Free Republic

Tennessee School Districts Say Revealing Islam Lessons May Cost ‘Millions,’ Take Too Darn Long Dozens and dozens of taxpayer-funded Tennessee school districts are refusing to comply with an open records request from a conservative legal nonprofit seeking materials and documents relevant to the way public schools are teaching Islam — primarily to middle schoolers. The American Center for Law & Justice, a law firm that generally promotes conservative and Christian principles, sent its open records requests to all 146 taxpayer-funded school districts in Tennessee earlier this month, reports The Tennessean, Nashville’s main newspaper. A Nashville attorney, Chuck Cagle of the...

The traditional view is simply stated: the purpose of public education is to take each child as far as each child can be taken. Who can disagree with that? If a school is aiming for less, that school would seem to me to be guilty of malpractice or false advertising. Doesn’t the word “education” imply a striving for excellence? At the end of each school year, children are presumed to know more than at the start. Isn’t that a reasonable presumption? Somewhat bizarrely, given what’s going on in our public schools, the Education Establishment might claim they agree. Oh yes,...

Chicago Public Schools ... The district said it would freeze funds for schools where students appear to be enrolled, but have not attended any days of classes or received class schedules. ... The district said 10th day enrollment totaled 367,499. In 2002, the district's enrollment was 438,589.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan grew up in Chicago and attended the private, prestigious University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. The pre-K-12 Lab Schools are progressive institutions ... resident Obama’s two daughters attended the school before moving to Washington in 2009, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s children are enrolled there now. And in the fall, Duncan’s children will be attending Lab, too, while his wife works there. .... his children will attend a progressive private school in Chicago, a school that does not follow key school reform policies that his Education Department has set for public schools. It does not, for example,...

The bad reviews of Common Core keep pouring in, and not just from the right of center. “Among bilingual educators there has been much debate about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS),” Jeff Bale writes in the Fall 2015 issue of Rethinking Schools. “Some of the most respected scholars of bilingual education have endorsed the Common Core and are working hard to make it relevant for English learners.” “Others have been more suspicious. Not only do the standards focus on English-only, critics note, but they were bankrolled by the Gates Foundation, pushed on states in a way that amounts to...

An Ohio dad wanted to let his son’s elementary school know how frustrated his family is about Common Core math. Douglas Hermann from Painesville posted a picture on his Facebook page of a check made out to Melridge Elementary School with place value chart in place of the dollar amounts: If you’re unfamiliar with this method of teaching math, check out this video of a little girl demonstrating how to add three-digit numbers using both the traditional method and the Common Core method: Little Girl Destroys Common Core Math in Under 2 MinutesHermann also wrote on his Facebook page, “It’s sad...

Earlier this week, someone who had read my piece about Donald Trump’s less-than-A+ record in business asked me if I’d write something about Carly Fiorina’s business record and why I think despite Democratic and Trumpette knocks on it, it actually indicates that she would do a good job as President (full disclosure: I have worked with and consulted for Carly Fiorina in the past). With that in mind, here goes nothing.First, let’s start broad brush, with the basic recognition that Carly Fiorina is a self-made woman. Unlike Trump, she comes from a family of academic types, not business people—let alone...

[SNIP] Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush triggered boos when he defended his early support for the Common Core education standards, a policy developed by state leaders in both parties that has become a target of tea party ire. "I'm for higher standards, and Common Core standards are higher than the standards that exist," Bush said before being interrupted by boos. "If South Carolina wants to be without Common Core standards, great, just make sure the standards that you apply are higher than the ones before you had Common Core. Standards matter. Accountability matters." [SNIP]

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.

Tennessee parents are voicing their concerns about a middle school history assignment in which students were asked to write "Allah is the only god." (Washington, DC)—What if your child or grandchild's public school forced them to write out the Shahada—the Islamic conversion creed—while [skipping] Christianity? (Photo via ACLJ.org) What if your child's study guide had a section called "Origins of Islam" that included statements such as, "Around the age of 40, the angel Gabriel told Muhammad that he was to be a prophet of Allah."? Stated as fact, not belief. Yet, according to reports and numerous contacts to the American...

This one's all in good fun. But a new video series, "TrumpTalks" in which Donald Trump takes calls from you, the voters. Do not click if you don't like comedy or are easily offended by even the slightest of jokes at Donald Trump's expense.

