Free Republic

(CNSNews.com) – To help “create a classroom where students aren’t limited based on gender stereotypes,” teachers should address classes using words like “friends or “students” rather than girls and boys, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) advises in a new back-to-school guide.The first tip suggested by the HRC’s Welcoming Schools Initiative is for teachers to avoid using gender to “divide and address students.” The guide claims that separating students for activities according to gender “can leave some students feeling out-of-place, making them distracted or isolated and not able to focus on learning.”The guide recommends finding new, inventive ways of dividing students...

Lawmakers and the Obama administration are plotting to unconstitutionally commandeer local schools and turn them into “full-service community schools” — government centers that will usurp vast new responsibilities over children that have traditionally been handled by parents and families. Under the plan, adopted in the Senate last month as part of a massive “education bill” solidifying federal control over children and schools, federally funded so-called community schools will “target” families and children for “services” covering their “academic, physical, social, emotional, health, mental health, and other needs.” If Congress and the Obama administration get their way, these full-service parent-replacement centers will...

Every year the teachers union local at the Birmingham school district requests nominations for its “Teacher of the Year” award. Yet the district itself did not designate a single one of its 624 teachers as “highly effective” in its 2013-14 staff evaluations, the most recent released by the state. Moreover, the Oakland County district does not offer merit pay to reward successful teachers, despite a state law that requires this. Ironically then, Birmingham teacher Rick Joseph was selected by the Michigan Department of Education as the state's 2015-16 teacher of the year. Joseph earned $88,770 in 2014-15, but not because...

The Lansing School District is considering privatizing custodial services. The Lansing State Journal first reported the development in mid-July, and July 29 was the deadline for service providers to submit bids. With almost 12,000 students, Lansing is one of the state’s largest school districts. In Michigan and around the country, privatizing custodial services has saved school districts money. For example, the rural Ludington school district saved $150,000, about $67 per student. Lansing’s neighbor, the Okemos Public Schools, saved $600,000 — or $150 per student. If it follows through, the Lansing district will join nearly 260 others across Michigan that have...

Chicago Public Schools officials on Monday proposed a $5.7 billion operating budget for the upcoming school year that relies on $480 million in new funding from state government that might never come. School leaders conceded the spending plan contains a mix of “unsustainable” borrowing and limited classroom cuts that they say they must begrudgingly make because of a $676 million payment for teacher pensions that’s due at the end of the school year. There also are numerous fiscal wild cards in the mix, including budget adjustments that might ensue should CPS reach an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union on...

It's easy to understand how Liz Roe, a mother sending her daughter to Utica Community Schools, became so frustrated. Liz had seen her daughter, Mia, struggle with reading since kindergarten. "My brother had dyslexia," Liz said, "So, I kind of recognized the flipping of words and numbers." But despite repeated requests, Liz says Utica schools failed to give Mia the services she needed to excel in the classroom. Throughout her first few years in elementary school, school officials made Mia feel despondent. In first grade, her teacher told Mia's family that she was "hopeless." In third grade, when Mia asked...

For those not familiar with the GI Bill – the program which provides numerous benefits for our veterans when they complete their terms of service – it can be a pretty good deal. It’s undergone several changes over the years (having first evolved in the 40s and 50s) but it’s helped a lot of veterans, including me. One of the most commonly used features aside from home mortgage programs is the education benefit. Veterans can go to school and have significant portions of their tuition covered, allowing for an easier transition to civilian life.Some of the schools which a...

Parents of private school students don’t want to put their children in public school for 100 days to be eligible for Nevada’s new voucher program. That was the general consensus of four hours of public comment at a Friday hearing on the new law. Parents urged lawmakers to figure out another way to determine eligibility for the program, which currently requires students be enrolled at a public school for 100 days before their parents can receive money. SB302, passed by legislators this year, says families can receive around $5,000 each year per student to use on things like private school...

Albion Superintendent Jerri-Lynn Williams-Harper is asking nearby school districts to stop providing transportation to Albion students who have chosen to enroll in a different district through "Schools of Choice." Most districts throughout the state participate in SOC and have opened their doors widely and sought to serve disadvantaged students from other districts. Williams-Harper, whose district has seen hundreds of students leave using SOC, wrote a letter to nearby districts asking them to "cease and desist immediately" from busing in Albion students to the schools of their choice. By asking school districts to withhold busing, the Albion superintendent is trying to...

The head of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is weighing in on the firing of teacher from a Montgomery County Catholic school, who allegedly lost her job because of her same-sex marriage. Margie Winters says she lost her job as the religious education director at Waldron Mercy Academy because of her marriage to Andrea Vittori. More than 100 people gathered together in support Winters at General Wayne Park in Lower Merion Township on Sunday afternoon. "I'm here to support Margie and let her know what was done to her was unjust, discriminatory and unfair," said Anthony Arechavale, parent. "I think it's...

