Free Republic

WYCKOFF, NJ — Six-figure salaries are no longer uncommon for educators in New Jersey. Including in the Wyckoff School District where several teachers make more than $100,000 annually. That is according to an annual list of teachers that make that amount and their exact salaries for 2018, a list the state Department of Education released recently. The list barely had any teachers on it more than a decade ago. It's also a small fraction of the more than 100,000 people who teach in public and charter schools in this state. But the highest earners also come from all different schools...

ELK GROVE, Calif. - Kiyana Esco needs free school lunches and breakfasts to feed her six children. But with schools shutting down over coronavirus concerns, she’s scrambling to pick up the meals, care for her kids and keep her job. Esco, a single mother, manager at a Dollar Tree, fears she’ll be fired because she can’t work following school closures in Elk Grove, the fifth-largest district in California. She’s among the parents who are relying on school leaders as they look for ways to keep millions of America’s poorest children from going hungry. While schools across the U.S. close their...

New Mexico schools are getting ready for a coronavirus outbreak. The Public Education Department sent a letter to superintendents that states: “No cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in NM to date, but this will likely change." The letter also talks about how to plan for closure and preventing the spread of the disease. According to Dr. Veronica Garcia, the superintendent at Santa Fe Public Schools, a big problem is that a lot of schools don’t have nurses. She said they are fortunate. All of Santa Fe’s public schools have either a licensed nurse or a health assistant, but other...

A second person in New York has tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said Tuesday, leading to the closure of a Bronx private school where one of the patient’s children attends. The new patient, a 50-year-old attorney, lives in New Rochelle, N.Y., north of New York City, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday. The man works in Manhattan and had an underlying respiratory illness. He went into the NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville and was then transferred to a hospital in Manhattan, officials said. Mr. Cuomo said he didn’t know if the man took public transportation, but his movements were being...

Biden promises he will: “Double the number of psychologists, guidance counselors, nurses, social workers, and other health professionals in our schools so our kids get the mental health care they need.”

Why are wealthy left-wing donors across the country, the abortion industry, and national gun-control groups more interested in your local school board and city council races than most of the people who live in your own town? Because they’re funding efforts to ensure their far-left agenda pervades our entire society – from getting their abortion curricula into our schools to changing our election laws – and they want to make sure that no city, no town is left to stand against them. National left-wing organizations are collecting and funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to flip local city councils, school...

Philip Cerone, 29, of Maywood, is a former teacher's aide serving probation for criminal sexual contact. The victim is suing Cerone and two districts where he worked.Bergen County Prosecutor's Office A 20-year-old woman has sued two school districts in Bergen County claiming she was sexually assaulted by a teacher’s aide and officials at two schools did nothing to intervene. The woman claims Philip Cerone, of Maywood, carried on an illegal relationship with her from April 2016 to October 2017 while she was a student at Hackensack High School and a volunteer under Cerone’s supervision at South Hackensack Memorial School...

MADISON — As the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) faces a lawsuit over its policy on student gender identity, it’s being accused of discriminating against transgender teachers in the bathroom. On Tuesday, Madison Teachers Inc. (MTI) fired out a press release asserting it supports equal restroom access for MMSD students and staff. The union doesn’t like the district’s directive to Frank Allis Elementary school staff to “limit their use of restroom facilities to the single person restroom.” The union’s Equity and Diversity Committee, as well as MTI’s board of directors, released a statement saying that they “stand with Vica Steel and all...

About 30 Broward schools could close, combine with other schools or convert into a new type of facility as the school district looks for ways to deal with nearly half-empty campuses. Many of these schools are in the southern part of the county, from Hollywood to Pembroke Pines, where thousands of students have left for charter schools. Others are in the Fort Lauderdale area and have struggled with factors such as low student performance, outdated facilities and aging neighborhoods. Most changes would likely take place in the fall of 2021, and district officials said affected communities would have opportunities to...

For those who enjoy a good puzzle, K-12 education is more intellectually entertaining than most people imagine. Classrooms are full of convoluted theories and mystifying methods. Probably the teachers themselves can't explain the reasoning behind approaches that are used almost universally in American public schools. Chat with friends who are smart and successful. Try to find even one who can explain Sight-Words, Prior Knowledge, Multiculturalism, Constructivism, Reform Math, or Common Core Math. Why are Geography, History, and Science so often slighted? What justifies the hostility toward memorization and academic content? Can anyone understand the paradox of most students getting A...

