
Alabama Chief Justice Prohibits Marriage Licenses to Same-Sex Couples
Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court issued an order Wednesday that prohibits probate courts from granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court issued an order Wednesday that prohibits probate courts from granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer’s after-school “21st Century Community Learning Centers” program was reauthorized for five years by the huge “Every Student Succeeds Act” education bill.

Sen. Patty Murray is crowing about one of her crowning achievements in the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) legislation: a newly codified federal preschool program and the taxpayer monies that will fund it.

During floor speeches, Republican lawmakers claimed the bill “reduces the federal role” in education – even though it extends federal oversight of education to formally include pre-school instead of only grades K-12. They also say the measure would stop the federal government from coercing states to implement the Common Core standards – a point that is hotly debated by conservative activists who say the bill actually cements the Common Core further.

Sen. Lamar Alexander’s final draft of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) reauthorization bill is a 1,059-page piece of legislation that House and Senate education committees decided upon after several months of backroom deals and only two days of open “conference.”

The Wall Street Journal has added the word “plague” to the list of death-inspired terms frequently used now to characterize the unpopular Common Core standards education reform.

A national coalition of parents is releasing a letter to House and Senate education committee leaders urging them to suspend their talks on the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal law until a new administration is elected.

Politico has issued a notice to GOP 2016 contenders: “Common Core has won the war.”

Republican presidential contender Carly Fiorina tells Breitbart News that conservatives know how to restore federalism. “Year after year, the federal government has continued to grow while the federal bureaucracy has continued to become more inept and more corrupt,” she said in an exclusive statement to Breitbart News.

GOP 2016 contenders Sen. Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, and former Sen. Rick Santorum will headline a special event that will focus on federalism and federal overreach on Saturday, October 3 at Southern New Hampshire University.

A national poll has underscored the continued unpopularity of the Common Core standards with a majority of those surveyed opposing its use in America’s classrooms.

School is in session for the Republican 2016 primary candidates, and their report card grades on how they live up to the principles of the Constitution when it comes to their views on education policy and the Common Core initiative

The annual Education Next poll on school reform has been released, and the results are not good for the Common Core initiative, which seems to abide by the philosophy that the more Americans know about it, the more they do not like it.

Sen. Marco Rubio said Thursday night during the GOP presidential debate in Cleveland that the problem with Common Core is that the U.S. Department of Education “will turn it into a mandate.”

During the GOP debate Thursday night, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush – who has individually and through his foundations been a champion of the federally funded Common Core standards – said he doesn’t believe the federal government should be involved

It’s worth noting that in the half-century since the ESEA was passed as part of Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” billions of dollars have been spent – by both Democrat and Republican administrations – on education and so-called “helpful” programs for “disadvantaged” children, and yet Democrats are still fighting for more federal control and federal programs and subsidies in order to “close the achievement gap.”

The House’s version of the redo, known as the Student Success Act (H.R. 5), was pulled from the House floor by GOP leadership in late February after it was determined the measure lacked sufficient support. Grassroots parents’ groups – many that have been fighting against the Common Core standards in their states – voiced their concerns that the Student Success Act still required excessive federal intrusion into the right of states to set their own education policies.

Republican leaders seem poised to resume attempts to convince the conservative base of their party that the bill will reduce federal involvement in education and return it to the states and localities.

The authors observe that regardless of the decision in Jindal’s case, state and local school boards are facing significant challenges in “the collapsing morale and educational achievement of their students,” and need to consider their own legal path to rid themselves of the Common Core boondoggle.

Christie said he signed his state’s Race to the Top application for federal funds in exchange for adopting the Common Core standards because his state needed the money, an admission many other governors are likely hesitant to make in light of the huge outcry from parents across the country against the standards and their associated testing and data collection.

Louisiana lawmakers and parents who oppose Common Core are supporting a plan they say would ultimately rid the state of the controversial education initiative. However, Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal has “concerns” about the legislation.

The obvious question is: If Bush believes education should be decided at the state-level, why does he insist other states do what he did as Florida’s governor?

Over the weekend Federal Communications Commission (FCC) member Ajit Pai said he anticipates that, as a result of the passage of net neutrality regulations, federal regulators will attempt to control political websites – such as the Drudge Report – through the FCC or Federal Elections Commission (FEC).

As parents have continued to opt their children out of the testing aligned with the Common Core standards by the thousands in some states, in others, the testing has been halted entirely due to numerous technological glitches, leaving some state education officials worried their federal funding could be at stake as a result of low participation rates in the mandated tests.

Wyoming Catholic College has rejected $1 million in federal student aid programs to keep its Catholic identity, rejecting strings tied to the funding regarding birth control, same-sex marriage, and gender issues–requirements that are not in keeping with the teachings of the Catholic Church.