Free Republic

ABC11 is running a poll to gauge whether people think armed, trained, teachers should be allowed to protect students.  They have framed the question as an all or nothing choice between all teachers being armed and none.   The people voting on the poll are not buying it, and are voting for armed teachers almost 2-1.Here is a link to the poll.  It is a down on the bottom of the article. The article is about a North Carolina father petitioning the local school to allow select and trained teachers to protect children. Wrenn’s proposal says “any administrator or teacher that...

I Think You're The Father of One of My Kids...' A guy goes to the supermarket and notices a very attractive woman waving at him. She says, 'Hello.' He's rather taken aback because he can't place where he knows her from. So he asks, 'Do you know me?' To which she replies, 'I think you're the father of one of my kids.' Now his mind travels back to the only time he has ever been unfaithful to his wife. So he asks, 'Are you the stripper from the bachelor party that I made love to on the pool table, with...

The 2015 American Federation of Teachers annual report shows a left-wing political machine humming on all cylinders — with teachers buying the gas. For the fiscal year ending June 30, the union reported $37.6 million in political activity and lobbying expenditures, a $12.7 million increase from the previous year. Even more political spending was tucked away elsewhere in AFT’s annual U.S. Department of Labor filing, reported as “Contributions, Gifts and Grants,” “General Overhead” or “Representational Activities.” AFT paid union president Randi Weingarten, one of the nation’s most prominent “progressive” activists, a total of $497,118. The union reported only 2 percent...

The new Dearborn school district superintendent Glenn Maleyko says he is worried about losing his best teachers. Maleyko told the Dearborn Press and Guide there will be a teacher shortage, and the newspaper claims the teacher pay scale is lower than what many professionals earn with a bachelor’s degree. But the U.S. Census data doesn’t back that claim up. The median salary for a person with a bachelor’s degree is $50,450, according to the American Community Survey 2014 put out by the U.S. Census. A teacher with a bachelor’s degree in the Dearborn school district and nine years of experience...

The Snyder administration's preliminary pick for a contractor to do a study on whether Michigan spends an “adequate” amount on public schools has a long history of coming to the same conclusion on similar questions: “Not adequate." The company’s 12 most recent state studies have all concluded that spending on public schools should be increased. The record includes a 2013 report which found "inadequate" school spending by the District of Columbia, which year after year spends more per student than all (or nearly all) the 50 states. Gov. Rick Snyder and legislative Republicans committed to buying what is known in...

CHICAGO – Mayor Rahm Emanuel pitched a massive property tax hike Tuesday as a "last resort" to correct Chicago's financial footing, suggesting the only alternative for the nation's third-largest city would include severe cuts to police and fire services, recycling programs, pothole repair and even rodent control. Emanuel, who needs approval from state lawmakers and the governor for at least part of his sweeping plan, outlined a $543 million property tax over four years, a $45 million tax to modernize schools, and other new fees for residential garbage pickup, e-cigarettes and ride-sharing services. The property tax revenue would go toward...

Although many teachers strive to uplift each student daily, it is infrequent that we receive positive comments for our efforts. Today I was blessed with an affirmative email from a parent. I will share a few words from that email: "... currently navigating the transition from homeschooling to attending public school... (we) are quite impressed with how well (he) is doing academically, socially, and emotionally... My husband and I couldn't be more please with the instruction and attention (he) has received... I'd like to thank you personally, Mrs. Bailey, for your dedication and obvious commitment to a profession that is...

The Washington Post headline, “Black teachers flee schools, leading to concerns about diversity,” left me less concerned about “diversity” and more with why teachers — black or otherwise — would “flee.” A study by an institute funded by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) looked at nine large cities — Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. — and found that the number of black teachers in each city’s public schools dropped between 2002 and 2012. The story’s lead then informed readers that this was “raising questions about whether those school systems...

A new report claims the United States’ education system is seeing minority teachers quitting at an alarming rate. Experts cited by the Washington Post claim it is possible a history of racism and income disparity might explain why some black teachers are quitting their jobs, but others believe the new standardized curriculum like Common Core and the inability to apply child discipline may have frustrated these teachers.

As the new school year begins, you might like to be updated on some school happenings that will no doubt be repeated this academic year. After this update, I have some questions one might ask the black leadership. The ongoing and escalating assault on primary- and secondary-school teachers is not a pretty sight. Holly Houston is a post-traumatic stress specialist. She counsels teachers in Chicago public schools and reported, "Of the teachers that I have counseled over the years who have been assaulted, 100 percent of them have satisfied diagnostic criteria for PTSD." It's not just big-city schoolteachers traumatized. Dr....

