Free Republic

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told skeptical voters Friday that he would not soften his views on immigration or education to win their backing. On his opening foray into New Hampshire for his likely campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Bush challenged voters here to spend time learning about the issues and avoid shrill partisan sniping. He said “facts don’t matter” to some of his critics and told his first political audience in the state in 15 years that true leaders do not shrink from their beliefs for political expediency. Bush, the brother of one president and the son of...

Link only per AP rules.

The California Board of Education has suspended the state’s school accountability system for one year to give teachers and students time to adjust to new standardized tests aligned with the Common Core standards. The board voted at a Wednesday meeting in Sacramento not to produce an Academic Performance Index for the 2014-15 school year. The index uses student results on statewide tests to rank schools and to identify those that need improvement. …

The Common Core testing standards, not passed through state legislatures and forced upon schoolchildren without parental consultation or consent, are obviously a subject of much debate.An Arkansas mom encapsulated just how brazen the manner of implementing these standards was when she confronted the Arkansas State Board of Education and questioned how well the testing was preparing kids for college.The mother, Karen Lamoreaux, represented fellow educators and a total of 1,100 people by her count, when she spoke before the board in December 2013. She laid out a case of why the standards were so ill-conceived, and at one point elucidated just how absurd it is to teach around...

During his latest trip to Iowa, Jeb Bush worked to drum up support for a potential run for president. His struggle to win over the conservative grassroots of the GOP, however, was shown yet again in an op-ed in the Washington Post, in which he attempted to turn both the Common Core standards initiative and a potential reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) into strongholds of federalism.

A professor at Granite State College and chair of the history department at the Derryfield School in Manchester, New Hampshire admitted to writing the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts in order to end white privilege.  According to the response heard on the video, Dr. David Pook shocked the audience at an event at New Hampshire Institute of Politics when he made the following statement: The reason why I helped write the standards and the reason why I am here today is that as a white male in society I am given a lot of privilege that...

I thought FReepers might want to see these tests for themselves. The link and instructions are in the first comment. I also included the link to Ohio's AIR social studies and science tests. Freshmen have missed seven school days to take these tests, and they will miss more for final testing the end of April and the beginning of May.

The latest version of a top-selling study guide for the Advanced Placement European History exam explains the French Revolution with a chart which identifies Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as a fascist and pairs him with the Ku Klux Klan.“Barron’s AP European History” (7th edition) makes the claim, intended for consumption by American high school students, on page 168. The chart attempts to compare modern American political affiliations with the various factions involved in the French Revolution. The chart moves politically from left to right.The far right of the chart is labeled “fascist.” The authors demonstrate modern-day “fascists” by pairing “Clarence...

Supporters of Common Core have encountered a public relations nightmare recently thanks to technical glitches, student boycotts and a slew of irate parents who are refusing to allow their children to sit for standardized tests. However, last week marked the first time officials at a taxpayer-funded school have allegedly attempted to confine a student for a Common Core standardized test after her parent arrived on campus to remove the child from class. The incident occurred at Brookshire Elementary School in Winter Park, Fla., reports the Orlando Sentinel. The unidentified mother showed up at Brookshire Elementary to pick up her daughter...

Abruptly and unmistakably, Gov. Scott Walker stated a position on what nationally had become a contentious issue among conservatives: the Common Core education standards. His one-sentence announcement on July 17, 2014 read: "Today, I call on the members of the state Legislature to pass a bill in early January (2015) to repeal Common Core and replace it with standards set by people in Wisconsin." Previously, Walker’s position had not been so stark. Later, after his State of the State speech on Jan. 13, 2015, it became even less clear.    All as Walker embarks on a second term and, increasingly,...

Teachers and parents gather to discuss state testing, use of test scores in teacher evaluations and the possibilities of students opting out, at a community education forum at the Port Jefferson Village Center in Port Jefferson on Saturday, March 7, 2015.

