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Featured Education News – June 2016

By June 28, 2016Featured, What's New

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Florida School Superintendent Defies Obama Bathroom Policy
By wkorach, The Report Card

Charlie Van Zant is the Superintendent of Clay County Schools in Florida, and he is challenging President Obama’s transgender bathroom order which requires schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom and locker room of their choice. President Obama came out and issued an order which requires all schools in the United States to allow transgender students use the bathroom of their choice. He also threatened to sue the schools if they did not comply and possibly withhold public funds.

Ohio School district Sues Feds For Demanding That Students Have Access To Opposite-Sex Locker Rooms
By Jim Campbell

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing an Ohio school district filed suit Friday against the U.S. departments of Education and Justice for making federal educational funding dependent on students sharing overnight accommodations, locker rooms, showers, and restrooms with the opposite sex.

 Christian Education Leaders: No Rush From Public Schools Yet
By Tom Strode

The Obama administration’s transgender directive for public schools does not seem so far to have provoked a widespread rush of families toward other education options, but it could be a factor if such a movement develops in the future, say leaders in the Christian school and home-schooling movements.

There’s No Corking DeWine on Obama Order
By The Family Research Council

If Ohio is the bellwether of America, then the president’s agenda is in a heap of trouble. The Buckeye State isn’t about to stand back and let the Obama administration take its schools hostage to a transgender agenda that puts its students at risk. This morning, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine joined the chorus of state leaders resisting the tyranny of the Departments of Justice and Education for its order that schools open their showers, bathrooms, and locker rooms to boys and girls — no matter how unsafe or uncomfortable it may make them.

The Bad, the Ugly and…the Perky
By Larry Sand

Three recent stories point to the self-serving teacher union mentality. The bad. Joseph Ocol was in big trouble when he came to the U.S. in 1999. As a whistleblower, he was placed in the government’s Witness Protection Program for calling attention to an election fund-raising scam in his native Philippines. Even with a double degree in Electrical Engineering and Education, he had difficulty finding work here. Ultimately he found a job as a mathematics teacher in a tough part of Chicago, an area notorious for drugs, crime and violence.

Los Angeles Teachers Union Sinks to Unmitigated Depths
By Larry Sand

The union war on charter schools has become even uglier, courtesy of UTLA.

On May 4th, the United Teachers of Los Angeles, in concert with the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS) – a radical union front group – planned a major protest to be held outside schools where charter schools share a campus with traditional public schools.

School Calls Sheriff to Stop 7-Year-Old From Handing Out Bible Verses
By Liberty Counsel

Liberty Counsel has demanded that Desert Rose Elementary School correct an outrageous violation of a first grader’s constitutional rights. The situation started with an encouraging note and Bible verse from mom Christina Zavala, tucked into a packed lunch for her little boy (“C”). The seven-year-old boy read the note and verse, and showed them to his friends during lunch time at school.

Teacher Shortage Claim Is Still Short on Data
By Larry Sand

No matter how many times it’s repeated, the national teacher shortage story is a canard.
In the months since I last wrote about the alleged teacher shortage crisis, I had hoped the hysteria would abate. But alas, it hasn’t; if anything, it has increased, with the teachers unions at the forefront of the bogus story.

How to End the Discipline Wars
By David Griffith

Is there a more annoying manifestation of our political and cultural divisions than the debate over school discipline? On the Left is the “restorative justice” crowd, clamoring for an end to “exclusionary” practices before critical questions about the impact of this step have been answered; on the Right are the “no-excuses” folks, asserting the necessity and efficacy of suspensions based on the blithe assumption that they promote order and safety.

Concord Junior High School uses ‘Issue-Oriented’ Lessons to Give Science Real-World Meaning
By Michelle Sokol

A tiny piece of mineral sat in bins at each of the lab stations in the Concord Junior High School science classroom, and it was up to students to determine whether the object was quartz or calcite.