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Eighty percent of the Anaheim school district may be Spanish-speaking, but parents know how to say one thing, “Enough!” When classrooms started passing off transgender propaganda as part the “wellness” curriculum, one mom made sure every Latino family knew exactly what the district was up to. Pretty soon, the message from moms and dads needed no translation: drop your campaign — or spend the next year fighting the community.

It started harmlessly enough. A year and a half ago, district officials sent word home that two elementary students were “transitioning” to another gender. They said they wanted the kids to feel safe. What they didn’t say is that they were forking over $12,000 to the LGBT Center of Orange County to start a quiet campaign of transgender “accepting” across Anaheim’s elementary schools. Shandra, a local mom and trained social worker, realized the district was trying to take advantage of the situation and slip controversial new programs into classrooms without translating them into Spanish for parents to see.

Well, if Anaheim wouldn’t tell moms and dads what was happening, Shandra would. She organized a parents coalition and told them about the schools’ “safe zones,” required reading like “Jacob’s New Dress,” and some of the advice from the schools’ “LGBT Coordinator.” Like, for instance, “If a child is struggling with their gender identity, don’t tell the parents.” It didn’t take long before schools were flooded with complaints. In the end, there was such fierce uproar that the district threw up its hands and relented. Diversity Week was canceled, and other activities would be under review.

For Shandra and moms and dads across the district, it was a huge victory. But for parents across the country, it’s another head-shaking reminder of the kinds of outrageous campaigns taking place right under families’ noses. Is it any wonder that homeschooling is exploding? According to a new report, the percent of American students learning at home has almost doubled from 1999 — up to 3.3 percent in 2016 from 1.7. But here’s the interesting part. The biggest jump isn’t in religious homes — but secular ones. Today’s homeschooling parents, the Pacific Standard points out, “aren’t the Christian Right.” They’re also “parents who don’t believe that the current school model is best, or enough, for their children.”

In fact, the share of parents who say they’re homeschooling for “religious or moral reasons” is half of what it was in 2003. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “The most important reason for homeschooling in 2016 was ‘concern about the school environment, such as safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure,’ reported by 34 percent of parents of homeschooled students.”

If you want to know how popular homeschooling is, just look at how desperately some liberals are trying to regulate it. Public schools are, after all, the Left’s direct pipeline to American kids. It’s the one place where they’ve had almost unlimited access to the next generation for their extreme LGBT, environmental, anti-faith agenda. Now that more moms and dads have caught on, the other side is doing everything it can to keep its tentacles around our young people.

In places like California and Maryland, lawmakers have tried to police homeschooling families out of existence with ridiculous ideas like twice-annual home inspections or “fire” safety checks. Over in Iowa, State Rep. Mary Mascher (D) just introduced House File 272, which would mandate health visits — another stunt meant to spook parents out of home-educating. “There are constant attempts by school districts all over the country to require things of homeschool students and parents that are not required by law,” Steven Craig Policastro told the Christian Post. Our friends at the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) keep tabs on a lot of the under-the-radar attacks in states. If you homeschool or have friends and family who do, make sure you check out HSLDA to get plugged in on legislation that affects you. Obviously, parents and community leaders need to be on their toes for Big Government liberals, who are worried they’re losing their grip on your children. The more moms and dads who get involved like Shandra, the sooner we can turn around this false notion that government knows better than parents!

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England’s school system is in crisis – could Labour’s National Education Service be the solution?

Probably not.  More political interference is the last thing the schools need

England’s education system is reaching crisis point. A major problem is the teacher shortage – as schools struggle to recruit and retain staff. Maybe this isn’t surprising, though, given a recent survey found that many state school teachers say much of their work is meaningless – reduced to being merely about capturing metrics rather than real learning.

