Tag: public schools

Public Schools in Portland, Oregon Welcome Students Back With Message From a DRAG QUEEN

Public schools in Portland, Oregon welcomed students back to school for a new year with a video message from a drag queen, because of course they did.

The far-left city knows this is inappropriate and probably did it just to ‘make a statement’ about how much they despise traditional American values.

What they seem to have forgotten is that this is a ‘public’ school, meaning that their little stunt is connected to a taxpayer-funded institution. If there are any conservatives left in Portland, or even just people who aren’t completely insane, they should consider suing the people responsible for this.

FOX News reports:

Portland Public Schools (PPS) opened an official Facebook welcome-back video for teachers, principals and staff Friday with drag performer Poison Waters, who thanked district employees as the 2026-27 school year began.

Waters, whose legal name is Kevin Cook, appeared first and was identified onscreen as an advocate, educator and host. Waters thanked district employees for their work with students.

“I’m here to wish you all a successful 2026, 2027 school year and to thank all the amazing principals, teachers, and staff for your dedication to your students and their learning,” Waters said. “While we can often get caught up in the hustle and bustle, it’s so important to remember that together we rise with excellence and purpose.”

Heritage Foundation education research fellow Corey DeAngelis, a school choice advocate, criticized the district’s decision, which was flagged by Libs of Tiktok, in a statement to Fox News Digital Monday and accused PPS of promoting gender ideology.

“Portland Public Schools’ back-to-school video is beyond parody,” DeAngelis said. “The government school system is trying to groom young impressionable minds into gender ideology. They want to brainwash other people’s kids and replace their families. The school system has overstepped their boundaries and needs to stay in its lane. The public school system is rubbing it in that they have control over children whether the parents like it or not. Kids don’t belong to the government. Parents are responsible for passing down values to their children, not government schools.”

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Furious Parents Smash Their Way Into School Bus as Children Crawl Out Windows After Driver Refuses to Release Them for Nearly an Hour — One Parent Arrested

A California school bus ride home turned into a scene out of a third-world country Monday when furious parents smashed their way onto a Calaveras Unified bus and children started climbing out the windows because the driver refused to let the kids off.

The wild scene unfolded along Highway 49 near Russell Road in Calaveras County after students were held on the stopped bus for about an hour.

According to KCRA 3, the trouble began when a student reportedly tried to climb out a window before the bus had come to a stop.

The driver then pulled over, contacted law enforcement, and ordered the students to remain seated and roll up the windows. The children were reportedly kept aboard for nearly an hour while they waited for deputies to arrive.

Video recorded by a student shows the scene rapidly spiraling out of control as students shouted, parents gathered outside, children squeezed through open windows, and at least one adult climbed into the bus.

One 12-year-old student told KCRA that the children had been loud and excited to get off the bus before the situation escalated.

Nichole Wellington said her frightened son called her from inside the bus. She rushed to the scene and demanded that the driver release him.

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For Millions of Kids, Back to School Means Back to Pesticide Exposure

The Capistrano Unified School District in southern California has halted the routine use of pesticides and herbicides on its campuses for 60 days as concerns grow over a cluster of rare childhood cancer cases in Orange County.

The district includes Ladera Ranch, where 12 children and young adults have been diagnosed since 2023 with Ewing sarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer that develops in the bones or soft tissue, primarily affecting children.

Many families believe the official count doesn’t capture the extent of the health issues affecting children in the area, according to the New York Post. Other children have had rare illnesses and pets have developed early cancer.

The decision to suspend pesticide spraying comes weeks after hundreds of residents packed a Ladera Ranch community meeting demanding answers about the link to possible pesticide exposure and the children’ s illnesses, local news station KTLA 5 reported.

During the pause, the district will review the products currently approved for use and maintain campus landscapes using preventative management practices and manual weed removal. It is considering a resolution that would establish an annual review of the herbicides and pesticides used in the district’s landscape maintenance program and encourage the use of safer alternatives.

It also plans to provide families with a frequently asked questions document explaining the review process and the policy changes being considered.

The possible link between pesticide use and the cancer cluster in Ladera is shining a national spotlight on the use of pesticides in and around schools as tens of millions of children across the country kick off the school year.

