Free Republic

The speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives is under fire from members of his own party who are accusing him of favoring the interests of teachers unions by blocking votes on parental rights and school choice legislation. On Friday, members of the Wyoming House attempted a procedural motion to sidestep Speaker Albert Sommers (R) and force a floor vote on a bill that would enact a universal school choice. The effort failed on a voice vote. snip Sommers claimed he opposes the parental bill because it infringes on the authority of local school boards. The legislation mirrors a law...

RUTLAND, Vt. —Yesterday evening, a federal judge approved a settlement that ends a lawsuit challenging the state and several local governments’ policy and practice of denying tuition benefits to parents who send their children to religious schools. The settlement guarantees that Vermont parents who qualify for tuition benefits can spend those benefits on the private school of their choice, regardless of whether the school is religious. The families who brought the lawsuit were represented by the national nonprofit law firm, the Institute for Justice (IJ). “This settlement guarantees that any Vermont family eligible for tuition benefits can use those benefits...

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – A brutal fight between several teenage girls was caught on camera. It’s not known who threw the first punch and what the fight was about, but the vicious beatdown involved girls aged from 15 to 17 years old. It happened at West Broward High School on Jan. 24. The video begins with a school security guard holding one girl wearing a blue shirt back while another comes up to her screaming and appearing to want to fight. Then utter chaos erupts. A group of girls appear to gang up on another girl and just deliver punch...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republican legislators in Kansas are focusing on helping conservative parents remove their children from public schools over what’s taught about gender and sexuality rather than pursuing a version of what critics call Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. A proposal to allow parents to use state tax dollars to pay for private or home schooling was to be available online Tuesday, a day after a committee on K-12 spending introduced the measure in the House. The introduction comes as funding and lesson plans for public schools have become hot button issues...

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an unprecedented school choice bill called the Students First Act on Tuesday, allowing any Iowa student to use public money to pay for private school tuition or other expenses. "For the first time, we will fund students not systems!" Reynolds said on Twitter. "Parents, not the government, can now choose the education setting best suited to their child regardless of their income or zip code. Iowa has affirmed that educational freedom belongs to all!"

On Monday, the education establishment pitched their vision for the public school system to the House and Senate Education Committees. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield, State Board of Education President Kurt Liebich, and Idaho Education Association President Layne McInelly took turns extolling the public school system, asking for ever more taxpayer money and, of course, rejecting any suggestion that money should follow students to wherever they get an education. Corporate media, left-wing activists at Reclaim Idaho, and the state’s education establishment have seized upon the term “voucher” as a way to scare families away from supporting school choice....

A Kentucky Supreme Court judge struck down the state’s so-called school choice program Thursday. The state’s highest court unanimously ruled House Bill 563, officially called the Education Opportunity Account Act, as unconstitutional. The legislation creates an almost dollar-for-dollar tax credit for Kentuckians who donate to scholarship-granting educational nonprofit organizations. ... ...“It’s always been clear to the plaintiffs and their supporters that the Kentucky Constitution prohibits any attempt to divert tax dollars from our public schools and students without putting the question to voters,” Campbell said in a statement. ...“We simply can’t afford to support two different education systems — one...

Last week, the Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education met for their final meetings of the year and voted to formally oppose school choice in the upcoming 2023 legislative session. “The Texas State Board of Education calls on the Texas Legislature to reject all attempts to divert public dollars away from public schools in the form of vouchers, an education savings account, taxpayer savings grants, tuition-tax credits, a business franchise tax credit or an insurance premium tax credit, or any other mechanisms that have the effect of reducing funding to public schools.” There are nine Republicans on the board and...

CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia has ruled in a three-to-two vote that the is constitutional, according to West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. Morrisey announced this afternoon, Oct. 6, 2022, that the court reversed the decision handed down by a Kanawha County Circuit Court judge that blocked the Hope Scholarship. West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore says the Hope Scholarship program will be up and running again “effective immediately.” “I want to thank the WV Supreme Court for ruling that the Hope Scholarship is constitutional!” Moore said. “This is a win for West...

All Arizona parents now can use state tax money to send their children to private or religious schools or pay homeschooling costs after an effort by public school advocates to block a massive expansion of the state's private school voucher law failed to collect enough signatures to block it.

