Category: Education

State Senator Heidi Campbell’s Private School Past, Recent Support Unveiled After She Accused School Choice Activist Corey DeAngelis of ‘Dumbing Down’ Voters

Tom Pappert

Tennessee State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) condemned school choice initiatives for “dumbing down” voters, but previously admitted to attending a private school, and was on the board of a private Montessori early childhood school that boasts a waiting list.

Campbell made the remarks on social media following an interaction with school choice advocate Corey DeAngelis, who questioned the lawmaker’s claim that the school choice legislation reportedly promoted by Governor Bill Lee “will destroy public [education] and raise your taxes.” Lee’s plan will reportedly allow some students whose families are 200 percent below the poverty line in Tennessee to attend a school of their choice, redirecting tax dollars in the process.

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Northern Virginia’s Stafford County Public Schools Includes ‘Palestine’ While Excluding Israel in Multicultural Fair

The Center Square
'Palestine' poster at Stafford County Public School Multicultural Fair

A Northern Virginia middle school chose “Palestine” as their country to represent as part of a school district-wide multicultural fair, omitting any recognition of the State of Israel – including maps.

The fair was recently presented by the Stafford County Public Schools “to empower multicultural awareness” for students and the community. All 33 schools in the district participated, with nearly 1,000 in attendance. Schools “were able to choose the country they wanted to represent,” according to the school district.

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University of Tennessee Quietly Renaming its Division of Diversity and Engagement to Dodge State Law

Kaitlin Housler

The University of Tennessee (UT) System is reportedly rebranding its Division of Diversity and Engagement in order to “better reflect the division’s mission, as well as move away from some potentially divisive terminology,” according to The Daily Beacon.

The division’s mission, according to its website, is to “actively support, foster and enhance environments of inclusion where the diversity of all faculty, staff, and students are connected to fully engage in fair, respectful, and equitable campus experiences throughout the University of Tennessee community.”

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Analysis: States Are Gearing Up for a School Choice Showdown in 2024

Admin

School choice is going to be a hot-button issue next year as several states are set to propose legislation expanding education options, while others are gearing up to defend against lawsuits claiming voucher programs are unconstitutional and an “existential threat” to public schools.

School choice advocates passed legislation in Nebraska, Florida, Ohio and other states in 2023, with a major victory in Oklahoma as well after the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved an application for a Catholic online school in June, the first religious charter school in the country. Several states are looking to follow their lead in 2024 and expand education options for parents, while others have become the target of lawsuits by public education advocates, who argue that voucher programs are unconstitutional.

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Catholic All-Girls College Will Admit Men Who Identify as Trans Women

Admin

Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana, will begin allowing men who identify as women to enroll at the college in the fall of 2024, an email obtained by The Daily Signal shows.

President Katie Conboy told faculty in an email sent Tuesday afternoon that “Saint Mary’s will consider undergraduate applicants whose sex assigned at birth is female or who consistently live and identify as women.” That news was first reported by the Notre Dame student newspaper, The Observer.

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Gov. Bill Lee Expected to Back Statewide Education Savings Account Legislation

M.D. Kittle

The move to expand Tennessee’s Education Savings Account (ESA) program statewide is expected to have a very powerful ally in the General Assembly’s next session, sources told The Tennessee Star.

State Representative Bryan Richey (R-Maryville) said Governor Bill Lee is planning a press conference on Tuesday to discuss a bill to expand ESA beyond Metro Nashville, Memphis, and Hamilton County into all of Tennessee’s 95 counties.

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Boot Camps Put Ohio Teachers in Real-World Businesses

The Center Square

Ohio plans to spend $500,000 in taxpayer funds to reimburse colleges and universities across the state for K-12 teacher continuing education programs called “Teacher Bootcamps.”

The program puts teachers in local businesses to expose them to in-demand career skills specific communities need. According to Gov. Mike DeWine, that will help teachers better prepare students for a career after graduation.

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YoungkinWatch: More Than 80 Percent of Virginia School Divisions Join Governor’s ‘ALL In’ Plan to Fight Pandemic Learning Loss

Tom Pappert

More than 80 percent of Virginia school divisions have submitted plans to receive funding from the “ALL In” plan unveiled by Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) earlier this year. Youngkin created the funding opportunity with the Virginia General Assembly as schools as students continue to struggle, even years after the pandemic forced schools to go digital.

