Free Republic

Big Gov't Programs Wasting Billions for Nothing? By Paul Strand CBN News Washington Sr. Correspondent Wednesday, January 08, 2014 WASHINGTON - Federal social programs are supposed to help the poor and disadvantaged in the country. It turns out many of these programs spend billions of taxpayer dollars while doing no good at all. A new book is raising the question few in Washington dare to ask, "Do Federal Social Programs Work?" It's author, David Mulhausen, has a definitive answer. "The government is stepping in, saying, 'We've got a program for you and that's going to make your life better off.'...

(Colo, IA) A teacher in Colo, Iowa, decided to eat only at McDonald’s for 90 days to see what it would do to his health. The result turned out to be a good lesson for him and his students. “I can eat any food at McDonald’s I want as long as I’m smart for the rest of the day with what I balance it out with,” said science teacher John Cisna said That was the theory Cisna laid out for three of his students at Colo-Nesco high school this past fall. Ninety days of Mickey D’s for breakfast, lunch and...

I have marveled over the years at the kind of fear and anger the Christian Faith generates in some sectors of our society. Even the suggestion that there might a a small nativity scene in a park, or Christmas tree near City Hall, or a display of the Ten Commandments often elicits a hew and cry and brings forth camera crews and elicits lawsuits. But the venom seems especially reserved  for symbols of the Christian faith in particular and to some extent the wider Judeo-Christian heritage. A reference from the Q’ran in school is seen by many of this same...

<p>A southwest Ohio teacher who allegedly responded after a black high school freshman said he wanted to become president that the nation doesn't need another black president has been disciplined.</p> <p>The Fairfield board of education this week suspended teacher Gil Voigt (VOYT') without pay. The Hamilton-Middletown Journal-News reports (http://bit.ly/1ilf5qv) that board president Dan Murray said the suspension is the first step in the termination process. The teacher has 10 days from formal notification to appeal before the school board.</p>

White House press secretary Jay Carney said that they’re leaving the investigation of an American teacher shot in Benghazi up to the Libyans. The Libya Herald reported that chemistry teacher Ronnie Smith, 33, was running on Dubai Street in Benghazi’s Digadosta district when he was shot multiple times. According to witnesses, Smith was approached by a black SUV that “drove up to him and retreated several times before shots were fired from the vehicle.” Smith had lived in Benghazi for 13 months with his wife and their 2-year old while teaching at Benghazi International School. His wife had flown back

KNOXVILLE - Police arrested a 15-year-old West High School student on Monday morning for assaulting a teacher after he used a lighter to ignite her hair and shirt. According to witnesses, when the teacher, 23-year-old Gabriela Penalba (pictured above) turned her back to the class, a male student lit her hair and shirt on fire.

The 14-year-old student accused of murdering his teacher also raped her with an 'object' before dumping her body, it was alleged in court on Thursday. Danvers High School student Philip Chism was indicted in a Massachusetts court on charges of murder, aggravated rape and armed robbery in the slaying of his math teacher Colleen Ritzer on October 22. Authorities believe Chism, a soccer standout, followed Ritzer into a second-floor bathroom after school armed with a box cutter, stabbed her, wheeled her body outside in a large recycling bin and dumped it in the woods behind the school.

Texas middle school student Reginald Wells was knocked out with a punch to the face by a teacher last Friday after Wells cracked a joke about the teacher's favorite football team. Wells, who attends Willie Ray Smith Middle School in Beaumont, says he stopped to talk to an assistant teacher from his math class and joked about the teacher's favorite football team, pushing the teacher's shoulder after he said the joke. According to another teacher who was in the hallway, the assistant teacher reacted by punching 12-year-old Wells in the face, knocking him out. From 12News: "(The principal) said Reginald...

When Matt Knapp was hired as a teacher in the Saginaw Public School district 11 years ago, he said he was given paperwork to sign to be a union member. "Oh, no," Knapp said he told the district employee. "I'd rather not be in the union." To his surprise, he was told it was a condition of employment. That changed last year when Michigan became a right-to-work state, which allows union members the freedom to choose whether they want to pay dues or fees to the union. When that happened, Knapp said he approached his union about how to opt...

A chemistry teacher in northwest Indiana has been fired and criminally charged because he allegedly ferried a group of students to a strip club and gave them beer and hard liquor inside his home. The sacked teacher, Travis Lechien, had taught for a decade at Hanover Central High School in the exurbs of Chicago, reports local NBC affiliate WMAQ. He was also a volleyball coach and a sponsor of many after-school activities. Lechien, 32, had been suspended without pay since Sept. 10 before he was fired. Previously, the school board had refused to accept his attempt to resign. “We take...

