Category: Education

Commentary: Compulsory Schooling Laws Have Got to Go

Admin

When Massachusetts passed the nation’s first compulsory school attendance law in 1852, parents were mandated to send their children to school under a legal threat of force. Today, that threat remains stronger than ever.

Prior to that law, and those that followed in all other US states over the subsequent decades, cities and towns were compelled to provide schooling for those who wanted it, but parents were under no obligation to use those schools. Many didn’t, choosing instead to send their children to private schools, church or charity schools, “dame schools” in their neighbor’s kitchen, apprenticeships for older children and teens, or to homeschool.

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National Pro-Life Group Creates ‘Abortion Distortion’ Animated Videos to Confront Pro-Abortion Talking Points

Susan Berry, PhD

The late founder of national pro-life organization Life Dynamics created his group’s new animated videos to serve as a tool for every pro-lifer, regardless of age, to help them engage with common pro-abortion talking points.

Pro-life leader Marcus “Mark” Crutcher, who died in March, wanted to address the issue of how to help pro-lifers engage in responding to common pro-abortion talking points, said a press statement Thursday announcing the release of Crutcher’s “Abortion Distortion” videos.

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Ivy League University Offers Seminar on ‘Fatness, Queerness and Family’

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A freshman seminar this fall at Cornell University is focused on how queer, trans, black, indigenous and people of color experience care through food, according to their website.

The seminar titled “Have You Eaten Yet? QTBIPOC Care” aims to use written texts and popular media such as “Lizzo’s music videos” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” to analyze how queer, trans, black, indigenous and people of color give, receive and experience care through food, according to the course listing. The seminar is offered through the Cornell Department of Performing and Media Arts by Ariel Dela Cruz, who is a Ph.D. student whose expertise is in “queer studies, trans studies, Filipinx diasporic studies, performance, and care work,” according to her bio. 

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Florida’s New College Enrolls More Students, Looks to Cut Gender Studies

Admin

A small public Florida college has rapidly transformed under Governor Ron DeSantis-appointed trustee board, as liberal faculty have resigned in large numbers, a gender studies major is slated for demolition and admissions numbers rise.

Conservative activist and journalist Christopher Rufo, who serves as a trustee of the New College of Florida, motioned at the latest board meeting to begin to dissolve the gender studies program.

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The Field Is Set for November School Board Races in Minnesota

Admin

The field of candidates is now set for the 28 school districts across Minnesota that will hold “off-year” elections this November, where there are no legislative seats or congressional or statewide offices on the ballot.

While most of the nearly 300 other school districts across the state hold their elections during more visible campaign cycles (such as 2024), the school district communities with races this fall represent about 1.7 million residents across the state. Combined, those districts with seats up for election steward well over $4 billion in tax dollars.

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Arizona State University Course Using Taylor Swift to Teach Social Psychology

The Center Square

A new Arizona State University course is using Taylor Swift to show social psychology phenomena starting this fall semester. 

The class is called “Psychology of Taylor Swift – Advanced Topics of Social Psychology” but it won’t be a fan-club meeting for Swift, according to Alexandra Wormley, a PhD student in the psychology department who is teaching the class.

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Commentary: A Case for the Lost Art of Memorization

Admin

Memorization and recitation became part of my life through a club I was part of in middle and high school. With the club, I had the opportunity to recite patriotic speeches and poems along with chapters from the Bible in front of an audience of veterans, law enforcement officers, and first responders just about every month. I loved seeing how the words recited touched the people listening.

Almost without fail, after we spoke, adults would come over to thank us, amazed by the fact that we could remember so much and recite it with such confidence. Often, people said something along the lines of “I never thought kids could do that” or “That’s more than I would ever be able to do.”

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Georgia School Board Fires Teacher Who Read Book on Gender Identity to Fifth Graders

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A Georgia school board voted Thursday to fire a teacher who read her fifth-grade students a book on gender identity, according to The Associated Press.

In March, Katie Rinderle, a fifth-grade teacher at Cobb County School District, says she got in trouble for reading her class “My Shadow is Purple,” a picture book about a child who discovers they are neither a girl or a boy, according to the AP. The Cobb County School Board voted 4-3 to fire Rinderle, finding that the teacher had violated the state’s divisive concepts law, which bars educators from giving lessons on race and “espousing personal political beliefs.”

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Schools Struggle to Get Students to Class amid Learning Loss

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Schools across the country are struggling to get kids to class while still recovering from the learning loss following the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The New York Times.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress released a report this month showing that students who missed three or more days of school had lower math scores than those who were not absent. Schools, however, are having trouble finding bus drivers to get children to class, with some districts delaying their start times each day and others forced to postpone school for a week, according to the NYT.

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Undone Pennsylvania Budget Leaves Struggling Schools Empty-Handed

The Center Square

As the first day of school nears across Pennsylvania, the undone budget will leave the poorest districts without the earmarked funds the state promised.

