Oberlin College sued its insurers for refusal to pay the $36.6 million in damages the liberal school paid to end a six-year legal battle after it defamed a local bakery as “racist” after a store employee chased out of the store several black individuals who stole wine.
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Students that attend Fulton County Schools and DeKalb County Schools were met with new security improvements including weapon detection systems and push-button alert systems.
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Florida officials predict that contributions to the state’s education system from the state lottery will decrease this fiscal year by $270 million.
Officials at the Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research forecast that Florida Lottery and other sources such as slot machines will transfer $3.12 billion to the various education trust funds, which includes $560 million left over from the previous fiscal year.
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Alpha News journalist Sheila Qualls recently hosted a townhall panel discussion on the failures of Minnesota’s public education system.
Qualls is the host of the podcast “Trapped!: Chaos in the Classroom,” in which she investigates the public school system in Minnesota through interviews with students, parents, teachers, administrators, and school board members.
The townhall panel she hosted consisted of retired teachers, a school board member, a current private school educator, and a parents group director.
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An LGBTQ activist organization awarded more than 70 public and charter schools throughout the U.S. and Canada thousands of dollars to promote gender ideology, support “Gender Sexuality Alliance” (GSA) clubs and put on Pride Week celebrations, according to the group’s website.
Throughout 2023, the “It Gets Better Project” has awarded at least 56 U.S. and 15 Canadian public and charter schools $10,000 each for a total of $625,000 in grants to fund LGBTQ initiatives, according to the organization’s website. Some school districts throughout the country are using the grants they received to fund “gender transition closets” and work with with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group that describes itself as a “leading-edge Order of queer and trans nuns,” to take transgender students “back-to-school shopping.”
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The U.S. Department of Defense needs to figure out if its Troops-to-Teachers program is meeting its goal to reduce teacher shortages in high-need schools and key subjects such as math, science and special education.
A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that it is unclear if the Troops-to-Teachers program is meeting its goals because the Department of Defense lost access to participant data when it canceled the program in 2020, has not used the data from annual performance reports and has not worked with the Department of Education on the program as required.
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With the new school year starting back up, the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (TDMHSAS) and Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) have launched a campaign to prevent underage drinking among Tennessee youth.
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The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) updated the State Board of Education (SBE) last week on the state’s progress in implementing its new school funding formula – Tennessee Investment in Student Success (TISA). Tennessee is moving from a systems-based funding formula to a student-based funding formula with TISA.
The new system uses a formula that starts with a base amount for each student and then adds money for various factors. Those components include poverty, district size, English learners, and special education needs. This year, the base allocation per student is $6,860 per student.
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The Florida Department of Education (DOE) is rejecting the College Board’s claim that its Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology course was banned from the state’s public school classes, according to a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The College Board, an academic organization that administers and writes high school courses for college credit, claimed on Thursday that the Florida DOE had “effectively banned” its AP Psychology course because they cannot 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. The Florida DOE clarified that it has not banned the course from its state’s schools and that the class still remains listed in the 2023-2024 course directory, according to a statement to the DCNF.
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The filing period for the November local elections officially opened this week and candidates in a few, highly visible and hotly-contested school board races have already lined up influential endorsements prior to submitting their filing papers.
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A conservative group is demanding answers about whether the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden is repeating its 2021 strategy of targeting concerned parents after the Southern Poverty Law Center just added concerned parents to its “hate map.”
SPLC staff have met with Biden at the White House, and the administration has adopted the “book banning” rhetoric many activists use to slam parents concerned about sexually explicit books in school libraries.
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The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced Thursday that a $1.5 million grant program for STEM studies is now open for applications.
Teachers will be able to apply for the grants and put them to use upon distribution in January, according to a release.
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A new EdTrends poll of voters in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Nevada, shows that Democrats have given up what was once a double-digit lead on “trust in education” and are now lagging behind Republicans by three percentage points.
The poll revealing the historic shift was released Friday by Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), an organization that lobbies for Democrat candidates and heads campaigns to achieve “educational equity for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds.”