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16 Facts About The Shocking Decline Of Public Education In The U.S. That Every American Should Know

Virtually everyone agrees that our public schools are in a state of decline. Needless to say, it isn’t because we aren’t spending enough money. The federal government, our state governments and our local governments are collectively spending nearly a trillion dollars a year on public education. That is a colossal pile of money. Since 1960, spending per student has increased by 350 percent. That is even after adjusting for inflation. At this stage, we spend more money per student than any other nation on the entire planet other than Luxembourg. Anyone that believes that we can solve our education crisis by spending even more money is simply being delusional.

For nearly a trillion dollars a year, we should be getting a world class education system.

But we aren’t.

In fact, students in the U.S. just keep dropping down the global rankings.

Urgent action is required if we are going to turn this around.

Gallup conducted a survey that discovered that an all-time low 35 percent of U.S. adults are satisfied with the quality of public education in the United States.

There appears to be a growing consensus that we have a major national crisis on our hands, and those that are responsible for this crisis need to be held accountable. The following are 16 facts about the shocking decline of public education in the U.S. that every American should know…

#1 Nearly one-fifth of all high school graduates in the United States cannot even read at a functional level…

National statistics indicate that close to one-fifth of high school graduates are unable to read at a functional level. This means they cannot effectively comprehend and use written information in daily life or work settings.

#2 Only 35 percent of high school seniors are proficient at reading, and only 22 percent of high school seniors are proficient at math…

The scale of the crisis is staggering. Only 35% of high school seniors read at a proficient level. One-third lack basic reading comprehension skills. In mathematics, the picture is even bleaker. Only 22% achieved proficiency. Alarmingly, 45% can’t even manage basic math. Around 2/3 are academically unprepared for college in math and reading. Even prestigious universities like Harvard must offer remedial courses for incoming freshmen lacking foundational skills.

#3 For high school seniors in the United States, math scores have fallen to the lowest level since 2005 and reading scores have fallen to the lowest level since 1992…

The latest report card on American education is in, and it’s devastating. The 2025 National Assessment of Educational Progress, released last month, revealed that the nation’s 12th-graders hit a historic performance low. Math scores cratered to levels not seen since 2005. Reading scores plummeted to their lowest level since testing began in 1992.

#4 According to the most recent NAEP assessment, only 28 percent of 8th grade students in the United States are proficient at math…

Only 28% of 8th graders scored proficient in math on the latest NAEP assessment. The effects are most severe in low-income districts, where school closures, chronic absenteeism, and staffing instability have compounded over time.

#5 In just one decade, the percentage of 13-year-olds enrolled in algebra dropped from 34 percent to 24 percent…

According to the OECD, our average student is almost a full year behind the average student from other countries. Singapore’s students are three years ahead of ours. According to the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), our students are also developing slower than in previous years. In 2023, only 24% of America’s 13-year-olds were enrolled in algebra. A decade earlier, that number was 34%.

#6 It appears that the pandemic had a substantial negative impact on both the reading skills and the math skills of our fourth-grade students…

In spring 2023, just 56 percent of American fourth-graders were performing on grade level in math, down from 69 percent in 2019, according to just one example of test score data cited in the report.

Declines in reading were less stark but still concerning, and concentrated in earlier grades, with 65 percent of third-graders performing on grade level, compared with 72 percent in 2019. Recovery in reading has also been slower, with some researchers finding essentially no rebound since students returned to the classroom.

#7 At this point, only 26 percent of U.S. adults can name all three branches of government…

Only 26% of American adults can name the three branches of government. Less than one-quarter of college graduates knew that the First Amendment prohibits Congress from establishing a national religion. Most adults have no idea how many Justices serve on the Supreme Court. Tragically, Princeton University found that barely one-third (36%) of adults could pass a multiple-choice test consisting of questions taken from the U.S. Citizenship Test.

#8 Almost two-thirds of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 are not able to identify the United Kingdom on a map of the world…

Sixty percent of students could not identify the countries the United States fought in World War II. Only 24% knew why the colonists fought against the British. Only 24% could identify Benjamin Franklin as a Founder with more students (37%) believing that he invented the light bulb. Our students fared no better in basic geography. A National Geographic study found that nearly two-thirds of Americans (ages 18-24) were unable to identify the United Kingdom (one of our most dependable foreign allies) on a world map. Closer to home, most young Americans were unable to identify the state of Ohio on a map.

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Man Accused of Threatening Mass Shootings at Five North Carolina Schools Released from Jail Days Before Classes Resume

A Charlotte man charged with making detailed threats to carry out mass shootings at five public schools has been released from jail just three days before students in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools district were scheduled to return to class.

