Free Republic

‘Congress should not be operating as business as usual… Colleagues of mine should not be able to go to church or to go to the neighborhood gas station…’ While plotting upcoming protests, Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., urged demonstrators to target congressmen at church. “Folks, colleagues of mine should not be able to go to church or to go to the neighborhood gas station — if they pump their own gas, because I work with a lot of billionaires,” Ramirez said. “They should not be able to, without seeing community asking them ‘What the hell are you doing [for] my Social...

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...

More than half of fourth graders nationwide have not mastered reading at a proficient level for their grade, and the share of students considered proficient is now 2 percentage points lower than two years earlier, new data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows. “The data shows that the majority of the nation’s school systems have failed to master effective reading instruction, ignoring not only how it should be taught (e.g., proven science) but also the importance of engaging students with rich content and literature that stimulates the mind and ensures that vocabulary and comprehension increase,” Center for Education...

A New Jersey law that removes a requirement for teachers to pass a reading, writing and mathematics test for certification will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025. The law, Act 1669, was passed by Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy as part of the state’s 2025 budget in June in an effort to address a shortage of teachers in the state... Individuals seeking an instructional certificate will no longer need to pass a “basic skills” test ... Just months earlier, Murphy signed a similar bill into law that created an alternative pathway for teachers to sidestep the testing requirement....

‘Why is it that all we hear from CTU is demands for more, but we never hear anything from the union about what its members owe the taxpayers (and parents) of this city,’ city newspaper asks Chicago public school teachers continue to demand high raises – despite 41 percent of them being deemed “chronically absent” from work. The Chicago Tribune editorial board recently criticized the Chicago Teachers Union, which continues to negotiate for a new contract. Initial versions had demanded free abortions, transgender surgeries, and even weight loss drugs. State records show 41 percent missed 10 or more days of...

Six Department of Education employees used “forged permission slips” to take their own kids and grandchildren to Disney World and on other city-funded trips meant for homeless students, investigators alleged. The secret perks robbed some of the city’s most disadvantaged kids of a chance to enjoy the Magic Kingdom — a trip that cost $66,000 for 50 or so adults and kids, a staffer said — and other multiple-day trips in 2016 to 2019 to Washington, D.C; New Orleans; Boston; upstate Rocking Horse Ranch Resort; and Frost Valley YMCA campground, according to a newly released report by the Special Commissioner...

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...

Douglass Academy High School had 35 students with nearly 900 seats unfilled. None were proficient on the SAT. The Chicago Teachers Union wants to add at least eight staffers there and at every other school in the district at a cost of $1.7 billion. Only 35 students enrolled in Douglass Academy High School for the 2023-2024 school year, but the building can hold over 900 students. Logic would say it should be closed, but the Chicago Teachers Union prohibits closing it and other underused schools. In fact, CTU sees the 23 staffers at Douglass as inadequate. CTU’s new contract demands...

Last Friday, the National Education Association (NEA) abruptly cancelled its annual convention, scheduled for July 4-7, after just one day of official proceedings in Philadelphia. The shutdown of the Representative Assembly (RA) was in response to a strike by the union representing NEA staffers, the National Education Association Staff Organization (NEASO). Timing a three-day strike for the convention, NEA staffers based at the union’s Washington D.C. headquarters greeted delegates arriving at the Philadelphia Convention Center with picket lines. The NEASO contract expired June 30 and the staffers’ union staged the walkout as an unfair labor practices action. The NEA informed...

The president of the National Education Association (NEA) was mocked over the weekend for giving a "totally unhinged" speech that reminded critics of a comedy skit from a famous American TV show. NEA President Becky Pringle banged on the podium, flailed her hands in the air and screamed about winning "all the things" repeatedly at the NEA's Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly (RA) in Philadelphia. X critics compared the moment to an iconic scene with Dwight Schrute from "The Office." During the screechy speech, Pringle called for transformative social justice change in the education system in the pursuit of equity....

