Education

The various ways that liberalism pollutes and warps the educational process.

Pre-school     Primary     Secondary     Higher     General

Foreign     Strictly money     Teacher unions     Unpleasant facts

Pre-school education

Head Start rife with enrollment fraud - May 19, 2010

"An undercover investigation into the federal government's Head Start program has found enough enrollment abuses to generate a report to President Obama and a major damage-control effort by the agency that runs the program."

Preschool ineffective for children - January 28, 2007

"Not only is expanded preschool ineffective in improving academic achievement, it may be bad for children."

Primary education

'Reform Math' - November 19, 2010

"Pay attention to what our children are being taught. Not even simple arithmetic is safe from progressive stupidity."

School makes boy remove American flag - November 12, 2010

"A school official at Denair Middle School told Cody some students had been complaining about the flag and it was no longer allowed on school property."

Students pray to Allah on field trip - September 17, 2010

"A Massachusetts school district has apologized to parents after a group of schoolchildren participated in midday Muslim prayers during a field trip to a Boston-area mosque."

Missouri school bans "Happy Birthday" - August 26, 2010

"...a Missouri elementary school tried to ban the singing of “Happy Birthday To You” in order to be “sensitive” about those students that might find singing in public to be “offensive.”"

Helena wants to teach 1st graders about gay sex - July 8, 2010

"A new health curriculum under consideration in Helena Public Schools is causing quite a controversy. The document covers everything from nutrition to injury prevention, but the section titled "Human Sexuality" is drawing the most concern. It lays out sex education topics for each grade, K through 12. In the first grade, children would be taught that human beings can love people of the same gender..."

Houston teachers teach kids to cheat - June 10, 2010

"The district said the educators had distributed a detailed study guide after stealing a look at the state science test by “tubing” it — squeezing a test booklet, without breaking its paper seal, to form an open tube so that questions inside could be seen and used in the guide."

NY passes students with wrong answers - June 6, 2010

"When does 2 + 2 = 5? When you're taking the state math test. Despite promises that the exams -- which determine whether students advance to the next grade -- would not be dumbed down this year, students got "partial credit" for wrong answers after failing to correctly add, subtract, multiply and divide. Some got credit for no answer at all."

Autistic boy charged with terrorist threats - May 13, 2010

"A fourteen-year-old autistic boy is facing terrorist charges after a sketch he made in school. The sketch shows two stick-figures. One of them is labeled ‘Me’ and is shown shooting a gun at another with a teacher’s name above it."

3rd-grader gets detention for Jolly Rancher - May 6, 2010

"A third-grader at Brazos Elementary was given a week’s detention for possessing a Jolly Rancher."

Field trip for black students only - May 3, 2010

"An Ann Arbor elementary school principal used a letter home to parents tonight to defend a field trip for black students as part of his school’s efforts to close the achievement gap between white and black students."

Kindergartner expelled for pointing fingers - February 12, 2010

"Manuel Alvarez eats breakfast and gets ready for school. He's eager but nervous. He was expelled February 8th from Barge Lincoln Elementary for making a gun with his hands."

Planned Parenthood pushes sex ed. for 10-year-olds - February 8, 2010

"A new report by the International Planned Parenthood Federation is advocating that children as young as 10 be given extensive sex education, including an awareness of sex's pleasures."

Teacher pervert still on payroll - February 7, 2010

"Olivares allegedly impregnated and married a 16-year-old girl he had met when she was a 13-year-old student at his Corona junior high, IS 61, The Post learned. He sexually molested two 12-year-old pupils a decade later and another student four years after that, the city Department of Education charged. But none of it kept Olivares, 60, from collecting his $94,154 salary."

12-year-old arrested for doodling - February 4, 2010

"A 12-year-old Queens girl was hauled out of school in handcuffs for an artless offense - doodling her name on her desk in erasable marker..."

8-year-old suspended for drawing crucifix - December 15, 2009

"An 8-year-old boy was sent home from school and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation after he was asked to make a Christmas drawing and sketched what appeared to be a stick figure of Jesus on a cross..."

