Tag: public schools

INSANE: School Superintendent in Fairfax County, Virginia is Paid More Than the President of the United States

Certain people who work for the public school system in Fairfax County, Virginia are making an absolute fortune.

They have a dedicated ‘Chief Equity Officer’ who makes almost $300,000 per year, but the lion’s share goes to the school superintendent who makes a whopping $469K a year, more than the President of the United States.

The salary for the US President is a lowly $400,000 per year. President Trump continues to donate his salary to White House and renovation projects.  You can thank Trump for making DC beautiful again!

On top of all these huge salaries, the Fairfax County district is experiencing declining enrollment.

What are we even doing here?

The Daily Signal reports:

When Local Bureaucracy Pays Better Than the Oval Office: Fairfax County’s Salary Problem

Fairfax County Public Schools Chief Equity Officer Nardos King makes $288,064 this year—more than every single member of the president’s Cabinet—Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, all of them—each of whom earns $253,100 to run a federal department.

King’s job is to oversee equity initiatives for one county’s school system. Virginia’s largest public school district holds “equity” at the center of its strategic plan, and King is just one of ten district “chiefs” whose salaries clear that bar. A public records request revealed that 13 Fairfax County Public School employees earn more than the U.S. Secretary of Education.

By comparison, Virginia’s Secretary of Education, Jeffery Smith, makes $229,136. In other words, it is more lucrative to be an assistant superintendent overseeing a small region of one Virginia county than to run the Virginia Department of Education.

At the top of the heap, Michelle Reid, Fairfax schools’ superintendent, is paid $469,936 a year—nearly $70,000 more than the President of the United States makes to run the executive branch, command the armed forces, and set foreign policy for 340 million people. Reid, by contrast, runs a declining school district with about 180,000 students.

Reid is the visible peak of a payroll structure that taxpayers have been quietly bankrolling for years—one that a batch of FOIA-obtained salary records shows has ballooned well past anything resembling fiscal restraint.

Who knew you can get rich working an administrative job in local education?

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REVEALED: Inside the Plan to Build ‘Trans Schools’ and Spread Their Lessons Nationwide

ANew York education group is planning a trans middle school—and wants its approach to reach classrooms far beyond New York.

Trans Formative Schools spells out its ambition:

“Eventually, we aspire to support trans teachers to launch trans schools around the country and the world.”

Its plans extend to teachers already working in other schools. The organization proposes national educator training and free classroom materials combining conventional academic subjects with sex education and activism.

It already operates a free afterschool program welcoming students ages nine to fifteen. Its advertised activities include “Activism/Transing School.” And this September, a philanthropic fund backed by MacKenzie Scott named the organization among its latest grant recipients.

The full middle school remains a proposal. The existing afterschool, published curriculum plans and new funding reveal how the organization wants to build toward it.

A middle school built around activism

The group’s school vision calls for teaching “transformational resistance” and empowering students to challenge racism, ableism, transphobia and what it describes as “other white supremacist systems.”

Its 2026–27 afterschool program operates at NYC Heritage of Pride in Manhattan. Alongside engineering, coding, creative writing and arts activities, it advertises queer media, student activism and exploration of identity. The program is open to all students in its age range.

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Trump Junks Biden’s Title IX Rules, Now Defines Sex by Biology

The Department of Education said Monday it will formally remove the Biden administration’s Title IX regulations and restore rules issued during President Donald Trump’s first term.

The change takes effect Tuesday. Under the final rule issued Monday, the Education Department’s anti-discrimination policy will recognize sex as male or female at birth. It formally removes Biden-era regulations that extended protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity to students and employees at federally funded schools.

The 2024 rules also forced schools to use transgender students’ pronouns and changed how schools handle harassment complaints. A federal court struck down the rules in January 2025.

The Education Department then told schools it would enforce the 2020 rules. Monday’s action puts that change into the published federal regulations; schools have already been operating under the earlier rules.

