Free Republic

A D.C. public school gave a sixth grade class a homework assignment that required students to draw comparisons between former President George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler.

At the end of her seventh grade year a few months ago, my daughter was of the opinion that she had not received the education that she should have, so she determined to find courses online that she could take over the summer. What she found (completely on her own) turned out to be a full time public school- online! She starts tomorrow at Connections Academy Texas. With her mother and I both working, she'll be attending school at her Grandmother's house for the time being. I'm very excited about this- my child is *very* intelligent, and with self-paced courses...

The constant debate of how to fix public education is far from over. However, The Heritage Foundation came across new research for an improved education policy. heritage foundation index of cultury and opportunity Jennifer A. Marshall, Vice President of the Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity, discussed new research to better the failing education system for children in low income areas. While the Center for American Progress argues that government needs to increase funding for better education, the Heritage Foundation suggests a different approach. “The charts on public school test scores [over time] are the most boring ones in the...

This one really takes the (urinal?) cake... I myself have spent a bit of time in Europe, and one thing that strikes you as disgusting is the taking-a-leak in public thing- particularly bad the farther East you go (Czech Republic comes to mind). And it's not just drunks at 3am -though there's never any shortage of that- but the carefree, utterly shameless roadside drainage -in broad daylight, as minivans full of families motor by- you even see on the side of the freeway (and not in any woods/weeds or anything, either). But from what I've heard, India is a whole...

HOUSTON - Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was a prisoner of war in Afghanistan for five years, has been allowed to venture off the Texas military base where he is receiving care as part of his "reintegration process" into society, a U.S. Army spokeswoman said Wednesday. Bergdahl has been allowed to go, with supervision, to a grocery store, restaurants, shopping centers and a library as part of the process of getting him comfortable with being out in public, Army spokeswoman Arwen Consaul said. **SNIP** He has not commented publicly on the circumstances of his disappearance, and the Army has made no...

On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state of Illinois violated the First Amendment when it forced home-care workers who receive government stipends to pay union dues to the Service Employees International Union. Writing for the 5-4 majority in Harris v. Quinn, Justice Samuel Alito ruled that the state exceeded its lawful authority by treating such workers as government employees “solely for the purpose of unionization and the collection of an agency fee.” “If we accepted Illinois’ argument,” Alito explained, “we would approve an unprecedented violation of the bedrock principle that, except perhaps in the rarest of circumstances,...

div class="article_body top">Isn’t it amazing how people can make a career decrying poverty and end up collecting big bucks from taxpayers for not much work? Consider the case of University of North Carolina Law School Professor Gene Nichol, who teaches one course per semester, and pulls down almost $213,000 per year in that state-funded school, as professor and head of the school’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity.Add in his wife, also on the UC payroll ay the medical school and Health Care System, and this fun couple pulls down over 600k per year. The College Fix has the goods...

While concerns about the growth of radical Islam have been with British society for some years now, few imagined that Islamists might ever attempt anything so bold as a takeover of parts of the public education system. Yet a government investigation overseen by a former counter-terror chief has revealed that this is precisely what has been happening at certain British schools. The report would seem to confirm allegations of an ambitious effort on the part of a set of hardliners who have been attempting to take over the administration of secular state schools in the city of Birmingham, Britain’s second...

Earlier this week, House and Senate conferees agreed to final language for the Women’s Economic Security Act (WESA). While most of the attention has focused on the bill’s family and sick leave provisions, one particularly bad policy provision has attracted little attention. Specifically, WESA lays the groundwork for a “state-administered retirement savings plan” for employees in the private sector. Yes, this would essentially be a government-run retirement plan controlled by the State Board of Investment. The ramifications of such a plan could be devastating for private sector employees as well as taxpayers who would likely be on the hook for...

"The spread of polio around the world has become so serious it is now an international public health emergency, the World Health Organization warned today. The agency said the problem could grow in the next few months and unravel the nearly three-decade effort to eradicate the crippling disease. It described current polio outbreaks in Asia, Africa and the Middle East as an 'extraordinary event' that required a coordinated international response. It was the first-ever international alert on polio. 'Until it is eradicated, polio will continue to spread internationally, find and paralyze susceptible kids,' Dr Bruce Aylward, who leads WHO's polio...