The National Education Association Staff Organizations (NEASO) announced Friday it is going on strike days ahead of a speech President Biden is supposed to make at the NEA’s annual convention. The NEASO said they were on a Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike against the NEA headquarters in Washington, D.C., filing two ULP complaints with the National Labor Relations Board. The group alleges the country’s largest teachers’ union has not bargained over unilateral changes, accusing the NEA of wage theft and failing to provide information regarding outsourcing $50 million to contractors. “The National Education Association has threatened to host its convention...

Schools in the progressive haven of San Francisco are facing a major budget crunch. Things are so dire that the district may have to actually close some schools. It’s amazing that these schools are having cash flow problems when you consider the taxes people pay to live there. Officials from the school district recently met with some financial experts who gave them some tough love. ... Late last week, two fiscal experts — appointed a few years ago to give guidance to the district — were authorized to suspend or reverse financial decisions made by the superintendent or school board....

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...

The local teachers’ union encourages students to resist “Zionist bullies.” Portland, Oregon, has earned its reputation as America’s most radical city. Its public school system was an early proponent of left-wing racialism and has long pushed students toward political activism. As with the death of George Floyd four years ago, the irruption of Hamas terrorism in Israel has provided Portland’s public school revolutionaries with another cause du jour: now they’ve ditched the raised fist of Black Lives Matter and traded it in for the black-and-white keffiyeh of Palestinian militants. I have obtained a collection of publicly accessible documents produced by...

President Biden vowed on Friday that the federal government would cover the cost of rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore – and that the work would be done by union labor, potentially setting up a funding fight with the conservative wing of the House of Representatives. Biden has promised from the outset that the federal government would pay for the bridge to be rebuilt. His comments on Friday came after the House Freedom Caucus — the conservative wing of the House of Representatives — released a series of conditions for federal funding for the bridge. The conditions include...

I'd think Joe Biden has to be sitting around wondering how he managed to put himself in his current position, but I'm not sure he even has the cognitive ability to process how bad things are. We've all seen the polls, which will likely tighten in a general election, but other factors are at play as well. ... The latest flashing red light comes courtesy of the National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest teachers union. A far-left entity that has long served as a lynchpin for Democrat politicians, its members are now demanding Biden show support for Palestinian terrorists...

Utah ranked fourth in the nation for states with the largest political shift leftward between 2000 and 2020, according to research by a Brigham Young University sociologist.Comparing presidential election vote shares from 2000 to 2020, Utah had one of the largest swings leftward in the United States — behind only Vermont, Colorado and Alaska, according to Jacob Rugh, associate professor of sociology at Brigham Young University.Utah went from giving President George W. Bush 66.8% of the vote, compared to 26.5% for Vice President Al Gore in 2000; (R+40) to President Donald Trump receiving 58.1% of the vote and President Joe...

I apologize for being gross, but it's necessary. You have to be shocked into recognizing the moral horror of what a part of the nation's largest teacher's union is doing. It is unspeakable, but we have to speak about it. The most effective work that the irreplaceable Christopher Rufo does is simply to get documents from institutions, and post them in full to the web, so ordinary people can see what kind of corrupt, racist or otherwise depraved people run these institutions. His latest is from the LGBTQ+ caucus of the National Education Association (NEA), the country's largest teachers union,...

When teaching about U.S. elections or politics, many educators will strive for neutrality. They may insist these discussions have no place in the classroom, while others argue that standardization and a lack of time make them a non-starter. Even if there was an opening, the slightest hint of bias could attract the ire of an administrator or parent. In this hyper-polarized political climate, that's a line that’s easy to stumble across. All this neutrality or avoidance may work for the teacher - but what about the student? Alyssa Hadley Dunn, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at Michigan State University, believes...

Parents in a Colorado school district expressed outrage after a report said the local teachers union sent out an email to its members instructing them to get rid of evidence of students' transgender information, according to a CBS report. The Jefferson County Education Association (JCEA) email explained to teachers that if they surveyed students on their gender identities, that information should not be stored in records, in a CBS report headlined, "Controversy erupts in Jefferson County after the teachers union tells educators to destroy evidence of student surveys regarding gender identity." The email said, "if you do a questionnaire, please...