DANVERS (WHDH) -- A 14-year-old student is in custody after a teacher was found murdered at Danvers High Schools. Danvers Public Schools were closed Wednesday. The Essex District Attorney’s office said it was due to an ongoing homicide investigation. Danvers has five elementary schools, a middle school and a high school. Essex District Attorney said the schools are closed primarily for the investigation and that there is no risk to the public or children. Overnight, there were reports of a missing teen. The DA confirmed that the missing Danvers teen was found safe Wednesday morning. They’ve scheduled a news conference...

That line in a speech during the annual Education Minnesota conference last week put Megan Olivia Hall, the state’s teacher of the year, in the line of fire. Hall, a grade 7-12 science teacher at Open World Learning Community in St. Paul said: I think about all of the teachers in the St. Paul Public Schools who gave up our cost of living raise in 2010 in an effort to limit class size in our district. Teachers are persistent and responsible and generous because we believe every child in America, regardless of circumstances of birth, deserves a decent chance at...

SEOUL — Former Seoul American High School music teacher Irene Lee died Thursday. Lee, a native of De Smet, S.D.(had) retired in June after a 41-year of quality teaching. “Irene seemed to know every single student, their families, when and what they were going through. She genuinely cared for them. That takes great emotional commitment. Everybody was family to her, and she inspired trust.” Lee moved to Seoul in 1983 after teaching elementary school in Stuttgart, Germany, according to a 2004 Stars and Stripes article. The DODEA; Lee was “a huge part of shaping my teenage years. Taught me a...

A former Cumberland County middle school principal is accused of sexually assaulting three students who were 11 to 14 years old, including one while the child's parent was waiting in the office, according to the Sheriff's Office. David Ellis Edwards, who was principal of Douglas Byrd Middle School for three years until abruptly resigning in August, turned himself in to sheriff's deputies Friday morning. Edwards, 49, of the 7200 block of Tobago Place, is charged with two counts of second-degree forcible sex offense, two counts of sexual acts with a student and five counts of taking indecent liberties with a...

ATLANTA (AP) -- A south Georgia teacher accused of engaging in sex acts with a teen while knowing he was HIV-positive has been indicted by a grand jury. A five-count indictment filed Wednesday charges 29-year-old Phillip Marquis Burns with child molestation, aggravated child molestation, reckless conduct, child enticement and criminal solicitation. The indictment says Burns masturbated and had oral sex with a 16-year-old boy and asked another boy to send him explicit pictures of himself. Dougherty County court clerk officials say Burns is being represented by Willie C. Weaver, who also serves as a City of Albany Municipal Court judge....

The 32-year-old Californian elementary school teacher and mother-of-two who admitted performing sex acts on a 12-year-old student was sentenced on Friday to six-years in prison with no option for parole. Malia Brooks, from Southern California, pleaded guilty in June to three counts of committing lewd acts with a child under 14 and faced up to 12-years in prison, but Judge Kevin McGee imposed a sentence half that because of the fact she was experiencing manic episodes at the time.

It appears that carrying 20 bags of heroin into a city courthouse is not a firable offense in New York City. In a ruling released yesterday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Manuel Mendez found that Damian Esteban, found with 20 bags of heroin when he reported for jury duty last October, must be allowed to keep his job at Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design, overturning the Department of Education's original firing. When Esteban reported for jury during on October 17 of last year, heroin was found in a cigarette pack he was carrying. He was charged with misdemeanor drug...

New York City’s efforts to fire what it calls the “heroin teacher” received a setback this week that has Mayor Michael Bloomberg fuming. An arbitrator earlier this year ruled that a Brooklyn high school teacher should be fired after he was arrested for bringing heroin into a courthouse while on jury duty. But a State Supreme Court judge overturned the decision, calling the firing ”unduly harsh” and “shocking to this court’s sense of fairness.” Needless to say, Mr. Bloomberg was not amused. “We could not disagree more strongly with the judge’s decision to overturn an arbitrator’s ruling terminating a teacher...

Enrollment appears to be nosediving in a Michigan school district where several teachers publicly supported a former colleague who admitted having sex with a middle school student. The student body count in the West Branch-Rose City district, in northeast Michigan is down unofficially some 87 students following a tumultuous summer in which angry parents blasted seven teachers for writing letters in support of former teacher Neal Erickson. The letters urged a judge to be lenient in sentencing Erickson, who admitted to sexual misconduct with an underage, male student from 2006 to 2009. When the school board declined to take action...

The mother of a kindergarten boy Kansas City received a citation for criminal assault because, police say, she inflicted a vicious beatdown on the boy’s teacher.