Tag: education

States Sue HHS Over Order to Remove ‘Gender Identity’ in K-12 Sex Education

A coalition of 16 states and the District of Columbia is suing the Trump administration to keep materials they say “recognize and affirm gender identity” in their federally funded K-12 sex education programs.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Oregon, is co-led by the attorneys general of Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington.

At issue is an order from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that prohibits what it calls “gender ideology” in lessons supported by two federal grants: the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and the Title V Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) program. Both are used to teach teenagers about preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Citing President Donald Trump’s order that no federal dollar should go into indoctrinating children in “radical, anti-American ideologies,” the HHS in August demanded that 46 states and territories remove references to gender identity from teaching materials or risk penalties, including the suspension or termination of funding. The deadline for them to comply with the conditions is Oct. 27.

“Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas,” Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary for HHS’s Administration for Children and Families, said at that time. “The Trump Administration will ensure that PREP reflects the intent of Congress, not the priorities of the left.”

The suing coalition argued that the order violated Congress’s spending power, and that terminating the funding through these programs will result in a loss of at least $35 million and will “harm the very populations Congress intended to help.” The coalition members also argued that compliance would conflict with their own laws and policies requiring “inclusive” sex education curricula.

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New Jersey Democrats Want to Force DEI and Wellness Checks on Homeschooled Children

Democrats in New Jersey are being accused of trying to mandate DEI instruction for students who are homeschooled because parents want to escape the state’s mandated brainwashing.

In an article for The Daily Economy, Corey DeAngelis said that there is more than meets the eye to some proposed state legislation.

DeAngelis said Assembly Bill 5825, which purports to ensure “oversight of home education programs,” is actually “a power grab that threatens the very foundation of parental rights.”

“The parent or guardian shall submit a copy of the curriculum that will be utilized in the home education program, which shall be aligned with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards,” the bill reads.

The catch, he noted, was that diversity, equity, and inclusion curriculum is as integral a part of state standards as reading, writing and arithmetic.

Assembly Bill 5796 calls for a child who is homeschooled to be inspected annually by an official of the school district in which that child’s family lives and undergo “a general health and wellness check.” The bill says the individual inspecting the child should be a counselor, social worker, or nurse.

DeAngelis said that putting parents under the thumb of the very educators they have sought to distance themselves from is an attempt to drag “homeschoolers into the same ideological quagmire they sought to avoid.”

“Parents who’ve chosen to educate children independently often do so to avoid the heavily political worldviews imposed in government classrooms. By effectively compelling homeschooling families to parrot political narratives on race, gender, and identity, such mandates confirm the odd ownership many Democrats feel over people’s kids,” he wrote.

Tethering homeschooling families to the schools they fled suggests New Jersey Democrats believe “government school administrators, not parents, hold ultimate authority over a child’s upbringing.”

“The Democrats are inserting the government as a wedge between children and their families,” DeAngelis wrote.

Will Estrada, senior counsel at the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, said to Reason that no states force homeschoolers to align with public school curriculum.

He noted that the curriculum imposed by a state is often the reason parents opt for homeschooling.

Estrada also said that “public schools are there to educate children enrolled in the public school, not to do health and wellness checks on children in the community at large.”

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Southern States of Mississippi and Louisiana Go Back to Teaching the Basics in School – Now Lead Liberal States Like California in Literacy

Anyone who follows education news, or just has children in public schools, knows that we have an education crisis in this country right now.

Grade school students in multiple states cannot read or do math at grade level. The problem already existed years ago, but shutting down schools during Covid-19 made things even worse.

Now, some states in the south have discovered a cure for the problem – Going back to basics and teaching things like phonics.

It’s amazing. If you focus on teaching kids to read rather than telling them about social justice and gender theory, they actually learn to read. Who knew?

Kelsey Piper writes at ‘The Argument’ on Substack:

Illiteracy is a policy choice

This month, the Department of Education released its latest edition of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the standardized tests better known as the Nation’s Report Card. The results have left me blazing with rage.

In my home state of California, for instance, only 30% of public school fourth graders can read proficiently. Fully 41% cannot even read at a basic level — which is to say, they cannot really understand and interpret written text at all. Eighth graders, as you might expect, look almost as bad…

But scores are not slipping everywhere. In Mississippi, they have been rising year over year. The state recovered from a brief decline during COVID and has now surpassed its pre-COVID highs. Its fourth grade students outperform California’s on average, even though our state is richer, more educated, and spends about 50% more per pupil.

The difference is most pronounced if you look at the most disadvantaged students. In California, only 28% of Black fourth graders read at or above basic level, for instance, compared to 52% in Mississippi. But it’s not just that Mississippi has raised the floor. It has also raised the ceiling: The state is also one of the nation’s best performers when you look at students who are not “economically disadvantaged.”…

First, it’s not just Mississippi — Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee have adopted the same strategies, stemmed the bleeding affecting states elsewhere, and seen significant improvements…

This is the part of the story that has gotten the most attention — teach phonics! And you should, indeed, teach phonics. But making schools adopt the approach took more than a mere nudge. The Southern Surge states have tried earmarked funding, guidance to districts, and outright mandates to accomplish universal adoption.

