Education Archives - LIBERTY FIRST

About Those Students Arrested by the Department of Homeland Security

April 18, 2025/in Courts & Law, DrRichSwier.com, Education, Immigration, National Security, Politics /by DrRichSwier.com

By The Geller Report

According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 300 foreign students, such as Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia and Rumeysa Ozturk at Tufts, who are here in the United States on student visas, have now been arrested, and are threatened with deportation by the Department of Homeland Security. These 300 have been variously charged with a variety of offenses: providing support to Hamas, a designated terrorist group, both in person and on social media; calling for the destruction of the state of Israel (“From the river to the sea/Palestine shall be free”), urging violence against Jews everywhere (“Globalize the Intifada”), participating in campus violence, including physically harassing and attacking Jewish students, trying to shut down classes taught by Jewish professors, entering and vandalizing campus buildings, attacking campus police and janitorial staff, and much more. Douglas Murray discusses it all here.

All this gets especially messy because at the same time that portions of the right want to effect outrage at things which are essentially unimportant, the left is trying to focus on a much more important free-speech battle.

They believe that if someone supports a radical terrorist group or comes to the United States and tries to cause civil unrest or vandalism that they should somehow be protected by the First Amendment.

In recent days and weeks even some esteemed conservative writers have backed up this position.

As well as the case of Mahmoud Khalil, there is now also the case of Rumeysa Ozturk. Like Khalil, this person came into the US claiming to be a student. She came in on a student visa.

The Turkish-born student has now been detained. She seems — like Khalil — to have made a fundamental misunderstanding about what it means to come to the US as a student.

First of all she — like him — is not protected by the same laws that would protect an American citizen. She was not born in this country, is not a citizen of this country and was — in fact — a guest in this country.

But the left — and some on the right — are gearing up to make her their latest “free-speech martyr.” Yet even free speech for American citizens stop at the moment that you support the harassment of American students.

It stops at the moment that you encourage and engage in acts of vandalism and violence on American college campuses — among other places. And it stops when you support foreign and domestic terrorist movements.

As Marco Rubio said yesterday, there is no reason why any country in the world should invite people into it whose intent is to cause civil strife. What country would invite people in and then reward them for trying to cause trouble in their host country?

As Rubio said of the Ozturk case: “We gave you a visa to study and earn a degree — not to become a social activist tearing up our campuses. If you use your visa to do that, we’ll take it away. And I encourage every country to do the same.”

Senator Josh Hawley managed to hold the sane eminently sensible line yesterday when he berated people claiming that assaulting campus police and smashing up buildings is “protected speech.” It isn’t.

Words are not violence. Violence is violence. The woke left never liked to remember this. But conservatives shouldn’t forget it either.

The defenders of these students who have been arrested and will have their cases heard in a court of law keep claiming that what is at stake is “their right to freedom of speech.” No, it is not. Theirs is not a free speech matter. What is at stake, among other things, is the violent part these people play in suppressing the freedom of speech of others. They shout down pro-Israel speakers, entering lecture halls to interrupt such speakers with chants — “Stop Ethnic Cleansing,” “End the Genocide,” “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free,” and most threatening of all, “Globalize the Intifada.” They violently invade university buildings, and vandalize them, writing pro-Hamas graffiti on walls. They attack campus police trying to regulate the tent encampments that they set up in the middle of campuses. At Columbia, the pro-Hamas brigade entered Hamilton Hall, and proceeded to break furniture and write on the walls. When members of the janitorial staff tried to stop them, they were attacked. One of the janitors was so wounded that he spent five days in the hospital.

Right now, Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk are being presented as martyrs on the altar of free speech. But it is the active participation in violence of the former, and the approval expressed for Palestinian violence by the other, that have gotten them in trouble. They were greatly privileged to have been allowed into our country for study. But they greatly abused that privilege, and if justice is done, Khalil will be back in the despotic mess that is Gaza, or possibly end up teaching at Birzeit University (ranked as the 1,946th university in the world) in Judea (or is Samaria?). As for Ms. Ozturk, she can look forward, if justice is done in her case, to returning to Turkey, to be ruled by the dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as he tightens the screws of his regime. Neither one will be able to exercise the freedom of speech they so abused in warm-hearted and welcoming America. Both will lament their paradise lost, which only when they are far away, in their respective political hellholes, will they begin to appreciate.

AUTHOR

Hugh Fitzgerald

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The post About Those Students Arrested by the Department of Homeland Security appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

DHS Just Added Itself To Harvard’s List Of Trump Admin Adversaries

April 18, 2025/in DrRichSwier.com, Education, Elections, National Security, Politics, Religion /by DrRichSwier.com

By The Daily Caller

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Wednesday revoked its own grants from Harvard University over its alleged failure to address antisemitism.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced the department is canceling two grants totaling $2.7 million to the school as part of a continued crack down against antisemitism on campus, according to a press release. Noem said the school is “unfit to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”

“Harvard bending the knee to antisemitism — driven by its spineless leadership — fuels a cesspool of extremist riots and threatens our national security,” said Secretary Noem. “With anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology poisoning its campus and classrooms, Harvard’s position as a top institution of higher learning is a distant memory. America demands more from universities entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”

The Secretary wrote Harvard a letter demanding details on any violent and illegal activities committed by foreign student visa holders. The letter warned that, if the records were not turned over by April 30, Harvard would lose its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification and be unable to admit foreign students altogether.

