Free Republic

A teenage Minnesota McDonald's employee is being hailed a hero after she leapt from a drive-thru window to save a woman choking on a chicken McNugget. Sydney Raley, 15, from Edina, Minnesota, said she was working a 'mostly normal' shift at the Eden Prairie McDonalds Saturday when she popped her head out a window to inform a customer that the rest of her food would be ready shortly. That's when she realized the unidentified woman was in trouble.

Edina, Minnesota, is an elite suburb that formerly had one of the most outstanding public school districts in the country. That was before Edina’s school system went “woke” and began prioritizing indoctrination over education. In recent years, Edina’s schools have slipped badly in objective test measurements. This coincides with the city’s transformation from a Republican bastion, as recently as 25 years ago, to a deep-blue outpost of progressivism. How is that working out for Edina? In addition to the decline of the town’s schools, crime has arrived. As law enforcement has collapsed following the George Floyd riots–a development that was...

The city of Edina has changed the way it approaches public education, putting social justice above learning. The results will shock you. For decades, the public schools of Edina, Minnesota, were the gold standard among the state’s school districts. Edina is an upscale suburb of Minneapolis, but virtually overnight, its reputation has changed. Academic rigor is unraveling, high school reading and math test scores are sliding, and students increasingly fear bullying and persecution. The shift began in 2013, when Edina school leaders adopted the “All for All” strategic plan—a sweeping initiative that reordered the district’s mission from academic excellence for...

A public high school in Minnesota implemented a required, race-based English course aimed at eradicating “white privilege,” but it wasn’t billed that way to students or parents, according to a public policy organization.“Pre-AP English 10 constitutes an abuse of parents’ trust, taxpayers’ money and — most importantly — vulnerable children,” Katherine Kersten, a senior policy fellow for the Center of the American Experiment, told Fox News. “Edina citizens should hold district leaders accountable for substituting political indoctrination for a real education.”The Minnesota-based think tank started researching Edina public schools after they heard students, parents, and teachers in Edina complaining about the aftermath...

As regular readers know, my day job is now running Center of the American Experiment, Minnesota’s conservative think and action tank. These days, we are fighting the far-left public school establishment, particularly in Edina, Minnesota. Edina was once one of the country’s top school districts, but that was before the Left took over and prioritized politics–especially racial politics–over education. The Center’s Kathy Kersten authored a sensational exposé of Edina’s bullying left-wing culture in our magazine, Thinking Minnesota. With a current circulation of 80,000, Thinking Minnesota is the state’s second-largest magazine by circulation. With the assistance of a donor, we delivered...

In place of academic excellence for all, the district’s primary mission is now to ensure that students think correctly on social and political issues — most importantly, on race and “white privilege.” District leaders enshrined this new mission in EPS’s “All for All” strategic plan, adopted in 2013. The plan mandates that, going forward, the EPS must view “all teaching and learning experiences” through the “lens of racial equity.” If “equity” meant “treating kids equally,” all thinking Minnesotans would support it. In this context, however, it’s code for racial identity politics — a simplistic blaming of “white privilege” for the...

Instead of striving for academic excellence, jackboot methods are being used to force students to think "correctly" on social issues.  For years, the Edina Public Schools (EPS) have been one of the brightest stars in the firmament of Minnesota public education. Parents who moved to the affluent Twin Cities suburb gladly paid a hefty premium for a house, because it meant their kids could attend the district’s top-notch schools. But today, test scores are sinking in Edina’s fabled schools. One in five Edina High School students can’t read at grade level and one in three can’t do grade-level math. These...

Not many things shock me, but I confess that I have been shocked by what I have learned about the Edina public school system. Indoctrination in left-wing politics begins in elementary school, where children are taught the pernicious doctrine of “white privilege.” In Edina, not even bus drivers are exempt: they, too, are required to take political re-education classes. Here are excerpts from some of the communications we have gotten from Edina parents and students. There are lots more at the links. This one is from a student: The day after the election I was texting my mom to pick...

About 100 people rallied and marched in Edina on Saturday to protest police brutality, blocking the busy intersection at 50th and France for about 40 minutes. The gathering, organized around the theme of "I Am a Man," was held to address the issues of racial profiling and police violence against black men, including fatal police shootings of Jamar Clark and Philando Castile. Its initial inspiration was last week's encounter between a black pedestrian and a plainclothes Edina police officer, part of which was caught on camera. Black men were invited to stand together on the steps of City Hall, where...

Many people are asking why a 58-year-old grandfather is returning to service in the United States Army. My reason for returning to the service of our great nation can best be summed by the words of President George W. Bush's acceptance speech