Free Republic

Today the American Association of Evangelicals (AAE) released an explosive three-minute video: Soros' 'Rented Evangelicals,' exploring the Soros network's funding of "evangelical mascots" and a "Rent-an-Evangelical" tactic to confuse and divide the Christian vote for the pro-faith, pro-life Republican party. Democrat ministers Rev. Jim Wallis and allies are now touring many states on "Vote Common Good" buses to "flip Congress" and "reclaiming Jesus" to split the evangelical vote before the mid-term elections. The AAE video features the newly released voice recording of Wallis of Sojourners as he publicly denied that he was a recipient of Soros funding. Soon after, grants...

School’s out for summer, which leaves ample time during the day for students to relax—and for their teachers to recharge and reflect. It’s also an ideal time for them to decide whether union membership is right for them. Unfortunately, it’s also the only time for many of them to decide—the nation’s teachers’ unions, as well as many unions generally, have done a remarkable job of restricting their members’ knowledge of and ability to exercise their rights regarding union membership. For years, educators have joined teachers’ unions with the assumption that their money advances their profession. Unfortunately, the National Education Association...

What does it take to make our nation's "teachers," 'supposedly' some of the most intelligent among us - those entrusted with the minds of our children - to face-down the Unions that are bankrupting our country financially and morally? The leaders of two of the largest Unions, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and the National Education Association (NEA) are paid about $500,000 annually, each, while the average teacher's salary is $44,000. It's about Liberalism, Progressivism, Socialism, Buying Votes. That's the bottom line and it is ruining the American dream for our kids. Teachers, have you considered the Association of American...

Powerful Failure: How the National Education Association Fails to Use Its Influence for Education is released today by the Association of American Educators. The booklet chronicles the development, growth, and politicization of the largest educators’ union in America, the National Education Association (NEA). Although it started out as a professional association in 1857, the NEA has become a union behemoth that does not represent its members’ beliefs, but rather attempts to reorder the priorities of the United States of America. Powerful Failure highlights a number of policies supported by the NEA that have no relation to education. Federal standards for...

The powerful national teachers unions took one on the chin in September when, despite their intense lobbying, both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate Appropriations Committee narrowly approved the first government-funded voucher plan for the children of the District of Columbia. This was made possible by a diverse network of school-choice advocates including, most importantly, parents groups.But education watchers say the most important new constituency of groups critical of the teacher unions is, surprisingly, teachers themselves. All over the country, some of the most distinguished public-school teachers are taking on the unions that claim to represent them on...

For those of you who have been asking if the AAE [Association of American Educators] could recommend a 9-11 lesson plan that would be a sensible alternative to the nonsensical NEA lesson plans – this is it! Go to EdExcellence.net. See “September 11: What Our Children Need to Know,” Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. The centerpiece is 23 short essays by a distinguished array of Americans. The essays offer a wide range of perspectives but do not politicize or psychologize the topic, and they are not presented by those who reverence tolerance above other compelling civic virtues. The authors all responded...