Free Republic

A Maryland school district is instructing teachers and administrators not to tell parents if their daughters are bunking with male transgender students on overnight field trips. Bob Mosier, chief communications officer for the Anne Arundel County public school system, says in a training video on how to accommodate transgender students that privacy issues prevent the district from informing parents about such arrangements. “So, many of you might be asking yourselves, ‘So I’m at an overnight field trip, and I have student who’s biologically a male, identifies as a female, and we’ve worked with that student and her family, and that...

In 1990, the Navajo students of Window Rock High School in Fort Defiance, Arizona, asked the author of their calculus book, John Saxon, to be their graduation speaker. The class sponsor had suggested the governor as their speaker, but the students wanted Saxon. A story in The Arizona Republic explained, “At this high school, as at thousands of other schools around the country, Saxon’s name is spoken with reverence by pupils who credit him with changing completely their views about math.” Arnell Yazzie, president of the senior class, said he and others taking calculus had lobbied for Saxon’s selection. “He...

During this past school year, the condition of the Detroit Public Schools’ buildings made national news. For example, Detroit teacher Shalon Miller wrote about her poor working conditions in an article published by The Washington Post. While the media coverage focused on the poor conditions of the schools, it did not mention that in November 2009, taxpayers approved a $500.5 million millage for DPS, specifically to improve the condition of the district's buildings. Miller wrote in The Washington Post: “I wonder why my students are left in the worst conditions possible.” And she said Wednesday that taxpayers should have the...

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg (North Carolina) School System had to temporarily put its HB2-defying transgender bathroom plan on hold due to a recent Supreme Court ruling. But the ruling hasn't stopped the slow roll-out of other controversial gender-related recommendations that it is set to make to the local school board on Tuesday night. Charlotte news station WSOC-TV reports:

Criticizing the state of modern journalism, Tucker Carlson told AIM that journalists' obsequious behavior, blatant bias and monolithic worldview have compromised the integrity of the nation's fourth estate. Carlson, a member of the Fox News team and a veteran journalist who co-founded the Daily Caller, asserts that many journalists bask in the presence of "the powerful" and are "…afraid to challenge anybody in power." "That's kind of exactly the opposite of what you want. I mean the whole reason that journalists have a special kind of place in American society is because they're entrusted with this job to kind of...

Although Michigan offers parents educational choices through Schools of Choice, public charter schools, online academies and dual enrollment, the state has yet to tap into a resource of educational opportunity that’s ready and willing to serve tens of thousands of students: Michigan’s private schools. A generation ago, private school choice — giving public aid to help parents pay private school tuition — was an unproven novelty nearly everywhere in the United States. This year, more than half the states have these types of programs, serving about 400,000 students, and that number keeps growing. But before we can have a serious...

Local authorities are calling for classes on Islam to be brought in at schools across the country after a radicalized Muslim youth attacked passengers on a train with an axe on Monday.“It is appropriate to bring in classes on Islam in state schools or schools overseen by the state,” Gerd Landsberg, head of the association of local councils, told the Rheinische Post on Wednesday. In this way the state can gain more control over the upbringing of Muslim youths, Landsberg said. On Monday evening, an attacker whom investigators believe was a 17-year-old refugee from Afghanistan, seriously wounded four people with...

The bombing of a Russian passenger jet over the Sinai was most probably the end result of a stealth jihad operation. That might seem like a strange way of putting it, because we usually think of stealth jihad as something that radical Muslims do to subvert non-Muslim societies. Yet, unless there were already a stealth network in place, its unlikely that an ISIS operative would have been able to get by security and place a bomb on board the Russian plane. Although ISIS has taken credit for the bombing, they probably did so with the help of another group -...

A newly-released email and lobbying documents filed with Congress reveals new ties between Clintonworld and members of a network operated by a mysterious Islamic cleric from Turkey. Connections between Clinton and acolytes of the imam, Fethullah Gulen, could muddle the complex relationship between the U.S. and Turkey, a key NATO ally, if the former secretary of state wins the White House. TurkeyÂ’s president, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, has mounted an aggressive crackdown against Gulen and his followers, known as Gulenists. ErdoÄŸan, who was once allied with Gulen, has even personally asked President Obama to extradite the 74-year-old guru, who has lived...

As a writer, editor, mother, and book lover for as long as I can remember, every time I stepped foot in the room called "Library Media Center" at Greenville High School, a little bit of my heart was broken. I began to think of the space as a giant metaphor for everything wrong with education. As a former educator, it gave me insight into where students in rural America are often coming from in terms of literacy. It has always been part of my teaching philosophy that you meet the student where he or she is and you build from...

