Tag: education

Biden Justice Department Sought ‘Federal Hook’ To Go After Parents As ‘Domestic Terrorists’: Documents

The Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden actively sought a “federal hook” to justify sending federal law enforcement after parents it labeled “domestic terrorists” because they were concerned about their children’s education.

Documents obtained by America First Legal (AFL) show that prior to the infamous Oct. 4, 2021, “domestic terrorist” memo from former Attorney General Merrick Garland, staff were looking for any possible way to go after parents concerned with coronavirus mandates, critical race theory, and “transgender” policies.

“We’re aware; the challenge here is finding a federal hook. But WH has been in touch about whether we can assist in some form or fashion,” Kevin Chambers, then an associate deputy attorney general, wrote in an Oct. 1 email, trying to manufacture a way to respond to a teed-up letter sent by the National School Boards Association (NSBA).

Career staff at the time were even concerned, saying there was no authority or legal basis for going after parents speaking out at school board meetings, particularly since they were protected by the First Amendment.

AFL said the new tranche of documents allows the organization to “complete the timeline” of how the NSBA and Biden DOJ and White House were colluding in order to go after parents. The legal group’s president, Gene Hamilton, said the emails show a “conspiracy that was ultimately aimed at depriving parents of two fundamental rights — the right to speak, and the right to direct the upbringing of their children.”

“They did so with political intentions, most immediately by attempting to influence the Virginia gubernatorial election, and to more broadly chill dissent across the United States,” he added.

The day after Chambers’ “federal hook” email, Oct. 2, Sparkle Sooknanan — who was then in the associate attorney general’s office and was later appointed by Biden as a judge on the federal district court for the District of Columbia — asked at 8:17 a.m. if anyone in the Civil Rights Division could assist in a response to the NSBA letter.

The Biden administration had already collaborated with the NSBA to produce the NSBA anti-parent letter, but Oct. 2 was a Saturday, and the timing implies that these Biden officials were looking to send their thugs after parents as soon as humanly possible.

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What NATO Countries Spend On Military, Health, & Education

NATO countries officially agreed to raise their defense expenditures to 5% of their GDP by 2035.

But how do their military expenditures compare to what they spend on health and education?

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, shows a side-by-side comparison of government spending priorities as a percentage of GDP for all NATO members.

Compared: NATO’s Spending on Military Vs. Education and Health

Currently, every NATO country currently spends less on its military than on health or education.

However, the new 5% of GDP target for defense spending is currently higher than what every NATO country currently spends on their military.

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Chicago Public Schools Going Broke – Facing $734 Million Budget Deficit and Laying Off Almost 1,500 Teachers and Staff

There’s an old saying that goes, something that can’t go on forever won’t.

Chicago is now in the early stages of learning that this applies to their public school system. They’re facing a massive budget deficit of $734 million and are on pace to lay off almost 1,500 teachers and staffers.

Perhaps Mayor Brandon Johnson should have been more focused on delivering the services that American citizen taxpayers paid for and less on the needs of illegal immigrants and Chicago’s ‘sanctuary city’ status.

BREAKING – Chicago Public Schools are now BANKRUPT as the city faces a $734 million deficit after paying for illegals, and must now lay off 1,458 employees, including 432 teachers and 677 special education classroom assistants. pic.twitter.com/8sAqN4rfHL

— A Man Of Memes (@RickyDoggin) July 14, 2025

NBC News in Chicago reports:

CPS parents concerned about looming budget cuts following layoffs

Chicago Public Schools parents and community members sounded off on Monday, three days after the district announced more than 1,400 layoffs, including teachers, classroom assistants and security officers.

The first of five community listening sessions took place at Dyett High School, allowing parents a chance to provide input on the budgetary process following layoffs.

The district’s chief budget officer painted a grim picture of where Chicago schools stand.

“We are facing a budget deficit of $734 million for the 2025-2026 budget. In plainest terms, we are $734 million short of of potential expenses next year,” said Michael Sitkowski, CPS chief budget officer.

Feedback from the roundtable discussions is expected to help district officials make major budgetary decisions.

“For us to pass a balanced budget, this means we need to identify $734 million of additional resources or cost reductions,” he said.

So, those in attendance got to work. Parents, teachers, and even students, took a serious look at their biggest concerns.

This was entirely predictable, wasn’t it?

