Free Republic

A wild brawl broke out at an Ohio kindergarten graduation after a woman was accused of taking up too many seats and blocking other parents' views on their children's big day. Craig Mays, one of the parents attending the Thursday morning ceremony at Queen of Apostles School, said the fight started when a separate family grabbed their own chairs and began creating their own seating space. That made his daughter's mother unable to see, causing the confrontation to escalate with 28–year–old Jessica Anderson, who was seated just behind them at the ceremony in Toledo, about 240 miles north of Columbus,...

The debate over federal control of higher education has once again exposed a deeper question many conservatives have avoided asking: Why is the federal government involved in financing colleges and universities at all? The recent controversy surrounding proposed federal regulations affecting Christian colleges reveals the danger of dependency. Under a new Department of Education proposal, programs whose graduates do not meet government-defined earnings thresholds could lose access to federal loans and grants. Christian colleges are warning that ministry and theology programs could be devastated because pastors and missionaries rarely enter high-paying careers. But perhaps conservatives should ask a more fundamental...

A Georgia science teacher already charged with having sex with a student in a classroom closet has now been accused of abusing five other teens, including a girl — allegedly having sex in a Hummer as well as at a golf course parking lot. Maris Nichols, 25, was re-arrested Thursday, nearly two weeks after she was first charged with sexually assaulting a student at least twice, in the school closet as well as a parked Hummer, 11Alive reported.

A Las Vegas school district is being sued for allegedly violating a student’s First Amendment rights after he was expelled for placing pro-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) signs on campus.Fox News reports that the lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for Nevada last week alleging that a minor, identified as N.C., was disciplined after placing six pro-law enforcement emblems around East Career and Technical Academy (CTA) in January.The 2-by-2-inch emblems were posted a day after students were allowed to walk out of class to protest ICE and included messages such as “ICE Immigration Enforcement,” “Border Security Academy Deportation...

C-SPAN coverage features cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation regarding the impact of screen time and classroom technology on youth. In his testimony, Dr. Horvath warned lawmakers that Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to underperform previous generations across cognitive measures like attention, memory, and general IQ. He argued that introducing digital devices into learning environments has actively contributed to this cognitive decline, as human brains are not biologically wired to learn from screens. This is the first generation in human history that is getting DUMBER...

The state House voted Wednesday to override one of the Democratic Gov. Josh Stein's vetoes from 2025, as Republican lawmakers gained enough support to push forward with one of about half a dozen veto overrides that have been unresolved for the past year. The House voted to approve House Bill 87. It would conform state law to a new federal law, passed under Republican President Donald Trump, giving tax breaks to people who donate to educational scholarship programs. Stein had vetoed the bill a year ago, but also said he wanted to opt into the program in a way that...

A 13-year-old seventh-grader at Drake Middle School in Colorado’s Jefferson County Public Schools was barred from reading her pro-life slam poem aloud in class along with other students. She was prevented even though staff acknowledged it met all assignment requirements, according to the student’s family. The assignment asked students to write and present slam poetry about a world conflict they felt passionate about. The girl chose the topic of abortion and prepared a poem that referenced biblical verses, Dr. Seuss literature and statistics on abortions since Roe v. Wade. School staff told the family the poem satisfied every rubric criterion...

Actor Harrison Ford told graduates at Arizona State University (ASU) to “extend social justice” to clean up the environmental “mess” his generation left behind for them. The legendary “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” actor gave the commencement speech during a graduation ceremony on May 11, where he received an honorary Doctor of Arts and Humane Letters degree for his work in conservation. Ford’s background in fighting climate change was a significant theme throughout the speech as he warned students about the need for “cultural change” to prevent “mass extinction” caused by corruption and global warming. “Humanity is a part of...

From the Dayton, Ohio, suburbs to boardrooms in Dallas, the employees fueling AT&T’s next wave of growth aren’t fresh-faced college graduates with expensive four-year degrees. They’re skilled, blue-collar workers ready to get their hands dirty — and AT&T can’t find enough of them. “We need people who know how to actually work with electricity. We need people who understand photonics. We need people who can go into folks’ homes and connect this infrastructure to make it work right,” AT&T CEO John Stankey told CNBC during a recent interview from the company’s Dallas headquarters. “We find that we’ve got to go...

MIAMI – Florida is expanding its school safety playbook to colleges and universities under a new law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, prompted in part by last year’s active‑shooter incident at Florida State University. DeSantis signed HB 757, calling it a continuation of a years-long push to harden campuses and tighten threat response. “We implemented the most far‑reaching school safety program anywhere in the country,” DeSantis said, noting that “just since 2019, we’ve invested $3.1 billion in student safety.” The law requires public colleges and universities to adopt active assailant response plans, establish threat management teams, conduct annual security risk...