The man’s release has sparked outrage among parents concerned for their children’s safety.

Drew Andres Owens, 33, was released from the Mecklenburg County Jail at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday after posting a reduced bond, according to jail records obtained by the New York Post, with the new school year beginning today.

Owens faces five felony counts of communicating threats of mass violence on educational property and has pleaded not guilty. The case remains pending.

Court documents explain that Owens allegedly sent emails on February 15, 2025, threatening to “slaughter staff and students” at West Charlotte High School, Ardrey Kell High School, Community House Middle School, and Hawk Ridge Elementary School.

A separate indictment involves a mailed threat against Garinger High School.

The affidavit claimed a student armed with two shotguns and an AR-15 would carry out the attack, though school administrators found no such student enrolled.

Owens’ own father, a West Charlotte High School ROTC instructor, confirmed to police that his son was responsible for the threats.

The Post reports:

Darryl Owens allegedly told authorities that his son had harassed relatives, neighbors and family friends after being removed from the family home in 2021, and had sent unsigned emails and letters threatening to kill or shoot people at multiple locations.

The father told police he had previously obtained a restraining order against his son, that Owens had been arrested for violating it and that the order was later dismissed.

He also told police that Owens had recently sat outside neighbors’ homes and photographed his car at West Charlotte High School “to try to lure him outside.”

His original combined bond of roughly $200,000 was later reduced to $60,000 for the primary case.

Owens is reportedly under electronic monitoring and ordered to stay away from school campuses.

Parents don’t think that is enough.

“Is he going to show up at one of the schools? It’s not good,” one parent told local station WSOC. “I’m not going to feel at ease; I’m not going to pretend it’s OK.”

Another parent told the station, “It’s really unnerving for some of us. We live in the area where he knows people, and again it’s not positive; it’s scary.”

“He’s out, and that’s it, and the rest of us have to deal with it, and teachers have to go to school on Tuesday and deal with it,” they added.

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METAPHOR ALERT: Barack Obama Elementary School in Virginia Closed Indefinitely Due to Mold and Rodents

Barack Obama Elementary School in Virginia has been closed indefinitely due to an infestation of mold and rodents. You could not make this up.

All of the other schools in the area are open for business. The school that is named for former President Obama is the only one with this issue.

At least one parent in the video report below claims that this is the second time that mold has closed the school.

CBS 6 in Richmond reports:

Mold forces indefinite closure of Barack Obama Elementary as new school year begins

Barack Obama Elementary School will not open this week due to mold, and students will temporarily relocate to Clark Springs Elementary School while remediation continues.

Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras said in a message to families Monday that teachers and staff setting up classrooms discovered “additional areas of mold growth (for example, behind bulletin board paper),” prompting the district to send everyone home for additional cleaning and testing.

“All of this is realistically going to take several days. So we will not be returning to the Obama building this week. Our goal is to do so by Monday,” Kamras wrote. “In the interim, we are working to get Clark Springs Elementary School ready as a temporary space. We’ll have more information about that by tomorrow. For now, school is closed on Tuesday.”

“Roller coaster is a good word,” said Samieh, a parent of students at the school for the past seven years, of the past five days. “The information keeps kind of cascading of ‘This is what’s going to happen. Oh, actually, it’s not what’s going to happen. Oh, we’re good. Oh, we’re not good.’.”

The district had already pushed back Barack Obama Elementary’s first day from Monday, Aug. 24, after air quality tests showed elevated mold spore levels inside the building.

Kamras said the mold growth stemmed from an HVAC outage that caused mold to spread in the school’s basement and on some furniture. The district also received reports of rodents in several rooms.

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Christian Club Files Lawsuit After School District Blocks Volunteer Mentors

A chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes filed a federal lawsuit against a New Jersey school district after the club was blocked from having volunteer mentors — even as they were allowed for other clubs.

The lawsuit, filed on Aug. 11 by religious liberty advocacy group Becket, alleged that two FCA clubs at Hopewell Valley Regional School District were banned from having volunteers under a policy forbidding outside mentors for religious clubs.

“While other student groups benefit from regularly hosting adult volunteers (a resource often crucial to the groups’ long-term health), the District has declared that for ‘religious clubs,’ ‘no outside individuals are permitted’ at all,” the lawsuit said.

“This damaging double standard is precisely the type of discrimination the Constitution and civil rights law forbid.”