Teachers in England’s schools are under enormous pressure to get good test results for the all-important league tables. This has led to a widespread “teach to the test” culture. There is also growing evidence of “dodgy practices” in admissions – all in a bid to boost rankings. One way this happens is by informal or managed exclusions of poorly performing pupils – who are often children with special educational needs.

This competitiveness, which permeates much of the system, is also having a negative impact on pupils. Mental health problems affect about one in ten children – and partly to blame are the marathon of tests they have endured from a young age. Children in England are among the most tested and least happy in the world.

Educational inequality is chronic in the UK. And the combination of high-stakes testing and selective schooling makes matters worse. The effect of social class is most prominent at the age of 11 when grammar schools get the opportunity to select pupils – most of whom have had access to private tuition. It’s no accident, then, that high-performing selective schools continue to be dominated by the wealthiest pupils.

With so much competition between schools, you might expect there to be choice – but it seems choice depends on the depth of your pocket. Consider, for example, the price tag of £204,000 in basic fees alone for a five year education at Eton – this, the top school in the UK, is only a choice for the most affluent parents of 13 year olds.

Issues beyond the school gates

The state of higher education no better. With funding slashed, more than 40% of total university finance now comes from student fees. And with tuition fees being among the highest in the world, students are forced to take student loans carrying exorbitant interest rates of between 3.3% and 6.3%. Though these do not necessarily have the same impact on students from wealthier families who can pay off the debt immediately if they want.

Universities are now offering more places and increasingly more unconditional offers to students in a bid to lessen their own serious financial struggles – which has tended to turn students into customers. And, as the labour market prospects for young people diminish, universities are marketing themselves as the most attractive in terms of “employability”. With this has come claims that grade inflation is rife and that too many students are being awarded top grades.

Academics are also struggling. Primarily to blame are increased workloads, many academics in higher and further education work on average more than two unpaid days each week – working unpaid weekends and evenings and missing out on holiday to get the job done. Academics are also more easily dispensable than ever before, with cheaper replacements – such as hourly paid postgrads desperate for a foot in the door.

A National Education Service

Previous attempts to address the emerging crisis have actually created more competition — as was the case with previous education secretary Michael Gove, who reloaded a distinctly neoliberal rather than progressive education policy agenda.

There has never been a revolution of the whole education system in England, but this is the ambition for Jeremy Corbyn’s National Education Service (NES), that would mirror the NHS. The idea is to radically change the structure and ethos of education – which is currently stratified and differentiated mainly by social class – by creating a new system that is universal and free at every level: “cradle-to-grave”. Labour also pledges to introduce free school meals for all primary school children, paid for by removing the VAT exemption on private school fees.

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Australia: Protesting kids ‘should be at school’

So far Question Time has progressed much as you would expect, with Labor asking about Michaelia Cash and Mathias Cormann, and pressuring the government to schedule more parliamentary sitting weeks.

One of the more interesting exchanges has come from Greens MP Adam Bandt and, of all people, Nationals leader Michael McCormack.

“Will you join me in congratulating the courageous school students going on strike on March 15, right around the country, calling for urgent climate action and the protection of Australia’s infrastructure?” Mr Bandt asked.

“Will you commend these young people and the 15,000 who went on strike last November, for taking time off school to show us what real leadership looks like?”

In short, no, Mr McCormack would not commend them.

“The children should be at school, that’s where they should be,” he said.

“They should be learning about Australian history, they should be learning about Australian geography, they should be learning about all the lessons that their teachers are willing to teach them.

“The member for Melbourne would do far better off advising those children to go to school and to stay at school.

“Who’s going to look after those kids when they’re out protesting? I know the Greens like to protest, because that’s all you ever bring to the national debate, protests and frivolous rallies.”

Mr Bandt eventually interrupted with a point of order.

“On relevance, perhaps the Deputy Prime Minister might also like to explain what the children should do with the science they’ve learned,” he said.

“Points of order aren't an opportunity to ask a supplementary question,” Speaker Tony Smith said, promptly shutting him down.

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