Free Republic

About a year ago, when I first started considering taking my kids out of public school, I wasn’t met with the kind of incredulous questioning that I expected after suggesting something so reckless and foolhardy. For the most part people were excited and supportive and helpful. Many thought we were already homeschooling, in fact. What surprised me most though is that folks who were concerned about the prudence of such a decision weren’t worried that my children might not learn enough or the the right things. They didn’t wonder how my kids would know how to be quiet when they...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel backed off Thursday from naming a new elite high school after President Barack Obama amid ongoing criticism from African-Americans who felt the honor inappropriate for a school slated for a wealthy, predominantly white part of the Near North Side. Instead of naming the new school after his former boss, the mayor indicated he would consider other names for the selective enrollment high school set to be built near the site of the former Cabrini-Green public housing project just northwest of downtown.

Virginity does not rock at Ramay Junior High School in Fayetteville, Arkansas. That’s the lesson 13-year-old Chloe Rubiano learned. Chloe is in the eighth grade. She is also a good church-going girl. So you can imagine her mom’s surprise when she got in trouble at school. Chloe showed up at school wearing a T-shirt that reads: “Virginity Rocks.” “It’s a positive message,” said Bambi Crozier, Chloe’s mom. Apparently some folks at Ramay Junior High don’t understand the concept of virginity. But school officials disagreed. They said the shirt could cause a classroom disruption and contained sexual content. Apparently some folks...

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – New federal school food regulations promoted by First Lady Michelle Obama are becoming a massive headache for many schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program. And many, like Missouri’s Notre Dame Regional and Saxony Lutheran high schools, are taking matters into their own hands. Those schools and numerous others across the country are ditching the federal regulations and the funding that comes with them to save their cafeteria programs, which have experienced a nose-dive in sales and skyrocketing waste since the new rules were implemented in 2012. At Notre Dame, school officials turned to...

CANTON, Ga. (September 11, 2014) - Students at a public high school outside Atlanta are rallying behind a teacher who says he's standing up for his Christian beliefs and what he views as his right to talk about Jesus in the classroom. Hundreds of students poured into hallways at Sequoyah High School Tuesday, holding signs and chanting in support of history teacher John Osborne. Osborne told WXIA-TV that he didn't feel supported by administrators, so he decided to take a few days off. He said he's talked about God at school for years.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples is raising objections to a school district pilot program that encourages kids to eat meatless lunches once a week. The pilot program at the Drippings Springs School District offers meat-free lunch options every Monday to students in its three elementary schools. Students can still eat meaty meals on Mondays, but must bring their lunches from home. Among the food items offered to students this Monday were a black-bean burrito, vegetarian chili with cornbread, baby carrots and sliced peaches. On past Mondays, students could choose cheese sandwiches, cheese ravioli, spinach salad and vegetarian soups. John Crowley,...

Mondays have become meat free in hundreds of school cafeterias across the Bay Area, a move praised by animal rights activists and environmentalists and condemned by the livestock industry for pushing politics into the lunch line. South San Francisco Unified joined the Meatless Monday movement this year, joining Oakland, West Contra Costa and several other districts that have adopted the campaign within the last few years. District officials say it's all about improving student nutrition and drawing attention to alternative sources of protein.

Students can wave goodbye to being driven to university by embarrassing parents in an overloaded car – and pay to arrive in style instead. Launching on Monday, The Very Important Fresher package offers those with the budget the option to travel to campus by helicopter, private jet, Ferrari or Aston Martin. Other luxury options include a Rolls Royce Phantom, Mclaren P1 – and even a horse and carriage - which will set buyers back up to £25,000.

In response to an inquiry about unaccompanied minors from one of its school divisions, Virginia’s Department of Education issued a memo this month reminding its 132 divisions about their obligation to educate all children. According to the memo, under federal and Virginia law, the state expects that many of the unaccompanied minors who enroll in public school will be considered “homeless.” “In addition, division superintendents cannot exclude from school attendance those homeless children who do not provide the requisite health or immunization information required of other students,” the memo continued. Full title: Immigrant Children to Be Classified as 'Homeless' to...

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...

