As the Illinois state legislature continues to push more and more government control over parental rights and education, parents are waking up to this dangerous agenda.

In this episode, IFI’s Dave Smith sits down with Shannon Adcock to discuss the real consequences of SB 3138, a bill designed to bypass parental oversight as it relates to mental health screenings and gender confusion. This legislation would expand LGBTQ+ influence over children’s mental health policy in Illinois—moving from advisory roles to shaping programs, data, and policy.… Continue Reading

Illinois House Democrats are once again advancing sanctuary policies that place the interests of non-citizens ahead of law-abiding citizens.

During debate on House Bill 5093, lawmakers approved legislation removing key residency requirements for in-state tuition eligibility at public colleges and universities. While presented as a technical adjustment, the real effect is clear: expanding taxpayer-subsidized tuition benefits to individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

The bill’s sponsor, State Representative Barbara Hernandez (D-Aurora), acknowledged that the measure eliminates the requirement that a student be an Illinois resident while still allowing eligibility for those who attended and graduated from an Illinois high school.… Continue Reading

Last week, I argued in this column that if you want to know what has caused the chaos in our country, you need look no further than what is being taught in our public schools. This week, I provide the proof. Consider the following.

In New York City, the Chloe Day School just held a protest of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement inside one of its kindergarten classrooms, where 5- and 6-year-old children were being taught to chant “No Donald Trump” and hold up protest signs referencing how other children are being taken away from their families by ICE.… Continue Reading

Have you ever wondered how we got into the mess we’re in, how Minneapolis became so ungovernable, how anarchy replaced civility and how rioting replaced the rule of law?

Have you ever asked yourself how this societal meltdown happened and how so many people have come to hate American culture, values and heritage so much that they would rather tear it all down than work together to preserve it?

Have you ever wondered how we became the “divided states” rather than the “United States” and how e pluribus unum (out of many, one) became “us against them” almost overnight?… Continue Reading

Public schools have long failed our children. Academic scores continue to drop and moral decay continues to creep in through the forms of critical race theory, gender theory, the usurpation of parental authority, and more.

Scott Phelps, head of the Abstinence and Marriage Partnership organization, reveals another way that public education is failing our children:

Sex education.

“Planned Parenthood is not only the largest provider of abortions in America, they are also the largest provider of sex education programs in America.

In this episode of Illinois Family Spotlight, Reverend Caesar LeFlore discusses the word of Good Soil, Good Seed, the reality of mental health screenings in Illinois government schools, and more.

The school systems aren’t failing, they are performing exactly as they were designed to perform and they were never intended to produce not only Christian children [with] Biblical worldviews, but they also aren’t there to teach them how to be logical or how to be learners.

This week’s Spotlight episode features a conversation about Christian education between Pastor Caesar LeFlore and Pastor Courtney Lewis of Cornerstone Baptist Church located in Chicago.

Five years ago, pastor Courtney Lewis was involved in starting a school out of his church– Cornerstone Baptist Academy.

“[Chicago public schools] have failed our youth…

People nationwide were exiting public schools to the tune of about a million people over the past ten years.

We had no money, no facilities, and no staff… In the course of three months, we watched the Lord bring in all of those resources to allow us to open our doors.”

In memory of Dr. Voddie Baucham, this week’s episode of Spotlight features IFI’s interview with Voddie Baucham at the 2023 Black Conservative Summit.

Dr. Baucham was a husband, father, pastor, author, was the dean of the school of divinity at African Christian University in Zambia for 9 years, and he also served as the first president of Founders Seminary in Cape Corral, Florida. He and his bold ministry will be greatly missed by the staff at Illinois Family Institute.… Continue Reading

See update below!

Community Unit School District 300 (D300), based in Algonquin, Illinois, is the sixth-largest district in the state, serving families across Kane, McHenry, Cook, and DeKalb counties. While the school board ought to be focused on academic excellence and serving students, instead, the spotlight has been stolen by Vice President of the Board of Education, Nancy Zettler—whose reckless words have inflamed the community and dishonored her office.

Disgraceful Words

On September 10, 2025, Christian conservative apologist Charlie Kirk was assassinated.… Continue Reading

If you’ve ever wondered why America’s public schools receive so much criticism today and why so many hardworking families are making considerable financial sacrifices to enroll their children in private education instead, consider three recent headline stories.

First is the case in Michigan, where a public school teacher with 31 years of seniority decided to quit her job rather than succumb to a test that required her to “rate her level of Whiteness” as a means of improving her teaching skills.… Continue Reading

As a university president, I had a front-row seat as I watched hundreds of students descend onto my campus every year. Each fall, I watched with growing discomfort as the increase in self-centeredness became more apparent.

From the athlete who was upset because his coach was too harsh, to the student who failed a test because the professor was “unfair,” to the coed who was incredulous because a faculty member dared to penalize her for skipping class, over and over again, I watched as one generation after another strutted into the classroom with the confidence that they were God’s gift to the ivory tower, regardless of their academic performance (or lack thereof).… Continue Reading

Last week, Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma superintendent for public instruction, made national news for announcing that, effective immediately, his state’s teacher candidates (especially from such places as California and New York) will now be required to take and pass an “America First” test before they will be considered for employment in Oklahoma’s public schools. As you can imagine, the teachers unions and establishment elites have lost their ever-loving minds over this.… Continue Reading

Did you know that Sharia is actively being taught in your child’s public school?

“If you say anything bad about Islam, if you mock Mohamud, if you say anything bad about muslims then you’re a racist, you’re islamaphobic, you’re a bigot.”

Anni Cyrus is a human rights activist and survivor of the Islamic regime in Iran living under Sharia. She was forced into a marriage by her father at the age of 13 & beaten & imprisoned several times before escaping to Turkey.… Continue Reading

In this two for one podcast, you’ll hear remarks from Evangela Pringles, director of Pregnancy Aid Illinois during a 40 Days for Life Celebration, and from pastor Caesar LeFlore during the 2020 Rally for Jesus held on the campus of Cavlary Church in Orland Park. These two leaders touch on why advocating for life is so important, and how you can gain real peace to anchor you throughout any storm in life.… Continue Reading

Recorded live from the 2025 Illinois Christian Homeschool Convention (ICHE), Monte Larrick converses with Abraham Hamilton III. Hamilton is a husband, Bible teacher, a national radio host & TV host, a lawyer & homeschool father who was a keynote speaker for ICHE’s 2025 Conference, themed “This We Believe.”

Hamilton encourages listeners to prioritize homeschooling, because:

“For far too long, people have failed to recognize that mind cultivation is essential to disciple making.

Last week, Baylor University announced that it had received a grant of approximately $700,000 from the Baugh Foundation to promote LGBTQ inclusivity on its campus. Baylor’s motto is “For the Church, For Texas, For the World.” It describes itself as a Christian university and is a proud member of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, otherwise known as the CCCU.

What exactly is the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities?… Continue Reading

Illinois Family Action is excited to share some good news for a change! Stephanie Trussell recently announced her run against Terra Costa Howard for Illinois State Representative in the 42nd District, which includes the suburbs of Glen Ellyn, Lisle, and Lombard.

Trussell has pointed out in recent media interviews that the Illinois House of Representatives currently has a super-majority of Democrats (78) to a super-minority of Republicans (40).… Continue Reading

Recording from the annual Illinois Christian Home Educator’s (ICHE) Convention at Olivet Nazarine University in Bourbonais, Monte Larrick conducts his annual interview with ICHE’s executive director, Kirk Smith.

The Illinois Christian Home Educators (ICHE) is a not-for-profit Christian organization dedicated to supporting families who choose to home educate their children throughout Illinois. Founded in December 1983 by four Christian families, its core mission is to encourage and equip parents to glorify Jesus Christ by discipling their children through home-based education.… Continue Reading

It is unfortunately unsurprising that yet another school district in Illinois has defied the clear privacy and safety protections that Title IX puts in place.

Illinois School District 203, located in Naperville, is currently in the spotlight for allowing a biological male to participate in the female’s track meet.

Not only was the biological male allowed to participate in this athletic event, but he (surprise, surprise) won the track meet.

This should, of course, come as no surprise to those of us who acknowledge a basic biological fact which states that biological males have distinct physical advantages over biological females.… Continue Reading

This episode of Spotlight features Shannon Adcock, founder of Awake Illinois, an organization dedicated to erasing DEI initiatives and protecting children from mental health screenings, graphic sex education and Title IX violations within Illinois public schools.

“Parents don’t know that they have the right to opt out of radical sexual education, and they should.”

This is an important conversation that you do not want to miss.

Listen to “What is Going on In The Illinois School Districts?”… Continue Reading

If America’s elite universities want to racially discriminate, they shouldn’t receive taxpayer money.

On Tuesday, Harvard University’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Bias released its final report. The 300-plus-page document reveals the depth of the university’s systemic bias against Jewish students.

Many students “described experiences of being bullied or shunned by fellow students, singled out for negative attention by instructors, and feeling ignored by administrators,” the report said. It continued,

“Fear of encountering hostility has led some Jewish students to conceal their Jewish identity from classmates.”

The U.S. Supreme Court heard last week from attorneys representing the state of Maryland arguing in favor of teaching prekindergarten children as young as 3 the virtues of, in the words of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, “leather, bondage, sex work and drag queens.” If this story doesn’t highlight the fact that Democrats have completely lost their minds and sold their souls to their weird sexual fetishes, what does?

