Free Republic

Time to Change Our Language.. It is time to stop blaming “Covid” for breaking the economy, destroying businesses and livelihoods, and wreaking untold havoc upon families. It was not “Covid” that did this. It was not even the Chinese. It was our government. The government has conditioned us to blame the impersonal “Covid” for the destruction it wrought upon our businesses and families. We need to change the discussion by using the proper language to fix the blame where it belongs. Good generals can win a battle by picking the terrain upon which they fight. At Waterloo, Wellington forced Napoleon...

Jill Biden is set to host some of America’s top educators for a state dinner later this year, an honor usually reserved for foreign diplomats. The move is meant to demonstrate the Biden administration’s emphasis on education policy and special care from the first lady, a teacher herself. Biden made the announcement Wednesday at a “CBS This Morning” appearance with Missy Testerman, who was named Tennessee’s teacher of the year. “I’m a teacher, as you well know, and I’ve been teaching over 30 years, just like Missy has, and I always say teachers are our heroes. And I wanted to...

Benjamin Franklin once famously quipped, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” Today, however, we can alter that to “death, taxes, and a slew of myths about teacher pay.”Leading the half-truth brigade, on March 4, a headline in My eLearning World read, “New Teachers Are Earning 20% Less Than They Were 20 Years Ago.” The piece informs us that if starting salaries for new teachers had kept pace with inflation over the last 20 years, a teacher just starting out would currently be making $53,303 per year. Instead, using data from the National...

A massive human trafficking bust in Florida resulted in 228 arrests, including members of the U.S. military and a teacher, authorities said Tuesday. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said 150 suspects, or johns, were arrested along with 66 prostitutes and 12 others in the multi-agency operation dubbed "Operation March Sadness 2024." Among the suspects were a schoolteacher, coaches and active duty military members, among other professions. Of the 228 individuals arrested, 21 were in the country illegally. Authorities also identified at least 13 potential human trafficking victims. The sheriff noted that within one year of performing these types of operations,...

Berkeley Unified School District teachers and students have promoted anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment on campus.. Multiple California K-12 schools are being accused of promoting "viciously hostile environments" of "severe and persistent" antisemitism in a recent federal civil rights complaint... Brandeis Center .. along with the U.S. Department of Education filed the complaint against the Berkely Unified School District ... The complaint alleged that the district has allowed the ongoing "harassment and discrimination" of Jewish students to skyrocket since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel. "Over the past four months, BUSD has knowingly allowed its K-12 campuses to become viciously...

The United States must focus on helping American children to develop an understanding, appreciation, and love for math.. The most recent results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) highlight a concerning trend for U.S. students in the field of math. In comparison to their counterparts in other industrialized nations, American students are falling behind. The rather sobering results revealed a 13-point decline for U.S. students when compared to the 2018 exam. In stark contrast, 28 countries and economies managed to either maintain or improve their 2018 math scores, with countries such as Switzerland and Japan leading the way—and...

In St. Johns County, on the Atlantic shore of Northeast Florida, more than 55% of public school teachers paid their union dues this last year. Despite that, nearly 3,500 teachers are facing the threat of having their union representation revoked. At the same time, in Southwest Florida, only 16% of law enforcement officers of the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office paid union dues last year. Their union is under absolutely no threat of being decertified. A year after Governor DeSantis signed into law a sweeping anti-union bill requiring most public sector unions to boost the rate of members paying dues or...

I'd think Joe Biden has to be sitting around wondering how he managed to put himself in his current position, but I'm not sure he even has the cognitive ability to process how bad things are. We've all seen the polls, which will likely tighten in a general election, but other factors are at play as well. ... The latest flashing red light comes courtesy of the National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest teachers union. A far-left entity that has long served as a lynchpin for Democrat politicians, its members are now demanding Biden show support for Palestinian terrorists...

New York City school teachers who commute from Staten Island and The Bronx to Manhattan are at a crossroads: Pay $2,700 more a year to commute by car, spend hours on public transportation — or change jobs. “The city doesn’t care about Staten Island,” special education teacher Paul Caminiti told The Post. He is one of five educators (four from Staten Island and one from New Jersey) in the United Federation of Teachers union who, along with Staten Island borough president Vito Fossella, are suing the MTA over its upcoming congestion pricing plan.

The New York Times dropped a bombshell last weekend by admitting the leftists’ war on standardized tests such as the SAT was “misguided” after the paper has cheered for it for years (see here and here). For decades, leftists have waged war against standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT as part of college admissions, claiming these tests are racially, economically, and even gender “biased” against black and brown children and girls, have little predictability for a student’s future success, and are the root cause of persistent academic performance gaps among students of various ethnic groups. One of the...

