Free Republic

If anyone still has any doubt about the utter cynicism of the Obama administration, a recent agreement between the federal government and the Minneapolis Public Schools should open their eyes. Under the Obama administration, both the Department of Education and the Department of Justice have been leaning on public schools around the country to reduce what they call the "disproportionate" numbers of black male students who are punished for various offenses in schools. Under an implicit threat of losing their federal subsidies, the Minneapolis Public Schools have agreed to reduce the disparity in punishment of black students by 25 percent...

An email blast sent Nov. 3 from the superintendent in Pinckney Community Schools using school mailing lists stated the district was “asking voters to renew” a multi-million millage raises questions whether the district crossed the line and violated state campaign finance law. The email, sent by superintendent Rick Todd to parents, employees and school board members, states: “For Pinckney Community Schools, we are asking voters to renew a 6-year Non-Homestead Millage of 18 Mils.” The six-year millage passed last night and will raise about $3.7 million a year for the school district, which is located in Livingston County. Bob LaBrant,...

In recent staff performance evaluations by the Flint Community School district, 94 percent of its teachers and 99 percent of administrators were rated as “effective” – the second highest rating a school employee can receive. However, those ratings do not correlate with the academic progress of students in Flint schools, whose average performance during the same two year period reflect the district’s troubled history of poor outcomes. During the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years, 62 percent of Flint schools placed in the lowest 10 percent on the state’s “Top-to-Bottom” academic rankings. Even when student progress is adjusted for socioeconomic status,...

The poisonous progressive agenda has oozed into a school district in Wisconsin which has caused the cancellation of a traditional Veterans Day ceremony that has been held since the 1930′s. Part of the time-honored tradition, which is the main reason the anti-Second Amendment rights leftists have banned the annual event, is because a 21-gun salute is conducted as part of the ceremony, and the controlist educators are worried that some people may feel an “uneasiness,” even though blanks, not real bullets are used in the rifles. “There are just some conditions that we have to adhere to and the shooting...

The poisonous progressive agenda has oozed into a school district in Wisconsin which has caused the cancellation of a traditional Veterans Day ceremony that has been held since the 1930′s. Part of the time-honored tradition, which is the main reason the anti-Second Amendment rights leftists have banned the annual event, is because a 21-gun salute is conducted as part of the ceremony, and the controlist educators are worried that some people may feel an “uneasiness,” even though blanks, not real bullets are used in the rifles. “There are just some conditions that we have to adhere to and the shooting...

Minneapolis Public Schools are implementing a new policy aimed at eliminating the gap between the races when it comes to suspensions. Nothing will change for white students, they will still be suspended at the discretion of each school’s principal. But for minority students, specifically black, Hispanic and Native American students, the Minneapolis Schools Superintendent’s office will personally review each case. ... The ethnic make-up of Minneapolis schools is majority minority. According to data for the 2014-2015 school year, 33.8 percent of students are white, while 37.2 percent are black, 19.3 percent are Hispanic, and 3.8 percent are Native American. Asians...

Using “gun violence” as its cover, the Obama administration has quietly unleashed a cache of federal dollars that will be used for testing students for signs of mental health issues in K-12 schools. Critics say personal information scooped up in the screenings will be logged into databases that will follow the child throughout his or her academic career and beyond. Public schools, which have increasingly taken on aspects of psychiatric clinics in recent years, will get infused with more than $150 million in federal grants to further this agenda under the auspices of Obama’s 2013 executive action titled “Now is...

<p>Racialists across America complain that minority students (chiefly blacks, not so much Chinese, for instance) are suspended for misbehavior at higher rates than whites. Questions of subculture and behavior are secondary to the quota mentality.</p> <p>The Minneapolis public school system announced a major new district-wide policy for disciplining students: any suspension of a non-white student requires the district superintendent's approval.</p>

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice recently promised a whopping $63 million to investigate school safety programs and to reward districts for implementing “restorative justice” and other related school discipline programs. According to an October 1st statement from Attorney General Eric Holder, “This funding is being awarded as part of the Comprehensive School Safety Initiative – a large-scale, multi-agency research effort to build practical, and scientifically-sound, knowledge about effective ways to increase school safety nationwide.” However, according to a review of past and current restorative justice initiatives in schools, the funding appears to be just...

This is an outrage, but expected and exactly what I warned of in my book, Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance, in the chapter “The Mosqueing of the Public Schools.” The shahada that the children are forced to recite in Massachusetts public schools is the Muslim profession of faith (“there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah”).