Teachers, administrators, and advocates recently told the House Education Committee that without the money, schools can’t address worker shortages, or provide mental health support, programs for pandemic-induced learning loss, technology upgrades, and building maintenance.  

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Arizona Public School Funding per Student to Hit Record Level

The Center Square

New numbers from the Arizona Joint Legislative Budget Committee paint a clearer picture in the ongoing debate on school choice and funding for public education.

When funding at the state, local and federal levels are combined, the average Arizona K-12 student has an estimated $14,673 allocated toward them in fiscal year 2024. This reflects a steady increase from fiscal year 2015, which was $9,124.

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Commentary: Conservative Christian Education Is Being Born Again Post-Pandemic

RealClearWire

Conservative Christian education is being born again.  

Arcadia Christian Academy, which opened in Arizona on Aug. 8, is one of dozens of Christian micro-schools popping up across the country, offering a hybrid in-class and at-home education to keep costs down and the odds of survival up in an increasingly competitive K-12 sector. What’s more, many long-established Christian schools are growing their enrollment after years of stagnation. 

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Teachers Union Conference Encouraged Educators to Lobby for Gun Control

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A teachers union conference in July encouraged educators to lobby for gun control, according to a conference agenda revealed by the Defense of Freedom Institute.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the nation’s second-largest teachers union, held a “Together Educating America’s Children” (TEACH) Conference July 21-23 featuring professional development workshops to teach educators tools and strategies to “help kids and communities succeed,” according to the teachers union’s website. One professional development session offered, “Speaking of Gun Violence: How Do We Ensure Educator Voices Matter?” was taught by “Teachers Unify To End Gun Violence,” an organization that works to help pass gun control legislation, and encouraged educators to “collectively raise [their] voices for change,” according to the conference agenda.

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Largest Virginia School District Defies Gov. Youngkin’s Guidance on Bathrooms, Pronouns

Admin

Virginia’s largest school district announced Tuesday that it will be defying guidance from Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration that requires students to use bathrooms on the basis of biological sex, rather than gender identity, according to a press release.

The Virginia Department of Education released a final version of its model policies for the state’s public schools in July that requires teachers to use a student’s biological name and pronouns unless given written permission by a parent to use something else. Fairfax County Public Schools said it does not plan to adopt the state guidance after determining that the district policies are in line with federal and state anti-discrimination laws, according to a press release.

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Tennessee High School Reverses Speech Policies After Student Sues over Suspension for Posting Memes About Principal

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A Tennessee high school has reversed its speech policies following a lawsuit by a 17-year-old student who was suspended for posting memes about the principal, according to a Tuesday press release.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a First Amendment advocacy group, filed a lawsuit in July on behalf of a senior at Tullahoma High School, alleging that the administration suspended the student for posting satirical images, or memes, on Instagram that poked fun at the principal’s “overly serious” behavior. In an agreement, the high school has wiped the student’s suspension from his record while the lawsuit continues and has removed pages from its handbook that state students cannot  “embarrass,” “discredit” or “humiliate” members of the school community.

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Florida Officials Predict Increased Student Aid Costs for Taxpayers

The Center Square

Florida officials project that taxpayer-funded student aid will increase in coming years as more students graduate from high school in the Sunshine State.

The Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research’s Education Estimating Conference was held on Friday to discuss projections for various scholarship programs for Florida college students in fiscal 2023-24 to fiscal 2028-29.

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Tennessee Spent Nearly $600 Million to Bolster School CTE Programs

The Center Square

Nearly $600 million in grants have gone to Tennessee schools for career and technical education from a pair of grant programs since 2019 and a new legislative brief shows the impact of that spending.

Over three years, $22.5 million was granted from the Supporting Postsecondary Access in Rural Communities program while $30 million of federal funding when to the first Innovative School Models grants in 2021 and more than $560 million has been awarded by the ISM program since it was launched.

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Minnesota Catholic Colleges Announce ‘Non-Binary Admissions Policy’

Admin

Two affiliated Catholic colleges in Minnesota adopted a policy for the new academic year allowing “non-binary, gender-fluid, and gender-nonconforming individuals” to enroll in a men’s or women’s college based on the sex with which they identify.

The colleges’ previous policy only explicitly referred to “transgender” students, except in a “frequently asked question” that noted non-binary students must “consistently live and identify” as either a man or a woman.

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Tennessee Department of Education to Hold Town Halls as New School Letter Grade System Set to Launch this Fall

TC Weber

n November, the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE), in compliance with state law, will release school letter grades for individual Tennessee schools. To prepare families, teachers, community members, and decision-makers to review that data, the TDOE is holding a series of 10 Town Halls.

