Tag: K-12 schools

Scottsdale Parents Group Launch ‘American Pride’ Project in Response to Woke Literature in Public School Libraries

Debra McClure
School Library

Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity member Jill Dunican was interviewed on The Conservative Circus w/ James T. Harris podcast on Thursday, where she spoke about the organization’s American Pride Library initiative to donate “wholesome” and “patriotic” books to 29 schools in Arizona’s Scottsdale Unified School District.

Scottsdale Unites For Educational Integrity is a group of parents, teachers, administrators, and community members within the Scottsdale Unified School District who advocate for parental rights in education, curriculum transparency, and academic achievement. Jill Dunican is part of the organization’s parent-led launch of The American Pride Library project, which seeks to counter left-leaning ideologies by offering pro-American and age-appropriate books to its district libraries.

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Michigan Senate Republicans Push School Improvement Plan

The Center Square
Aric Nesbitt

Michigan Senate Republicans on Thursday announced their plan to improve childhood learning and support teachers in the K-12 schools.

They proposed a MI Brighter Future plan they said would help students gain access to additional resources and learning opportunities, require proven training methods for educators, give parents more control over their child’s progress, reinstate accountability in teacher evaluations and provide for performance-based bonuses.

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Gov. Brian Kemp Announces $1,000 Bonus for Georgia Teachers, New Funding For School Safety

Tom Pappert

Governor Brian Kemp (R) announced a $1,000 bonus on Monday for those who work in Georgia’s schools, and introduce legislation to provide Georgia with more school funding and fund a permanent, annual bonus.

In a joint announcement with Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns (R-Newington), and State Representative Matt Hatchett (R-Dublin), Kemp announced a $1,000 “state employee retention pay supplement” for more than 300,000 Georgia teachers and state employees who work in education.

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Ohio Lawmakers Push Free Speech in K-12 Schools

The Center Square

A plan Ohio lawmakers say would guarantee free speech for students and staff at the state’s public K-12 schools is now in the hands of the Senate.

Specifically, the legislation requires school districts, community schools and STEM schools to have a policy against using statements of commitment to or soliciting or requiring specified individuals to affirmatively ascribe to specific beliefs, affiliations, ideals or principles concerning political movements or ideology.

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Commentary: Ensuring Substitute Teachers Are Trained on Safety Procedures in Tennessee

Admin

Our schools are the bedrock of our communities, serving not only as centers of education but also as places of refuge and safety for our children. In an era of heightened concerns about school safety, it is essential that we leave no stone unturned in ensuring our schools are secure environments. One critical aspect of this is the requirement for substitute teachers to be adequately trained on lockdown procedures and safety protocols. It’s a seemingly small detail, but it plays a pivotal role in keeping our schools safe and our students protected.

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Education Revenue from the Florida Lottery Down by $270M in 2023, Officials Predict

The Center Square

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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GOP Senators’ New Bill Would Crack Down on ‘Marxist’ Race-Based Lessons in K-12 Schools

Admin

Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio led the introduction of a bill Tuesday that would prohibit taxpayer funds from being spent on K-12  American History and civics classes that promote Critical Race Theory (CRT), according to a copy of the bill obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Under the Protect Equality and Civics Education (PEACE) Act, federal dollars cannot be used to fund curriculum, teaching or counseling in K-12 American History and civics courses that promote tenets of CRT, including that the U.S. is fundamentally racist. Rubio introduced the bill alongside two co-sponsors, Republican Indiana Sen. Mike Braun and Republican North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer.

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Audit Indicates Virginia K-12 Schools Underfunded

The Center Square

A report released Monday indicates Virginia’s K-12 education system has received inadequate state funding for years — and Republicans and Democrats are blaming each other for the results.

The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission staff reviewed Virginia’s K-12 funding formula – the mechanism used to determine the state’s education budget – upon being directed to do so by the 2021 General Assembly and shared its findings and recommendations in the report.

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Commentary: Red States Ban Destructive Transgender Treatments as K-12 Schools Funnel Children to Dangerous Path

Admin

Citing “very serious side effects” and a “lack of reliable scientific evidence for their efficacy and safety,” Missouri is clamping down on chemical and surgical gender transition interventions for both children and adults.

The move comes as public schools across the nation push children toward transgenderism with organized efforts and intentional tactics that leave children’s parents and legal guardians in the dark.

