Free Republic

On Wednesday, the federal government declared itself fit for the madhouse by mandating that a Chicago high school allow a full biological male into the girls’ locker room for all purposes, including nudity. This biological male, the feds determined, was different because he thinks he is a female.

Two disturbing cases highlight the serious problems with the nation’s immigration laws under the Obama administration; In one, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused a local police department of racial profiling for arresting two previously deported illegal immigrants and turning them over to federal authorities for removal. In the other, the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged a public school district with discrimination for verifying the immigration status of its employees. The first case comes out of New Llano, a Louisiana town of about 2,500 near the Texas border. In the course of doing their job, a pair of police...

It's a not-so rosy report card for the nation's schoolchildren. Math scores slipped for fourth and eighth graders over the last two years, and reading grades were not much better, flat for fourth graders and lower for eighth graders, according to the 2015 Nation's Report Card. ... Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged parents, teachers, and others not to panic about the scores as states embrace higher academic standards, such as Common Core.

A new trend in math at elementary schools around the country has parents pulling out their hair. Mainly because it is the opposite of how most of today's adults were taught to do simple multiplication in the first place. According to a Common Core math worksheet that's gone viral, an elementary child today cannot just say, "5 x 3 = 15." Instead they have to change the multiplication problem to addition before solving the equation. However, if the child says, "5 + 5 + 5 = 15," they will still lose points because the problem must be written as it...

Should San Francisco build affordable housing just for teachers? Yes, we need our teachers to live in the same communities as their students No, teachers shouldn't be favored over others who want to live in the city Yes, SFUSD can't recruit teachers because the city's cost of living is so high No, just pay them more so they can afford to live in S.F.

When Dale Russakoff began writing about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million gift to help fix the failing schools in Newark, N.J., she assumed she would end up telling an uplifting story of transformational change. "It sounded to me at the time like, well, that's enough money to do anything," Russakoff recalled of watching Zuckerberg announce the gift before a whooping "Oprah" audience in 2010, joined by a political odd couple in the form of Newark's charismatic, reform-minded Democratic mayor at the time, Cory Booker, and New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie. "I didn't think it was going to be...

Despite a new attendance policy that could see truant students and their parents actually prosecuted in court, more than two-thirds of the students enrolled in the Detroit school district are still classified as “chronically absent.” This is defined by the state as missing more than 10 school days in a year. Detroit saw 67.1 percent of its students deemed chronically absent in 2013-14, the latest year data is available. The statewide average is 25.5 percent. Even the troubled Education Achievement Authority, the state office given oversight of Michigan’s worst-performing individual schools, experienced chronic absence in just 23.7 percent of its...

While most of the country is paying attention to the 2016 presidential election, some local communities will have to make a few consequential decisions this coming November. One such community is Jefferson County, Colorado, home to a little over a half million people. A November ballot issue is to recall three conservative school board members half way through their four-year term. The Jeffco public school district provides K-12 education to 84,000 students. Even though Jeffco is tied for the 2nd best high school graduation rate among the 50 largest school districts in the nation, 29% of Jeffco graduates who attended...

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....