Tag: public schools

New York City Projected to Spend $42,000 Per Student This School Year – And Their Reading and Math Scores Are Terrible

New York City is poised to spend an eye-popping $42,000 per student this school year, the highest figure in the country.

Some people might think this is a reasonable figure if New York City schools were also the top performing schools in the country, but they are not, not even close in fact. The city’s schools get terrible grades for reading and math.

How many parents in the NYC area do you suppose could do better by taking that $42,000 and spending it on a private school for their children, or even a full time home tutor? Don’t you think many parents would choose one of those options if they were available?

The New York Post reports:

NYC DOE projected to spend $42k per student this school year — the most in the country

The city Department of Education will spend a staggering $42,168 per student this school year, budget experts project, even as enrollment declines and student achievement stalls.

The record sum is nearly $2,000 per student more than the DOE spent last year, according to the nonprofit think tank Citizens Budget Commission. Students report to class Sept. 4.

The stunning figure is 36% more than the $31,119 the city spent per pupil just five years ago…

Despite the vast sums poured into the nation’s largest school system, student proficiency in English language arts and math continues to lag behind the rest of the state and country.

The “Nation’s Report Card” released by the National Center for Education Statistics in January revealed that just 33% of Big Apple fourth graders scored proficiency in math and 28% in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress last year.

Older students’ results were worse – 23% of city eighth graders met the national standards in math and 29% in reading.

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Potential DC school shooter arrested with guns after social media threat: ATF, MTPD report

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Metro Transit Police Department (MTPD) say that they stopped a school shooting in D.C. just one day after a mass shooter opened fire on a mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school.

The investigation began with an “alarming” social media post referencing a potential threat to a DC public school, according to MTPD’s Criminal Investigation Division. They have not yet revealed which school was targeted.

On August 27, MTPD and ATF conducted a search warrant at a District residence where multiple firearms were recovered, and a teen was placed under arrest.

“As part of our participation in a longstanding ATF task force, we’re proud of our officers who disrupted this significant public safety threat,” a MTPD spokesperson said. “We are focused on keeping our Metro system and community safe across the region.”

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Baltimore Schools Collapse Into “Failure Factory” Under Democratic Mismanagement

President Donald Trump said during a Cabinet meeting earlier on Tuesday, “I think one of the most important things we’re doing at this table is bringing education back to the states, where parents and local school boards run it.”

This leads us to President Trump’s executive order earlier this year to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. At the time, the president pointed to an uncomfortable truth for Democrats running Baltimore City Schools and City Hall: 40% of public high schools have zero students proficient in math. That damning statistic came from Fox 45 investigative reporter Chris Papst’s coverage of Baltimore’s education crisis. 

For nearly eight years, ZeroHedge has followed Papst’s investigative work through the trenches of school to school across crime-ridden Baltimore City. Papst has conducted all the investigative work through Project Baltimore, in collaboration with Fox45 News. He has spent years reporting on optically displeasing headlines that merely expose how progressive elites in City Hall and in the local school system seemingly rob generations of children of a future for short-term gain to line their pockets and funnel taxpayer funds into the Democratic Party machine, which is nothing more than corrupt unions. 

Many of Papst’s reports have gone viral, including the 2023 report cited by President Trump, which revealed that 40% of Baltimore City high schools had zero students proficient in math. 

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Independent school leaders BEGGED Tim Walz for help securing their schools 2 years ago…

Independent and Catholic school leaders begged Governor Tim Walz for help securing their schools two years ago, but he never helped did it. Rather he was focused more on the transgender pretenders and their cause.

Fast forward to today when a trans-terrorist murders Catholic school children in horrific display of hatred.

Here’s more from Daily Wire:

Two years before a shooter opened fire on students attending daily mass in Minneapolis, the leaders of independent and Catholic schools in Minnesota begged Democrat Governor Tim Walz for help securing their schools, according to a 2023 letter reviewed by The Daily Wire. The funding was never authorized.

