Tag Archives: #Education

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Bureaucrats gotta bureaucrat It looks like the Philadelphia School District administration don't want to admit the basis of their problems

We noted, last Friday, the waste case that Martin Luther King High School in foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia has become. MLKHS at least has the ‘excuse,’ if it can be called that, of being a school in the depressed East Germantown neighborhood, with 100% of students coming from ‘economically disadvantaged’ families.

But what about a case like this?

One of Philly’s premier high schools is in turmoil, staff, parents, and students say

Enrollment issues, staff divisions and other problems are troubling Philadelphia’s storied High School for Creative and Performing Arts, those inside say.

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You in a heap o’ trouble, girl!

Our nation’s public school teachers are supposed to be intelligent and reasonably well educated. They are required to have baccalaureate degrees, and the vast majority of systems require teachers to obtain their master’s within about five years or so. Oddly enough, when I went to high school, back in the days of inkwells and quill pens, we had exactly one teacher who had his masters, yet I’d argue that we emerged from high school far better educated than what our public schools are producing today.

So, the obvious question is: why are so many of them so boneheadedly stupid?

Conestoga High School teacher facing 63 charges for allegedly having sex with student

Michelle Mercogliano, a special education teacher at Conestoga High School, was charged by the Tredyffrin Township police.

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Harvard University defends anti-Semitism and racial discrimination

Also see: William Teach, “Trump Admin Cancels $2.3 Billion In Funding To Harvard“

Hahvahd University is a private school, over which President Donald Trump, the hopefully soon-to-be-closed Department of Education, and the federal government in general have no direct authority. With an endowment of $50.7 billion as of the end of its 2023 fiscal year. Founded October 28, 1636, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, as well as the wealthiest.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Harvard Says It Will Fight Trump Administration Demands

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Why doesn’t The Philadelphia Inquirer report the whole truth about the city’s public schools.

Thanks to former city councilwoman Helen Gym Flaherty’s failed campaign for the 2023 Democratic nomination for Mayor of the City of Brotherly Love, this site has reported several times on the Edward T Steel Elementary and Middle Schools, noting something that The Philadelphia Inquirer never bothered to tell readers as Mrs Flaherty, who campaigned on her educational record, used that school as a backdrop for her campaign, proudly telling the voters that she helped keep the school from “going charter.” What didn’t the newspaper tell its readership? That the school had an absolutely abysmal academic performance. That school is ranked 1193th out of 1591 in Pennsylvania Elementary Schools and ranked 656th out of 875 in Pennsylvania Middle Schools. Schools are ranked on their performance on state-required tests, graduation, and how well they prepare their students for high school. In the current rankings, 8% of students tested grade-level proficient in reading, and 2% of students who scored at or above the proficient level for math. Continue reading →

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You in a heap o’ trouble, girl! Yet another teacher charged with molesting a minor

Elena Bardin and her husband, via the New York Post.

This story was in the Lexington Herald-Leader, but, adhering to the McClatchy mugshot policy, the Kentucky newspaper didn’t print the mugshot of the accused. Fortunately, the New York Post did.

Police: Kentucky teacher had sexual contact with minor, asked him to kill her husband

By Bill Estep | Updated April 4, 2025 | 11:31 AM EDT Continue reading →

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You in a heap o’ trouble, boy! Another teacher caught raping a student.

Christyan Cabrera, mugshot via WCNC.

As soon as I heard about this, checked all of the available articles, and, as usual, they all left out one pertinent bit of information.

Former Rowan County teacher appears in court after being arrested for alleged sexual relationship with a student

Christyan Cabera, 25, was a world history teacher at West Rowan High School. The district said he is no longer employed at the school.

by Nathaniel Puente and Jesse Pierre | Thursday, March 27, 2025 | 6:31 PM EDT | Updated: Friday, March 28, 2025 | 7:20 PM EDT

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. — A former West Rowan High School teacher was arrested for multiple sexual assault charges involving a 15-year-old student, authorities reported. Continue reading →

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Edward T Steel Elementary and Middle Schools Our current education bureaucracy hasn't done very much good, has it?

The First Street Journal has mentioned the Edward T Steel Elementary and Middle School several times previously, primarily in connection with former Philadelphia city councilwoman Helen Gym Flaherty and her use of the school as a backdrop in her campaign for the Democratic mayoral nomination in the spring of 2023, a nomination she very fortunately lost. Mrs Flaherty proudly proclaimed that it was thanks to her efforts that the school didn’t “go charter”. We noted, at the time, that the school at the time ranked 1,205th out of 1,607 Pennsylvania elementary schools, in which 8% of students tested grade-level proficient in reading, and a whopping 1% of students scored at or above the proficient level for math.

Well, that was then, and this is now, 1¾ years later, and the ranks have been updated Continue reading →

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Has the federal Department of Education actually improved educational outcomes?

The left are totally aghast that President Trump’s plans to shut down the federal Department of Education are beginning to be put into action. “Students will suffer harm,” CNN told us, after department’s civil rights office was ‘gutted.’ Education professionals in Charlotte are “sounding the alarm,” “Ten percent of the district’s funding comes from the feds, used to pay for basic educational needs, staffing and professional development,” and “‘We really don’t know who, which department, what positions, who’s controlling what really, it’s up in the air right now,’ said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board Vice Chair Dee Rankin.” readers were told, which raises the obvious questions: why are local schools being partially funded by the feds, and why should the feds be controlling anything? NBC News told us that “Experts say this week’s mass layoffs could lead to less research and support for children with special needs.”

But perhaps, just perhaps, it should be asked whether the Department of Education was actually improving education. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Lower Merion led racial equity efforts in the ′90s. But its achievement gap has only widened.

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A win for normality and common sense at Radnor High School

Radnor is a suburb of foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia, straddling Delaware and Montgomery Counties, about 13 miles west of the city and part of the “Main Line” suburbs. Both were carried by then Vice President Kamala Harris Emhoff, by slightly over 60% of the vote, but slightly lower margins than the Democrats won in 2020. I expect the opinion columnists at The Philadelphia Inquirer to be outraged by this:

Radnor bans three books in response to a parent’s challenge, including ‘Gender Queer’

An ad hoc committee convened by Radnor’s superintendent reviewed three books, and determined by a 5-1 vote that the challenged books “are not age-appropriate for students.”

by Maddie Hanna | Tuesday, March 4, 2025 | 2:01 PM EST

Radnor High School has removed three books from its library, including Gender Queer and another LGBTQ-themed book, after a parent alleged they contained child pornography. Continue reading →