For decades, Democrats have been cheerleaders for nearly every aberrant copulative act imaginable, and the negative consequences of their sexual peccadillos are almost too numerous to count.… Continue Reading

In this special episode of Illinois Family Spotlight podcast, Dave Smith sits down with IFI’s Senior Counsel, James Odom, to discuss the legal implications of the Homeschool Registration Act (HB 2827).

Their conversation focuses on Illinois State Rep. Terra Costa Howard’s claim that HB 2827 is intended to protect children through forcing homeschooling families register with their local regional office of education.

Smith notes that homeschooling families are thriving socially, academically, and spiritually far above their peers in the public school system.… Continue Reading

I was recently asked in an email exchange whether perhaps I was a bit of an alarmist in my persistent rants about the state of affairs in today’s public schools. “After all,” said my pen pal, “my personal experience with education, as well as that of my kids, hasn’t been all that negative. American education isn’t as bad as you suggest.” I offered my questioner a quick response in case y’all care (That’s Okie slang for: “in case any of you are interested”).… Continue Reading

In 1943, C.S. Lewis warned of a day when our country’s educated class would claim that it made sense to “geld the stallion and then bid him be fruitful.” In his seminal work, “The Abolition of Man,” he accused the ivory tower of creating “men without chests,” where instead of pursuing the truth, our schools would educate an entire generation of moral and intellectual amputees with no understanding of the good, the true and the beautiful.… Continue Reading

In this episode of the Illinois Family Spotlight podcast, Monte Larrick is joined by Attorney Will Estrada who highlights the dangers associated with HB 2827, the ominous “The Homeschool Act.”

Will Estrada works as Senior Council to HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) and is himself a homeschool graduate along with his wife.

“One of the arguments that we’ve seen from the sponsors of HB2827 is that homeschooling is unregulated, and that is not true…

There are educational neglect laws on the books in Illinois, so there really is no problem that HB2827 is needed to fix.”

The assault on America’s children from the Democratic Left is unprecedented on our history.  Considering our long and storied history of favoring and protecting children, it is shocking and disgusting; and it must not be ignored!

Until I had children of my own, I did not fully understand how they would change my life and the joy they would bring.  I was always fond of children, but it is not the same as having little ones of your own.… Continue Reading

Shepard Middle School, located in Illinois School District 109 in Deerfield, is under heavy fire for forcing middle school girls to undress in front of a biological male.… Continue Reading

We all know something is desperately wrong with our society and that the bad behavior we see in our daily news must have a cause. We understand that the juvenile antics we are watching in our nation’s capital did not just spring out of thin air. We intuitively know that the immaturity so pervasive in our communities doesn’t come from a vacuum. Millions of us understand that these childish pouts of adults who should know better have a source and that our government-run schools are the seedbed of our cultural crisis.… Continue Reading

The Homeschool Act, also known as HB 2827, poses a grave danger to all homeschooling families across Illinois.

If passed, this bill would stifle the freedoms of homeschooling families through heavy regulations. If these regulations are not followed, families would face hefty fines and possible jail time.

Illinois Christian Home Educators (ICHE) is an organization that is passionately leading the charge against this dangerous legislation, and Kirk Smith, executive director of ICHE, sits down to discuss the consequences of the bill and how to oppose it.… Continue Reading

[Last] week, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hosted a hearing to discuss the alarming rise of coordinated and centrally funded antisemitism on college and university campuses. While it was illuminating and frightening to hear the testimony of several of the witnesses, the highlight had to be this tour de force by Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz who, it seems, is not overly impressed with the Hamas-sympathizing Hitler brigades pushing a Holocaust sequel on federally-funded campuses.… Continue Reading

In this special episode of Spotlight, Pastor Ceasar LeFlore sits down with Latasha Fields to discuss education and the exciting upcoming event, Chicago Home Educators’ Summit.

Latasha Fields has been a home educator for over 18 years and her passion for parental rights and quality education is evident. She is a former candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, is a critic of the public school system, and has even testified before the U.S.… Continue Reading

There was a time that little Wheaton College, located in a sleepy town just 30 miles west of Chicago, Illinois, had a dynamic reputation for excellence in Christian scholarship. While I can’t fairly speak to whether the scholarship remains, the administration of the small liberal arts school signaled to the world last Saturday that the “Christian conviction” part may be negotiable.

Wheaton College got shredded over the weekend for backstabbing a former student who was appointed to the Trump adminhttps://t.co/4xcGiTOHW6

Should we allow people in the United States to say hateful things? Absolutely — that is the essence of America. We cannot start down the slippery slope of punishing people for their beliefs, as we saw under the Biden administration with the treatment of January 6 defendants.

Does that mean we should admit foreigners who hold pro-terrorist beliefs and spread them on social media? Absolutely not! Freedom of speech is a right, but no foreigner has an affirmative right to immigrate.… Continue Reading

Carmilla Tatel’s daughter attended teacher Megan Williams’ first grade class at Jefferson Elementary School, one of the schools in the Mt. Lebanon School District near Pittsburgh, PA. When her daughter came home from school on March 21, 2022, the little girl posed a question to her mother that both puzzled and alarmed Tatel. Her daughter asked “how do you know that I am a girl?”

She and two other parents, Gretchen Melton and Stacy Dunn, who also had children in Williams’ class, began to piece together what had occurred in the classroom that day.… Continue Reading

In this special episode of Illinois Family Spotlight, Pastor Ceasar LeFlore sits down with Latasha Fields to discuss education, parental rights, and community empowerment.

Latasha Fields has been a home educator for over 18 years and her passion for parental rights and quality education is evident. She is a former candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, is a critic of the public school system, and has even testified before the U.S. Congress on “Poverty in America: Economic Realities of Struggling Families.”… Continue Reading

“Every Home a School. Every Church an Academy.”

Reverend Ceasar LeFlore is the pastor of Spirit of Liberty Church of God, is an IFI Board Member, is the field director for Public School Exit in Illinois, and is the executive director of the Good Soil Good Seed Christian Education Foundation.

Good Soil, Good Seed is an education foundation that is dedicated to enabling families to take their children out of the public school system, and they accomplish this through generous grants and scholarships.… Continue Reading

[Last] week, Randi Weingarten, president and CEO of the American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest education union in the nation, said that her members “really don’t care” whether President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his promise to abolish the Department of Education. She went on to say that she was much more interested in “level[ing] up [educational] opportunities for children” than she is in supporting any “bureaucracy.”

Let’s assume we can take Ms. … Continue Reading

Does sex outside of marriage have any consequences?

Pam Stenzel answers this vital question during her keynote remarks at Illiana Right To Life’s 2024 Fall Banquet. Pam Stenzel has been a pro-life advocate since the 1980s and currently helps to operate four pregnancy resource centers in the state of Florida.

She is the author of “Sex Has a Price Tag” and co-author of the book, “Nobody Told Me: What You Need to Know About the Physical and Emotional Consequences of Sex Outside of Marriage”.… Continue Reading

One of the first things President-elect Donald Trump says he will do when he returns to the Oval Office is close and disband the Department of Education. He said:

“We are going to send all education, [along with its corresponding] work and needs, back to the states. We want them [i.e., the states] to run the education of our children because they’ll do a much better job of it. … We spend more money per pupil, by three times, than any other nation, and yet we are [approaching] the bottom; we’re one of the worst.

In case you missed it, the week of September 22nd was announced as Banned Books Week according to the American Library Association (ALA). The ALA wants the public to believe that raising concerns about obscene material in children’s books is the same as Nazi book banning.

Thomas Hampson sits down with Monte Larrick to combat this false narrative. Thomas Hampson is a contributing writer for IFI serving as an intelligence analyst, U.S.… Continue Reading

For the last 30 years, E. Ray Moore has been persuading Christian parents to get their children out of government schools and into homeschooling or private education.

“I was swimming upstream for years, but I’m now swimming with the tide,” he told me recently while preparing for an educational summit in Lynchburg, Virginia. “I can’t keep up with it. There is too much going on.”

What began as a trickle when Mr. … Continue Reading

This special episode of Illinois Family Spotlight features an interview with Ken Ham at the 2024 Illinois Christian Home Educators conference.

Ken Ham is the CEO and founder of Answers in Genesis, a Christian organization aimed at giving Christians real answers to deep questions about the world. He is the author of over thirty books and is also the founder of the two popular attractions: The Creation Museum and The Ark Encounter.… Continue Reading

This episode of Spotlight focuses on the topic of homeschooling.

Kirk Smith, ICHE’s (Illinois Christian Home Educator) executive director, gives encouragement to parents who don’t know how to homeschool, gives direction on how to choose good curriculum, and much more.

Parents, especially moms, feel like they’re unworthy- that they are not capable of homeschooling… if it’s [homeschooling] is a principle of God, it works– regardless of how good or how unprepared we feel as parents.

Did you know that the 11 words inscribed on the Liberty Bell, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the Land Unto all the inhabitants thereof,” were written by Moses?

Did you know that Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams originally proposed that the Great Seal of the United States include an image of Moses with the motto “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God”?

Did you know that when the nine justices of the U.S.… Continue Reading

Government-run schools keep failing. It shouldn’t surprise us. Monopolies rarely serve customers well.

People call them “public schools,” but “government-run” is more accurate. After all, charter schools are available to the public. Privately run supermarkets are open to the public for more hours than “public” schools are.

