Free Republic

Social promotion and efforts to ban standardized tests are ways of shielding adults from accountability.If you stare really hard—and maybe squint—at last week’s federal report on long-term K-12 education trends in the U.S., there is some good news. Math and reading scores among 9-year-olds have improved a little since 2022, and most of the gains were driven by struggling students. It’s a signal that those in the youngest cohort of test takers are recovering from the disastrous pandemic school closures. The good news pretty much ends there. Among 13-year-olds in nearly every demographic group, test scores in math and reading...

A young woman who trusted the medical establishment with her future now bears the scars of its ideological zealotry. Claire Abernathy, subjected to a double mastectomy as a teenager, has written an unflinching open letter to the surgeon who performed it, declaring that he stole her girlhood and left her to live with the consequences. Her damning indictment of a medical industry that rushed vulnerable children into irreversible procedures under the banner of “care” reveals the need for sanity. Abernathy’s story begins in confusion and trauma. At just 14 years old, she was placed on testosterone after a fleeting consultation....

A new report from the nonpartisan State of the Nation Project lists New Mexico near the bottom of national rankings for education, shootings, youth depression and a number of other factors that impact life satisfaction. The organization produced the State of the States report, which gives in-depth scorecards to each of the 50 states and Washington D.C. ... A board of academics and advisers to the last five presidents created a list of 31 measures — ranging from youth depression, air quality and income inequality to social isolation, life expectancy and young adults employed or in school — and quantified...

Last week in Frisco, Texas, 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 35 years in prison. No one in the jury believed his claim of self-defense and instead found that Anthony provoked a confrontation with student Austin Metcalf by going into his school’s tent during a track meet, taunting the students there, refusing to leave despite repeated requests, and finally plunging a knife into Austin’s heart after being nudged. It remains a mystery why exactly Anthony did this, which might explain why so many people even entertained his claim of self-defense. But the facts of the...

WASHINGTON — The House Oversight Committee formally requested Friday that Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz testify about his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein, marking the latest step in the panel’s widening investigation into Epstein and his associates. In a letter to Dershowitz, Rep. James R. Comer (R-Ky.), who chairs the committee, asked him to appear on July 9 for an in-person, videotaped transcribed interview in Washington, D.C. The committee wrote that it believes Dershowitz has information that would assist its investigation because of his role as Epstein’s attorney, public reporting, documents released by the Department...

Prostate-targeted, engineered nanoparticles made of amorphous silica are effective in killing prostate tumors directly while enhancing antitumor immunity, according to a preclinical study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Cornell Duffield College of Engineering. The particles, derived from silicon dioxide, a common component of healthy foods or fossilized sedimentary structures from single-celled organisms, induced several complete remissions of aggressive tumors in mouse models, supporting the further investigation of their use in clinical trials. Originally developed for medical imaging applications, these particles – known as ultrasmall fluorescent core-shell silica nanoparticles, or Cornell Prime dots (C’ dots) – have...

Hundreds of Stanford graduates staged a dramatic walkout during a commencement ceremony on Sunday as Google CEO Sundar Pichai took to the stage. The massive protest turned what should have been a celebration of academic achievement into the latest flashpoint in the ongoing battle over Big Tech's ties to Israel. As Pichai rose to deliver the keynote address at one of the nation's most prestigious universities, groups of students stood up and streamed out of the ceremony in protest. Some waved Palestinian flags, blew whistles and unfurled banners condemning Google's relationship with the Israeli government. The demonstration marked the latest...

Two Detroit sisters, including one who was nine months pregnant at the time, are accused of stabbing a worker at a Detroit chicken restaurant during a wrong-order dispute, with prosecutors alleging one sister stabbed the employee and that the women attempted to throw hot grease, pans and other items at her. Brianna and Kierianna Long now face several charges in connection with the May 30 incident, including assault with intent to murder, assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and assault with a dangerous weapon, according to local reports. Both women have pleaded not guilty. The...

A group of graduates walked out of Stanford University’s commencement ceremony Sunday moments after Google CEO Sundar Pichai began delivering his keynote address. Videos circulating on social media showed more than 100 students leaving their seats at Stanford Stadium while chanting, “Free, free Palestine.” The protest was organized by far left radical groups including Students for Justice in Palestine and No Tech for Apartheid. Students for Justice in Palestine calls for ”death to all collaborates”, which grotesquely mimics Hamas’ justification for executing Palestinian collaborators. They have previously posted images mourning the death of influencers in Gaza who have openly celebrated...

Ms. Rachel Goes NUTS! UNSAFE for Kids?! Mr. Rogers WANNABE Turned Ultra Activist! "Have you seen Have you heard Miss Rachel the prek kids content creator on YouTube with massive brand deals and sponsorships from corporate USA? What if we told you she's an activist and she's ready to indoctrinate your kids with some of the craziest, most bizarro stuff you've ever seen or heard? Grab your kids. Grab your wives. They're indoctrinating everybody up here with Miss Rachel."

