Chandra Hooper-Barnett, an award winning black principal, lost her job after her controversial statements about the academic performance of black students. Will her departure help, or hurt, these black students?
I asked Grok: “Fact check recent claims by a school principal named Chandra Hooper-Barnett. Also fact check the claims of her critics. Talk about her past awards as a teacher. Will the students be better off, or worse off, now that she is no longer working at the school?”
This is Grok’s response:
Here’s a news article about this:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/dallas-principal-removed-calling-meeting-181828135.html
Dallas principal removed after calling meeting with only Black students about their grades: ‘You guys are the reason we are not an A school’
By Graig Graziosi
October 29, 2025
Photo description: Woodrow Wilson High School Principal Chandra Hooper-Barnett has been removed from her position at the Dallas-area school after she allegedly called a meeting with Black students to blame them for the school’s “B” academic rating (Dallas Independent School District)
The principal at Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas has been removed after she held a meeting exclusively with Black students to blame them for the school’s academic reputation.
Principal Chandra Hooper-Barnett called the meeting only with Black students discuss the school’s recent “B” academic rating, sparking outrage among parents.
“He said that Principal Barnett stated that those students, the Black students, were the reason why the school had a B rating,” Jennifer Bush, the parents of a sophomore at the school, told the Dallas Morning News.
Bush told the paper that she was “livid,” noting that her son has a 3.5 GPA and is in advanced placement and college classes.
“She’s Black as well. You have a historical position … and this is what you do. That’s insane,” Bush told the paper.
According to Fox 4 News, the school previously had a “C” rating, so its academic performance has actually improved over the last year. But parents still felt that Black students were being blamed for the school’s rating not being high.
“The principal stated how [the Black students] are the reason for the B rating. And it was not like ‘oh you guys helped raise it to a B,’ it was ‘you guys are the reason we are not an A school,'” Jennifer, a Woodrow Wilson parent, told the broadcaster.
The mother said that Barnett needed to be removed, as the trust between the school and the families had been “broken” by her alleged targeting of Black students.
Woodrow Wilson has a student population of 2,000, about 6 percent of whom are Black. Following the meeting and the blowback, Barnett issued a letter to parents taking responsibility for the incident.
“The decision to hold that meeting and subsequent discussion that transpired was not appropriate,” she wrote. “I take full ownership and responsibility for what occurred, and I want to assure you that it was never my intent to single out or cause harm to any group of students.”
On Monday, the Dallas Independent School District sent a letter to parents informing them that Barnett would no longer serve as the principal, and that Danielle Peters would take over as interim.
The statement, sent by Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde, confirmed that the meeting Barnett called was not sanctioned by the district. The letter did not include details of what actually happened during the meeting.
The Independent has requested comment from the Dallas ISD.
Mamdani Says He Would Phase Out N.Y.C. Gifted Program for Early Grades
Original: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/nyregion/mamdani-schools-gifted-and-talented-program.html
Archive: https://archive.ph/W0EqX
Mamdani Says He Would Phase Out N.Y.C. Gifted Program for Early Grades
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner in the mayor’s race, plans if elected to replace the selective program, which became a symbol of segregation in public schools.
By Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Troy Closson
October 2, 2025
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner for mayor of New York City, plans to end the gifted and talented program for kindergarten students at public schools if he is elected, calling for a major overhaul of a program that has deeply divided parents.
Mr. Mamdani said in a statement that he would embrace former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan, announced in 2021, to phase out the gifted program for elementary schools, which has been widely criticized for exacerbating segregation.
Students who are in gifted classes would remain in the program, but there would be no gifted program for kindergartners next fall, his campaign said on Wednesday.
Mr. Mamdani’s plan would reshape education for some of the youngest children in the nation’s largest school system and could reignite a fraught citywide debate over how — and whether — New York should address inequality in the enrollment of its selective academic programs.
“I will return to the previous policy,” Mr. Mamdani said in the statement. “Ultimately, my administration would aim to make sure that every child receives a high-quality early education that nurtures their curiosity and learning.”
Mr. Mamdani has proposed an ambitious plan to provide free child care for every child under the age of 5, which he said would provide a “groundbreaking opportunity to ensure all children can access the early care and education they need to succeed in future grades.”
His statement about the gifted program came in response to a questionnaire that The New York Times sent to the leading candidates in the race about major issues the city is facing. His two opponents, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, said they would keep the gifted program and expand it if elected mayor.
Mr. Mamdani also said that he would keep a controversial admissions test at a group of eight elite public high schools, backing away from his previous comments expressing concerns about the exam’s fairness.
New York is unusual among large U.S. school districts in enrolling kindergartners in a separate gifted and talented program. It offers spots to fewer than 5 percent of children in kindergarten and has been criticized for admitting few Black and Latino students into the classes, which can serve as a pipeline to the city’s most desired public middle schools.
In 2021, under the de Blasio administration, the city abandoned an admissions test for 4-year-olds that had long been in use. Mr. de Blasio announced in his final months in office that the students who were enrolled in gifted classes at the time would be the last in the existing program.
Mayor Eric Adams broke with Mr. de Blasio when he took office in 2022, choosing to keep the gifted program and to expand it. His administration switched to a process that relies on preschool teachers to nominate students for the program, and has not prioritized school desegregation efforts.
Students are also admitted into gifted classes through a separate third-grade track, and Mr. Mamdani’s campaign declined to say whether he would end that option. Mr. de Blasio had proposed an alternative when he was in office: evaluating all rising third graders to determine whether they needed higher-level instruction in specific subject areas, for one or two periods a day.
The gifted program — which generally offers the same curriculum as general education classes but with accelerated instruction — offers spots to only about 2,500 children, out of roughly 55,000 total kindergartners. (About 1,800 additional students are offered seats in third grade.)
But it has been a subject of heated debate for years.
Supporters argue that the gifted and talented program is a haven for bright students and that it keeps middle-class families in public schools who might otherwise leave for charter or private schools.
Critics say it has worsened racial segregation, creating exclusive classrooms occupied mainly by white and Asian students. In the fall of 2022, Black and Latino children accounted for roughly two-thirds of the public school system’s enrollment, but only a third of the kindergartners who were offered spots in gifted classes. Their enrollment was notably higher in the third-grade track.
“It’s a flashpoint,” said David Bloomfield, a professor of education leadership, law and policy at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York Graduate Center.
Professor Bloomfield said that New York had struggled to create an admissions system for the gifted program that seems suitable for 4-year-olds, an age at which experts say measuring a child’s ability and potential can be thorny.
He said that Mr. Mamdani’s stance on the kindergarten classes seemed to represent “the first step in an actual policy to promote desegregation.”
“In my opinion,” he said, “it’s a good move.”
Justin Brannan, a City Council member from Brooklyn who chairs the finance committee and is an ally of Mr. Mamdani, said the current teacher nomination system was flawed.
“The teachers and parents I speak with agree we need to give kids some time to be kids, and then we can offer access to accelerated learning programs in the later years of elementary school,” he said.
In the mayor’s race, schools have received less attention than other issues, such as public safety and affordability. Mr. Mamdani, 33, has not yet articulated a clear vision for schools. Instead, he has emphasized his plan to establish free universal child care for children from 6 weeks to 5 years old.
Mr. Mamdani grew up in Manhattan and received a mix of public and private education. He attended the Bank Street School for Children, a progressive private school for students in kindergarten through eighth grade on the Upper West Side, and the Bronx High School of Science, a highly selective public high school.
He has said that he wants to ease mayoral control of the school system and instead give teachers and parents a greater say.
He said in the questionnaire that he wants to keep the specialized exam used to determine admission to the elite high schools and that he supports recommendations by a major school diversity panel in 2019 for changes to elementary and middle schools. The panel proposed eliminating all gifted programs in the city.
“As a Bronx Science alum, I’ve seen both the promise and problems of specialized high schools’ students,” he said.
The city’s eight specialized high schools admit few Black and Latino students. This school year, Black students received 3 percent of acceptance letters and Latino students just under 7 percent, the city announced this summer.
Mr. Mamdani has been considering whom he would hire as schools chancellor, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The candidates who were floated this summer include Meisha Ross Porter, who was briefly chancellor under Mayor de Blasio; Kamar Samuels, the superintendent of a school district in Manhattan; and Rita Joseph, a Brooklyn City Council member and the chair of the Council’s education committee.
Mr. Cuomo, who is second in the polls, lost to Mr. Mamdani in June’s Democratic primary and is running as an independent in the November election. He said in a statement that he would expand the gifted and talented program with more seats in each borough.
“Limiting opportunity to less than 5 percent of students is unfair,” he said. “The real inequity is access — too many Black and Latino students aren’t identified or supported early enough.”
Mr. Sliwa, the Republican candidate, who is third in the polls, said he would expand the gifted program and that he was worried about poor test scores in English and math.