Carolyn McDonough, FCA New Jersey Area Director and Hopewell Valley Central High School alumna, said in a statement that “as an inaugural member of FCA at Hopewell Valley’s Central High School, I know firsthand how much mentors mean to students.”

“They helped me grow in my relationship with Jesus and live out my faith through sports. Now I have the privilege of doing the same for today’s students. I pray the court will let me continue that ministry.”

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Schools forced into borrowing cash because Chicago is late on taxes

A “perfect storm” of convoluted bureaucracy caused Cook County, Illinois to spend 10 years and $63 million building a property tax billing software that did not work. 

Because tax collection was delayed, Chicago Public Schools were forced to take a loan to stay operational, incurring $33 million in interest costs.

Key facts: A July 21 report from the Cook County inspector general found that the contractor designing the tax billing software, Tyler Technologies, received conflicting information from three different government agencies involved with the project.

The county Assessor’s Office helmed the first stage of the project. But when a new assessor was elected, he added new requirements that delayed the project.

The Treasurer’s Office gave input later on, and asked Tyler Technologies to use different home ownership data than the Assessor’s Office had provided, according to the IG report.

The Treasurer’s Office staff also reportedly argued with Tyler Technologies about how to design the tax billing software. This created an “openly adversarial” work environment, according to the audit. At one point, county staff were told to intentionally withhold necessary data from Tyler Technologies, the report stated.

Eventually, the county hired another contractor just to serve as a liaison between government officials and Tyler Technologies.

The county also required Tyler Technologies to hire a local project manager, but the first three managers departed because of “knowledge gaps or interpersonal conflicts with county employees,” according to the IG report.

The Treasurer’s Office began using the new tax software in late 2025, even though the county’s Bureau of Technology warned that there were “hundreds of errors.” County homeowners have still not received their 2025 tax bills as of Aug. 8, 2026.

The Clerk’s Office and Treasurer’s Office said Tyler Technologies did not assign enough staff to the project, and that its programmers were not always present at meetings about technical issues, the report states. But the audit also noted that Tyler Technologies’ staff sometimes voluntarily worked seven days a week and without pay to try and resolve issues with the tax system.

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WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Detroit Public Schools Now Offering Students Cash Prizes Just for Showing Up

Public schools in the city of Detroit are now rewarding students for attendance with cash prizes and gift cards. Apparently, no one has told the students that going to school and studying hard is in their best interests and acts as its own reward.

Even parents can get in on the action if their children have good attendance records.

How did we come to this in America? Why are we even bothering with public schools at this point?

FOX News reports:

Detroit schools offer students up to $1,000 for perfect attendance as program expands

Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) paid students up to $1,000 for perfect attendance and is expanding the incentive program to middle schoolers after district officials say it successfully reduced chronic absenteeism.

Now in its second year, the Perfect Attendance Pays initiative targets the winter months — from Jan. 5 to March 20 — when attendance historically dips across the district.

“DPSCD is continuing the Perfect Attendance Pays initiative for the 2026–27 school year for high school students and expanding it to include middle school students,” a district spokesperson told Fox News Digital Friday.

“At the middle school level, parents of eligible students with perfect attendance during each five-day cycle will receive a $50 gift card.”

District officials clarified that the financial incentives are not funded by taxpayers or standard state educational aid.

“The incentive is funded through interest generated through district funds awaiting to be used for facility projects. Federal and state revenue is not used to fund the incentive, nor is the incentive offered on fall or spring count days,” the spokesperson added.

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UC Berkeley Math Professor Makes a Startling Revelation About Her Students as She Blasts School’s Woke Admissions Policy, Which an Obama Admin. Official Implemented

One of the nation’s supposedly most rigorous colleges is completely infested with unqualified students, forcing a calculus teacher to come forward with a stunning revelation.

Zvezdelina Stankova, a professor of mathematics at UC Berkeley, wrote a damning op-ed in the San Francisco Standard last week excoriating the university’s woke admissions standards, which Then-President Janet Napolitano implemented.

Back in 2020, Napolitano, who served as Homeland Security Secretary under former President Barack Obama, overruled a task force that urged the school to phase out the SAT and ACT.

She argued that doing so was proper due to pandemic disruptions and ‘equity’ concerns.

The Regents voted later that year to make testing optional. Then, a court ruling focused on access for students with disabilities required UC to become test-blind through 2025.

Due to this policy, Stankova noted that because the kids are so far behind on mathematics, she has to spend her time teaching middle-school math to them.

Not high school. Middle school.

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