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The school district is composed of 70 percent minority students. Stanton has served as WESD superintendent for eight years, with 27 years in education. He is past president of the Arizona School Administrators, and serves on the ABEC Board of Directors and the WESTMARC Education and Workforce Development Committee. He and his wife prepare food boxes for those in need on the weekends.
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A Tennessee law that prohibits teacher association dues from being automatically deducted from paychecks may go into effect after a three-judge panel declined to issue a temporary halt to it as requested by the Tennessee Education Association (TEA).
The Chancery Court for the State of Tennessee Twentieth Judicial District, Davidson County, denied last week the teachers’ union’s motion, ending a previous temporary halt to the practice of payroll deduction for dues for professional employee organizations.
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The Republicans hoping to replace Gov. Chris Sununu in the corner office next year have all embraced universal school choice, a deep contrast with their Democratic rivals.
On WFEA Morning Update with Drew Cline Monday, former U.S. Sen. and Republican gubernatorial candidate Kelly Ayotte said that, as governor, she would support universal school choice in New Hampshire, building upon the New Hampshire GOP’s successes with the popular Education Freedom Account (EFA) program.
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The University of Virginia (UVA) announced a new essay question for the 2023 to 2024 admissions cycle that circumvents the Supreme Court’s ruling that universities can no longer consider race in college admissions.
Applicants are now required, in 300 words, to answer: “What about your background, perspective, or experience will serve as a source of strength for you and those around you at UVA?”
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Amid declining academic test scores, Hopkins High School will be one of the first schools in Minnesota to offer the George Floyd-inspired Advanced Placement African American Studies (APAAS) course this fall.
Less than 50 percent of Hopkins High School students are proficient in reading, math or science. It will be one of just a few schools in the state to offer the class this fall along with high schools in St. Paul and Edina, the Star Tribune reported.
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Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) filed legislation on Tuesday that would reverse the Biden Administration’s decision to defund school archery and hunting programs
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Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) adjusted its discipline policies for the upcoming school to all first-time violent offenders to avoid expulsion by enrolling in a five-hour anger management course.
The new program was first introduced to MNPS principals two weeks ago as the First Time Violent Offender Program. The district has since changed the name and now refers to the initiative as the First Time Behavior Support Program.
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A report at the German-owned Politico Monday stated Democrats are now claiming Republicans have failed to provide evidence that the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), led by Randi Weingarten, exerted extraordinary influence over government school reopening policy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Democratic staff said in a memo obtained by Politico,” the news outlet stated, that “[d]espite a lengthy investigation, Republicans still can’t prove one of the nation’s largest teachers unions had undue influence over the Biden administration’s school reopening guidance.”
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Following the recent Supreme Court decision overturning race-conscious admissions, certain sections of the media have adopted an alarmist tone, fueling doomsday predictions. Others are keen to celebrate the end of discriminatory practices that educational institutions have adopted for nearly 60 years.
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The Biden Administration’s Department of Education (ED) confirmed that it is deliberately withholding federal funds from elementary and middle schools that have courses in hunting or archery.
As Fox News reports, the ED issued a statement claiming that the decision was due to an interpretation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) passed last year in response to several shootings. The agency claims that its interpretation determined that funding for any shooting-related activities will be blocked across the country, under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965.
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A Tennessee school district offered voluntary Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training for staff that included a section about how people who are white, male, cisgender, heterosexual or Christian are considered privileged while people of color and those who are nonbinary, polyamorous or pagan are oppressed.
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The University of Michigan announced a new initiative to “enhance inclusion and equity across the biomedical and health sciences community,” which includes hiring 30 new professors.
With a $15.8 million investment from the National Institutes of Health and a $63.7 million investment from the University of Michigan, the Michigan Program for Advancing Cultural Transformation will “bolster U-M’s diverse academic environment by hiring tenure-track faculty with a demonstrated commitment to equity and inclusion.”
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Arizona State University (ASU) professors who signed a letter labeling conservatives Dennis Prager and Charlie Kirk “purveyors of hate” and seeking to cancel their February 2023 appearance at the university’s now-defunct T.W. Lewis Center seemed to relish in their actions, sending emails to the center’s former executive director asking to be publicly named for their participation.
