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PA Education Department agrees to cancel requirement for teachers to adopt guidelines deemed ‘woke’

PA Education Department agrees to cancel requirement for teachers to adopt guidelines deemed ‘woke’

The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has agreed to cancel its requirement for schools to enforce teaching guidelines that were deemed “woke” in a recently settled lawsuit. Pennsylvania officials were requiring schools to adopt a set of instructions on how to approach teaching under their “Culturally-Relevant and Sustaining Education Program Framework Guidelines” (CR-SE).  The guidelines included mandating teachers to “design learning experiences and spaces for learners to identify and question economic, political, and social power structures in the school” and “disrupt harmful institutional practices, policies, and norms.” The Thomas More Society, a faith-based legal group, filed a lawsuit against the PDE in April 2023 on behalf of a group of parents and public school districts who argued the mandate violated their First Amendment rights. TRUMP TAPS FORMER WWE CEO LINDA MCMAHON TO SERVE AS EDUCATION SECRETARY The PDE agreed to settle the suit in November and rescind its CR-SE guidelines.  KIRK CAMERON, CHRISTIAN PARENTS FLOAT REPLACING DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AS TRUMP MULLS CABINET PICK “We are incredibly pleased with this settlement agreement, which forces the Pennsylvania Department of Education to rescind the state’s ‘Culturally-Relevant and Sustaining Education’ guidelines – securing an important victory for Pennsylvania parents, students, and teachers,” Thomas Breth, special counsel for the Thomas More Society, said in a statement. “Our agreement is a triumph against the Department’s blatantly ideological and illegal attempt to inject ‘woke’ activism into school curricula across Pennsylvania, which demanded educators affirm their belief in these ideological tenets and then impose the same upon their students,” Breth added. Just days after the settlement, the department issued new suggestions under their new “Common Ground Framework,” though schools are no longer required to comply with the guidelines. Asked about the settlement, PDE highlighted their new guidelines in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. “PDE is proud to offer this resource as an improvement on previously issued guidance, with an expanded focus on digital literacy, mental health, and trauma – real issues that impact those in all spaces of learning within every Pennsylvania community,” Erin James, PDE press secretary, said in a statement. The new guidelines encourage educators to “understand the importance of differences in marginalized learners and historically underrepresented groups,” such as gender identity, according to the department’s website.  Additionally, teachers in the state are still encouraged to “create an equitable learning environment by challenging and debunking stereotypes and biases about the intelligence, academic ability, and behavior of historically marginalized learners.”

DSCC hopeful Gillibrand says Dems should have put immigration fix on table ‘2 years ago’

DSCC hopeful Gillibrand says Dems should have put immigration fix on table ‘2 years ago’

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who is looking to head up the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) for the 2026 cycle, thinks Democrats waited too long to address the current immigration crisis.  In an interview with Fox News Digital, the senator said, “For me, it would have been great if we could have gotten these commonsense, bipartisan ideas on the table two years ago, like really, a while ago, because the urgency has been very top of mind for certain communities in New York.” One of the top takeaways drawn from data from the Fox News Digital Voter Analysis after the 2024 election was that immigration was one of the biggest issues in the country. When voters were asked about reducing the number of immigrants allowed to seek asylum, twice as many favored reducing the number of immigrants allowed to do so. GOP SENATOR DEBUTS BILL TO ABOLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT FOLLOWING TRUMP CAMPAIGN PROMISE Democrats made their own case for addressing it, citing a border and immigration bill that was negotiated by a Republican senator, a Democrat senator and an independent border state senator. However, by the bill’s last appearance on the Senate floor, two of its three negotiators had abandoned it. Only one Republican chose to vote in favor of the measure. On the campaign trail, Democrats pointed to this bill and their attempt to pass it when confronting concerns about the border, often criticizing their Republican colleagues and President-elect Donald Trump for standing against it.  Gillibrand said immigration worries were some of the top concerns brought to her attention by voters. “They wanted to make sure their kids were safe. So issues like immigration and fentanyl trafficking and gun trafficking were really important to them,” she said. SENATE SHOWDOWN: GOP SECURES DEAL WITH SCHUMER TO SAVE COVETED APPELLATE JUDGES FOR TRUMP This and the economy and cost of living, “were really more salient,” the senator said, reflecting on 2024 and how to win in red or purple areas comprised of swing voters. When asked about abortion messaging in 2026, Gillibrand didn’t say what she would do in the 2026 cycle if she was selected to lead the DSCC, but she said that “people really wanted to talk about the cost of things” in this cycle.  Whether identity politics played a role in Democrat losses and if the party should veer away from it, she didn’t agree with some of her fellow Democrats.  “I think it was leaned in by Republican candidates to divide America, which I found to be really unfortunate,” she said. DEMOCRAT TAMMY BALDWIN DETAILS RECIPE FOR RUNNING IN A SWING STATE AFTER VICTORY IN TRUMP-WON WISCONSIN To fight those efforts, Gillibrand said, “I think you just say it like it is. I mean, just be truthful about it. And, you know, on a lot of those issues, a lot of our state governments already take care of it.” The New York senator said that even though the 2024 election occurred just weeks ago, the 2026 Senate cycle “really starts today.” She said she wants to lead the DSCC so she can “help other candidates across the country to be in their community, not two months before the election but two years before the election, talking to voters about what they care most about.” Notably, Gillibrand flipped a red House district to blue when she was first elected in 2006, unseating an incumbent. RFK JR’S ABORTION ‘ISSUE’: SENATE GOP PLANS TO SCRUTINIZE TRUMP HHS PICK’S POSITION Though the senator hasn’t officially been selected to take on the challenge of running the Democrat campaign arm yet, she is already eyeing some competitive candidates. In particular, Gillibrand said she thinks Democrat North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper would be a good candidate to try and flip a Senate seat to blue in the state. “I haven’t talked to him yet, but he’s pretty impressive,” she said.  The Senate seat in North Carolina is held by incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. Gillibrand also noted that the Senate majority may not be something Democrats can earn back in 2026, telling Fox News Digital, “Sometimes it takes time to win back majorities, and it may take two cycles.” “I just know there’s great races across the country and great candidates that, hopefully, I’ll be part of recruiting, and hopefully we can win our majority back.”

