Education

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Politico - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Politico Forgets to Mention Democrats Caused Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Problem

July 5, 2012 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

In its update on the coming student loan interest rate hike deal in Congress, Politico dances its blame-the-GOP tap dance once again saying that the coming rate hike is all just “politics.” But somehow Politico forgets to note that this interest rate problem is of the Democrats’ own making in the first place.

Reporting that Congress has signed off on a bipartisan deal to halt the scheduled interest rate increase on millions of student loans, Politico takes a paragraph to “explain” what the hold up was.

Lawmakers moved quickly on Friday to end a legislative dispute that got caught up in politics on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail, as Obama repeatedly blamed Congress for delaying and Republicans accused the president of being AWOL in negotiations.

Yes, those darned old Republicans were just engaging in “politics.”

But, wouldn’t it have been nice for Politico to note why we got here with this student loan interest rate fiasco?
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Politico Forgets to Mention Democrats Caused Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Problem”

Banks - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Elections - Ethics - Government - Health - House of Representatives - Liberals - Obamacare - President - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Texas Attny Gen on SCOTUS Obamacare Decision: ‘The American People Lost’

July 5, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Monday, July 2, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot participated in a conference call sponsored by Americans for Prosperity – Texas to talk Obamacare and how it affects the states. During that call, AG Abbot said “the American people lost” as a result of Chief Justice John Roberts’ decision. He also said the decision “threatens prosperity” as much as any Supreme Court ruling ever has.

Abbott warned that the determination that Obamacare is now a tax, the biggest tax increase in American history, is “a threat to all of us.” He noted that the ruling is “a tax on liberty itself” because now Congress seems to have been given the power to tax inactivity rather than activity.

“The New Taxing Authority will Empower Congress in an almost unlimited way,” Abbott said.

Abbott utilized the same car analogy that many have used since last Thursday to explain why this ruling is dangerous. Congress may now be able to tax people for not buying “green” cars, the AG said.
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Texas Attny Gen on SCOTUS Obamacare Decision: ‘The American People Lost’”

Barack Obama - Bible - Children - Christianity - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Government - Liberals - PCism - President - Religion - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s ‘Bullying Czar,’ A Hater Extraordinaire

June 20, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The man’s name is Dan Savage and he’s supposed to be leading President Obama’s anti-bullying, pro-tolerance effort. Yet, at an April High School rally in California from the podium, Savage, a homosexual, started calling Christians “pansies” and “morons,” and said the Bible was “bullshit.” Savage also said the Bible pushes a pro-slavery message.

So much for tolerance and being against bullying!

But, make no mistake about it, folks. This is the sort of hate and lies that liberalism is based on. They love to pretend they are the tolerant ones, but their ideology is always the first to start the re-education camps and firing squads when you disagree with them — just ask the Kulaks, the Jews, and those that disagreed with Pol Pot and the bloody Red Chinese.

Dan Savage would love to kill as many of you that disagree with him as he could. He is a typical liberal.

We cannot escape the conclusion that President Obama is on the same page as this cretin, too. After all, Obama has not fired this man as his “bullying czar.” Obama continues to support him to the fullest extent. Proof once again that Barack Obama is the most extreme, far left president in American history.
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Obama’s ‘Bullying Czar,’ A Hater Extraordinaire”

Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Government - Liberals - PCism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Liberal Carnival: Hand Wringing on Bullying that Never Happened

June 17, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On a recent hospital visit, Denver photographer Steve Crecelius found out he was a woman. Now, this late in his life, he’s all worried about “bullying.” It’s another example of the empty thinking of liberalism that has infected our national discourse.

Mr. Crecelius is what used to be called an hermaphrodite, a person born with both sexual organs either external or internal. In Crecelius’ case inside him he has female organs while outside he has working male genitalia.

According to the ABC News article, some 1,500 kids are born each year with some level of “intersex condition” — the new term for hermaphroditism.
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Liberal Carnival: Hand Wringing on Bullying that Never Happened”

Anti-Americanism - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Government - Liberals - New York - Patriotism - Warner Todd Huston

Principal Won’t Let Kids Sing Patriotic Song, But Steamy Bieber Hit A-OK

June 11, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Welcome to PS 90, Coney Island, New York, where grade school Principal Greta Hawkins says the patriotic and popular song Proud to be an America by Lee Greenwood is verboten, but the teen sex song Baby by Justin Bieber is perfectly alright for Kindergartners to sing at their graduation celebration.

Kindergarteners at PS90 have spent weeks practicing the popular patriotic country song made a national hit after the attacks on 9/11. It was to be the finale of their “moving-up” ceremony at the end of the school year on June 20.

But school Principal Greta “the Grinch” Hawkins had other ideas. According to the New York Post, during a recent rehearsal, Hawkins stomped into the class room and ripped the Lee Greenwood CD out of the music player proclaiming the song unfit for little ears to hear.

