Free Republic

After a record number of public school students being gunned down in their classes in recent decades, elected officials from one state finally said enough is enough. News Flash: Oklahoma just passed a law authorizing teachers to pack heat during school hours to protect children! Oklahoma State Representative Jeff Coody sponsored the bill authorizing handguns to be carried both by teachers and staff. Coody defended his bill in less than 10 words, saying: “A gun-free zone is a target, a soft target.” Gun Owners of America Executive Director Larry Pratt responded to the news with a blunt suggeston, saying: “Ask...

Saying that children “instinctively” understand the importance of the environment, President Obama said Thursday that climate change should be taught in schools and “weaved” into science and social studies classes. During a Twitter question-and-answer session, the president responded to about a dozen tweets, most about climate change. One tweet asked Mr. Obama how he believes children should be educated on environmental issues such as global warming.

(Nov 27, 2013) Referred to as ‘Common Core lead standards authors’ by the Council of Chief State School Officers, David Coleman and Jason Zimba are just two in a long list of Common Core creators whose academic roots are with the education-for-a-revolution machine borne by Annenberg Institute, Carnegie Corporation, Bill Gates, et al. Today, Coleman and Zimba are head of Student Achievement Partners, an organization that played a leading role in developing the standards and actively supports districts and states in implementing them. Prior to Student Achiement Partners, Coleman and Zimba were co-founders of the Grow Network (now owned by...

It was a while ago that our Attorney General, the one and only Eric Holder, claimed that our country was a bunch of “cowards” for not wanting to discuss issues of race. I am willing to discuss them. And contrary to the opinion of race baiters and progressive, grievance mongers, I won’t bow to the narrative they have developed over the past seven years. Most Americans believe race relations in this country are bad and deteriorating. In my lifetime I have not had any difficulty with someone of another race. Perhaps that is because I was in the military for...

Some parents in affluent Michigan school districts may be surprised to learn the local school isn’t just failing to give their kids a leg up, it’s holding them back. New research shows that a number of Michigan schools in middle- to upper-income areas are underperforming on state and national proficiency exams. In eighth-grade math, for example, 58 percent of Michigan students failed to score at the proficient level on the National Assessment for Education Progress. “We’re trying to lift the stone so parents can see what is underneath,” said Lance Izumi of the Pacific Research Institute. Izumi, along with Alicia...

“Can racism be stopped in the third grade?” That’s the question asked in this week’s New York Magazine cover story by journalist Lisa Miller. The short answer, of course, is that it all depends on how you define racism. At the Fieldston Lower School, a $43,000-per-year Riverdale institution, the administration sees racism everywhere. Just consider the “microaggressions” that have been uncovered.

Scott Walker and his legislative minions have no respect for local democracy. One of Walker’s early acts as governor was to sign a law that pre-empted Milwaukee’s paid sick days ordinance — which voters had approved by 69 to 31 percent and which the state Court of Appeals had upheld. Dana Schultz of 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, described the state override of the Milwaukee law as “an assault on democracy, local control and working families." The assaults have continued, with Walker and his allies moving again and again to prevent Wisconsin’s towns, villages and cities from acting...

A New Jersey public school teacher who instructed her third-grade students to write “get well” letters to a convicted cop killer was fired at a raucous school board meeting that stretched into the wee hours of Wednesday morning, despite her pleas that “there’s a community behind me.” Marylin Zuniga, a first-year teacher who drew widespread condemnation for assigning her young charges the task of writing to Mumia Abu-Jamal, was canned at the meeting of the Orange Board of Education, the Star-Ledger of Newark reported.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) recently proposed the Parental Choice in Education Act as a way to provide more opportunity for parents in choosing which schools would be the best fit for their children. The legislation would use $70 million in taxpayer money to create an education tax credit for families making $60,000 or less. Parents who qualify could receive up to $500 in a tax credit or refund for each student attending a private school. Among other benefits, it would also encourage more private school scholarships. "This is about fairness and this is about parents choosing the school that is...

The proposed adoption of $300,000 worth of reading materials for Cody, Wyoming students stalled this week amid criticisms about the curriculum’s “very liberal, very slanted view of the world.” School board and community members spoke out against a slate of proposed materials for K-12 students that cover topics like global warming, evolution and race. The materials are published by education giant Pearson and Boston publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ... that aligns with the national Common Core standards. But many in the community are concerned about how the texts address issues like global warming, which is treated as settled science ......