Should women serve in combat? Military experts weigh in

Should women serve in combat? Military experts weigh in

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Defense Department, Pete Hegseth, is facing a firestorm of backlash for voicing his belief that women should not serve in military combat roles. Although the media is largely united against him, opinions among combat and military experts are more split.  Will Thibeau, a former Army Ranger with multiple combat deployments, told Fox News Digital that he agrees with Hegseth wholeheartedly. “I think soon-to-be Secretary Hegseth stated simple truths that 12 years ago were commonly understood and affirmed by the senior-most leaders in the Pentagon, the rank and file of the military and the culture at large, that war and in particular units that are made and forged to fight in war with no other purpose are units meant for men and men only,” he said. “Biological sex and relationships between men and women is a reality that you can’t avoid,” he added. “And when you induce stress, physical uncertainty, physical proximity and unique scenarios to that biological reality, you get a fracture of what would have been a typical military team, or a military unit forged for warfighting.” ARE PETE HEGSETH’S TATTOOS SYMBOLS OF ‘CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM’? Hegseth, 44, is a former Fox News host and Army infantry officer who served two combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan and an additional deployment to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Trump tapped Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, one of the most influential positions in his cabinet, on Nov. 13, just over a week after he won the election. The president-elect said of Hegseth that “nobody fights harder for the Troops” and “with Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice.” However, Hegseth is facing a great deal of pushback from Democrats and the media, most especially for his comments on a Nov. 7 episode of the “Shawn Ryan Show” podcast in which he said, “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.” Hegseth asserted that women serving in combat roles “hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal” and “has made fighting more complicated.” PENTAGON BRACING FOR SWEEPING CHANGES AFTER TRUMP NOMINATES PETE HEGSETH FOR SECRETARY He did not argue against women serving in the military or even in non-ground combat roles such as in the Air Force. Rather, he made the point that the U.S. military has been lowering its physical standards to allow more women to be eligible to serve in combat roles, something that he said increases the risk of combat complications and fatalities. He said, “I love women service members who contribute amazingly,” but asserted that “everything about women serving together makes the situation more complicated and complication in combat means casualties are worse.” He also criticized the upper echelons of military leadership for changing standards and prioritizing filling diversity quotas above combat effectiveness. He pointed to a 2015 study by the Marine Corps that found that integrated male-female units did “drastically worse” in terms of combat effectiveness than all-male units. “Between bone density and lung capacity and muscle strength, men and women are just different,” he said. “So, I’m ok with if you maintain the standards just where they are for everybody, and if there’s some, you know, hard-charging female that meets that standard, great, cool, join the infantry battalion. But that is not what’s happened. What has happened is the standards have lowered.” Hegseth noted that he was not necessarily advocating for making the change right now, commenting; “Imagine the demagoguery in Washington, D.C., if you were actually making the case for, you know, ‘We should scale back women in combat.’” “As the disclaimer for everybody out there,” he added, “we’ve all served with women and they’re great, it’s just our institutions don’t have to incentivize that in places where … over human history, men are more capable.” Despite this, Ellen Haring, a retired Army colonel, told Fox News Digital that many women and men in the military are concerned about Hegseth becoming secretary and instituting these changes. “Women who are in these combat jobs and many of them have been there for six, eight years now, are very energized and concerned about the idea that they might lose their jobs,” she said. According to Haring, there are 2,500 women currently serving in ground combat roles in Army infantry, armor, field artillery branches as well as special forces. She also said that 152 women have earned Army Ranger tabs and there are currently ten women in the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment. She said that despite women making up only a quarter of all West Point Academy graduates they accounted for a third of all lieutenants slotted to armor combat units. MILITARY SUICIDES WERE ON THE RISE LAST YEAR, DESPITE A MASSIVE INVESTMENT IN PREVENTION PROGRAMS “There’s no indication that any of those units have been harmed by their presence,” she said. “So, Hegseth claims that adding women to these units is going to create a degree of complication and is somehow or another puts people at risk. That hasn’t happened at any unit that we’ve seen so far. So, I don’t know where he’s coming up with these notions.” Beyond not harming units, Haring went on to say that women have helped to improve the professionalism of units, especially infantry units. “Infantry units had a culture of hazing and kind of abuse of each other,” she said. “Their presence there has turned a spotlight on that kind of behavior and has actually eliminated a lot of it across the force. So, this kind of brutal behavior that infantry units engaged in amongst themselves is slowly being eradicated by the women’s presence.” Similarly, Captain Micah Ables, an Army Infantry company commander, told Fox News Digital that women in his unit have improved the “team player” attitude of the company as well as broadened its capabilities when deployed. Ables’ first deployment to Afghanistan was with an all-male unit, however, he later deployed with one of the first integrated companies in the infantry. He said that