International tests show American kids don’t learn as much as kids in other countries. During the pandemic, they did even worse because our teachers unions kept schools closed.… Continue Reading

In this episode of Spotlight, David Smith and Richard Hartian continue their discussion on fatherhood with Kent Evans.

Kent Evans is the co-founder of the ministry, Manhood Journey and is the author of Bring Your Hammer, a book that gives fathers tools on how to biblically disciple their children. Kent notes, “The only way we know about Jesus Christ is through discipleship.”

When asked why discipleship is so important, Kent notes,

I disciple my boys because God told me to, and if I am going to be faithful like Jesus was faithful, then I am going to do what God said… If I have children in this world, I am their primary disciple-maker.

[Last] week’s news was dominated by the anti-Semitic protests taking place on college campuses across the nation. Columbia, Yale, Berkeley, Harvard. Over 120 American institutions have reported disruptions to the point that classes have been canceled and police have been called in to restore order.

So how did we get here? Who caused this mess? The answer is simple. All these childish antics and temper tantrums dominating the headlines can be traced back to one key source: the terrible ideas we have been teaching our children for the past 50 years. … Continue Reading

This episode of Illinois Family Spotlight features Reverend Ceasar LeFlore.

Reverend LeFlore is the director of Public School Exit , an IFI-affiliated organization dedicated to facilitating the exit of children from government schools. He is also the director of Good Soil Good Seed (GS2), a scholarship foundation designed to help children afford to attend Christian schools.

Reverend LeFlore has an event on April 18th, called “Saving Our Children for God.”  Attendance is free and the discussion will focus on the danger of Illinois government schools.… Continue Reading

In this episode of Spotlight, Monte Larrick interviews Scott Lively, author and founder of Biblical Worldview Resource Center.

Scott Lively emphasizes the importance of pushing against the status quo of the culture. He also has a strong message to send to parents who continue to keep their kids in the public school system:

If you are intentionally keeping your kids in public schools, you know the children are being indoctrinated in secular humanist presuppositions in every field.

This episode of Spotlight features a conversation between IFI’s David Smith, IFI board member Richard Hartian, and Scott Phelps.

Scott Phelps is the executive director of A&M Partnership (Abstinence and Marriage Partnership). A&M Partnership was founded in 2004, and exists to ensure that every teenager in the country has the opportunity to hear a clearly reasoned, positive presentation on the benefits of abstinence until marriage and instruction on preparing for a healthy, future marriage.… Continue Reading

Before moving to Oklahoma, I served as the dean of students at a liberal arts college in Michigan. In that role, I also taught a few classes. One of them was the obligatory new student orientation course, where each year, I sought to orient my small group of freshmen to collegiate life and challenge them to wrestle with what it meant to be a disciplined thinker.

One assignment I routinely included in my syllabus was to watch the 1993 movie “Schindler’s List” and then write a three-page paper. … Continue Reading

Governments, tax-funded “non-governmental” organizations, and international outfits from around the world were in the United Arab Emirates last week showcasing countless new and improved schemes for indoctrinating children on “climate” alarmism. The catchphrase du jour: “education transformation.” The goal: brainwashing children to believe there is a “climate crisis” that only global governance and totalitarian policies can cure.

Much of the buzz on education revolved around the UN 2030 Agenda “Sustainable Development Goals,” or SDGs for short.… Continue Reading

This Spotlight episode features Shannon Adcock’s speech that she presented at Foundations of Faith and Family Conference.

Shannon Adcock is the founder of Awake Illinois, a grassroots organization that was founded to expose the public schools’ sexualization of children.

In her speech Shannon highlights the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment, which protects the “fundamental right of parents to direct the care, upbringing, and education to their children.” She comments,

This [parental right] is fundamental.

We’re living in a time of moral confusion.

Or moral cowardice. Or fatal indifference. Or all three.

How else to explain the inability to draw any meaningful distinction between an after-school Good News Club for children that imparts the love of Jesus and an After School Satan Club?

In Pennsylvania, the Saucon Valley School District tried but failed. They held off the Satan Club (motto: “Educatin’ with Satan!”) for a while until the absurdities of our morally relativistic legal system caught up with them.… Continue Reading

Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher and distributer of children’s books, sells books to children at in-school book fairs across the country. At these fairs, children are able to purchase books without their parents’ active involvement.… Continue Reading

As if the pro-Palestinian rallies on university and college campuses are not alarming enough, we have other strong evidence that attests to the fact that support for Hamas Jihad against Israel among college students is higher than it is in the general population. For example, a 2023 poll by Harvard CAPS/Harris found that 48 percent of college-age students (18-24) said they support Hamas, while only 52 percent said they support Israel.… Continue Reading

This Spotlight episode features Scott Phelps, executive director of Abstinence and Marriage Partnership, and his speech on The Success Sequence– the three steps to a successful life.

The first step to a successful life is to complete a high school level of education. The second step is to get a stable job.

Finally, the biggest indication for a successful life is to keep sex and children in the context of marriage alone.… Continue Reading

How did nearly every major college campus turn into the Third Reich overnight, with large gatherings of belligerent rally-goers chanting genocidal slogans against Jews? It didn’t happen overnight. Over a generation, we’ve imported the Muslim world to our college campuses. Not surprisingly, we also imported some of the slogans, chants, and values undergirding it.

Is this what we really need for our civilization?

The ubiquitous pro-Hamas rallies we’ve seen on nearly every major college campus over the past week are not the typical “end the occupation” rallies.… Continue Reading

Recently another major story in the world of education came from Oklahoma, where Ryan Walters, the state superintendent of public instruction, is being demonized by the mainstream media for the termination of more than 80 employees from the Sooner State’s Department of Education.

To this news, we should all say: “Good! Thank you, Mr. Walters. In fact, if you could shut down the entire department, we’d all be better off.”… Continue Reading

This episode of Illinois Family Spotlight features remarks given by Sam Sorbo at Illinois Family Institute’s 2022 Faith, Family, and Freedom Banquet.

Sam Sorbo is an actress, filmmaker, radio host, and a staunch advocate for educational freedom. Her book, They’re Your Kids: An Inspirational Journey from Self-Doubter to Home School Advocate, chronicles her family’s experience with homeschooling.

In her speech, Sam insightfully notes the lies of the educational framework in America, what true education is, and how parents can fight for their child’s education.… Continue Reading

In this episode of Illinois Family Spotlight, Monte Larrick interviews Horace Cooper. Cooper is a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, chairman of the Project 21 National Advisory Board and a legal commentator.

In response to the attack that Christianity and the Church is facing, Cooper notes,

As Christians, one of things we need to understand… American Christians are one of the most powerful forces on the planet.

Have you heard the outrageous story of what happened recently in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s capital? Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA), elected in 2022, had campaigned on school choice for tens of thousands of children, mostly minorities, who are forced to attend failing public schools in places like Philadelphia.

“It’s what I believe,” Shapiro, then state attorney general, assured voters as he ran for governor. Last month on a national Fox News broadcast, Shapiro was unequivocal in his support for school choice because “every child of God” deserves “a quality education.”… Continue Reading

In this episode of Illinois Family Spotlight, Monte Larrick interviews attorney David Shestokas, a former 2022 candidate for Illinois Attorney General. Mr. Shestokas is involved in the battle for election integrity, and is the author of two must-read books: Creating the Declaration of Independence and Constitutional Soundbites.

In this episode, Shestokas emphasizes the important role that the Declaration of Independence currently plays in preserving American freedoms. He notes,

“What the Constitution is intended to do is to execute the ideals that are found in the Declaration of Independence… the Constitution itself is a pretty mechanical document, but the Declaration of Independence defines really what it means to be an American.”

In this episode of Spotlight, we are featuring remarks from Dr. Michelle Cretella given at IFI’s 2019 Worldview Conference. During her presentation, she points out the differences between true, biological science, which supports pro-life and pro-family propositions, and the anti-science cult of gender ideology, which is preached by mainstream medicine, psychiatry, public and private education systems, and social and mass media.

Dr. Cretella also addresses the serious implications of the transgender movement: erasure of parents’ rights, women’s rights, and religious freedom; establishment of gender identity as a protected class; as well as potential legal action that awaits anyone who persists in using “discriminatory” language, i.e.… Continue Reading

In this podcast episode of Illinois Family Spotlight, Monte Larrick interviews Dr. Voddie Baucham regarding the issues of education, worldview, and critical race theory. The latter threatening to divide the Church and nation. There is an agenda to push a “false divide” between black and white people. In an interview with Christianity Daily, Dr. Baucham points out:

“So the Jew-Gentile divide that Paul talks about in the latter half of Ephesians 2, that is a real divide that God established.… Continue Reading

Home-schoolers consistently outscore government school students in every academic area. It’s no wonder that the public school establishment hates and fears home schooling.

The clearest evidence yet came in this past Thursday’s Washington Post. “THE REVOLT OF CHRISTIAN HOME-SCHOOLERS” (all caps in original) is a voluminous, front-page article almost entirely about one Loudoun County, Virginia, couple who had home-schooled their children before opting to enroll them in public schools.… Continue Reading

In this edition of Illinois Family Spotlight, Monte Larrick has an interesting conversation with Kirk Smith, executive director of the Illinois Christian Home Educators (ICHE). Over the weekend of May 20th, ICHE hosted their annual homeschool conference at Olivet Nazarene University where families were not only encouraged to educate their children academically, but educate them spiritually.