Superintendent of Public Education Lisa Coons said in a press release on Wednesday that Virginia’s education administrators in 110 school divisions “are making major efforts to find specific and meaningful ways to help their students tackle learning loss.” The agency reported the 110 participating school divisions “cover all regions of the commonwealth,” and include “large divisions such as Fairfax County and Virginia Beach,” and “some of the smallest such as Highland County schools.”

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Forty Pro-Palestinian Protesters Arrested at University of Michigan

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Pro-Palestine, anti-Israel protest at the University of Michican

University of Michigan police arrested 40 people on campus Friday after breaking up a pro-Palestinian protest of hundreds, some of whom had forced their way into an administrative building.

“At least 200 people gathered Friday, calling for the university to divest from Israel,” Michigan Live reported Saturday. “Around 4 p.m., the demonstrators moved from the central campus Diag area to the Ruthven Administration Building.”

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Poll Shows Widespread Support for Education Tax Credits in Georgia

The Center Square

An education choice advocacy group says personal education tax credits are popular with parents nationwide, and Georgia lawmakers could soon move on education reform.

With education tax credits, an alternative to Education Savings Accounts, parents or guardians receive a credit when they choose a non-public school for their dependent’s education. According to the group yes. every kid., states can use existing tax mechanisms for these policies, and parents or guardians receive a tax refund by indicating on a tax form or an application their dependent isn’t enrolled in public school.

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Arizona State University Investigating Pro-Palestinian Protesters Disrupting a Meeting on Campus

The Center Square
Arizona State University

Arizona State University leaders are responding to a situation where pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted a student government meeting on campus, inferring there might be criminal charges.

The incident started with a student government meeting on November 14 where members of Students for Justice in Palestine demanded the school back away from its previous statements of support for Israel in its current military actions against Hamas for the terrorist organization’s invasion of the Jewish nation on October 6. Students for Justice in Palestine also demanded a resolution pushing the school to boycott and divest from Israel be considered, according to an Instagram post.

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Faithful Catholic Colleges See ‘Unprecedented’ Enrollment Numbers, Financial Support

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Catholic University of America

As most collegiate institutions grapple with disappointing enrollment, a slew of faithful Catholic colleges are reporting surprising enrollment numbers and financial support.

Their success is heralded by the Newman Guide, a list of higher education options consulted by Catholic parents throughout the world, as evidence of the positive impact that authentic Catholic education has upon society. The Newman Guide recognizes colleges that are determined to provide a thoroughly faithful Catholic education (and removes colleges from the list when they fall short).

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Pennsylvania Basic Ed Funding Hearings Wrap with Charter Schools

The Center Square
Student Homework

Pennsylvania’s Basic Education Funding Commission hearings ended in Harrisburg this week, where charter schools took center stage.

After months of painstaking reflection on the inadequacies of the state’s funding, charter school administrators were asked to defend against commentary from others within the educational community who believe that their schools are a drain on district budgets.

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Arizona State University Cancels Rashida Tlaib’s Speech Scheduled for Friday on Campus After Outrage

Rachel Alexander

Arizona State University canceled a speech by controversial Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12) a day before she was to speak there on Friday. A spokesperson stated that the organizers had not complied with ASU’s policies for events. Tlaib’s speech was titled “Palestine is an American Issue.”

“Organizers of ASU events using facilities must be properly registered with ASU and must meet all university requirements for crowd management, parking, security, and insurance,” the spokesperson said. “In addition, the events must be produced in a way which minimizes disruption to academic and other activities on campus. The event featuring Congresswoman Tlaib was planned and produced by groups not affiliated with ASU and was organized outside of ASU policies and procedures. Accordingly, that event will not take place today on the ASU Tempe campus.” 

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Moms for Liberty Revenue Grows by 500 Percent in One Year

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Tina Descovich/ Moms for Liberty

The parental rights group Moms for Liberty’s revenue has grown by more than 500% in its second year, according to the Form 990 it filed with the IRS.

