Free Republic

The numbers don’t add up! New York City is already dumping a record $43 billion into its public schools while spending heaps more per-student than any other large US district — despite plummeting enrollment and mediocre test results. The massive price tag for educating Big Apple students could grow even more as Mayor Zohran Mamdani is finalizing his first budget proposal and as the city is already spending $44,000 per student — an unsustainable level of spending, budget watchdogs and education analysts said. The spending is also unacceptable, given Big Apple students’ middle-of-the-pack showing among urban school districts on standardized...

Four days ago, Ron DeSantis signed legislation that could decertify the Florida Education Association entirely. Tuesday, the FEA filed a lawsuit to strip 1.4 million children of their opportunity scholarships. You do the math. What the FEA Actually Filed The Florida Education Association filed a 39-page lawsuit in Leon County targeting Florida's Family Empowerment Scholarship program. The union wants a court to declare the entire school choice system unconstitutional. The legal argument is that private and charter schools don't meet Florida's constitutional mandate for a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools." FEA President Andrew...

California health officials are scrambling after tuberculosis exposures were confirmed at multiple schools as cases of the world’s deadliest infectious disease continue climbing across the state. Fresno County officials confirmed a cluster at Justin Garza High School, where one active infection was found, though authorities did not specify whether the case involved a student or staff, according to ABC30. Officials emphasized no one on campus is currently contagious, but 22 out of 169 people exposed have tested positive for the infection, though they show no symptoms yet. Health officials are teaming up with the school for contact tracing and testing,...

A federal appeals court upheld a Texas law requiring public schools across the state to display the Ten Commandments. The ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals came after Texas Republican-led legislature passed the law. "This is one of the most important religious liberty victories for Texas in our glorious history," said Jonathan Saenz, president and attorney for Texas Values, which defended the law. "Texas continues to lead the nation in defending both religious liberty and constitutional truth."

John Guandolo is a former FBI Special Agent and counterterrorism expert. He’s warning that Islamic schools inside America are teaching Muslim students to take over America He reveals he has curriculum from Texas schools that teaches if Muslims die trying to kill all non-Muslims, they’ll be rewarded in the afterlife “Why is it that what our leaders say about Islam is exactly opposite of what Muslims teach Muslim children about Islam in US Islamic schools? I have here the most widely used tabletop book of Islamic law in North America. What it says is the purpose of Islam is to...

Another workshop called “The Belonging Lab: A Hands-On Design Studio for Story, Structure and Courageous Dialogue” describes itself as inviting “participants to dig into African indigenous knowledge systems long ignored or undervalued, remembering how communities sustained wisdom, governance, healing and education outside of books and beyond educational colonial structures.”

A Dallas Muslim community leader will be deported after an immigration judge ruled he provided “material support” to the Holy Land Foundation, the Richardson-based charity whose leaders were convicted in a major terrorism financing case. Marwan Marouf, 54, a Jordanian national who has lived in the United States for roughly 30 years, has served as the public relations and fundraising director for the Muslim-American Society’s DFW chapter. He has been held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since September. The Dallas Express previously reported that ICE arrested Marouf in September and charged him with lacking a valid entry...

It’s an entirely different kind of school rush. When Zohran Mamdani won New York’s mayoral election last November, Caven Wagstaff’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing for weeks. Wagstaff runs his own firm, wrangling places for wealthy American families keen to land their kids a perch at tony British private schools. Mamdani, as mayor-elect, turbocharged his biz. “It doubled,” he says now, of the 10 families per week who hit him up for his Anglo-friendly expertise. “They were saying to me, ‘We want to get out.’” A couple of years ago, the twentysomething former teacher spotted the surging interest in overseas applications...

This YouTube video from Fox Business Clips (uploaded March 25, 2026) is an interview on Mornings with Maria featuring Mackenzie Price, co-founder and CEO of Alpha Schools. Main Topic The segment discusses how AI-driven schools could fundamentally transform education. Alpha Schools uses personalized AI tutors and adaptive learning platforms to tailor education to each student's strengths, weaknesses, and pace—aiming to deliver far better outcomes than traditional one-size-fits-all classrooms. Key Highlights from the Interview Super-short academic days: Students spend only about 2 hours per day on core academics (vs. the usual 6+ hours), yet reportedly achieve top 1–2% national scores in...

CARROLL COUNTY, Tenn. (WZTV) — A school bus carrying students and staff from the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System was involved in a deadly crash in Carroll County while traveling to a field trip, authorities said. Officials said the bus, from Kenwood Middle School, was headed to Jackson when it was involved in a crash with another vehicle near the intersection of Highway 70 and Cedar Grove. The Tennessee Highway Patrol is leading the investigation. Families of everyone on board have been contacted, according to school officials, who said they do not yet have additional confirmed details about the crash.