When asked about the difference between public school and home school, Smith points out that children in government systems are often being taught anti-Christian morals and deceptive worldly philosophies.… Continue Reading

Illinois enacted the Invest In Kids Scholarship Tax Credit Program in 2017. This program offers a 75 percent income tax credit to individuals and businesses that contribute to qualified Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). The SGOs then provide scholarships for students whose families meet the income requirements to attend qualified, non-public schools in Illinois.

It is a carefully regulated process, but it works.

The total amount of tax credit that could be granted per year was $75 million dollars.… Continue Reading

Larry Elder, in this interview, capitalizes on the importance of black fathers being present in the home, as this is the greatest threat that is facing black America.… Continue Reading

In this special episode of Spotlight, Illinois Family features remarks from Ann O’Connor, Vice President of legal affairs for the National Institute for Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA). This lecture, presented at Speakout Illinois 2023, highlights legislation that is targeting pregnancy care centers for the sole purpose of shutting them down. She states the core of what NIFLA is about in her lecture when she says,

While Dobbs did change abortion not to be the law of our land federally, it didn’t change hearts and that’s our job.

In this Spotlight episode, David E. Smith and Self Evident‘s Jenna Smith continue the conversation with Eric Hovind, President and Founder of Creation Today, and Helmut Welke, President of Quad City Creation Science Association. This conversation includes discussion on faux fossils, the importance of training your children to ask the right questions, and why a young earth perspective is crucial to a Biblical worldview. Eric Hovind capitalizes on the importance of sharing one’s faith in order to strengthen one’s faith.… Continue Reading

Self Evident’s Jenna Smith co-hosts this week’s episode of Spotlight with David Smith to converse with two special guests about the importance of Scripture and the necessity of knowing the Creator.

One of these special guests is Eric Hovind, the President and Founder of Creation Today, an organization based in Pensacola, Florida. Eric has a deep passion to reach people with the life-changing message of the Gospel and this has driven him to speak in five foreign countries and all fifty states.… Continue Reading

The Left is in an uproar. Parents opposed to their indoctrinating ways are forming a resistance movement. One uproar is over books — assigned books in the classroom and available books in the school library. Disagree with the content of the books? You’re for “book bans.”

Technically, this is accurate inside the school, but the leftist press makes it sound like you’re banning books entirely from public view. They get to pose as the defenders of books and “book learning” and as compassionate defenders of the book-reading needs of the “marginalized.”… Continue Reading

In a recent interview on “The Daily Show” President Joe Biden said that the legislature in Florida was both “cruel” and “close to sinful” for not allowing people to indoctrinate and groom young children in sexual perversion. The proposed Senate Bill 254 in Florida protects children from gender mutilation, and prohibits the use of public funds for such procedures. The President is adamantly against this Bill.

Biden said, “It’s not like a kid wakes up one morning and says, ‘You know, I decided I wanted to become a man or want to become a woman or I want to change.’… Continue Reading

Former President Donald J. Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are both focusing heavily on education policy in the run-up to the 2024 election, suggesting the issue will take center stage over the next two years. DeSantis is already on the warpath in Florida, as Trump vows to wrest control of schools from “radical left maniacs” and “pink-haired communists” in his second term.

Among other tactics, both men are vowing to ramp up conservative defenses in the ongoing culture war within schools as public education becomes increasingly radicalized — and unpopular with parents desperate to stop the sexualization and indoctrination of their children at taxpayer expense.… Continue Reading

Years after the founder of Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute was exposed as a fraud and sexual predator, some Hoosier State legislators are moving to defund the sex think tank.

On Wednesday, the Republican-dominated House voted 53-34 for an amendment to the state budget bill barring money for the institute. All Democrats voted against it, naturally, joined by seven kinky Republicans.

HB 1001 got final approval 66-29 on Thursday and was sent over to the Senate.… Continue Reading

Don’t believe the press releases from universal school voucher enthusiasts: it wasn’t a winning message in Michigan, Pennsylvania, or Arizona governorships and Senate seats.

These are all swing states the GOP needs to win to take back the presidency and states where a GOP senator or two could protect the country from radical left-wing policies. But vouchers didn’t move the needle in any of them.

The GOP should abandon taxpayer-funded school choice and focus on empowering parents rather than expanding the state. … Continue Reading

When was the last time you saw Republicans leading Democrats in any opinion poll on education? Likely never in this generation, not unlike their dismal polling on health care. Education and health care are probably the two most impactful issues on human life, liberty, culture, and economy, yet Republicans have ceded them to the left forever. They tepidly play their “me too” game of acceding to the same socialist policies, merely with less enthusiasm and slightly less funding, rather than offering a new vision altogether.… Continue Reading

“. . .fill the earth and subdue it.
Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky
and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” ~Genesis 1:28

Rachel Mikottis is a homeschooled wonder of a woman who believes that nature is the best classroom in the world. In this week’s episode of Illinois Family Spotlight, Rachel joins Dave Smith and Jenna Smith (of the Self-Evident Podcast) for a conversation about an amazing, out-of-the-box idea of a forest school, specifically the one she founded called Free Haven.… Continue Reading

On Nov. 20, just after speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership conference in Las Vegas, Mike Pompeo was asked what he “viewed as the central issues” for Republicans in 2024.

The former secretary of state answered: “The central ideas of America are timeless — limited government, expanded set of freedoms, protecting the capacity of people to practice their faith. The very things I spoke about tonight.” Then he added, “making sure we don’t teach our kids crap in schools, which we are [currently] doing.”… Continue Reading

Last week in the news:

In New York City, at Trinity School on the Upper West Side, where parents pay $60,000 per year for their sons and daughters to get “a balanced educational program for body and soul,” Jennifer Norris, Director of Student Activities, proudly boasts, to an undercover reporter, that she works at

“a real fancy school … I can’t pretend I’m promoting an agenda even though I clearly am with all the stuff I’m doing… I feel like I’m a double agent… Unfortunately, it’s the white boys who feel very entitled to express their opposite opinions… There is a huge contingent of them that are just horrible… [They] are so protected by capitalism that it makes me sad…We just need someone like Dexter (a fictional vigilante serial killer) to ‘take them out.’”

Here is another serious threat to America’s children and families. Redefining sex redefines marriage and redefines the family with far-reaching, reverberating, catastrophic consequences for America, but especially for our children, and in particular, girls.

Title IX was originally designed to provide girls and women with equal access to sports and other opportunities. It regulates every public K-12 school, college and university in the nation, prohibiting discrimination “on the basis of sex.”… Continue Reading

The news this week coming out of Maryland is that the state owns your children; you don’t. Your sons and daughters are Uncle Sam’s, not yours. Or perhaps more accurately, your children belong to Father Mao and Brother Stalin. They don’t belong to you.

Writing for The Washington Post, Jasmine Hilton reports the following:

“A judge on Thursday dismissed a complaint against the Montgomery County school board by parents who alleged that the system’s student gender-identity guidelines violated their state and constitutional rights.”

Imagine this scene: an adult family member is watching your child while you run a quick errand. Upon returning home, you discover your house is on fire. Smoke is billowing, flames are dancing on the roof, and the face of your helpless child is pressed to the window of his second-floor bedroom. What do you do? I imagine most of us would unhesitatingly rush in to rescue our child. Rev. Ceasar LeFlore says this is the fate of public school students throughout our state and nation.… Continue Reading

Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself. ~ Susan B. Anthony

In the second episode of Self Evident, Eliana, Kenna and Jenna address the vital importance of protecting your heart as a woman–not merely physically, but mentally and Spiritually. Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our hearts carefully, for out of it flows the springs of life. The girls list practical approaches you can take to ensure you are fully prepared for whatever life throws your way.… Continue Reading

Parents are up in arms from San Francisco to Florida and everywhere in between.

They’ve had a good look at what the schools are doing to their children, and they don’t like it one bit. Naturally, the parents are being told to shut up and keep paying taxes to support an educational establishment that despises their values.

The media, like the leftist teachers unions, reflexively cast parents as the bad guys.

Fresh from its prominent role in gaslighting America for three years over the Russian collusion hoax, the “legacy” media are now eviscerating parents and politicians who are trying to protect children from early sexualization.… Continue Reading

On April 9, Oklahoma State University hosted a “drag queen story hour” for children as young as 2 years old on its campus. The event was part of the university’s “Pride 2022” celebration. A description for the program stated two drag performers would read books to all attendees and that the drag queen story hour was geared toward children between the ages of 2 to 8, but that “all ages [were] welcome to join in on the fun.”… Continue Reading

What is it with Leftists and their obsession with children and sexuality?

Seriously, on just about every aspect of sexuality, the Left has it wrong. Their preferred policies have already done incredible amounts of individual, familial and societal damage, and yet they keep pushing for more — and getting away with it. It’s bad enough when those negatively affected are adults. But children are increasingly the targets — and the victims — of these policies.… Continue Reading

It’s a commonly accepted adage that if you want to make someone angry, all you need to do is criticize their mom. You can commit a whole host of sins against a friend or foe that will receive little more than a shrug of indifference, but if you suggest their mother is a prostitute, the gloves will come off. This principle holds not only for one’s biological parent but also for that “other mother” that almost all of us have in common: our respective alma maters, otherwise known as our local public schools.… Continue Reading

As a pastor, what can you do to keep the children of your congregation from being tainted by the humanism of government schools? Start your own K-12 school. Taking it one step further, what can you do to ward off the indoctrination of very young children before it ever has a chance to take root? Start an open enrollment preschool. Our guest this week on Spotlight, Rev. Mark Moore of Belmont Bible Church in Downers Grove, is in the process of realizing both of these goals.… Continue Reading

The libertine left seems extremely aggressive in every corporate workplace today, and they demand that everyone conform with their Orwellian lingo of “inclusivity.” No dissent is allowed from the orthodoxy of the Church of LGBTQIA+.

