Free Republic

The cognitive dissonance required to accept these numbers is stunning. This is all part of a narrative supporting an agenda to keep the masses in the dark, compliant, and terrified. Conning people into conceding control to our "betters" is how they keep us in line.. Flu season came and went without ever actually existing this year. Doctors and mainstream media are putting forth every possible excuse for why it went from 400,000 hospitalized cases and 22,000 deaths last season to an infinitesimal 165 hospitalized cases this season, but very few of them are stating the most obvious reason. They claim...

In Naperville, Illinois, the school board announced it would distribute $10 million back to taxpayers this year. Yes. A tax refund. In a news release, Superintendent Dan Bridges told residents that he "understands the great burden many of our families have faced during the COVID-19 Pandemic and hopes that this reimbursement lessens that burden." The typical family will receive a refund of $200 to $500. Good for Naperville. The 10-month pandemic shutdown generated a savings of roughly $20 million, or about 6.5% out of a $300 million school budget. The Naperville Sun reported that the district's expenses for everything from...

A first-of-its-kind study, involving over 25,000 children, reveals that masks are harming schoolchildren in many physical and psychological ways and have a negative effect on their behavior, focus and interest in learning. These negative effects are censored from social media, under-reported by the media, and ignored by government officials. Of the 25,930 children studied, the database includes at least 17,854 health complaints submitted by parents. These health issues and impairments were observed in approximately 68 percent of masked schoolchildren who were forced to wear a face covering for an average of four and a half hours per day. Prolonged, forced,...

A group of 66 House Republicans accused President Joe Biden of rejecting the scientific consensus that schools can safely reopen, a move they say harms American children. Led by Rep. Jason Smith (R., Mo.), the lawmakers sent Biden a Thursday letter urging him to "follow the science" by pushing state and local leaders across the U.S. to reopen schools. The letter notes that there is "little evidence to show in-person instruction in classrooms contributes to the spread of COVID-19," citing a January study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It also criticizes the Biden administration for contradicting...

Parents of schoolchildren learning from home shouldn’t necessarily count on reclaiming the dining room table any time soon. After seeing two academic years thrown off course by the pandemic, school leaders around the country are planning for the possibility of more distance learning next fall at the start of yet another school year. “We have no illusions that COVID will be eradicated by the time the start of the school year comes up,” said William “Chip” Sudderth III, a spokesperson for Durham, North Carolina schools, whose students have been out of school buildings since March.

NORTH OGDEN, Utah - A charter school in northern Utah that is allowing parents to opt students out of its Black History Month curriculum has sparked a debate over if parents should have the option. Maria Montessori Academy Director Micah Hirokawa said on the school’s Facebook page on Friday that he “reluctantly” sent out a letter explaining families are allowed “to exercise their civil rights to not participate in Black History Month at the school,” the Standard-Examiner reported. Hirokawa said “few families” asked not to participate in instruction related to Black History Month. But he declined to say how many...

Many of our fellow Americans live in areas where leftists have poisoned the school systems. TRADITIONAL TEACHER MODEL My primary model would have about twenty kids in a class and a tuition of around $3,500/year/student. Each teacher would set his/her tuition rate and maximum class size and handle student admission. Homeowner associations might host hook-up events for teachers, parents and prospective students. Tuition might be paid monthly for affordability and two months in advance (so it won't be problem for the teacher if the parents have a major car repair bill one month). Men and women who have good English...

George Robles (SJPD photo)A tortoise named Michelangelo is recovering after a man broke into a San Francisco Bay Area preschool and stabbed and beat the pet, which is estimated to be about 70 years old, authorities said. The 65-pound African sulcata tortoise was found Saturday with a piece of wood and a rake handle stabbed through his outer shell. The attacker apparently used garden tools taken from the school.“I thought he was dead … So it was almost a good feeling when he hissed at me because I knew he was alive,” Tammy Lariz, the administrator at Play ‘N’...

French schoolteachers and university students staged nationwide strikes and protests on Tuesday as they joined forces to demand more government support amid the pandemic. “No virus protocol, no school!” read posters carried by schoolteachers, demanding better virus protections at their schools, which have remained open since September amid concern over learning gaps and to ease the burden on working parents. “Sick of Zoom!” chanted university students, frustrated that they've been barred from campuses since October. Aside from virus fears, the common concern at Tuesday's protests in Paris, Marseille and other cities around France was economic. Teachers unions, who are negotiating...

While the science suggests educators should end virtual schooling, many schools remain closed to millions of young people whose mental health is tanking.Almost a year after COVID-19 reached the United States and government-mandated lockdowns began shutting down nearly every aspect of American life, many schools across the nation have yet to reopen for in-person learning. While the science and data, previously ignored by the virtue-signaling left, suggests that educational leaders should seriously consider ending virtual schooling for the sake of students’ mental health and academic advancement, many school districts remain closed, offering only online classes or virtual learning options to...

