Free Republic

FILE – In this Sept. 9, 2015 file photo, students arrive for the first day of school at Stuyvesant High School in New York. A push to diversify New York City’s most elite public high schools is facing a backlash from the group that makes up most of the schools’ current student bodies: Asian-Americans. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)One of the tenets of the pseudo-political religious cult that is Marxism is that capitalism is doomed by its own “internal contradictions.”Why do I call Marxism a religion? If you look at Marxism through the lens of comparative religion, what do you have?...

If there is one unifying strand that runs through the character of our nation, it is that America loves an underdog. From the Revolution, to Roosevelt, to Rocky, our country has always embraced the fighting spirit of those who triumph against difficult odds to achieve a worthy cause. Conversely we hold far less affection for those in authority who wield power with abandon, entrenched elites who write the rules to keep everyone in their place. The story of our nation is an ongoing tale of these opposing forces; the elites who thrive on power and demand allegiance to their dictates,...

It seems that teachers and students are being set up to fail. This fall, many public schools are responding to COVID-19 by offering online learning. In this pandemic era, we’ve been discouraged from taking potentially life-saving medications without “gold standard” studies supporting their use, yet it seems parents are now being told to place their children in a brand-new learning environment with no study of any kind supporting its use.In my northern Virginia school district of Loudoun County, online learning for most students is five days per week. The typical daily schedule includes three hours of whole-class instruction, one hour...

Wells Fargo’s CEO recently faced outrage for a memo noting “the unfortunate ­reality is that there is a very limited pool of black talent to ­recruit from.” Rather than pseudo-righteous indignation, maybe it’s time to confront uncomfortable facts about both college preparedness and the way our society bases economic opportunity on college success. According to critical race theory, our intellectual class’ obsession du jour, any hiring disparity reflects structural racism, and companies like Wells Fargo simply “aren’t trying hard enough” to find black candidates. In reality, there are wide racial gaps even before college. The average black SAT taker trails...

College Pulse, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and RealClearEducation have released the first-ever College Free Speech Rankings, a comprehensive comparison of the student experience of free speech on their campuses. These rankings are based on the voices of 20,000 currently enrolled students at 55 colleges and are designed to help parents and prospective students choose the right college.

The father of Ka'Mauri Harrison, the Harvey fourth-grader suspended last week after a teacher saw him move a BB gun out of the way during a virtual lesson, said the national response to the case has been "overwhelming," with offers of support from regular people and even the National Rifle Association. In the days since news of Harrison's six-day suspension broke, the 9-year-old and his family have been swamped with messages via email and social media, some pledging legal or financial help. "It's been overwhelming," Nyron Harrison said. Messages have been flooding in through Facebook and email, he said. "We've...

PALAISEAU, France — A schoolteacher whose body, face and tongue are covered in tattoos and who has had the whites of his eyes surgically turned black said he was prevented from teaching at a French kindergarten after a parent complained he scared their child. But the teacher, Sylvain Helaine, 35, still teaches children from the age of six up, and said that, after an initial shock when they see him for the first time, his pupils see past his appearance. “All of my students and their parents were always cool with me because basically they knew me,” said Helaine, who...

A former employee with the New York Daily News has filed a lawsuit alleging that St. Lawrence University allowed one of their ANTIFA-affiliated staff members to extort his firing from the newspaper. In the lawsuit, defendants are listed as Christian M. Exoo, the New York Daily News, St. Lawrence University, Tribune Publishing Company, Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde, Twitter Inc., and Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP. The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey by Daniel D’Ambly. D’Ambly claims in the lawsuit that he was doxxed by Exoo, a notorious ANTIFA terrorist who leads targeted harassment campaigns...

COLUSA, Calif. — A Northern California high school teacher threatened to kick a student out of a virtual class if he didn’t remove a “Trump 2020” campaign flag from his camera view. The 16-year-old left the Zoom meeting for his Colusa High School chemistry class before the teacher could remove him, according to the boy’s mother, Tiffany. The teen was working from his bedroom where the political flag is pinned to the wall, his mother said. Another student in the classroom took a recording of the virtual classroom as the teacher counted to 15. This is the only reported video...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband, University of California Regent Richard Blum, has been named by the state auditor’s office as one of the regents involved in an admissions scandal where UC wrongly admitted dozens of students as favors to well-connected people. California auditor: UC schools wrongly admitted 64 wealthy students as ‘favors’ over past 6 years In one case, a regent unidentified in the report sent an inappropriate letter on behalf of a student with only a 26% chance of getting in. The applicant was admitted. Auditor’s spokeswoman Margarita Fernandez confirmed to The Associated Press that Blum was the regent. Blum...