The folks at Disney — who many moons ago were seen as an entertainment factory for children — have been heavily pressured into submission on a proposed law in Florida that dares to suggest, “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”… Continue Reading

This past week while President Joe Biden puttered about the White House, addled and confused, in his rainbow-striped pajamas, two surveys were released that should chill the blood of even the most progressive among us who still think we live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The first survey was conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and reported that 23 percent of America’s college students now think it’s okay to use violence to silence those with whom they disagree, and 66 percent currently support shouting down a campus speaker whose ideas they don’t like.… Continue Reading

While most Illinois schoolchildren are currently enjoying Christmas break, David Smith and Monte Larrick are exploring a viable alternative to government schools. This week on Spotlight, Pastor Randy Blan of Families of Faith Church in Channahon, Illinois joins David and Monte to discuss the school he and his church started in 2005 – Families of Faith Christian Academy. Pastor Blan begins by addressing Common Core, the alienation of parents in the educational process, and the recent emergence of significant learning gaps in Illinois students.… Continue Reading

It is now an incontrovertible fact that closing or opening schools had zero bearing on the course of the pandemic or the safety of children who were never at an elevated risk from this pandemic. It’s clear from schools reopening during the worst Delta wave with no extra repercussions that all of the academic, mental health, physical health, and behavior development problems we foisted upon the children were absolutely senseless. This, despite the fact that so many of us knew this for months on end, but our cries fell on deaf ears.… Continue Reading

On our podcast this week, Monte Larrick talks with Star Parker, one of the premier conservative Black leaders of our day. Ms. Parker is the founder and president of CURE (Center for Urban Renewal and Education), a policy institute based in Washington, D.C. For the past twenty-five years, she has prioritized the truth of God’s Word in an effort to heal urban areas, end government dependencies in our nation’s most distressed communities, and educate and empower pastors to help rebuild lives.… Continue Reading

Throughout the country, parents are concerned that some public schoolboards, administrators, and associations hold them in disdain and fear their input when they raise legitimate questions about the direction of their local schools. Just short of 50 years ago (1972), the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision that protects parents in the educational choices they make for their children—Wisconsin v. Yoder. Revisiting Yoder nearly a half-century later is more than a historical exercise. … Continue Reading

If you feel as if you are watching the intentional destruction of your culture and your kids, you’re right. It’s not just a bad dream. It is real. It’s planned. It’s targeted. It’s relentless. And it is being carried out in your own back yard in your own public schools.

It doesn’t matter where you live. Whether it be in the crazy land of Gavin Newsom or the bumbling buffoonery of the Beltway, you now reside in Oceania, and your children are Winston.… Continue Reading

This week on Spotlight, Pastor Ceasar LeFlore, field director for IFI’s Public School Exit Initiative and resident chaplain, interviews Courtney Lewis, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church, located in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago.

Pastor Lewis recounts the stand his church took against the pandemic shutdowns initiated by Mayor Lightfoot and he shares how the Lord called him to open Cornerstone Christian Academy to rescue his children and the children in his church from government-run schools.… Continue Reading

In regard to presenting students with the best alternative to the radical comprehensive sex education taught in government schools, Scott Phelps, Executive Director of Abstinence & Marriage Education Partnership states, “When we maintain a very clear and distinct message from all the noise that they’re hearing in the culture, the message really pops; it stands out and they’re able to hear it and see it very clearly.”

On this edition of Spotlight, Monte Larrick and Phelps compare government schools’ comprehensive sex ed that normalizes and encourages sexual activity and unhealthy behavior to Abstinence & Marriage Education Partnership’s reasoned and positive approach to sex ed that emphasizes the many benefits of abstinence until marriage.… Continue Reading

Parents are taking their children’s education into their own hands in record numbers after a disastrously tumultuous school year.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s experimental Household Pulse Survey, which is an online survey recording social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrates a dramatic shift towards homeschooling within the past year and a half. The survey included roughly 22–23 million American households spanning from the spring of 2020 to the fall of 2021.… Continue Reading

Welcome back to Spotlight for part two of excerpted remarks from Alex Newman’s presentation at the 2021 IFI Worldview Conference! This week Newman details the the history of America’s progression from home-based, faith-based education to government school indoctrination. He also discusses the failures of the Whole Word Method and Common Core, and explains why the current push for a global education system has very little to do with academic excellence or achievement.… Continue Reading

Leftist activists are going into overdrive to indoctrinate young minds and infiltrate America’s schools with their “woke” political ideology.

Headlines today are replete with examples of school districts shaping their curricula around Critical Race Theory (CRT)—a dangerous academic concept that teaches that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in our country’s legal systems and policies.

Parents have responded by showing up en masse at local school board meetings, expressing not just slight disapproval of CRT, but strongly repudiating it being taught in the classroom.… Continue Reading

As the school year begins for almost two million public school students in Illinois, this edition of Spotlight is both timely and eye-opening. This week we are featuring remarks from Alex Newman’s, keynote presentation at our 2021 Worldview Conference. Newman addresses government school curricula that prioritize social justice and LGBTQ+ issues, climate change “facts,” gender pseudoscience, and the promotion of pedophilia as more important than educating students in core academic subjects and fostering critical thinking skills.… Continue Reading

We have a very special edition of Spotlight this week, full of information and enthusiasm! While attending the 2021 National Religious Broadcasters Christian Media Convention, Pastor Ceasar LeFlore conducted an interview with Yvette Hampton, writer, producer, and host of the upcoming documentary, Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution.

LeFlore and Hampton discuss the importance of removing our children from government school indoctrination and how local churches can facilitate this vital change.… Continue Reading

Last October, the District of Columbia passed a law allowing health officials to vaccinate children as young as 11 without their parent’s knowledge or permission. Seriously.

You probably didn’t hear about this. The media avoid covering topics that might arouse the citizenry to reassert their constitutional and parental rights. How about the CDC’s recommendation to mask any child over two years old? Not big news.

Can’t you see newly empowered health police patrolling playgrounds to make sure all toddlers are masked?… Continue Reading

[Last] week “A Message from the Gay Community” was posted on YouTube. It was delivered in song by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.

Here’s a smattering of the lyrics.

“You think we’re sinful. You think that we’ll corrupt your kids, if our agenda goes unchecked. Funny just this once, you’re correct.  

We’ll convert your children.  It happens bit by bit.  Quietly and subtly, and you will barely notice it.  

In this installment of Spotlight, David Smith is joined by Jennifer Burns, founder of Classical Consortium Academy. Jennifer shares how her initial experience with homeschooling and “car-schooling” led her to start H.E.A.R.T. (Homeschool Enrichment Achieved Respectfully Together) at the Village Church of Barrington. As God laid it on her heart to homeschool, He also led her in 2006 to take another step of obedience and found Classical Consortium Academy, a hybrid school that offers in-person instruction several days per week, paired with CCA-directed and parent- administered at-home learning.… Continue Reading

A quote that is sometimes mistakenly credited to C.S. Lewis declares, “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.” A clue that this was not uttered by Lewis is that it doesn’t quite capture the truth. As Lewis would well know, an education without values would be quite unlikely to be “useful.” What’s more, virtually all education incorporates some sort of values.… Continue Reading

Kirk Smith, executive director of Illinois Christian Home Educators (ICHE), wonders what will be the straw that finally breaks the camel’s back – the backs of Christian parents, even the backs of moral, non-Christian parents – when it comes to deciding to leave the cesspool of government schools? Will it be the recently passed legislation that requires availability of feminine hygiene products in both female and male school restrooms or will it be the mandate to teach hardcore sex education to public school students as early as kindergarten?… Continue Reading

Once upon a time not so long ago, Loudoun County, Virginia, was the most conservative county in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

An exurb outside the Beltway with a high-tech corridor rivaling California’s Silicon Valley, plus the Washington Football team’s headquarters and Dulles Airport, Loudoun’s sprawling suburbia is supplanting farmland like super-charged kudzu.

The eastern part is home to more than 100 huge, gray “data centers,” through which more than 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic flows. … Continue Reading

David Smith, executive director of IFA, and IFA board chairman Richard Hartian return to Illinois Family Spotlight as we wrap up our series on homeschooling. Joining them again for this final conversation is the well-spoken and delightful trio of Kenna and Eliana Hartian and Jenna Smith.

Richard and David ask several questions of their daughters, and the young women readily respond with wise and thoughtful answers based on their personal experience and knowledge of Scripture.… Continue Reading

Every homeschooler who’s had any home education experience at all has heard the myths about homeschooling. The most familiar ones are cautionary tales about the “unsocialized homeschooler,” the homeschooler who lacks any extra-curricular opportunities, or the “disadvantaged” homeschool student who will never gain admittance to college. Here to permanently put to rest these unfounded myths are David Smith, executive director of IFI and IFA, and Richard Hartian, chairman of the IFA board of directors.… Continue Reading

If you are reading this, the chances are pretty good that you know a homeschool family or two–or may be homeschooled yourself. Christian homeschooling in Illinois is a thing mostly because Illinois is surprisingly a rather free state for parents to train their children at home.

