Free Republic

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling on people in Tennessee to oppose a bill that would prevent public schools from teaching the principles of Islam and every other religion until students reach the 10th grade. Tennessee state legislator Sheila Butt, a Republican, proposed the bill late last week in response to a grassroots campaign across the state by parents — primarily evangelical parents — against what they perceive as an inappropriate focus on Islam in history and social studies courses in taxpayer-funded middle schools. House Bill 1418, if it becomes law, would prevent the teaching of all “religious...

Here in Tennessee, the public battle over Islamic indoctrination in public schools rages on. Last month, I reported that parents in my home county were upset after their Middle School-age children were forced to recite the Shahada – the declaration that there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet. Following this revelation, my old colleagues at the American Center for Law and Justice filed open records requests with Tennessee school districts, demanding to see copies of policies, communications, and curriculum related to instruction in Islam and other world religions. Incredibly, several school districts flatly refused to comply with the request....

The indictment of former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett closes a chapter in yet another sad tale of greedy, cheating city officials. Her lawyer says she has agreed to plead guilty when she appears in court, and I hope the judge throws the book at her. But ethical misconduct is only a part of BBB's legacy. The ex-CEO—along with the rest of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's crack team at the Board of Education—has left us with a whopper of a problem that could hit full force as soon as next month. I'm referring to the nearly $500 million hole in...

"The traditional view is simply stated: the purpose of public education is to take each child as far as each child can be taken. Who can disagree with that?" "H. L Mencken famously proclaimed: “The erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner. Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply...

Responding to parents who complained about the distribution at public schools of a map which labeled Israel as “Palestine,” the City of Paris said it was the result of “a simple production error.” The city’s media department gave the explanation in a statement it published Friday about the distribution earlier this year to elementary school pupils of a calendar that contains a map of Europe and parts of the Middle East. The map, which ends north of central Israel and the West Bank, designates the territory of Israel included in it as “Palestine,” alongside Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey. In...

Tennessee School Districts Say Revealing Islam Lessons May Cost ‘Millions,’ Take Too Darn Long Dozens and dozens of taxpayer-funded Tennessee school districts are refusing to comply with an open records request from a conservative legal nonprofit seeking materials and documents relevant to the way public schools are teaching Islam — primarily to middle schoolers. The American Center for Law & Justice, a law firm that generally promotes conservative and Christian principles, sent its open records requests to all 146 taxpayer-funded school districts in Tennessee earlier this month, reports The Tennessean, Nashville’s main newspaper. A Nashville attorney, Chuck Cagle of the...

n August, Michigan public school teacher Stephanie Keiles became a folk hero when she went public with her story about why she was quitting her job. Keiles had spent nine years as a teacher in Plymouth-Canton Community Schools when she announced in an online essay that she was leaving the profession. The Michigan Education Association promoted her story as did prominent national websites, including The Washington Post and Huffington Post. A Michigan newspaper columnist recited Keiles' claims as if they were the gospel truth as an example of how teachers are not respected. National public schools advocate Diane Ravitch even...

The traditional view is simply stated: the purpose of public education is to take each child as far as each child can be taken. Who can disagree with that? If a school is aiming for less, that school would seem to me to be guilty of malpractice or false advertising. Doesn’t the word “education” imply a striving for excellence? At the end of each school year, children are presumed to know more than at the start. Isn’t that a reasonable presumption? Somewhat bizarrely, given what’s going on in our public schools, the Education Establishment might claim they agree. Oh yes,...

Education Secretary Arne Duncan grew up in Chicago and attended the private, prestigious University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. The pre-K-12 Lab Schools are progressive institutions ... resident Obama’s two daughters attended the school before moving to Washington in 2009, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s children are enrolled there now. And in the fall, Duncan’s children will be attending Lab, too, while his wife works there. .... his children will attend a progressive private school in Chicago, a school that does not follow key school reform policies that his Education Department has set for public schools. It does not, for example,...

Chicago Public Schools ... The district said it would freeze funds for schools where students appear to be enrolled, but have not attended any days of classes or received class schedules. ... The district said 10th day enrollment totaled 367,499. In 2002, the district's enrollment was 438,589.