In a letter dated April 14, 2023 that specifically addressed “school safety in nonpublic schools,” Tim Benz, the president of MINNDEPENDENT and Jason Adkins, the executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, stressed an “urgent and critical need in Minnesota to make sure our schools are secure and safe” in light of “recent, and continuing attacks, on our schools in this country and in our state.”

The letter says there are about 72,000 students in Independent, Catholic, Jewish, Christian and Muslim nonpublic schools within the state of Minnesota. It came just weeks after the shooting at a Christian school in Tennessee, which was also carried about by a transgender-identifying individual in their twenties.

“The latest school shooting at a nonpublic Christian school in Tennessee sadly confirms what we already know – our schools are under attack,” Benz and Adkins wrote. “In Minnesota, nonpublic schools, particularly our Jewish and Muslim schools, have experienced increased levels of threats, all of which we must take very seriously.”

“The tragedy from last week at Covenant School must never happen in Minnesota or in our country again,” they wrote. “We need to ensure that all [our] schools have the resources to respond to and prevent these attacks from happening to our schools.”

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Uvalde CISD calls missing Robb Elementary records a ‘mistake’; families say negligence

Attorneys for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District acknowledged this week that they failed to release all records requested in a lawsuit tied to the 2022 Robb Elementary School mass shooting, documents that could shed further light on the district’s response to the tragedy, calling the omission a mistake.

The admission came after a coalition of media companies, including Sinclair Broadcast Group, flagged missing materials in the district’s disclosures. The district’s legal representatives apologized publicly, insisting the error was not intentional.

“We are not in any way trying to hide anything,” one attorney told trustees during a tense meeting. “It was truly an error on our side.”

The revelation has reignited concerns among survivors and families of victims, many of whom have long accused school officials of withholding information about the shooting and its aftermath.

“I want accountability,” said Vincent Salazar, whose granddaughter, Layla, was killed in the attack. “The people who were there, who were responsible, did not do their job.”

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Armed drones designed to neutralize school shooters in seconds are being tested in several Florida districts

Three districts in Florida will be testing out a series of new drones armed with pepper spray pellets that are specifically designed to thwart school shootings.

Campus Guardian Angel, a Texas-based company that engineered the drone tech system, said that the exact districts will be selected by Florida’s Department of Education.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the largest district in the state, has already shown interest in participating and held test runs at a campus in July, CBS News reported.

The drones, kept in secure charging boxes on participating campuses, will be operated by FAA-certified pilots located in Texas.

But each drone can be activated by school officials on-site through a silent alarm or “other mechanisms,” according to Campus Guardian Angel.

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Federal Judge Orders Oakland Schools to Allow After-School Christian ‘Good News Clubs’ Equal Access

A federal judge has ordered the Oakland Unified School District to grant Good News Clubs equal access to school facilities as other after-school programs.

U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. issued a preliminary injunction, prompted by a lawsuit from Liberty Counsel representing Child Evangelism Fellowship’s (CEF) NorCal East Bay, requiring the district to allow Good News Clubs to meet on the same terms as nonreligious groups.

The suit, filed in December 2024, followed the district’s rejection of club applications at four campuses. Judge Gilliam ruled that the district’s actions violated free speech protections, rejecting claims that allowing the clubs would breach the Establishment Clause.

Decision Magazine reports:

Liberty Counsel, a religious liberty law firm, had filed a brief on behalf of CEF against the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) and Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell. Liberty Counsel says it will now seek a permanent injunction to guarantee Good News Clubs continue to receive the same access afforded other similar clubs.

According to the lawsuit, CEF applied for access on four different campuses over a two-year period but was denied on “religious grounds, pretextual schemes, and even by silence,” according to a Liberty Counsel news release. The district judge’s written opinion noted that one elementary school principal defended his opposition to CEF by stating, “[As] a public school, we are not in support of evangelism on our campus.”

In his ruling, Judge Gilliam cited a 2001 Supreme Court decision Good News Club v. Milford Central School affirming that schools cannot exclude religious clubs if secular groups have access. The ruling ensures Good News Clubs can hold weekly meetings like other programs.