Over 14,000 school boards, with about 100,000 members, set the course for instruction in classrooms across the country. To understand the views of parents and school board members in debates about K-12 content and policy, The Heritage Foundation commissioned a nationally representative survey.

Five-year-old Teague Pollard saying the Pledge of Allegiance before virtual school. Remember when we used to say the Pledge of Allegiance every day before school started. When I was in Girl’s State, we would get up every day at the crack of dawn, dress up and gather round the flag to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I, for one, believe that children who grow up not having any respect for this nation are bound to disrespect the country and its people. It’s important that they learn to take pride in their country and our flag. To illustrate my point, I...

On his Substack last week, Matt Yglesias tried to throw woke piranhas a bone by supporting the idea of picking what kids read in school according to the tired identity categories of race, sex, yadda yadda. The discussion resurfaced with a Wall Street Journal article noting teachers — like librarians, publishing houses, corporate news media, and the rest — banning books based on authors’ skin color and sexual preferences, now in the name of “antiracism.”This isn’t new. “Hey ho, hey ho, Western civ has got to go” was the chant Jesse Jackson led at Stanford University back in the 1980s,...

A New Hampshire woman has been arrested for sending pictures of a mutilated female body and threatening the family of a Michigan election official who refused to certify the results for Joe Biden. Katelyn Jones, 23, is accused of calling Wayne County chairwoman Monica Palmer a 'racist b****' and a 'terrorist' after she refused to confirm the 878,000 votes from Michigan's largest county. President Trump called Palmer on Tuesday November 17 after she revised her vote to express his gratitude for her support. The threatening violence through interstate commerce charges against Jones stem from an FBI investigation probing the fallout...

The Jefferson fiasco underscores how activist school leaders and alumni, from California to Massachusetts, are conspiring to recklessly overhaul school policies, education standards, and curriculum this year.FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. – After a crusade by educational arsonists targeting the nation’s No. 1 high school, America’s meritocracy is about to go up in flames. The Fairfax County School Board is set to vote Thursday night to gut the race-blind, merit-based admissions testing process at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. T.J. is a state-chartered magnet school legislated to serve academically gifted and advanced students. The school board plans to replace...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court declined Monday to take up an appeal from parents in Oregon who want to prevent transgender students from using locker rooms and bathrooms of the gender with which they identify, rather than their sex assigned at birth. The case came from a school district near Salem, Oregon’s capital city. The federal appeals court in San Francisco had upheld a Dallas, Oregon, school district policy that allows transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. Parents sued over the policy in 2017, saying it caused embarrassment and stress. A lower...

'The United States has reached a tipping point: The damage done to schoolchildren with scarce resources is likely to be irreparable.'As report cards begin to roll out for fall, public schools across the nation are reporting a massive increase in children failing classes, due to the majority going online and the chaos of rolling COVID closures. In Fairfax, Virginia, one of the nation’s largest districts, “the percentage of middle school and high school students earning F’s in at least two classes jumped by 83 percent: from 6 percent to 11 percent,” the Washington Post reported Tuesday. That’s nearly 10,000 children.Saint...

Better late than never. Perhaps because he believes Joe Biden will be inaugurated in January, Dr. Fauci is finally admitting that children do not get terribly ill from or transmit COVID-19 in any significant way. Weird, since Switzerland figured this out in April. Detailed genetic studies in Iceland showed that children were not passing the virus to adults in any significant numbers in June. And German researchers asserted that children could actually act as a brake on transmission within the community. ... Senator Paul correctly noted Sweden’s experience, which never closed their primary schools and did not see a spike...

By Right now in China, 195 million students K-12 are learning in-person in Chinese public schools. Meanwhile, millions of American public school students are learning in a failed remote system that can’t even keep track of thousands of students who haven’t shown up for class all year. In 2018, 15-year-olds in dozens of countries participated in the triennial Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The PISA test measures reading ability, math and science literacy, and other key skills. American scores are decidedly unimpressive, with students scoring in the middle of the pack for all categories. Most frighteningly, China beats the...

Handouts blamed the pandemic on racism and capitalism gave Chinese government a pass A District of Columbia public school teacher encouraged students to blame the coronavirus pandemic on racism and capitalism instead of China, according to a lesson plan obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Hardy Middle School teacher Caneisha Mills had her students host a "People's Tribunal on the Coronavirus Pandemic," whose "defendants" included racism, capitalism, and the United States government. "I wanted to … point out that the capitalist system was behind the pain, trauma, isolation, and destitution [my students] were facing," Mills said. "Capitalism, racism, and the...