Tag: public schools

California’s War on Math

“California is America, only sooner” was an optimistic phrase once used to describe my home state. The Golden State promised a spirit of freedom, innovation, and experimentation that would spread across the nation. And at the heart of the state’s flourishing was a four-letter word: math.

Math made California prosper.

It’s most obvious in top universities like Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley, and UCLA. Those schools funneled great minds into California STEM enterprises like Silicon Valley, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and aeronautical engineering. Both the Central Valley and Hollywood—America’s main providers of food and fodder, respectively—rely upon engineering to mechanize production and optimize output. 

All of this has made California’s GDP $3.6 trillion—making it the fifth largest economy in the world as of last year.

But now “California is America, only sooner” is a warning, and not just because of the exodus of people and jobs and the decay of our major cities, but because of the state’s abandonment of math—which is to say its abandonment of excellence and, in a way, reality itself. 

Perhaps you’ve read the headlines about kooky San Francisco discarding algebra in the name of anti-racism. Now imagine that worldview adopted by the entire state.

On July 12, that’s what happened when California’s Board of Education, composed of eleven teachers, bureaucrats, professors—and a student—decided to approve the California Mathematics Framework. 

Technically, the CMF is just a series of recommendations. As a practical matter, it’s the new reality. School districts and textbook manufacturers are already adapting to the new standards.

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Teacher instructs 10-year-old to ‘make sure this email is deleted’ after private communications about student’s gender identity in Olympia, Washington

A teacher in the Olympia School District was privately communicating with a 10-year-old student about her gender identity, and even invited the girl to her house and suggested she set up a private email account and delete messages, “…otherwise when your mom looks, you will be outed instantly.”

Alesha Perkins, who has put a spotlight on the policies of the Washington school district obtained thousands of emails and documents as part of a public disclosure request and turned them over to the unDivided podcast.

According to host Brandi Kruse, the emails from the summer to the fall of 2022, is between Jennifer Knight, a teacher at Centennial Elementary School, and one of her 5th-grade students.

In an email to school staff on April 28, Knight said that the student, a biological girl, would now be using he/him/they/them pronouns.

“Crew Knight,” the teacher wrote referring to the class, “has a student who has recently changed their name and pronouns in school and this email is to inform you of that change because you work with this child in some capacity.” 

The student “…has opened up to me these past few months and has just requested this change. Please understand that this change is his right and is not to be questioned. Please also know that they are not going by this change at home, and we will not be discussing this with his family.”

The district’s policies allow for teachers and staff to conceal gender identity and other related issues from a student’s parents, similar to the state policy which reads, “…in general, school staff should not share a student’s transgender or gender-diverse status, legal name, or sex assigned at birth with others, who could include other students, school staff, and non-school staff.”

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Seattle public schools offer free sex change services to students as young as 13 without telling parents

The largest public school district in Washington State is referring students in the district to free “gender-affirming care.”

The Nova Wellness Center and the Meany Health Center offer “gender reaffirming care,” including hormone-blocking medications and referrals for sex change surgeries, which are available to middle and high school students in Seattle Public Schools (SPS).

According to documents obtained by Parents Defending Education (PDE), the health centers are operated by Country Doctor Community Health Centers (CDCHC) which offers “no cost comprehensive, trauma-informed, and gender-affirming care, conveniently at the school.”

As stated on its website, CDCHC provides services to “transgender, non-binary, and gender diverse patients.”

Services include “gender-affirming medications (estrogen, androgen blockers, testosterone, etc.) and injection techniques,” “hormone therapy for adolescents and specialty referrals for younger patients as needed,” and “referrals for gender-affirming surgeries.”

However, the center currently “does not provide puberty blockers” for “younger patients.” That requires “specialty referrals.”

According to SPS’s “Gender-Inclusive Schools: Transgender and Gender-Expansive Student Rights and Supports,” district staff “should not disclose a student’s transgender or gender X status to others unless (1) legally required to do so or (2) the student has authorized disclosure.”

Additionally, when staff is “contacting the parents/guardians of a transgender or gender X student and it is unclear whether the student asserts the same gender identity at home, it is best practice to avoid using gender pronouns.”

Seattle Public Schools told The Post Millennial in a statement, “Community healthcare agencies independently operate School-Based Health Centers in spaces provided by Seattle Public Schools. Seattle Public Schools does not supervise or participate in the provision of health care services in these clinics.” 

Last year, The Post Millennial revealed that the district saw an 853 percent increase in students that identify as non-binary in only three years.

In Washington State, such treatments can be given out to children without parental consent including for reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases, substance use, gender dysphoria, gender-affirming care & more.

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NY principal allegedly seeking sex with teen on Snapchat brought chicken nuggets, shake to remote location prior to arrest

An upstate middle-school principal used Snapchat to try to lure a 16-year-old girl to meet him in a remote location for sex — bringing with him condoms, chicken nuggets and a Grimace milkshake from McDonald’s, authorities say.