Americans have been assured that we’re importing the “best and brightest” foreigners the world has to offer. So, when a story like this hits the internet, people are going to wonder what the hell is going on. Because the public has been sold a very specific story about these amazing standards, credentials, and competence from immigrants who come here to work and are placed in positions of tremendous trust. Apparently, that’s not entirely true. This case we’re about to share with you is a complete and total nightmare. According to a lawsuit filed in Oregon by the parents of a...

A pack of Biden-era Department of Education bigwigs covertly defied federal court orders, even after a colleague tried to blow the whistle — and are still on the job, even though the department has admitted the violations. The story starts in 2021, with President Joe Biden’s executive order that banning “discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation” across the entire federal government. The folks at Education ran with that, sending out “guidelines” to state officials warning that “Title IX’s ban on sex discrimination” extends to “discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity” — refuse to go...

Two adults were arrested by ICE agents at a Maryland preschool graduation ceremony, drawing condemnation from top elected officials in the state. Children were allegedly heard 'screaming' when the arrests took place on Thursday in the parking lot of Commodore John Rodgers Elementary School in Baltimore. Video taken by a witness shows two agents holding a man down on the pavement as they tried to get his arms behind his back so they could cuff him, while the woman recording shouted, 'This is school property! It's against the law!' Last month, the City of Baltimore signed an emergency bill prohibiting...

A Manhattan public school is treating parents and teachers as “separate” but equal. The P.S. 003 Charrette School in the West Village is hosting a workshop for parents and staffers that separate them into “affinity” groups by race and ethnicity — a move slammed as discriminatory by legal experts. “What Does it Mean to be White in a Multi-Racial Community at PS3? — How does whiteness affect the collective child experience at PS3, as well as the entire community? White-identifying PS3 community members – SIGN UP HERE,” reads the invite posted on the school’s website. The June 16 “Listening Circles”...

Among Americans, there remains an ever-growing divide between those who are pro-life and those who are pro-killing-their-baby. In an attempt to bridge this divide, The Babylon Bee interviewed thousands of liberals to hear their compelling reasons to murder infants. Here are the 10 most convincing liberal arguments for abortion:Planned Parenthood gives out free cookies with every abortion: Everyone loves cookies.The baby may develop acne as a teenager and get called "pepperoni face": Abortion is a mercy. No human being has ever survived acne.Diapers are clogging up landfills: Unless we stop climate change now, there won't be a world for babies...

As its national influence has risen, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has simultaneously grown more extreme. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the group’s “Red Rabbits” initiative. The Red Rabbits Security Commission, a subgroup within the DSA focused on “community defense” efforts, is, according to its authorizing resolution, preparing for a “national uprising against federal agents and police brutality.” In practice, that means training cadres in tactics like armed and unarmed self-defense, blocking intersections, and fighting “fascists” with umbrellas. A recent panel offered an unprecedented window into what the project looks like. Organizers from Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia,...

This college commencement season — from north to south, east to west, state universities to the Ivy League, law schools to military academies — one trend stood out: speeches about AI. Some speakers praised the technology and were booed; others denigrated it and were cheered. But one thing was clear, it’s all anyone can talk about. At least 25 graduating classes have heard some version of the spiel. Yes, talk about AI is timely, but it’s also not all that helpful. Nobody knows where the technology is headed, and students probably have a better grasp of that future than the...

The Brief The jury at the trial of Karmelo Anthony will get the case on Tuesday after four days of testimony. Anthony is charged with murder in the 2025 stabbing death of Austin Metcalf. If convicted, Anthony could face up to 99 years in prison. =========================================================================== MCKINNEY, Texas - A Texas jury will soon decide the fate of Karmelo Anthony. Anthony, 19, has been charged with murder in connection with the stabbing death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf. Investigators said Anthony and Metcalf got into an argument over stadium seating during a track meet in Frisco on April 2, 2025. When...

The empty desks appearing across Colorado today are the delayed consequence of decisions made years ago by politicians, educators, and cultural elites. Colorado colleges are bracing for what education experts call an “enrollment cliff.” Fewer high school graduates mean fewer college applicants, shrinking tuition revenue, budget cuts, mergers, and even campus closures. The same phenomenon is unfolding nationwide. After years of warnings, the demographic reckoning has arrived. According to recent Colorado education data, public school enrollment fell by more than 10,000 students this year, the state’s largest decline since the pandemic. State officials point to a simple explanation: there are...

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday dodged key questions about scandal-scarred Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner, saying the fellow Dem and horny oyster farmer has to answer for himself. Platner, who is married and faces a primary-election race Tuesday, was hit early on with revelations of a Nazi-linked tattoo and cheating-by-sext. Then last week came allegations of deeply disturbing behavior toward female partners and him harboring fantasies about raping home intruders. “I haven’t followed these allegations closely, but what I have said is that violence against women in any way, shape or form is unacceptable,” Jeffries (D-NY) told Fox...