“The focus should be on raising standards for everyone so more kids can qualify, not eliminating opportunities for the few who do,” he said.
Maya Wiley, a co-chairwoman of the diversity panel that recommended ending gifted programs and a candidate for mayor four years ago, said Mr. Mamdani had the right approach and that the existing system prioritized families with more resources.
“Every child deserves to be challenged in a classroom at every age,” she said. “We have to stop settling for what’s broken.”
I agree with Trump. Drivers should be able to read road signs.
https://x.com/Anc_Aesthetics/status/1956975173980016836
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-admin-threatens-cut-millions-165516742.html
Trump admin threatens to cut millions in federal funding from 3 states over trucker English language rules
By Stephen Sorace
August 26, 2025
California, Washington and New Mexico may lose millions of dollars in federal funding if they continue to fail to enforce English language requirements for truckers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Tuesday.
Duffy said the three states have 30 days to comply with federal English Language Proficiency (ELP) requirements after an investigation into a deadly crash in Florida earlier this month revealed the states made significant failures regarding the illegal immigrant truck driver who made an illegal U-turn.
“This is about keeping people safe on the road. Your families, your kids, your spouses, your loved ones, your friends,” Duffy said. “We all use the roadway, and we need to make sure that those who are driving big rigs — semis — can understand the road signs, that they’ve been well-trained.”
Duffy referred to the deadly Aug. 12 crash involving Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old who officials say hails from India and is in the country illegally.
Singh was operating a commercial semi-truck with a trailer on the Florida Turnpike in Fort Pierce when he allegedly attempted a U-turn in an unauthorized area before the trailer jackknifed and collided with a minivan, killing all three of its passengers, according to officials.
Singh was given a CDL test following the crash and failed, according to Duffy.
Duffy said Singh got his CDL license in California and Washington state before getting pulled over for speeding in New Mexico in July. Duffy said Singh’s rig was not taken out of service even though he could not speak English.
Duffy said the ELP rule went into effect in June, making it so that truck drivers who were not proficient in speaking English would be taken out of service. He added that California, Washington and New Mexico have hardly enforced the rule.
Jesse Elison, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief counsel, said all three of these states will have 30 days to respond and present a corrective plan or else lose funding.
California could lose $33 million, while Washington and New Mexico could lose $10.5 million and $7 million, respectively, Elison and Duffy said.
Further steps could be taken should these states fail to comply, according to Duffy, though he declined to elaborate on the specifics.
“We don’t want to take away money from states, but we will take money away and we’ll take additional steps that get progressively more difficult for these states,” Duffy said. “There’s a lot of great tools that we have here that we don’t want to use.”
Democrat U.S. Congressman man Ro Khanna (California): “It is absurd that Palo Alto School district just voted to remove honors biology for all students & already removed honors English. They call it de-laning. I call it an assault on excellence. I took many honors classes at Council Rock High in PA.”
https://x.com/RoKhanna/status/1921958772706066650
https://x.com/RubenGallego/status/1921982084777746456
Congressman criticizes Palo Alto schools for eliminating English and biology honors classes
By Braden Cartwright
May 13, 2025
Congressman Ro Khanna has waded into a debate over honors classes in the Palo Alto Unified School District, prompting thousands of supporters and opponents of the board’s decisions to weigh in on social media.
“It is absurd that Palo Alto school district just voted to remove Honors Biology for all students and already removed Honors English,” Khanna said on X. “They call it de-laning. I call it an assault on excellence.”
Khanna, D-Santa Clara, is referring to the board’s 3-2 vote on Jan. 21 to eliminate Honors Biology, instead grouping all freshmen in the same introductory class starting in the fall. Khanna’s post on X had more than 3,500 replies Tuesday, including from senators and fellow congressmen.
Senator weighs in
“I wish my high school had more AP and honors classes,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona. “I can’t imagine a school willingly dumbing itself down.”
Former school board member Jennifer DiBrienza came to the district’s defense.
“Oh Senator, please educate yourself before weighing in. Nothing is being dumbed down,” she said. “If you’d like to know why the district did this, feel free to reach out to the district. The #1 district in the state, which continues to offer many AP and honors opportunities.”
Yoni Appelbaum, deputy executive editor of The Atlantic, said he took AP Biology at Gunn High School with Barbara Snapp, a Cornell Ph.D., and the class was college-level.
“Today’s Gunn students deserve opportunities like that too,” Appelbaum said.
DiBrienza’s defense
DiBrienza replied that Gunn and Palo Alto high schools still have AP Biology that students take all the time, and the elimination of Honors Biology was led by teachers who thought a single class would better serve all students.
“I trust they know what they are doing,” she said.
Easier transition
At the Jan. 21 board meeting, teachers said that grouping all students in a single class would ease the transition from 8th grade to 9th grade, when students are still learning what level is appropriate for them.
Teachers said they would make the standard class just as tough by offering opportunities for students to dive deeper on certain topics, if they want to.
Teachers said they don’t foresee changes to Honors Chemistry or Honors Physics that require higher-level math skills, science teacher Liz Brimhall said at the Jan. 21 meeting.
“We really want to give all students a really strong foundation and springboard so they can access our various science pathways, including honors,” Brimhall told the board.
A handful of students and parents said they wanted to keep Honors Biology.
“I’m very passionate about STEM, including life science and biology,” said Katie Hu, an eighth grader at Greene Middle School. “I want to take a science class that challenges me and moves faster than a regular class, and I was really looking forward to Honors Biology.”
How board voted
Board members Alison Kamhi, Shounak Dharap and Shana Segal voted to move to a single biology course./p>
“Once we start to subject teachers to strict scrutiny on educational decisions, we are going to get fewer educational initiatives from them,” Segal said.
“People have concerns, but they don’t work with our kids every day,” Dharap said. “To not vote for this would be a disastrous mistake.”
Student reps wanted to keep honors
All three student representatives to the school board voted to keep Honors Biology, but their votes don’t count.
Board members Rowena Chiu and Josh Salcman also voted to keep Honors Biology.
“I would really like us as a district to move toward a process, when we’re doing things like this, where we engage the community earlier,” Salcman said. “It concerns me that Mr. Dharap frames this as, ‘You’re either with the teachers or you’re against them.’”
Chiu said she’s heard from students and parents who fear the district will eliminate other advanced classes.
“Do we trust our high school students with autonomy and choice, to decide for themselves what their learning journey looks like?” Chiu asked.
Some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent schools have ditched honors classes in the name of equity — but it’s a terrible idea
Some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent schools have ditched honors classes in the name of equity — but it’s a terrible idea
By Rikki Schlott
May 13, 2025
Palo Alto schools are doing away with Honors courses in the latest assault on excellence.
Starting in September, freshmen will no longer have the option of taking a more rigorous Honors Biology class. Instead, the district will have one “foundational” course.
The Palo Alto Unified School District voted in January to nix the advanced class after an hours-long debate with dozens of concerned members of the public in attendance. Honors English has already been sidelined.
Proponents argue that “de-laning” — removing different “lanes” for students based on achievement — will promote equity and encourage all kids to pursue science throughout their high school career.
One Biology teacher argued during the meeting, “We know that laning can lead to issues around students’ beliefs in themselves.”
But opponents — including one 8th grader who showed up to the vote in protest — argue it’s an assault on meritocracy.
“Please don’t hold students such as myself back from these wonderful opportunities to challenge ourselves and grow as individuals,” she told the board.
Nonetheless, the resolution, which has been under consideration since 2018, still passed with a narrow 3-to-2 margin.
Since when does everyone have to be the same? And why does one kid’s excellence threaten another’s “belief” in themselves? Must we all be handicapped in the name of equity?
Palo Alto dad Nan Zhong is furious about it. He says the school district is “approaching the achievement gap in the wrong way.”
“I think the move is really misguided, and it’s very polarizing,” Zhong, a software engineering manager at Google, told The Post. “The parents who are very involved in their kids’ education and really want to prepare the kids for success are very upset.”
His two sons, a 16-year-old sophomore at Gunn High School and a 19-year-old recent graduate, both took Honors Biology and, Zhong said, greatly benefited from the accelerated courses which were “stepping stones to AP courses” later in high school.
“The school of thought seems to be that we need to have equity and reduce students’ mental burden, so, therefore, let’s make the curriculum easier, and everybody can get an A,” he said.
The Post contacted the school district for comment but did not receive an answer.
The move has drawn widespread scrutiny, including from local Democratic congressman Ro Khanna.
“It is absurd that [the] Palo Alto School district just voted to remove honors biology for all students and already removed honors English. They call it de-laning. I call it an assault on excellence. I took many honors classes at Council Rock High in PA,” he tweeted on Monday.
Another X user joked, “Only in Palo Alto, where the school board’s been breathing rarefied air too long, do you get ‘de-laning’—an idea so open-minded, their brains fell out.”
