Free Republic

The unpopularity of the Common Core educational standards is not causing its proponents to rethink it but to rebrand it. "In 2010, every state but Alaska, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia adopted Common Core State Standards, a set of requirements for what elementary and secondary school children should know in each grade in math and English language arts," Joy Pullmann writes in the second edition of Common Core: A Bad Choice for America, published by the Heartland Institute. "Five years later, three in five Americans said they don’t know if Common Core is in their local schools." "While 25 states have...

he 2016 presidential campaign has hardly lived up to the ideal of a civil exchange of ideas facilitating a peaceful democracy. But a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center suggests that the acrimony from the campaign trail may be having a broader, negative effect on society — particularly in American schools. An online survey of 2,000 educators – one that the center notes wasn’t scientific – found half saying they witnessed an increase in “uncivil political discourse” during the 2016 campaign. Two-thirds of respondents said their students – particularly Muslims, immigrants and children of immigrants – openly expressed...

2015 came to a close with something many people thought they'd never see: The end of the No Child Left Behind Act, the federal education law that no one seemed to like, but that was long overdue for replacement because no one could agree on how to change it. Finally Congress and the Obama administration did agree, and to the delight of many conservatives NCLB was replaced with the Ensuring Student Success Act, a statute that appears to end federal micromanagement. Or does it? While the law says a lot that seems to rein Washington in, it leaves open several...

The American people went to the polls in massive numbers to vote in Republican congressional candidates over the last few elections -- but giving Republican leaders control of Congress was all for nothing, the latest GOP betrayal of the Constitution and its constituents showed. As if to rub it in, Obama's Education secretary, Arne Duncan, has been gloating about how the administration literally conspired with Republican leadership to pass a 1,061-page "education" bill that for the first time codifies Obama's radical education agenda -- including the almost universally loathed Common Core standards and much more -- into federal "law."...

On the last day of 2015 the longest serving member of President Obama's Cabinet, Arne Duncan, quietly stepped down from his official position as what the Washington Post called "the most powerful education secretary in U.S. history." The federal government now provides about 10 percent of the money spent on public schools, and Duncan used that money, to an extent never before, to impose his will on local schools. Arne's departure is a good time to review what's wrong with America's public schools and how the federal government has made them worse. Instead of giving an account of his stewardship,...

Decisions regarding our children’s future should be placed in the hands of teachers and parents, not bureaucratsWASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today voted against S. 1177, "Every Child Achieves Act," which maintains federal mandates on education and keeps decision-making in Washington rather than returning it to local governments and parents.Following the bill's passage, Sen. Cruz remarked: "While this bill makes some improvements to the status quo, it ultimately falls short of empowering parents and local school districts. To that end, it is a missed opportunity for meaningful change."Decisions regarding our children's future should be placed in the hands...

FALLS CHURCH, VA, May 12, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Hundreds of parents accused Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) members of endangering their children and caving to the Obama administration as the school board voted to allow transgender teens to use the locker rooms and bathrooms of the opposite sex.The new policy may also allow transgender teachers to show their gender dysphoria openly in the classroom.The motion to add "gender identity" as a protected class– which passed 10-1, with one abstentation – was sparked by the Obama administration's threat to deny the district $42 million in federal funding.According to FoxNews.com and The...

(CNSNews.com) - Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says government funded universal preschool is a “social movement” and compared it to civil rights and gay marriage during a speech in Los Angeles last month. “At the end of the day for me this is really a social movement,” Duncan said when discussing federally subsidized preschool at the LA Universal Preschool (LAUP) forum on Oct. 21. “If you look at social movements, we all celebrate what happened in the 1960’s. The civil rights movement was extraordinarily powerful, life transforming, earth shattering. But the question I have is, why didn’t the civil rights...

It's decision time for the Obama administration on a major rule designed to crack down on colleges that saddle students with a mountain of debt without preparing them for the job market. The Education Department is under intense pressure as the agency prepares to finalize its highly anticipated "gainful employment" regulations, aimed squarely at for-profit college programs seen as predatory. Go too far, business groups warn, and the Obama administration risks denying millions of students a higher education. Yet the agency’s draft rule, issued in March, has come under fierce criticism by some congressional Democrats and advocates, including former Homeland...

