Free Republic

We have previously mentioned the re-write of the AP guide for History. The new AP guide for teaching History is nothing less than (yet another) declaration of war against the very essence of America. Elizabeth Price Foley over at Instapundit has termed the MiniTru approved truth as “the oppression narrative.” An apt label for an education system that tears down American civilization as an “evil” and replaces it with a Howard Zinnified version of reality. As Foley notes: “How about just teaching our children about the founding, the Constitution, and the major historical eras? It isn’t a cultural anthropology or...

Results of the “Nation’s Report Card” released this week by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that only 18 percent of 8th-graders are “proficient” or above in U.S. history, and only 23 percent are proficient in civics. Despite hundreds of billions of dollars poured into education programs in the United States via the U.S. Department of Education, the “Nation’s Report Card” states that 8th-graders’ average NAEP scores in U.S. History, Geography, and Civics demonstrated no significant change since 2010 when students were last assessed. In geography, just 27 percent of U.S. 8th-graders performed at or above the proficiency...

Schools that do everything parents should are not schools. They're orphanages. The city fathers of Buffalo, New York are considering what they call “public boarding schools,” “where students as young as first or second grade would be assured proper meals, uniforms, after-school tutoring and activities.” “We have teachers and union leaders telling us, ‘The problem is with the homes; these kids are in dysfunctional homes,'” Buffalo school board member Carl Paladino told the Huffington Post. The “Buffalo Institute of Growth would supplement a college-style academic schedule with life skills and social activities that would keep students on campus seven days...

"Regarding your recent editorial, 'How to end the killing,' your last paragraph made me want to vomit. 'No doubt, Baltimore needs effective police and prosecutors, ample drug treatment, better schools, and more economic opportunities.' "I have taught in the Baltimore public school system for the past two decades. What we need is better students. We have many excellent teachers. I cannot count the number of students who have physically destroyed property in the schools." "They have trashed brand new computers, destroyed exit signs, set multiple fires, destroyed many, many lockers, stolen teachers' school supplies, written their filth on the...

The Taylor School District has defied an order from the Michigan Employment Relations Commission that schools post a notice stating that teachers are no longer obligated to financially support the union as a condition of employment. The order, which was issued on Feb. 13, came in response to an unfair labor practice complaint by teachers regarding their rights under the Michigan right-to-work law enacted in December 2012. Angela Steffke is a Taylor teacher who filed suit against both the district and the union. In defiance of the right-to-work law, the district and union entered into a 10-year agreement that required...

Eugene School Board incumbent Mary Walston, who is up for re-election next month, urged neighborhood organizers of a school board candidates’ debate next week to either reschedule the debate or prevent her opponent from participating because she will be out of town. Organizers of the debate agreed to honor Walston’s request to bar her opponent from the debate — which, in turn, prompted the opponent, Colin Farnsworth, to cry foul. A substitute teacher in the Bethel, Eugene, Springfield and South Lane school districts, Farnsworth said it is “extremely unfair and undemocratic that my participation and perspective will be censored during...

Godfrey-Lee Public Schools had to divert about $1 million from its general fund to cover some of the costs for state-imposed sanctions for what the Michigan Department of Education deemed as failing academic performance by the students at the district's high school. Superintendent David Britten said the state’s grants for the mandates didn’t cover all the costs necessary to execute the improvement plan, and programs had to be cut and class sizes increased. Yet, the high school in the Godfrey-Lee Public Schools received an “A” grade from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy for its academic performance based on state...

The Chicago Public Schools — already facing a federal criminal investigation of its CEO and a projected $1.1 billion budget deficit next school year — now must pay a price for those problems through higher interest rates on a new $300 million bond deal. The rates lured investors to buy the bonds, which CPS says it will use to pay off recently completed construction projects. But they also mean Chicago taxpayers will pay more over the life of the borrowing deal, financial analysts said Wednesday. The main bond issue — for $280 million to be repaid over 25 years —...

LaTanya Dorsey is a mother who sends her daughter to a public charter school in Eastpointe. Her daughter is on the honor roll and doing very well. Dorsey didn't expect to have a say in where her daughter went to school. “Usually, it's the district that you're in is the school that you would have to attend,” Dorsey said. “That kind of surprised me — that I did have a choice to send her to another school, so I was real grateful for that.” Dorsey said that parental choice is critical to helping students attend a school that is the...