They’re right. The district should be more interested in producing excellent alumni than in making sure nobody’s feelings are hurt because they couldn’t cut it in Honors Biology.
Notable graduates of public high schools in the district include 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki, Stanford neuroscientist and podcaster Andrew Huberman, and Charles Brenner who is considered the creator of forensic mathematics.
Surely they’re not a product of a system that emphasized equity over excellence.
This is part of a much larger shift. Neighboring Fremont Unified School District and Sequoia Union High School Districts have also eliminated Honors courses in an effort to de-lane.
“It’s just part of the larger trend in California of watering down curriculum in public schools in the name of equity,” Zhong said. “But I really don’t think that’s progress because if we don’t teach kids anything and just give them an A, well, they got equity — but they get no knowledge and no skills to succeed.”
Since the great reckoning of 2020, there’s been an effort at schools across the country to promote equity, whether for the sake of racial justice or student self-esteem.
High schools abandoning Honors courses are waging the same war on excellence as specialized schools dumping entrance exams and colleges dropping standardized testing requirements.
Rather than concentrate efforts on lifting up underperforming students, just the opposite tends to occur. Champions of equity seem determined to bash down the kids who excel in the supposed interest of the greater good.
In the end, everyone is worse off, and nobody is special. How is that progress?
As Zhong put it: “The way to eliminate the achievement gap is not to take away the measure of the outcome. They’re basically saying if you don’t measure, then we don’t have any problem.”
According to this article from WHYY PBS NPR, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro is giving $5 million of taxpayers’ money to a Muslim organization that started out as a ” house of worship” and will teach “Quran classes” at its K-12 private school.
WHYY is the Philadelphia affiliate of both PBS and NPR.
They just reported the following.
The bolding is mine:
https://whyy.org/articles/al-aqsa-islamic-center-philly-shapiro-grant-community/
Shapiro announces $5M grant to Philly Muslim community center
A record $5 million redevelopment grant will help a private school that blends Islamic teachings with a standard curriculum.
By Carmen Russell-Sluchansky
March 26, 2025
Gov. Josh Shapiro joined an iftar dinner at the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society in North Philly to announce a historic grant from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, the largest ever awarded to a Muslim organization.
According to Asif Hussain, chairman of the board of Al-Aqsa Islamic Society, one goal for the funds will be to expand the center’s school by adding classrooms and teachers to better meet local demand, increasing attendance from the current 300 to up to 3,000.
“The idea is to have an academic center of excellence at school,” he said. “We have a school that’s K-12. It is very, very small and we have more candidates and more students than we have classrooms. So the idea would be to expand the facility and actually develop it into a full-fledged academic program.”
Al-Aqsa Academy, a private Islamic day and weekend school, was established in 1996. The coursework blends Islamic studies, the Arabic language and Quran classes with a standard K-12 curriculum, including math, science and social studies. The school’s website says its mission is to “provide students with a safe, nurturing, and uplifting Islamic environment that will help them achieve academic excellence.”
Founded in 1989 by a group of Palestinian immigrants, Al-Aqsa Islamic Society began as a modest house of worship in a rented storefront. Over the past three decades, it has grown into a multifaceted institution serving hundreds of families, drawing worshippers and community members from across the city’s Arab, South Asian, African and African American communities.
I don’t think NPR and PBS would be praising this $5 million government grant if the private religious K-12 school in question was either Christian or Jewish.
Quite the opposite, in fact. They’d be claiming that it’s an unconstitutional use of tax money.
But since the religion in question is Islam, NPR and PBS think it’s a wonderful thing.
Legitimate students don’t illegally shut down an event that’s being held by the very same college that invited them into the country. That’s why Momodou Taal should be deported.
The people who are speaking out against deporting Cornell student Momodou Taal are falsely saying that this is about free speech.
In reality, when the Ithaca Voice wrote an article about Taal, it included the following:
Over 100 students and faculty were involved and unlawfully entered the Statler Hotel on campus to shut down a career fair where representatives from Boeing and L3Harris were recruiting.
Protestors pushed past a blockade of university police officers to enter the hotel.
First of all, please note the use of the phrase “unlawfully entered.” Trespassing is a crime.
Second, please note that his illegal activity caused the cancellation of an event that was being held by the very same college that invited him into the country. No legitimate student would do that.
Third, any U.S. citizen who did that exact same thing in a foreign country would likely get deported for it.
Fourth, breaking through a police blockade – that sounds like what Ashli Babbitt did right before she was shot and killed. Well guess what? It’s the job of the police to shoot and kill people who go through police blockades. I wish the police treated all rioters the same way they treated Ashli Babbitt.
If these reliable sources from Deerfield, Illinois are true, then public school administrators Joanna Ford, Cathy Van Treese, and Ginger Logemann are guilty of sexual assault of a minor.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
March 19, 2025
I’m a libertarian. I believe that whatever consenting adults choose to do in private is no one else’s businesses. I support LGBTQ rights for consenting adults.
Leave the children out of it.
Don’t force children to do anything against their will.
Children are not capable of giving consent.
“No” means no.
In Deerfield, Illinois, these two reliable news sources have published the names of three public school administrators who forced a minor girl to remove her clothing, against her will, after she said no, in front of a person with a penis.
She was not consenting.
She was not an adult.
What part of “no” do these three school administrators not understand?
How is this not sexual assault?
Both articles include the names of the three school administrators.
The second article includes photographs of the three school administrators.
I’m also posting a link to an archive of each article:
Libs of TikTok posted these two videos from a school board meeting about the incident:
https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1901487588365717945
https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1901868607220420872
I posted these tweets in response to those two videos. I said the same thing in both tweets.
In both tweets, I said, “If this is true, then Joanna Ford, Cathy Van Treese, and Ginger Logemann are guilty of sexual assault of a minor.
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1902261606429360260
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1902260478069317939
Here are photographs of those three school administrators:
A classmate of Mahmoud Khalil filed two complaints with Columbia University, said she was afraid of him, and dropped a class because the school refused to do anything about it.
By Susan Edelman, Georgia Worrell, and Rich Calder
March 15, 2025
Detained anti-Israel protester Mahmoud Khalil seethed with hatred for the Jewish state, according to a former classmate who told The Post he was an “insidious” presence at Columbia University.
The female graduate student, who is Jewish, said she even dropped a class they took together last fall at the Ivy’s famed School of International and Public Affairs because he made her feel so “uncomfortable” — and her formal complaints to the college fell on deaf ears.
“It would almost be easier if he were some terrifying looking man who threatened to punch people in the face, but he wasn’t,” she said.
“He was very soft-spoken and careful with his words, which almost made him seem more insidious, because it was so intentional – he was never being hyperbolic, he was very clear. He was never joking.”
“You know, he wears polos,” she continued. “It’s not like you meet him and are scared that he’s going to beat you up. To me, it was scary how he was so clearly extreme and so unshakeable in his worldview, which is a very scary worldview, in my opinion.”
Khalil’s laptop especially freaked her out.
It strategically sported one sticker – a map of Israel and Palestine with the Jewish state completely blacked out as if it was wiped off the face of the Earth, she recalled.
“It was just so clear that the thing driving him most in life is destroying Israel and everyone within it and anyone who supports it, and probably all Jews … That to me was scary, that something could consume you like that,” the first-year student said.
Khalil, 30, also routinely boasted in class that he headed the Students for Justice in Palestine movement at Columbia and “didn’t love Jews.”
He was a frequent no-show to class, which centered on Israeli politics, the student recalled. And when he did attend lectures, he disrespectfully interrupted his professor, who is Israeli.
“Everything about Israel was illegitimate; everything about Zionism was illegitimate because, in his mind, it’s like a farce and a fallacy to think otherwise,” she said.
And Khalil routinely “targeted” Jewish students in a WhatsApp group chat the class shared, she added.
“Once or twice a week, he would just go in [the group chat] and basically instigate crazy claims that were just very antisemitic and really inflammatory, and would get into fights with people,” she said.
Reading directly from the chat, she recounted, “One day a Jewish student had said, ‘I’m disturbed by the normalization of the insane amount of antisemitism spewed in this chat in the last few months. Disappointed and shameful.’ To that, Mahmoud said, ‘Thank you. This is exactly what some are trying to do so hard in this conversation: Conflate Judaism and Zionism, so it’s easier for them to shut down any criticism of the colonial, genocidal state of Israel.’
The student said it was such erratic behavior that drove her to drop the class — although she didn’t dare confront him.
“I just didn’t want to become a target of his,” she said.
The student, however, anonymously filed two Title VI complaints with Columbia administrators about his antisemitic rants within the group chat — but nothing ever came of them, she said.