“Whether you are a student, parent, teacher, policymaker, or an interested community member, school letter grades will empower all Tennesseans with the information they need to support K-12 public education and our local schools,” said Lizzette Reynolds, Commissioner of Education. “I encourage all Tennesseans to join us at a town hall or submit a public comment to share what you want to know about schools in your community and how they are serving your kids.”

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State Supreme Court Says Religious Schools Can Require Teachers to Adhere to Faith-Based Principles

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The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Catholic school Monday, arguing that religious organizations have the right to require their staff to adhere to certain faith-based principles, according to court documents.

The case involved former teacher Victoria Crisitello whose contract was not renewed by St. Theresa School after she disclosed that she had become pregnant outside of wedlock, which was a violation of the school’s code of ethics, according to the ruling. After her contract was not renewed in 2014, Crisitello filed a lawsuit against the school claiming that she had been discriminated against, but the New Jersey justices did not agree, according to court documents.

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Commentary: Seven Ways Schools Are Creating ‘Empty’ Children

Admin

In the early 1990s, New York Teacher of the Year, John Taylor Gatto, threw in the towel on teaching with his famous I Quit, I Think  letter to the Wall Street Journal.

Gatto’s reason for quitting was simple. He could no longer justify teaching “a curriculum of confusion, class position, arbitrary justice, vulgarity, rudeness, disrespect for privacy, indifference to quality, and utter dependency.” Such a system, Gatto opined, was turning our children into mindless robots.

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News Outlets Declare Teacher Shortage in Georgia Yet Data Shows Rising Numbers

The Center Square

Georgia’s news outlets from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to Atlanta News First have reported about a shortage of teachers plaguing the state’s education system. Data from the state’s Department of Education paints a different picture. 

Georgia had a total of 123,210 teachers in 2022-23, according to their data. This is an increase of 1,711 teachers from the previous school year when Georgia had 121,499 teachers.

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American College of Pediatricians Rejects Reaffirmation of Children’s Transgender Medical Treatments by American Academy of Pediatrics

Susan Berry, PhD

The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) stated Thursday in a press release it opposes the decision by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to reaffirm transgender medical interventions for children and teens, but supports AAP’s claim it will be reviewing the latest evidence pertaining to the highly controversial treatments.

Last week, AAP reaffirmed its support for providing children and teens with transgender hormones and surgeries – called “gender-affirming care” by the transgender medical industry – while it simultaneously announced it would review medical research on the life-altering treatments.

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New College of Florida Trustees Move to Abolish Gender Studies Program

Admin

The New College of Florida (NCF) board of trustees voted Thursday to direct the administration of the institution to abolish its gender studies program, according to Chris Rufo, a member of the board.

In January, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed six new conservative members to the NCF board of trustees in an effort to overhaul the ideological education system. Since being appointed, the board has voted to eliminate the college’s diversity, equity and inclusion office (DEI) and ban the use of diversity statements.

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Questions Continue to Surface Around Company Contracted to Manage Tennessee Education Savings Accounts

TC Weber

The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) awarding Students First Technologies (SFT) a contract to manage the state’s Education Savings Account (ESA) program continues to raise concerns.

“Our government owes citizens the responsibility of providing the best service at an affordable price. Often they outsource services that could be done better or more efficiently in-house. ” JC Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee told The Tennessee Star, “When that work is outsourced it needs to be with people who have the adequate experience and skills to deliver quality service. We need to know who does the work, and they must be held accountable.”

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Universities Are Spending Like Crazy to Grow Their Bureaucracies, and Students Are Footing the Bill, Analysis Finds

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Public universities across the United States are spending money to increase their workforce and then passing the bill along to students, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.

Since 2002, the average flagship university’s spending rose 38%, with a majority of the money being spent on salaries and benefits, which rose by 40% in the same time period, according to an analysis by the WSJ. However, the average tuition cost per student rose 64% to cover the costs of salaries and benefits in the same time period.

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Florida Tells Schools They Can Teach AP Psychology Course Despite Claims It Was ‘Banned’

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The Florida Department of Education (DOE) told schools Wednesday that an Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology course at the center of a controversy meets state law and can be taught, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

On Aug. 3, the College Board, an academic organization that administers and designs high school courses for college credit, claimed its AP Psychology course had been “effectively banned” because they refused to modify the course to comply with the state’s guidance prohibiting age-inappropriate lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation in Pre-K-12 classrooms. In a Wednesday letter to Florida school superintendents, the state DOE noted that the course can be taught under its Parental Rights in Education law and that the AP course will be offered during the 2023-2024 school year.

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Tennessee Education Association Files to Dismiss Its Suit Against Law Banning Dues Deduction from Paychecks

Susan Berry, PhD

A three-judge panel of the Chancery Court for the State of Tennessee Twentieth Judicial District ordered the lawsuit filed by the Tennessee Education Association (TEA) that challenged a new law that prohibits association dues deduction from paychecks “dismissed without prejudice” following the union’s voluntary dismissal.