Former T.W. Lewis Center executive director Ann Atkinson provided emails to The Arizona Sun Times sent by two ASU professors who teach at Barrett, the university’s honors College where the center was housed, including two from a professor seeking to join the Professor Watchlist maintained by Turning Point USA (TPUSA).
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School-aged students in eleven economically distressed counties across Tennessee will receive a backpack courtesy of First Lady Maria Lee’s ‘Tennessee Serves’ initiative at the beginning of this upcoming school year.
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Increased spending, common good bargaining, community schools and transitional kindergarten will not improve student learning.
A Gallup poll released earlier this month shows that just 28% of Americans have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in K-12 public schools. The number for Republicans is particularly damning: Just 14% of GOPers view education in a positive light.
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The vast majority of parents in a new State Policy Network poll say public school teachers regularly deviated from set school curriculum to interject their own personal views and feelings over the past year.
In all, two out of every three parents polled in the survey of 2,014 respondents said teachings strayed from what was supposed to be taught, and 25% said they actually had a problem with a public-school teacher on the issue over the last 12 months.
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The Casa Grande Union High School Governing Board (CGUHSGB) voted 4-1 on July 11 to adopt the history curriculum for a year from Savvas Learning Company LLC, a company known for producing “woke” educational materials. The board justified the decision since the existing curriculum was outdated, having not been updated within the past 15 years. Also, the board pointed out that some teachers had already begun incorporating the Savvas textbooks.
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While Georgia public school students’ Georgia Milestones scores are improving, state officials said results have not yet reached pre-pandemic levels.
According to officials, results improved or remained steady in 13 of 21 assessments.
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As a young teen I couldn’t get enough of Carl Sagan’s book “Cosmos,” and the movie based on his novel of the same name, Contact, remains one of my favorite scifi offerings.
Sagan, and by extension Contact protagonist Ellie Arroway, became the sort of individual I came trust to handle what will be the greatest discovery in human history: proof that humans are not alone in the universe.
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Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Twitter owner Elon Musk ripped the current education system in the United States Friday, saying that taxpayers were “paying people to hate America.”
Ramaswamy and Musk took part in a Twitter Spaces forum where Ramaswamy blasted the Department of Education for using funding as an incentive for schools to use certain theories in curricula. Ramaswamy outlined plans to shut down that department during a July 20 forum in New Hampshire.
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The Uvalde Foundation For Kids is looking for volunteers in Tennessee who would be interested in patrolling Covenant School students returning to class this upcoming school year.
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A U.S. Senate hopeful offered her support for a lawsuit by the Tennessee Education Association (TEA) seeking to reinstate Critical Race Theory in Tennessee schools.
“Nothing better than seeing good folks fight back on whitewashing our history!” State Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) said on Twitter. “Teachers teach facts, not feelings!
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Georgia lawmakers are likely to pass school choice legislation when they reconvene, one expert predicts.
School choice has taken on new resonance after Rep. Mesha Mainor of Atlanta, an ardent school choice supporter, announced she was switching to the Republican Party.
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A new Tennessee law that bans “implicit bias training” in school took effect ahead of the new school year, which begins in the second week of August for most students.
HB015 bans school administrators from forcing teachers, faculty, and staff to be trained on implicit biases, which typically involves teaching that one race is inherently biased against another simply by existing.
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The Metropolitan Nashville Board of Public Education (MNBPE) School Board rejected the applications of three new charter school start-ups on Tuesday. Pathways in Education, Invictus, and Nashville Collegiate Prep were looking to open up new schools in Nashville.
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The Tennessee Education Association (TEA) has spent millions on political lobbying alone in the state since 2011, having “squandered significant dollars in a lot of losing efforts across our state,” wrote JC Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-partisan teacher association based in Nashville.
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The chair of the Osseo school board warned a parent reading from a sexually-explicit book available in the district’s libraries that there may be children in the room.
“Last month we had some kids in the audience and some of the language was offensive to some,” said Chair Jacquelene Mosqueda-Jones during Tuesday night’s meeting.