Following the bloodshed and the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Khalil became a driving force behind many of the anti-Israel protests, organizing takeovers and building encampments that plagued Columbia for more than a year, and he is now the poster boy for President Donald Trump’s crackdown on antisemitic college protesters.
Khalil was grabbed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents March 8 at his Columbia-owned apartment building and later transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana, where he faces deportation.
The student said that after she learned the news of his detention it “literally felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders.”
“All week, I have felt safer on campus and like I have a pep in my step,” she said. “I used to feel so much anxiety, but I literally feel safer now.
“I really do think this country is probably safer without him here, like I don’t know how he got a green card,” she said. “He seems very much like he hates America and everything it stands for, and I think he’s done a lot to cause harm and violence here, and I could see him doing more.”
She also believes the university should have held Khalil accountable for his Jew-hating ways.
“There have been so many reports filed against him,” she claimed. “He was not in compliance with academic standards. They bent over backwards to not expel him, and I think if they would have followed their own rules, we would not be here now.”
Khalil — a Syrian-born Palestinian who is also a citizen of Algeria — fled to Lebanon at 18 after a civil war broke out in Syria to pursue an undergraduate degree in computer science at the Lebanese American University in Beirut.
Before becoming a student leader of last spring’s riotous campus protests at Columbia, Khalil worked for the controversial United Nations Relief and Work Agency.
From June through November of 2023, he was a political affairs officer with UNRWA, which has extensive ties to Hamas. A damning Israeli dossier compiled through interrogations of Hamas terrorists and documents found in Gaza estimated roughly 1,200 of UNRWA’s staffers were linked to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The group last year fired 10 staffers involved in the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack.
And the UNRWA, which gets millions in US aid, previously came under fire from US House Republicans for aiding Hamas with “food, fuel and supplies.”
Khalil’s also held a senior position at the UK office for Syria in Lebanon — a diplomatic mission within the UK embassy in Beirut — for four years, according to multiple reports. He worked in a support role that helped inform British foreign policy on Syria given his knowledge of the region, as well as his Arabic skills.
The role would have required a thorough background check and “rigorous security clearance,” Andrew Waller, one of Khalil’s former co-workers there, told The Guardian.
After rising up the ranks, Khalil decided to pursue a master’s degree in public administration at Columbia and moved to the US on a student visa in December 2022.
Khalil became a permanent US resident after marrying his wife, Noor Abdalla — a 28-year-old US citizen and dentist — in the Big Apple in 2023.
The couple, who are expecting their first child in late April, live in an off-campus apartment, where federal immigration agents grabbed him last week.
His lawyers are currently battling it out in court to prevent his deportation — arguing that ICE detained him illegally. They argued in a motion for bail Saturday that Khalil isn’t a flight risk and should be allowed to return home for the child’s birth.
In the meantime, Khalil’s detainment has become a lightning rod for hateful anti-Israel protesters — who have vandalized the home of Columbia University‘s current interim president Katrina Armstrong, crowded the dining area of Trump Tower, and rallied outside Federal Plaza Immigration Court this week, all while calling for Khalil’s freedom and spewing antisemitic hatred.
The Trump administration has argued it can legally boot Khalil given his role in the anti-Israel campus protests.
Officials have said that while Khalil isn’t accused of or charged with a crime, his actions are “contrary to national and foreign policy interests.”
The Columbia graduate student said that the majority of her peers have worn keffiyehs to class to show their support this week — a move that has left her “unsettled.”
Khalil’s detainment “has really fanned the flames and mobilized students on campus — it’s really wild and scary,” she said.
Bill Maher criticizes crazy, woke, ignorant leftists who seem to think that Native Americans never practiced slavery or land theft.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx2mSfo_Jps
Stacy Davis Gates is president of the Chicago Teachers Union. She sends her own son to private school. That’s because she loves him, she wants him to get a good education, and she doesn’t want him to be a victim of violence. All Chicago parents should do the same thing.
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1894893753040506946
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1894893753040506946
If the book Freckleface Strawberry by Julianne Moore is G-rated, and if Trump did indeed ban it from schools, then I am very disappointed with Trump.
Julianne Moore in ‘Great Shock’ After Donald Trump Bans Her Children’s Book ‘Freckleface Strawberry’ From Schools: ‘I Can’t Help But Wonder What Is So Controversial’
By Jack Dunn
The Trump Administration has banned Julianne Moore‘s 2007 children’s book “Freckleface Strawberry” from schools operated by the Department of Defense, the “Far from Heaven” star shared on Instagram Sunday morning.
“It is a great shock for me to learn that my first book, ‘Freckleface Strawberry,’ has been banned by the Trump Administration from schools run by the Department of Defense,” Moore wrote. “‘Freckleface Strawberry’ is a semi-autobiographical story about a seven year old girl who dislikes her freckles but eventually learns to live with them when she realizes that she is different ‘just like everybody else.’ It is a book I wrote for my children and for other kids to remind them that we all struggle, but are united by our humanity and our community.”
The official synopsis for “Freckleface Strawberry” reads: “If you have freckles, you can try these things: 1) Make them go away. Unless scrubbing doesn’t work. 2) Cover them up. Unless your mom yells at you for using a marker. 3) Disappear. Um, where’d you go? Oh, there you are. There’s one other thing you can do: 4) LIVE WITH THEM! Because after all, the things that make you different also make you, YOU. From acclaimed actress Julianne Moore and award-winning illustrator LeUyen Pham comes a delightful story of a little girl who’s different … just like everybody else.”
Moore, a graduate of the DoD-run Frankfurt American High School and daughter of a Vietnam veteran, added she was particularly saddened that “kids like me, growing up with a parent in the service and attending a [DoDEA] school will not have access to a book written by someone whose life experience is so similar to their own.”
“I can’t help but wonder what is so controversial about this picture book that caused it to be banned by the US Government,” Moore continued. “I am truly saddened and never thought I would see this in a country where freedom of speech and expression is a constitutional right.”
Moore credited non-profit literary activist group Pen America for bringing the ban to her attention. Pen America’s own Instagram post noted Kathleen Krull’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg picture book “No Truth Without Ruth” and Ellis Nutt’s “Becoming Nicole” were embargoed along with “Freckleface Strawberry.”
Massachusetts approves Ballot Question 2 ending MCAS graduation requirement, AP projects
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/massachusetts-ballot-question-2-election-results-mcas/
Massachusetts approves Ballot Question 2 ending MCAS graduation requirement, AP projects
November 6, 2024
BOSTON – Massachusetts Ballot Question 2 will pass, the AP projects, effectively ending the MCAS graduation requirement for high school students.
Here are the latest live results: (updated as of December 3, 2024)
Massachusetts Ballot Question 2 results
A “yes” vote ended the mandate that requires students to pass the tenth grade Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam to graduate high school. A “no” vote would have kept it as a graduation requirement.
About 99% of students pass the exam, according to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). If they don’t pass, they can take it up to five times. There’s an appeals process and there are alternative tests.
The question has been one of the most contentious issues in Massachusetts during the 2024 election.
Massachusetts Teachers Association responds
The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), the largest union of teachers in the state, issued a statement after the AP projection. The union called a “collective victory.”
“Massachusetts has long had the best public schools in the country, and that’s because of the dedication of educators and the commitment of legislators and policymakers to provide every student with the opportunity to thrive,” the MTA said in part. “We see this as a victory to build upon as all of us who want what is best for students continue to address significant needs in our schools, including supporting student mental health and providing funding to districts in need.”
“Yes” on Ballot Question 2
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and the MTA both supported a “yes” vote.
“One test is not a great measure for every kid, that ultimately we keep about 700 kids from getting a high school diploma and it’s a lot of special needs kids and a lot of kids who are just learning English,” Warren said in a debate on WBZ last month.
“We are a union that is committed to fixing a key part of what’s wrong in public schools, that is this over-reliance on high-stakes testing,” MTA President Max Page told WBZ. “What students will be judged on is successfully passing the curriculum that shows they have mastered our state standards – grades in courses.”
Shelly Scruggs of Lexington filed the petition in July 2023 to put the question on the statewide ballot. She said she did it on behalf of her teenage son who “works hard” but “isn’t a great test taker.”
“No” on Ballot Question 2
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey led the call for a “no” vote on Question 2.
“That question, if it passes, would deliver us to a place of no standard – essentially 351 different standards for high school graduation. I don’t believe that is the right direction to go, the governor does not believe that it’s the direction to go,” Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler told WBZ-TV.
When ballot Question 2 becomes state law, it will not drop standardized test-taking in Massachusetts schools. Federal law requires an English and math test in third through eighth grade and once in high school.
High school students in Massachusetts have been required to pass the MCAS tests to graduate since 2003.
