Free Republic

Randi Weingarten, left-wing activist and president of the second-largest teachers’ union in the United States, is leaving the Democratic National Committee (DNC), citing disagreements with leadership and dismay at the direction of the committee. Weingarten, who heads the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and has been an influential member of the DNC for 23 years, wrote a letter to DNC Chair Ken Martin indicating that she is at odds with committee leadership, Politico first reported. “While I am proud to be a Democrat, I appear to be out of step with the leadership you are forging, and I do not...

NoKings.org activist organizing is planning nationwide anti-Amercan (anti-Trump) "protests" on June 14, the U.S. Army birthday national celebration. See their partners page. They have many far-left sponsors including teachers and labor unions, democrats, climate change believers, Bernie Sanders, LGBTXYZ groups, etc. Most likely many of these sponsor groups receive public funds.

A senior at Northeastern University filed a formal complaint and demanded a tuition refund after discovering her professor was secretly using AI tools to generate notes. The professor later admitted to using several AI platforms and acknowledged the need for transparency. The incident highlights growing student concerns over professors using AI, a reversal of earlier concerns from professors worried that students would use the technology to cheat. Some students are not happy about their professor’s use of AI. One college senior was so shocked to learn her teacher was using AI to help him create notes that she lodged a...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was meeting last week with representatives from a teachers union in his home state when things quickly devolved. Before long, Fetterman began repeating himself, shouting and questioning why “everybody is mad at me,” “why does everyone hate me, what did I ever do” and slamming his hands on a desk, according to one person who was briefed on what occurred. As the meeting deteriorated, a staff member moved to end it and ushered the visitors into the hallway, where she broke down crying. The staffer was comforted by the teachers...

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation on Saturday to create a $1 billion fund for school voucher programs — the largest day-one school choice bill in the nation’s history. Abbott was joined by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, the bill’s author State Sen. Brandon Creighton, and school choice advocates. The governor celebrated the bill’s passage by a vote of 85-63 in the Texas House two weeks ago. “Today is the culmination of a movement that has swept across our state and across our country,” Abbott said before signing the bill. “A movement driven by parents...

DOGE: While teachers scrape by, union "executives" like Randi Weingarten gorge themselves on salaries nearly eight times higher, raking in close to $600,000 a year. They neither teach a single child nor train a single teacher. They are not educators, they are parasites, draining a system they pretend to serve. ... She also flies in a private jet.

Chicago Teachers Union members have overwhelmingly voted to ratify their new contract agreement with Chicago Public Schools, making official a deal that notches improvements for educators and students but leaves political turmoil in its wake. After almost a year of negotiations, 97% of members who voted late last week approved the contract, according to the union. About 85% of the CTU’s 27,000 eligible voting members participated. Voting took place by paper ballot in schools and voting locations across the city on Thursday and Friday, and counting wrapped up over the weekend. The Board of Education will likely vote to approve...

The Illinois school district that faced national scrutiny for allegations of forcing middle school girls to change in the same locker room as a transgender student has been referred to the Department of Justice. The law firm America First Legal (AFL) made the criminal referral of the district Deerfield Public Schools 109 to the DOJ on Tuesday, urging the department to investigate the district and middle school where the allegations occurred for potential violations of federal and state law. AFL alleged the district violated Code § 241, also known as the "Conspiracy against rights" statute, which makes it a federal...

Radical socialists who back anti-Israel groups and alleged CEO killer Luigi Mangione are steadily making inroads into one of the city’s most powerful labor unions, sources warn The Post. Candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America are polling strongly in elections to lead the United Federation of Teachers — who represent nearly 200,000 educators and manage a welfare fund with $1 billion in assets — which take place next month, according to a source. The progressive political movement, which backed Vermont governor Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign in 2016 and was behind New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio...

Quite the statement, eh? Let me explain. I’m well into my 60s and for my entire adult life I’ve heard that public school teachers are underpaid. It has been repeated as a mantra for decades. Ignoring for a moment whether it is true or not -- and the answer to that is generally, it depends -- let’s accept the mantra and analyze why public-school teachers are still underpaid after all these years. It’s not spending. As most voters know, it seems that every stinking year there is some ballot initiative or measure or legislative move to increase spending for our...