Johnson City Middle School Principal Daniel Erickson was arrested Friday and charged with luring a child and attempted rape, the Broome County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Erickson, 55, had been allegedly communicating with the teen for at least a week before his arrest.

The New York principal made statements to her that indicated he was “going to engage in sexual conduct with the minor,” the sheriff’s office said.

Erickson initially posed as a younger adult before revealing his true identity to the girl, officials said.

He then used “his position as the Johnson City Middle School Principal and school district database information to convince the 16-year-old girl who he really was,” authorities said.

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‘Woke or KKK’: NYU Hosts Whites-Only ‘Antiracism’ Workshop for Public School Parents

New York University hosted a whites-only “anti-racism” workshop for public school parents in New York City, barring minorities from a five-months-long seminar that legal experts say was a brazen violation of civil rights law.

The all-white seminar, “From Integration to Anti-Racism,” cost $360 to attend and met six times between February and June, according to a description of the program that has since been scrubbed from the university’s website without explanation. Organized by NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education, the workshop was “designed specifically for white public school parents” committed to “becoming anti-racist” and building “multiracial parent communities.”

But to promote solidarity with all races, participants were told, it was necessary that the seminar include only one.

A few days before the first session, facilitators circulated a short handout, “Why a White Space,” to explain “why we are meeting as white folks for these six months.” The handout, produced by the nonprofit Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere, argued that white people need spaces where they can “unlearn racism” without subjecting minorities to “undue trauma or pain.”

Facilitators reiterated this argument on day one of the seminar, audio and video of which was obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. When a parent questioned the premise of the workshop—saying it seemed “a little counterintuitive” to exclude minorities from an anti-racism seminar—Barbara Gross, the associate director of Steinhardt’s Education Justice Research group, assured her that it was for their own good.

“People of color are dealing with racism all the time,” Gross said. “Like every minute of every day. It’s a harm on top of a harm for them to hear our racist thoughts.”

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‘Majority Doesn’t Always Dictate’: Fairfax County School Board Ignores 84% Rejection of Gender Ideology

Democrats pose as the champions of democracy—except when democracy doesn’t go their way. After 84% of parents in a Virginia county rejected co-ed sex education and gender ideology in schools, the taxpayer-funded school board dismissively announced that “the majority doesn’t always dictate.”

Fairfax County has been a hotspot of crazy LGBTQ ideology and persecution of concerned parents for quite a while now. Woke or authoritarian nonsense from Fairfax schools includes making false statements about a dress-wearing boy who raped a girl in a school bathroom (before trying to get the victim’s father jailed), pushing pornographic books to kids, and suspending maskless students despite Virginia’s governor having lifted COVID-19 restrictions.

Despite being paid by taxpayer funds and thus being employees of the district’s parents, the school board has rejected poll results showing that parents in the county overwhelmingly reject gender ideology in schools and combining sex education for boys and girls from fourth grade onwards.

The Washington Examiner reported on the Fairfax County Public School board‘s outrageous reaction to parents’ opinions and details of the survey:

In a work session, the Fairfax county school board was presented with a poll showing 84% of parents are against children being taught “Family Life Education” together. It showed, out of the 2,656 respondents, parents overwhelmingly want classes separated by gender.

While students are currently separated based on sex, that could change with the new proposal. It would require co-ed sex education from fourth grade up.

Parents wrote overwhelmingly in the open-ended comments part of the survey that they were against teaching gender ideology in schools.

The county’s school superintendent, Michelle Reid, dismissed the survey’s results with the ridiculous remark: “Honestly, the majority doesn’t always dictate, right?” It does when they’re taxpayers and you’re their employee, Michelle.

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Change.org removes 12-year-old girl’s petition for single-sex bathrooms at her school

A 12-year-old girl’s petition to get bathrooms in her school that are segregated by sex has reportedly been taken down by Change, a petition-hosting platform. The petition allegedly had nearly 13,000 signatures when it was taken down by the site. 

The petition was made by a Twitter user’s daughter in May. The account on Twitter is called, “WomenAreSayingNO!” The user posted a link to the petition page.

The post said, “After being asked by many to make it an online petition, here is my daughter’s petition for single sex toilets in her school. PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE!”

When one navigates to the change.org petition, the page only says, “This petition isn’t available. Either the URL is incorrect, it violated our Community Guidelines, or the starter removed it.”

An archived version of the petition read: “I am a 12yr old girl and my school, like many, has open plan mixed sexed toilets with only sinks to act as a divide. This makes many boys and girls uncomfortable, with many refusing to use them.”

“I would like single sex toilets to be available so I, and many other children, can feel comfortable and safe when using more private spaces. I propose we have male only, female only and a mixed spaces to give people choice,” the petition stated.The account posted on Friday that the petition had been removed from change.org. The user tagged change.org and said, “Why are you taking my petition down that’s on behalf of my 12yr old daughter?”