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Tower of Babel: Nearly Two Million Non-Native English Speaking Students in England Schools

A report has found that almost two million students do not speak English as their native language in England as a result of the mass migration agenda imposed upon the country by the Westminster establishment.

Freedom of Information requests from the Daily Mail have revealed that in 2,039 schools in England, English is not the first language for the majority of students.

In total, the report found that 1.8 million students are non-native English speakers, or around one in five pupils in the country.

Zeroing in, at the Kobi Nazrul primary school in the Tower Hamlets borough of London, 92 per cent of students speak Bengali as their native tongue, while none were recorded as speaking English at home as their first language.

Another example highlighted was the Pentland Infant Kirklees school in Dewsbury, where the vast majority of students had an Indian language as their mother tongue, with 36 per cent speaking Gujarati and 45 per cent speaking Panjabi.

The number of students without English as their first language has increased significantly over the past decade, during which successive governments have undertaken record levels of immigration.

According to the report, there are now 700,000 more non-native English speaking students compared to ten years ago.

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Taxpayers will no longer fund illegal aliens’ education

Taxpayers will no longer pay for the education of noncitizens in the U.S. illegally, the U.S. Department of Education said Thursday.

The department said “it will end taxpayer subsidization of illegal aliens in career, technical, and adult education programs.”

A news release said that this change takes place due to an interpretative rule issued Thursday in which “the Department rescinded a Dear Colleague letter from the Clinton Administration that enabled non-qualified illegal aliens to access federal public benefits in contravention of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA).”

Title IV of PRWORA “generally limits eligibility for ‘federal public benefits’ to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and certain categories of ‘qualified aliens,’” the release said.

Federal public benefits include “any retirement, welfare, health, disability, public or assisted housing, postsecondary education, food assistance, unemployment benefits, or any similar benefits for which payments or assistance are provided to an individual, household, or family eligibility unit.”

In 1997, “the Clinton Administration issued a Dear Colleague Letter that erroneously exempted career, technical, and adult education programs from being subject to PRWORA,” the release said.

“In doing so, the Department’s interpretation mischaracterized the law by creating artificial distinctions between federal benefit programs based upon the method of assistance,” the release said. “Congress made no such distinction in PRWORA.”

The department’s release said that Thursday’s interpretive rule “also ensures that postsecondary education programs authorized under the Higher Education Act (HEA), such as Pell Grants and student loans, continue to be inaccessible to illegal immigrants.”

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the release: “Postsecondary education programs funded by the federal government should benefit American citizens, not illegal aliens.”

“Under President Trump’s leadership, hardworking American taxpayers will no longer foot the bill for illegal aliens to participate in our career, technical, or adult education programs or activities,” McMahon said.

“The Department will ensure that taxpayer funds are reserved for citizens and individuals who have entered our country through legal means who meet federal eligibility criteria,” McMahon said.

Director of Policy Studies Jessica M. Vaughan at the Center for Immigration Studies told The Center Square that “taxpayers should not have to subsidize vocational or other post-secondary education for illegal aliens, who aren’t allowed to work in this country.”

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School board chairman set to resign after ‘please shoot Republicans’ post surfaces

A school board chairman in Northern Kentucky has allegedly submitted his resignation amid revelations that he commented “please shoot Republicans” on social media years ago came to light.

The Erlanger-Elsmere Board of Education was slated to accept the resignation of chairman Jeffrey Miller at a meeting Thursday night, according to the board’s agenda posted online. The district includes eight schools and learning centers in Kenton County, including Lloyd Memorial High School, and has an enrollment of 2,399 students. It’s located about 11 miles south of Cincinnati.

The revelation comes after state Rep. Steve Doan, an Erlanger Republican, received complaints from constituents about Miller’s online comments.

The Enquirer reached out to the school district and Miller for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Doan called for Miller’s resignation

Doan received the complaints this spring while he was working to reopen a track at the district to the public in the evenings. He emailed officials, attended a few school board meetings, and posted about his efforts online.

That’s when he was sent screenshots of some of Miller’s Facebook comments.

One comment was posted to Facebook on Aug. 28, 2018, the day after a mass shooting killed at least three people at a Madden 19 video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, USA TODAY reported at the time.

In response to another commenter, Miller said on Facebook he would be OK with the National Rifle Association if “these psychos were just once the victims of a mass shooting.”

He followed that statement with “WINK WINK: please shoot republicans.”