An annual report from the Inspector General of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) revealed that millions of dollars worth of tech devices were reported lost or stolen “without appropriate search and recovery efforts.” The fiscal year 2023 annual report released Tuesday states CPS schools reported 77,505 tech devices as lost or stolen during the 2021-22 school year, totaling well over $23 million in original purchase price. The discovery, as a result of the district’s first post-COVID-19 inventory, calls the numbers “unacceptably high” and says the oversight process is in need of a “serious overhaul.” The report said the missing items included...

Despite months of feverish recruiting and manipulation of its numbers, United Teachers of Dade (UTD) came up short in its attempt to bring its membership up to the threshold necessary to avoid a recertification election required under terms of a new law passed by Florida’s legislature this past summer. On Dec. 19, UTD President Karla Hernandez-Mats confirmed the union hadn’t been able to persuade 60 percent of the 30,000 teachers it officially represents to become dues-paying members. A few days earlier, she claimed the union had increased its numbers to just more than 58 percent, including 800 new members. What...

Once in place, it is nearly impossible to get rid of a public union. Florida governor Ron DeSantis found a clever way to make it possible...Union Decertification Legislation in FloridaIn May, governor DeSantis signed a bill that requires at least 60% of workers in a bargaining unit to be dues-paying members. United Teachers of Dade (UTD) did not hit the threshold.Also, unions also can no longer automatically deduct dues from paychecks, members have to opt in. Much of the dues are used for political purposes and resentment from many teachers has built up.Teachers Union Showdown in FloridaThe Wall Street Journal...

This week, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten assailed school choice for "undermining our democracy. Giving parents the option of selecting which school they want their children to attend introduces an unwarranted variation in what these children will learn. Disagreement and disunity are the inevitable outcome." "First of all, parents aren't qualified to judge what constitutes a good education," Weingarten argued. "The public schools have a uniform curriculum that is designed to ensure that every student receives an equal education free of the prejudices and misconceptions their parents seek to ingrain in their children." "Second, those running alternative...

The New York City teachers’ union sued Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday, claiming he broke the law by imposing $550 million in mid-year spending cuts to the public school system as the Big Apple grapples with a migrant crisis. The United Federation of Teachers’ lawsuit accuses Adams of violating a state law that bars the city from slashing education spending unless overall revenues decline — claiming tax revenues actually rose last year, according to the filing in Manhattan Supreme Court. “The administration can’t go around touting the tourism recovery and the return of the city’s pre-pandemic jobs, and then create...

The leader of one of the nation's largest teachers unions was seen in a viral video saying that school choice "undermines democracy." American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten made the remarks at the "Network for Public Education Action" national conference in October. A clip of her remarks blasting methods of school choice was shared on X and went viral on social media this week. In the video, Weingarten took aim at former White House Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Manhattan Institute's Christopher Rufo, and American Federation For Children Senior Fellow Corey DeAngelis for advocating for school choice measures. "They...

Stacy Davis Gates owes more than $5,500, but makes more than $289,000 ... The progressive president of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) owes thousands in unpaid utility bills despite making an eye-popping salary ... Stacy Davis Gates owes the city of Chicago $5,579 in unpaid water, sewer and trash bills as of Nov. 7, 2023, despite bringing home "at least" $289,000 a year. Documents uncovered by the group show Davis Gates started a payment plan for the amount in July 2023, but quickly defaulted. ... This latest revelation adds to the mounting evidence of her hypocrisy. She spurns responsibility and...

This is the anthesis of JFK’s book “Profiles In Courage.” This is about how The Teachers’ Union and Randi Weingarten are fascilitating a collapse in math scores in US schools. Weingarten, who was instrumental in shutting down schools during the Covid epidemic, and the national Teachers’ Union are the existential threat to democracy, not global warming. Why? Randi and The Teachers’ Union have led America down the drain in the area of mathematics, an important subject in the global economy. American students scored an all-time low in math on a major international exam, which provided the first comparison of global...

The district said it wanted to solve the problem that non-white students were suspended too often, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. “Black, Native American, and other students of color are referred out of class significantly more often,” the district’s Collective Bargaining Team said in a letter to families last month. “Students receiving special education services also bear the burden of disproportionate discipline. This ‘discipline’ is far from the root of the term ‘discipline’: to instruct, train, and educate,” the letter said. The new collective bargaining agreement requires that when a student exhibits “continuous disruptive behavior,” a “support plan” must be...

On Monday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pushed for the aid package on Israel and Ukraine proposed by President Joe Biden and stated that Europe needs “us to do our part for this to hold together as a package” on Ukraine. Yellen said, “Well, it’s a critical priority for the President, and critical to the national security of our country. I can’t prognosticate about the timetable on this. I’m pleased that Congress has passed legislation to keep the government open and running, but it really is essential that this aid be provided both to Israel and...