The department said the last lawsuits over the Biden rules were dismissed in August, clearing the way for it to formally remove them. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the move would make the written regulations match the court rulings and the rules her department has been enforcing since Trump returned to office:

Today’s rulemaking clears the Biden Administration’s illegal rewrite of Title IX from the Code of Federal Regulations and restores the commonsense language promulgated in the first Trump Administration, which we have been enforcing since the first days of the Administration. Thanks to today’s action, the published Title IX regulations faithfully reflects court orders and Congressional intent—reducing confusion for parents, students, and educational institutions. We will continue to relentlessly champion equal opportunity for all Americans and hold accountable any school or college that violates the rights, privacy, or athletic opportunities of our women and girls.

The rule follows a 2025 executive order from Trump directing federal agencies to recognize only male and female as sexes and apply that definition when enforcing laws against sex discrimination.

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Woke Grad School Teacher Programs Help Explain Why The Kids Can’t Read

The New York Times featured an in-depth essay from writer Nikole Hannah-Jones last week about the lamentable state of elementary and secondary education in the United States. The essay’s contents deserve (and are receiving) much criticism, thanks in part to Hannah-Jones sacrificing her daughter’s educational outcomes on the altar of wokeness and racism. But moral failings aside, the “1619 Project” author shines a spotlight on the failures plaguing American students not just in inner cities but across the map.

The recent release of results from last year’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests confirms on a macro level what Hannah-Jones described at length from a micro perspective. The international test of 15-year-olds showed that American youths continue to lag behind those in many other peer nations — which might have something to do with the woke ideology pervading the schools that educate the next generation of teachers.

Plummeting Reading Scores 

The PISA results brought discouraging news regarding the global competitiveness of American students. The Wall Street Journal noted that since 2018, “math scores in China have improved by an impressive 21 points (equivalent to roughly one year of learning) while those in the U.S. have fallen by 15 (three quarters of a year of learning).” And whereas more than half (54 percent) of students in the four Chinese cities tested qualified as “top performers,” fewer than 1 in 10 (only 8 percent) American students did. This is not a positive development given the importance of engineering and computer science in the global economy.

If anything, the PISA reading test results proved even more worrisome. Americans’ reading scores plunged by 14 points since the last round of tests in 2022, and they now sit near their lowest point this century.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which organizes the PISA tests, noted that reading scores have declined generally since 2012. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of the blame may point in the direction of smartphones and social media shortening attention spans. The OECD notes that “the share of ‘hasty readers’ — students who rush through texts and give quick but incorrect answers — almost doubled between 2018 and 2025.”

Education Schools’ Woke Obsession

But in the United States at least, another factor may help to explain students’ poor academic performance. A separate paper by researchers at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) illustrated the ideological obsessions within graduate schools of education, which train the next generation of teachers going into American classrooms.

The AEI study examined course reading materials and syllabi for master’s programs at 10 public graduate schools of education. As the paper notes, because many school districts pay higher wages to teachers with master’s degrees, these graduate schools have a ready-built pipeline of potential students.

Consider the titles of just some of the course readings in one school’s curriculum:

  • “Is an Antiracist and Decolonizing Applied Linguistics Possible?” 
  • “Theorizing Linguistic Racisms from a Language Ideological Perspective” 
  • “Writing, Rioting, and Righting Como Negra: A Testimonio of Black Latinx Erasure in Bilingual Education”
  • “Black Languaging [sic] as Anti-Racist Pedagogy in the World Language Classroom”
  • “World Languages for Black Linguistic Reparations”
  • “Toward an Anti-Racist Linguistic Anthropology: An Indigenous Response to White Supremacy.”

Note that these are all titles from syllabi at the University of Texas, a publicly funded institution in a purportedly conservative state.

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New York Teen Forced Out of School After Judge Denies Medical Exemption

A senior at a New York high school can no longer attend class as of today, after a federal judge declined to extend a medical exemption from the school’s vaccine mandates for the current school year.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Gary Brown of the Eastern District of New York ordered a New York school district to allow Sarah Doe, who had obtained a medical exemption, to attend high school during the 2025-2026 school year.

But in a ruling issued late Wednesday in Jane Doe v. Oceanside Union Free School District, Brown denied the renewed medical exemption request for the 2026-2027 school year.