On both coasts, grandparents are learning to apply a modern-day rule of thumb with surprising accuracy: If it looks inane, it’s probably Common Core. “The Berkeley school district's curriculum for sixth-grade math was an exact copy of the Common Core State Standards for the grade,” Marina Ratner wrote in The Wall Street Journal on August 5, 2014. “The teacher in my grandson's class went through special Common Core training courses.” “As his assigned homework and tests indicate, when teaching fractions, the teacher required that students draw pictures of everything: of 6 divided by 8, of 4 divided by 2/7, of...

The ACLU has filed a lawsuit that asks for a permanent injunction against a Miami-Dade ordinance that states that sex offenders are not allowed to live within approximately half a mile, or 2,500 feet, of a school. The suit was filed this week. The suit, Doe, et al. v. Miami-Dade County, et al., argues that the ordinance puts undue pressure on sex offenders and pedophiles, forcing them to likely become homeless because of the law. The lawsuit alleges that "The law prohibits former offenders from living 2,500 feet (almost half a mile) from any building the county labels a "school,"...

Submitted by Brandon Smith of Alt-Market.com, One of the most dangerous philosophical contentions even amongst liberty movement activists is the conundrum of government force and prevention during times of imminent pandemic. All of us at one time or another have had this debate. If a legitimate viral threat existed and threatened to infect and kill millions of Americans, is it then acceptable for the government to step in, remove civil liberties, enforce quarantines, and stop people from spreading the disease? After all, during a viral event, the decisions of each individual can truly have a positive or negative effect on...

At least 4,877 people have died in the world's worst recorded outbreak of Ebola, and at least 9,936 cases of the disease had been recorded as of Oct. 19, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, but the true toll may be three times as much. The WHO has said real numbers of cases are believed to be much higher than reported: by a factor of 1.5 in Guinea, 2 in Sierra Leone and 2.5 in Liberia, while the death rate is thought to be about 70 percent of all cases. That would suggest a toll of almost 15,000.

I have spent a little time compiling links to threads about the Ebola outbreak in the interest of having all the links in one thread for future reference. Please add links to new threads and articles of interest as the situation develops. Thank You all for you participation.

Consider this an object lesson and fair warning for all those other states that are trying to what they can to improve education or even cut through the bureaucracy that seems to cover it everywhere -- like kudzu. Here in Arkansas, our never-give-up reformers came up with a simple way to let parents, teachers, schools boards, taxpayers and anybody else who's interested -- and we all should be -- know how good a job their neighborhood school is doing. That's right -- the school where little Johnny or Judy goes. Just give each school a grade, the kind you might...

<p>Muslim burial practices are being blamed for the spread of Ebola.</p> <p>Remains of Secretary General of The Nigeria Supreme General for Islamic Affairs and Seriki of Egbaland, Alhaji Lateeef Adegbite at his burial in 2012.</p> <p>Islam requires family members to personally wash the corpses of loved ones from head to toe. This practise is putting more Africans at risk to catch the disease that is spread by body fluids.</p>

By law, Michigan school districts are allowed to impose a maximum of 18 mills for operating expenses. So when current school millage authorizations are due to expire, how is it that some districts can ask for more? St. Joseph Pubic Schools this year asked for and received a 19.6292 operating millage authorization. Voters in Adrian approved 18.2517 mills. Coldwater Public Schools got approval for 19.234 mills. “You are correct. We can legally only levy the 18 mills,” said Ben Engelter, former chief financial officer for Coldwater Public Schools, but he explained the higher rate is for “possible reductions.” “Possible reductions”...

In the wake of the blockbuster investigation that broke an Islamic plot to take over UK public schools wide open, nothing has been done to take back those schools from Muslim goons. Nothing. Sir Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted’s chief inspector, said schools at the center of the Islamic”Trojan Horse” affair were failed to improve. The schools held hostage by Islamic supremacists at the centre of the takeover plot are still promoting an “unbalanced curriculum” and promoting Islamic supremacism and Islamic misogyny. Instead, dhimmi British authorities have targeted — Christian schools. They know Christians will not fight. They know Christians school present...

CHICKASHA, Okla. – Lunch meat, a couple of crackers, a slice of cheese and two pieces of cauliflower qualified as lunch in Chickasha Public Schools Monday. Chickasha lunchStudent Kaytlin Shelton took a photo of the skimpy lunch and showed it to her parents. “It makes me want to take that and take it to the Superintendent and tell him to eat it for lunch,” the girl tells Fox 25. “I can go pay a dollar for a Lunchable and get more food in it,” her father, Vince Holton, says. [Snip] The new lunch complies with lunch regulations championed by...