Free Republic

It’s easy to see why the State Education Department stalled on releasing the latest English and math test scores for grades 3-8, and why New Yorkers won’t get the final (whitewashed) results until November: They show fewer than half of all kids statewide scoring grade-level-proficient or better in English; just 52% in math. And, for those that took the science exam, even worse: just 35%. The kids took the multiple-choice tests back in April and May: SED has no excuse for the absurdly long time in releasing even preliminary results; officials’ protest that they’re trying to produce them “as quickly...

After a Sept. 4 school shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia left 4 dead and 9 wounded at the hands of a 14-year-old, gun violence and solutions to school shootings surged once again to the top of national conversation.Colt Gray, who was investigated for posting online threats of a school shooting last year, has been charged with four counts of murder in the case. His father Colin is also facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder for allowing his child to have a weapon. >Only recently have parents of school shooters been held responsible for their children’s...

The remarkable thing about Russell Rickford is that there is nothing extraordinary about him. The Cornell University prof gained notoriety in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7 by declaring that he found the terror attack “exhilarating.” Afterward, Rickford apologized for his “horrible choice of words.” After the controversy over his warm words for Oct. 7, Rickford took a “voluntary leave” and is now back in the classroom. What’s outrageous isn’t that he hasn’t been disciplined by the school, but that he fits in so seamlessly. If Rickford, a history professor, went somewhere else to ply his wares, he’d in all...

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood on Florida's Atlantic Coast said he's tired of the hoaxes targeting students, disrupting schools and sapping law enforcement resources A Florida sheriff fed up with a spate of false school shooting threats is taking a new tactic to try get through to students and their parents: he's posting the mugshot of any offender on social media. Law enforcement officials in Florida and across the country have seen a wave of school shooting hoaxes recently, including in the wake of the deadly attack at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., which killed two students and two...

Three and a half years after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals prohibited a public university from retaliating against a professor for refusing to use a student's preferred pronouns, the Cincinnati-based court went even further by stripping qualified immunity in a similar case.University of Louisville officials can be held personally liable for allegedly retaliating against a psychiatry professor through a "hostile, humiliating work environment" designed to chill his speech and not renewing his contract after he questioned so-called gender-affirming care at a Heritage Foundation event in 2017, a three-judge panel unanimously ruled.President Biden nominee Judge Andre Mathis, who dissented...

Anyone who is keeping up with the latest happenings in higher education knows that this year has seen many institutions backpedaling on DEI programs. From Florida limiting public funding for DEI at its colleges, to the University of Wyoming closing its DEI office, to schools in Kansas, Idaho, and Oklahoma enforcing bans and limitations, the public’s patience with the Left’s “diversity” schemes seems finally to be running out. In May of this year, the UNC System joined these ranks when the Board of Governors repealed and replaced Section 300.8.5 of the policy manual, thus effectively banning DEI offices, employees, and...

It’s back-to-school time in America. In the past few weeks, more than 54 million kids went to school at the kindergarten through 12th grade level. Add preschool and college to that number, and 79.5 million Americans are students. That’s nearly a quarter of the entire population of the country. Most of these students go to public schools, but we have seen significant shifts in the past few years. The US Census Bureau says about seven million children, or about 13 percent of school aged students, go to private schools. This includes about 3.5 million homeschooled children. Both numbers represent significant...

Forget anatomy or physiology: Many of the medical students heading back to class this month are taking courses that focus more on social justice and diversity. That’s my conclusion in a new study that analyzes the curricula at medical schools across the country. Future physicians are spending more time on divisive political topics and less time on the medical science on which individual and public health depend — a fact that should terrify policymakers and patients alike. My study — the first to document the prevalence of ideology in medical school curricula — focuses on schools’ publicly available course catalogs....

Mary Payne always liked the idea of a one-room schoolhouse. She grew up reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie” series and appreciated the concept of various ages learning together and a more practical, hands-on approach to education. More so, she and her husband Michael weren’t thrilled with their experience with public schools back home in Illinois and had been looking for alternatives for their 5-year-old son after moving to Wyoming. When they heard about something called a microschool in Campbell County, Homestead Learning, they decided to check it out. The couple liked what they saw and decided...

'I think any father would’ve done the same thing. It’s my baby girl.' Bill Steinkirchner and his wife, Melanie, got a call Sunday morning from their college-student daughter that no parent wants to receive. Melanie Steinkirchner wrote on Facebook that their daughter was walking to breakfast when a male assaulted her, took swings at her, said he had a gun, and threatened to kill her. She was able to duck down, run, and avoid getting hurt, but she was still shaken during her phone call home. But her home is in Southern California — and KIRO-TV noted that the Steinkirchners'...