Principal apologizes for homosexual program - December 3, 2009

"The principal and a teacher at Goleta Valley Junior High School in Santa Barbara County, California are apologizing to parents for not following school district policy relating to a pro-homosexual workshop given to 8th grade students in a leadership class at the school."

It’s a Fork, It’s a Spoon, It’s a ... Weapon? - October 11, 2009

"Zachary’s offense? Taking a camping utensil that can serve as a knife, fork and spoon to school. He was so excited about recently joining the Cub Scouts that he wanted to use it at lunch. School officials concluded that he had violated their zero-tolerance policy on weapons, and Zachary was suspended and now faces 45 days in the district’s reform school."

Aspiring teachers fail math - May 19, 2009

"According to state education officials, nearly three-quarters of the people who took the state elementary school teacher’s licensing exam this year failed the new math section."

Outlawing boyhood in schools - December 13, 2008

"In her book, "The Trouble with Boys," journalist Peg Tyre investigates an education system in which women principals oversee women teachers who treat girl behavior as standard. All the way down this gynocracy, normal male behavior (squirming in preschool, being more interested in war stories than relationships, pretending to shoot each other) is redefined as antisocial, threatening, or (most sinister of all) indicative of "special needs"..."

Secondary education

Another NEA myth - August 13, 2010

"For years, education lobbyists have been crying for greater taxpayer funding while ignoring schools that do more with less rather than those that do less and less with more and more."

Official cancels b-ball trip for political reasons - May 13, 2010

"Suzan Hebson, assistant superintendent of Highland Park, Ill., School District 113, killed the hoop dreams of the Highland Park High School girls' basketball team this week when she canceled their plans to participate in a tournament in Arizona in December. The decision has some parents and residents of the district crying foul over what they say was a politically motivated protest over the Grand Canyon State's recently passed immigration law."

School health clinic provides secret abortion - March 24, 2010

"The mother of a Ballard High School student is fuming after the health center on campus helped facilitate her daughter's abortion during school hours."

Berkeley's unbearable whiteness of science - January 4, 2010

"Berkeley High School is now poised to eliminate science laboratory classes because "science labs were largely classes for white students."" [More here.]

Student expelled for unloaded shotguns - November 20, 2009

"The Willows Unified School District board of trustees has expelled a 16-year-old for having unloaded shotguns in his pickup parked just off the Willows High School campus."

NY Eagle Scout suspended for pocketknife in car - October 13, 2009

"A 17-year-old Eagle Scout in upstate New York has been barred from stepping foot on school grounds for 20 days — for keeping a 2-inch pocketknife locked in a survival kit in his car."

Kids attend prom from "sexual hell" - June 12, 2009

"Family advocates are outraged by a prom held at Boston City Hall that was open to children apparently as young as 12 featuring crossdressers, homosexual heavy petting, suspected drug use and a leather-clad doorman who teaches sexual bondage classes. "

Kansas teacher fired for conservative views - June 12, 2009

"Tim Latham, who has spent the last 19 years teaching students American history and government, spent the past school year at a high school in Lawrence, Kan. — and it appears his first year at the school will be his last. Latham claims it has nothing to do with his abilities as a teacher and everything to do with his conservative politics."

High school student scolded for watching FOXNews - May 1, 2009

"A Michigan high school is investigating allegations that one of its teachers berated and belittled a student for taking part in what the teacher considered an unacceptable activity: reading FOXNews.com."

Higher education

Who is auditing the auditors? - December 14, 2010

"It is apparent the current administration has very little use for career colleges... The Dept of Ed has targeted career colleges by proposing new rules and regulations that would apply only to career colleges and not all college programs."

What Will They Learn?

"The search for the right college can be overwhelming. So many guides, so many rankings. There is one thing none of them will tell you: which universities are making sure their students learn what they need to know. This free resource does just that, focusing on seven key areas of knowledge. It's designed to help you decide whether the colleges you're considering prepare their graduates to succeed after graduation."