According to the Form 990, exclusively provided first to The Daily Signal, Moms for Liberty brought in $2.14 million in total revenue in 2022, while it brought in $370,029 in total revenue the year before. A significant majority of that money (92.3%) came from donations—contributions and grants. Expenses for 2021 totaled a mere $163,647, while in 2022 they rose to $1.7 million.

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Students Across the U.S. Are Absent Much More than Before the Pandemic

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Teacher Classroom

Nearly 70% of students attended schools that experienced chronic absenteeism during the 2021-2022 academic year, according to data compiled by Attendance Works and Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University.

Before the pandemic, 25% of students attended a school with high levels of chronic absenteeism, but during the 2021-2022 academic year at the percentage rose to 66%, according to the report from Attendance Works, a nonprofit focusing on absenteeism, and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, which focuses on high school graduation. Nearly 14.7 million students, or 29.7%, were chronically absent in the 2021-22 school year.

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University of Virginia Hosted Lecture Teaching Med Students How to Open Gender Clinics

Admin

The University of Virginia (UVA) Medical School hosted an educational session on April 13, 2022, about starting a “gender-affirming” health program and offered a continuing education credit to healthcare professionals who participated, according to a video recording obtained through a public records request by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The session, “Starting a Gender Affirming Surgery Program,” was presented by the UVA School of Medicine Center for Health Humanities and Ethics and featured a lecture from “gender-affirming” surgeon, Dr. Rachel Bluebond-Langner. In the lecture, Bluebond-Langner described principles that led to the rapid growth of the transgender surgery program at NYU Langone Health and articulated the need for more gender health programs, saying that “more centers are needed to meet the demand.”

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Wisconsin Representative Says Universities Should Be Graded Publicly on Antisemitism

Just the News
Rep Grothman College

Congressman Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., says that universities should be graded in regard to antisemitism on a scale for the public to see. 

“On the antisemitic thing, groups ought to come out and rank the universities: A, B, C, D and E,” Grothman said on the Thursday edition of the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show. “Say if you have a Jewish child. Would you want them to go to this university?  What university would want to be labeled an F for Jewish children?”

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Commentary: Let the Donor Revolution Begin

RealClearWire

The donor revolts at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, and elsewhere are the long-overdue wake up calls that their faculty and administrators needed. The overwhelming majority of politically progressive faculty and administrators have long guarded their right to advance their cherished political causes inside and outside the classroom, while punishment has awaited those who challenge the shibboleths. Instead of the free exchange of ideas and the intellectual capaciousness that ultimately advance social justice, it is now clearer than ever that it is not social justice they have fostered but mindless ideology and hate.

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Tennessee Department of Labor Pushing Apprenticeships During National Apprenticeship Week

Peter D'Abrosca

The Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development (TNDOL) is celebrating National Apprenticeship Week, which began Monday and runs through Friday. 

“It’s National Apprenticeship Week. [Gov. Bill Lee) talks about the importance of apprenticeships in creating a critical pipeline of skilled workers in Tennessee. The Governor also signed a proclamation marking this as Apprenticeship Week in Tennessee,” the department said in a Monday video posted to X, formerly Twitter. 

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Not Feasible: Co-Chair of Tennessee’s Federal Funding Task Force Says Rejecting All $1 Billion-Plus in Federal Education Money Isn’t Possible

M.D. Kittle

As Tennessee lawmakers investigate the possibility of just saying no to federal education funds and the ties that come with them, the state’s Federal Funding Working Group co-chair told The Tennessee Star that completely letting go probably isn’t going to happen.

“No, I don’t think that’s feasible,” said State Senator Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol) in an interview this week with The Star.

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Arizona Lawmakers Condemn Rep. Tlaib’s ‘Extremist, Antisemitic Views’ After ASU Pro-Palestine Protest Sparks Police Response

Tom Pappert

A bipartisan group of legislators in the Arizona State House issued a statement on Thursday condemning Representative Rashida Tlaib for her “extremist, antisemitic views” after a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) protest at Arizona State University (ASU) shut down a student government meeting and required police to escort Jewish students way from the building on Wednesday. The university’s SJP chapter plans for Tlaib to headline an event its hosting on Friday.