Noem claims the $800,303 Implementation Science for Targeted Violence Prevention grant “branded conservatives as far-right dissidents in a shockingly skewed study,” while the $1,934,902 Blue Campaign Program Evaluation and Violence Advisement grant “funded Harvard’s public health propaganda.”

“Both undermine America’s values and security,” the press release stated. “With a $53.2 billion endowment, Harvard can fund its own chaos—DHS won’t.”

The Trump administration on April 11 demanded Harvard agree to a list of reforms to the way it handles antisemitism after a September congressional investigation found “Harvard failed” to enforce meaningful punishment on nearly 70 students who were involved in a multi-day pro-Hamas encampment during the previous spring semester. The changes asked of the school included reforming and better enforcing disciplinary processes for students who participate in antisemitic protests, improving screening of international students for “hostile” views towards America and auditing “programs with egregious records of antisemitism.”

In a public statement Monday afternoon, Harvard declared it “will not surrender” and refused the proposal. The Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, made up of the Department of Education (ED), Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) swiftly revoked over $2 billion in grants to the university hours later.

“Harvard is aware of the Department of Homeland Security’s letter regarding grant cancellations and scrutiny of foreign student visas, which—like the Administration’s announcement of the freeze of $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts, and reports of the revocation of Harvard’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status—follows on the heels of our statement that Harvard will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” a Harvard spokesman told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We continue to stand by that statement. We will continue to comply with the law and expect the Administration to do the same.”

“Harvard values the rule of law and expects all members of our community to comply with University policies and applicable legal standards. If federal action is taken against a member of our community, we expect it will be based on clear evidence, follow established legal procedures, and respect the constitutional rights afforded to all individuals,” the spokesman continued.

AUTHOR

Jaryn Crouson

Contributor.

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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The post DHS Just Added Itself To Harvard’s List Of Trump Admin Adversaries appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

Why Americans Oppose DEI

April 18, 2025/in Education, Featured, Liberty, Politics, ThePricklyPear.org /by ThePricklyPear.org

By Scott Yenor

They’re right to rebel against wokeness

The following is a lightly edited version of a speech that was delivered to university administrators at the annual meeting of the Higher Learning Commission on April 7, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois. These administrators heard the moral case against DEI policies (some for the first time). Many walked out while others screamed or booed.

Public opinion has turned against DEI. It is tempting for DEI advocates to wish this reality away and call the DEI rollback part of the “white backlash.” Or claim that people just don’t want to learn real history. Or keep DEI in place under another name. Some administrators in academia are simply rebranding DEI as “community engagement” or “belonging centers.” But we all know what you are doing—it’s the same thing with a slightly different label.

DEI advocates are no doubt convinced of their position. They do not want to change. Their jobs depend on DEI policies. They think the DEI cause is righteous and central to the mission of higher education.

A majority of Americans find DEI policies objectionable, however. My home state of Idaho recently banned DEI policies, joining many states in passing sweeping bans. The recent dismantling of DEI at the University of Michigan may be a watershed moment for DEI in higher education. Michigan had been a leader in DEI advocacy, when measuring its funding of DEI initiatives and the number of DEI administrators on its payroll.

Something is happening here. What it is, is rather clear.

Let’s face facts: DEI advocates are increasingly in the minority. They are fighting rear-guard actions against a majority of people in the country, and in many states. They are fighting against democracy to preserve their DEI domain.

Might it not be better to understand why Americans are increasingly frustrated with the DEI regime? Might it not be better to recognize why DEI is so unpopular in America? There is common sense in the anti-DEI position that should be appreciated and understood.

The public philosophy implicit in DEI policies is traceable to what was once our reigning civil rights ideology—the disparate impact regime. Disparate impact ideology traces all disparities between groups—between blacks and whites, between men and women, for instance—to systemic discrimination.

When blacks do not attend a university in the same numbers as whites, that university is thought to be discriminatory. Perhaps it is admissions tests, a lack of role models, or insufficient marketing. The list goes on. DEI advocates promise to lessen these disparities by adopting race-conscious policies. Special scholarships are introduced to hire or admit more blacks, and programming is added that’s expressly aimed at attracting black faculty.

One interesting fact about DEI policies is that they do not work all that well on their own terms. I have written a number of articles about how inclusion policies, for instance, make people of all races feel that they do not belong on campus and how equity policies do not lead to equity. This happens at university after university, yet no one in the DEI industry seems to care.

My conclusion is that DEI policies are about cultural revolution, not results. This new culture—call it the diversity persuasion—is bad for the university.

Standards

Many have made the legitimate argument that the diversity persuasion detracts from merit-based institutions. It is difficult to maintain high standards of achievement and learning when an institution’s goal is erasing racial or sexual disparities. The result is grade inflation, lower levels of learning, and a host of other problems. For many, the attack on standards is the main problem with DEI.

DEI Lie

The problem with DEI goes deeper than just the compromising of standards. The idea that all disparities are traceable to discrimination is an obvious untruth—a lie. The greatest book proving this is Thomas Sowell’s Discrimination and Disparities. Sowell shows that different groups with somewhat different subcultures value and prioritize different things. Different groups have, on the whole, different talents, interests, and abilities. The world is multivariate, not unicausal.

Disciplinary Corruption

Disciplinary corruption is not the same thing as DEI policies. Disciplinary corruption is when DEI or critical theories become sown into a discipline’s professional standards. DEI policies are top-down demands from university administration.