Academics as ‘sanctimonious bigots’ - September 17, 2010

"The refusal of women’s studies professors to publicly condemn honor killings, or academic advocates of gay rights to speak out against the treatment of homosexuals in Muslim countries, is just about as hypocritical as it gets."

Florida college shuts down conservatives - September 8, 2010

"School officials at Palm Beach State College kicked members of the Young American’s for Freedom off campus after they saw anti-Obama literature at their table."

Professors - September 6, 2010

"So what did I learn in the university? ... First was the false knowledge — odd for an institution devoted to free inquiry. The university runs like a 13th-century church in which the heliocentric maverick is a mortal sinner. So too on campus the Rosenbergs never spied. Alger Hiss was a martyr. Mao killed only a few who needed killing (see Anita Dunn on that one). Che was not a murderous thug, but a hair-in-the-wind carefree motorcyclist. Minorities supposedly died proportionally higher in Vietnam — as they supposedly do now in Iraq and Afghanistan. Women are underrepresented as both undergraduates and as humanities graduate students. Anyone with an accented name obviously had picked grapes or was denied voting rights. Adlai Stevenson was an American saint, even more so than George McGovern. Only the unhinged even discussed doubts about global warming. Don’t question any of the above; it was all gospel..."

Catholic professor rehired - August 5, 2010

"The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana confirmed to Alliance Defense Fund attorneys Thursday that it will once again allow popular professor Dr. Kenneth Howell to teach on Catholicism after recently firing him for explaining the Roman Catholic Church’s position on human sexual behavior to members of his class..."

Harvard Law vs. Free Inquiry - May 8, 2010

"The question of race and IQ is explosive. It has an ugly history, and it has been tied to cruel injustice. But the nefarious use of opinions about the biological basis of intelligence is no reason to denounce a student who advocates submitting competing claims to systematic inquiry."

Defining dumbness down - May 8, 2010

"Under the direction of leftist educators, the very institutions charged with the liberation of young minds from the chains of ignorance and groupthink have become increasingly effective indoctrination centers and breeding grounds for rigid, unreflective political orthodoxy."

Green mind control - April 29, 2010

"A review of the Princeton Review’s Guide to 286 Green Colleges shows that environmental “literacy” has become a mandatory education component at over three dozen “green” colleges, with entries for 37 of the 286 campuses indicating that these schools have an “environmental literacy requirement” for the student body."

Feds fund academic bias - April 7, 2010

"“While the safety indicators and educational environment in our classrooms and office buildings atrophy, we leverage funds from the feds to build fancy new buildings whose need is questionable. So, as with the country’s crumbling bridges, roads, and tunnels, the university’s infrastructure decays while we chase federal dollars for glitzy buildings, climate change projects, diversity programs, and other wasteful outlays in order to satisfy Uncle Sam’s dubious priorities.”"

Duke keeps pro-life group out of Women’s Center - March 19, 2010

"Duke University's Women's Center has canceled an event about motherhood because the sponsor was engaging in pro-life expression elsewhere on campus. A Women's Center representative told Duke Students for Life (DSFL) that "we have a problem" and an ideological "conflict" with the event..." [See Duke's apology here.]

Educated socialists - March 4, 2010

Twitter photo of Socialist Workers protesters who can't spell "whose."

Justice Dept. outlaws Kindles for campuses - January 13, 2010

"The U.S. Justice Department has struck deals with three universities not to promote Amazon's Kindle or other electronic book readers unless the devices are fully accessible to blind students."

Program teaches U.S. is "oppressive hellhole" - November 27, 2009

"A program proposed at the University of Minnesota would result in required examinations of teacher candidates on "white privilege" as well as "remedial re-education" for those who hold the "wrong" views, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education."

The cost of a diverse Naval Academy - June 14, 2009

"The Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced in Annapolis recently that "diversity is the number one priority" at the Naval Academy."

Protest stops Tancredo speech at UNC - April 14, 2009

"Hundreds of protesters converged on Bingham Hall, shouting profanities and accusations of racism while Tancredo and the student who introduced him tried to speak. Minutes into the speech, a protester pounded a window of the classroom until the glass shattered, prompting Tancredo to flee and campus police to shut down the event."