Teachers will no longer need to pass basic reading, writing, and math test for certification in New Jersey
Teachers Will No Longer Need To Pass Basic Reading, Writing And Math Test For Certification In This Blue State
December 30, 2024
A New Jersey law that removes a requirement for teachers to pass a reading, writing and mathematics test for certification will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
The law, Act 1669, was passed by Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy as part of the state’s 2025 budget in June in an effort to address a shortage of teachers in the state, according to the New Jersey Monitor. Individuals seeking an instructional certificate will no longer need to pass a “basic skills” test administered by the state’s Commissioner of Education.
“We need more teachers,” Democratic Sen. Jim Beach, who sponsored the bill, said according to the New Jersey Monitor. “This is the best way to get them.”
New Jersey is especially in need of math and science teachers, according to an annual report from the state’s education department.
Just months earlier, Murphy signed a similar bill into law that created an alternative pathway for teachers to sidestep the testing requirement. A powerful teachers union, the New Jersey Education Association, was a driving force behind the bill, calling the testing requirement “an unnecessary barrier to entering the profession.” Teachers in the state are paid an average of $81,102 annually, according to the National Education Association.
New Jersey followed the example of New York, which scrapped basic literacy requirements for teachers in 2017 in the name of “diversity.”
Other states such as California and Arizona also lower requirements for teacher certification by implementing fast-track options for substitute teachers to become full-time educators and eliminating exam requirements in order to make up for shortages in the field that were worsened by Covid, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
As students struggle to regain learning losses caused by school closures during the pandemic, some states, such as Massachusetts, have opted to lower testing requirements for students in order to allow more to pass rather than make up for the lost education.
Teachers unions continue to hold major bargaining power in some blue states, pushing legislation that protects teachers despite their failure to improve learning outcomes for students. Only about half of New York students in grades three through eight tested as proficient in English and Math in the 2022 to 2023 school year despite the state spending almost twice the national average on education and New York teachers remaining some of the highest-paid in the country, according to the National Education Association.
Murphy’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
I wonder how many different “scientists” missed the simple math error in Megan Liu’s study that caused an unjustified panic over black plastic utensils. Oh look. Their organization is called Toxic Free Future. This is why I favor meritocracy instead of social justice or DEI.
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1871248605719507289
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1871248605719507289
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/black-plastic-spatulas-really-bad-164241783.html
Are black plastic spatulas really that bad? Your exposure to toxins from popular cooking utensils may not be as extreme as recent study suggested.
By Korin Miller
December 13, 2024
In October, home chefs and foodies collectively freaked out when research was published that detected toxic flame retardants in black-colored plastic. The study, which was published in the journal Chemosphere, detailed how high levels of these flame retardants were found in kitchen utensils, food containers, trays used to hold meat and even toys. Those flame retardants are linked with cancer and developmental issues, among other things.
The researchers ultimately concluded that recycling electronics that contain flame retardants was to blame, noting in the study that it was “resulting in unexpected exposure to toxic flame retardants in household items.”
Now, there’s a development in the story: As the National Post reports, the researchers made a miscalculation when crunching the data, suggesting that the findings aren’t as bad as they originally seemed.
So did you throw out your black plastic spatula for no good reason? Here’s what you need to know about the update — and what the data actually means for you and your kitchen.
The miscalculation was pretty big
The original study broke down a lot of different things, including the detection of decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) in black plastic products. DecaBDE is a type of brominated flame retardant banned by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2021.
In the study, researchers estimated that using black plastic kitchenware could cause an intake of 34,700 nanograms a day of decaBDE. But, in a section of the study on “Health and Exposure Concerns,” the researchers said that amount “would approach” the established safe exposure limit set by the EPA (also known as a reference dose).
The study notes that the reference dose for decaBDE is 7,000 nanograms per kilogram of body weight a day; the reference dose for a 60-kilogram (132-pound) adult, it calculated, would be 42,000 nanograms a day. That would put this exposure at more than 80% of the EPA’s limit.
Here’s the thing: The math was incorrect. Sixty multiplied by 7,000 is actually 420,000, not 42,000. As a result, the exposure amount of 34,700 nanograms a day of decaBDE from black plastic is less than a 10th of the established EPA limit.
Megan Liu, lead study author and science and policy manager at Toxic-Free Future, tells Yahoo Life that this was a “minor point” in the study. “We feel bad that this happened,” she adds.
Liu says that she and her research team have submitted a correction to the journal, which should be published soon.
But this may not change the conclusion
Despite the mathematical error, Liu says that people should still be wary of black plastic kitchen utensils. “Our findings and conclusions are unaffected,” Liu says.
“Our conclusion was never drawn from this calculation comparison,” Liu continues. “These highly hazardous cancer-causing products shouldn’t be in the products that touch our food. There are safer alternatives out there.”
Liu also stresses that decaBDE “is just one type of chemical in one product that we saw,” noting that “some products had nine different flame retardants.”
Should you throw out your black plastic cooking utensils?
While the presence of decaBDE may not be as intense as previously thought, Liu still says that people should reconsider using black plastic cooking utensils.
“These products shouldn’t even have these flame retardants to begin with,” she says. “They’re still associated with cancer, neurological effects and developmental harm.”
But Dr. Kelly Johnson-Arbor, a toxicologist at MedStar Health, tells Yahoo Life that it’s important to keep the findings in perspective. “In the current study, researchers found high levels of bromine — and thus suspected contamination from brominated fire-retardant chemicals — in just around 10% of the black plastic household products tested, which suggests that the vast majority of black plastic household items do not contain these contaminants,” she says. As a result, most black plastic cooking utensils “may not pose an increased risk of toxicity to humans from this perspective,” Johnson-Arbor says.
Jamie Alan, an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Michigan State University, also points out that the methodology for detecting these chemicals is different from how people use them.
“They measured the amount of chemicals in black cooking utensils by literally melting them down and running them through a machine,” Alan says. “We aren’t doing that when we are using these items. We still don’t know how much of the chemicals actually make their way into the food.”
And of the amount that does make it into food, only a certain portion will be taken in by the body, Alan says. “Overall we don’t know how much makes it into our body and the effects that these chemicals will have at that concentration, whatever that ends up being,” she says.
While the updated calculation has a lower impact than the original one, “this study just reveals one of the ways we’re exposed to flame retardants in our daily life,” Liu says. “We’re already exposed through our electronics, automobiles, furniture … this is part of the big picture of exposure,” she adds.
Liu says her advice is the same as it’s been: “If you can, reduce your use of plastic. Not just black plastic, but plastic in general, [which] can reduce your exposure to any harmful chemical additives.”
Why have so many public schools stopped teaching phonics?
Business Insider just published the following:
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/daughter-repeated-kindergarten-because-she-101201351.html
My daughter repeated kindergarten because she couldn’t read. I ended up sending both my kids to private school because I don’t trust the public system.
By Jane Ridley
December 22, 2024
Susie Coughlin was concerned when her daughter struggled with reading skills at her public school.
The mom of two was disappointed her district didn’t teach phonics as part of its literacy program.
She switched her child to a Catholic school where the girl thrived after being taught phonics.
Why have so many public schools stopped teaching phonics?
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/daughter-repeated-kindergarten-because-she-101201351.html
My daughter repeated kindergarten because she couldn’t read. I ended up sending both my kids to private school because I don’t trust the public system.
By Jane Ridley
December 22, 2024
Susie Coughlin was concerned when her daughter struggled with reading skills at her public school.
The mom of two was disappointed her district didn’t teach phonics as part of its literacy program.
She switched her child to a Catholic school where the girl thrived after being taught phonics.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Susie Coughlin, 43, an interior designer. It has been edited for length and clarity.
When our daughter started struggling with reading, we thought it was related to her late birthday and the fact that almost everybody else in her class was a whole year older.
Her father and I decided she should repeat kindergarten in her public school. In her first year, she’d been put in a Response to Intervention (RTI) program to improve her literacy skills. However, at the parent/teacher conference during her second year, we were told she wouldn’t receive RTI.
It didn’t make sense because she wasn’t progressing. Her self-confidence was low because it seemed like everyone else around her could read.
What I heard from the teacher was, “It’s OK. We’re gonna let your kid slide through.” Being a child myself who was allowed to slide, I hit the brakes. At that moment, I thought, “My kid’s not going to be the kid that’s just going to slide through.”
We had to employ a reading tutor
A key issue was the school district didn’t teach phonics for reading. Instead, the kids are taught to scan the page for picture clues to the word — often at the expense of pronunciation and spelling.
For example, my daughter wrote in her homework, “I went to the osen,” rather than “I went to the ocean.” The teacher hadn’t corrected the mistake because the emphasis was on visual cues — a picture of the ocean — rather than spelling.
With phonics, you learn to sound out the word. It’s a much more practical and efficient method of teaching literacy. It didn’t seem like the district was going to adopt the method anytime soon. We had to search because private reading specialists are in high demand in our area, but we eventually found a tutor.