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Hundreds of Millions of COVID-19 Aid Never Reached K-12 School Districts: Report

Admin

More than $736 million of federal COVID-19 funds did not reach the K-12 schools and students it was meant for, with some states putting the money towards “slush funds” and “pet projects,” according to a March report by the National Opportunity Project.

In 2020, Congress gave $5.5 billion in COVID-19 aid to nonpublic schools with low-income students through its Emergency Assistance to Nonpublic Schools (EANS) program, according to a report by the National Opportunity Project. Of the aid, $736 million did not go to the schools with at least $157 million within 27 states going towards programs to teach video game coding and “I Got Vaxxed” competitions.

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Equity Consultant ‘Evil Salesman’ Explains Plan to Upend Georgia Law Banning Indoctrination with Critical Race Theory

Susan Berry, PhD

A Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) consultant explained to an undercover Project Veritas journalist he is an “evil salesman” who plans to undermine a Georgia law banning the teaching of the concepts of Critical Race Theory (CRT).

“If you don’t say the words ‘Critical Race Theory,’ you can technically teach it,” Dr. Quintin Bostic, content manager at The Teaching Lab, is heard telling the Project Veritas (PV) journalist in the video.

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Commentary: Ohio PTA Reportedly Collaborates with TikTok

Admin

In late November, some Ohio parents received a brochure via snail mail detailing a workshop co-sponsored by their local PTAs and social media app TikTok.

Agendas for the event were included in the mailer but are also posted in media releases on the National PTA and TikTok websites dating back to 2019. “During the family workshops,” readers are told, “parents and teens will: Engage with a student panel about online safety and digital citizenship; Learn about available safety settings and privacy tools within TikTok; [and] Complete a guided activity together that helps illustrate why teens enjoy using TikTok for creative expression.”

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Commentary: Accreditation Is a Means of Government Control in Education

Admin

Accreditation pervades American education from kindergarten through graduate school. It has become a means through which the government enforces subpar educational outcomes and increases its power.

Of course, it didn’t start out that way.

Primary and secondary accreditation began in the 1880s as a voluntary method to improve quality among schools and establish standards for students preparing for college.

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Republican Governor of Indiana Vetoes Bill to Ban Transgenders from Competing in Women’s Sports

Admin

On Monday, the Republican governor of Indiana vetoed a bill that would ban so-called “transgenders” from competing in sports for the opposite gender.

As reported by ABC News, Governor Eric Holcomb (R-Ind.) vetoed the bill, HEA 1041, after it passed through both houses of the state legislature, despite previously voicing his support for the same bill last month. In his veto, Holcomb claimed that the bill “falls short” of implementing a policy that would be consistent at the statewide level, and thus would not be able to provide “fairness in K-12 sports.”

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Tennessee House Subcommittee Advances Legislation to Protect Students from Obscenity and Pornography in K-12 Schools

Laura Baigert

At the end of meetings of the Tennessee House Criminal Justice Subcommittee held over two consecutive weeks where impassioned testimony was heard from nearly two dozen witnesses on both sides of the argument, a bill that seeks to protect students from pornographic and obscene materials in K-12 schools advanced Wednesday to the full House Criminal Justice Committee.

More than two hours of testimony was heard Wednesday from 15 members of the public, in addition to nearly an hour and three witnesses who testified last week including country music star John Rich, The Tennessee Star reported.

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Eight Michigan Counties to Repeal School Mask Mandate

The Center Square

Eight Michigan counties will end school mask mandates on or before Feb. 28, citing lower COVID metrics.

The Health Department of Northwest Michigan, which covers Antrim, Charlevoix, Emmet and Otsego counties, will repeal its mask mandate for schools on February 17, followed by Ingham County on February 19, and Oakland, Washtenaw, and Wayne County will drop their mask mandates on February 28.

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Biden Administration to Distribute Millions of COVID-19 Tests to K-12 Schools Each Month

Admin

President Joe Biden’s administration plans to provide millions of COVID-19 tests to K-12 schools each month, the White House said in a Wednesday statement.

This month, the Biden administration will start shipping five million rapid COVID-19 tests each month to K-12 schools across the country in an effort to keep schools open amid a spike in COVID-19 cases and the rise of the Omicron coronavirus variant, according to White House officials. The new tests will allow schools to double the “volume of testing” from November 2021.

