The Biden Administration’s recent announcement regarding student debt relief thrust the topic into the forefront of the news. Under the program, students awarded Pell Grants and who took out loans from the Department of Education will have $20,000 of debt canceled. Those without a Pell Grant will have $10,000 shaved off their outstanding balances.
Oversight Republicans have launched an investigation into how the U.S. Department of Education has handled billions of COVID-19 relief dollars, raising the alarm about the major learning loss experienced by students. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona demanding documents and answers as to why most of the money has reportedly remained unspent.
The nationwide elections last week included more than just primaries for statewide office. In many areas, there were also elections for school boards and other regional positions. In Florida, conservatives celebrated unprecedented success in defeating radical left school board members with moderate and coservative candidates. Multiple county school boards, including Miami/Dade – one of the […]
Greenwich School Administrator Suspended State Attorney General and Dept. of Education have Launched Investigations Connecticut’s Attorney General said Thursday he will investigate alleged discriminatory hiring practices at an elementary school where an assistant principal said he systematically eliminated candidates who appeared to be conservative, practiced a faith or were over 30 years old. The state […]
Center is part of a national movement protests Biden administration’s attempt to re-write federal regulations to punish schools and people that do not affirmatively further transgender ideologies Based on a media release today from the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity, Rhode Island’s only conservative public policy think tank has joined with over 130 organizations […]
BACKGROUND: The following is a post by Megan Reilly, a frequent guest on In The Dugout with Mike Stenhouse with regard to the ‘naked body fat testing” scandal that is unfolding in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Her Facebook group page, “Fixing a Broken System” has 257 members, but has come under criticism by school system […]
In Honor of July 4 Independence Day and the Upcoming 250th Anniversary of America’s Birthright of Freedom, the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity has joined the The Civics Alliance, a national coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to improving America’s civics education: The Civics Alliance’s model K-12 social studies standards, American Birthright, was launched yesterday, […]
Airing Thursday, June 30 at 4:00 PM EST. The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity has joined the The Civics Alliance, a national coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to improving America’s civics education. The Civics Alliance’s Model K-12 Social Studies standards. American Birthright, was launched one week before July 4, to honor Independence Day. Civics […]
(The Center Square) – Republican U.S. senators on Tuesday questioned Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona on the issue of school choice in the public education system. In his opening statement during a hearing of a Senate appropriations subcommittee,, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., emphasized the desire for parents to have options when choosing where to send […]
Does RI have the guts to give flexibility to those who educate the City kids while risking comparable changes in other districts?
We’ve come to a dreadful fork in the road. Down one way we would face our failure by tackling the system’s immobility with what would likely be called “nuclear” options.
As schools wrestle with finding some semblance of normal, remember that education’s pre-COVID normal failed to teach kids to read. National reading scores (NAEP) had been flat for decades, but in 2019, scores tanked – before COVID. Over decades, Massachusetts’ literacy efforts lifted their students to the top of the nation, but even they hover […]
There isn’t a student within the Providence school system – long controlled by union-Democrats – who can read.
Yet, the recently replaced principal of Hope High School, Matthew Buchanan, writes in the Boston Globe how concerned he is with the skin tone of the people replacing former administrators.
On May 4, residents of South Kingstown will be voting on an $85,000,000 school bond referendum.
That’s a pretty high amount for town residents to go on the hook for, mainly because the town’s student enrollment has been steadily declining but also because the cornerstone component of the proposed works, the high school, would not be newbuild but conversion of an existing school building. Two miles AWAY, by the way, from its current in-town location.
As there would be state funds involved, the project itself, its costs and its proposed funding sources have to be approved by the Rhode Island Department of Education. (Link here to the town’s facility application submitted to RIDE).
So the Ocean State Current reached out to RIDE with the questions below and received the indicated answers.
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for April 12, included talk about:
I’ll be on again Monday, April 19, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
Stanley Kurtz has written on National Review Online about the Republican-led bill currently in Rhode Island’s General Assembly to require a pernicious form of civics education in Ocean State public schools.
Perhaps it’s evidence of a sea change in journalism schools over the last decade, but it seems as if local news media outlets are taking the final steps into pure propaganda for the racist left-wing ideology.
Contrasting official statements from URI concerning controversies with its professors show a clear radical shift at the institution, and raise questions about whether Rhode Island parents can be confident in the safety and well-being of their children should they attend.
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for March 29, included talk about:
I’ll be on again Monday, April 5, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for March 22, included talk about:
I’ll be on again Monday, March 29, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
The brand of “civics education” being pushed at the state and federal levels would undermine representative government across Rhode Island and the country.
Rhode Island’s government is failing on every level. You’d think a news media that’s serving the public would be behaving as if that were the case.
Think about how bizarre a world it must be for a law school not to want somebody involved in a history-book-level case as a professor, even for a single course.
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for March 1, included talk about:
I’ll be on again Monday, March 8, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
Having Rhode Island so thoroughly under their command, insider special interests have little incentive to perform. No matter how central their role in some failure, they can be assured that they will gain by the supposed solution.
Down with charter schools! Is the Rhode Island state legislature waging war on the growing number of charter schools here in the Ocean State? If it is, could the reason be to aid their friends in the state teachers’ unions, even if at the expense of the constituents who elected all its members? You be the judge. Mark Zaccaria lays out the case and makes a summation.
Will the narrative vulnerability of the education-reform cause still hold in the face of the COVID response’s educational wasteland? It would be nice if somebody would take some sort of action to help us find out.
Mark Zaccaria examines the current conundrum in our public schools: Teachers don’t want to Teach, but they don’t want anyone else to, either. Too bad the RI Senate is aiding and abetting that stance.
California’s response to COVID-19 has been to lock down and lock down hard. The harshness of its lockdown is confirmed by its decimated economy and heavy out-migration.
Ten months later, California currently has the second highest average daily cases per 100,000 in the last seven days per the CDC. A couple of weeks ago, it was at the top of the list. Rhode Island, also a state which misguidedly chose to lockdown, is currently fifth highest.
Lockdowns, even if they worked exactly as hoped, were never a good solution because of the enormous public health consequences they inflict. Now California’s experience confirms indisputably that lockdowns do not work to stop or slow COVID-19.
And a study just released via Newsweek confirms this.
A study evaluating COVID-19 responses around the world found that mandatory lockdown orders early in the pandemic may not provide significantly more benefits to slowing the spread of the disease than other voluntary measures, such as social distancing or travel reduction.
As she edges out the door, Governor Gina Raimondo has admonished us to “stay the course”. Meaning stay locked down. She is bewilderingly putting on auto pilot a completely failed, highly damaging public policy.
When asked whether he will continue the state’s lockdown, incoming governor Dan McKee has stated (I believe on WPRO radio), “The infection rate is going to drive that”. In light of the complete disconnect between lockdowns and the infection rate, I would respectfully urge him in the strongest terms to re-examine that course and not repeat the mistake of his predecessor of disregarding the data and evidence. He has no obligation to continue any of her policies – but particularly one that has so obviously failed.
Let’s review eight months of unconvincing reasons for implementing, then not ending, Rhode Island’s COVID-19 lockdown, then go to the video tape for what’s looking like the real explanation.