Former Pittsburgh school police officer Robert Lellock has been arrested and charged with raping 22 male students he was hired to protect. A federal lawsuit notes that school officials should have known about the abuse, as Lellock was frequently taking boys out of the classroom to rape them in a janitor’s closet. According to the Tribune-Review, Robert Lellock worked for the Pittsburgh public school system as a school police officer where he repeatedly sexually abused at least 22 boys. One victim claims that Lellock removed him from class at least two dozen times to rape him in a janitor’s closet....

DENVER, April 17 (UPI) -- A Denver teacher's assignment asking third grade students to write down things "I wish my teacher knew" went viral when she shared some of the responses.

A Pittsburgh-area school district is investigating allegations of harassment involving students. Several parents and students from McGuffey High School in Washington County have reached out to Channel 11 News voicing concern about a so-called “Anti-Gay Day” allegedly organized by some students. A group of students allegedly spread the news that if they were “Anti-Gay,” they were to wear a flannel shirt and write “Anti-Gay” on their hands. Below is a statement from Dr. Erica Kolat, the superintendent of McGuffey School District. “Yesterday afternoon, April 16, 2015, allegations of harassment were brought to the attention of our administration. McGuffey School District,...

If anyone but a law enforcement official carries a gun into an Ann Arbor school, administrators will ask the person to leave and call the police. Under a new policy, a weapon such as a gun in a school constitutes an emergency. The Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education on Wednesday, April 15, unanimously voted to ban dangerous weapons, including guns, from school buildings and property. The vote approved three policies that outline the superintendent's ability to be able to close schools, cancel buses or student and staff events before, during and after school in the case of an...

High school students in Wisconsin were asked to pretend that they were Muslims for a 10th grade World History writing assignment. Union Grove High School teacher Beth Urban asked students to write a five paragraph essay in which they pretend they are a Muslim male or female in the U.S. "Give three examples of what you do daily for your religion and any struggles you face," Urban instructed. The assignment has some questioning why this is part of a World History class and also if similar assignments were given for other religions. "I wonder if any of the kids who...

High school students in Wisconsin were asked to pretend that they were Muslims for a 10th grade World History writing assignment. Union Grove High School teacher Beth Urban asked students to write a five paragraph essay in which they pretend they are a Muslim male or female in the U.S. "Give three examples of what you do daily for your religion and any struggles you face," Urban instructed.

In 2009, students in Detroit Public Schools posted the worst test scores ever measured on a national test. “There is no jurisdiction of any kind, at any level, at any time in the 30-year history of NAEP that has ever registered such low numbers,” said Michael Casserly, then the executive director of the council that administered the assessment. “They are barely above what one would expect simply by chance, as if the kids simply guessed at the answers.” Since then, charter schools have flourished in the city and more than half of Detroit's students attend them. A recent study from...

A coalition hoping to restructure the Detroit Public School district is asking the state to absolve the district of as much as $153 million in annual pension and debt payments. John Rakolta, CEO of Walbridge construction company, is a co-chair of Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren, and laid out to Michigan Capitol Confidential how the group came up with their calculations. The coalition’s report states: “The state of Michigan should take responsibility for past operating debt that occurred on its watch: $53 million a year." In addition, the group wants the state to let Detroit schools off the...

The city of Flint has more than twice the percentage of people living in poverty as the state average. And Flint Community Schools has been running a deficit since 2010-11. But poor cities such as Flint don't necessarily translate into poorly funded school districts. Flint schools isn't losing money because of a revenue problem. According to the Michigan Department of Education, Flint received a total of $13,127 in total per-pupil revenue in its general fund (local, state and federal dollars) in 2013-14, making it the highest-funded district in Genesee County. The chart shows each district's general fund per-pupil funding received...

In 2014, there were 35 public high schools in Detroit, 20 of them “conventional” public schools and 15 charter schools. Of the 20 conventional schools, all but two earned an “F” on the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s student progress grading system, which unlike official state ratings take into account the effect of student family backgrounds on performance. In contrast, only two of the city’s 15 public charter high schools received a failing grade. Nevertheless, State Superintendent Mike Flanagan says the Legislature should impose a moratorium on opening any more charter schools, so that conventional school districts like Detroit can...

Two students seeking to start school pro-life clubs in Fargo, North Dakota, are claiming they are victims of unconstitutional discrimination from officials opposed to their cause.According to a complaint letter sent by the Thomas More Society (TMS), a public interest law firm assisting the students, Brigid O’Keefe of Fargo North High School and Katie McPherson of Fargo Davies High School have each spent months attempting to establish pro-life clubs at their schools, to no avail. McPherson first applied to found a club in September 2014, while O’Keefe applied last February. Both had their applications declined, with O’Keefe saying she and other potential club members were...