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A group of parents says State College Area School District bars their children from joining extracurricular activities simply because they attend faith-based schools.
The families, members of the Religious Rights Foundation, recently filed a lawsuit against the district for prohibiting their students from participating in sports, clubs, and college-level classes, based on religious discrimination.
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Tom Lewis, the founder and primary funder of the now-defunct T.W. Lewis Center at Arizona State University (ASU), revealed that he pulled his annual contribution of $400,000 due to the open hostility showed to conservative speakers by the majority of the institution’s faculty.
Lewis made the remarks during an appearance on The Mike Broomhead Show, describing “a steady beat down of realization” in which he determined universities “want your donations, but they don’t want your input, and they certainly don’t want your influence in the classroom or even selecting speakers.”
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The annual conference this month of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education offered an atmosphere of overall joy and confidence as Catholic schools committed to the teachings of the faith reported they “could not keep up with the demand” for their services, Mark Bauerlein, contributing editor at First Things, wrote this week.
Bauerlein appeared to revel in the stark contrast between the upbeat environment at the Catholic education conference which, he noted, featured tables run by “organizations dedicated to Western civilization, the liberal arts tradition, and Catholic study” that “offered materials blessedly free of the negative politics and rhetoric that fills the discourse of the National Education Association, the ed schools that train teachers, and all too many school boards.”
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The Tennessee Education Association (TEA), along with several teachers, filed a lawsuit against the Tennessee Commissioner of Education and members of the State Board of Education over a law that prohibits the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in K-12 classrooms, according to a Wednesday press release.
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Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) School Board members on Tuesday considered several district policy revisions mandated by changes in state law. Three amended policies required parental permission for student participation in school clubs, school surveys, and certain health screenings.
State law passed this last session, includes new options for parents/guardians regarding certain extracurricular activities and district actions. Specifically, this new law: (1) requires parents/guardians to opt in before their minor child joins a school club or participates in the activities of a club; (2) requires parents/guardians to opt in, rather than opt-out before a student under 18 participates in a non-instructional survey, analysis, or evaluation; and (3) gives parents/guardians the ability to opt-out of health screenings conducted as part of the coordinated school health program.
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Colleges throughout the country are plotting new ways to weigh race in the admissions process after a Supreme Court ruling that blocked the use of affirmative action policies, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that Harvard University and the University of North Carolina’s use of affirmative action admissions policies was unconstitutional, halting the practice across higher education institutions. Colleges and universities are considering the use of essays and different potential student recruiting methods following the Supreme Court ruling, according to the WSJ.
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While the Pennsylvania budget stalemate remains, senators argued over the importance of school choice and increasing public school funding at a committee hearing in Reading.
The Senate Education Committee met Tuesday to discuss “student opportunities for success,” hearing from parents of children in public and private schools in Reading, as well as public school leaders of Reading School District.
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Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine joined Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in reintroducing legislation that would increase funding opportunities for teacher and school administrator recruitment and training, as well as minority-serving colleges and universities.
The Preparing and Retaining Education Professionals Act, or PREP Act, was initially introduced in the Senate a couple of years ago as the PREP Act of 2021. Though touted as bipartisan, Collins is the only Republican cosponsor alongside seven Democrats.
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Governor Katie Hobbs launched new criticisms against the Empowerment Savings Accounts (ESA) program, the school choice initiative allowing all Arizona families to direct education spending to charter or private schools, calling ESAs “unsustainable” and “unaccountable” after reporting the program is estimated to cause a shortfall in the Arizona General Fund.
Total costs for the program are estimated to be $943 million, according to the governor. This will leave the General Fund with a potential shortfall of $319.8 million. Revenues for the General Fund are estimated to be $17.9 billion.
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After school officials reportedly read a statement to students about a teacher’s upcoming sex change, the Eau Claire Area School District faces a lawsuit demanding it to turn over the document.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), a Milwaukee-based civl rights law firm representing parent Leah Buchman, claims the district has been sitting on the document for weeks, citing an ongoing investigation.
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