Thousands of teachers in California are at risk of losing their jobs due to the state's budget cuts going into the 2025-26 school year, according to the California Teachers Association (CTA), which represents 300,000 school employees. Why It Matters Schools are experiencing layoffs due to limited budgets, overstaffing and declining enrollment. Many federal coronavirus relief funds were also used to increase school budgets, but those funds are now drying up five years later. What To Know The majority of the 2,300 school employees being let go are credentialed school staff, which include teachers, school nurses and librarians, according to the...

The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday it cut over $600 million in grants spent on training teachers in “social justice activism,” critical race theory, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology. The grants were used to fund institutions and nonprofits involved in training teachers on concepts like “anti-racism” and claims about white privilege and white supremacy. The grants also helped fund discriminatory staff recruiting strategies that targeted candidates based on their race. “It’s hard to overstate how radical these teacher trainings are — we are talking about forcing teachers to talk about their race at work, asking educators to...

For an idea of how well liberals are taking Trump’s success, let’s have a look in the classroom: A teacher at an all-boys Catholic high school on Staten Island resigned after going on an anti-President Trump tirade during class that descended into calling one of his students a “punk a–” during an unhinged outburst, according to a recently leaked video clip. The unnamed teacher at Monsignor Farrell High School was recorded last Wednesday by a student while speaking vehemently against Trump — criticizing the president’s order to release billions of gallons of water in California to fight the Los Angeles...

A left-wing, vampire-obsessed after-school program teacher is accused of sexually abusing two young girls for years at a Harlem school in New York and filming child sex abuse material, according to a new lawsuit reported on by the New York Post. “Miles McNeal, 26, an after-school program teacher whose online alter ego pushed communist propaganda and fetishized vampires, allegedly touched and photographed young students’ naked bodies, had them assume sexual positions, and showed them pictures of the genitalia of other kids while threatening them to stay silent, the victims said in court papers,” the report states. The lawsuit further alleges...

A group of teachers at a New Jersey high school sparked outrage by wearing Gulf of America T-shirts to class — in what some have called an attempt to bully Latino students in the majority Hispanic school. Donned by a small cluster of Belleville High School teachers on a recent dress-down day, the shirts are a reference to President Trump’s executive order declaring the Gulf of Mexico should instead be called the Gulf of America, NJ.com reported. But the overt political statement has others crying foul in the suburban township of about 35,000 perched 15 miles west of Manhattan. “Our...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Tonight, Action News Jax learned about a federal indictment that claims the former leaders of the ‘Duval Teachers United’ stole more than $2.6 million from the union they spent decades leading. DTU Former President Terrie Brady and Former Executive Vice President Ruby George each face eight counts of wire fraud and three counts of mail fraud. Brady is also facing two counts of money laundering charges. The indictment alleges that between 2013 and 2022, Brady and George conspired to steal more than $1.2 million each from the union by selling back leave time that they did not...

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....

The combined cabal of woke and the teachers’ unions have struck again. This time, the target was New Jersey. Effective Thursday morning, public school teachers in New Jersey no longer must pass even the most basic educational skills test. The test was not for complicated subjects such as calculus. This now abandoned test verified teacher’s ability to read, write, and calculate simple math problems.Jersey governor Phil Murphy approved eliminating even these most basic requirements for teaching applicants in those three essential areas. Democrat state senator Jim Beach sponsored the bill, further dumbing down the state’s educational system. Beach said, “We...

‘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...

Imagine my unpleasant surprise when Trump nominated a woman to be Secretary of Labor who can count American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten among her fans. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) is the worst Republican Trump could have picked for Labor. ... For any conservative who had high hopes for the Trump 47 administration, Weingarten's approval of Chavez-DeRemer's nomination undoes a lot of the goodwill that had been built up. That's not the worst thing about this choice, however. Chavez-DeRemer (an annoying name to type repeatedly, by the way) is one of only three Republicans in the House to support...