WINTER PARK, Fla. – A Florida parent was forced to take drastic measures when her public school refused to release her child during a dispute over standardized testing.Jacqui Myers says another mother with a child at Winter Park’s Brookshire Elementary School called her after she arrived at the school to opt her fifth-grade daughter out of standardized testing related to the Common Core national standards initiative.“They’re not giving me my child, can you help?” the mother told Myers.Myers, the mother of a first grader, is active in a group working to opt children out of state tests and was at...

Purge of Military Officers and Christianity: Over the past several years, the U.S. military has been purged of hundreds of high ranking officers. Many of these dedicated military officers were dismissed based on trivial offenses. Occurring simultaneously is a purge of Christianity, indeed even Bibles, from the U.S. military. Anti-Police Protests: In conjunction with the militarization of DHS, state and local law enforcement have been targets of the Obama administration and Eric Holder’s Department of Justice. This anti-police agenda culminated last summer with riots in Ferguson, Missouri and violent protests New York City. Among the most prominent groups involved in...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday night he is standing by his support for the Common Core school standards rejected by a segment of the GOP’s most conservative members, including other potential presidential candidates. “Raising expectations and having accurate assessments of where kids are is essential for success, and I’m not going to back down on that,” Bush said during a congressional fundraiser in suburban Des Moines. […] Deflecting questions about why some potential GOP presidential prospects have shifted on the issue, Bush told reporters after the event: “I know what I believe. I believe in higher standards that...

Students across the country are required to take an annual Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC test, which is aligned with Common Core standards. For students in New Mexico, scoring on PARCC exams determine 50 percent of their grade.Connor Guiney and Anna Bentham-Grey appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” and admitted they were surprised by the size of the walkout at Highland High School in Albuquerque . . . “We thought maybe 100, or 150 would come out. But by the end of the day we had over 300 people and that was...

As schools adopt new education standards and rely more on computers in the classroom, a group of New Hampshire senators want to make sure the basics of learning cursive and multiplication tables don’t get left behind. “You definitely need to teach typing and keyboarding and all of that, but kids do need to be able to sign their names, they do need to be able to read the Founding Fathers documents,” said Republican Sen. Nancy Stiles, the main sponsor of a bill that would require public schools to keep teaching both. “(Cursive) is an art and a skill that shouldn’t...

Last week was part 2, this weekThe Betrayal Papers Part I – Under Obama: U.S. Captured by the Muslim Brotherhood, presented a picture of a conspiracy that is manipulating the American government. Part II – In Plain Sight: A National Security “Smoking Gun” named several people in the Obama administration who have documented associations to Muslim Brotherhood front groups and the State of Qatar. This article will explore the deliberate strategy of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Obama administration to cripple the middle class and to steer the American economy, as well as identify, to the extent possible, their role...

Contrary to popular belief, aka news media coverage, opposition to the Common Core education reforms of President Obama is stretching across party lines. “The Democratic Party in the state of Washington just passed a resolution condemning Common Core,” Emmett McGroarty said last Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Bear in mind, this is the same state Democratic party that consistently endorses far-Left candidates such as U. S. Senator Maria Cantwell. McGroarty works with the American Principles Project. Forty-five states originally signed onto Common Core, Sabrina Schaeffer of the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) pointed out. Schaeffer moderated the panel...

The family of an Oregon first-grader is outraged that his school forced the boy to sit by himself during lunch as punishment for being late. The boy’s grandmother, Laura Hoover, took to Facebook to protest his retribution with photos of Hunter sulking into a cardboard wall blocking his view of a cafeteria bustling with his peers. “His momma’s car sometimes doesn’t like to start right up. Sometimes he’s a couple minutes late to school. Yesterday, he was one minute late,” Hoover wrote. “This is what his momma discovered they do to punish him.” His mother, Nicole Garloff, came to check...

Silicon Valley is in a panic following an announcement that China is considering sweeping counterterrorism legislation. The law would require tech companies to provide the Chinese government with NSA-like access to private data, terms the industry may be forced to accept if they want to do business in the world’s most populated country. The Edward Snowden revelations about the American spying apparatus have numerous impacts. One of the latest is a decision by the Chinese government to terminate contracts with a number of major US-based technology brands. This could stem from news that the NSA installed spyware into the products of major US technology companies, thus using these brands...