Once a leader in education reform, Louisiana has fallen behind the rest of the country thanks largely to regnant faith in a one-size-fits-all Soviet model of education, a revanchism led by Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards but insufficiently challenged by lawmakers who should know better. As states begin a new policy-making cycle, many have launched new education initiatives or seem poised to do so. Over a decade ago, a similar wave occurred with the shellacking Democrats, who typically favor a model of government dictating to families what students can attend what schools facilitating little choice in the process, received from...

Charles Butt has repeatedly worked against parental rights activists.Charles Butt, the billionaire heir and CEO of the Texas grocery empire H-E-B, sponsored a recent “family friendly” drag show and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on anti-school choice campaigns.In June, H-E-B sponsored an LGBT “pride” event in downtown Austin. The event, called Rainbow on the Creek, included a drag queen story hour, a “family-friendly all ages” drag show performed by a group called the Hydrated Queer Kitties, and a pride parade. A Libs of TikTok tweet showed the scantily clad performers dancing sensually in front of parents and their children.The...

“This session, let’s expand school choice any way we can,” declared Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in his State of the State address on Jan. 10, “Let’s think big and find more ways to get kids into the school of their parents’ choice. Send me the bills, and I’ll sign them.” The Arizona Legislature on Friday night answered Ducey’s call, passing a bill to expand eligibility for the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (also known as education savings accounts or ESAs) to all K-12 students. Once signed into law, Arizona will reclaim its title as the state with the “most expansive ESA”...

To them, apparently, only rich people should have school choice.. School choice has become a hot-button issue after the COVID-19 lockdowns shined a light on the scope of the government’s authority and gave parents a window into public school curricula. Many private schools stayed open while public school systems across the country closed in-person learning for entire semesters, even years, and remote learning lifted the veil on what public school kids are actually learning – and not learning. Private schools across the country reported seeing a significant uptick in enrollment over the past two years, while public school enrollment declined...

Some weeks ago, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced that he would veto a bill making its way through the legislature that would bar males from competing against females in womens’ sports. The bill itself is hardly a controversial idea in Republican (and independent) circles, and Utah is one of the reddest states in the nation. Cox is your consummate establishmentarian politician, though, so it was no surprise when he responded (per Fox News) by claiming it was the “right” thing to make sure girls could get dominated by boys in sports. After all, this is the same guy who called...

Governor Jeb Bush visit with our Optima Domi Team to share a few words in the metaverse.

As we celebrate Black History Month and the great accomplishments of African Americans to the United States since its founding, I wanted to take a different perspective -- one that focuses on what Black Americans must do to achieve economic and generational prosperity. We must be concerned about the plight of many Black communities in the United States, which are plagued by high poverty, high crime and dismal educational systems. We must first recognize that these issues are neither ordained nor inevitable but rather require significant transformation. This is accomplished by emphasizing faith, family and education as key ingredients in...

We’ve seen this coming for a while now, like a slow-motion train wreck. After the National School Board Association (NSBA) sent a letter to the Biden administration comparing parents to domestic terrorists and even suggesting the PATRIOT Act might be used to reign them in. That turned out to be the last straw for a lot of parents and maybe also for the NSBA. The group apologized for the letter in late October but by that point the damage was done. Within days, five state associations canceled their membership in the national group. By early December the number of associations...

One of the silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic is the new trend of parents choosing to exercise their options when it comes to the education of their children. Much to the consternation of leftists, who seem to believe children belong to the state, not parents, more Americans are deciding to homeschool their children. In Virginia, the number of homeschoolers has increased drastically over the past few years.The Washington Examiner reported:The number of homeschoolers in Virginia has increased by nearly 40% since 2019, making up about 5% of Virginia’s total public school enrollment.There are now around 62,000 homeschoolers in Virginia,...

Former President Trump on Tuesday announced his endorsement of Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin (R) in the state’s gubernatorial race against current Gov. Brad Little (R). “Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin has been a true supporter of MAGA since the very beginning,” Trump said in his statement on Tuesday. “She is brave and not afraid to stand up for the issues that matter most to the people of Idaho, a beautiful State that I won by 30.8%.” Trump said he is supporting McGeachin due to her stance on election integrity, the Second Amendment, American manufacturing, school choice and her support of...