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...

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...

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,...

A new bill requires parents to report themselves to their local school district, and parents who do not will be considered truant.. Homeschool parents would face fines, misdemeanor charges and even jail time if they do not report themselves to local public school officials, under a new proposal from Illinois Democrats. Parents also would be required to provide public school officials with a “portfolio” of their children’s work at any time, at any interval and frequency, until that portfolio meets the public school’s satisfaction. The bill, dubbed the “Homeschool Act,” requires parents to report themselves in writing to local school...

According to the State Board of Education, in Illinois, the only specific requirement for homeschooling is that certain subject areas be taught Homeschooling in Illinois could look different if a law being considered by legislators moves forward. The Homeschool Act, also known as HB2827, would create a set of requirements for homeschooled students and educators. It includes things like informing a child's designated public school or district that they are being homeschooled, requiring any child taking part in school activities on or off school ground provide proof of immunizations and health examinations and setting requirements for the topics and content...

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,...

Even as suicide, drug abuse, sexual depravity, gender confusion, illiteracy, and violence reach record levels among children in Illinois government schools, leftist lawmakers and far-left media propagandists are painting a giant target on the backs of homeschool families in the state. Homeschoolers, who on average perform better than their government-educated peers on every metric, are preparing to fight back. But in a deep blue state like Illinois, concerns are growing as policymakers consider a bill to impose more government control over homeschooling families after about 75 years of relative freedom in the state. The latest assault on the homeschool community...

Teachers' union boss Randi Weingarten said during a recent podcast appearance that she is fearful President Donald Trump's plans to terminate the Department of Education will mean more funding for school choice vouchers, which she decried as a "tax credit" for wealthy families already sending their kids to private school. Weingarten's comments came during a podcast interview with Molly Jong-Fast, who spoke with her about the implications of Trump's spending reforms, particularly his plan to terminate the Department of Education. Weingarten stated that cutting the department's roughly $100 billion in funding will primarily benefit tax cuts for the wealthy or...

The Three Investigators is a series of children’s mystery novels that many members of Generation X, including myself, grew up with. They’ve been out of print in the U.S. for decades. But now, all 10 of the books that were written by series creator Robert Arthur are back in print, in paperback.

After 20 years of teaching, I thought I’d heard every argument in the book from students who wanted a better grade. But recently, at the end of a weeklong course with a light workload, multiple students had a new complaint: “My grade doesn’t reflect the effort I put into this course.”High marks are for excellence, not grit. In the past, students understood that hard work was not sufficient; an A required great work. Yet today, many students expect to be rewarded for the quantity of their effort rather than the quality of their knowledge. In surveys, two-thirds of college students...

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...

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...

What do you think of these questions given to seventh-grade students at the Middle Village Prep Charter School in Queens County, New York? These are questions they were told to ask one another. And they were asked to write about them. "5. On an airplane, you are talking pleasantly to a person of average appearance. Unexpectedly, the person offers you $10,000 for one night of sex. Knowing there is no danger and that payment is certain, would you accept the offer? 14. What are your feelings about killing a handicapped child at birth? 19. What has been the worst sexual...

Recently I was served a TikTok showing a mom taking her daughters out for ice cream. While we watch the girls enjoy their treats, the mom’s voiceover describes how their homeschool curriculum is preparing them for a life of financial independence. From early childhood, these girls are learning to invest. They are learning about stocks, about compound interest. They are training to be self-made millionaires, the mom proudly concludes, and anyone can do this while homeschooling your kids. Homeschooling is hot right now. Last year the Washington Post reported that homeschooling has increased by over 50 percent since 2017, making...

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...

The number of children being educated at home has been growing for the past few decades. No one knows by how much, and that is part of the problem. Home­school­ing is barely tracked or regulated in the U.S. But children deserve a safe and robust education, whether they attend a traditional school or are educated at home.The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported that by last count, in 2019, nearly 3 percent of U.S. children—1.5 million—were being home­schooled. This number, calculated from a nationwide survey, is surely an undercount because the home­schooling population is notoriously hard to survey, and...

For almost 400 years America has seen its citizens educating their children and themselves, though both the scope, structure and quality of education has changed somewhat during that time. For much of the history of the United States, education of children took place primarily at home, often along with private schools for some, and locally managed and supported schools for others. Education included the general ethos of Christianity and Biblical morality as well as academic subjects. The New England Primer and later, the nation-wide McGuffey's Readers (120+ million copies) were the primary instruments of education, and in helping to form...

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]...

If the Biden administration is trying to restore American parents’ confidence in the public school system, they sure have a funny way of showing it. Nowadays, one of the most significant causes of concern — and perhaps the deciding factor for most parents pulling their children out of public schools — has been the increasing woke indoctrination from the public school system, especially in regard to the ever-prominent LGBT agenda. And how is Biden’s Department of Education handling the increasing wariness of parents toward the public school system? By releasing on social media a video celebrating another made-up LGBT holiday,...

On a spring night in 2022, Ross Hill was trying to get several of his children—he has eight—tucked into bed for the night. *** “They were in tears because they didn’t want to go to school the next day,” said Mr. Hill, a 38-year-old teacher from Florence, South Carolina (pop: 39,958). Whether he knew it at the time or not, Mr. Hill’s family was part of a trend in the United States. A surprising number of children are miserable at school, research shows, and it’s a trend that began before the pandemic. For example, a 2020 Yale study that surveyed...