Maybe now that the impeachment circus is behind us, we can start having a serious conversation about what’s truly at stake in the 2020 election.  Granted, my perspective is biased because my daughter Meadow was murdered in the Parkland school shooting, but to me the most important issue is school safety. And school safety is the clearest reason to re-elect Donald Trump.  This opinion might come as a shock to some parents. After all, the mainstream media did everything it could to spin a narrative that blamed Republicans and/or President Trump for the shooting. But I wasn’t interested in narratives....

'I'm writing this note to you because as you know when school is out, there's really no time to talk, just a quick hug,' the note reads. 'For some time, I've been wanting to talk to you about spending time together... Maybe with some other friends of yours? What do you think?' another sentence says. . . . After reporting the note to school officials, the man was taken off that bus route. Edmond School District also said that the driver is no longer employed by the district.

An elementary school in Berkeley has been ordered to pay up for playing a Disney video during a fund-raising event at the school. It happened in November when the Dad’s Club of the PTA presented a “parent’s night out” fundraiser at Emerson Elementary to support the school. In its school calendar listing, the club said it was going to play the most-recent version of the Disney animated film, “The Lion King.” “I think one of the dads owned the movie. He had bought it at Walmart and we just basically threw it on while the kids were playing in the...

Last October, a well-known Portland antifa militant was killed under mysterious circumstances after leaving a pub popular with far-left extremists. Sean Daniel Kealiher, 23, was killed near the Cider Riot pub after being hit by a car that had been fired upon with live rounds. His friends dragged his body away and did not call the police. Kealiher’s death immediately rippled throughout Portland and beyond, leading both the far-left and even establishment Democrat leaders to mourn publicly. A GoFundMe for his funeral raised thousands. And while he was lionized in the press as a murdered “anti-fascist activist” and even called...

In a press conference early Friday evening, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam urged residents to stay vigilant and announced further measures by the government to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Here are the highlights: The numbers: There are now 12 confirmed cases of the virus in Hong Kong, five of which are Hong Kong residents and seven are mainland Chinese residents, Lam said.School suspended: Primary and secondary schools were originally set to resume on February 17, but will now stay suspended until March 2. The government will re-evaluate at that point whether to resume classes, depending on the status of...

It’s time for New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza to go. Actually, it was time for him to go last year, when he was caught hiring a friend with a financial stake in a company that did business with the Department of Education. Or even earlier, when he declared war against Asian-American parents who ­objected to his anti-Asian school-integration schemes. But now that Carranza has ­directly insulted parents, he ­really needs to go. He should ­resign — or Mayor de Blasio should fire him. The last straw should have been Carranza storming out of a meeting with parents concerned...

Today the U.S. Supreme Court hears a case that could determine whether parents and taxpayers have any choices about the kind of religion American children are taught with taxpayer funds. Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue concerns whether private donations may support schools that make their religious beliefs explicit. It could also undo a century of U.S. court and legislative decisions that used animus between Protestants and Catholics to attack the faith of both kinds of Christians’ children over the last century.Five years ago, Montana’s legislature enacted a tiny school choice program that allows residents to deduct up to...

An Idaho state legislator plans to introduce a bill that would require biologically male athletes to compete on boys sports teams, regardless of whether they identify as a transgender girl or not. Idaho state Rep. Barbara Ehardt is the latest Republican lawmaker across the country to introduce legislation ensuring girls aren’t forced to compete against biologically male athletes. The wave of proposed legislation comes as biological males have piled up victories in female athletics. “Boys and men will not be able to take the place of girls and women in sports because it’s not fair. We cannot physically compete against...

The US Education Department is sending out memos to school leaders telling them that they cannot block students or teachers from praying in public. The plans were revealed on the same day as President Donald Trump welcomed to the Oval Office a group of Christian, Jewish and Muslim students who have experienced discrimination in schools. They met the US President to mark National Religious Freedom Day on Thursday. In an announcement, the White House said that the Trump administration was "taking action to further safeguard students' constitutionally protected right to pray in school". The new federal guidance says that students...

California's New Dystopian Laws Californians, are you ready for the twelve-hundred new progressive laws that take effect this year? Get ready because many of these new rules come with stiff penalties. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8FhWH4uSdk&feature=emb_title