Tag: education

Tennessee Equality Project Criticizes New Law Requiring Parent Notification of Student Pronoun Changes

Peter D'Abrosca

In a new online form electing feedback from students, teachers, staff, administrators, school counselors, parents or legal guardians, and LGBT allies, the LGBT group Tennessee Equality Project (TEP) bemoans a new state law that requires school officials to give parental notice of a student wishes to change their pronouns or “gender identity.” 

“Tennessee Equality Project is tracking how school districts and schools are implementing the new state law (SB 1810) that targets transgender and gender expansive students: the requirements of the law are triggered when a minor-aged student makes a request to a teacher to use a name and/or pronouns that may not align with their medically assigned sex on their birth certificate,” the form says. 

Read the full story

College Students Lack ‘Rudimentary’ Knowledge of History, Civics: Survey

The College Fix

College students lack a “rudimentary grasp” of American history and government, as displayed in a civic literacy assessment recently conducted by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.

The 35-question survey, “Losing America’s Memory 2.0,” asked more than 3,000 students from all 50 states questions about history and government, including Senate term lengths and a quote from the Gettysburg Address, according to ACTA. The survey was conducted in June by College Pulse.

Read the full story

Virginia Military Institute Alumni File Lawsuit Against Institute’s Official Alumni Association

Admin

A frustrated group of Virginia Military Institute alumni, some of whom have previously spoken out against the institution’s growing embrace of DEI, have taken on a new battle.

The disgruntled alumni have filed a civil rights lawsuit against VMI Alumni Agencies, arguing the relationship between the official alma mater organization and the institute itself is inappropriate, that school leaders have too much control over it.

Read the full story

Ignoring Parents’ Objections, Virginia County’s School Board Unanimously OKs Gender Ideology Lessons

Admin
Children in Classroom

A Northern Virginia school district will teach kindergartners about gay parents and middle schoolers about transgenderism in the wake of a unanimous vote late last month—despite significant parental opposition.

The Fairfax County School Board unanimously approved changes to its Family Life Education Curriculum on June 27 that include “broadening examples of family structures to be more inclusive of the many different families in our schools.”

Read the full story

Congress to Leverage ‘Power of the Purse,’ Taking Aim at Big Education Amid Ugly Campus Riots

Just the News
Claudia Tenney and James Comer (composite image)

The debate in Congress over federal funding of education dates to the days of Thomas Jefferson, but for the first time since Jimmy Carter created the U.S. Education Department a large number of lawmakers are now openly discussing cutting funding and changing the tax code to punish universities that have failed to quell anti-Israel riots and force a shift from the far-left ideologies that have taken root on most campuses.

“I think that the American people are pretty outraged about this, and they expect the Republicans in Congress to respond in kind with the power of the purse,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told the “Just the News, No Noise” television show last week after visiting the protest-wracked George Washington University campus.

Read the full story

Tennessee Lottery Raises over $113 Million for Education in Third Quarter of Fiscal Year 2024

Kaitlin Housler
Lottery Balls

The Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation announced Tuesday it raised $113,820,000 for education in the Volunteer State during the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24), which spanned from January 1 through March 31.

“The Lottery is proud to announce this quarter’s results, which reinforce our commitment to funding vital education programs for Tennesseans,” Tennessee Education Lottery President and CEO Rebecca Paul said in a statement.

Read the full story

Poll: Voters Want Schools to Focus on Basics Instead of Critical Race Theory

The Center Square
Kids getting on school bus

The vast majority of people think schools should focus on traditional subjects like math, reading and science, and a majority also say critical race theory should not be taught, a new poll shows. 

According to The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll conducted by Noble Predictive, most surveyed said they want schools to focus on core subjects instead of hot-button topics like critical race theory.

Read the full story

Deer Valley Unified School District Board Member Paul Carver Offers Insights for Parents Concerned with K-12 Issues Today

Rachel Alexander

A couple of Arizona’s largest school districts have been rocked with scandals lately, mainly over administrations trying to implement woke agendas.