University dismisses student for personal beliefs - April 9, 2009

"A lawsuit was filed against Eastern Michigan University on Thursday after school officials allegedly dismissed a student from the school’s counseling program for not affirming homosexual behavior as morally acceptable."

Kent State professor Julio Pino wages jihad - February 28, 2007

"But, just in case you were curious about the purpose of this site, it is provided in the upper right corner: "We are a jihadist news service, and provide battle dispatches, training manuals, and jihad videos to our brothers worldwide. All we want is to get Allah’s pleasure..."

The Ward Churchill verdict - May 15, 2006

"Ward Churchill committed multiple, “deliberate” acts of academic misconduct, according to a review by a faculty panel, released today by the University of Colorado at Boulder."

Commentary on Ward Churchill - March 25, 2005

"Dr., Native American, original artist, serious scholar, combat veteran, highly recruited and sought-after academic, ex-Weatherman mentor: How many — if any — of these seven faces of our real-life Dr. Lao are true?"

General information

Education: The elephant in the room - November 19, 2010

"For the first two hundred years of America's history, there was little in the way of public education. Thus, from the middle of the 17th century to the middle of the 19th century, education was most often a family affair (though churches, literary societies, and apprenticeships also contributed to the education of early America's youth)."

Pushing junk science on children - October 6, 2010

"Secretary Arne Duncan wants to require schools to make children "good environmental citizens." The Secretary advocates indoctrination in the junk science of "climate change" as early as kindergarten in order to inspire kids toward future careers in "green jobs.""

Education gimmick of the year - August 5, 2010

"...the latest Gimmick of the Year Club nostrum has now arrived. This is national academic achievement standards -- officially called "Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI)"-- so experts can decide what every student, from rural Mississippi to New York City, should learn across multiple subjects and then diagnose successes and failure."

Loss of Language, Loss of Thought - July 2, 2010

"Loss of language among the younger population – that is to say, the ability to formulate and enunciate properly constructed sentences that reflect clear thought — is growing at a staggering rate in the United States. Even among students whose academic aptitude is well above the national average, my years as an undergraduate business professor show that four out of five will make grave spelling errors in written assignments or exams, and about half that regularly commit grammatical blunders."

Study confirms that vouchers work - June 25, 2010

"According to an evaluation released yesterday by the US Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences, the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) has “significantly improved students’ chances of graduating from high school.” The same study finds that “parents had higher satisfaction and rated schools as safer if their child was offered or used an OSP scholarship.”"

S.F. considers costly gay support program - February 8, 2010

"With everything from art classes, summer school and jobs on the chopping block this year, the San Francisco school board will decide this week whether to greatly expand school services, support and instruction on issues of sexual orientation."

Democrats kill D.C. charter school program - December 10, 2009

"House and Senate Appropriators this week ignored the wishes of D.C.’s mayor, D.C.’s public schools chancellor, a majority of D.C.’s city council, and more than 70 percent of D.C. residents and have mandated the slow death of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. This successful school voucher program—for D.C.’s poorest families—has allowed more than 3,300 children to attend the best schools they have ever known."

Impediments to reform in public schools - December 2009

"...change of the kind necessary to bring more rapid improvement in student outcomes and greater sustainable success is unlikely to be accomplished from within the public school system. The impediments to innovation and improvement may simply be too entrenched and too formidable."

Tucson schools create race-based system of discipline - September 19, 2009

"The board is calling for a two-tiered form of student discipline. One for Black and Hispanic students; one for everyone else."

Indoctrination without apology - August 20, 2009

"Grabar turns her attention in this report to the powerful National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), which says it represents K-12 classroom teachers, college and university faculty members, curriculum designers and specialists, social studies supervisors, and leaders in the various disciplines that constitute the social studies."

Los Angeles teachers paid to do nothing - May 6, 2009

"About 160 instructors and others get salaries for doing nothing while their job fitness is reviewed. They collect roughly $10 million a year, even as layoffs are considered because of a budget gap."