Last year, Brown granted an emergency preliminary injunction allowing Sarah to attend 11th grade without receiving the third dose of the hepatitis B (Hep B) vaccine — the only recommended shot she hadn’t taken at the time — because her severe reactions to previous doses had left her sick and disabled.

When the lawsuit was filed, at least six treating physicians certified to the school district that Sarah could be harmed by taking the shot, according to court documents. The district nonetheless repeatedly denied her exemption requests. Since then, more doctors have affirmed that assessment.

Brown said last year’s decision rested in part on a physician’s report that Sarah experienced an anaphylactic reaction to an earlier dose, and evidence she had received the first two doses and had some immunity.

Brown also based his previous decision on an appeals court precedent stating that there had never been definitive proof that hepatitis B could be transmitted through “non-parenteral” routes like saliva — meaning passed in ways not transmitted through blood or broken skin.

After attending school last year under the court order, Sarah applied for a medical exemption from the Hep B vaccine and also the second meningococcal vaccine required for this school year.

The school district again denied her request. Sarah’s lawyers responded by filing an emergency motion seeking a new court order allowing her to return to school this year.

Explaining his latest decision, Brown said this year’s circumstances were “substantially different.” This year, Sarah would be attending school without two of the mandated vaccines, instead of one. And, he said, there was insufficient medical evidence showing that she could not receive the meningococcal vaccine.

“At the end of the day, Sarah is a child who just wants to go to school,” her attorney, Sujata Gibson, told The Defender.

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So-Called Moderate Governor Candidate Wants More Trans Books in Elementary Schools

Iowa Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rob Sand said he would oppose efforts to restrict books about homosexuality and transgenderism geared toward children.

Kailee Coleman, a social media influencer, said in an interview with Sand — who currently serves as Iowa state auditor — that she is a “banned book children’s author” and asked if he would allow further “book bans” in the state.

“If they try to do any more book bans, I’m going to veto them. My pledge is that I’m going to veto culture war bills,” Sand responded.

“I think that’s one of them. I want the legislature to be focused on issues that impact 100 percent of Iowans.”

The interview with Coleman and Sand was originally posted on TikTok and shared Thursday on X by Iowa First Media.

Coleman also asked Sand about the “changes” he would make as governor “to ensure our transgender and nonbinary neighbors feel safe and valued in Iowa.”

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Florida AG James Uthmeier: Sarasota Teacher ‘Tried to Cancel’ Eighth Grader for His Conservative Views

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said Sarasota teacher Liz Ballard “harassed, disparaged, and deliberately tried to cancel an eighth-grade student for his conservative views.” The AG blasted the teacher in a letter to the Satasota school district.

“I sent a letter to Sarasota Schools after a Pine View teacher allegedly labeled an 8th grader a ‘misogynist’ based on his political affiliation, ignored his parents’ wishes, and disparaged the child’s father,” Uthmeier wrote in a Monday X post, sharing the letter he sent.

“If true, she should be fired and never teach in Florida again,” the Florida Attorney General added.

Ballard, who teaches history at Pine View School in Osprey, Florida, is accused of singling out the boy as the “conservative perspective” in her classroom and later labeling him a “misogynist” — a slur she went on to spread around the school, Uthmeier said in his letter.

Moreover, the teacher engaged in this behavior despite the boy previously informing her that “his parents expressly forbid him to take part” in her debates, and even “openly questioned the suitability and influence of the student’s father,” the Florida AG added.

Uthmeier also noted that “multiple HR investigations initiated by multiple parents” against the teacher have nonetheless resulted in her continuing to teach at Pine View School.

“Ballard singled out this student and, in defiance of his parents’ express instructions, pressured him to defend political positions on demand in front of his class-mates. She made disparaging remarks about his father,” he said.

“By facilitating the spread of a damaging label throughout the school, she engaged in the reputational destruction of a child,” Uthmeier added, asserting that “Ballard’s deliberate bullying and harassment” puts her in violation of “Florida law, School Board policy, and at least six ethical principles.”

In his letter to Superintendent Terry Connor and School Board of Sarasota County members, the Florida Attorney General reminded them that “Florida law prohibits bullying or harassment of any student at any public K-12 educational institution.”