Christopher Douglas is an associate professor and the chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Michigan-Flint, where he teaches a half dozen classes. He has undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering and economics from Michigan Technological University as well as a doctorate in economics from Michigan State University. Yet, Douglas has said he would have to complete additional coursework and also pass the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification to teach at a public high school in Michigan. And he isn’t alone. Ross B. Emmett is a professor of political economy and political theory and constitutional democracy at James...

A Detroit Public Schools teacher who lives in Novi was the basis of an article in a suburban newspaper that inaccurately portrayed Detroit Public Schools as being neglected by policymakers and taxpayers when compared to suburban schools. The article appeared in the same week the Legislature approved a $617 million bailout of DPS, which included $150 million extra for unspecified spending. The article originally appeared in the Novi Hometownlife newspaper, with the title “Separate, unequal: Inside a Detroit classroom,” and then was picked up and run online by the Detroit Free Press. It made several claims that are not supported...

In supporting a $617 million bailout of the insolvent Detroit school district last week, Michigan House Republicans defied fierce political opposition by refusing to create a mayoral commission that could have restricted new charter schools in the city. Before the vote, there were allegations that Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan tried a power play to pressure charter school operators within the city to sign on to the Detroit Education Commission or become irrelevant. After House Bill 5384 was passed by a 55-53 vote, Detroit Free Press Editorial Page Editor Stephen Henderson accused House Republicans of taking money for their vote. Henderson...

This piece is co-authored by Emmett McGroarty, senior fellow at American Principles Project.Narrowly viewed, the unlawful “guidance” letter issued by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice, implicitly threatening schools that refuse to allow both sexes to access all restrooms, locker rooms, dormitories/sleeping quarters, and probably sports teams, represents a leftist assault on student privacy. But the attack is much broader than that, actually targeting fundamental realities on which human civilization is based. Rather than write a book on that subject, let’s focus on one strand that should especially disturb parents: The guidance is yet another in a long series...

High school girls in Alaska are crying foul after a male sprinter took home all-state honors in girls’ track and field. According to local reports, it was the first time in Alaskan history that a male athlete competed in the girls’ state championships. Haines senior Nattaphon Wangyot advanced to the state finals in the 100-meter and 200-meter events. He won fifth place in the 100-meter dash and third place in the 200-meter. In both events, he competed against girls as young as ninth grade. One of the girls Wangyot beat out for a slot at the state meet, Hutchison runner...

The Philadelphia School District will add two Muslim holidays to its calendar, placing it among the first in the nation to do so. In what would be an even rarer step, Mayor Kenney said Tuesday he also hopes to adopt the holidays for city workers. He has created a task force to determine how the change can be accomplished. A spokesman from the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington said his group is not aware of any cities that have included the holidays, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, in their municipal calendars. "Philadelphia's history is based on being a place...

"Tyrone knocked up 4 girls in the gang. There are 20 girls in his gang. What is the exact percentage of girls Tyrone knocked up?" "Leroy has 2 ounces of cocaine. If he sells an 8 ball to Antonio for $320 and 2 grams to Juan for $85 per gram, what is the street value of the rest of his hold?" These are a couple of gang-related math questions that appeared on a Grade 8 test in Alabama. Others included references to hos and ammunition. Some of the students thought the questions were funny. But their parents weren't laughing. "I...

"Changing the definition of marriage to entrench motherless and fatherlessness in public policy and teaching our kids their gender is fluid should be opposed...The cowardice and weakness of Australia's 'gatekeepers' is causing unthinkable things to happen, just as unthinkable things happened in Germany in the 1930s." Mr Shelton began the post by declaring he loved to read obituaries in The Economist, specifically one published last week on the late German-born historian Fritz Stern. According to the obituary, Stern argued the rise of Adolf Hitler owed less to the Fuhrer's personality cult and more to the failure of Germany's 'gatekeepers' to...

The James & Grace Lee Boggs School is a charter school in Detroit that opened in 2013, one of 25 that have opened since 2011. That was the year a statewide cap on the number of charters was repealed by the Legislature and Gov. Rick Snyder. The 108 K-6 students at Boggs scored well enough on standardized state tests in 2015 to place it among the 20 best Detroit public schools, including charter and district-run schools. Just 1.5 miles from Boggs is the Detroit school district’s Spain Elementary-Middle School, with 438 students. In 2015, its students scored much lower on...

It is a story that started when one dad asked his three sons who attend Southwest Elementary School in Howell a routine question: How was school today?“My son informed me there was a girl in the bathroom with him and the other kids in his class,” said Matt Stewart.He called the school. He asked why he wasn’t given warning that there was a transgender child in the school, why parents didn’t have a say on school policy, and what the options were to protect the privacy of his son.Stewart didn’t like the answers. He and his wife then decided to...