Free Republic

Feathers have been ruffled at California’s Ventura High School, where the principal this week banned the football booster club from selling Chick-fil-A sandwiches over fears that people might be offended. What, pray tell, could people find offensive about a plump juicy chicken breast tucked between two buttered buns? Were English teachers put off by the restaurant chain’s grammatically challenged bovine pitchmen?

(RNS) Arkansas State is removing a Christian cross decal from the back of its football helmets after a complaint that it violated separation of church and state, the university said Wednesday (Sept. 10). Athletics director Terry Mohajir said he wanted to fight the decision because the decal was intended to honor former player Markel Owens and equipment manager Barry Weyer, who both died this year. However, Mohajir said he had little choice but to follow advice from the university’s legal counsel to remove or modify the symbol. “My job is to support our players and our coaches in their expression...

The troubled city school system opened three new high schools Monday in an effort to show that officials are committed to innovating and boosting achievement despite fewer resources and the specter of massive layoffs. Superintendent William Hite enthusiastically greeted the founding staff and students at The LINC school, even while expressing uncertainty about the district’s precarious finances. He made $32 million in cuts last month to ensure classes could start on time for all 135,000 public school students. “I’m really concerned about our ability to sustain the staffing levels we have at the moment,” Hite said. …

It's unclear what happened before the video started, but what happened afterward one parent could only describe as "terrifying." Video shot by a parent of a Quinsigamond Elementary School student Wednesday afternoon of what should have been a routine school bus stop showed young children crying and screaming, seemingly unable to leave the school bus they were riding in as parents shouted at the driver to let them off. In the video, shot near the corner of Perry Ave. and Harlem Street by parent Jessica Jimenez, parents curse and shout at the driver asking why she won't let the kids...

An online fundraising project to publish new LGBTQ2S picture books for children aged 4-8, with the hope of having the books picked up by schools, has recently met its fundraising target.  693 backers pledged a combined $56,793 to the project, called the “Flamingo Rampant Book Club.”  The fundraising goal was $49,000. The books will “celebrate a great and wide variety of LGBTQ2S kids, families, and communities,” according to the description of the project.  The books will also “celebrate gender-independent kids and adults.” The individual behind the project is S. Bear Bergman.  Given that his same-sex spouse, who goes by the...

Apparently, some teacher’s union officials have taken too much public school math. michigan outline “On a Saturday in May, members of the Michigan Education Association held a walk in Midland bringing attention to public school funding,” the Michigan-based Mackinac Center reports in the organization’s July/August report. “They claim education funding is down nearly $19 million in the greater Midland area in the last four years.” “MEA president Steve Cook has claimed that Michigan’s public school budget has been cut by $1 billion. The problem is that these claims are not true.” “State spending on public education actually increased $800 million...

If you think the teachable moment from the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri may be how to foster racial reconciliation, that’s not what some educators have in mind.The activist group “Teaching for Change” thinks students need a little more Black Panther in them.“As the new school year begins, first and foremost on our minds and in our hearts will be the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri,” a lesson writer for the group, Julian Hipkins, says.The lesson then suggests “a few ideas and resources for the classroom to help students think critically about the events in Ferguson and ways...

The mayor of Lynn, Mass. says that some of the illegal aliens from Guatemala who are enrolled in her city’s public schools are adults with graying hair and “more wrinkles than I have.” “They are not all children,” Judith Flanagan Kennedy told reporters at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. “One of the things that we did notice when we were processing some of these students coming in was that they were adults,” she said. She added that the federal government will not allow school officials to verify their ages even though one...

North Carolina Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood declared the state’s the Opportunity Scholarship program unconstitutional. The program provided funds for poor children to attend the same private schools attended by their financially better off peers. “Allowing these children to exit the failing public school system undermines the incentive and capability for improving the public schools,” Hobgood ruled. “It would put the good of the few ahead of the collective well-being of the whole. By preventing the few from escaping we maintain the pressure for reform of the system.” Hobgood rejected the argument that allowing students to exit substandard schools would...