When schools embrace nonsense like gender and social justice, they do so at the expense of basic and necessary skills like reading and basic math, robbing students of learning the things they will need to succeed in life.

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L.A. School District to Ban Fifth-Grade Plays About U.S. History: ‘Culturally Insensitive’

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is banning a celebrated series of fifth-grade musical plays about American history at a local charter school because, the district says, they are “culturally insensitive.”

For nearly three decades, the fifth-graders at Marquez Charter Elementary in Pacific Palisades have performed musicals about crucial periods in the formation of the United States.

These include Miracle in Philadelphia, about the Constitutional Convention; Hello, Louisiana!, about the voyage of Lewis and Clark; and Water and Power, about the Industrial Revolution. (A fourth-grade play, Gold Dust or Bust, focuses on the history of California.)

The musicals, co-written by Jeff Lantos (with music composed by the late jazz pianist Bill Augustine), are so successful in conveying historical details that Marquez students consistently score off the charts in history assessments.

A 2004 academic study of the Marquez plays observed: “Students who attended Marquez Elementary School scored more than twice as many items correctly [on history tests] as did students from other schools.”

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Educational Crisis: Baltimore High School Fails To Produce A Single Proficient Math Student In Four Straight Years

President Trump’s executive order earlier this year to dismantle the Department of Education comes as the president highlighted a disturbing and inconvenient truth about Baltimore City’s Democratic Party-run “failure factory” school system: 40% of public high schools have zero students proficient in math. This damning statistic follows eight years of Fox45 investigative reporter Chris Papst’s coverage of the crime-ridden city’s education crisis. Keep in mind, the metro area is mainly controlled by leftists at City Hall, with virtually no diversity when it comes to Republicans holding positions of power.

A new report by Papst released this past week may catch the White House’s attention, highlighting yet another inconvenient truth about the stunning failure of Baltimore City Public Schools in terms of academic outcomes, proving that simply throwing more taxpayer funds at the problem is not a viable solution.

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Twelfth Grade Math And Reading Scores Are Worse Than Ever, Thanks To ‘Equity’  

The U.S. Department of Education recently released test results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, showing that American high school seniors’ math and reading scores have dropped to a new historical low.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Twelfth-graders’ average math score was the worst since the current test began in 2005, and reading was below any point since that assessment started in 1992.” Among these high school seniors, only 35 percent of high school seniors are proficient in reading, and a mere 22 percent in math. These troubling statistics contribute to an ongoing downward trend in educational outcomes that we have witnessed in recent years.

Extensive research confirms that extended school closures and remote learning during the Covid pandemic — largely influenced by the demands of teachers’ unions — have played a major role in the significant learning loss students are grappling with today. However, it’s crucial to recognize, as noted by the Journal, that declines in reading and math scores were already evident before the pandemic, and school closures only intensified an already alarming trend. The root cause of the troubling test scores among American youth lies in progressive education policies that undermine merit, favor ideological indoctrination over substantive learning, and promote the reduction of discipline in schools. These policies led to a crisis in education that we now must address.

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Damning Report Card: California Schools Get An ‘F’

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression Free Speech Rankings crowned California’s Claremont McKenna College with a grade of B- as the best college in the U.S. for free speech, while a string of other California schools received F grades amid anti-free speech environments across campuses.

FIRE released its sixth annual College Free Speech Rankings, which pulled responses on free-speech topics from 68,510 students attending 257 American colleges. The survey highlighted a decline in support for free speech among all students. 

Students on both sides of the political aisle are showing a deep “unwillingness” to face controversial ideas, the press releases stated. 

“This year, students largely opposed allowing any controversial campus speaker, no matter that speaker’s politics,” said FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff. “Rather than hearing out and then responding to an ideological opponent, both liberal and conservative college students are retreating from the encounter entirely … We must champion free speech on campus as a remedy to our culture’s deep polarization.”

According to the FIRE survey, Claremont McKenna College is ranked in the top 10 best schools for free speech on  “Comfort Expressing Ideas,” “Openness” and “Self-Censorship,” among other categories. 

Shortly after the horrific assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk at a Utah college campus event, Claremont Independent, the college newspaper, wrote a story on how CMC students reacted to the killing of Kirk.

“Even those who despise Kirk and everything he stood for should mourn the damage his assassination will do to America’s fragile architecture of free speech and civil discourse. There can be no picking and choosing in the world of free expression. It’s free speech for all, or free speech for none,” the editorial board wrote.

Out of the 257 schools surveyed, 166 of them received an F for their free speech climate. Only 10 schools received a free speech grade of C. Claremont McKenna was the only college to get a better grade than a C.

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Florida To Investigate Teachers Found Celebrating Charlie Kirk Assassination

Florida’s Department of Education announced on Sept. 11 that it will look into public school teachers who, on social media, celebrated or justified the assassination of Turning Point USA CEO and founder Charlie Kirk.

Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas sent a letter to school district superintendents telling them that he would be investigating after it was brought to his attention that some educators had posted “despicable comments on social media regarding the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk.”

“These few are not a reflection of the great, high-quality teachers who make up the vast majority of Florida’s educators,” he wrote.

