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Was America Founded in 1619 or 1776 and What the Historical Record Shows The claim that protecting slavery was a primary reason for independence, stated at its strongest and then tested against the record, point by point. The Cherry Tree, the Flat Earth and Other History Myths Traced to Their Source Eight famous American stories that never happened as told, each traced to the person who made it up, with a verdict, because the true record needs no help. Grade Inflation and Equity Grading Mean an A No Longer Tells You Much Ban zeros, allow endless retakes, drop homework, and grades rise while learning does not. The case, the best objection and what parents can ask. How to Host a Constitution Day Reading in Your Town on September 17 Any citizen can organize a public reading of the Constitution on September 17. Here is the plan, step by step, from venue to readers to follow-up. How to Request Records From Your School District and Actually Get Them State open records laws reach school districts. How to write a request that works: deadlines, fees, appeals and student-privacy limits. Who Actually Runs Your School District, Board, Superintendent or State Parents blame the wrong office because power over a district is split four ways. Who decides what, and which office to call for which problem. Bell to Bell Phone Bans Are the Easiest School Reform in America Taking phones out of class costs almost nothing, and it is one reform where parents, teachers and principals already largely agree. Action Civics Gives Credit for Protest, and That Is Not Civics Action civics trades knowledge of the Constitution for activism chosen by adults, and the record on what students know shows the cost. If New Citizens Must Pass the Civics Test, Graduates Should Pass It Too We ask immigrants to answer questions about the Constitution before they become citizens, and asking graduates the same is the least a school can do. What the Long School Closures of 2020 and 2021 Taught Parents The closures showed parents who really decides when schools open, and many of them never trusted the system the same way again. How Teacher Unions Won the Right to Bargain, and What FDR Warned About Even Franklin Roosevelt doubted that collective bargaining belonged in government. How public-sector unions rose, and why bargaining with electees differs. The New Math of 1960 Flopped, and Today's Math Fights Keep Repeating It After Sputnik, reformers taught set theory to seven-year-olds and parents could not help with homework. The pattern returned, and so did the lesson. Is Your Child Being Taught to Read With Phonics? A Parent's Checklist A parent can learn in one afternoon whether a school teaches systematic phonics or leans on guessing, and what to do if it does not. Ten steps. C. S. Lewis Warned About Men Without Chests in a Book About Schoolbooks Lewis's 1943 lectures began with a dull English textbook and ended with a defense of objective moral values that every school still needs. Common Core Was Voluntary on Paper, Here Is How Washington Made It Stick Federal law forbids Washington to direct curriculum, yet most states adopted the same standards within two years. Grants and waivers did what statute forbade. Ending Gifted Programs in the Name of Equity Hurts the Kids It Claims to Help Closing gifted classes and delaying algebra removes the ladder from able children whose parents cannot buy tutors. The evidence, the TJ case, the objection. The 2014 School Discipline Guidance and the Commission That Withdrew It A 2014 federal letter warned of racially disparate discipline and many schools cut suspensions regardless of conduct. The 2018 reversal and the case for order. School Safety That Works, Lessons From the Parkland and Uvalde Reviews Official reviews of Parkland and Uvalde found failures of doors, communication and command. Here is what they found and what parents can ask a district to show. The 1619 Project in the Classroom and the Historians Who Objected The 1619 Project's claim about the Revolution drew a letter from five leading historians. Here is the case for it, the answer, and honest teaching. The Charter School Lottery Studies and What They Show About Cities Admission lotteries let researchers compare winners and losers like a trial, and urban charters did well where freedom came with accountability. Vergara v. California, the Lawsuit That Put Teacher Tenure on Trial Nine students won a trial-court ruling against California's tenure and layoff laws, lost on appeal, and left behind a policy case that belongs in legislatures. What a Teachers Union Contract Says and Why Every Parent Should Read One A collective bargaining agreement shapes your child's school day more than most board votes, and it is a public document you can read for free. The School Staffing Surge, Hiring Outpaced Enrollment for Decades Public schools added non-teaching staff far faster than students, a choice that ate the money that could have raised teacher pay. Real Spending Per Pupil More Than Doubled Since 1970, So Where Are the Gains Inflation-adjusted spending per student soared while 17-year-old scores stood still, which shows money alone is not the answer, and how it is spent is. What the Nation's Report Card Measures and What Proficient Really Means NAEP is the one honest yardstick across states, and parents misread it because Proficient is a demanding standard, not grade level. The Reading Wars, How Whole Language Lost a Generation and Phonics Won Back Schools taught children to guess at words while the evidence for systematic phonics sat on the shelf, and a few states have finally acted on it. Plyler v. Doe and the Bill States Pay for a Decision Congress Never Made A 5-4 Court in 1982 set schooling policy for children unlawfully present, and conservatives can accept the schooling while objecting to who made the rule. Madison's 1822 Letter on Why a Republic Needs Informed Citizens Madison's 1822 letter to W. T. Barry says self-government without public information is farce or tragedy, and it still frames civics and local schools. Jefferson's Plan to Educate Virginia, and Why the Legislature Said No Jefferson's 1779 bill for the diffusion of knowledge built schools from the ward up, failed on cost, and still teaches how to design education. Religion, Morality and Knowledge, the Northwest Ordinance's School Clause Article 3 of the Northwest Ordinance tied schools to self-government and morality, and left the building of them to the people, not to Congress.