Doan shared the screenshot with The Enquirer. Miller also made a comment on Facebook at some point that said “f— the police” and added that police are interested in oppressing people instead of serving the public.

Doan said it became clear that Miller is “definitely a loose cannon” so he looked into him further and found that Miller was found guilty of driving under the influence in 2017, after he had been elected to the school board in 2016.

A police officer said in Kentucky court records that Miller was “highly intoxicated” and nearly struck the back of a patrol car. Miller’s license was suspended for 90 days and he was sentenced with a $250 fine and 14 days of conditional jail time.

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New Jersey Lawmakers Are Considering 2 Bills To Heavily Regulate Homeschooling

New Jersey has as many as 94,518 homeschooled students, according to 2022 data from the National Home Education Research Institute. A series of bills being considered by the New Jersey Legislature aim to heavily regulate homeschooling and restrict parents’ and students’ educational freedom in the state.

In June, Assemblyman Sterley S. Stanley (D–East Brunswick) introduced Assembly Bill 5825, which would require all homeschooling parents at the beginning of the school year to send a letter to the local school district’s superintendent that includes the name and age of the student and the name of the instructor administering the home education program. Parents will also be mandated to share a copy of the homeschooling curriculum, “which shall be aligned with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards.” In addition to setting requirements for mathematics and science, state learning standards require lesson plans to cover issues such as climate change and diversity, equity, and inclusion in K-12 classrooms.

The bill would also require supervisors of the homeschooling program to maintain a portfolio of student records, such as writing samples, worksheets, and reading lists. The portfolio, which is to be submitted to the district superintendent annually, must also include a written evaluation of the student’s educational progress by a qualified evaluator. That person can be a licensed psychologist or teacher but not the student’s parent or guardian.

New Jersey is one of 12 states that don’t require families to check in with, obtain approval from, or file with the government to legally homeschool. Will Estrada, senior counsel at the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, tells Reason that no states currently require a homeschool curriculum to align with the public schools. Many parents, he adds, have pulled their children out of public school specifically because the public education system’s one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work for their child’s individualized needs.

New Jersey is also considering A.B. 5796. Introduced by Assemblyman Cody D. Miller (D–Turnersville) in June, the bill requires homeschooling families to annually meet with a public school official for a basic child welfare check.

While preventing abuse is a noble goal, lawmakers’ concerns over the welfare of homeschoolers appear to be misguided. Estrada points to a 2022 peer-reviewed study that found homeschooled children do not face higher rates of abuse and neglect. The study incorporated nationally representative data from 1,253 “previously homeschooled and conventionally schooled (public and private schools) adults,” who were asked to anonymously report about school-age experiences of abuse and neglect. The survey found that the type of school students go to “is a non-issue” in determining the likelihood of abuse “after considering the role played by demographics” such as family structure, years in foster care, large family size, and household poverty. The report’s findings are supported by a 2017 study, which found that “legally homeschooled students are 40% less likely to die by child abuse or neglect than the average student nationally.”

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Choice Tax Breaks: The GOP’s Federal Plan To Transform Education

Buried in the 940-page “big, beautiful” budget blueprint is an unprecedented tax credit that, if approved, will be a long-sought victory for the private school choice movement in its drive to expand and break into Democratic states that for decades have blocked its path.

The tax credit program, which would provide scholarships to K-12 students to pay for private schooling, would mark a significant shift in federal education policy. The scholarships would be the first major federal initiative designed to propel the nationwide growth of private school choice, a largely conservative and Christian movement championed by President Trump and suburban Republicans alike. It comes just as the Trump administration dismantles large parts of the U.S. Department of Education that support public schools attended by the vast majority of 50 million students.

The private school choice movement, which started in 1990 to give families more options aligned with their values and children’s learning needs, remains a small piece of the education landscape. It supports about 1.2 million students in private and home schools in 35 states, primarily in the South and West. Advocates expect that the proposed federal program would jump-start a new round of expansion by providing scholarships to families to make private school more affordable.

Beyond boosting participation, the program is also a wedge to crack into states controlled by Democrats. These blue-state lawmakers, backed by teachers’ unions, have long resisted private school choice as a threat to public school enrollment. The granting of scholarships, advocates say, would plant a seed of interest among families in Democratic enclaves at a time when enrollment and academic performance have been steadily declining at public schools.

“In terms of the number of students served and the geographic scope, it would be the most important piece of school choice legislation ever,” said Patrick Wolf, a prominent scholar of the movement at the University of Arkansas. “Advocates hope it will provide a proof of concept in blue states and show that if a few thousand kids get scholarships the public school system won’t crater.”