“Nevertheless, I will be conducting an investigation of every educator who engages in this vile, sanctionable behavior.”

Florida’s Department of Education told The Epoch Times in an email that the commissioner was prepared to use all of his power to hold educators responsible if the investigation proves they should not be in a classroom based on their behavior.

That power includes revoking their educator certificate.

“Although educators have First Amendment rights, these rights do not extend without limit into their professional duties,” Kamoutsas said.

“An educator’s personal views that are made public may undermine the trust of the students and families that they serve.”

The commissioner cited Rule 6A-10.081 of the Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.), titled “Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession in Florida,” which holds the state’s certified educators to a set of ethical guidelines.

Kamoutsas said that a teacher could violate that rule if his or her conduct “causes a student or his or her family to feel unwelcome or unwilling to participate in the learning environment.”

He also cited sections of two Florida statutes that authorized the commissioner to discipline and sanction the certificate of an educator who “upon investigation, has been found guilty of personal conduct that seriously reduces that person’s effectiveness as an employee of the district school board.”

“Teachers are held to a higher standard as public servants and must ensure their conduct does not undermine the trust of the students and families they serve,” the commissioner said on X.

“We will hold teachers who choose to make disgusting comments about the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk accountable. Govern yourselves accordingly.”

The official action came after several voices across social media were raised to flag and speak out against people justifying or even cheering the assassination of the conservative influencer.

The social media app BlueSky was required to speak out against some of its users’ comments.

“Glorifying violence or harm violates Bluesky’s Community Guidelines,” the company said. “We review reports and take action on content that celebrates harm against anyone.

“Violence has no place in healthy public discourse, and we’re committed to fostering healthy, open conversations.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis praised Kamoutsas’s actions to hold the state’s teachers accountable.

“Celebrating the assassination of a 31-year-old father of two young kids is disturbing; that teachers would be among those who do so is completely unacceptable,” he said.

Since that announcement, several people began posting screenshots on X of teachers they caught publicly celebrating the assassination, and tagging Florida leaders and the respective school districts.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), an organization known for defending First Amendment rights on school campuses across the country, to get its take on this move by the Sunshine State.

Senior Program Counsel Stephanie Jablonsky told The Epoch Times in an email on Sept. 12 that while public school teachers retain their First Amendment right to speak as private citizens on matters of public concern, they do not have unlimited protection. However, the actions could be seen as unconstitutional if termination of employment is solely based on the disapproval of a person’s opinion.

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Britain Bans Israelis From Prestigious Military Academy

Israelis have been barred from one of Britain’s top defence academies because of the war in Gaza. The Telegraph has the story.

The Royal College of Defence Studies will not accept students from Israel from next year, the Government confirmed.

Amir Baram, the Director General of Israel’s Defence ministry, who studied at the college, said the decision was “a profoundly dishonourable act of disloyalty to an ally at war”.

In a letter to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), shared with the Telegraph, he called it a “discriminatory act” that amounted to a “disgraceful break with Britain’s proud tradition of tolerance – and plain decency”.

It is the first time that the college has excluded Israelis.

Maj Gen Baram said the decision came at a time when Israel was “defending international shipping from Houthi aggression, preventing nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of an Islamist regime that chants ‘Death to England’, and fighting to bring home 48 hostages from Hamas captivity”. …

An MoD spokesman said British military educational courses had long been open to personnel from a “wide range of countries, with all UK military courses emphasising compliance with international humanitarian law”.

He added: “However, the Israeli Government’s decision to further escalate its military operation in Gaza is wrong.” …

The Israeli Ministry of Defence said that the ban was on all Israeli citizens enrolling, not just soldiers. …

The exclusion of Israelis from the college is the latest in a string of punitive actions against Israel taken by Downing Street.

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Reading and Math Test Scores for American 12th Graders Hit 20 Year Low, Despite Massive Spending on Education

The reading and test scores for American 12th graders have hit a 20 year low, new analysis has found.

This is despite the fact that the United States spends more on education than most countries. New York City is currently poised to spend up to $42,000 per student this school year.

The closure of schools during Covid can be blamed in part for this, but there has to be more to the story than that.

NBC News in Chicago reported:

Nationwide test scores show U.S. high school students falling behind in math and reading

A decade-long slide in high schoolers’ reading and math performance persisted during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 12th graders’ scores dropping to their lowest level in more than 20 years, according to results released Tuesday from an exam known as the nation’s report card.

Eighth-grade students also lost significant ground in science skills, according to the results from the National Assessment of Education Progress.

The assessments were the first since the pandemic for eighth graders in science and 12th graders in reading and math. They reflect a downward drift across grade levels and subject areas in previous releases from NAEP, which is considered one of the best gauges of the academic progress of U.S. schools.

“Scores for our lowest-performing students are at historic lows,” said Matthew Soldner, the acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics. “These results should galvanize all of us to take concerted and focused action to accelerate student learning.”

Trump’s Education Secretary Linda McMahon spoke about this recently and explained that this is one of the reasons why the Trump administration wants to return education authority to the states, so that parents and local communities can get more involved in fixing the problem.

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