A self-described Muslim university operating in North Texas is facing a lawsuit from the State of Texas over allegations it illegally offered unapproved degrees while misleading prospective students about its legitimacy and ties to Texas A&M University. Filed Monday in Collin County district court, the lawsuit targets Texas American Muslim University—also referred to as “TexAM”—along with administrators Shahid A. Bajwa, Bilal Piracha, and Arsalan Shahzad. The state is seeking temporary and permanent injunctions as well as more than $1 million in civil penalties. According to the petition, TexAM operated as an unlicensed and unaccredited “university” despite never receiving authorization from...

When the United States began its experiment with federally backed student loans in the 1960s, no one predicted that, by the early 21st century, students would have run up over $1.8 trillion in debt and that many of them would be unable to repay what they owe. We were told over and over that college debt was good debt because of the huge increase in lifetime earnings that a degree was supposed to guarantee. The Tar Heel State has its own set of unique problems when it comes to student debt loads. North Carolina ranks among the top 10 states...

When I graduated with a degree in journalism three years ago, I'd hoped to have a full-time, salaried job in my field by now. Instead, most of my days are a hectic blend of part-time and unpaid roles. I often find myself running to my retail job in the morning, catching the train in the afternoon to pick up the kids I nanny for, coming home for a quick dinner, and then wrapping up the day with a few hours at my unpaid, remote internship. It's not exactly how I envisioned spending my 20s in New York, but here we...

American Federation of Teachers boss Randi Weingarten tapped hundreds of thousands in union resources to help write her controversial book — working with a team that raked in more than $1.4 million from the labor group, a new analysis found. Weingarten used the abundance of union-fueled resources for the liberal agenda-pushing “Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy” then pocketed a portion of the proceeds, the Freedom Foundation claimed in a new report. Her team included an attorney who supposedly worked on the book pro bono but whose firm raked in $977,000 for various work for...

May 15 (Reuters) - A longstanding diversity and inclusion requirement for U.S. law schools is teetering amid mounting pressure from the Trump administration and Republican states. The American Bar Association council that oversees law school accreditation voted on Friday to eliminate a ​rule that requires law schools to demonstrate their commitment to diversity in recruitment, admissions, and student programming. The ‌rule has been suspended since February 2025, after Republican President Donald Trump returned to the White House and began cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. "Even though I personally agree with [the diversity and inclusion standard] and what...

Turning Point chapters continue to grow on California campuses months after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Campuses are seeing tensions rise as conservative students become more vocal both in and out of the classroom.

Gavin Pope was arrested during a protest at an immigrant detention center in South Texas. For four months, a criminal charge hung over him. He couldn't work. When Gavin Pope went to a federal immigrant detention center in Dilley to protest ICE, he didn’t expect it to upend his life. By nightfall, he was in jail. Days later, he was out of a job. Pope, 25, originally from Kyle, spent his middle school years in Iowa, earned a bachelor's degree in history from Saint Louis University in 2024 and moved back to Texas to help care for his grandmother, who...

The Trump administration has blocked $60 million in fraudulent student loan applications since launching a new risk assessment tool last month, the Daily Caller has learned exclusively. The Department of Education launched a new risk assessment tool on April 26 to screen federal student aid applicants for fraud. Since the tool launched two weeks ago, the administration has found about 300,000 fraudulent applications that amounted to $60 million in student loans, officials told the Caller. “We’re using best in class technology, and we’ve been able to stop a lot of those fraudulent activities that are there,” a senior administration official...

Atlanta — Going into retirement, 58-year-old David White of Atlanta, Georgia, had some preconceived notions. "I thought it would be blissful and easy and joyful," White told CBS News. "… It wasn't quite." In September 2025, White retired after 33 years in education, the last 15 spent as principal at the Burgess-Peterson Academy, an elementary school. It was a career so illustrious that White was once awarded Principal of the Year for the entire Atlanta Public Schools district. He said he left mostly to be free of the daily demands. But having so much free time got old. "I was...

David Blackman, a native of Plano, Texas, was thrilled to be starting law school at Penn State in the fall of 2025. A former 911 call operator and a veteran of the Texas State Guard, Blackman, 26, loved the university’s football team and its location in the Appalachian Mountains. “I’ve been a fan of Penn State since I was a teenager,” Blackman told the Washington Free Beacon. He arrived on campus in August 2025, a 50 percent merit scholarship in hand, excited for game nights in Beaver Stadium and a three-year reprieve from the Texas heat. Then he sat through...