The U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on the constitutionality of prayer at public meetings. But a new survey finds U.S. voters clearly favor prayer – as long as the public prayer is generic and not specifically Christian. Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind survey asked about attitudes on high profile cases before the court, includingGreece v. Galloway. That case addresses whether elected officials can open public meetings with religiously specific prayers, such as praying in Jesus’ name. A Jew and an atheist brought suit in Greece, N.Y., saying the Christian prayers excluded many citizens and violated the Constitution, which bans government...

"Today is a win for transparency in government and the taxpayers of Wisconsin. The Court of Appeals has agreed with the MacIver Institute that Sen. Erpenbach cannot carve out a special exemption to the open records law for whomever he chooses or try to hide public information when he works for Wisconsin taxpayers," Brett Healy, President of the MacIver Institute said. "Government employees and their unions should not be given a cloak of anonymity to hide their attempts to influence the legislative process. Today's decision requires them to play by the same rules as everyone else." The Court of Appeals...

A new survey reveals that public esteem for Obamacare is continuing to plummet, hitting yet another historic low. According to an Associated Press-GfK poll released last Friday, “President Barack Obama's health care law is languishing at its lowest level since passage of the landmark legislation four years ago, according to a new poll.” The AP survey shows that a mere “26 percent of Americans support the Affordable Care Act.” When the law was passed, 39 percent of the public supported it. But the President, along with his accomplices in Congress and the media, assured us that this percentage would rise...

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced on March 12th that the total cost of employing a state or local government worker is 45% more than an equivalent worker in the private sector. For the month of December 2013, employers in private industry spent an average of $29.63 per employee hour worked, but the equivalent cost for a government worker averaged $42.89 per hour. Not only do government employees average 33% higher pay than those in the private sector, their pension and retirement benefit costs are now an incredible 254% higher also. Given that compensation formulas for federal,...

Andrew Joseph Henderson announced his candidacy for the Little Canada City Council on Thursday, roughly a year after he was criminally charged for videotaping the activities of a sheriff's deputy and ambulance crew outside his apartment. Henderson, 29, said Saturday his ongoing trial played "a good part" in his decision to run for city council, although he said he would have run either way. "I believe the government should be watched and held accountable for the people," he said. "People are in charge of the government and not the other way around." Henderson was charged in Ramsey County District Court...

Y’know, when I was a wee lad growing up in West Texas, public schools weren’t all that bad. We started our day off with the pledge of allegiance, said prayers during football games, actually studied our nation’s founding docs, sang patriotic songs, and we celebrated the true meaning of both Christmas and Easter. In addition to that pro-American bliss, nearly everyone and their dog graduated. It’s true. Dogs were actually graduating from school back then. I know. Weird, eh? Indeed, out of our large graduating class there was only one drop out and that was my childhood buddy who left...

Houston police are considering a plan to charge the Critical Mass bicycle group as safety concerns draw officers away from their regular duties. The event, which sees thousands of riders take to the streets on the last Friday of every month, has operated in cities across the world for over 20 years..... Four officers in two police cars help riders through intersections, with officers driving ahead and behind to clear the path. Houston police say they are now exploring the possibility of riders footing the bill for those services, as happens now for big funeral processions and for some busy...

Calling the Chicago pension crisis the worst in the nation is saying something - like, how bad can it get? The city's underfunded pension system for teachers, firefighters, police, and transit workers threatens to punch a hole in the city budget that would devastate city services. The teachers' alone are $1 billion short of funds, while the city as a whole is looking at a whopping $27 billion shortfall. The state of Illinois is even worse off with more than $100 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. Where is the money going to come from to fix the problem? Financial Times:...

On Friday afternoon as news outlets were reporting on the next day’s one-year anniversary of the horror that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the latest chapter in school violence was unfolding at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. There Karl Pierson had entered his high school looking for a particular teacher and willing to shoot anyone in his way. Eighty seconds after he entered the building, two students were injured, one fatally, and the gunmen dead by a self-inflicted gunshot. While this incident fails to compare to the carnage that took place in Newtown, Connecticut one year earlier,...

The clip linked below is really something else- dimbulbs interviewed on the street, asking for their reaction to Martin Luther King's being hit by a car this morning in Washington, DC. I know we always say it, but it IS really hard to fathom such shocking stupidity... what exactly ARE they teaching kids in California high schools? And if unaware that MLK was killed 45 years ago by a gunshot in Memphis, do these people even KNOW who Reagan was? None noticed they had school off on MLK Day...? This one's somehow even worse than the 'Obama voter' clips of...