Representatives Michael Carbone (R-Buckeye), Alma Hernandez (D-Tucson), Alexander Kolodin (R-Scottsdale), and Consuelo Hernandez (D-Cochise) declared Tlaib’s views “are not welcome in Arizona,” stating that “Arizona is a safe place for Jews, both on and off campus, and the antisemitic rants regurgitated by SJP and others are not representative of Arizona values.”

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MTSU Student Newspaper’s Former Editor Says Faculty Adviser Was ‘In the Room’ When Editorial Board Drafted its Apology Letter to Placate ‘Free Palestine Crowd’

M.D. Kittle

The editorial board for the Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) student newspaper issued a statement Wednesday in defense of the newspaper’s faculty adviser following the publication’s apology for running a story on an MTSU student worried about his friends in Israel.

But Matthew Giffin, the former editor-in-chief of Sidelines who wrote the profile piece, told The Tennessee Star that associate professor Stephen Leon Alligood was “in the room” when the editor’s note was crafted.

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Arizona GOP Unveils Ballot Measure Sending School Funds Directly to Teachers

The Center Square

Noting a trend of growing administrative spending and teacher pay lagging those increases, Republican lawmakers want to require school districts to revert more of their allotted state funding directly to educators.

In a Monday announcement, several GOP lawmakers touted the “Teacher Pay Fund” plan they say would deliver K-12 public school teachers an average pay hike of 7% without increasing taxes.

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Michael Patrick Leahy: Antisemitism at MTSU Enabled by Administration and Faculty Adviser to School Newspaper

Tom Pappert

Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star and CEO of The Star News Network, warned Dan Mandis of SuperTalk 99.7 WTN that the administration of Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) and the student advisor of the school newspaper, Sidelines, have enabled antisemitism on the university’s campus.

Tennessee legislators at the state and federal level continue to decry the MTSU student newspaper’s decision to pull an article written by former editor Matthew Giffin, who Leahy explained wrote a “straightforward” story about an MTSU student originally from Tel Aviv.

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Yet Another Billionaire Donor Demands University of Pennsylvania Fix Its Anti-Semitism Problem

Admin

Influential donors have been retracting their support from the University of Pennsylvania, citing concerns over anti-Semitism on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Now, billionaire Len Blavatnik, a philanthropist and noteworthy figure in the business world, has joined the growing list of benefactors expressing discontent with the university’s handling campus anti-Semitism.

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Biden Admin Unveils New Tools to Counter Antisemitism, Islamophobia in Schools

Admin

The Biden administration announced new resources on Tuesday to counter antisemitism and Islamophobia at schools across the U.S. following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, according to a White House press release.

College students signed letters blaming Israel for the Hamas terrorist attacks and multiple student groups led pro-Palestinian protests with imagery associated with violence against Israel. The White House released a series of guides and resources to “help protect students, engage school and university leaders, and foster safe and supportive learning environments.”

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Commentary: The General Education Act Renews Liberal Education in America

RealClearWire

On Nov. 16, the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal in North Carolina, and the National Association of Scholars in New York City (I serve on the board) will host online, Recentering our Universities, to release to the public The General Education Act. The GEA is a detailed model bill directing the establishment of Schools of General Education at public universities. Written by EPPC’s Stanley Kurtz, the Martin Center’s Jenna Robinson, and NAS’s David Randall, the model legislation sets forth guiding principles, basic courses, institutional structure, funding exigencies, and a timetable for implementation of centers of true liberal education.

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Commentary: Even ‘Red State’ Colleges Like MTSU are Folding to Antisemitic, Pro-Hamas Voices

Admin

In the weeks since the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, students and faculty at colleges across the U.S. have given way to the pressures of antisemitic, pro-Hamas voices, abandoning moral clarity and sound judgment.

While students at Ivy League and coastal schools have been among the most prominent examples, students in deeply red, southern states have joined in supporting terrorism and suppressing pro-Israel voices.

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Florida School District Audits Reveal Numerous Oversight Issues: Report

The Center Square

The Florida Auditor General examined significant findings and financial trends in district school board audit reports and found issues needing correction, such as weaknesses in financial oversight and information technology security.