The state of New York looks to be the next state with plans to re-brand the Common Core by calling it something else but otherwise making virtually no substantive curriculum changes. New York Board of Regents chancellor Merryl Tisch announced in a public radio interview on Tuesday that education bureaucrats are “toying with” the possibility of a new statewide name for the perpetually unpopular Common Core State Standards Initiative... There is so much politicization about those words — ‘Common Core,'” Tisch said in the interview. “So we can call them the Empire State Standards, or New York’s Higher Standards. The...

According to (Onan Coca), "Dr. David Pook is a professor at Granite State College in Manchester, New Hampshire. He's also the chair of the History Department and one of the authors of the ( Common Core standards). He was a guest at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics when he opened up on his reasons for participating in the creation of the Common Core standards."[snip] No, it's not about uniform and effective educational standards that benefit our children. This is about (a leftist agenda) and yet another shining example of (the trainwreck called political correctness.) Dr. Pook's startling admission is...

Amid a new report of Islamic indoctrination in public schools, the American Center for Law and Justice is fighting back with a petition drive that already has garnered 120,000 signatures. Earlier this year, public-school students in Madison, Wisconsin, were given an assignment to “pretend you are Muslim,” while students in Florida were instructed to “recite the Five Pillars of Islam as a prayer, make Islamic prayer rugs and perform other Muslim rituals,” ACLJ said Monday. Now, parents of public-school students in Tennessee are protesting assignments that include writing a declaration that Allah is supreme and textbooks that recount Islamic doctrines...

As more states learn what Common Core involves, fewer of them want anything to do with it. “The number of states participating in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) Common Core-aligned testing consortium has fallen from 26 plus Washington, DC in 2010 to just seven states and Washington, DC today, according to the Pioneer Institute,” Heather Kays reported in School Reform News. “Ohio abandoned PARCC on June 30, making it the latest state to back out of the consortium.” “Ohio officials decided in July to use the assessments created by the American Institutes for Research...

Maury County, Tennessee is in the heart of the Bible Belt. So it’s understandable why the local church ladies got all shook up when they discovered that school children had been forced to declare, “There is no God but Allah.” Seventh graders at Spring Hill Middle School spent three weeks covering Islam in a Social Studies class – enraging some parents who say the lessons crossed the line into indoctrination and proselytization. “I am not pleased that my 12-year-old was taught the Islamic conversion prayer,” parent Brandee Porterfield told me. Could you imagine the outcry from liberal activists if the...

The assessments, called Smarter Balanced, test understanding of the new Common Core standards, benchmarks for what students should master by the end of each grade in reading and math Less than half of all California students passed new math and English tests aligned with the Common Core standards and considered indicators of college and career readiness, according to results released Wednesday. Forty-four percent of students in third through eighth and 11th grades met or exceeded the new language-arts assessment, while 34 percent passed the math test. Though state education officials cautioned against drawing comparisons with previous standardized tests, the...

California schools posted standardized test scores Wednesday for the first time in two years, and the results were not stellar. Just one-third of the state’s public-school students were tested as proficient for their grade level in math and only 44 percent in English, state education officials said. Under the old test in 2013, 51 percent of students were proficient in math and 56 percent in English.

Let’s review: American schools under Common Core are teaching our children the shahada (the Muslim declaration of faith inscribed on the black flag of jihad). Schools in Europe will stop serving pork in schools to avoid offending Muslims. Magazine editors in Europe are murdered in cold-blood because they ran cartoons of Muhammad. An event we organized in Texas was the target of a mass murder attempt by jihadis because Muhammad was depicted. I have a fatwa on my head for organizing the event.And still more submission, more surrender is required. Just the way I was attacked for organizing an art...

Parents in a Nashville suburb expressed alarm this week because their middle school children are learning about Islam in a world history class but, they say, the school is pointedly ignoring Christianity. Brandee Porterfield, who has a seventh-grade daughter at Spring Hill Middle School in Spring Hill, Tenn., said her daughter came home with world history schoolwork all about the Five Pillars of Islam and other core teachings of the Abrahamic religion. Specifically, according to Spring Hill Home Page, Porterfield said her daughter’s world history project was based around the Five Pillars. The first and most important pillar — the...