Free Republic

Our hearts are broken yet again by the senseless mass killings in community after community by dangerous people with access to dangerous weapons designed to kill as many people as quickly as possible. At this writing, 58 concert goers dead in Las Vegas. Over 500 wounded. Several educators are among the victims. And millions terrified and in trauma that it could happen again. There’s much to do, but the first thing is to comfort those who lost their friends and family members. So many want to help, and there is an immediate need of donations of dollars, blood and hugs.Here’s...

California has spent tens of billions of extra dollars on its K-12 school system in recent years on promises that its abysmal levels of academic achievement – especially those of disadvantaged children – would be improved. And what have those massive expenditures – a 50 percent increase in per-pupil spending – and a massive reworking of school curricula accomplished? Fewer than half of California’s children are meeting English standards and fewer than 38 percent are making the grade in math. Not much, the latest results from annual testing indicate.

Being a teacher means instilling a lifelong love of learning in students and providing them with the tools and support they need, and it also means advocating for students, public education, and our profession. The NEA’s recent “Black Student Leader Day” was all about exposing aspiring educators to lobbying as well as grassroots organizing for racial and social justice. This kind of outreach to aspiring African American teachers is essential at a time when the number of black teachers is declining.

In an article I posted here in July, I lamented the fact that the National Endowment for the Humanities had funded the research for Professor Nancy MacLean’s hatchet job of a book entitled Democracy in Chains. I was sure that the government’s largesse was not limited to just this nasty book and therefore was not surprised when I came across this article by Christine Roe, “From Cactus Theater to the Met, US Government Pours Hundreds of Millions Into Well-Heeled Arts.” Based on a new report from that invaluable organization, Open the Books, Roe highlighted numerous cases where federal money had...

#DefendDACA : Educators Urge Congress to pass the Dream Act of 2017 NOW.

I have the best job in the whole wide world: I’m a teacher who gets to advocate for kids and for the work NEA members do, no matter what our job titles, to cultivate students’ curiosity and set them off toward fulfilling, successful futures. On September 8 at the National Press Club Headliners Luncheon, I’ll get the chance to speak about all of that, along with the challenges we face and how we uplift public education in the pro-voucher Trump era.I’m humbled by the company I’m in. Past luncheon speakers have included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Garrison Keilor,...

They are the schools Mayor de Blasio doesn’t mention. At 32 city elementary and middle schools, the average English-math proficiency rate on state exams has not exceeded 10 percent of students for four years in a row. Seventeen of these schools — which enroll nearly 10,000 kids — have been part of the mayor’s signature Renewal program, which has spent $582 million on teacher training, social services and an extra hour a day of instruction. Four did so poorly that the city Department of Education closed them in June. ... Families for Excellent Schools, a pro-charter-school group that analyzed the test...

“This is not a drill,” NEA President Lily Eskelsen García told the 2017 NEA Representative Assembly. “We stand in a dangerous place. We stand between a profiteer and his profits. We have a president who resides at the dangerous intersection of arrogance and ignorance and travels with a moral compass that always points to his own self-interest.” In her keynote address on Sunday, Eskelsen García laid out in stark terms the dangers posed by the agenda of President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, but reminded the 7,500 delegates gathered in the Boston Convention Center that “we can win. We...

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...