Our daughter finished her second kindergarten year in public school before beginning first grade at a local Catholic school. It cost $10,000 a year, and we were fortunate enough to be able to budget for that.
We’re glad we switched to a private Catholic school
The curriculum is very old-school, and they teach phonics. Our daughter, now 8, still has a tendency to look for picture cues on the page when she’s reading, but she’s getting there. It broke my heart when her confidence was in the toilet at her previous school. But her bucket of self-esteem is filling up.
We were so happy with the Catholic school that we sent our son there, too. He’s attended for two years and has a good grasp and understanding of phonics.
In fact, at 6, he has excelled past his sister in reading because he has never been subjected to a nonsense visual cue program.
As for our daughter, she has continued to study with a tutor at home, and we help her at night. The best thing is that she finally seems to be enjoying books and the written word.
Crystal Mangum, who accused three Duke lacrosse players of rape, now says she lied
https://www.yahoo.com/news/crystal-mangum-accused-three-duke-130832824.html
Crystal Mangum, who accused three Duke lacrosse players of rape, now says she lied
By Karina Tsui
December 13, 2024
Crystal Mangum, the former exotic dancer who accused three Duke men’s lacrosse players of rape in 2006, igniting a national firestorm, now says she lied about the encounter.
“I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn’t, and that was wrong. And I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me,” Mangum said on the web show “Let’s Talk with Kat,” hosted by Katerena DePasquale.
The interview took place at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, where Mangum is serving time for a 2013 second-degree murder conviction for stabbing her boyfriend.
“I made up a story that wasn’t true because I wanted validation from people and not from God,” Mangum said.
On the podcast, she said she hopes the three men will forgive her.
“I want them to know that I love them, and they didn’t deserve that, and I hope that they can forgive me,” she said.
Mangum’s admission comes nearly two decades after she said she was raped by former players David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann.
According to the Duke student newspaper, Duke Athletics declined to comment. The university, and the school’s president and head men’s lacrosse coach at the time, did not respond to the student newspaper’s request for comment. There’s been no reported comment from the players.
Party accusations and the fallout
The three were arrested following the woman’s allegations of sexual assault at a party.
The charges brought broad media attention, forced the cancellation of the team’s 2006 season, and cost coach Mike Pressler his job. The district attorney on the case was convicted of criminal contempt and disbarred.
In April 2007, the state’s then-Attorney General Roy Cooper, who is now governor, reviewed the case and exonerated the three men, declaring that the charges never should have been brought against them.
Duke University and the three players reached an undisclosed settlement shortly after the charges were dropped.
The city of Durham settled a lawsuit by the three men in 2014. As part of the settlement, Durham agreed to pay $50,000 to the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission.
As I’ve said before, it’s wrong to give passing grades to students who don’t understand the material. This is one of the saddest, most tragic examples of it that I have ever seen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-EdOojLprs
“While enrollment in public schools continues to plummet, classical Christian schools – which combine classical liberal arts training with Christian doctrine – are blooming around San Francisco.”
https://sfstandard.com/2024/12/02/conservative-christian-schools-san-francisco/
Conservative Christian private schools find a foothold in liberal San Francisco
By Sam Mondros
December 3, 2024
On the northern slope of Bernal Heights, amid bay windows adorned with rainbow Pride flags and leftover signs supporting Aaron Peskin for mayor, sits a 66-student school that weaves in lessons from the Bible with deep study of classical creeds and languages. Though it’s attended by kids whose families represent a cross-section of San Francisco, it was co-founded by a conservative Christian tech investor who has made no secret of his support for Donald Trump and his hard-right views on immigration, homosexuality, and abortion.
Donum Dei Classical Academy “exists to be a gift of God to the families and churches who call San Francisco home,” according to the school’s website. “We seek to impart a rich classical Christian curriculum full of Scriptural truth and life-giving experiences … in the hands of our godly, experienced teachers and education partners.”
Far from being a solitary conservative island in a roiling sea of secular progressivism, Donum Dei’s influence is expanding. The small school has grown by roughly 25 students since opening in 2019, and revenue from anonymous contributions increased from $45,692 that year to $773,319 in 2023.
And it’s not the only religious school gaining ground. While enrollment in public schools continues to plummet, classical Christian schools — which combine classical liberal arts training with Christian doctrine — are blooming around San Francisco. Of the four classical Christian schools The Standard identified in the city, three opened in the last five years. Nationally, the number of such schools grew 4.8% in the same period, according to data compiled by consulting firm Arcadia Education.
Donum Dei was founded in 2019 by right-wing venture capitalist Nate Fischer and his wife, Meghan, who live in Dallas. The other founding partners are West Portal residents Christine and Colin McLean. Christine, who serves as the board chair, previously worked at Christian institutions in Texas and at the University of Texas at Austin. Colin is chief revenue officer at Digital Realty, an Austin-based real estate investment trust with offices in San Francisco.
The McLeans declined a phone interview with The Standard, while the Fischers did not respond to requests for comment.
While Nate Fischer has called himself a Calvinist, his ideology and investment portfolio are much closer to those of Dominionism, which promotes a society governed by Christianity and biblical law. “I think that we have a dominion mandate to fill the earth, to subdue it, to take dominion,” Fischer said in an interview with the conservative think tank American Moment.
The venture capital firm he founded and runs, New Founding, has an explicit mission to fund companies with conservative values that will reinvent the U.S. “through a partnership of the new ‘political right’ and an emerging ‘tech right.’”
As a part of its efforts, New Founding has invested in Armanet, an Oakland-based ad platform that aims to bypass advertising restrictions on the firearms industry, and Presidio Healthcare, a pro-life medical firm based in San Diego that fits the “criteria for Catholics,” Fischer said in the American Moment interview. Presidio’s goal, he added, is to “build an entirely new network of doctors that don’t require Covid vaccines, for instance, or aren’t going to trans your kid.”
A former fellow at right-wing think tank the Claremont Institute, Fischer leads a secretive Christian fraternal society and has founded an ammunition company with federal contracts, according to The Guardian. According to the Federal Election Commission, he donated more than $14,000 to Republican candidates in the past two election cycles, including $2,900 toward the senatorial campaigns of J.D. Vance in Ohio and Ted Cruz in Texas. Fischer has blurbed books arguing for the importance of Christian nationalism and diligently promotes self-proclaimed Christian nationalist Doug Wilson — considered the father of classical education — on his podcast and in the publication he co-founded, American Reformer.
Though he speaks often about the values of classical Christian education, Fischer is nowhere to be found on the Donum Dei website. When asked about the Fischers’ involvement in the San Francisco school, Christine McLean emailed that the founding couple “live out of state and have little recent affiliation with our school.” Tax filings show that Nate Fischer stepped down from the board after the 2020-21 school year. McLean said Meghan Fischer exited the board this year.
Yonahandi Vaca, a social worker whose child attends Donum Dei, said she had never heard of the Fischers. But she said her family loves the school they co-founded. “We chose it because it aligned with our Christian belief,” she said. “I feel like they have a fresh approach on education. I had never heard of classical, and that was really attractive to me: learning things the old way, with cursive and Latin.”
A blossoming movement
In addition to Donum Dei, which teaches kindergarteners through eighth-graders, San Francisco’s classical Christian schools include Nativity High School, which opened this fall with 20 students in the Inner Richmond; Saint John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy, a 25-student K-8 school in the Richmond that opened in 1994; and Stella Maris, a former Catholic school on the same campus as Nativity that has doubled its enrollment to 86 students since reinventing itself in 2021.
Unlike Saint John, which offers a classical education rooted in Orthodox church teachings, and the Catholic-leaning Nativity High and Stella Maris, Donum Dei is not affiliated with any sect of Christianity. The Catholic and Orthodox schools do not require students to be members of those churches, but Donum Dei requires a “covenantal partnership” wherein at least one parent is involved with a Christian church, with a note from the parishioner to prove it. In effect, this means non-Christians aren’t welcome at the school.
At a recent information session for prospective parents, Donum Dei Principal Trisha Mammen described the school as part of a movement to “recover the liberal arts,” asking parents, “What worries you about educating your child in San Francisco?” A reporter from The Standard attempted to attend two publicly advertised information sessions for Donum Dei but was asked to leave after identifying himself as a journalist.
According to faculty and administrators, classical Christian schools largely appeal to parents who want notions of tradition, faith, and conservative values woven into the curriculum. At Stella Maris, one of the city’s fastest-growing classical Christian schools, “woke books” are culled from the library through a “triage” system, said Marilyn Bridon, an art teacher and assistant to the head of school. Students there attend Mass on Fridays and are incentivized through scholarships to get involved in their parish.
“We certainly don’t talk about pronouns in our school,” Bridon added.
