Free Republic

Illinois bureaucrats are here to protect your kids... from you. People can’t get out of Illinois fast enough. Only two other states lost more residents between 2023–24, and the state has actually lost population for 10 years in a row. The tax burden, weather, heavy regulation, and crime levels all contribute to its residents seeking an exit. So, taking this mass exodus into account, you’d think the state would try to appeal to the families that remain. Well, think again. The Cubs (and maybe even the White Sox) are more likely to win another World Series before Illinois considers the...

GENEVA, Switzerland, September 18, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) -- Switzerland’s top court ruled that parents do not have a right to homeschool their children. On Monday, the Swiss Federal Court ruled against a mother from the city of Basel who in 2017 had applied for permission to school her 8-year-old son at home. School authorities rejected the application and a cantonal court threw out the mother’s appeal. When she brought her case to the Federal Court, the mother held that the appeal court’s decision was tantamount to a ban on private instruction at home, thus violating a constitutional right to privacy and...

One hundred years ago, in the case of Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the Supreme Court struck down an Oregon law that required all children to attend public schools, affirming that parents had the right under the 14th Amendment to direct the upbringing and education of their children. The Supreme Court wrote, “The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.” This court decision launched the parental rights movement that has become controversial since the...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) looks to upend higher education—all education—in no end of ways. The advantage it gives to cheaters by itself is upending the practice of teaching. But AI poses its greatest threat to the liberal arts, to the studia humanitatis, by getting rid of the basic function of this education: to prepare recipients for a job serving the state. At its best, this kind of education also prepares students to govern the state—to converse about the ends of government and to decide prudently how to achieve them as citizens of a democratic republic, as the leaders of an aristocratic...

Good neighbors help each other. They check in during tough times, shovel snow, and lend tools. However, parents can go to jail if families team up for homeschooling in Wisconsin. The state flatly prohibits homeschool collaboration. Joining an after-school soccer team or Girl Scout troop is fine. However, parents cross the line if they teach reading, writing, or arithmetic to someone else’s child. The law is clear: “An instructional program provided to more than one family unit does not constitute a home-based private education program.” Similar laws exist elsewhere. North Carolina homeschool groups cannot include children from more than two...

Progressive Judge Susan Crawford is running for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Her husband wrote a book against homeschooling.. For too long education experts have failed Wisconsin students. Too often the political left focuses on advancing a progressive narrative instead of simply teaching the basics. Recently, Wisconsin Gov. (and former education superintendent) Tony Evers proposed replacing mothers with “inseminated persons” in state law. Now, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford is running for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Throughout her career she has proudly advanced progressive causes. So it should come as no surprise that her husband,...

Meanwhile not a single student can read at grade level in 30 Illinois schools. Democrats are trying to screw over families whose parents are pulling their kids out of the government’s failed schools.

A left-wing, vampire-obsessed after-school program teacher is accused of sexually abusing two young girls for years at a Harlem school in New York and filming child sex abuse material, according to a new lawsuit reported on by the New York Post. “Miles McNeal, 26, an after-school program teacher whose online alter ego pushed communist propaganda and fetishized vampires, allegedly touched and photographed young students’ naked bodies, had them assume sexual positions, and showed them pictures of the genitalia of other kids while threatening them to stay silent, the victims said in court papers,” the report states. The lawsuit further alleges...

Over the years, we have loved being able to tell people that Illinois was among the best states with homeschool freedoms. That is thanks, in part, to a 1950 case (People v. Levisen) in which the Illinois Supreme Court considered the case of parents who were convicted of violating a law requiring children between the ages of 7 and 16 to attend a public school. The parents in this case were Seventh Day Adventists who believed that educating their child at home was the best option. The court determined that the term “private school” included instruction given to a child...

Five people are charged in connection with a teacher-certification cheating ring that led to illegally certified teachers working in Texas schools, DA Kim Ogg said.

I’m a teacher and I’m homeschooling my kids. Here’s why.