However, the Deer Valley Unified School District (DVUSD), located in northwest Phoenix and surrounding cities, has escaped much of the controversy. Paul Carver, who sits on the governing board, said he believes it is because his district stresses transparency and teamwork. He said the superintendent has regular interfaith meetings, which have been transferred to Zoom since COVID-19, and the superintendent and many board members try to include everyone regardless of demographics.

Read the full story

Commentary: Battles We Can Win Are on Family, Morality, and Education

Admin
Family

In “Burke on Our Crisis of Character,” which appeared in the December 2023 issue of Chronicles, Bruce Frohnen notes, “The American Way was real, rooted in families whose rights trumped the demands of the state because families were more natural and fundamental than the state.” The following month in the same magazine, Stephen Baskerville reviews a collection of essays, Up from Conservatism, in which he briefly addresses the pernicious effects of government welfare on family life and fatherhood.

As is the case in nearly everything that the federal government touches, be it education, health care, or anything else, its policies in the last 50 years have severely damaged the American family. Given the additional harms done by government in the first quarter of the 21st century—trillions of dollars in wasted expenses, woefully ignorant public school graduates, divisions along the lines of race, politics, and gender, a diminished pride in our past, the attacks on our liberties—some people I know despair about the future. Others of us want to restore the good that has been lost but feel frustrated and even defeated by the immensity of the task. We vote, we grouse (as I am doing here), yet each day brings some new assault on the culture, some new governmental dictate or intrusion, and we just want to hunker down in the trenches hoping that this bombardment will end of its own accord.

Read the full story

Dr. Carol M. Swain: ‘You Can be Dumb as Rocks and Go to Harvard’

Kaitlin Housler
Carol Swain Harvard

Dr. Carol M. Swain joined Thursday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss the latest developments surrounding her battle with Harvard University regarding its former president’s alleged plagiarism of her and other scholars’ work as well as the overall decline of the university as it attempts to implement a new “standard.”

In December 2023, writer and activist Christopher Rufo accused then-Harvard University President Claudine Gay of plagiarizing “multiple sections” of Swain’s Ph.D. thesis from 1997.

Read the full story

Arizona Father of Five Arrested Twice for Protesting COVID-19 Restrictions Continues His Efforts to Protect Children

Rachel Alexander

Kelly Walker, a journalist and father of five in Tucson, is expanding his efforts to protect children from bad policies in schools despite being arrested and prosecuted after one school pushed back. Since the bad experience, he’s built a platform of advocacy for parents and children harmed by school policies at Real Freedom Talk. He now produces videos about abuses in schools and appears on major talk shows to discuss his experiences and expose what is happening in Tucson schools.

Walker said what prompted his activism was observing the increase in mental health problems among children due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. A student committed suicide near his home, and the suicide rate among children in Pima County increased 30 percent. A nearby school admitted they had locked students in closets and forgotten about them. He said parents from the community came to his former coffee shop, Viva Coffee House, and asked him if he could do something about it.

Read the full story

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn Helps Introduce Bill That Would Reveal Foreign Investments into American Universities

Kaitlin Housler

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) joined U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) this week in introducing the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions (DETERRENT) Act.

The bill, according to Blackburn’s office, would “bring much needed transparency, accountability, and clarity to foreign gift reporting requirements for American colleges and universities.”

Read the full story

University of Tennessee System Guarantees Admission for Certain In-State Students

Peter D'Abrosca

At a special meeting of the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees at Thursday night, the state university system adopted a new policy that will guarantee college admission to certain in-state applicants. 

Effective immediately, Tennessee high schoolers applying to a University of Tennessee school with the following credentials will automatically be accepted to at least one school in the state university system:

Read the full story

Concerned Parent Blows Whistle on LGBT Material Displayed to Four-Year-Olds in Nashville Public School

Peter D'Abrosca

A concerned parent shared a photo with The Tennessee Star this week depicting an LGBT pride flag at Dan Mills Elementary School in Nashville, which he said is on display for children as young as four years old.