At Donum Dei, STEM and humanities studies are guided by faith — “God as the mathematician and the scientist,” Mammen said at the information session for prospective parents, according to education consultant Tiffany Claflin, who was in attendance. When asked by Claflin if students are taught creationism, Mammen responded, “God made earth and man. We did not come from slime.”
Such teachings are not embraced by other local parochial schools, including Catholic schools, which, under the guidance of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, do not teach creationism. “We teach what science can prove,” said Peter Marlow, a spokesperson for the archdiocese.
“A lot of people in our community have said it’s important to them that we’re not too far out there, too far to the left,” said Helen Sinelnikoff-Nowak, an administrator and teacher at Saint John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy. “I’m not preaching to parents, but I hear them, and that’s what they’re looking for.”
Families flocking to these schools appear to reflect a yearning for stability and tradition. The emergence of classical Christian education in San Francisco may be less a full-scale cultural revolution than a bellwether of a city grappling with its ideological roots.
The movement aligns with San Francisco’s gradual turn to the right in November’s local and national elections. The percentage of city voters who cast ballots for Trump increased from 12.8% in 2020 to 16.7% in 2024. The results of ballot propositions, including the overwhelming passage of Proposition 36, which reclassifies some misdemeanor drug and theft crimes as felonies, and the failure of Proposition 6, which would have banned forced prison labor, also reflect a statewide tack to the right.
“In my experience, there are a solid number of parents looking for a school like this,” said local education consultant Vicky Keston, who works with parents navigating the public school lottery and private school admissions processes. She estimated that 10% of her clients are interested in Christian education. “Some parents prefer questions about gender identity to be taught at an older age and for young children not to be actively suggested that they reconsider what their gender is. These parents would prefer schools to focus on academics over politics or social justice.”
San Francisco was once the least religious U.S. city, but earlier this year, it fell behind Seattle, according to data from the ongoing Household Pulse Survey, a product of the U.S. Census Bureau. Tech, the Bay Area’s main industry, has embraced religion.
Classical Christian schools fuse Christian ideology with the curriculum of “trivium” — a focus on grammar, logic, and rhetoric that has roots in ancient Greece. They teach the “Great Books” and pride themselves on small class sizes. They also pride themselves on what they don’t teach: diversity, equity, and inclusion; gender ideology; and, in some cases, evolution.
“Parents don’t want kids exposed to outside influences that are prevalent in our city,” Bridon said. Asked if Stella Maris teaches critical race theory, the administrator blanched. “We don’t teach that,” she said. “We teach Latin, though.”
Elon Musk is opening a Montessori school!
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/inside-elon-musk-plans-private-004159755.html
Inside Elon Musk’s plans for a private pre-school in Texas, which just got a permit to open and where children will learn to sweep, draw, and explore
By Jessica Mathews
November 20, 2024
Elon Musk’s pre-kindergarten Montessori school in Texas can now open its doors.
The school, which has been in the works since last year, received its initial permit from the Texas childcare regulator on Thursday
The first Ad Astra pupils in Bastrop will be between three and six years old and attend a pre-Kindegarten school that focuses on exploration and on tasks like coloring, collage-making, and studying maps and globes.
… its approach to learning will revolve around exploration, with toddlers learning how to button things, color and draw, collage, construct words, and study globes and maps. Outside, there is a basketball court, and toddlers will be able to play with tricycles and balls, according to the documents. The curriculum itself—which entails periods for “work” and “play” and has children learning to sweep, apologize to others, and learn how to “solve a conflict”—is inspired by the work of Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs, two psychologists and educators, to “teach young people to become responsible, respectful, and resourceful members of our community,” according to Ad Astra’s permit application. As a Montessori school, the school will likely also emphasize self-directed learning, hands-on experiences, and collaborative play.
Alman’s conjecture: The more expensive a college’s tuition is, the more insane its students are.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
November 8, 2024
Alman’s conjecture: The more expensive a college’s tuition is, the more insane its students are.
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1854964493484179776
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1854964493484179776
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/11/7/harvard-students-react-donald-trump-reelection/
Harvard Professors Cancel Classes as Students Feel Blue After Trump Win
Students awoke to a somber campus following Donald Trump’s reelection to the presidency early Wednesday morning. “My heart dropped a little bit,” one student said.
By Madeleine A. Hung and Azusa M. Lippit
November 7, 2024
At 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Sophia R. Mammucari ’28 woke up to a phone call from her mom — and the news that Donald Trump had been officially reelected.
“I still had some hope that she was going to win by a small amount. And then I woke up this morning, and that’s not what happened,” Mammucari said. “I probably cried for like an hour.”
On election night, students gathered at viewing parties hosted by friends, House tutors, the Institute of Politics, and the Harvard Republican Club to watch results roll in.
The next morning, they woke up to a somber campus.
When Samantha M. Holtz ’28 googled the presidential election’s outcome before her Wednesday morning swim practice, her “heart dropped a little bit.”
“Being at Harvard, I was surrounded by a lot of people who were very pro-Harris, so in my mind it was already a decided election,” Holtz said. “It was a little bit shocking to me.”
Luke P. Kushner ’27 said he was “really, really disappointed” by the presidential election results.
“Very early on in the night, it became pretty clear that it was going to go in the direction of Trump,” Kushner said. “I went to bed before they called it, and at that point I was pretty resigned.”
‘Space to Process’
In Harvard’s freshman dining hall Wednesday morning, Holtz joined a teammate to eat breakfast with College Dean Rakesh Khurana.
According to Holtz, Khurana told students to “let yourself feel a bunch of emotions about how this is going to impact us in the future, and listen to other people and how they feel about it too.”
Some professors also encouraged students to process in the aftermath of the election, adjusting course requirements in kind.
Courses such as Sociology 1156: “Statistics for Social Sciences” and Applied Math 22a: “Solving and Optimizing,” as well as several General Education courses — 1074: “The Ancient Greek Hero” and 1111: “Popular Culture and Modern China” among them — canceled their Wednesday classes, made attendance optional, or extended assignment deadlines.
The move echoes the aftermath of Trump’s first win in 2016, when professors postponed exams and changed lesson plans to lighten students’ schedules.
Economics lecturer Maxim Boycko wrote in a Wednesday email to students in Economics 1010a: “Intermediate Microeconomics” that the course’s typical in-class quizzes would be optional.
“As we recover from the eventful election night and process the implications of Trump’s victory, please know that class will proceed as usual today, except that classroom quizzes will not be for credit,” Boycko wrote. “Feel free to take time off if needed.”
Jack A. Kelly ’26 said he “was tempted to say ‘no’ to class today.”
“I had some professors that have been like, ‘If you need to not come to class, that’s understandable,’” he added. “This definitely takes a toll on people’s mental wellbeing.”
Throughout Wednesday, student organizations, faculty, and House tutors also offered chances to come to terms with the election results.
Physics professor Jennifer E. Hoffman ’99 wrote in an email to physics students and faculty that her office would be “a space to process the election.”
“Many in our community are sleep-deprived, again grieving for glass ceilings that weren’t shattered, fearful for the future, or embarrassed to face our international colleagues,” she wrote. “I stress-baked several pans of lemon bars to share.”
A ‘Very Dark Moment’
For many College students, Trump’s policy proposals mark a source of despair for the next four years.
“Long term, I’m very concerned about Trump’s policies and the things that he has endorsed,” Kushner said. “Trump’s attitude towards democracy and the norms that we have in this country are really, really concerning.”
Kelly, who is enrolled in a class about healthcare, said he is particularly aware of Trump’s potential impact on American medical systems.
“We have an exam next week about the Affordable Care Act and other kinds of healthcare policies,” he said. “A lot of what we’re learning might become moot if the ACA and the progress that was made under that law is repealed in the second Trump administration.”
Eleanor M. Powell ’25 said she is especially worried about Trump’s impact on the judicial system.
“I’m really worried about the court — and not just the Supreme Court, all of the courts where he will be able to appoint judges,” Powell said. “I think we’re in for a very dark moment in the 21st century’s history.”
Several students attributed their emotional reactions to Trump’s rhetoric toward minority groups across the U.S.
“I just couldn’t believe that Donald Trump won, because he is literally a felon, he’s a criminal, and he’s a racist,” Rachele D. Chung ’28 said. “I just can’t believe America voted that way.”
“I feel really sad for the state of women,” Claire V. Miller ’28 said. “If the candidate hadn’t been a Black woman — like if it had been a white man who was just younger than Trump and mentally sharp — I think they could’ve won.”
Victor E. Flores ’25, co-president of the Harvard College Democrats, said he was afraid for the “countless people” who could be affected by Trump’s policies.
“There are marginalized communities across the country that are waiting and watching to see what will happen,” he said. “I am certainly disappointed by these results.”
‘We’re Not Going Anywhere’
For politically engaged Harvard students in groups like Harvard College Democrats and the IOP, Trump’s win marked the conclusion of months of heavy campaigning.