A Washington state special needs student who graduated with a padded 3.78 GPA is suing her school district, claiming her diploma was a “participation trophy” that propelled her into financial strain. Makena Simonsen claimed she graduated from the Edmonds School District in Lynwood reading at first-grade level — and was handed a high school diploma that blocked her from entering a free vocational program that helps special needs grads transition to independent life, King 5 reported. “I should have earned that diploma,” the 22-year-old former student charged. “Not just something that really got me nowhere.” Makena Simonsen claimed she graduated...

Virginia's legislature has passed a bill prohibiting schools from teaching what it considers to be falsehoods about the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including portraying it "as peaceful protest." The General Assembly approved the measure Thursday, as a first-of-its-kind legislation to combat false statements by supporters of President Trump. The bill says that school instruction must "Not describe, portray, or present as credible a description or portrayal of the actions precipitating or involved in the events of the January 6, 2021, insurrection as peaceful protest." Schools may also not "state, suggest, or present as credible a statement or suggestion...

Nobody should be surprised that Iran has adopted the Hamas strategy of conducting warfare out of hospitals and schools, and I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that Pravda is covering it up. Yet I continue to be a bit shocked at the latter, because I still can't quite wrap my head around the idea that an institution that is key to upholding Western constitutional values would betray us in favor of the worst people on Earth. Silly me. There really is no level of depravity to which many of these people will not stoop. Holy sh*t Members of the basij...

The federal investigation into the Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent, whose home and school office were raided Wednesday, may be tied to a failed multimillion-dollar AI school contract involving a potential conflict of interest. Alberto Carvalho previously awarded a $6 million contract, paying $3 million up front, to education technology company AllHere. A former salesperson employed by the firm also had her Miami property raided the same day as Carvalho, according to public records cited by the Los Angeles Times. The woman, Debra Kerr, reportedly had close ties to Carvalho during his tenure leading Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Spokesperson...

Yunqing Jian, 33, first entered the country on a fraudulently obtained F1 student visa, the FBI says Fusarium graminearum creates "head blight," a disease of wheat, barley, maize and rice, and "is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year," according to the Department of Justice. It is also toxic to humans, and can cause vomiting, liver damage and "reproductive defects in humans and livestock." The affidavit, which said Jian has been attempting to smuggle the pathogen into the U.S. since she began post-doctoral studies funded by China in 2022, also accuses Jian of asking a third...

WASHINGTON (TNND) — Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that a transgender teacher, who “identified” as a wolf, was fired from his position as a pre-K and Kindergarten substitute teacher and teacher’s aide at an elementary school located on Fort Bragg military base. “The ‘Wolf’ was fired 2 weeks ago,” Hegseth wrote on X. His post included a link to an article written by Christian Broadcasting Group, which detailed the bizarre and unsettling behaviors of the substitute teacher toward the students. Military parents of the Mildrid E. Poole elementary school students said that the teacher, a biological male, would...

Montgomery County, Maryland, Board of Education must pay $1.5 million in damages to Becket’s clients and comply with court-enforced protections for parental rights following the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling inMahmoud v. Taylor. The case arose after the School Board took away parental notice and opt-outs for storybooks that promote gender transitioning, Pride parades, and pronoun preferences to children as young as three and four (Watch this podcast episode to learn more). Becket represented a diverse coalition of religious parents including Muslims, Christians, and Jews, who successfully challenged the policy at the Supreme Court. In the Court’s 6-3 ruling last summer,...

An Auburn, Washington mother was irate upon learning that her daughter's middle school (Olymic Middle school) permitted their students to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during school hours. Video:

Hundreds of students staged a walkout at several schools across Albuquerque on Tuesday in protest of immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump. The nationwide "Free America Walkout" saw students at six Albuquerque Public Schools campuses leave their classes, according to a statement from the district. The students walked out at 2 p.m. in protest of recent actions taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Students at Manzano, Highland, Sandia, Albuquerque High, Del Norte and Eldorado high schools joined in the walkout. In an official statement, APS said the district “does not sponsor or encourage walkouts, but we understand...

Summary Parents are guarding schools after reports of ICE activity ICE presence has cut attendance and pushed some schools to cancel or move online DHS denies targeting schools, but families and educators report detentions nearby MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Peter Brown's gray mustache and beard were matted with ice as he stood watch on a frigid Friday afternoon outside Green Central Elementary, not far from where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Good last week.Wearing a neon green vest and equipped with a whistle and walkie-talkie, Brown, an 81-year-old retired lawyer who lives nearby,...