The attempt by universities to impose a false ideology leads to intellectual corruption. When the diversity persuasion conquers a discipline, its findings and research concerns become increasingly corrupt and far removed from reality. Disciplines like history and English—which, when they focus on history and literature, are among the most vital studies in the world—become corrupt and lose their intellectual vitality when they focus on gender and race.

Social Harmony

DEI as an official policy makes social peace impossible to accomplish. Americans want to live in social harmony with one another, to tolerate one another. Reasonable attachment to our country and civilization must be cultivated. A reasonable patriotism—as opposed to a blood-and-soil patriotism—must be based in reality. We must all know and appreciate how the country serves our interests and makes good things possible.

DEI is an accusation against the country. It makes reasonable accommodations impossible, because it is a philosophy of endless accusations and endless demands.

Social Engineering

University administrators under the spell of DEI demand that the world conforms to a theory that is, at most, only partly true. This has much to do with the DEI lie. People and groups are somewhat different, which leads to disparities or gaps. That is the way of the world, which DEI fights against at every step.

For DEI advocates, since disparate impact is a problem the world over, everything ultimately must be brought under the control of the state or the university to eliminate disparities. Everything is presumptively illegal. Everything must be brought under the control of clumsy administrators who promise to make things right through tinkering and social engineering. This is why we have gotten an increasingly racialized set of bureaucratic and judicial edicts that impose handicaps and confer privileges based on race, sex, or group identity rather than the protection of individual rights. This is why the University of Michigan and other universities had DEI officials overseeing nearly every aspect of university operations.

Living the lie of DEI makes it necessary to remake the world to reflect its lies. Living according to a lie creates the need for endless, frustrating social engineering.

Decline in Trust

The rise of disparate impact ideology coincides with a terrific decline in public trust and mutual trust in our society. We have, under its auspices, gone from a high-trust to a low-trust society. This makes sense. DEI is based on a rejection of our heritage. It is anti-Enlightenment. It is anti-individual rights. It ultimately demands the control of thought and speech. It prefers a multicultural country, where we emphasize and celebrate our differences and try to make heritage Americans feel guilty about our colorblind constitutional principles and social norms. It emphasizes oppression so that people will become attached to a new, as-yet-to-be-seen country. And nowhere does this multicultural country embody the freedom, goodwill, and affection necessary to hold a people together in happy and peaceful coexistence.

Americans increasingly recognize this problem and are saying “enough.” Public servants should listen to those Americans as fellow citizens who want to achieve a workable social harmony in our country.

DEI and University Mission

The university’s chief missions are to promote workforce education, to promote professional education, to pass on an appreciation of our civilization, and to ensure basic numeracy and literacy. DEI is tangential to these missions. In fact, it compromises them. It teaches that workforce education is not honorable. It lowers standards for admission into professional schools. It undermines our civilizational heritage. It gives people excuses for not achieving basic numeracy and literacy.

The diversity persuasion is a bad public philosophy. It makes a reasonable patriotism difficult to cultivate. It promises a future of endless social engineering to bring about equal outcomes. It undermines America’s traditions of freedom, individual rights, and the rule of law. It undermines social harmony and public trust. Since DEI is based on a lie, it misshapes our minds, our laws, and our country, and makes our future worse. It is a cause of polarization. It is a solvent on social bonds. Things will only get worse in this country if we continue down the DEI road.

The alternative is a colorblind future. We should seize it. It’s what our laws and our culture demand. It is a workable solution. Gaps will still exist, but they will always exist. Universities should be open to all, of course, because that is precisely what is needed for a workable social harmony to emerge.

*****

This article was published by The American Mind and is reproduced with permission.

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The Cat Is Out Of The Bag At The University Of Arizona

April 18, 2025/in Education, Featured, Politics, ThePricklyPear.org /by ThePricklyPear.org

By Craig J. Cantoni

Written by Craig J. Cantoni

The schools complain that they are struggling to carry out their educational missions due to being underfunded and the Trump administration cutting grants, which are a major source of revenue.

Yet, at the same time, they can afford to be in the money-losing professional sports business, a business that masquerades as amateur sports but is actually a farm team for the NBA and NFL. That’s certainly true for the Arizona Wildcats.

Every morning, I check my local news feeds for Tucson. Half the stories are typically about the Wildcats, including recent stories about exorbitant contracts being given to coaches. This is happening in a city with a high poverty rate, a low-wage economy, a significant homeless problem, abysmal test scores in the largest school district, and a progressive culture and politics that purport to care about social justice.

A recent story stripped away the masquerade and confirmed that college sports are no longer amateur. The story was written by veteran reporter Howard Fischer of Arizona Capitol Times. It is about a bill being considered in the Arizona House to allow “student-athletes” to make even more money than they are currently making.

Coincidentally, I recently read the 2010 book, “Scoreboard Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime, and Complicity.” The book describes in infuriating detail the crimes committed by thugs on the University of Washington football team, including the crimes of rape, domestic violence, drug dealing, armed robbery, animal cruelty, and DWI. Treated as heroes instead of criminals, their crimes were overlooked or excused by fans, university administrators, media, and prosecutors.

And in a story that has been told many times about college sports, the academic failures of the hero-thugs were also overlooked. They were allowed to take sham courses in order to maintain their athletic eligibility. For instance, they took several levels of a course on the Swahili language but only had to learn a word or two each semester in order to pass and get credit.