In the IFA Spotlight this week to reflect on their homeschool experience are two home-high school graduates and one home-high school senior: Jenna Smith, a daughter of IFA Executive Director David Smith, and Kenna and Eliana Hartian, daughters of IFA board chairman Richard Hartian.… Continue Reading

If there are riots now in America, what will it be like 20 years from now if the New York Times gets its way?

The New York Times sponsored The 1619 Project, which postulates that America’s real beginnings as a nation are when the first African slaves were brought over….to Jamestown in 1619.

Many historians note that this is a distortion of our nation’s roots. Worse, it makes young people turn against this country.… Continue Reading

According to the Washington Times — also known as the Good Times — last week, the Biden administration made plans “to offer grants for U.S. history classes that teach critical race theory and the ‘1619 Project,'” which is a confection of The New York Times. Both critical race theory and “The 1619 Project” are based on the fundamental insight that slavery is, according to the Washington Times, “the centerpiece of the American narrative.”… Continue Reading

I was saddened last month upon hearing of the death of Norton Juster, most famous for his superb children’s book “The Phantom Tollbooth.”

Illustrated by Juster’s friend, Jules Feiffer, the book takes a boy, Milo, through a fantastic journey in his miniature car into the Kingdom of Wisdom, divided into Dictionopolis, where words are supreme, and Digitopolis, where numbers rule.

Published in 1961, “Phantom” is whimsical, fast moving and, as far as I know, non-ideological.… Continue Reading

For the past year, parents and students across the county, mostly in Democrat-run municipalities, have been experiencing excessive levels of stress due to unending school closures. Red states like Florida, Texas, and South Dakota have been open for months. Meanwhile, the teacher’s unions have a stranglehold on the public schools in Democrat states, refusing to open for a litany of absurd reasons.

Part of me sympathizes with the conservative parents who are struggling to cope with working from home and the online curriculum management of their children.… Continue Reading

The Illinois State Board of Education has approved the proposed “Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards” amendment, and on February 16, JCAR (Illinois’ Joint Committee on Administrative Rules) will vote on its ratification. Dr. Eric Wallace joins Monte Larrick to explain why adopting these “standards” will shift the focus from teaching foundational academics and fostering critical thinking skills to promoting Critical Race Theory and “woke” perspectives that dismiss objective truth. Additionally, they discuss how Illinois parents and taxpayers can most effectively stand against the leftist agenda of student indoctrination.… Continue Reading

It may be Christmastime, but our ruling elites are keeping up their campaign of cultural cleansing.

Not even Honest Abe is safe.

In San Francisco, a committee tasked to rid the school system of now-disgraced public figures at 44 sites says that a high school named after Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves and held America together through the Civil War, ought to drop the Great Emancipator.

“Lincoln, like the presidents before him and most after, did not show through policy or rhetoric that Black lives ever mattered to them outside of human capital and as casualties of wealth building,” explained first-grade teacher Jeremiah Jeffries, chairman of the renaming committee.… Continue Reading

On July 27, 2020, Timothy Snediker, philosophy of religion teacher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, responded to a survey posted on Twitter that asked the following question: “If you were dropped 2000 years back in time with nothing but the knowledge you have now, what would you do?”

Mr. Snediker’s answer? “Easy, I would find and assassinate Jesus of Nazareth.”

Mr. Snediker then immediately followed up with a second tweet to drive home his point: “Theologically speaking, it would be really important to get him before his calling and ministry begins, so that gives me roughly a decade to make it to Palestine, locate the man, and make my move …”

It is interesting to note that after posting his comments, Mr. … Continue Reading

There is very little new under the sun. The monument and statue destruction that we are witnessing has been witnessed in other times and other places. A tyrant’s first battlefield is to rewrite history. Most notable were the political purges of Joseph Stalin. The Soviet government erased figures from Soviet history by renaming cities — such as the Imperial capital of St. Petersburg to Petrograd and Leningrad and Stalingrad — and eradicating memories of czarist rule.… Continue Reading

When the great American experiment in liberty officially comes to an end, there will be plenty of finger-pointing and blame-assigning taking place. Plenty of Founding Fathers observed that the natural progression of things was for government to grow and liberty to contract. But when we’re wanting to pinpoint what institutions, what things played the biggest part in facilitating the demise of freedom, I am going to predict that a fair reading of history will show that few entities had a bigger hand in destroying our civilization than the American university system.… Continue Reading

Home education and private schooling, specifically Christian schooling, are becoming first-choice options for many families as parents realize that their educational goals and priorities for their children don’t match up with those of government schools. John Stonestreet joins Monte Larrick to discuss the responsibility sphere; proactive education of discernment; the LGBT history mandate in Illinois and other states; and convictions, conscience rights and consequences.

Switching gears, the discussion moves to the Equality Act and increasing pressure on the U.S.… Continue Reading

Worldviews have consequences. The pandemic that grips the whole world is symptomatic of the deadly grip that the ungodly leadership in China holds over a wide populous (including tens of millions of Chinese Christians).

The coronavirus did not just come out of nowhere. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claims that it came out of the wet markets of Wuhan, a city of about 11 million people. But there is evidence that it may have originated in a biolab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology.… Continue Reading

The quick transition to online learning in the wake of the coronavirus has left students, parents and school districts scrambling to find a happy medium acceptable to all parties involved.

One of the more significant concerns is that of equity — not all students have internet access or, if they do, it is slow and unreliable. In addition, their computers may be outdated and cannot handle needed programs.

This consideration has led to some school districts frowning upon virtual learning.… Continue Reading

WARNING: This article contains information that some readers may find disturbing regarding child abuse and sexual violence.

Very few people realize that the reason children today are being sexualized at school is because pedophiles sexually abused hundreds of children, then claimed that the victims enjoyed it. That’s a fact, and the documents prove it.

In government schools all across the United States today, young children are literally being encouraged to experiment with fornication, masturbation, sodomy, oral sex, and all manner of sexual activities.… Continue Reading

Here in Georgia, the mass hysteria about the coronavirus has caused the governor to declare a “public health state of emergency.” He has advised public schools and daycare centers to close for two weeks in order to curb the opportunities for the virus to spread. It’s unclear which is causing more panic in the hearts of Georgia citizens—the coronavirus, the toilet paper shortage, or the fact that parents will have to be home with their children nonstop for two weeks straight.… Continue Reading

Latasha Fields, founder and director of CHESS – Christian Home Educators Support System, joins IFI executive director David Smith on this edition of Spotlight. In the first half of the podcast, David and Latasha discuss egregious legislation pending in the Illinois General Assembly that aims to eviscerate parental rights and eliminate religious liberty.

State Representative Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston) recently introduced HB 4870 would mandate the HPV vaccination for ALL Illinois students at the 6^th grade level.… Continue Reading

Under the guise of a venture called the “1619 Project,” revisionist history about race in America is being introduced into classrooms across America without undergoing the normal peer review expected of educational materials. August 2019 marked the birth of the project, a publication of The New York Times Magazine and the Pulitzer organization, containing a collection of essays and artistic works to commemorate the 400-year anniversary of slavery in America.… Continue Reading

I know there are dads out there who are strangling hostile coyotes with their bare hands, and fending off California mountain lions that are closing in on their young children. But for my money, this guy gets my vote as dad of the year:

https://twitter.com/JiveBunnyMuzik/status/1219698105622368257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisrn.com%2Fopinion%2Fopinion-random-dad-exposes-liz-warrenand-it-was-beautiful

I’d dare to call him this election cycle’s “Joe the Plumber,” or “Ken Bone the debate questioner,” but after seeing what happened to those two guys for speaking truth to powerful left-wing office-seekers, I’ll resist.… Continue Reading

David Smith and Monte Larrick welcome Pastor Ron Citlau, lead pastor of Calvary Church in Orland Park, to this edition of Spotlight. Pastor Citlau shares how a 1997 encounter with the Lord transformed him and freed him from a life marked by sexual abuse, addiction to alcohol, drugs and pornography, and same-sex attraction.

In the second half of the podcast, our guest and hosts discuss Illinois’ gender-related legislation that misleads and corrupts public school students.… Continue Reading

“That is what happens to those who pluck and eat fruits at the wrong time and in the wrong way … The fruit is good, but they loathe it ever after. All get what they want; they do not always like it.” ~Aslan in C.S. Lewis’ “The Magician’s Nephew”

In “The Chronicles of Narnia,” C.S. Lewis tells the story of the young boy named Digory who is sent on a journey by Aslan to retrieve an apple from a particular garden beyond the western mountains.… Continue Reading

The recent headline of a Chicago Sun-Times article alarmingly reports that a Chicago Public School watchdog is fielding 3 complaints of sexual misconduct per school day. This comes on the heels of a Chicago Tribune report last summer that exposed that Chicago public schools had more than 520 sexual assault cases all across the city over the past decade.

According to the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR), only 38 percent of Illinois public school students meet proficiency expectations in English Language Arts, only 32 percent of students meet proficiency expectations in math.… Continue Reading

In a recent Washington Times column, titled “Is San Francisco the future of America?,” Lee Edwards, distinguished fellow at the B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics at The Heritage Foundation, asked, “What has happened? Why is America slouching like some rough beast — not toward Bethlehem, but Gomorrah?”