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Michigan School Spending Rises While Enrollment Drops

The Center Square

Per student spending in Michigan is up 24.8% over the past 17 years as Michigan has pumped more money into K-12 education while enrollment has been in a two-decade decline.

Enrollment fell 17.5% between 2003-04 and 2020-21, from 1.71 million students to 1.44 million. Two years later, after a nominal gain, it was down to 1.43 million. There was just one year in the 20 with an increase other than 2021-22’s nominal rise, a year impacted by COVID-19.

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Educator Announces Primary Challenge to Maricopa County School Superintendent Accused of Financial Mismanagement

Rachel Alexander

Nickie Kelley, an Arizona schoolteacher, recently announced she is running as a Republican for Maricopa County School Superintendent (MCSS), challenging the Republican incumbent currently in office. The Maricopa County Supervisors (BOS) accused current officeholder Steve Watson of financial mismanagement in May, and voted for a resolution to defund the Maricopa County accommodation school district he oversees next fiscal year. Under Watson, the district has gone $3.4 million in debt. The state Auditor General has been investigating MCSS.

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Arizona University System Ends Use of DEI Statements for Job Applicants Following Exposé

Susan Berry, PhD

The Arizona Board of Regents announced Tuesday the state’s public universities have ended the use of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) statements in job hirings in the wake of an exposé by the Goldwater Institute that showed the taxpayer-funded schools were using unconstitutional political litmus tests to screen out conservative-leaning candidates.

A report Tuesday at Arizona Republic said the state’s public universities “have dropped the use of diversity, equity and inclusion statements in job applications, a move that follows demands by the conservative Goldwater Institute.”

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Steubenville Catholic Trade School Forges Ahead Despite Obstacles in Ohio’s Regulatory Hurdles

Admin

A Catholic trade college plans to enroll students starting in fall of 2024, but said it continues to train people interested in learning craftsmanship while it works through the regulatory process and other hurdles.

The College of St. Joseph the Worker in Steubenville, Ohio is “shifting the start date back so that we can finish the state approval process,” Alex Renn, the school’s communications director, told The College Fix via email.

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College Profs Sue over State Abortion Law, Argue It Criminalizes Classroom Discussion

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Idaho professors and teachers unions are alleging that a state law violates their First Amendment rights by preventing them from teaching pro-abortion viewpoints, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the ACLU.

Idaho passed the No Public Funds for Abortion Act in 2021, which prohibits state contracts with abortion providers and bans public employees from promoting abortion, according to Idaho’s legislative website. Public employees who violate the law can be charged with a felony and fired, and professors argue the law has forced them to alter their course modules by taking out entire sections related to abortion due to fear of repercussions, according to the lawsuit.

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Under New State School Funding Formula, Metro Nashville Taxpayers Responsible for a Larger Portion of the Bill

TC Weber

Data released on Friday by the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) released last week shows that Metro Nashville taxpayers are paying roughly $120 million a year over the state’s contribution to fund city schools.

Under Tennessee’s new public school funding formula – Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) – most local school districts, except Nashville Sevier County, can expect to pay one-third of the local education cost, with the state paying the other two-thirds for two districts.

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Openly ‘Marxist’ Library Group Chief Stunned by Backlash, Withdrawal of Funding

Admin

After the head of the American Library Association (ALA) declared herself to be an open “Marxist,” the group has faced severe backlash that has led to at least one state pulling its funding altogether.

As reported by Fox News, Emily Drabinski celebrated her own election as head of the ALA last year by tweeting “I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary. I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity! And my mom is SO PROUD. I love you mom.”

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Florida Board of Governors to Vote on Use of Classical Learning Test for College Admissions

Susan Berry, PhD

The Florida Board of Governors is expected to vote at the end of August on whether to offer the Classical Learning Test (CLT) along with the SAT and ACT for public college admissions, a move that would make the Sunshine State the first in the nation to offer a test based specifically on the foundations of Western civilization and a “back to basics” education model.

A committee of the board of governors already met in June and approved the CLT as an option for the 12 schools in the State University System, the Tampa Bay Times reported at the time. After a two-week public comment period, the full board of governors will take its final vote August 30.

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Parents Reclaim Libraries with Christian Story Hour Events Across Minnesota

Admin

More than a dozen communities across the state participated in Brave Books’ first annual “See You at the Library” event over the weekend, a national movement to “bring traditional Christian and American values back into the public space,” local event organizers told Alpha News.

“When we saw Brave Books was looking for people to host story hours at their local libraries, we thought it would be an awesome way to connect with the community, educate parents how low our literacy rates are, and bring an hour of fun to families right in their local library,” said Britni Granquist with Dakota County Moms for Liberty, which helped organize five story hours across the south metro attracting more than 600 attendees.

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