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Lawmakers Push For Investigation Into Secret “Problem Codes” Database Kept on Unvaccinated Teachers

A group of nine Congressional representatives from New York have taken a united front, urging the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) to conduct a full investigation regarding secret “problem codes” databases, alongside fingerprints, that were kept on teachers who opted not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The representatives have penned a letter to the NYC DOE Chancellor, David Banks, expressing their concerns.

The gravity of the issue is rooted in the NYC DOE’s utilization of the same “problem codes” database — ordinarily assigned to individuals accused of severe offenses like child abuse, rape, or assault—for educators who were put on unpaid leave due to their refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19, as per an internal email in 2022. The comparison of unvaccinated educators with individuals implicated in heinous crimes has created a maelstrom of concerns.

Mary Holland, former president of the Children’s Health Defense (CHD), an organization actively advocating for a bipartisan congressional investigation since March, was emphatic about the lack of transparency. She stated that the city’s “unwillingness to be transparent about how and when these codes are used and under what circumstances requires a thorough and complete investigation.”

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Biden Admin Says Its COVID Spending for Schools Will Boost Test Scores. Districts Used the Funds for Staff Bonuses.

Decades-low eighth-grade reading and math scores are no reason to be discouraged, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Wednesday, because the Biden administration’s “historic” COVID-era school spending is poised to turn the tide. In many districts, a large portion of those funds have already been spent on lucrative staff bonuses.

A National Assessment of Educational Progress report published Wednesday found that math and reading scores among U.S. 13-year-olds are at their lowest levels in decades. Cardona responded to those findings by praising “positive results” in student achievement, arguing that the “historic investments and resources” provided by President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan would “reverse the damage.” In school districts across the country, however, a large portion of those funds did not go to more tutoring or new school materials. Instead, they funded bonuses for teachers and administrators.

In North Carolina, for example, the Wake County Public School System from March 2020 to April 2023 spent 78.5 percent of its total pandemic relief funding on salaries and employee benefits, according to the district. Chicago Public Schools—a district where union teachers repeatedly refused to return to the classroom during COVID—similarly spent 77 percent of its pandemic money on staff bonuses, salaries, and benefits. In Tennessee, meanwhile, the state’s comptroller found that a district funneled nearly $28,000 to one administrator alone. And in Nebraska, Lincoln Public Schools attempted to use COVID relief dollars to issue across-the-board teacher bonuses, but the state’s Department of Education said no.

The use of so-called emergency COVID funds to pay for five-figure staff bonuses reflects the stark divide between Republicans and Democrats on education policy. Democrats generally balk at school choice, shooting down taxpayer funding for charter schools in favor of additional public school spending. For Republicans, that spending is already at an all-time high with little to show for it and showcases the need to pursue alternative options rather than funneling more money to powerful teachers’ unions working to pay out their members.

“It turns out the hundreds of billions in taxpayer money that was ‘direly needed to safely reopen schools and improve infrastructure’ was a lie,” Nicki Neily, founder and president of parental rights group Parents Defending Education, said in response to districts’ using federal COVID funds to pay for staff bonuses. “The same teachers’ unions that kept schools closed are now misusing the taxpayers’ money to smooth things over with their growingly dissatisfied members through bonuses and raises. What a slap in the face to families.”

The Department of Education did not return a request for comment.

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Schools Are Now Allowing Children To Identify As Cats, Horses, Dinosaurs…

I seriously should have thought of this when I was a kid.  If I could have answered every question a teacher asked by meowing like a cat or roaring like a dinosaur, there is no way they could have ever accused me of getting an answer wrong.  And when it was time for a quiz or a test, I could have just responded to every question with a paw print.  Of course nobody would have actually been able to get away with such a thing decades ago.  When I was a kid, anyone that tried to pull this kind of a stunt would have been immediately marched down to the principal’s office.  But now we live at a time when we are supposed to allow people to identify as anything that they want.

Things have gotten particularly absurd in the United Kingdom.  According to an investigation that was conducted by the Telegraph, schools in the UK are now allowing children to identify as all sorts of things…

At a state secondary school in Wales, one student is said to ‘meow’ when asked questions by a teacher, rather than answering in English, the Telegraph reports.

In other schools, one apparently insists on being addressed as a dinosaur, one claims to identify as a horse while another is said to wear a cape and demands to be acknowledged as a moon.

In the old days, teachers knew how to deal with this kind of nonsense.

But today they are instructed not to correct the children because that would be “discriminatory”…

Pupils claim teachers are ‘not allowed to get annoyed’ about such behaviour in case it is seen as being discriminatory.

However, lessons are reportedly becoming completely derailed by these interactions, impacting the quality of their classmates’ education.

So these teachers in the UK literally have to sit there and make the best of it when students respond to their questions with “animal noises”…

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