The book describes the culture in Seattle. It resembles Tucson in many ways. Excerpts:

[Seattle] believes a half-million people can reach consensus—a noble but silly sentiment that begs paralysis. Study, study, study, vote, vote, vote—repeat. While Seattle works to save the world, local projects wither and die.

More than half the adults have bachelor’s degrees. But a lot of those degree holders come from somewhere else. Seattle struggles to educate its own. School funding is a mess. Teacher salaries lag behind most of the country. A third of Seattle’s students don’t graduate from high school. Of those who do, only one in six meet the requirements to go to college.

In Seattle, it’s okay to be different. Pierce your eyebrows, tattoo whatever, wherever . . . Most of the city is gritty. The University District—or “U District,” more commonly—brings together, in one Seattle neighborhood, junkies and sorority sisters, homeless kids and aspiring doctors, smoke shops and vegetarian restaurants.

The U District’s main street is University Way, which locals call The Ave. The street offers just about anything you’d want to buy, see, or eat, or have done to your hair, body, or spirit. On The Ave you can find Bulgogi, BBQ short rib, stir-fried squid, Mongolian, Trinidadian, Brazilian, Pakistani, meth, marijuana, coffee, cocaine, Bento, falafel, gargoyles, bubble tea, greet-tea frozen yogurt wit granola on top, massage, a pregnancy clinic, Persian musical instruments, geochemical art, vintage clothing, body piercing, kabobs, sake, a sliver of an apartment with the address of 4736½,, a street ministry, Tai Chi, healing and meditation, drumming and energy dance, and lots of books, new and used.

Seattle is long way from Lincoln, Nebraska, or College Station, Texas. But when it comes to football, the differences disappear. Football is religion, and religion roams.

Seattle is also like Tucson in that college coaches are lionized and paid exorbitantly.

The cat is out of the bag at the University of Arizona—or I should say, the fat cats are out of the bag. The progressives at both the university and the City of Tucson care more about panem et circenses than social justice.

*****

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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Critically Thinking about K-12 Books

April 17, 2025/in DrRichSwier.com, Education, Politics /by DrRichSwier.com

By John Droz, Jr.

My response to a local example of K-12 book misinformation.

I’ve written about the horrific corruption of K-12 library books and textbooks before (e.g., see here and here). This continues to be a very hot item as:

a) the Left has prioritized the subversion of our children’s minds,

b) major national forces (like the American Library Association*) are aggressively supporting this,

c) there is no well-coordinated, effective national response from the Right (like DOEd), and d) to date no State has passed adequate legislation to assure that K-12 libraries and classes only have age-appropriate books

Re “d”, remember that those who are calling for DOEd to be closed are saying to turn over the K-12 education to these same 50 states. This is one of many pieces of evidence that indicates that such a plan makes no sense.

Anyway, in my popular local newspaper, a citizen just wrote in complaining about supposed “book banning” in our county schools. Below is the Letter to the Editor (LTE) that I promptly sent in as a reply (and it was accepted).

Note five subtleties in my response:

The person who wrote the initial LTE has an unusual name, so it’s not clear whether this is a man or a woman. Rather than use Woke pronouns, I refer to that individual as “the writer,” etc.
Even though what they wrote was ignorant, I carefully called their beliefs wrong, rather than saying they were wrong. Big difference!
Although this fight is about values (as Judeo-Christian values are being assaulted), I avoided using that word, as it is more likely to stir emotions. Instead, I am making the focus on the age-appropriateness of books, etc. which is less flammable.
In an attempt to make the age-appropriateness more understandable, I repeatedly used a specific example: an eight-year-old child. I purposefully added the “child” part to further emphasize the age disparity.
Many of those on the Right who are involved with this issue, focus on books that are sexually inappropriate. IMO this is a strategic mistake, as there are several other subject areas that make a book age-inappropriate. Broadening the issue expands our support. See my examples below.

A famous golf axiom is that almost all golf bets are won (or lost) before even teeing off. The reason is that the stipulated conditions will favor one golfer over the other.

In this day and age of rampant political misinformation, this is a favorite tactic used: to mischaracterize an issue in a way that stacks the deck in favor of the complainer. Such an example appeared in a Carteret News-Times (NC) LTE on 4-12-25. The earnest writer pleaded against “book banning” — but there was no such action being taken or considered!

The one — and only — issue regarding K-12 library books and textbooks is: is the book material age-appropriate for the children involved?

For example, it is not age-appropriate for books available to an 8-year-old child to include such content as gratuitous violence, drug promotion, profanity, self-mutilation, beastiality, etc.

Consider three facts:

the American Library Association explicitly states on their website that they do not believe in age-appropriateness* [so we can see where the problem lies],
for decades, movies have been labeled by age-appropriateness [and exactly who has been harmed by such labeling?], and
local schools are not “banning” any books.

Regarding #3: a) just because an author writes a book, they are not entitled to have it purchased with taxpayer dollars to be in every US K-12 school, b) purchased books should be clearly marked as to which age they are appropriate for, and c) if a school does not have every book that a parent would like their child to read, parents can obtain said books on their own, for their child. So nothing is “banned.”