Students in a Southern California school district could be forced to choose between rooming with a transgender-identifying student or missing out on an overnight school field trip. If parents complain about their child rooming with a transgender-identifying student of the opposite biological sex, staff in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District listen to the parents’ concerns, then say that the child’s rooming assignment isn’t the parents’ choice, according to emails from 2021 and 2022 obtained by the Center for American Liberty and shared with The Daily Signal. The only option for students who are uncomfortable staying in a room with transgender...

Happy Friday friends! Thanks again to all of you that were able to join us for our livestream on Tuesday. If you weren't able to join us, we announced the big news about our upcoming performances at Dollywood and we debuted our first original song! This was a song Colt wrote back in 2009 with his then drummer and my Uncle Josh. They recorded this song along with a full-length original album together. At that time, Colt and I had only been married a couple years and we had no idea that one day we'd have children that would love...

Please homeschool your kids if you can. I'm sharing my experience working in NYC public schools and the experiences have been scary and heartbreaking. Your beliefs and values and faith matter, do whats best for your kids.

Alaska’s Supreme Court justices on Friday reversed a Superior Court ruling that struck down key components of the state’s correspondence school program. Nearly 23,000 homeschool students may continue to use their allotments of state education money to pay for private school tuition until the Anchorage Superior Court reconsiders the case. The Supreme Court made its decision a day after oral arguments in an appeal of the ruling in State of Alaska, Department of Education and Early Development v. Alexander, in which plaintiffs argued that it is unconstitutional for public education money to be spent on private school tuition. The justices...

SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va. - A second-grade teacher at Spotswood Elementary School was arrested on Thursday after being found under the influence of drugs in her classroom... The School Resource Officer discovered Candyce Leigh Carter, 35, appearing to be under the influence. A subsequent investigation uncovered suspected narcotics in her classroom. Carter, a Spotsylvania resident, was arrested on charges of felony possession of Schedule I/II drugs, felony child endangerment, and felony neglect or abuse of a child. She is currently being held without bond at the Rappahannock Regional Jail. During the incident, Carter's husband, Kristopher Donald Carter, 34, was found in...

Reading for fun sharply declines around age nine in an alarming trend that coincides with years of learning loss since the pandemic, data shows. Only 35% of nine-year-olds are reading at least five days a week compared to 57% of eight-year-olds, according to the latest Scholastic survey on the issue. “The number of kids who say they love reading drops significantly from 40% among eight-year-olds to 28% among nine-year-olds,” the Scholastic report notes. The trend, dubbed the “decline by nine” has concerned researchers, who note that reaching reading proficiency by third grade is a good predictor of academic success. [snip]...

Officials tried to use a novel interpretation of tax law to expand the reach of Title IX regulations. This ruling put a stop to that. . A federal court of appeals ruling last month protects nonprofits (including private schools and homeschools) from federal overreach in the context of Title IX regulations. Schools that receive government money have to abide by Title IX, but the court found that having 501(c)(3) status is not enough to put a private school into that category. The ruling means private schools cannot be subject to Title IX solely because of their status with the IRS....

An autistic Florida teen who knocked a school staffer unconscious for threatening to take away his Nintendo Switch has filed a lawsuit against the district, accusing them of failing to meet his needs. Brendan Depa, 18, was just 17 when he was caught on video pummeling a teacher's aide, Joan Naydich, at Matanzas High School after she requested another teacher take away his gaming console. Depa was arrested and charged as an adult with aggravated battery on a school employee, a first-degree felony carrying a potential sentence of 30 years behind bars.

A New York University professor claimed last week homeschooled students can easily become victims of indoctrination.During an American Federation of Teachers (AFT) book club meeting, Ruth Ben-Ghiat argued the recent opposition against public schooling stems originates with authoritarians who want to indoctrinate their children via homeschooling.One of the reasons that they all go after education and one of the reasons that schools are being targeted ... A big thing is to destroy liberal, democratic models of secular education – get everybody out of the system, put them in homeschools so they can be indoctrinated,” Ben-Ghiat told AFT President Randi Weingarten,...