The report covered audits for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, and found several weaknesses in internal controls, for example, audits found instances of noncompliance with laws, rules or regulations. These were found in 43 of the 67 audit reports.

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University of North Dakota Hit with Civil Rights Complaints Alleging Tuition Programs Illegally Discriminate Based on Race

Admin

Two North Dakota higher education institutions were hit this week with civil rights complaints over tuition reduction programs open only to specific racial groups.

The Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed civil rights complaints against the University of North Dakota (UND) and UND School of Law for tuition reduction programs that are “only available to non-white applicants,” according to complaints obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. UND’s website cites the authority of North Dakota State Board of Higher Education (SBHE) policy that encourages institutions to use tuition waivers to “promote enrollment of a culturally diverse student body.”

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Poll: Americans Say Schools Should Focus on Math, Reading, and Writing

The Center Square

A large majority of voters say that public schools should focus on the basics – math, reading, writing, science and social studies – to improve the quality of public education in the country.

That’s according to the latest The Center Square’s Voters’ Voice poll conducted in late October in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights. The poll of 2,605 likely voters includes 1,035 Republicans, 1,074 Democrats, and 496 true Independents, and is among the most comprehensive in the country.

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Commentary: As Education Decentralizes, Those Who Like Control Are Nervous

Admin

As more parents gain the opportunity to abandon a compulsory schooling assignment for other options, including homeschooling and microschooling, it’s no surprise that those who favor top-down control of education feel anxious about this bottom-up education transformation. This nervousness is occurring on both ends of the political spectrum.

On the political left, The Washington Post did some pearl-clutching last week around the possibility that “no government official will ever check on what, or how well, [homeschoolers] are being taught.” On the political right, the Fordham Institute expressed similar concerns about hybrid homeschoolers and microschoolers: “To ensure that those children receive the education they deserve, it will require policymakers to craft smart laws to govern these new institutions….”

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Poll: Voters Satisfied with Local Schools but Not Public Schools in General

The Center Square

A new poll shows a large disparity between how voters think of their local public school system and the nation’s school system as a whole, signaling frustration with larger education issues as opposed to more area-specific ones.

Respondents’ approval of their local schools held constant in the most recent The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, which was conducted by Noble Predictive Insights.

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Florida University System Bans Funding Political ‘Activism,’ Programs That Segregate by Race or Sex

Admin

The State University System of Florida’s Board of Governors approved regulations Thursday that will prohibit using state funds for race- or sex-based programs, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 266 into law in June, which prohibits the funding of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) for higher education, in the state. The new regulations defines DEI as “any program, campus activity, or policy that classifies individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation” and promotes different treatments of people based on those factors, according to Inside Higher Ed.

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Two Newcomers in Anoka-Hennepin Defeat DFL-Allied, Education Minnesota-Backed Candidates

Admin

In one of the most closely watched school board races in the Twin Cities, two of three candidates endorsed by a conservative grassroots organization, the Minnesota Parents Alliance, have captured seats on the Anoka-Hennepin School Board.

Linda Hoekman and Zach Arco defeated their Education Minnesota-endorsed opponents in their respective head-to-head races on Tuesday night, as election results from several school board and municipal elections across the state came pouring in shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m.

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Non-Partisan Think Tank Says State of Tennessee Has Enough Money to Reject All Federal Education Funding

Tom Pappert

The Sycamore Institute revealed in a presentation to lawmakers on Monday that the state has enough tax revenue to fund education without federal assistance. Their report comes as Tennessee considers rejecting federal assistance to increase local control over education.

Sycamore Institute Deputy Director Mandy Spears told the legislators that while Tennessee’s “days of historically large surpluses may be over,” the state “still has room in its budget to replace federal funding” for education “at the expense of other investments,” according to WJHL-TV.

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Ohio State University Doubled DEI Staff in Five Years, Payroll Costs Almost Tripled

Admin

Ohio State University has more than doubled its diversity staff in just five years, hiring more than 100 new DEI-related employees between 2018 and 2023, swelling the headcount from 88 to 189, a College Fix analysis found.

In 2018, Ohio State employed 88 diversity-related staffers at a cost of $7.3 million annually, according to research conducted at the time.

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