Lastly, regarding other opinions expressed by the writer:

Not having books on depraved violence, etc. available for an 8-year-old child does not “cause them to read less.” I contend that it is exactly the opposite.
Not having books on drug advocacy, etc. available for an 8-year-old child does not “hinder their critical thinking.” Eight-year-olds do not have the experience and maturity to perform critical thinking on such material.
“Educators are handicapped due to a decline in available books.” There are thousands of age-appropriate books for every age group of K-12 students, so if that is an educator’s experience they should solicit their library to buy more of the many age-appropriate books that are out there.
“Reading diverse books helps develop a strong sense of self and empathy for others.” Agreed, as long as they are age-appropriate.

If this writer (and others of a similar mindset) would apply Critical Thinking to this issue, they will see the overwhelming evidence that age-appropriateness is the main criterion that should be carefully applied to textbooks and library books in our K-12 schools.

{FYI, for those who are not subscribed to my free popular twice-a-month Newsletter (see below), in the last issue I posted a link to good people who are trying to identify some of the many objectionable books, by State and by school in each State. It is a work in progress. Please make a donation.}

* K-12 school librarians play a key role as to which books are purchased for the school library. Most of these librarians are also members of the American Library Association (ALA). The ALA adamantly opposes the concept of age-appropriateness! Their website makes it crystal clear what their official position is:

Access to Library Resources and Services for Minors: “Library policies and procedures that effectively deny minors equal and equitable access to all library resources available to other users violate the Library Bill of Rights. The American Library Association opposes all attempts to restrict access to library services, materials, and facilities based on the age of library users.”

The question is: is a K-12 school librarian acting in the interests of parents and school children, or are they an agent disseminating ALA ideology?

Here is other information from this scientist that you might find interesting:

I am now offering incentives for you to sign up new subscribers!

I also consider reader submissions on Critical Thinking on my topics of interest.

Check out the Archives of this Critical Thinking substack.

WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2024 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time – but why would you?

The post Critically Thinking about K-12 Books appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

‘Will Not Surrender’: Harvard Scoffs At Trump Admin’s Demands To Address Antisemitism

April 15, 2025/in DrRichSwier.com, Education, Elections, Politics, Religion /by DrRichSwier.com

By The Daily Caller

Harvard University announced Monday it will not agree to the Trump administration’s demands to address antisemitism on campus.

The Department of Education (ED) sent a letter to the Ivy League school April 11 demanding the school agree to a host of reforms, including adjusting and enforcing disciplinary processes, improving screening of international students for “hostile” views and auditing “programs with egregious records of antisemitism.” Harvard cited academic freedom concerns and free speech rights in its announcement rejecting ED’s demands.

“We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement,” Harvard president Alan Garber wrote in the announcement. “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”

ED, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the General Services Administration (GSA) initiated in late March a review of more than $8.7 billion worth of grants to Harvard after a September investigation by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce found that “Harvard failed” to discipline students who engaged in antisemitic campus protests. Harvard demonstrators disrupted classes, occupied a campus building and a set up a multi-day encampment.

At the time of the Committee’s investigation, none of the 68 students referred for discipline action regarding their role in the spring semester encampment were suspended.

In its letter to ED, Harvard stated it “is committed to fighting antisemitism and other forms of bigotry” on campus and that it “has undertaken substantial policy and programmatic measures” to address such incidents.

Following the Trump administration’s announcement of Harvard’s grant review, the university preemptively ran to Wall Street, issuing bonds to the tune of $750 million. Harvard has an endowment of over $53 billion.

“Harvard has served as a symbol of the American Dream for generations – the pinnacle aspiration for students all over the world to work hard and earn admission to the storied institution,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in March when announcing the review of the school’s grants. “Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination – all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry – has put its reputation in serious jeopardy. Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus.”

ED has already revoked funding from several other Ivy League universities over their noncompliance with civil rights laws and federal directives, slashing millions from Columbia, Cornell and Princeton.

The Trump administration has been committed to rooting our antisemitism on college campuses after violent protests were allowed to go on for over a year unchecked. In February, the administration assembled the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, made up of the ED, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and HHS. The task force stated its “first priority will be to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses” and has since begun its review of schools’ compliance with civil rights enforcement.

The following month, ED sent letters to 60 universities warning them of “potential enforcement actions” if they did not step up to protect Jewish students from harassment and discrimination.

A Harvard spokesman referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to the university’s announcement in response to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

Jaryn Crouson

Contributor.

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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The Left’s War on the Family: A Threat to Our Future

April 14, 2025/in Education, ThePricklyPear.org /by ThePricklyPear.org

By The Editors

April 14, 2025/by The Editors

Published by The American Spectator | March 7, 2023

The left’s war on the family is reaching new heights of absurdity, with progressive activists pushing for policies that would undermine the very foundation of our society. From advocating for the abolition of the nuclear family to pushing for the sexualization of children, these radicals are hell-bent on destroying the traditional values that have made America great. As George Neumayr argues in his latest piece, the left’s assault on the family is a threat to our very future, as it seeks to replace the love and stability of the home with the cold, impersonal hand of the state. It’s time for conservatives to stand up and defend the family, before it’s too late.

Key Takeaways

The left is pushing policies that would undermine the foundation of our society.
The assault on the family is a threat to our future.
Conservatives must defend the family before it’s too late.

Read the Original Article

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https://pricklypear.news/wp-content/uploads/logo_2025_800x97.png 0 0 The Editors https://pricklypear.news/wp-content/uploads/logo_2025_800x97.png The Editors2025-04-14 20:23:102025-04-14 20:23:10The Left’s War on the Family: A Threat to Our Future

Reclaiming Your Time: Work-Life Balance and Boundaries for Teachers

April 14, 2025/in Education, ThePricklyPear.org /by ThePricklyPear.org

By My Pay. My Say.