The pride flag is emblazoned with the words “MNPS for All,” and hangs above a poster that breaks students into groups by race and sexual orientation, noting that each group is “loved.”

Read the full story

U.S. Attorney’s Office in Georgia Organizes Gang and Violence Prevention Program for SROs in Metro-Atlanta Schools

Kaitlin Housler

The Northern District of Georgia U.S. Attorney’s Office organized an initiative to provide law enforcement training for more than 40 police officers from school systems in the northern district of Georgia to prevent and reduce delinquency, youth violence, and gang membership.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office partnered with the Georgia Alliance for School Resource Officers and Educators, the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, and the Georgia Gang Investigators Association to provide the officers with Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.).

Read the full story

Wisconsin Congressman Scott Fitzgerald Introduces Bill Taking on National Education Association’s Political Clout

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Representative Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI-05) introduced a bill that would check the power of the National Education Association (NEA).

The Stopping Teachers Unions from Damaging Education Needs Today (STUDENT) Act aims to reform the NEA’s federal charter and “rededicate the organization to the pursuit of increased student learning and quality education in schools across America,” according to the congressman.

Read the full story

WMC Survey of Businesses Finds Alarming Number of Wisconsin K-12 Graduates Aren’t Prepared for the Workforce

M.D. Kittle

As Wisconsin businesses struggle through a worker shortage crisis, it appears Wisconsin’s public schools are failing to prepare students for the workforce.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce’s latest employer survey finds 73 percent of responding businesses said ‘no’ when asked if students graduating from the Badger State’s K-12 education system are prepared for the workforce.

Read the full story

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos Calls Governor Tony Evers a ‘Liar’, Expects Evers’ Partial Vetoes to be Challenged in Court

M.D. Kittle

Democrat Governor Tony Evers’ “creative” partial veto that boosts public education spending for the next four centuries “proves he’s a liar,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said during a Sunday morning interview. 

The Rochester Republican said the governor’s “unprecedented” veto trick leaves Republicans — and taxpayers who would be on the hook for 400-plus years of spending increases —  with “little option” but to take the governor to court. 

Read the full story

Tennessee Department of Education Funds 32 School Districts with Perkins Reserve Grants

Kaitlin Housler

The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) recently announced that 32 school districts across the state have been awarded funds from the Perkins Reserve Grant (PRG) to support career and technical education (CTE) for the 2023-24 school year.

Tennessee’s CTE consists of “16 nationally recognized career clusters with the ultimate goal of preparing students for success at the postsecondary level and in their chosen careers.”

Read the full story

Wisconsin’s Budget-Writing Committee Passes Budget with ‘Historic’ $4.3 Billion Tax Cut

M.D. Kittle

After a season of spending, the Wisconsin Legislature is finally getting around to talking tax cuts. Perhaps Republicans have saved the best for last.

The Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee put the finishing touches on a complete rewrite of Democrat Governor Tony Evers’ 2023-25 state budget proposal, passing a tax reform package that promises to deliver $3.5 billion in income tax cuts and nearly $800 million in property tax relief. 

Read the full story

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s School of Nursing Recognized as Best in the State

Kaitlin Housler

The “largest website and community of nurses online,” nurse.org, named the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s (UTC) School of Nursing as the best in the state as part of its 2023 nurse.org Best Nursing Schools by state rankings.

In its ranking explanation, nurse.org cited UTC’s National Council of State Boards of Nursing Licensure Exam (NCLEX) pass rate of 96 percent. Graduates are eligible to take the NCLEX to become a registered nurse upon completion of the bachelor’s program in nursing. The national average NCLEX pass rate is 82 percent.

Read the full story

Michigan Council to Address Population Decline, Education, and Infrastructure

The Center Square

Michigan’s governor by executive order has created the “Growing Michigan Together Council,” a team of nearly two dozen she wants to continue economic momentum while also stopping the migration out of state that has dropped population.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced her new initiative Thursday morning, which she said would address the state’s outbound population and spur further economic development. The council will be chaired by John Rakolta Jr., a Republican, and Shirley Stancato, a Democrat.

Read the full story