Free Republic

Education Secretary Arne Duncan […] tells reporters that schools are often the safest place in a community, and gun violence is a societal problem and “not a school problem.” He says tougher gun control measures are needed. A spokeswoman for Duncan clarifies that he means the problem isn’t a lack of school safety, but easy access to guns. …

Ripping up the playground rulebook is having incredible effects on children at an Auckland school. Chaos may reign at Swanson Primary School with children climbing trees, riding skateboards and playing bullrush during playtime, but surprisingly the students don't cause bedlam, the principal says. The school is actually seeing a drop in bullying, serious injuries and vandalism, while concentration levels in class are increasing.

Link only - Ohio House excuses schools, teachers for gun accidents

In Governor Christie’s efforts to solve New Jersey’s education problems, yesterday he visited the Dudley Family School in Camden to discuss some of his plans for school programs in the Garden State. ......................................................... One of the big education announcements that he made in Camden is plans for an after-school dinner program for kids in six of the city’s schools. Research has shown that when kids are hungry, that affects not just their academic performance, but also their behavior.

Gov. Bobby Jindal is battling to protect Louisiana’s fast-growing school voucher program from an all-out attack by the Obama administration. The Justice Department claims the state’s private schools are defying a decades-old federal desegregation order. In November, a judge ruled the Department could monitor Louisiana's voucher program, even though 90 percent of the 6,750 students who use the Louisiana Scholarship Program are minority, and 85 percent are black. Jindal filed a 38-page response to the ruling earlier in January, asking a judge to overturn a 1976 "white flight" case that prohibited giving public funds to all-white private schools. "The state...

Opponents of Gov. Rick Snyder have falsely claimed for several years that he pushed through a $1 billion cut to education. Now they're doubling it. Unions and some Democrat politicians are saying the governor has cut education by $2 billion over his first three years in office. But they are ignoring another $2 billion in annual funding the state provides public schools. Michigan gives that $2 billion a year by way of numerous types of grants for things such as support for at-risk students, incentives for best practices and technology infrastructure. The $2 billion cut claim is related to the...

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - A teacher's assistant at Princess Anne High School has been charged with three felony offenses in the investigation of an online relationship with a minor. 26-year-old Kyle Noro is the suspect in an investigation that began Saturday afternoon when a father told police his juvenile daughter was in an online relationship with someone pretending to be a juvenile male, according to James Cason with the Virginia Beach Police Department. Cason said investigators discovered the suspect was Noro, a female teacher's assistant and softball coach at Princess Anne High School. The investigation also revealed the online...

Dear Alert Reader, It was wholly a pleasure to get your email informing me that a Carol Kerr, who is identified as a spokesperson for the Army War College, says the school may remove the portraits of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson that now adorn a third-floor hallway. Your astonishment is all too understandable; erasing history to appease today's politically correct attitudes is an exercise better left to totalitarian societies. They have so much more practice at it. No edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, for example, was complete until all traces of the old Bolsheviks who'd been purged...

For years, American students have consistently ranked poorly compared to most developed nations. And according to a recently released study, the U.S. education system remains mediocre, receiving a C− grade, for the third year in a row. Click here to see the states with the best school systemsClick here to see the states with the worst school systemsEducation news and research publication Education Week released its 18th annual survey of the status of education in all 50 states. The K-12 Achievement Index is one indicator in Education Week’s “Quality Counts” report that measures key education outcomes and provides ranks and...

Inspiring a new generation: Sadie Robertson (above)- One of the teen stars of 'Duck Dynasty' says that their show is leading students across the country to pray before meals at school.Sixteen-year-old Sadie Robertson, daughter of Willie and Korie Robertson, told an audience at a fundraiser for Prattville Christian Academy in Montgomery, Alabama, that the focus on their religious beliefs on the show is a light that others are emulating. Sadie noted that she and her family have become aware that there are “Duck Dynasty clubs” springing up at many schools across the nation and one goal of these clubs is to...

A top city school official was on scene at the notorious “School of No” in Queens Monday to investigate shocking conditions, first exposed by The Post on Sunday, as angry parents and a City Council member demanded answers. “Every day, my son tells me all they do is watch TV all day long. I teach him how to read, but this school has not helped him at all. All they do is yell at the kids. I ask them why they are always yelling and the teachers say they have to because the principal is so strong on them,” griped...