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Teaching can be incredibly rewarding. You get to shape young minds, build meaningful relationships, and leave a lasting impact. But it can also leave you emotionally and physically drained. The constant pressure to show up for your students, adapt to new demands, and do more with less can take a toll.

More and more teachers are experiencing burnout, and it’s not because they care too little, it’s because they care deeply, often at the expense of their own well-being.

In this article, we’ll explore what teacher burnout looks like, how to set time boundaries that support your health, and how AI tools for teachers can help you reclaim hours each week.

What Teacher Burnout Feels Like

Teacher burnout isn’t just about being tired. It’s the kind of exhaustion that doesn’t go away with a good night’s sleep. It’s showing up every day already worn out, running on empty, and feeling like there’s no space to breathe. It’s feeling guilty for needing time to yourself, even though you’ve given everything you have.

According to a recent survey from the RAND Corporation, nearly six in ten teachers report feeling frequent job-related stress. Many say the demands of the job extend well beyond the school day, with lesson planning, grading, and parent communication eating into evenings and weekends.

For Tom, a high school math teacher, work-life balance means accepting that perfection isn’t always possible.

“Sometimes you have to buck your own system. You will never get everything done that you “have” to do, so you have to draw the line somewhere. There are times that, despite my assignment policies, I hit the “set all grades to…” button and just be done with it.”

Setting Boundaries That Stick

Boundaries are not about caring less. They’re about protecting your time, your energy, and your ability to keep doing this work long-term. Setting boundaries as a teacher can feel uncomfortable at first, especially in a profession where “going above and beyond” is often expected. But boundaries are what allow you to keep showing up without burning out.

Start by figuring out where you’re losing time. Are you checking emails late at night? Spending Sunday afternoons grading papers?

Try small changes like:

Committing to no grading after 7:00 p.m.
Turning off work email notifications outside of school hours
Setting clear expectations for when and how parents can reach you
Scheduling planning periods like appointments (non-negotiable and protected)

Stephanie, a high school English teacher, shared this:

“I avoid school email after work hours and only grade what I can fit into my prep time. It helps to create strong rubrics for essays to shorten your time when grading writing. Model good writing for students so they know the expectation.”

Matthew, who also teaches high school English, keeps his boundaries simple.

“Leave work at work and leave home at home.”

Once you’ve set those boundaries, communicate them clearly and respectfully. A kind, consistent message builds trust and helps others understand your limits. The more consistently you hold them, the easier it becomes.

Tech That Gives You Time Back

One of the hardest things about teaching is the pressure to do everything yourself. You create the lessons, grade the work, write the emails, manage the behavior, handle the data, attend the meetings, and prepare for the next day. No wonder there’s never enough time.

It doesn’t have to be that way. You can take a few things off your plate without lowering the quality of your instruction. Today’s teacher AI tools can handle repetitive, time-consuming tasks so you can focus on your students. From grading quizzes to writing rubrics to drafting emails, AI can work in the background while you get your time back.

One of the easiest ways to try this is with AI lesson planning. Our Lesson Plan Generator builds customizable, standards-aligned plans in minutes. You can use them as-is or treat them as a starting point to personalize. Either way, you save hours each week and reduce the stress of always starting from scratch.

Chelly, a high school teacher in Pennsylvania, shared that she’s always looking for ways to simplify without sacrificing quality. When she can set something up ahead of time, like a quiz in Google Forms or her school’s learning management system, she does. Auto-grading multiple choice questions and having scores upload automatically saves her hours and helps her stay focused on the moments that matter.

Making Time for What Matters Most

Reclaiming your time isn’t about doing less. It’s about making space for the things that recharge you, like rest, spending time with family, hobbies, or simply a quiet moment to yourself. When the workday ends, your time should feel like your own again.

Even small changes can open up space you didn’t realize you had. Teachers have shared that setting just one non-negotiable evening a week for personal time helped them feel more present and less overwhelmed. Others have started taking short weekend trips, unplugging from school email, or getting back into a creative hobby. It doesn’t have to be drastic to be meaningful.

And when you do find time to rest, don’t forget about the perks available to you. There are plenty of teacher discounts on travel, dining, entertainment, and more. Take advantage of them. You’ve earned it!

The bottom line

Protecting your time is an important investment in your well-being, your career, and your students.

It’s easy to feel like there’s no time to slow down, especially when your to-do list never seems to shrink. But even small changes can lead to real relief. Setting a firm end time for your workday, using AI tools to handle repetitive tasks, or choosing one night a week to fully unplug can make a meaningful difference. You don’t have to overhaul your routine overnight. You just have to start somewhere.

You deserve time to rest, recharge, and reconnect with the parts of your life that exist outside of school. We’re here to help make that possible. Explore our Teacher Resource Hub and see what a difference the right support can make.

*****

This article was published by My Pay. My Say. and is reproduced with permission.

Your Support is Critical

The Prickly Pear is focused on delivering timely, fact-based news, and citizen opinion that reflects our mission to “inform, educate and advocate about the principles of limited government and personal liberty.”

To achieve that mission, Prickly Pear often engages with like-minded contributors and organizations who share our values. We encourage to support these partners in any way you can, as these partners make our efforts possible.