A new study has found minimal evidence that the novel coronavirus is transferring inside K-12 school buildings despite reports of students and faculty across the country contracting the disease. Brown University researchers collaborated with school administrators and released data Wednesday from a new National COVID-19 School Response Data Dashboard. COVID-19 cases recorded in the dashboard show a relatively small degree of spread among staff and students. The study looked at data collected from more than 550 schools across 46 states over a two-week period starting Aug. 31, with more than 300 schools maintaining some level of in-person classes. Researchers found...

If you’re a public-minded student or teacher committed to reducing the death toll from Covid-19, what is the morally correct way to behave? According to the epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta, you should do just about the opposite of what’s being preached by college presidents, teachers’ unions, political leaders, and the scientific and media establishment. Unless you’re elderly or particularly vulnerable, you shouldn’t be wearing a mask all day, or shaming others for going unmasked. You should be careful not to endanger the vulnerable, but otherwise you should be exposing yourself to the virus in order to promote herd immunity. Gupta, 55,...

There have now been 48,299 coronavirus cases reported at 37 universities in the United States.Of those cases there have been ONLY 2 hospitalizations. And there have been ZERO DEATHS! They couldn’t even sneak in a cancer victim into their counts because no one died!Via Dr. Andrew Bostom: 9/22/20 update on C19 among students on campus since August, from 37 U.S. universities: Despite ~48,300 “+ C19 tests” near absence of reported C19 hospitalizations, and zero reported deaths pic.twitter.com/1wN67LPpdr— Andrew Bostom (@andrewbostom) September 22, 2020 If you are college age you are more likely to be killed by lightning or a...

COVID-19 Reopening Gov’ J Inslee signed Proclamation 20-25.4 and outlined his "Safe Start". All this year school closure,. The “order” brings Wa. State down directly all on public and private schools. closed… Facilities may remain accessible for use for those whom must and therefore will grovel.

A thin blue line flag has been banned by a local high school in Neptune Beach, Florida following a series of complaints that circulated on social media, according to a report by News4Jax. According to the outlet, the Fletcher High School football team started carrying the pro-law enforcement flag last year, as a way for one of its players, Caelan Lavender, to honor his late father, Cpl. Andy Lavender. Mr. Lavender was a Jacksonville Beach police officer who unexpectedly passed away in August 2019 after 29 years in law enforcement, and was active in sports programs. “He was one of...

All told, these studies tell a consistent story in which political discrimination strongly impacts conservatives, creating a hostile climate for their beliefs. Imagine denying results like these if five consecutive studies reported that one in three academics would discriminate against a black applicant, or that half of women reported a hostile climate against them in their department.

SANTA FE – The U.S. Justice Department sided Monday with the father of a seventh grade prep school student in a lawsuit that challenges pandemic-related limits on classroom capacity at private schools in New Mexico as more restrictive than public school guidelines. Albuquerque-based U.S. Attorney John Anderson filed a statement of interest that argues the state is violating the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution by limiting attendance at private schools to 25% of building capacity under a public health order. The limit is set at 50% for public schools under guidance from the Public Education Department, though only...

The Department of Justice today filed a statement of interest in a New Mexico federal court asserting that the State's COVID-19 rules limiting private schools to operating at 25% of capacity but allowing public schools to operate at 50% of capacity violate the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. The brief, filed in the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, explains that the Supreme Court has recognized parents’ educational choices for their children as a fundamental right under the Constitution, and that New Mexico has no grounds for abridging that right in adopting stricter rules for private schools than...

The Covid-19 pandemic forced colleges to shift to online learning, often with disastrous results. Students are no fools and many of them are suing for a discount. They have realized what higher education is loath to admit: Instruction is not what they, their parents and the American taxpayer are paying full price for. The most common discount on offer appears to be a 10% tuition reduction, but some students are pushing for far more. They claim that nonacademic activities, from school plays and concerts to networking and parties, represent a lot more than 10% of the price tag of college....

President Trump announced the 1776 Commission designed to promote patriotic education and push back against leftist indoctrination efforts such as the 1619 Project . The 1619 Project is a fact-challenged effort to rewrite the history of America as the date African slaves arrived in Virginia. Developed by the New York Times, it is described as an effort “to reframe the country’s history” by focusing almost exclusively on slavery. The President accused Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and the Times of corrupting history and education while offering a counterproposal . “I will soon sign an executive order establishing a national commission...