School districts debate closing school for holidays observed by a growing number of students. As Eid al-Adha approaches, how will schools observe the holiday?Public schools in the US close in observance of Christian holidays including Christmas and Easter, and now other religious denominations are asking for their holidays to be respected, too. This Thursday is Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice, one of the biggest holidays of the year for Muslims, and school administrators must decide whether or not to close school for the day. In New Jersey, where almost 2 percent of the population identifies as Muslim, several...

As the new school year begins, you might like to be updated on some school happenings that will no doubt be repeated this academic year. After this update, I have some questions one might ask the black leadership. The ongoing and escalating assault on primary- and secondary-school teachers is not a pretty sight. Holly Houston is a post-traumatic stress specialist. She counsels teachers in Chicago public schools and reported, "Of the teachers that I have counseled over the years who have been assaulted, 100 percent of them have satisfied diagnostic criteria for PTSD." It's not just big-city schoolteachers traumatized. Dr....

NEW YORK CITY, September 10, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – The world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books is heavily promoting a pro-transgender book designed for students as young as third grade. The Scholastic Corporation has sent school teachers and librarians 10,000 copies of the book, entitled George, which was written by self-described "queer activist" Alex Gino.  In the children's book, Gino tells a story of a 10-year-old boy who doesn't feel like a boy, so he tells people he's really "Melissa." Scholastic's website says the target audience for the transgender book is elementary children from 3rd to 7th grade. Gino...

The end of summer is upon us and with same comes the Erebusic Satanic ritual notably called return to public school. Public schools since the early 1970s have served to prepare public-school teachers for comfortable retirements and prepare the students relegated to them for lowered expectations and conformity to social Marxism. If more money were the cure to the educational malaise, public schools would be graduating entire classes of Einsteins and Socrateses. But instead, they are promoting students grade-to-grade who cannot make change unless the cash register tells them the correct amount and who are, by definition, illiterate in geography,...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Tuesday that his agency is looking for “creative ways” to give public school students access to more meals, including a way to provide them breakfast, lunch and dinner year round. “We have focused on efforts to try to figure out ways in which we can expand in those time periods when youngsters may not have access to school meals,” Vilsack said in remarks at the liberal Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. That includes giving students access to meals “across the school day, across the school year and across the calendar year,” he...

A Michigan teacher is receiving national media attention for going public with her resignation, claiming that “Gov. Rick Snyder and his Republican goons took over Michigan and declared war on teachers.” Plymouth-Canton teacher Stephanie Keiles penned her resignation “Why I Can No Longer Teach In Public Education,” which was picked up by MLive, The Washington Post and Huffington Post. She claims there has been a “chronic, purposeful underfunding of public schools” and that she barely scrapes by on a $63,000-plus salary. However, her district has received $5.3 million more in state funding spread over the last four budgets approved by...

Chicago Public Schools officials on Monday proposed a $5.7 billion operating budget for the upcoming school year that relies on $480 million in new funding from state government that might never come. School leaders conceded the spending plan contains a mix of “unsustainable” borrowing and limited classroom cuts that they say they must begrudgingly make because of a $676 million payment for teacher pensions that’s due at the end of the school year. There also are numerous fiscal wild cards in the mix, including budget adjustments that might ensue should CPS reach an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union on...

The University of New Hampshire has issued a Bias-Free Language Guide which identifies the word “American” as a “problematic” term which should not be used. Other “problematic” words on the taxpayer-funded school’s lengthy list include “mothering,” “fathering,” “healthy,” “homosexual,” “rich,” “poor” and “senior citizen,” notes Campus Reform. The goal of the politically-correct UNH Bias-Free Language Guide is “to invite inclusive excellence” on the public campus. The guide’s broad and extensive, 4,812-word attempt to police language includes an introductory quote by Melissa Harris-Perry and covers virtually every nook and cranny of radical leftist identity politics imaginable. The word “American” is “problematic,”...

A Brooklyn high school teacher caught canoodling with a female colleague will be back to school in the fall — and wants the city to pay her for the time she missed because of the steamy romp. Former Madison High School teacher Cindy Mauro has been out of a job a year after she was caught in a compromising position with Alini Brito in a darkened classroom at 8:50 p.m. in November 2009.

When asked if a sixth grader could get an IUD implanted without parental consent, Take Charge told CNSNews.com: “We encourage all Take Charge providers to offer long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) in their clinics. A young person does not need parental consent to obtain a LARC or any other contraceptive method…If the young person is not choosing abstinence, she would be able to select a LARC and have it inserted without parental consent.”