Emails released by the State Department Monday night show that the leader of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation's top unions, had direct access to the office of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Several emails show that requests from Tina Flournoy, union President Randi Weingarten's assistant at the time, for private meetings or phone calls were given priority by Clinton. For example, in a July 20, 2010, message to Clinton's private account "HDR22@clintonemail.com," Flournoy, using her American Federation of Teachers address, said: "Have a little issue I would like to discuss with you over the phone. Not...

Angry parents sending death threats on social media to their children's teachers, shocking survey reveals [ Full title ]. Parents are sending death threats to their children's teachers on social media, a shocking new survey has revealed. Three out of four teachers in in the U.K. have said parents’ behavior toward them has become more obnoxious in the last five years. The poll of 796 teachers in England and Wales also revealed that the parents of younger pupils tend to be more verbally aggressive to teachers. And teachers have been subjected to nasty comments about their appearance, weight and sexuality...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — An elementary school teacher who was allowed to keep his job despite being late for work 111 times in two years said Friday that breakfast is to blame for his tardiness. "I have a bad habit of eating breakfast in the morning, and I lost track of time," 15-year veteran teacher Arnold Anderson told The Associated Press. In a decision filed Aug. 19, an arbitrator in New Jersey rejected an attempt by the Roosevelt Elementary School in New Brunswick to fire Anderson from his $90,000-a-year job, saying he was entitled to progressive discipline.

Lincoln-Way choice to build two schools was questioned at the time Gregory Pratt Lincoln-Way 210 officials had big plans for the school district's future in 2005 — booming population growth would fuel new success. Ten years and a $225 million referendum to build two schools later, District 210 is on the state's financial watch list and needs to close one of its four schools to try and make ends meet. District officials defend the decision to forge ahead with the construction of two schools in the late 2000s, saying they trusted enrollment figures that showed the district would have thousands...

One schoolteacher who gets paid $87,349 annually, and another who gets $80,472, were highlighted in a recent Oakland Press article complaining that teachers had to get second jobs “to make ends meet.” The article was written by a third teacher, Julia Satterthwaite, who works at the Rochester Community Schools district and is described as a "summer intern” for the newspaper. The article featured one of the author’s colleagues, Karen Malsbury, who has been teaching for 14 years. Malsbury was quoted as saying, “There is little or no room for professional growth, little opportunity to increase your personal income, no step...

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...

In urban centers around the country, rental prices are soaring. Cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and New York City routinely report double-digit increases that make it nearly impossible for residents to make ends meet. But it’s not just dwellers of those metropolitan areas who are having a hard time paying the rent. According to a report out this week from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, more than half of renters in America are considered to be financially burdened by their rent, meaning that they spend more than 30 percent of their income just on where they live. High...

SOROS NAILED: Liberal Sugar Daddy George Soros May Face A ‘Monster’ Named, “Tax Evasion.” Which will Eat Away his Political Power. [ Full title]. George Soros is one of the left’s most powerful money men. In January of this year, Western Journalism reported on the millions of dollars that liberal billionaire George Soros and his politically involved foundations gave to help various groups of Ferguson protesters. “Buses of activists from a litany of organizations — all funded in part by Mr. Soros” showed up in the Missouri city scorched by riots related to the police-involved death of Michael Brown. Soros,...

The principal of an innovative West Harlem public school killed herself the day after her students took the state Common Core exams — which were later tossed out because she cheated ... Jeanene Worrell-Breeden, 49, of Teachers College Community School, jumped in front of a B train in the 135th Street station ... She was pulled out from under the train and taken to Harlem Hospital, where she died eight days later. The city Medical Examiner’s Office ruled it a suicide. The leap came at 9:20 a.m., less than 24 hours after her 47 third-graders wrapped up three days sweating...

An American kindergarten teacher who is the mother of twins was stabbed to death in the bathroom of an Abu Dhabi shopping mall by a robed figure dubbed the "Reem Island Ghost," police said Wednesday. The teacher was identified by her family as Ibolya Ryan. The attack comes just weeks after the U.S. embassies in the Middle East warned citizens of an anonymous posting on a jihadist website encouraging attacks against teachers at American schools in the Middle East.