An Oakland County public school superintendent who makes $180,853 a year says it is misleading to say the $17,992 her district contributes for her health care and another $40,650 to cover her retirement costs are part of her total compensation. And the Oakland Press claims many other superintendents agree with her. Farmington Public Schools Superintendent Susan Zurvalec claimed the Mackinac Center for Public Policy was misleading the public by including retirement and health care insurance costs in her total compensation after the local newspaper reported it, citing a database provided by the free market think tank. The Oakland Press did...

I recently published a post with various answers to the question: How hard is teaching? Here is one response I received by e-mail from a veteran seventh-grade language arts teacher in Frederick, Maryland, who asked not to be identified because she fears retaliation at her school. In this piece she describes students who don’t want to work, parents who want their children to have high grades no matter what, mindless curriculum and school reformers who insist on trying to quantify things that can’t be measured.

In his newspaper blog, Battle Creek Enquirer reporter Justin Hinkley stated that because school choice doesn't provide transportation, low-income families often are unable to access choice while wealthier families take advantage and leave their home districts. "That's turned some schools into ghettos of poverty," Hinkley wrote. However, a 2013 study on Michigan charter public schools done by Stanford University, and a recently released study by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy proves Hinkley's claim is wrong. The Stanford University study found that charter public schools had significantly more "economically disadvantaged" students than traditional public schools. Dev Davis, research manager at...

Principal Kicks Nativity Scene Out Of School Parents Want To Speak With School Officials POSTED: 7:30 PM EST December 17, 2003 UPDATED: 8:39 PM EST December 17, 2003 A controversy over holiday decorations at a school in Montgomery County continues over the removal of a nativity scene where other holiday displays were allowed to remain. There's a Christmas tree in the lobby of Horsham's Dorothea Simmons Elementary School, along with a Menorah and items representing Kwanzaa. Around the corner, a holiday display is complete just in time for the school's first holiday concert in 12 years. But there's a problem,...

BENTON, La. - In a settlement agreement negotiated by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union will no longer pursue its legal attack upon the Bossier Parish School District. ADF attorneys represent the district. One of the district's schools displayed a nativity scene during the Christmas season of 2003 and has allowed other forms of religious expression on campus. This prompted the ACLU to file suit against the district and school officials. "The ACLU's case was going nowhere fast," said Mike Johnson, an ADF attorney based in Shreveport. "Stockwell Place Elementary School's display of a creche...

Among the long list of recommendations...the panel says that public schools in France should be taught in Arabic and African languages rather than in French. "It would no longer be up to French immigrants to adopt French culture, but for France to abandon its own culture, language, history and identity to adapt to other people's cultures." — Jean-François Copé, UMP Party. Instead of integration, "parallel societies are forming that continuously distance themselves from each other." — Alain Finkielkraut, author of L'identité malheureuse. A panel appointed by French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to review France's integration policies has urged the government...

Calling the Chicago pension crisis the worst in the nation is saying something - like, how bad can it get? The city's underfunded pension system for teachers, firefighters, police, and transit workers threatens to punch a hole in the city budget that would devastate city services. The teachers' alone are $1 billion short of funds, while the city as a whole is looking at a whopping $27 billion shortfall. The state of Illinois is even worse off with more than $100 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. Where is the money going to come from to fix the problem? Financial Times:...

I have marveled over the years at the kind of fear and anger the Christian Faith generates in some sectors of our society. Even the suggestion that there might a a small nativity scene in a park, or Christmas tree near City Hall, or a display of the Ten Commandments often elicits a hew and cry and brings forth camera crews and elicits lawsuits. But the venom seems especially reserved  for symbols of the Christian faith in particular and to some extent the wider Judeo-Christian heritage. A reference from the Q’ran in school is seen by many of this same...

It is no secret that our culture as a whole is descending into an ever-deeper sexual confusion. Recently two examples of this were in the news.In the first article which I summarize here, a Canadian couple have chosen to raise (impose upon?) their child a “genderless” upbringing. For now, they have refused to tell any of their family or friends the sex of their child, whom they call “Storm,” and groom and dress the infant child ambiguously.I would like to provide excerpts of a much longer article here and comment as we go. As usual, the article is in bold,...