SELMA, Ala. - An Alabama teacher was suspended without pay after being accused of having sixth-grade students re-enact the deadly police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida. The Selma Times-Journal quoted Dallas County School Superintendent Don Willingham as saying the social studies teacher used poor judgment during a lesson on current events. School officials haven't identified the teacher, who works at Brantley Elementary School....

What’s the difference between a Playboy magazine and Fremont Unified School District’s sex-ed curriculum? The curriculum is free! The 9th grade textbook, which teachers unanimously approved, has been the center of a nationwide debate over the schools’ role in parenting kids on sensitive topics like this. In this particular California District, thousands of parents are protesting the jaw-dropping topics in the “Your Health Today” curriculum — including everything from bondage, sex toys, and various fantasies. “It’s a bit much for me,” said mom Latonya Stevenson. “I’m not comfortable with my child — I mean, wow, that’s the graphics are extreme...

Imagine an ancient record—by far the most published book in humanity—quoted by Shakespeare (1,200 times) and Abraham Lincoln—a book that has inspired political movements and religious reformations and has literally changed the world time and again; imagine that book being rejected and banished from schools across America. That book is the Bible. holy bible in hotel The Bible and prayer in public schools were the topics of discussion at this week’s Family Research Council event. Dr. William Jeynes, a Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton and a Professor of Education at California State University in Long Beach, shared...

Education officials like to say that kids can't learn if they aren't in school. But what if teachers aren't in school? While absenteeism is usually considered a student matter, in San Francisco - and many other districts - the average teacher misses more school than the average child.

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.

Public school systems around the country preparing to begin a new school year will be facing the added burden of enrolling more than 37,000 unaccompanied minors who have entered the U.S. illegally. According to the Administration for Children & Families’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, 37,477 alien children have been placed with relatives or other sponsors around the country so far this year while their immigration cases are being processed in court. In the meantime, they are entitled to attend U.S. public schools, which have dropped out of the top 20 in global rankings for math, reading and science. …

The promise of a significant influx of federal money was not enough to convince officials in one Kentucky school district to stick with the school lunch program endorsed by Michelle Obama. According to a Cincinnati Enquirer report, Fort Thomas Independent Schools will no longer be confined by the strict mandates set forth in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act that went into effect earlier this year. Despite the fact that the district would receive hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to implement the regulations, administrators cite the fact that kids are not eating the resulting meals as their reason for dropping...

<p>The lunches students bring from home are often filled with unhealthy packaged foods and sugary drinks and little that would win any nutrition awards, according to a new study by university researchers. Missing from those lunches, they said, were fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy, whole grains and, nearly 25 percent of the time, anything that resembled an entree.</p>

Bake sales used to fuel school's sports teams and clubs, raising money for the kids going away games, nicer uniforms, field trips and so on. But, a new law limits the amount of sugary treats that many bake sales offer. So, starting this Fall bake sales won't be as sweet anymore. Parents are allowed to sell candy and goodies, but it must meet the smart snack calculator requirement. If it meets all the nutritional requirements, the calories, sugar, fat and sodium, it's ok to sell that cookie. But, if it goes over well it's not allowed and the schools can...

<p>KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. (AP) — For the first time, U.S. public schools are projected this fall to have more minority students than non-Hispanic Whites, a shift largely fueled by growth in the number of Hispanic children(some even here legally).</p> <p>The changing demographics of American education are apparent inside Jane Cornell’s summer school classroom, where giggling grade-schoolers mostly come from homes where Spanish is the primary language. The sign outside the classroom reads “Welcome” and “Bienvenidos” in polished handwriting.</p>

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. (AP) -- The cheerful sign outside Jane Cornell's summer school classroom in Pennsylvania's wealthiest county reads "Welcome" and "Bienvenidos" in polished handwriting. Inside, giggling grade-schoolers who mostly come from homes where Spanish is the primary language worked on storytelling with a tale about a crocodile going to the dentist. This poster and classroom at the Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center are a subtle representation of America's changing school demographics. For the first time, U.S. public schools are projected to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites, a shift largely fueled by growth in the number of Hispanic...