this country you will be impacted by these devastating cuts.These are billions and billions of dollars.

Not every good thing in life needs to be funded by the federal taxpayers. And removing federal subsidies for arts programs will not mean the death of art in America. Yet recipients of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts would have you believe that cutting $719,000 in federal spending on New Hampshire arts programs would crush painting, sculpture and music in the Granite State.

America's public education system is failing the citizens of Detroit, where the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund reports that 47% of people in Detroit are illiterate. In nearby suburbs, up to one-third are functionally illiterate. The report, titled "Addressing Detroit's Basic Skills Crisis" makes the problem seem as intractible as the Flint water crisis that is about to hit its third anniversary. Director Karen Tyler-Ruiz described that level of illiteracy to WWJ: "Not able to fill out basic forms, for getting a job — those types of basic everyday (things). Reading a prescription; what’s on the bottle, how many you should...

Hannah VanderHart ?@hmvanderhart What will be left after @realDonaldTrump and his team have gutted everything important from our government. #NEH #NEA #ACA #ETC Leigh Ellwood 3m3 minutes ago Leigh Ellwood ?@LeighEllwood Rita Mae Brown was able to write her early books thanks to NEA grants. Ending the NEA could silence many voices. Not good. Karissa Chen 4m4 minutes ago Karissa Chen ?@karissachen The Public Theater, where both Hamilton and Fun Home got its start, are helped by the NEA. Eliminating the NEA means thwarting the next Ham Steve Edwards 3m3 minutes ago Steve Edwards ?@The_Big_Quiet The National Endowment for the...

A group of moms in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., has decided to fight back against what they call the radical left-wing indoctrination that has infested the local school system. They call themselves the “Conservative Chicks” and one of their leaders contacted me after reading my new book, “The Deplorables’ Guide to Making America Great Again.”She realized it was time to take a stand after a teacher at the local high school led a classroom presentation on fascism that included a graphic portrayal comparing President Donald Trump to Hitler and Mussolini. That’s right, folks. A tenth-grade teacher at Saratoga Springs High School...

Several key Republican lawmakers are expressing support for the programs, which, since their near-death experiences during the culture wars of a generation ago, have taken pains to counter accusations of coastal elitism by making sure to distribute their grants widely across all 50 states. -snip Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican who is the chairwoman of a crucial Senate appropriations panel that oversees the endowments, said in a statement, “I believe we can find a way to commit to fiscal responsibility while continuing to support the important benefits that N.E.A. and N.E.H. provide.” Her backing, like that of some other...

President Donald Trump today released his “America First” budget blueprint which calls for slashing non-defense-related discretionary spending by $54 billion and completely eliminating funding for many independent agencies and federal programs. Among those that will be completely defunded are the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. “Our Budget Blueprint insists on $54 billion in reductions to non-Defense programs,” Trump said in the introduction to his budget blueprint. “We are going to do more with less, and make the government lean and accountable to the...

President Donald Trump made good on a long-time conservative goal in his first proposed budget Thursday morning, targeting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities for complete elimination. Trump’s budget would zero out the $445 million budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a substantial source of funding for programming and broadcast operations on public TV stations and NPR radio stations nationwide, per the Washington Post. The budget would also eliminate the budgets for both national endowments, which stood at $148 million each in 2016, as well as $230 million for the Institute...

Here’s a fact: In 2016, Earth reached its highest temperature on record, trouncing the record set just a year earlier in 2015, which beat the previous record set in 2014. Our planet is warming, and its temperatures are fast heading toward levels that scientists believe will threaten humans and the natural world. Another fact: Educators need to help students learn about climate change, caused by human activity. But how do we do it in a way that engages and inspires them?

Alexandria (United States) (AFP) - What does a day without women look like? The city of Alexandria, Virginia, just outside the US capital, found out on Wednesday as an avalanche of teacher requests for time off to mark International Women's Day forced it to close down its entire public school district. Alexandria's unprecedented decision -- announced two days ahead of time to give parents time to plan for the disruption -- appeared to be broadly well received in the progressive northern Virginia city.

LAUSD .. schools are under-enrolled. "There are places where we have schools that are basically four blocks away from each other — and at a time, that made sense," Rodriguez says. Now, he says, "Buildings built for 1,000 kids may have something like 400. "It's expensive." ... Today, LAUSD's enrollment is around 514,000, a number that the district estimates will fall below half a million by 2018. But L.A. Unified's costs have not gone down. They've gone up. This year's $7.59 billion budget is half a billion dollars more than last year's. The nation's second largest school district is facing...

The Smith family in DeWitt has endured more than its share of challenging circumstances. But having access to an online charter school has been a great help. During a single week in 2007, Sandy Smith was diagnosed with breast cancer and her son Andrew was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. After Andrew passed away at eight years old, the Smiths enrolled their two surviving children in a cyber school. “We thought this would be a great opportunity, a great fit for us, because we could take it with us wherever we were going, we would have teachers involved, and we’d...

The New York Times reported yesterday that the White House budget office has prepared a list of programs that could be eliminated in Trump’s first budget proposal. Among those programs are the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities and AmeriCorps. From the NY Times: Work on the first Trump administration budget has been delayed as the budget office awaited Senate confirmation of former Representative Mick Mulvaney, a spending hard-liner, as budget director. Now that he is in place, his office is ready to move ahead with a list of nine programs to eliminate,...

With the aid of D.C. School and U.S. Education Department staff, Education Sec. Betsy DeVos eluded screaming protesters blocking the door of a D.C. public school where she was scheduled to meet with education advocates on Friday. […] After the meeting, DeVos issued a defiant statement, saying she won’t let protesters keep her from doing her job of improving the U.S. educational system: “I will not be deterred in executing the vital mission of the Department of Education. No school door in America will be blocked from those seeking to help our nation’s school children.” …