Free Republic

ORLANDO, Fla. - Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz signed a pledge to kill Common Core if elected.Cruz was the only one of 14 Republican presidential primary candidates at the Florida Sunshine Summit - a conservative rally put on by the state's Republican Party - to vow, in writing, to oppose any federal efforts to mandate, impose or influence standards assessments or curriculum across the country, Sunshine State News reports."As the Republican Party of Florida begins its Sunshine Summit, Senator Cruz's pledge provides needed leadership on the critical issue of education that so impacts the many residents and students of the State...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, officially committed to end the controversial Common Core State Standards if elected president, signing a pledge with Florida Parents Against Common Core on Friday. The pledge says he will oppose any federal efforts to mandate, impose or influence standards, assessments or curriculum across the country. Disgruntled by the lack of response from Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Department of Education over repealing Common Core, FPACC was ready to make its voice heard in one of the most important states for 2016, and members opted to start at the top of the political chain to...

Modern Educayshun, a short film by Neel Kolhatkar, is a hilarious take on social justice and Oppression Olympics culture, and we urge you to watch it. It’s the followup to his short film #Equality, which enjoyed over a million views and has been making the rounds all year on social media since it was released in January. Neel Kolhatkar is an emerging talent in Australia. We like him!

A recent American Institutes for Research (AIR) assessment noted that Common Core standards are not matching National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) standards at the fourth grade level: “There are substantial differences in some content areas, particularly areas where NAEP assesses content that the CCSS has shifted to later grade levels…Only 62% of NAEP grade 4 algebra items were associated with a standard in the CCSS at or below grade 4; only 57% of grade 3 and 4 CCSS standards within the operations and algebraic thinking domain had at least one NAEP item associated with them.” Translation: Common Core has...

Eighth-grade students in southwest Florida were asked about prostitutes, pimps and sex abuse on a take-home math test. They were word problems on an algebra test at Lexington Middle School - and parents are outraged. The set-up for the questions is the life of the writer Maya Angelou. The questions highlighted parts of Angelou's life that are not only inappropriate for young teenagers, but equally inappropriate in a math class. The questions were sent home with almost 100 honor students. One of the questions said, "Trying to support her son as a single mother, she (Angelou) worked as a pimp,...

Joy Pullmann, a nationally-recognized education expert, claims that "normal people in fly-over country" feel exploited by cultural and political elites who have moved from not listening to the people, to exploiting them. What worries the education expert - who is now the managing editor of The Federalist - the most about a Hillary Clinton presidency is "the distaste factor" stemming from the former secretary of state raising her child with nannies. According to Pullmann, Hillary is "so out of touch" with so little to share with parents. Pullmann continues in the exclusive interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation by...

Billionaire Paul Singer, who is endorsing Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) 80%, is a supporter of the Common Core standards and his foundation has been a donor to the heart of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bushs education empire: the Foundation for Excellence in Education. Singer, who recently threw his support behind Rubio, founded the Paul E. Singer Foundation, whose work thus far has 'focused on supporting research and scholars in the areas of free market economics, the rule of law, U.S. national security, and the future of Israel, as well as LGBT equality efforts and health-care delivery innovation.'...

The pupil was given a maths question and then asked to show how he had worked it out, but he took it quite literally and drew his response Sometimes kids are far smarter than adults give them credit for - and this child is no exception. It's not clear whether this pupil was try to be deliberately hilarious, or just taking the task at face value in their answer. But either way they responded to the question brilliantly and his parents shared it online, much to the amusement of Reddit users. The exam question asks: "Bobby has four dimes. Amy...

Any adult who has tried to help a second-grader with homework has noticed math is not what it used to be. Now schools are unlocking the secrets of Common Core math for mystified parents. They're holding special classes or giving out materials designed for adults so they can help children with their math homework.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a senior member of the Saudi monarchy, says he'll pledge his $32 billion to advance the islamization of America. This is a MOAB (mother of all bombs) in the information battle-space. Looks as if I will be keeping busy for quite some time. The Saudis have spent billions already. 80% of the mosques build in America are Saudi funded. Islamic groups working to impose the sharia are largely funded by the Saudis. We can look forward to 32 billion more of the kingdom's brand of Islam, while censoring criticism of Islam. And it's not just...

