Free Republic

Teachers in Portland, Ore., are on track to strike if their school district refuses to provide subsidized housing for poor public school students and lobby for expanded rent control, an approach that has led to school shutdowns in other liberal cities as powerful teachers' unions pursue left-wing priorities. After months of negotiations with Portland Public Schools, the Portland Association of Teachers on August 22 warned its members they "may be heading towards a strike," citing the district's failure to agree on a "transformative contract." Included in the impasse is a union proposal to create a district-led subsidized housing initiative, which...

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and the Portsmouth School Committee have asked the state's education commissioner to weigh in on whether high school student Patrick Agin's medieval-style portrait can be published in the school yearbook. The ACLU sued the School Committee last week on behalf of Agin, a senior at Portsmouth High School, and his mother, Heidi Farrington, after Principal Robert Littlefield banned Agin's photo from the yearbook. In his senior portrait, Agin, a member of the Society of Creative Anachronism, is wearing a chain mail coat and holding a prop broadsword. With a Feb. 28 deadline...