This is a question we hear almost every day. “How did this happen so quickly?” It is as if we’ve have awakened from what we thought was a bad dream only to find that the nightmare is real.… Continue Reading

If you need an accurate update on some of the madness at the nation’s institutions of higher learning, check out Minding the Campus, a nonprofit independent organization. John Leo, its editor in chief, says that the organization’s prime mission is dedicated to the revival of intellectual pluralism and the best traditions of liberal education at America’s colleges and universities. Leo’s most recent compilation of campus madness leaves one nearly breathless.… Continue Reading

Summer is over. School has started. Students from coast to coast have returned to their college campuses, and the nation waits with bated breath as to what will happen next.

Will the self-absorbed snowflake insanity persist? Will you continue to hear cries of “you offended me” and “trigger warnings” in the halls of the academy? Will the demands for “safe spaces” continue to trump the study of science? Will the fixation on “micro-aggressions” continue to be more important than teaching morality?… Continue Reading

To start off September, this edition of Spotlight features part two of Monte Larrick and David Smith’s conversation with Pastor Calvin Lindstrom. The gentlemen stress the need to prioritize Christian education and explore various ways parents can implement faith-based education for their children. Pastor Lindstrom also details the important distinctives, advantages and opportunities of an academically-sound and biblically-solid education.

After the break the discussion turns to the recent, spectacular collapse – due to either moral failure of falling away from the faith – of several high-profile Christian leaders.… Continue Reading

In this week’s Spotlight, Pastor Calvin Lindstrom sits down with Dave Smith and Monte Larrick to discuss the distorted message and disastrous impact of the growing weed wave that is flooding the nation and the incestuous relationship between our elected officials (and their family members) and Big Marijuana. They also offer information about the “opt-out” option for counties and detail how you can encourage your local officials to opt-out of retail marijuana establishments in your area.… Continue Reading

This edition of Spotlight features Monte Larrick’s interview with Latasha Fields at the recent CURE Chicago Summit for Solutions II. Mrs. Fields shares her testimony – rising above the poverty of her childhood in Baton Rouge, LA, taking personal responsibility for her choices, embracing hard work, pursuing education, and ultimately, placing her faith in Jesus – a testimony she also shared in June with the U.S. House Budget Committee.

Larrick and Fields discuss the Democratic Party’s decades-old tactics that continue to perpetuate poverty and dependence in black communities, the importance of voter education at the local level, and the value of individual moral responsibility.… Continue Reading

On this edition of Spotlight, we revisit the 2019 Illinois Christian Home Educators conference in Bourbonnais for Monte Larrick’s interview with John Stonestreet, well-known author, public speaker, voice of BreakPoint, and president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. He and Christian apologist Brett Kunkle recently wrote the highly acclaimed book titled, “A Practical Guide to Culture.”

Stonestreet discusses reasons to homeschool and the responsibility and role of parents and the Church in home education.… Continue Reading

The 2019 Illinois Christian Home Educators Family Conference (ICHE) in Bourbonnais was the setting for Monte Larrick’s recent interview with ICHE executive director, Kirk Smith. At the start, Smith details the reasons for a new venue and new focus – the importance of the family unit – for the conference.

The conversation moves on to the problem of government overstepping their jurisdiction in public, private, and home education and the imperative for families and the Church to proactively engage in the culture wars.… Continue Reading

A recent Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation survey found that 51 percent of American millennials would rather live in a socialist or communist country than in a capitalist country. Only 42 percent prefer the latter. Twenty-five percent of millennials who know who Vladimir Lenin was view him favorably. Lenin was the first premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Half of millennials have never heard of Communist Mao Zedong, who ruled China from 1949 to 1959 and was responsible for the deaths of 45 million Chinese people.… Continue Reading

Many of the nation’s colleges have become a force for evil and a focal point for the destruction of traditional American values. The threat to our future lies in the fact that today’s college students are tomorrow’s teachers, professors, judges, attorneys, legislators and policymakers. A recent Brookings Institution poll suggests that nearly half of college students believe that hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment. Of course, it is.… Continue Reading

Poverty is no mystery, and it’s easily avoidable.

The poverty line that the Census Bureau used in 2016 for a single person was an income of $12,486 that year. For a two-person household, it was $16,072, and for a four-person household, it was $24,755.

To beat those poverty thresholds is fairly simple. Here’s the road map: complete high school; get a job, any kind of a job; get married before having children; and be a law-abiding citizen.… Continue Reading

If you thought Common Core had been sent to a permanent detention hall, think again.… Continue Reading

Educrat (ED-yoo-krat) noun, usually pejorative. A government school official or administrator whose primary function is to spend tax dollars telling other parents what to do with their children.

Beltway education bureaucrats abhor families who choose to keep their kids out of public schools — unless it’s to grandstand over gun control.

Behold Arne Duncan, longtime pal of Barack Obama and former U.S. Department of Education secretary, who called last weekend for parents nationwide to withdraw students from classes “until gun laws [are] changed to keep them safe.”… Continue Reading

Should schools be focused on providing children with a good education in a safe environment or should they be laboratories of partisan political agitation? The answer, of course, should be obvious. The National School Boards Association states that “education is not a line item in your school board’s budget, it’s the only item.” The principles of “governance and leadership,” such as those articulated by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, make no allowance for focusing on anything other than educating children.… Continue Reading

Wilfrid Laurier University teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd, never anticipated she would be at the center of a media firestorm. Earlier this year, Shepherd showed her class an excerpt of a panel discussion on gender neutral pronouns and Canadian anti-discrimination law. The panel featured five guests, including Canadian psychologist Jordan B. Peterson.

After one or more students complained, the university reprimanded Shepherd for creating a toxic environment. When Shepherd leaked secretly recorded audio of two professors and an administrator reprimanding her, the university faced widespread condemnation and apologized to Shepherd.… Continue Reading

Earlier this month, the Illinois General Assembly approved a school funding bill compromise that Governor Bruce Rauner supports. The Illinois News Network reports:

“For far too long, too many low-income students in our state have been trapped in underfunded, failing schools,” Rauner said in a statement. “The system needed to change. We have changed it. We have put aside our differences and put our kids first. It’s a historic day for Illinois.”

In the Spotlight this week, Monte Larrick and David Smith speak with Lennie Jarratt, the project manager for the Center for Transforming Education at The Heartland Institute.

Jarratt is well-versed on Common Core and education choice. He’s been on Fox News, Breitbart, ABC Chicago and multiple radio outlets and newspapers across the United States. He has been a presenter on panels to discuss education choice, common core, homeschooling, and Illinois Freedom of Information Laws with groups such as American Majority, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), Illinois Tea Party groups, homeschool conventions, and state legislative hearings.… Continue Reading

Over the past year, millions of conservatives have pledged to shop #AnywhereButTARGET and are using 2ndVote’s research to make shopping decisions that align more closely with their values. We’ve put together a some of the best alternatives from our database for all your back-to-school needs.… Continue Reading

Written by Jane Carrell and Carol Davis

OUTRAGED. That’s how most of us reacted over the Independence Day holiday, as many of our so-called “public servants” in Springfield betrayed the citizens of Illinois once AGAIN. In addition to outrage, many of us felt genuine fear: How much more will this cost me? What else will I have to cut from my budget, which is already so tight?! I don’t know about you, but as these thoughts raced through my mind, my fear was soon replaced by white-hot anger and determination.… Continue Reading

In the Spotlight with Monte Larrick and David Smith this week is Lennie Jarratt, who is the project manager for the Center for Transforming Education at The Heartland Institute.

Lennie was the former managing editor (2013-2014) of Champion News, an Illinois based news website focusing on education and Illinois politics, and the managing editor (2004-2011) of Education Matters which researched education in local school districts across Illinois.

Jarratt is well-versed on Common Core and education choice.… Continue Reading

In the spotlight this week is Kirk Smith, the Executive Director of the Illinois Christian Home Educators. Kirk graduated from Greenville College, teaching and coaching for two years at the high school level before founding the House of Prayer church in Albion, IL, which he pastored for almost 25 years. Kirk and his wife Joely live in Bone Gap with their 11 children who range in age from toddler to young adult.… Continue Reading

Pro-Islamic education is becoming a staple in public education from the Atlantic to the Pacific, where Islam is taught as a religion of peace, and those who do not embrace it as such are stigmatized as intolerant, bigots, haters or just plain ignorant – and some parents have had enough.

“In Florida … parents are protesting a newly approved textbook they say whitewashes Islam’s violent history of conquest and subjugation, while in San Diego, an angry father confronted the city’s school board about its partnership with the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR] in an ‘anti-bullying’ program,” WND reported.… Continue Reading

Fresno State University said they will fully cooperate with any federal investigation after a professor posted a series of Twitter messages calling for President Donald Trump to be hanged and for Republicans to be executed.

“To save American democracy, Trump must hang,” Professor Lars Maischak wrote on his Twitter account in February. “The sooner and the higher, the better.”

“Has anyone started soliciting money and design drafts for a monument honoring the Trump assassin, yet?”… Continue Reading

“We the People,” begins the U.S. Constitution. Those same three words open the State of Illinois Constitution. Neither document reads “we the politicians” or “we the ambitious.” Our forefathers set it up so we would be governing ourselves. When not enough honest and smart people put the self in self government, we get what we have now: a fiscal and moral mess.

Fortunately, there are individuals stepping up to lead, and one good example is Renata Sliva who is a candidate for the Indian Prairie School District 204 Board of Education in Will County.… Continue Reading

‘Transgender’ Use of School Locker Rooms
Policy on the April 4th Ballot

Written by John Biver

Early voting has already begun in some locations. On the ballot will be candidates for municipal, township, park district, school board and other local governing bodies.