The administration also plans to expand lab capacity to provide an additional five million tests per month so schools can “perform individual and pooled testing in classrooms nationwide.”

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Michigan K-12, Colleges Shift to Virtual Learning Amid Omicron, Affecting 100,000

The Center Square

Twenty-two months into the COVID-19 pandemic, some schools and colleges say they will shift to virtual learning amid an increase in COVID-19 cases, which will affect more than 100,000 students.

Detroit Free Press reporter Sally Tato tweeted a list of schools with delayed schedules or shifting to virtual learning briefly (estimated student population added):

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Georgia’s Limited COVID Restrictions Reduced Economic Damage: Report

The Center Square

Georgia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic saved it from severe economic downfall, according to a recent report from the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO).

The GCO measured the impact of local and state governments’ actions in response to the pandemic on each state’s economy in a 510-page report, Assessing Each State’s Response To The Pandemic: Understanding The Impact On Employment & Work.

Each state had to temporarily close businesses and implement COVID-19 restrictions, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being unable to work. The GCO noted Georgia had been less severe in shutting down its economy when compared with other states.

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Trump Pick for Arizona Governor: Let Students Sue for Tuition Refunds to End Woke Brainwashing on Campus

Admin

GOP Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake proposes holding schools and colleges accountable for teaching students critical race theory by allowing parents to file complaints with K-12 schools and giving college students the ability to sue their state universities.

“They shouldn’t be teaching this garbage, where we’re teaching our kids to hate our country,” Lake told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Tuesday’s episode. “We need to have real American history.”

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Federal Taxpayers Pay Millions to Fund Program That Funds Students to Promote Critical Race Theory

The Center Square
Students walking on college campus

Federal grant records show the U.S. Department of Education has awarded millions of taxpayer dollars to fund critical race theory training for future educators at several colleges across the country.

In 2016 under the Obama administration, the federal government awarded its first five-year grant of $1,116,895 to North Carolina Central University (NCCU) for “training” college students in critical race theory.

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Commentary: The First Step to Rightsizing Education Spending Is Reforming Teacher Pensions

RealClearWire

In the past year, Congress has rushed more than $204 billion in federal emergency funds to states to support K-12 schools. 

But 23 states had fewer incoming students this fall. This declining enrollment is likely in part due to pandemic-related trends but is also a symptom of changing birth rates and families geographically relocating.

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Donald Trump Commentary: A Plan to Get Divisive and Radical Theories Out of Our Schools

RealClearWire
Teacher holding book, reading to boy student

As a candidate, Joe Biden’s number one promise was to “unite” America. Yet in his first months as president, his number one priority has been to divide our country by race and gender at every turn.

There is no clearer example than the Biden administration’s new effort aimed at indoctrinating America’s schoolchildren with some of the most toxic and anti-American theories ever conceived. It is vital for Americans to understand what this initiative would do, what drives it and, most importantly, how we can stop it.

For decades, the America-blaming left has been relentlessly pushing a vision of America that casts our history, culture, traditions, and founding documents in the most negative possible light. Yet in recent years, this deeply unnatural effort has progressed from telling children that their history is evil to telling Americans that they are evil.

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Tennessee General Assembly Passes Bill Banning Critical Race Theory Tenets in K-12 Schools

Corinne Murdock
Classroom of students.

The Tennessee General Assembly passed a bill effectively banning critical race theory (CRT) from K-12 education. The legislature had to create a conference committee on Wednesday to resolve the legislature’s conflict on amending language effectively banning CRT in schools. That conference committee not only approved the ban – they added onto the ban. In addition to the original language of the bill outlining and banning 14 tenets of CRT, The Tennessee Star was informed by State Senator Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) that the conference committee report added on three tenets. In effect, these tenets further defined the prohibited conclusions typically advanced by CRT.

“(12) The rule of law does not exist, but instead is a series of power relationships and struggles among racial or other groups; (13) All Americans are not created equal and are not endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; or (14) Governments should deny to any person with the government’s jurisdiction the equal protection of the law[,]” read the added provisions.

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New Website Allows Parents, Teachers to Upload What They Consider Evidence of Radical Curriculum

Admin

A North Carolina education advocacy group has launched a website to help whistleblowers expose what they consider radical curriculum in K-12 schools, including lessons on critical race theory.

The Schoolhouse Shock site was launched Monday by Education First Alliance and allows users to anonymously upload videos, pictures, documents and other material.

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