Free Republic

It wouldn’t be the first progressive idea to be taken on by conservatives. A group of Bundestag members in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) have proposed offering parents a basic state income — independent of their own financial situation. The fixed monthly payment, the exact amount of which was not mentioned, would be tied to child care costs and would be subject to social insurance contributions. The payment, part of what the CDU calls its “family pact,” would also be paid out from birth until the child starts school, regardless of whether the parents send their children to kindergartens or...

Susan BerryNovember 18, 2016 An organization of parent activists, retired teachers, and other professionals from around the nation has released an open letter to President-elect Donald Trump, urging him to do all within his power to return control of education to parents. Parents Against Common Core, which consists mainly of the heads of state groups that have been fighting for repeal of the controversial standards, writes: Though primarily parents and not policy experts ourselves, there is no escaping the fact that our individual and group research, writing and lobbying efforts have caused Common Core to be either repealed or modified...

A 29-year-old man threatened to kill his parents because of how they voted, an arrest affidavit says. According to the affidavit, Chase Michael Carter "was highly upset because he was not happy with the election results." More News Headlines Twin charged for murder again after driving off cliff in crash that… 'David's Law' to be filed in Texas Legislature Monday Man arrested after allegedly killing woman in wrong-way accident Local airman accused of slapping 20-month-old, leaving bruise Carter's 27-year-old girlfriend told police that Carter on Wednesday got angry with his parents and threatened to kill them "for not voting his...

MONDAY, Nov. 14, 2016 -- Spanking and hitting children to discipline them has been on the decline among U.S. parents -- rich and poor alike -- since 1988, a new study finds. According to the researchers, the number of mothers with an average income level who considered physical discipline acceptable decreased from 46 percent to 21 percent over two decades. At the same time, mothers who felt timeouts were a better type of discipline rose from 51 percent to 71 percent, the investigators found. "Parents seem to be using more reasoning and nonphysical discipline strategies with children, which is...

Tuesday night (Sept. 20), 38-year-old Travon Williams lay dead on the pavement outside a small grocery store at the intersection of North Claiborne Avenue and Desire Street. Fatally shot, Williams had followed a grim pattern running through his family, a well-worn groove of untimely, violent deaths. According to those who knew him, Williams had spent the past few years of his life trying to build better relationships with his daughters -- and trying to free himself from a tragic legacy. At age 5, Williams lost his 24-year-old mother to gunfire at a Desire neighborhood barroom. Gretchen Williams of Desire was...

America, Hillary Clinton wants control of your children. The Democratic presidential nominee sent a collective chill down the spine of many parents in a disturbing Twitter post on Thursday.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- One strict rule at a high school has gone viral and sparked debate. Catholic High School for Boys posted a sign on Facebook six days ago, and it has now been shared more than 110,000 times. The message tells parents to turn around at the front door if they're bringing something for their sons. "If you are dropping off your son's forgotten lunch, books, homework, equipment, etc., please turn around and exit the building. Your son will learn to problem-solve." The school's principal Steve Straessle defended the rule. Straessle said, "It's simply to help boys avoid...

Five family members, including a 2-year-old toddler, were found dead in their home in a small Pennsylvania town in what authorities are describing as an apparent murder-suicide.

I just have a few words to say about my father. He recently passed away. I am doing something bad (in FR), because I am posting, and then going to bed. And hopefully falling asleep. Although I will have my tablet. So I won't be posting and running. ;) :) haven't slept much since my father died. I was just wondering, how do you deal with becoming an adult orphan? When there is no one you can call for advice? Whenever I see the Cubs, Sox, Blackhawks, Bulls, and later, "da Bears," I want to call him. I cannot even...

I saw this suggestion by someone who is concerned, apparently, about kids...

A north Alabama family is trying to pick up the pieces after six children lost their parents to separate circumstances in the same weekend. Jennifer and Toby Norsworthy were known as a loving and generous couple who put their family above all else. That family is quite extensive, with many of them traveling to Huntsville to be with them during this time. "Toby and Jennifer were all about family," said his mother, Tami Norsworthy. Jennifer Norsworthy, 40, had a history of blood clots. The family said one formed in her sleep last Friday. She was rushed to Madison Hospital where...

MAGNOLIA - Pick your child up from school and you could be charged with trespassing. That's the threat against parents at Bear Branch Elementary School in Magnolia ISD. This is the school's tactic to keep parents who live close to the school from walking on school grounds. Bear Branch is losing students over this pick up policy, that's been in place since the beginning of this school year. The principal has decided that no matter how close the student lives to the school, the student must either take the bus, or the parent must wait in a long car pickup...

Bear Branch Elementary School in Magnolia, Texas, is losing students — and it has nothing to do with the standard of teaching. The school principal, Holly Ray, has decided that parents who walk on school grounds are trespassing, meaning anyone who walks their kids to and from school could, effectively, be arrested. Wow. Way to make parents feel welcome, right?

A couple of months ago, Deerfield High School (DHS) in Deerfield, Illinois quietly changed a multi-stall girls restroom to a co-ed restroom. Worse still the administration has not notified either parents or students. Rumors are circulating that the administration chose secrecy over transparency in order to avoid controversy.

When Ronald Jackson found a text he thought was rude and inappropriate on his then-12-year-old daughter's phone in September 2013, he took the cell away. But the child's mother, Michelle Steppe, balked at his action -- and she called the police. Steppe and Jackson have not been a couple for years, and Steppe is now married to a Grand Prairie, Texas, police officer. When the police showed up at Jackson's door later that day and asked for the iPhone 4 back, Jackson refused. "At that point I decided the police don't interfere with my ability to parent my daughter," he...

In 2008, Ed Boland, a well-off New Yorker who had spent 20 years as an executive at a nonprofit, had a midlife epiphany: He should leave his white-glove world, the galas at the Waldorf and drinks at the Yale Club, and go work with the city’s neediest children. “The Battle for Room 314: My Year of Hope and Despair in a New York City High School” (Grand Central Publishing) is Boland’s memoir of his brief, harrowing tenure as a public school teacher, and it’s riveting. There’s nothing dry or academic here. It’s tragedy and farce, an economic and societal indictment...

JACKSON, Miss. – Mississippi voters rejected any change to the state constitution to bolster public school funding, defeating Initiative 42 on Tuesday.

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved Sunday for legislation a bill submitted by MK Yoav Kisch (Likud) called "Parents and their Children." The law would make Israel the first country in the world to take away parents' rights as legal guardians of their own children. It would hand over vast power to social workers, who will be able to initiate proceedings against parents who, in their opinion, fail to respect a list of ten "children's rights" enumerated in the bill. These rights include the right "to physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development and to develop their talents and personal...

Oh boy. Thanks to those among us that have a peanut allergy, everyone else has to have a crappy Halloween. That’s what it means to be a sensitive, “responsible” American these days. Here’s the sign asking parents to only hand out carrot sticks, raisins and other boring treats:

The U.S. Secret Service ordered hundreds of parents and their cancer-stricken children out of Lafayette Square on Saturday night, barricading the park for at least two hours and disrupting the group’s plans for a candlelight vigil to raise awareness and research funding for childhood cancer, participants said. Some of the parents and children expressed hurt and disappointment that Secret Service and National Park Police, citing security precautions, virtually shut down part of a two-day event called CureFest for Childhood Cancer. “We ended up waiting at the gates for two hours, and they never let us in,” said Natasha Gould, an...