Mackenzie Fraiser is 12-years-old. She’s a sixth grader at Somerset Academy, a charter school in North Las Vegas, Nevada. Mackenzie is also a Christian. In February, she was instructed by her technology teacher to create a PowerPoint demonstration about her life. One of the requirements was to include a slide with an inspirational message. So Mackenzie decided to use a Bible verse – specifically John 3:16. That familiar passage reads: “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” But the teacher had a problem...

29:00 [click on picture then click on red dot to listen]

The state Education Department has rejected all 15 applications for new charter schools, including 12 in New York City, claiming they failed to meet academic standards. “We always look for quality and these applications didn’t measure up,” Education Department spokesman Dennis Tompkins said Wednesday. “We invited several of the applicants to reapply in June and we gave them suggestions on how to improve their applications.” But charter-school advocates weren’t buying it, saying the rejection of all the applicants reeked of pro-teacher-union politics. “The timing and nature of these blanket rejections should raise serious concerns for New Yorkers ... Mayor de...

San Francisco gives parents a say in where their children go to school — and that is leading to less diversity [snip] A federal judge ordered desegregation, and in 1971 San Francisco put children on buses that crisscrossed the city so they could be in multiracial schools. The plan almost immediately ended racial isolation — but it also helped drive families out of the district and into the suburbs or into private schools. Many Chinese families resisted integration, boycotting district public schools and creating their own private “freedom schools” for their children instead. From the 1960s to 1983, the school...

Watch: Michelle’s Race-Baiting Shredded By Black Guy Who Gives Her A Must-See History Lesson VIDEO B. Christopher Agee May 18, 2015 at 2:32pm In a recent installment of Zonation, host Alfonzo Rachel reacted to Michelle Obama’s recent commencement address at Tuskegee University. As Western Journalism reported, the first lady used the forum to spread a message of victimhood among black graduates. “I’m disappointed that the students at Tuskegee University didn’t get up and walk out on Michelle Obama’s speech,” Rachel said. “It’s like the graduates spent all that time at the college and didn’t learn anything worth a hard donut.”

<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Scott Walker's proposal prohibiting the state superintendent from forcing local school districts to adopt Common Core academic standards is up for a vote in the Legislature's budget committee.</p> <p>The Joint Finance Committee was scheduled to act on the proposal Tuesday.......</p>

Clerical workers and classroom assistants at an intermediate school district headquartered in Cadillac have voted to decertify the Michigan Education Association local as their exclusive bargaining unit. The 60 members of the Educational Support Personnel Association of the Wexford-Missaukee Intermediate School District will form their own independent union, according to the current president of the union local. “This is not an anti-MEA decision,” said Deb Kasza, the president of the support personnel local, in an email. “We would like to have more autonomy and to keep our money to do things for our members and our community. We are proud...

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas – New Braunfels ISD responded Friday to a complaint from parents of a student at Carl Schurz Elementary School being in a "FOCUS room." A website, called "The 'Focus Room' Horror" and dated May 13, shows photos of a visibly upset boy sitting on the floor of a room. The website writes that the boy is a 9-year-old student named Alex and states that he was confined to the room for more than an hour. According to the website, Alex was told to sit in a circle drawn on the floor for 90 minutes "to earn 90...

Conventional public school districts may covet the taxpayer dollars that follow a student when parents choose to enroll their child in a Michigan "public school academy" — also known as a charter school. But that isn’t the only motive behind the intense political campaign aimed at limiting the number of public charter schools, or even shutting them down altogether (see the Abed amendment). Union efforts to maintain the flow of school employee dues might be an even stronger motive. For teacher unions and those politically and financially dependent on them, charter schools represent a significant threat. In academically failing school...

There is no knowing what they are learning, for good or ill, in school In the 1940s and ‘50s, what passed for sex education was literally about the birds and bees as metaphors for inception and child birth. The emphasis was on waiting until marriage to engage in sex. There were instructional books with a mostly medical orientation to the information they provided but whether they could be found in the schools is anyone’s guess. Somehow that generation (and earlier ones) managed to learn enough about sex to engage in it within the context of a society that regarded sex...