Direct support of the Prickly Pear can be made at the link below. Every dollar is greatly appreciated!

Work-Life Balance for Teachers Starts With Boundaries

April 14, 2025/in Education, ThePricklyPear.org /by ThePricklyPear.org

By My Pay. My Say.

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Teaching can be incredibly rewarding. You get to shape young minds, build meaningful relationships, and leave a lasting impact. But it can also leave you emotionally and physically drained. The constant pressure to show up for your students, adapt to new demands, and do more with less can take a toll.

More and more teachers are experiencing burnout, and it’s not because they care too little, it’s because they care deeply, often at the expense of their own well-being.

In this article, we’ll explore what teacher burnout looks like, how to set time boundaries that support your health, and how AI tools for teachers can help you reclaim hours each week.

What Teacher Burnout Feels Like

Teacher burnout isn’t just about being tired. It’s the kind of exhaustion that doesn’t go away with a good night’s sleep. It’s showing up every day already worn out, running on empty, and feeling like there’s no space to breathe. It’s feeling guilty for needing time to yourself, even though you’ve given everything you have.

According to a recent survey from the RAND Corporation, nearly six in ten teachers report feeling frequent job-related stress. Many say the demands of the job extend well beyond the school day, with lesson planning, grading, and parent communication eating into evenings and weekends.

For Tom, a high school math teacher, work-life balance means accepting that perfection isn’t always possible.

“Sometimes you have to buck your own system. You will never get everything done that you “have” to do, so you have to draw the line somewhere. There are times that, despite my assignment policies, I hit the “set all grades to…” button and just be done with it.”

Setting Boundaries That Stick

Boundaries are not about caring less. They’re about protecting your time, your energy, and your ability to keep doing this work long-term. Setting boundaries as a teacher can feel uncomfortable at first, especially in a profession where “going above and beyond” is often expected. But boundaries are what allow you to keep showing up without burning out.

Start by figuring out where you’re losing time. Are you checking emails late at night? Spending Sunday afternoons grading papers?

Try small changes like:

Committing to no grading after 7:00 p.m.
Turning off work email notifications outside of school hours
Setting clear expectations for when and how parents can reach you
Scheduling planning periods like appointments (non-negotiable and protected)

Stephanie, a high school English teacher, shared this:

“I avoid school email after work hours and only grade what I can fit into my prep time. It helps to create strong rubrics for essays to shorten your time when grading writing. Model good writing for students so they know the expectation.”

Matthew, who also teaches high school English, keeps his boundaries simple.

“Leave work at work and leave home at home.”

Once you’ve set those boundaries, communicate them clearly and respectfully. A kind, consistent message builds trust and helps others understand your limits. The more consistently you hold them, the easier it becomes.

Tech That Gives You Time Back

One of the hardest things about teaching is the pressure to do everything yourself. You create the lessons, grade the work, write the emails, manage the behavior, handle the data, attend the meetings, and prepare for the next day. No wonder there’s never enough time.

It doesn’t have to be that way. You can take a few things off your plate without lowering the quality of your instruction. Today’s teacher AI tools can handle repetitive, time-consuming tasks so you can focus on your students. From grading quizzes to writing rubrics to drafting emails, AI can work in the background while you get your time back.

One of the easiest ways to try this is with AI lesson planning. Our Lesson Plan Generator builds customizable, standards-aligned plans in minutes. You can use them as-is or treat them as a starting point to personalize. Either way, you save hours each week and reduce the stress of always starting from scratch.

Chelly, a high school teacher in Pennsylvania, shared that she’s always looking for ways to simplify without sacrificing quality. When she can set something up ahead of time, like a quiz in Google Forms or her school’s learning management system, she does. Auto-grading multiple choice questions and having scores upload automatically saves her hours and helps her stay focused on the moments that matter.

Making Time for What Matters Most

Reclaiming your time isn’t about doing less. It’s about making space for the things that recharge you, like rest, spending time with family, hobbies, or simply a quiet moment to yourself. When the workday ends, your time should feel like your own again.

Even small changes can open up space you didn’t realize you had. Teachers have shared that setting just one non-negotiable evening a week for personal time helped them feel more present and less overwhelmed. Others have started taking short weekend trips, unplugging from school email, or getting back into a creative hobby. It doesn’t have to be drastic to be meaningful.

And when you do find time to rest, don’t forget about the perks available to you. There are plenty of teacher discounts on travel, dining, entertainment, and more. Take advantage of them. You’ve earned it!

The bottom line

Protecting your time is an important investment in your well-being, your career, and your students.

It’s easy to feel like there’s no time to slow down, especially when your to-do list never seems to shrink. But even small changes can lead to real relief. Setting a firm end time for your workday, using AI tools to handle repetitive tasks, or choosing one night a week to fully unplug can make a meaningful difference. You don’t have to overhaul your routine overnight. You just have to start somewhere.

You deserve time to rest, recharge, and reconnect with the parts of your life that exist outside of school. We’re here to help make that possible. Explore our Teacher Resource Hub and see what a difference the right support can make.

*****

This article was published by My Pay. My Say. and is reproduced with permission.

Your Support is Critical

The Prickly Pear is focused on delivering timely, fact-based news, and citizen opinion that reflects our mission to “inform, educate and advocate about the principles of limited government and personal liberty.”

