Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Public Schools

Faith and Free Speech Prevail in Colorado Student’s Parking Space Battle
Fox News, Approved, Local

Faith and Free Speech Prevail in Colorado Student’s Parking Space Battle

By: Kristine Parks | Fox News Sophia Shumaker's shepherd and sheep design initially rejected under religious imagery ban A Colorado high school student who challenged her school's ban on religious designs for senior parking spaces will now be allowed to repaint her space to reflect her Christian faith. In August, Sophia Shumaker, a senior at Rampart High School in Colorado Springs' Academy School District 20, requested permission to decorate her paid parking space with a design illustrating Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep. The school has a tradition of allowing seniors to reserve and pay for their own parking space and decorate it with school-approved artwork. Shumaker’s design featured a shepherd, a staff and sheep, along with a reference to the Bible verse 1 Cor...
The conservative candidates—Sheldon Kier and Adena Kreutz—are best for Delta Schools
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

The conservative candidates—Sheldon Kier and Adena Kreutz—are best for Delta Schools

By Angie Many | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice As Colorado mandates more and more laws affecting students and school districts, school board elections have become increasingly important. Unfortunately, despite the importance of electing members to guide school policies, such ‘off-year’ elections traditionally have poor voter turnout. ‘We the people’ need to start paying more attention and devoting a little time to learning more about the people who will have such an impact on the education – and the indoctrination – that our children receive. And then we need to vote. Delta County has five candidates in this year’s school board election. Two of them will, in my opinion, help to restore common sense and sanity to school policies and keep government influence at a minimum. ...
School District Faces Backlash After Banning Bible Verse in Student Artwork
BizPac Review, Approved, Local

School District Faces Backlash After Banning Bible Verse in Student Artwork

By: Chris Donaldson | BizPac Review A Colorado high school set off a free speech battle after it refused to allow a Christian senior to use religious imagery to decorate her personal parking spot in what she says is a violation of her First Amendment rights. Sophia Shumaker was only looking to express her faith when she submitted her original design depicting a shepherd, a sheep, and a Bible verse to Rampart High School, only to have it denied because the school’s guidelines prohibit anything that is “offensive, negative, rude, gang-related, political, or religious.” “The shepherd and the sheep, the 99 sheep basically represent the shepherd leaves the 99 sheep to go find the lost one,” she told Fox 21 News. https://twitter.com/FOX21News/status/1981405727550763392 ...
Parents vs. unions: The battle over Mesa County’s schools
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Parents vs. unions: The battle over Mesa County’s schools

By Kent Zook | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The same people and organizations trying to replace District 51 School board members, Andrea Haitz, Will Jones, and Angela Lema are the ones responsible for neglecting our schools in the first place. Previous board leadership allowed facilities to deteriorate to the point that repair costs became unfeasible. Union-backed leaders pushed for schools to remain closed longer during COVID-19 and for students to continue masking despite mounting evidence that masks did little to prevent transmission. On August 17, 2021, under the old union-backed board, a public meeting abruptly ended after just 30 minutes of comment, even though 45 minutes had been allotted. The board members, backed by the union, simply walked out with a police escort...
Teachers Union Criticized for Letting Radical Groups Shape Curriculum
Washington Examiner, Approved, National

Teachers Union Criticized for Letting Radical Groups Shape Curriculum

By: Robert Schmad | Washington Examiner Teaching resources authored by Hamas sympathizers, praise for violent left-wing activists, and activities where students roleplay as “queer liberation” activists fighting against the “Religious Right” represent just a small sample of the material produced by the Zinn Education Project and its parent organization, Rethinking Schools. The nearly three-million-strong National Education Association has gone to great lengths to endorse and embed such materials in the public education system through a series of partnerships with the duo of left-wing organizations.  The NEA, the nation’s largest teachers union, has granted the Zinn Education Project and Rethinking Schools prime space and opportunities to present at its confere...
Why is Denver trying to buy Western Slope school boards?
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Why is Denver trying to buy Western Slope school boards?

By Christy Anderson | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice In the Grand Junction area you may have seen flyers in your mailbox accusing our current school board members, Andrea Haitz, Angela Lema and “Willie” (Will) Jones of being “enemies” who “cannot be trusted.” These false attack ads come from Denver’s “Students Deserve Better” campaign. After digging into the financials, Students Deserve Better is also majorly funded by none other than the Colorado Education Association.  The teachers union has a long history that started in the 1970s of using money to influence local elections, but this year’s spending is unprecedented. The Colorado Education Association (CEA) is pouring tens of thousands of dollars into our local school board race to regain control and push their highly...
Power first, children last: The true legacy of Randi Weingarten’s teachers union
TownHall.com, Approved, Commentary, National

Power first, children last: The true legacy of Randi Weingarten’s teachers union

By Natalya Murakhver | Commentary, Townhall When America looks back at the COVID era, history will not be kind to Randi Weingarten and the American Federation of Teachers. At a time when our nation’s children needed leadership, compassion, and courage, Weingarten delivered none of it. Instead, she manipulated the crisis of school closures to expand her own political influence, sacrificing the futures of millions of kids and betraying the trust of parents across this country. Let’s be clear: school closures were not primarily about health or science. They were about power. From the very beginning, teachers’ unions lobbied aggressively to keep schools closed far longer than necessary. They pressured public health officials and the CDC to rewrite guidelines in ways that served union int...
The Union vs. Students: Why I Walked Away
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

The Union vs. Students: Why I Walked Away

By Priscilla Rahn, M.Ed, NBCT | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice For 32 years I poured my life into teaching, believing the teachers’ union stood for students and educators like me. But somewhere along the way, the mission shifted—from strengthening classrooms to fueling politics. That’s when I knew I had to walk away. I look back on a career that began in Texas in the early 1990s, where my starting salary was a meager $18,000 a year—barely enough to cover student loans, a car payment, gas, rent, food, and utilities after dividing it into 24 paychecks, leaving me with about $700 every two weeks. I was immediately pressured to join the teachers' union, but with no extra money for dues, I declined. It wasn't until I moved to Colorado that I joined, convinced I needed liabilit...
Schools tell students not to cheat—yet cheat by rebranding DEI to keep race-based ideology alive
The Daily Signal, Approved, National

Schools tell students not to cheat—yet cheat by rebranding DEI to keep race-based ideology alive

By Jonathan Butcher, Mike Gonzalez | Commentary, The Daily Signal It’s back-to-school season, and some teachers have promised that the racist ideas from diversity, equity, and inclusion would not be in their classrooms this year. That’s the good news. The bad news is that many of these teachers and administrators are clearly telling whoppers. In fact, K-12 schools and colleges around the country are disguising their DEI offices and their racial preferences. Take Maryland, across the border from the nation’s capital and where many federal bureaucrats sleep and send their children to school. State education officials said schools would comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders calling on schools to reject DEI, citing the ways in which DEI...
“Devastating trend”: High school seniors hit record-low reading levels
Daily Wire, Approved, National

“Devastating trend”: High school seniors hit record-low reading levels

By Leif Le Mahieu | Daily Wire "The achievement gap between students is widening, not shrinking." The Trump administration renewed its push to return control of education to the states after new data revealed continued declines in the reading, math, and science scores of high school seniors nationwide. The National Center for Education Statistics released the “Nation’s Report Card” for 12th-grade students on Tuesday, finding that reading levels had reached new lows and math scores were the worst in 20 years. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said that the numbers confirmed a “devastating trend” of American students testing at “historic lows.” “Despite billions in federal spending and countless well-intentioned programs, the achievement gap between students is widen...

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