But the potential of the scholarship program to meet the advocates’ goals has been weakened this week in the Senate. The program was included in the massive budget bill because, as a standalone measure, it wouldn’t survive a filibuster by Senate Democrats. The budget bill can be passed by a simple Senate majority, provided it only addresses fiscal matters.

The Senate parliamentarian, however, objected to the scholarship program, ruling, to the dismay of Republicans, that it seeks to impose a policy on the states. In response, Republicans had to amend the initiative to allow states to decide whether to participate, a change that could hamper the movement’s efforts to breach liberal jurisdictions.

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HHS Cracks Down on Planned Parenthood’s Smut-Filled Sex Ed Programs with Defunding Warning

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) took a major step toward cleaning house at Planned Parenthood and similar organizations, issuing a sweeping policy directive yesterday that will defund programs promoting radical gender ideology, sexually explicit material, and medically inaccurate information, currently funded under the cover of “teen pregnancy prevention.”

The grooming of teens and pre-teens by left-wing nonprofits and programs is under attack by the Department led by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health issued Program Policy Notice 2025-01, which reaffirms parental rights, prioritizes medical accuracy, and mandates compliance with several recent Executive Orders, including those ending federal promotion of gender ideology, DEI, and what the administration calls “radical indoctrination.”

The move could wipe out millions in taxpayer funding for groups like Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, AccessMatters, Bridgercare, and dozens of other TPP grantees who have been pushing graphic sexual material to children as young as 11 under the federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program.

The government encourages 11 year olds to have sex, but just not to ever get pregnant. Pregnancy is treated by the left as a disease, but underage sex is treated as inevitable.

Among the federally funded lessons flagged for immediate defunding:

  • “Be Proud! Be Responsible!” (AccessMatters): Instructs children on how to “make condoms fun,” suggesting they “hide a condom on your body and ask your partner to find it,” “pretend you are different people,” and “wrap condoms as a present.”
  • “Making Proud Choices!” (Bridgercare): Teaches middle schoolers to practice putting condoms on penis models, with guidance to cut condoms into sheets for oral sex and discussion of flavored condoms for use during foreplay.
  • “Linking Families & Teens” (MOASH/AccessMatters): Includes gender pronoun identification sheets and materials normalizing gender transition and sexual activity among minors.

Planned Parenthood’s own entries are especially egregious. According to internal HHS review documents, Planned Parenthood’s programs often:

  • Promote hormone therapy for minors on affiliated websites.
  • Encourage preteen children to create a “plan to become sexually active.”
  • Include gender ideology that replaces biological terms with “internal” and “external” condoms.

“Effective immediately,” the new HHS policy states, “any content that fails to meet the standards of medical accuracy, age appropriateness, or relevance to teen pregnancy prevention will be deemed unallowable and subject to defunding.”

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Convicted sex offender from Kenya avoids deportation, lands state job

A Kenyan national convicted of sexually assaulting a sleeping woman in Minnesota wasn’t deported after his prison sentence — he was promoted.

Wilson Tindi holds a director position at the Minnesota Department of Education, where he audits taxpayer spending and oversees internal accountability.

Court records show Tindi was convicted in 2016 of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct after breaking into a woman’s home and assaulting her in bed where she slept. He pleaded guilty to the sex assault charge in exchange for prosecutors dropping a first-degree burglary charge.

Tindi was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to register as a predatory offender. His sentence was stayed for five years, but he was also sentenced to 210 days in the workhouse, records show.

However, despite the felony conviction and offender status, Tindi serves as Director of Internal Audit and Advisory Services at MDE, according to public records and his LinkedIn profile.

A former prosecutor with direct knowledge of Tindi’s case told Alpha News they were disturbed to learn he now holds a leadership role in state government.

“I don’t know how he would have passed a background check,” the attorney said. “He’s a felon and a registered sex offender—how is he employed?”

The attorney said that in addition to the 2016 conviction, Tindi was also accused of a similar crime in 2012, as court documents state. Although the case was never charged, prosecutors filed a Spreigl notice—a legal move to introduce evidence of prior misconduct—citing the 2012 allegation as evidence of a disturbing pattern.

“He is dangerous,” the attorney said. “He has no business being paid out of our taxpayer dollars and should be back with ICE.”

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