Michigan Senate Republicans Push School Improvement Plan

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.

Read More

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

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.

Read More

Transgender and ‘Queer Theory’ Materials in K-12 Schools in All Continental United States: Map

Campus Reform surveyed the entire US and found instances of K-12 public school districts carrying children’s books with messaging about “gender identity,” some including sexually explicit material.

Read More

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

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.

Read More

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

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.

Read More

General Motors Funds Transgender Programs in Elementary Schools

General Motors (GM) gave a grant to an organization that supplies elementary schools with books promoting the transgender ideology.

The automotive manufacturing company donated money to the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) “Rainbow Library Program,” according to a 2021 Social Impact Report published by GM.

Read More

Commentary: Ohio PTA Reportedly Collaborates with TikTok

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.”

Read More

Commentary: Accreditation Is a Means of Government Control in Education

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.

Read More

State Board of Education Issues Resolution Against ‘Let MI Kids Learn’ Ballot Initiative

A proposed ballot initiative to allow tax credits for families seeking to send their children to private schools in Michigan sparked a rebuke in the form of a resolution by the State Board of Education.

Proponents are currently attempting to collect 340,047 signatures to place the Let MI Kids Learn program on the November ballot.

Read More

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

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.”

Read More

Eight Michigan Counties to Repeal School Mask Mandate

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.

Read More

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

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.”

Read More

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

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):

Read More

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

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.

Read More

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

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.

Read More

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

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.

Read More