To achieve that mission, Prickly Pear often engages with like-minded contributors and organizations who share our values. We encourage to support these partners in any way you can, as these partners make our efforts possible.

Direct support of the Prickly Pear can be made at the link below. Every dollar is greatly appreciated!

Critically Thinking About Success: Part 2

April 14, 2025/in Commentary, DrRichSwier.com, Education, Politics /by DrRichSwier.com

By John Droz, Jr.

Applying the Success Equation to U.S. K-12 Education.

This is a follow-up to Critically Thinking about Success (Part 1). I’m following the same format, but looking at how we can achieve success by relatively quickly fixing America’s totally broken K-12 education system…

I’ve always had a fascination with why certain people stood out from the crowd and were successful. As I developed my Critical Thinking skills, I researched and paid attention to what common traits these people had — and applied them to a variety of issues that I’ve dealt with.

I contend if we follow the five Traits below, that will maximize our chances of success regarding what to do with the Department of Education (DOEd)…

Successful people are often called dreamers — as they see possibilities that almost everyone else discards as pie-in-the-sky. But their dreams have at least three characteristics:

a) they are precise (not vague),

b) they are aspirational, and

c) they are within reason. These three attributes help a believer to stay focused on their vision.

The VISION is: to transform DOEd so that it facilitates a significant improvement of the US K-12 education system, within five (5) years.

As with almost all visions of successful people, the vast majority of citizens will be skeptical that this can be done. They will have an array of excuses (like the fifteen listed here), but to Critical Thinkers, there are legitimate counters to every concern regarding DOEd.

One way or another, almost everything has already been done before. (In fact, many historians look at history as a collection of repetitious cycles. A related famous saying is: “If you don’t learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it.”)

There are two primary ways of learning: Education or Experience. I found that those who are successful maximize the education part. In other words, a significant key to success is to learn as much as possible from the failures and accomplishments of others.

Most people are saying something like: “Get rid of DOEd because they have been a disaster.” That statement is absolutely true, but is getting rid of DOEd our best option to bring about our Vision? Unequivocally NO!

Critical Thinkers will approach this situation by saying: “Let’s identify and learn from the multitude of DOEd mistakes made in the past — and see that the transformed DOEd avoids those pitfalls.”

For example, Critical Thinkers will notice that DOEd never spelled out what the top priorities were for our K-12 education system! That is a simply stunning omission that explains a lot.

The good news is that this is easy to fix quickly. This error is compounded by the fact that when I read the Mission Statements of all fifty State Education Departments, there is zero uniformity among these!

So a powerful role that DOEd can play is leadership. The goal would be to get all States to have the same K-12 education objectives. How they achieve them will be left up to each State. See fifteen examples where DOEd leadership can be an extraordinary game changer.

We ALL have been presented with (and will continue to be in the future) multiple opportunities. Unfortunately, many people don’t recognize most opportunities until they are in the rearview mirror. Successful people have developed the acuity to recognize a much greater selection of opportunities than others do.

We literally have in our grasp a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to quickly and substantially improve the American K-12 education system. Again please carefully read fifteen powerful examples of what can easily be done.

To not take full advantage of this opportunity will in the future be looked at as a watershed mistake in American history. To consciously choose to make the situation worse (by turning over K-12 education to some fifty failing bureaucracies) would be criminal.

There are talkers and doers… Recognition of opportunities is an essential matter — but it is for naught if it isn’t acted on.

As a physicist, I can tell you that one of the fundamental principles of physics is the Law of Inertia. Basically what it means is that it takes more energy (effort) to get a stopped object to move forward, than it takes to get an already moving object to continue to move forward. The same applies to organizations. If their leaders are in a moving forward mindset, they will be more open to opportunities than someone who is defensively protecting their turf, or who simply decides a priori that something can’t be done, is too much trouble, etc.

The facts are that DOEd Secretary Linda McMahon:

1) can fire anyone at DOEd,

2) can hire anyone for DOEd,

3) can establish whatever policies and procedures she wants,

4) can spend $80± BILLION of annual discretionary funds anyway she sees fit, etc., etc.

What this means is that Linda can scrap the entire DOEd and start over —with essentially full control over every important aspect of it. In other words, Linda has the power to transform DOEd into a major beneficial force regarding American K-12 education.

This needs to be fully appreciated as an unprecedented opportunity, which requires prompt, meaningful action on her part to have DOEd blossom into a fabulously powerful force for good.

Every lofty goal comes with an assortment of obstacles. If they weren’t there everyone else would be doing it, and it would no longer be a lofty goal — it would be an everyday matter. So having a positive, persistent attitude is a key attribute of successful people.

There will be obstructions and obstacles in transforming DOEd into what it should be — like a large collection of vocal naysayers who lack the vision of how to convert DOEd into a major success.

We need to keep our eye on the prize, which means staying focused on the extraordinary benefits to America from starting to annually graduate 4± million well-educated, thinking citizens (instead of what’s happening now: annually graduating 4± million non-thinking citizens who are indoctrinated with progressive ideology). Reversing those figures would be profoundly beneficial to America’s future.

There are no guarantees in life. Even if you adopt the above five traits, unforeseen circumstances might derail an otherwise good plan. I have a few adages I adhere to, and the most important one is: “Work as if everything depends on you, but pray as if everything depends on God.”

The benefits from properly transforming DOEd reimburse every cost and sacrifice at least a hundred times over. All we need is the vision and an unwavering commitment to make it happen.