N4T Investigators: Church and State Tucson - It's 12:40 in the afternoon, and in the Islamic Center of Tucson, a time to pray. Muslims have a strict daily prayer schedule, five times a day at specific times. One of those times is in the middle of the school day. In a room off the library at Desert View High School, four to six Muslim students pray during every school day for about 10 minutes. Sunnyside Unified School District officials tell the News 4 Tucson Investigators that all but one of the students pray during their lunch period, the other misses...

It's 12:40 in the afternoon, and in the Islamic Center of Tucson, a time to pray. Muslims have a strict daily prayer schedule, five times a day at specific times. One of those times is in the middle of the school day. In a room off the library at Desert View High School, four to six Muslim students pray during every school day for about 10 minutes. Sunnyside Unified School District officials tell the News 4 Tucson Investigators that all but one of the students pray during their lunch period, the other misses a few minutes of a class.

Young people aren't the only ones who get back-to-school blues. Pooches used to months of constant playtime can get upset when their best buddies disappear with the dog days of summer. Many dogs whine and wait eagerly at the front door but eventually adjust to the absence of their young owners when they are in class. But millions of dogs can feel abandoned, sad and unable to cope — and they look for ways to lash out.

During the last media push for laws to disarm the population, NRA executive VP Wayne LaPierre said that a good guy with a gun is what is needed to stop a bad guy with a gun.   A recent shooting outside the Harry Stone Montessori school in Dallas is a perfect illustration of his point.  In this case, an armed citizen was present.   He happened to be an off duty police officer.   The "Gun Free School Zone" law would have worked perfectly to assure the attacker of an unarmed victim if the legally armed citizen had not been...

At the end of her seventh grade year a few months ago, my daughter was of the opinion that she had not received the education that she should have, so she determined to find courses online that she could take over the summer. What she found (completely on her own) turned out to be a full time public school- online! She starts tomorrow at Connections Academy Texas. With her mother and I both working, she'll be attending school at her Grandmother's house for the time being. I'm very excited about this- my child is *very* intelligent, and with self-paced courses...

SNIP “In light of the heightened media coverage of the issue of undocumented immigrant children, VDOE provides the following updated information for your use in responding to community questions or issues,” says the memo distributed to the commonwealth’s 132 school divisions and obtained by Breitbart News. SNIP “While a case-by-case review of each child’s circumstances upon enrolling in a Virginia public school is necessary, many of these unaccompanied children will be deemed homeless under applicable state and federal law,” the memo reads. It goes on: Pursuant to Va. Code § 22.1-3, a homeless child is one who lacks a fixed,...

Parents in Fremont, California, are pushing their school district to remove a health book with sections about oral sex, bondage and drug use from local high schools, saying there is no way the publishers can adapt the adult content featured in the book. The Fremont Unified School District purchased the textbook, Your Health Today, over the summer to be taught in its six high schools. After overwhelming response from parents, Superintendent Jim Morris offered to have the books amended. However concerned parents want the books pulled from shelves because of its adult subject matter. "My thinking, and the parents were...

LIVONIA — After putting the popular Hinoki International School in a box, Livonia Public Schools has now, in a phrase, thrown away the key. The school board voted 6 to 1 to end the charter public school’s authorization — one year before it was to expire. Without a charter authorization, Hinoki is ineligible for state funding grants to function as a free public school. "The contract with the school carried with it various provisions under which the contract would be revoked. Included is a provision calling for automatic revocation if the Academy has lost more than 50 percent of its...

Following repeated requests from parents, the state of New York released the text of half the questions used in its new Common Core-aligned standardized tests. The test questions, used in tests for grades 3 through 8, include one question that encouraged students to cite evidence in favor of global warming. included several short written pieces that students had to read and respond to in order to demonstrate English mastery. One such piece was an article originally published on NASA’s website, “The Summer of 2012 –Too Hot To Handle?” The article discusses the high temperatures and drought during the summer of 2012...

Michael Mulgrew defends Common Core: ‘You sick people need to deal with us and the children that we teach’The wild remarks came during last month’s American Federation of Teachers convention in Los Angeles. ‘You sick people need to deal with us and the children we teach. Thank you very much!’ Mulgrew said. Teachers union honcho Michael Mulgrew unleashed a venomous screed directed at anyone who would dare threaten his beloved Common Core agenda. “If someone takes something from me, I’m going to grab it right back out of their cold, twisted, sick hands and say it is mine! You do...