For those unfamiliar with the NEA, it is the nation’s largest labor union – not just the largest teacher’s union, mind you. But the largest labor union in the country. Period. It has over three million members. Its mission is “to advocate for education professionals” blah, blah, blah. In other words, they are an organization of teachers who unite to demand more money, benefits, better work environments and whatever else they can get their hands on. They also advocate for just about any left-wing liberal cause that enrages conservatives, even if it has nothing to do with teaching. One of...

These kids are going to be future legislators, and they’re going to get in there and know the truth about weapons. When I was in high school, back in the Stone Age, many if not most American high schools, both public and private, had shooting teams. Then the wilting violets and pansies took over and set about effecting Fundamental Emasculation of American society. But now, gradually, shooting sports are coming back: ... Competitive musketry dates to 16th century England and has been an Olympic sport since 1896. Today trap, a cousin of skeet and sporting clays, is as popular with...

Security forces have arrested six Israeli Beduin men from the Negev town of Houra, four of whom work as school teachers, for allegedly supporting the Islamic State terrorist organization. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) revealed Monday that the men were arrested over the past two months. They allegedly took part in secret meetings in which they discussed Islamic State doctrine, and spread the group's propaganda among their family members and associates. Some of the suspects planned to join the ranks Islamic State in Syria. Those who worked as teachers at schools in the Negev used their positions to spread...

Earlier this month, LifeNews.com reported on a high school in Seattle, Washington that is now implanting intrauterine devices (IUD), as well as other forms of birth control and doing so without parental knowledge or permission.The IUD is known as a long acting reversible contraception, and may even act as an abortifacient. So, a young teen in Seattle canÂ’t get a coke at her high school, but she can have a device implanted into her uterus, which can unknowingly kill her unborn child immediately after conception. Or, if she uses another method, she can increase her chances of health risks for...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Hundreds of Chicago Public Schools teachers and parents protested at City Hall Thursday morning following 1,400 layoffs and $200 million in cuts to meet a teachers' pension deadline. Mayor Rahm Emanuel delayed a $634 million pension payment until the eleventh-hour on Tuesday, waiting to see any relief would come from state lawmakers. It never came. The mayor and Interim CPS CEO Jesse Ruiz outlined on Wednesday who would be laid off and where cuts would be made. Ruiz said most of the 1,400 jobs cut were in administration and special education programs. Very few teachers were laid...

Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Heidi Huber, founder of Operation Opt Out Ohio.Parents across the nation are in open revolt against the testing mania that has seized public schools under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Common Core national standards. In some states, thousands of students — 200,000 in New York alone — are refusing the “mandatory” assessments. One would think the Washington politicos who are writing the NCLB reauthorization bill would take note of this widespread rebellion and would ease — or better still, eliminate — the federal testing requirements. But unlike the repentant thief who...

Earlier this week, religious employers suffered another loss at the hands of the coercive Obamacare Health and Human Services mandate. A U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit panel ruled against East Texas Baptist University and a group of other non-profit religious employers in their challenge to the Obamacare requirement that they facilitate health care coverage for employees that includes contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs and devices, or fill out a form notifying the Department of Health and Human Services that they have a religious objection to providing such coverage. This so-called “accommodation” then initiates the process of the government...

A network of pastors is expressing concern about the ongoing influence of Islam into local communities, most recently a public school in Pennsylvania. The American Pastors Network points to a recent workshop in Lebanon, where 50 public school educators visited a local mosque to learn about the Islamic religion - all at taxpayers' expense. Pennsylvania pastor Gary Dull, an American Pastors Network board member, says that's just one example of how Islamic ideology is creeping into classrooms and local governments across America.

Karen D. Twomey, a member of the Ferndale Public Schools Board of Education and a teacher in Bloomfield Hills Schools, and Thomas Pedroni, an associate professor at Wayne State University, make their own pitch on how to fix Detroit Public Schools in a recent guest article for the Detroit Free Press. Among the recommendations, they say the state should “invest in teaching staffing” and say “what little funding the district retains” is steered from the classroom to administrators. ForTheRecord says: Detroit Public Schools in 2013-14 spent 25 percent more than the state average on instructional salaries and benefits. DPS spent...

The backlash against public use of Confederate flags has built quickly since nine parishioners were gunned down inside a South Carolina church last week. Alabama removed the flag from its state capitol grounds Wednesday, and political leaders in Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee and North Carolina have moved to remove Confederate flag symbols from their state license plates. Wal-Mart, Amazon, Sears and eBay all have said they will stop selling the Confederate battle flag, viewed by many people as a symbol of racism and slavery. But what about the other symbols of the Confederacy that live on in our everyday lives? What,...