Jeb Bush was in New Hampshire, pressing on with his sordid campaign to delude conservatives into swallowing Common Core and massive, unfettered immigration policies. He has fashioned himself a champion of the American worker, even as he pompously pushes Gang of Eight amnesty as the “adult” plan in the room. And he has fashioned himself a champion of American parents, students, and “school choice,” even as he zealously crusades for failed Fed Ed rackets and data-mining schemes masquerading as “higher standards.” (Amnesty and Common Core are two sides of the “same sides of the coin,” in more ways than one.)...

It turns out that you don’t have to get good grades or even show up to class often to graduate from high school in New York. Several students from New York City have spoken out about passing classes they know they should have failed and receiving high school diplomas they feel they didn’t earn. Melissa Mejia, a senior at William Cullen Bryant High School, was surprised to find out she was due to receive her diploma in June when she was fully aware she hadn’t completed all of the credits to earn it, she admitted in a letter to the...

It's a not-so rosy report card for the nation's schoolchildren. Math scores slipped for fourth and eighth graders over the last two years, and reading grades were not much better, flat for fourth graders and lower for eighth graders, according to the 2015 Nation's Report Card. ... Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged parents, teachers, and others not to panic about the scores as states embrace higher academic standards, such as Common Core.

A new trend in math at elementary schools around the country has parents pulling out their hair. Mainly because it is the opposite of how most of today's adults were taught to do simple multiplication in the first place. According to a Common Core math worksheet that's gone viral, an elementary child today cannot just say, "5 x 3 = 15." Instead they have to change the multiplication problem to addition before solving the equation. However, if the child says, "5 + 5 + 5 = 15," they will still lose points because the problem must be written as it...

PHOENX – The Arizona State Board of Education in a 6-2 decision voted to repeal the Common Core State Standards Monday morning. Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas brought the motion to the board to reverse the 2010 adoption of the standards. In a letter addressed to board President Greg Miller, Douglas wrote, “It is hereby moved that the actions of the State Board of Education (SBE) on June 28, 2010 to adopt Common Core, now referred to as the Arizona College and Career Ready Standards, as the standards for language arts and mathematics be reversed and that all links...

Four years ago, Tom Vander Ark (former executive at the Gates Foundation, current partner at Learn Capital) wrote in an email exchange with members of the Foundation for Excellence in Education and the Council for Chief State School Officers: “New tests will hinder rather than help competency-based models…In short, I don’t want one big cheap end of year test used for more than it should be…I don’t want it to lock in the teacher-centric age cohort model for another decade. I don’t want simple assessments…I want a system that will incorporate all the performance feedback that students will be receiving...

Here's a "repeated addition" Common Core problem that's taught in third grade in US schools: Use the repeated-addition strategy to solve: 5x3 If you answer the question with "5+5+5=15,” you would be wrong. The correct answer is "3+3+3+3+3.” Mathematically, both are correct. But under Common Core, you're supposed to read "5x3" as "five groups of three." So "three groups of five" is wrong. According to Common Core defenders, this method will be useful when students do more advanced math. This way of reading things, for instance, can be used when students learn matrices in multivariable calculus in high school. But...

“As president I’d end Common Core. Common Core is a disaster. Bush is totally in favor of Common Core…Education has to be local,” says front runner Donald Trump who continues to get bashed by the establishment and its propagandists, the “Mainstream” Media. The candidate continues to hit all of the right chords as he explains the repertoire of issues important to Conservative Americans. The father of five and soon to be grandfather of eight, Trump each day is becoming one of history’s warrior heroes who fight to keep their fellow countrymen from becoming extinct. While Homer’s Odysseus used truncheons, Trump...

A mother from Illinois was concerned when her daughter came home from school inquiring about the 9/11 attacks as well as having some disturbing questions about the QURAN, ALLAH and other Muslim… stuff. After looking into the situation the mother found that the students were being taught things about the 9/11 attacks that were totally unacceptable. That’s what these liberal teachers do. They pollute our children with their sick ideals. No facts. All garbage. I would yank my kid out of school in a heartbeat rather than be ‘taught’ by some Obama loving liberal scumbag. Mary Cooley at the Belleview...

The long-running feud between Jeb Bush and Donald Trump escalated yet again Saturday, with the former Florida governor releasing a two-minute video on social media mocking the billionaire's fitness to be commander-in-chief. *snip* The clip is the latest salvo in the Bush-Trump rivalry, which has often been marked by bitter and personal exchanges between the two prominent Republican presidential candidates. On Friday, Trump suggested Bush's brother, former President George W. Bush, shared in the blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks because they occurred during his presidency. Saturday's round centered on a video set to the tune of circus music that...