In New Canaan, CT school officials are considering adding radio frequency tags to student or staff ID cards, or placing them on school property, like laptops. This is purportedly to be useful for tracking students during school emergencies.

I couldn’t have stated my opinion about this any better than the following comment from user, POIUYT,

“Why not just implant it in their wrist and stamp 666 across their forehead?”

Full story here

From their website:

Homeschool College USA (HC USA) is a website dedicated to helping students complete their high school education and study for college-level exams for credit, without spending a fortune. Thanks to the internet, a vast repository of information is available to anyone desiring to learn about any number of subjects. HC USA has gathered a collection of links, divided by individual courses, that may be used by students who are self-directed and ready to take responsibility for their educations and futures.

If you are looking to earn a college degree, either on the associate’s or bachelor’s level, but attending a “traditional” school is currently not possible, you may want to consider using a testing/examination program to meet your goals.

There are three accredited colleges that will accept your test scores for enough credit to be awarded a degree.* Known in some circles as “The Big Three,” these schools are:

• Excelsior College
• Thomas Edison College
• Charter Oak State College

Visit their site! It’s loaded with useful information.

“In all seriousness, I think schools should be open 12, 13, 14 hours a day, seven days a week, 11-12 months of the year,” Duncan said. “This is not just more of the same. There would be a whole variety of after-school programs. Obviously academics would be at the heart of that. But you top it off with dancing, art, drama, music, yearbook, robotics, activities for older siblings and parents, ESL classes.”

Why is it that homeschoolers, who spend far fewer hours a day educating their children, outscore public school students on standardized tests? In my opinion the desire of Arne Duncan to expand the school day is not about increasing the quality of education, it’s more about decreasing the role of parents and their influence on their children. It’s very frightening to think of government schools having control of our children for 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, 11 or 12 months a year. It will certainly increase the opportunity for politically correct indoctrination and brainwashing.

Read full article at DailyCaller.com

The cost for a K through 12th grade education for a student graduating from high school in 1980, was about $75,000, in 2009 dollars. The education for a student graduating in 2009 cost roughly twice that much. As you can see from the chart, the exorbitant increase in cost has resulted in absolutely no improvement in student’s academic performance.

Read the entire article at biggovernment.com

Two of the finalists this year (top eight) were homeschooled students. If I did my math correctly, that’s 25%. Since homeschoolers make up only about 3% of the student population, that’s a pretty good showing.

Congratulations to homeschoolers Lanson Tang, 14 from Potomac MD, and Elizabeth Platz, 13 from Shelbina, MO. Lanson missed leishmanic and tied for 5th place. Elizabeth missed rhytidome and tied for 2nd place. Homeschoolers have won the bee in 1997 and 2000 and tied for 2^nd in 2009.

In addition to a trophy, this year’s winner received:

• $30,000 in cash from Scripps
• $2,500 savings bond and reference library from Merriam-Webster
• $5,000 scholarship from Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation
• $2,700 in reference works and test prep materials from Encyclopedia Britannica

The second place finisher received $12,500; 3rd, $7,500; 4th, $3,000; 5th, $2,500; 6th, $2,000; and 7th, $1,500.

Following are the words Anamika spelled correctly in this year’s bee, including the winning final word, ‘stromuhr’.

Hosier said the beads comforted him since the loss of his brother and uncle. He refuses to take them off and could be suspended again if he continues to wear them to school.

Five students at a California high school – Daniel Galli, Austin Carvalho, Matt Dariano, Dominic Maciel and Clayton Howard, wearing patriotic U.S. shirts on May 5, Cinco de Mayo, were told they must turn their T-shirts inside-out or be suspended. Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez told the students he did not want any fights to break out between Mexican-American students celebrating their heritage and those wearing American flags.

The boys did not comply and were taken home by their parents. Matthew Dariano is part hispanic, but considers himself an American. The boys refused to apologize for wearing the shirts.

Full story at Foxnews

Neff has been placed on leave.

How often does this happen?

Here’s a video from 2006, taken by a student on a cell phone of a different drunk teacher. Note – I do not agree with the commentary after the school video indicating this was not a “big deal” or that it is fun to get so drunk you pass out. If a teacher is drunk in class, that’s a very big deal to me.

CBS News article

The girl’s mother had signed a consent form for use of the high school clinic, assuming that covered things like an earache, a sports physical, even birth control, but not for help terminating a pregnancy. The consent form did not mention abortion or facilitating abortion. The girl was told that if she concealed it from her family, the abortion would be free of charge.

“Free of charge?” Nothing is free of charge. Someone paid for this abortion. Is this what our taxes are being used for?

T.J. Cosgrove of the King County Health Department, which administers the school-based programs, says it’s always best if parents are involved in their children’s health care, but they don’t always have a say. “At any age in the state of Washington, an individual can consent to a termination of pregnancy.”

It is beyond bizarre that a teen cannot get their ears pierced without parental consent, but an abortion? No problem. What is wrong with our country? God save us.

ABC News Story