Federal Court Finds Mt. Lebanon School District Violates Parents’ Rights

Written by John A. Sparks

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

SPOTLIGHT: Education is Possible

Written by Alyssa Sonnenburg

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

SPOTLIGHT: Good Soil, Good Seed

Written by Alyssa Sonnenburg

“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

Taking Education Back From The Bureaucrats

Written by Dr. Everett Piper

[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

SPOTLIGHT: The Price Tag of Sex with Pam Stenzel

Written by Alyssa Sonnenburg

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

Trump Should Keep His Promise to Scrap Department of Education

Written by Dr. Everett Piper

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.

SPOTLIGHT: Banned Books Week & Parents’ Concerns

Written by Alyssa Sonnenburg

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

Is The Educational Tide Turning?

Written by Robert Knight

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

SPOTLIGHT: Creation and Culture

Written by Alyssa Sonnenburg

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

SPOTLIGHT: How Can You Mess with Success?

Written by Alyssa Sonnenburg

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.