Members of 111th Congress & private schools - April 20, 2009

"...many Members of Congress who oppose private-school-choice policies for their fellow citizens exercise school choice in their own lives."

Textbooks in U.S. promote Islam - December 23, 2008

"For all who believe that there is a fairly objective rendition of history that we are obliged to teach our children, this book reveals how shockingly far from that objective American education-and particularly school textbooks-have fallen."

The Subversion of Education in America - February 13, 2007

"Those that have implemented the subversion of our educational system have sought to fly well below the radar of public awareness, depending on stealth and duplicity to achieve the wreckage that has already stunted the lives of thousands who have passed through it."

Teaching reverse racism - April 4, 1994

"The teachings are sheer fantasy, unsubstantiated by any credible evidence: ancient Egyptians mastered flight with gliders, which they used for both recreation and travel. They invented electric batteries and mastered electroplating, discovered the principles of quantum mechanics and anticipated Darwin's theories of evolution. Furthermore, all Egyptians were black, and their abundance of the dark skin pigment, melanin, not only made them more humane and superior to lighter-skinned people in body and mind but also provided such paranormal powers as ESP and psychokinesis."

Examples from other countries

U. of Ottawa stops Coulter from speaking - March 24, 2010

""This has never, ever, ever happened before — even at the stupidest American university," she said."

Education & money matters

Erosion of American higher education - October 5, 2010

"In America, the cost of higher education has been rising faster than inflation and health care costs for more than two decades. Money Magazine calculated that college tuition rose by 439 percent from 1982-2007."

The real cost of public schools - March 10, 2010

"Although public schools are usually the biggest item in state and local budgets, spending figures provided by public school officials and reported in the media often leave out major costs of education and thus understate what is actually spent."

The curse of teacher unions

Expensive, lengthy NJ teacher tenure process - January 6, 2011

"Education Action Group has produced an eye-opening chart illustrating the torturous, time-consuming and expensive process New Jersey schools must follow when attempting to fire a tenured teacher..."

13 Years in the 'rubber room' - December 27, 2010

"According to the New York Post, 75 year-old Roland Pierre has been soaking up $97,101 per year plus full benefits (including pension and vacation) for an astounding 13 years, ever since he was accused of molesting a sixth-grade student at Brooklyn‘s PS 138 where he had been employed since 1986." [More here.]

"Superman" fuels anger at unions - September 25, 2010

""The laws as they stand can protect ineffective teachers who are bad -- I'm disappointed in what the union's become," said Patricia Jordan, who won state teacher of the year in 1993. "Effective and wonderful teachers are stifled by the ones who are problematic and hard to get rid of," she fumed."

Broward union puts seniority over student needs - June 18, 2010

"The Broward Teachers Union held firm: Seniority outweighs student achievement when it comes to deciding who gets laid off."

Teachers’ unions exposed in The Cartel - May 5, 2010

"Low test scores. Rampant corruption. Tenure policies that make it all but impossible to fire incompetent teachers. Millions of wasted dollars. The Cartel connects the dots... proving that each of the isolated outrages is part of a much more sinister situation fueled by the intractable teachers’ unions."

Unpleasant facts about education

U.S. teens lag as China soars - December 7, 2010

"Fifteen-year-olds in the U.S. ranked 25th among peers from 34 countries on a math test and scored in the middle in science and reading, while China’s Shanghai topped the charts, raising concern that the U.S. isn’t prepared to succeed in the global economy." [More here.]

The kids can't read - June 21, 2010

"Forty percent of Atlanta eight-grade students tested Below Basic proficiency in reading on the 2009 edition of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the federal exam of academic achievement. Essentially two out of every five Atlanta students heading into high school are functionally illiterate..."

School spending doesn't reach the classroom - April 2, 2010

"In 2000, Arizona was spending only 57.7 cents of every education dollar in the classroom. That fact helped persuade voters to pass Proposition 301, which boosted the state sales tax to fund classroom spending with higher teacher salaries, more instruction aids and other needs. Ten years later, the percentage of education funds spent in the classroom has changed: it is now only 56.9 cents per dollar..."