Harvard College Democrats Co-President Tova L. Kaplan ’26 praised the students who have been “working incredibly hard” campaigning for Kamala Harris.
“Those networks that we’ve built and the skills that we’ve built — in students organizing, canvassing, political communications, community building, issue area, advocacy and more — are going to be all the more crucial in this fight ahead,” she said. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Alexander H. Lee ’27 said while results were not what he was hoping for, he is motivated to focus on local politics and “make the best out of what we have right now.”
Though students on both sides of the political aisle fought hard for their preferred candidate, IOP President Pratyush Mallick ’25 said he enjoyed seeing bipartisan “unity” at the IOP watch party and “super high” voter turnout.
With the end of the presidential campaigns, Mallick added that students interested in careers in presidential administration have entered a “transition process.”
“Many people who are thinking about pursuing careers in a Harris administration might explore opportunities and other avenues of public service and walk down those pathways,” he said. “And people who are kind of doing the vice versa might look to transition over to the Trump administration.”
‘A Lot More Vocal’
With Trump’s return to the Oval Office, some students said, Harvard’s campus may see a surge in conservative activism despite its usual “blue tint.”
Many students agreed that support for Trump is strong in limited conservative pockets, including the Harvard Republican Club — which endorsed Trump in July — and the Salient, a conservative student magazine which has published pro-Trump content this year.
According to Chung, Harvard students with more conservative beliefs tend to be quieter, but student Democrats “scream it from the rooftops.”
But in the aftermath of the election, some students predict a change.
“I’m very clear eyed about what this election means in terms of emboldening misogynistic, racist, hateful rhetoric,” Kaplan said.
“I don’t know to what extent that will trickle down to Harvard,” she added, but “we’re going to do our best to make sure that it doesn’t.”
“I think that the Trump supporters will now be a lot more vocal on this campus which, free speech is great, but there might be more animosity,” Mammacuri said.
Jara A. Emtage-Cave ’25, a student on the women’s rugby team, said pro-Trump sentiment seemed to gain traction even before November.
“In the past two weeks before the election, I’ve encountered a lot more people who are pro-Trump, specifically in the athletics community,” Emtage-Cave said.
Following the election, Akash D. Anandam ’28 said he assumed a handful of Harvard students were “popping champagne.”
On Tuesday night, HRC was indeed gleefully ushering in a second Trump presidency.
“It is morning again in America!” HRC President Michael Oved ’25 wrote in a statement to The Crimson Wednesday morning.
“I am pleased that the Harvard Republican Club played a part in this remarkable victory and historic comeback of President Trump,” Oved wrote. “It’s now time for us all to come together, unite around our new President, and tackle the issues that face our country.”
Legos, Cocoa, and Coloring Books for Georgetown Students: At the McCourt School of Public Policy, officials are offering ‘mindfulness’ options to cope with the election. The only thing missing is a blankie.
https://www.thefp.com/p/georgetown-election-safe-space-trump-kamala
Legos, Cocoa, and Coloring Books for Georgetown Students
At the McCourt School of Public Policy, officials are offering ‘mindfulness’ options to cope with the election. The only thing missing is a blankie.
By Frannie Block
November 4, 2024
On Wednesday, the day after the election, most of us are going to roll out of bed, have our breakfast, and get on with our day—no matter which presidential candidate wins. But students at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy—where diplomats and policymakers are molded—have another option: They can play with Legos. Seriously.
In an email to McCourt students, Jaclyn Clevenger, the school’s director of student engagement, introduced the school’s post-election “Self-Care Suite.”
“In recognition of these stressful times,” she wrote, “all McCourt community members are welcome to gather. . . in the 3rd floor Commons to take a much needed break, joining us for mindfulness activities and snacks throughout the day.”
Here’s the agenda (and no, you can’t make this up):
10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.: Tea, Cocoa, and Self-Care
11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.: Legos Station
12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.: Healthy Treats and Healthy Habits
1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.: Coloring and Mindfulness Exercises
2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.: Milk and Cookies
4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.: Legos and Coloring
5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.: Snacks and Self-Guided Meditation
I wanted to ask Clevenger why college and graduate students needed milk and cookies to recover from their stress—and how being coddled in college might someday affect American diplomacy—but she didn’t respond to my calls or emails.
Of course, Georgetown is hardly the only school fearful that their students will be traumatized after the election. At Missouri State University, the counseling center has set up a post-election “self-care no phone zone space” with calm jars, coloring pages, and sensory fidgets.
And just last week, The New York Times reported that Fieldston, the elite New York City private school, was making attendance the day after Election Day optional for “students who feel too emotionally distressed.” Fieldston has also eliminated all homework requirements that day, and is even providing psychologists for “Election Day Support.”
Jerry Seinfeld told the Times that his family found such decisions so aggravating that it caused his youngest son to withdraw from Fieldston and switch to a different school in the eighth grade. “What kind of lives have these people led that makes them think that this is the right way to handle young people?” he said. “To encourage them to buckle. This is the lesson they are providing, for ungodly sums of money.”
I couldn’t agree more.
What to Know About the University of Michigan’s D.E.I. Experiment: A Times investigation found that the school built one of the most ambitious diversity programs in the country — only to see increased discord and division on campus.
Original: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/16/magazine/university-of-michigan-dei.html
Archive: https://archive.ph/F7nzQ
What to Know About the University of Michigan’s D.E.I. Experiment
A Times investigation found that the school built one of the most ambitious diversity programs in the country — only to see increased discord and division on campus.
By Nicholas Confessore
October 16, 2024
A decade ago, the University of Michigan intentionally placed itself in the vanguard of a revolution then beginning to reshape American higher education. Around the country, college administrators were rapidly expanding D.E.I. programs. They believed that vigorous D.E.I. efforts would allow traditionally underrepresented students to thrive on campus — and improve learning for students from all backgrounds.
In recent years, as D.E.I. programs came under withering attack, Michigan has only doubled down on D.E.I., holding itself out as a model for other schools. By one estimate, the university has built the largest D.E.I. bureaucracy of any big public university.
But an examination by The Times found that Michigan’s expansive — and expensive — D.E.I. program has struggled to achieve its central goals even as it set off a cascade of unintended consequences.
Here are some key takeaways from the Magazine’s article on Michigan’s D.E.I. experiment.
Michigan has poured a staggering quarter of a billion dollars into D.E.I.
Striving to reach “every individual on campus,” Michigan has invested nearly 250 million dollars into D.E.I. since 2016, according to an internal presentation I obtained. Every university “unit” — from the medical school down to the archives — is required to have a D.E.I. plan.
The number of employees who work in D.E.I.-related offices or have “diversity,” “equity” or “inclusion” in their job titles reached 241 last year, according to an analysis by Mark J. Perry, an emeritus professor of finance at the university’s Flint campus.
Michigan has struggled to improve Black enrollment — and students overall feel less included, not more.
The percentage of Black students, currently around 5 percent, remained largely stagnant as Michigan’s overall enrollment rose — and in a state where 14 percent of residents are Black. In a survey released in late 2022, students and faculty members across the board reported a less positive campus climate than at the program’s start and less of a sense of belonging.
Students were less likely to interact with people of a different race or religion or with different politics — the exact kind of engagement D.E.I. programs, in theory, are meant to foster.
While its peers reconsider aspects of D.E.I., Michigan has doubled down.
This year, both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced they would no longer require job candidates to submit diversity statements, or explanations of the candidate’s commitment to D.E.I. Such “compelled statements,” M.I.T.’s president said, “impinge on freedom of expression.” But at Michigan, a faculty committee this summer privately recommended that the school continue using such statements,” which are currently required by most of Michigan’s colleges and schools.
D.E.I. at Michigan has helped fuel a culture of grievance.
Instead of improving students’ ability to engage with one another across their differences, Michigan’s D.E.I. expansion has coincided with an explosion in campus conflict over race and gender. Everyday campus complaints and academic disagreements are now cast as crises of inclusion and harm.
In 2015, the university office charged with enforcing federal civil rights mandates including Title IX received about 200 complaints of sex- or gender-based misconduct on Michigan’s campus. Last year, it surpassed 500. Complaints involving race, religion or national origin increased to almost 400 from a few dozen during roughly the same period.
After Oct. 7, Michigan’s D.E.I. bureaucracy was tested like never before — and failed.
At Michigan, as at other schools, campus protests exploded after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and Israel’s retaliation in Gaza. So did complaints of harassment or discrimination based on national origin or ancestry. This June, civil rights officials at the federal Department of Education found that Michigan had systematically mishandled such complaints over the 18-month period ending in February. Out of 67 complaints of harassment or discrimination based on national origin or ancestry that the officials reviewed — an overwhelming majority involving allegations of antisemitism, according to a tally I obtained — Michigan had investigated and made findings in just one.
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