ARKPORT, N.Y. – Were officials in the Arkport Central School District being petty and vindictive in their treatment of children whose parents removed them from Common Core testing? ice creamIf so, they went about it in the worst possible way – by giving an ice cream treat to the third through sixth grade students who took the tests, and denying those who didn’t. Parents of the opt-out kids were simply exercising their legal rights, and they’re angered that their children had to pay the price in such an obviously nasty manner. After all, The fair and equitable distribution of ice...

When you think about bullying in public schools, it's generally in the context of a bigger kid picking on a smaller kid.  According to Susan Kimball, a kindergarten teacher of 20 years in the Sikeston Public School District, it's administrators and fellow teachers bullying and intimidating her, all because she opposes Common Core. At yesterday's Senate Education Committee hearing, Kimball testified she has suffered from bullying and intimidation since she began speaking out about the controversial standards. [caption id="attachment_25492" align="aligncenter" width="639"] "You have no idea what I have been through over the past six weeks because of my stand." -...

Bill Gates, the multi billionaire who does not have an earned college degree or teaching certificate, never taught a day in the classroom, never worked in an educational system or one room school house is comparing the education of children to electrical outlets.

The Obama Administration’s former Homeland Security Chief has taken over the University of California. “Janet Napolitano had zero experience leading a college before she became president of the University of California last year,” Eric Kelderman wrote in The Chonicle of Higher Education on February 21, 2014. “Yet after just four months on the job, Ms. Napolitano, 56, has outlined major goals for the system, including a reconsideration of tuition policies, improving cooperation with the other two higher-education systems in the state, ensuring the prominent role of research and graduate education, and making the campuses carbon-neutral by 2025.” “She even has...

A Common Core-aligned elementary school homework assignment in a Jefferson County, Colorado school district tells children that by 2512, Kansas will be an oceanfront state, that the “Smokey” Mountains [sic] will become the “Smokey” Islands [sic], and that a sharp decline in the human population will take place, all due to man-made global warming.

For quite a while, The Motley Monk has been on top of the Common Core, concerned about its implications for Catholic schools. Last September, The Motley Monk discussed some reasons why parents should be wary. In November, he pointed out why a number of Catholic school principals fear its potential impacts for curriculum. Also in November, The Motley Monk questioned whether the NCEA had embraced the secularist educational agenda of the Common Core irrespective of what those principals fear. The Motley Monk then followed-up with a post asking whether the NCEA’s President had put the proverbial “cart before the horse”...

When Rudy Giuliani was mayor of New York, he came to my high school for an assembly. One of my classmates rose to ask him a question. After naming his public grammar school, he explained that he had not been taught any formal English grammar in his years there, and as a result, he found himself woefully unprepared for our high school English program. “What,” my classmate asked the mayor, “will you do about this?”Mr. Giuliani became visibly flustered. He apologized and said he was not aware that this was happening. He expressed his disproval over the school’s dereliction, and...

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad signed an executive order on Wednesday rejecting federal intrusion into the state’s education system. The order, Number 83, declares that the state, “not the federal government of any other organization, shall determine the content of Iowa’s state academic standards”. The order also states that school districts may also choose to use additional assessments to measure student progress.

“Bewildering.” “Perverse.” These aren’t the words of Charles Krauthammer or Marc Thiessen on the pages of the Washington Post in reaction to the Department of Justice lawsuit against Louisiana’s school-voucher program, but those of the Post’s editors. The DoJ argued in its lawsuit that the vouchers intend to undo segregation, but since 90% of voucher recipients in the program are black, the Post pronounces itself mystified as to what Attorney General Eric Holder could possibly mean:

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has announced the appointment of David J. Johns as executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans. Mr. Johns’ duties will focus on improving the academic performance of black students, promoting understanding and tolerance among all Americans, as well as reducing “racial isolation and resegregation of elementary and secondary schools.” According to the president’s executive order last summer, this new position is part of an initiative to help “strengthen the Nation by improving educational outcomes for African Americans of all ages, and to help ensure that all African Americans

Education Secretary Arne Duncan joined the briefing at the top to discuss the waivers that the Department is offering states from “No Child Left Behind” until Congress reauthorizes it. TAPPER: And the other question I have is, given that Speaker Boehner was one of the people who helped draft No Child Left Behind, can you explain what the problem is in Congress? DUNCAN: Well, I think you guys understand Congress a lot better than I do. TAPPER: I hope not.