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‘Right This Wrong’: GRACE Act Would Strip Federal Funding From Schools That Ban Religious Exemptions

A member of the U.S. Congress has drafted legislation that would strip federal funding from schools that don’t allow parents to apply for religious exemptions from vaccination requirements for their children.

The GRACE Act, or Guaranteeing Religious Accommodation in Childhood Education Act, drafted by Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), would target elementary and secondary schools, as well as local and state educational agencies.

The legislation would not require state authorities or educational institutions to offer religious exemptions, but it would deny federal funds to those entities if they maintain vaccine mandates that don’t include provisions for religious exemptions.

“The denial of religious exemptions to families and children is un-American and unconstitutional,” said Michael Kane, CHD’s director of advocacy and founder of Teachers for Choice. “CHD and I thank Rep. Steube for putting forth this important legislation to right this wrong that is a clear violation of the First Amendment.”

The GRACE Act is a response to the “alarming erosion of civil rights” that occurred under the Biden administration, said Cait Corrigan, a former congressional candidate from New York and an advocate for medical freedom and religious liberty.

“This issue is one of religious freedom, individual liberty and parental rights, which I often describe as part of a broader response to years of increasing concern,” Corrigan said.

Steube’s office did not respond by deadline to The Defender’s request for comment on the legislation.

‘A matter of conscience, faith and the fundamental dignity of every family’

Corrigan said the proposed legislation is “not just an issue of policy” but “a matter of conscience, faith and the fundamental dignity of every family in this country.”

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Canadian Teacher Suspended Over ‘Racist’ Zombie Makeup, Despite Fact Trudeau Got Away With It 3 Times – Now Teacher Has His Job Back With a Bonus

A Canadian teacher who lost his job after purportedly showing up to class in blackface as part of a Halloween costume has been reinstated with back pay.

The story highlights the culture of the left: If you’re a regular person, they will destroy your life. If you’re a powerful far-left politician, you get a free pass.

The U.S. saw the same situation play out in 2020, when Joe Biden was accused of sexual assault by former Senate staffer Tara Reade in the middle of the #MeToo movement. He wasn’t canceled and was instead crowned as his party’s nominee.

The Daily Mail reported that Gorian Surlan, a teacher at Parkdale Collegiate Institute in Toronto, was fired in 2021 after wearing what he said was a zombie costume to school.

He painted his face black using his daughter’s makeup and covered it with a mask to follow COVID rules.

Students were reportedly shocked. A photo of the teacher was sent to their parents. Complaints flooded the school.

The Toronto District School Board launched an investigation.

Surlan admitted misconduct and had his teaching license suspended in 2023. But an arbitrator has now ruled he must be reinstated.

Arbitrator Norm Jesin found Surlan guilty of “culpable misconduct” but said his career record justified suspension, not dismissal.

Jesin noted Surlan had acknowledged his mistake, adding, “This is an appropriate case for reinstatement.”

Surlan will return to work with a bonus — full compensation for lost wages dating back to October 2023, according to the Daily Mail.

Compare that with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had a habit of engaging in blackface in his youth.

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HHS Cuts California Sex Ed Grant over State’s Refusal to Remove Radical Gender Ideology from Student Program

The U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Thursday terminated a sex education grant to California due to the state’s refusal to remove radical gender ideology from the taxpayer-funded program, the agency announced. 

HHS, through its Administration for Children and Families (ACF), specifically terminated the state’s Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) grant, which is a program for students meant to prevent teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. HHS said California used taxpayer money to “teach curricula that could encourage kids to contemplate mutilating their genitals, ‘altering their body … through hormone therapy,’ ‘adding or removing breast tissue,’ and ‘changing their name.’” HHS said the state also instructed teachers to “remind students that some men are born with female anatomy.”

“California’s refusal to comply with federal law and remove egregious gender ideology from federally funded sex-ed materials is unacceptable,” Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison said in a statement. “The Trump Administration will not allow taxpayer dollars to be used to indoctrinate children. Accountability is coming for every state that uses federal funds to teach children delusional gender ideology.” 

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