Too many voters think these races are not important, so turnout is typically very low. When turnout is lower – every vote carries much more weight. We have the chance to make a greater impact if we vote and encourage like-minded family, friends and neighbors to also vote.… Continue Reading

If you live in School District U-46, please pay special attention.

Written by John Biver

U-46 School Board Member Jeanette Ward is providing the kind of leadership that we need to see a lot more of in Illinois. And on April 4th, there’s an opportunity to support two other like-minded candidates running to join Jeanette on the U-46 school board: Cody Holt and Enoch Essendrop.

Cody Holt and Enoch Essendrop have the endorsement of Illinois Family Action.… Continue Reading

Written by John Biver

Illinois Family Action wants to again highlight some important candidate information on the April 4th Board of Education elections as it relates to the important topic of privacy issues for students.

In High School District 211, there are 6 candidates running for 3 seats. Ralph Bonatz, Katherine David, and Jean Forrest have the endorsement of Illinois Family Action.

In Grade School District U-46, there are 5 candidates running for 3 seats.… Continue Reading

Written by John Biver

If you live in School District U-46, three seats on that school board are up for election on April 4, 2017. You need to be aware that when it comes to the important topic of privacy issues for students, the candidates that deserve your support and are endorsed by Illinois Family Action are challengers Cody Holt, and Enoch Essendrop.

While there are three incumbent candidates and only two challengers, electing Holt and Essendrop (and removing two of the incumbents) will put voices of sanity and common sense on the board.… Continue Reading

Written by Todd Starnes

The principal of a fancy New York City private school says the election of President Trump is worse than the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Steve Nelson, principal of The Calhoun School, fired off a hate-filled email to parents blasting the president. He also said Trump’s election would be more devastating than Vietnam, Watergate and the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Junior.

“I walked the complex inner-city streets of Cleveland during the racial unrest of the 60’s,” he wrote in an email obtained by the New York Post.… Continue Reading

Written by Spencer Irvine

‘White privilege’ is an oft-used term at colleges nowadays, which alleges that white Americans have an internal privilege complex that demeans other ethnicities and races by exerting supremacy. Here are ten examples of anti-white rhetoric on our college campuses:

1.) Cal-Berkeley students prevented white people from crossing a pedestrian bridge on-campus

2.) University of Wisconsin runs into trouble with ‘Problem with Whiteness’ course

3.) Columbia University barred white students from going to a no-whites-allowed student retreat

4.)… Continue Reading

Written by Robert Knight

One thing the election reinforced is that “tolerance” is the last thing progressives actually want.

The vitriol-laden media coverage, student demonstrations and other forms of protest against the incoming Trump administration are ample evidence.

To which I say, mug them again.

Tolerance, properly understood, is a wonderful virtue. The progressive version, however is a weapon to intimidate and silence opponents. With enough shaming, people would not dare to buck their betters, even in the privacy of the voting booth.… Continue Reading

Written by Hoang Tran

One of the biggest victories for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) when it scored a victory through a new four-year contract is that pension pickups were preserved, but what is good for teachers is not always what is good for everyone else as the plan stands to cost taxpayers a fortune.

The deal will cost Chicago Public Schools (CPS) close to $9.5 billion over the life of the deal, and a large chunk of the cost will be pension pickups, in which the district “picks up” the bulk of teacher pensions after a small contribution from teachers’ salaries.

Written by Natalie Johnson

Professors in higher education have become notably more liberal during the past 25 years, according to a recent study, and academics predict that the trend isn’t likely to slow any time soon.

During the past quarter-century, academia has seen a nearly 20-percent jump in the number of professors who identify as liberal. That increase has created a lopsided ideological spread in higher education, with liberal professors now outpacing their conservative counterparts by a ratio of roughly 5 to 1.… Continue Reading

Written by Matthew Hennessy

Neither major presidential candidate has made homeschooling an issue during the campaign. Most of my fellow homeschoolers interpret this as a good sign. We know from bitter experience that it’s best to be ignored. Without a candidate to back, however, homeschoolers are feeling anxious about the future. What will become of us?

We know Hillary Clinton’s view. She is the standard bearer for the “it takes a village” mentality, in which child-rearing is a task best left to the benevolent state.… Continue Reading

Written by Thomas Sowell

If there were a contest for the most stupid idea in politics, my choice would be the assumption that people would be evenly or randomly distributed in incomes, institutions, occupations or awards, in the absence of somebody doing somebody wrong.

Political crusades, bureaucratic empires and lucrative personal careers as grievance mongers have been built on the foundation of that assumption, which is almost never tested against any facts.

A recent article in the New York Times saw as a problem the fact that females are greatly under-represented among the highest rated chess players.… Continue Reading

Written by John Biver

This is  a great series by Dennis Prager outlining the basic information more Americans need to hear. Enjoy.

Many people – including those who keep up with politics – cannot articulate the differences between the Left and the Right in a way that is fair and objective. In this five-part video series, Dennis Prager does exactly that. In under 30 minutes, you’ll understand the essential differences between the two.

* * * * *

How big should the government be?… Continue Reading

If Your Local School Allows ‘Day of Silence,’ Keep Your Child Home

Written by Buddy Smith

On Friday, April 15, high schools (and many middle schools) across the country will be observing the LGBT movement’s annual “Day of Silence.”

During this all-day event, student activists and even school officials encourage students to be silent for the entire day as a sign of solidarity with the international LGBT movement. Students are encouraged to wear special pro-homosexual badges, stickers, and bracelets – which are often handed out at the school entrances that day.… Continue Reading

Written by Charles Battig

While political pundits ponder the reasons for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’s success with his socialist message among younger voters, they might also consider the “power of myth” as evidenced by human behavior.

Historian Joseph Campbell’s reflections on the topic aired on PBS in the mid-1980s and were later published in 1988 under the title The Power of Myth.  Campbell documented and analyzed recurring basic themes embedded in the folklore and mythology of most every culture…good vs.… Continue Reading

Written by Michelle Malkin

For the past several years, I’ve reported and tweeted on all the rotten aspects of the federal Common Core “standards” scheme — including dumbed-down curricula, technology boondoggles, intrusive data-mining and tracking, D.C. lobbying groups, corruption of math education, and left-wing indoctrination.

One aspect of the Fed Ed/Big Business alliance that has deserved far greater and deeper media scrutiny is the windfall that huge textbook companies have reaped from “alignment” with the phony government standards.… Continue Reading

Written by Jane Robbins

Several Republican presidential candidates had a great opportunity over the last two weeks to take the lead on an issue critical to millions of conservatives – federal control over public education. A couple helped their cause, a couple did not, and one blasted further down into the crater he’s been in from the beginning.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate followed the U.S. House in passing the conference report reauthorizing No Child Left Behind.… Continue Reading

Compiled by Lia Annunziata

Some of the concerns with Common Core include the questionable academic quality, non-transparent creation and quick adoption, federal involvement, expansion of student data-mining and the further erosion of state and local control.

As they have learned how Common Core will affect curricula, teaching, and testing, state lawmakers and citizens have strongly objected, causing more than a dozen states to consider withdrawing and others to drop their involvement with federally funded tests.

Here’s what the 2016 Republican Presidential Candidates say about Common Core.… Continue Reading

By Stanley Kurtz

When Common Core supporter Jeb Bush and Common Core opponent Marco Rubio faced off during last month’s Republican presidential debate, they barely seemed to disagree. After moderator Bret Baier posed a question on the clash between Common Core advocates, on the one hand, and opponents of federal involvement in education, on the other, Bush denied the contrast: “I don’t believe the federal government should be involved in the creation of standards, directly or indirectly, the creation of curriculum content.… Continue Reading

Author and accomplished surgeon Dr. Ben Carson has expressed his support for homeschooling and school choice and opposition to Common Core at a conservative conference in Maryland.

At the main stage of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor, just outside Washington, D.C., Dr. Carson told those gathered on Thursday morning that “I am ready for school choice.”

Carson argued that “school choice,” or allowing parents to homeschool their children or send their children to private schools with government aid, was a benefit for all Americans.… Continue Reading

Written by Scott Reeder

Last week, Gov. Bruce Rauner proposed a budget that trimmed funding for state universities.

The reaction of university bigwigs?

Jack up tuition and protect the bureaucracy at all costs. And I mean at all costs.

Look no further than the comments Illinois State University President Larry Dietz made to WEEK TV news:

“Budget cuts at that level would have an impact on many areas of University operations and there are many issues on the table for discussion.

Written by David E. Smith

President Barack Obama recently announced a proposal to make two years of community college “free” for all “responsible students.”  According to various news reports, this government program would cost $60 billion.  It is hard to believe that the Republican controlled Congress would approve adding a new costly federal program when many of them are looking to make significant budget cuts.

It is hard to understand why the dominant media refuses to expose political lies of “free” government programs.… Continue Reading

Written By  Kelsey Harkness

Jeb Bush has long advocated for all 50 states to adopt Common Core national standards.

Now that the former Florida governor has all but confirmed his plans to run for president in 2016, the issue threatens to overshadow his likely campaign.

Bush’s name, matched with consistently high polling numbers among potential 2016 Republican candidates, makes landing a seat in the Oval Office feasible. But in order to reach the general election—to perhaps take on Hillary Clinton—Bush must first overcome concerns about Common Core with conservative primary voters.… Continue Reading