“Based on the foregoing allegations, if true, Ms. Ballard should be dismissed and her educator certificate revoked,” Uthmeier wrote, before calling on the superintendent and school board to inform his office “of the actions the district has taken, or will take” to address the matter by October 1, 2026.

On Tuesday, the superintendent acknowledged having received the letter, adding that members of the school board “take the concerns seriously and will respond to the Attorney General’s Office,” according to a report by WFLA.

“Every student deserves a classroom where they feel safe, respected, and free to learn,” Connor said. “No student should face harassment, humiliation, or retaliation because of their beliefs or their family’s views.”

“Respect for students and parents is fundamental to the trust our community places in our schools,” the superintendent continued, adding that “the allegations in the letter warrant careful attention.”

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Far-Left Philly Teacher Who Called Herself ‘Black and Palestinian’ Begs Her Comrades for Mercy as The Surprising Truth About Her Background is Revealed 

A Philadelphia woman is being compared to the infamous former NAACP President Rachel Dolezal after her cover as a Palestinian and black woman was blown up by other woke activists.

The New York Post reported on Wednesday that Hannah Gann, a Philadelphia teacher, was forced to admit that she invented her identity as a Palestinian after her comrades grew suspicious of her background and confronted her over it.

“I lied about my identity and have been lying for years. I have no Palestinian or Tunisian heritage,” Gann wrote on Instagram.

“I am a white woman of significant privilege and wealth. Anyone who supported me was manipulated and should not be judged as a result of their support for me,” she added.

In a subsequent video, Gann continued groveling to her comrades and revealed more about how deep her lies ran.

“I hid the truth or outright lied about my background to everyone in my life,” she stated.

Gann additionally claimed she “allowed half-truths and obfuscations to grow into outright lies” because she “genuinely wanted to commit to the work I was doing.”

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Nikole Hannah-Jones’ Racism Is Why Her Daughter Can’t Do Math

Nikole Hannah-Jones has curated herself an extremely lucrative, notoriety-winning career by blaming white people for black people’s problems. In her latest article for The New York Times Magazine, she does it again. It’s titled, “In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own?”

In it, the creator of the scholarly abomination known as the 1619 Project admits that her warped educational ideas have harmed her daughter’s future and their relationship. When her daughter finally convinced her parents to let her attend a more challenging high school, she went from getting straight As in math to “barely keeping up”: “After an assessment, the center’s director called me in and told me that Najya knew very little algebra and had huge gaps in many of the building blocks of math that she should have learned in elementary school, like mastery of long division and fractions.”

This was after Najya had gotten As in a previous algebra class and been on her middle school’s honor roll. For elementary, Hannah-Jones and her husband had deliberately enrolled their daughter in one of New York City’s worst public schools, which Hannah-Jones calls “a poor Black one.” In 2016, Hannah-Jones’ daughter was literally on the cover of NYT Magazine to flaunt her mother’s decision.

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Woke NYT, 1619 Project writer deliberately sent daughter to troubled schools as a ‘sacrifice’ — and it backfired spectacularly

The writer behind the New York Times’ controversial 1619 Project deliberately sent her daughter to poor Big Apple schools as a “sacrifice” to try to boost the education system — and no one is angrier than the kid.

The teen is now “boiling” mad — badly behind her peers after finally being allowed to enroll in a more rigorous high school, her mother revealed in a bombshell bizarre essay.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, 50, enrolled her only child in two struggling Brooklyn public schools beginning in 2015 — as part of a battle to change what she characterized as systemic racism, despite having the “connections and time and status” to get the girl into the city’s best schools, she wrote in the Times Magazine on Sunday.

That “status” included top-notch education of her own and financial security — she and her husband bought a $1.5 million Bed-Stuy brownstone in 2018.

But she said she still decided to offer up her daughter’s education for the cause of bettering the experience of black students in city schools.

By her own account, Hannah-Jones’ daughter Najya knows she was cheated by her parents.

“So you had money to send me to one of the best schools, and you chose not to?” the girl yelled in one fight, according to the essay. “Because other kids are disadvantaged, you didn’t want to put me in a great school?”

Hannah-Jones wrote of her decision, “We thought by sending Najya to a mostly low-income and Black school, we could help improve it for all the children there.

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