While a substantial number of Christian colleges continue to maintain ties with Planned Parenthood, one pro-life organization is celebrating that over a dozen schools have taken action this year to address concerns about their ties to the nation's largest provider of abortions and cross-sex hormones for youth confused about their sex. The Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement, a project of the pro-life advocacy group Students for Life of America, released a report highlighting the findings of its 2024 Christian Schools Project. The data for the report is based on research conducted throughout the 2023-2024 academic school year, culminating with outreach...

OPINION: Yale’s orientation coerced students to participate in ‘spell’ Yale’s Divinity School coerced students to read from a “spell” written by a “witch” as part of its Before the Fall Orientation. The three-day orientation between Aug. 21 to 23 saw a series of talks and activities preparing incoming students for the year ahead, interspersed with small group discussions. One of these small group periods was the first activity of orientation. Participating as an incoming student in one of these circles, I saw how the discussion opened with a set of “Restorative Circle Rules.” These rules boiled down to a warning...

Imagine dropping your child off in this man’s classroom, and there’s nothing you could say or do about it. Imagine walking into a supposedly professional environment and seeing a man dressed in women’s clothing and knowing this delusional weirdo is the person entrusted with teaching your child how to read and write. But it’s not just reading and writing and math. No, this is the kind of teacher who boasts about teaching your child “how to sissy that walk,” all while you’re paying taxes to fund this circus. Imagine your child, confused by their surroundings, asking questions about the rainbow...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters was joined by Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier to announce five recent arrests of students for threats made to schools, reminding parents and students that making such threats can have life-changing consequences. All three were arrested Tuesday. Waters said the threats were made electronically and gave the following details: On Aug. 22, an 11-year-old boy made a threat to River City Science Academy in a group chat thread. Waters said that the threat read, “Hello fellow citizens. Don’t worry, just don’t just don’t come to school tomorrow unless you want...

For the third year in a row, the Miami-Dade County school board voted against a proposal to recognize October as LGBTQ+ History Month. The 5-3 vote on Wednesday came hours after the school board heard a mix of passionate opinions

Yesterday, I pointed out that while a number of elite colleges and universities had released data on their enrollment after the end of Affirmative Action, Harvard had not. This seemed strange given that a) Harvard was one of two defendants in the case which eventually ended Affirmative Action and b) Harvard said it would release the data after the deadline to commit in May and yet four months later it hadn't done so.Today, Harvard finally released that data and the results do show a decline in black enrollment but also an uptick in Hispanic enrollment.The share of Black students declined...

Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado allowed a "nonbinary" female to supervise boys' showers and forced a female student to share a bed with a male, violating parental rights over children's privacy and accommodation decisions on school trips, according to a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of parents. The lawsuit accuses JCPS of not providing truthful information to parents concerning who will be supervising and sharing accommodations with their children on school-sponsored trips, the advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed the complaint on behalf of three families, said in a statement. The policy at the center of the controversy...

Stefani McDade, a cronie of Russell Moore—both of whom seem to have taken up residence as thought-leaders in leftist Christianity—has been named the “theology editor” at Christianity Today. Yes, that Christianity Today—once a respectable outlet for serious Christians but now a glorified progressive mouthpiece masquerading as a platform for the faithful. McDade recently published an article and then took to Twitter/X to endorse one of the most foolish, irresponsible ideas a professing Christian could have, shipping your children off to public schools. In her tweet, she equates public schools with “strength training” for children’s faith, urging parents to let their...

An unsuspecting Maryland high school allowed a MS-13 gang member at the center of a murder investigation to enroll after authorities failed to alert the administration of the gang member’s suspect status. Walter Martinez, an MS-13 gang member who at 16-years-old was the primary suspect in the July 2022 murder of Kayla Hamilton, enrolled in and attended Edgewood High School in Harford County, Maryland, without the district being informed of his status as a suspect in the case, according to a report from Baltimore's Fox 45. "When I start from the very beginning and get to the very end, they’re...

A man from Ohio has shared his shock over learning his grandson was told he would need a translator for him to attend preschool in the state. In a minute-long video, the man claims his daughter had recently attended a meet and greet at her son's preschool only to find that he would be the only one in attendance to speak English. Staff at the school in New Philadelphia in Tuscarawas County, but which has not been named outright, told the boy's mother that she would need to pay for a translator for the child to attend if he wanted...