The Greenwood song has such unfit lyrics as, “And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.” Such a bad influence on the kiddies, no?

By contrast, Hawkins seemed to have no problem with the Justin Bieber song that has such scintillating lyrics as, “For you, I would have done whatever. And I just can’t believe we ain’t together,” and, “Are we an item? Girl quit playin.'”
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Principal Won’t Let Kids Sing Patriotic Song, But Steamy Bieber Hit A-OK”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - Ethics - GOP - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Scott Walker - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

Prediction: Media Will Dismiss Walker Win as Meaningless

June 5, 2012 by 5 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

As I write this it is only hours before the polls in Wisconsin open to take votes for the Walker recall effort. Polling data says that Walker will likely win this election, though the media spin this as a “close” thing. Whether Walker will win or not I won’t guess on the eve of voting day, but one thing I can say for a fact is that if Walker does win this election the media will claim that the election is meaningless as to any greater import to the 2012 election cycle.

That’s right, if Scott Walker retains his governorship, the media will suddenly find that this recall election really doesn’t mean a thing.

Now, this is a far different narrative as we stand pre-election day. The media has been calling this election an important bellwether for unionism. They have said that this election has excited unions and driven them to the streets in an important show of unanimity.

The election has also been called a trial run for the November presidential election one that might act as a guidepost of what will happen with Obama vs. Romney.
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Prediction: Media Will Dismiss Walker Win as Meaningless”

Bible - Children - Christianity - Dr. Don Boys - Education - Liberals - Religion

Friends at Liberty University: Dump Driscoll!

May 29, 2012 by

-By Don Boys, Ph.D.

My friends at Liberty University made a major mistake when they had Mark Driscoll at their school. Mark is a very successful pastor and author, and is known as “the cussing preacher.” Ministers should be known for wisdom, knowledge, godliness, kindness, fairness, generosity not cursing, carnality, and crassness! I hope Liberty officials realize their mistake and will drop Driscoll from their list of speakers.

Driscoll preaches many truths that I hold dear and no doubt he is a very effective communicator; however, to purposefully use profanity to “pump up” his sermons and to appeal to youth is really bizarre as well as sinful. If I had sat on his ordination counsel, I would demand he return his ministerial credentials. He should be selling insurance or used cars not corrupting his immature audience.

Many Southern Baptist Churches (where 30% of pastors do not have a biblical worldview!) have engaged Driscoll to preach for them. At the Axxess Church in Arlington, Texas he was told that swearing might fly in Seattle but not in Texas. Rather than take the suggestion (warning) Driscoll used the F word in his first statement! He later apologized.
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Friends at Liberty University: Dump Driscoll!”

Anti-Americanism - Communism - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - GOP - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - President - Republicans - Socialism - Warner Todd Huston - Washington Post

Here is Why Liberals Think Politics is so Bad Today

May 23, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Washington Post published a long Op Ed by a pair of think tankers pretending at both being “centrists” and offering an unbiased analysis of why politics has gotten so “partisan” these days. The pair also claim they know how to end this messy partisanship. But what they wrote is a perfect example of why things have become so polarized, not an example of how to fix anything.

The authors, Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, published theirs headlined, “Want to end partisan politics? Here’s what won’t work — and what will,” a piece filled with all sorts of claims, pseudo analysis, and offers of solutions. The piece is practically one long paean to liberalism as opposed to serious analysis, but it does do one thing successfully. It shows us why the public debate has gotten bad not for its analysis and solutions but for the left-wing ideological underpinnings of their arguments.

The pair start with five solutions they think we should avoid, the first being a propensity to invest our hopes in a third party. On its face, this is correct. Third parties are now and always have been a joke in the U.S. system. They have never been worth anything other than a sideshow act. Only once did a third party ever make major headway and that was Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party — with which he almost won another shot at the White House — but once TR was gone the party collapsed.
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Here is Why Liberals Think Politics is so Bad Today”

Afghanistan - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Chicago - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - George W. Bush - Government - Liberals - Military - NATO - President - Warner Todd Huston

Civil Rights Make no Appearance in Obama NATO Afghanistan Address

May 21, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of George W. Bush’s real achievements in Afghanistan was his push for civil rights for Afghani women. Real successes were had as girls were at last allowed to go to school and women began to enter the realm of Afghan politics. Bush made equal rights for Afghan women a priority. Not so with his successor, Barack Obama, and his speech at the opening of the NATO meeting on Afghanistan was yet another missed opportunity to reassert that drive for civil rights in Afghanistan.

The address before NATO during the opening minutes of the first ISAF meeting on Afghanistan — one with Afghan President Hamid Karzai right there in attendance — was the perfect time to at least mention the ongoing quest for equal rights for women in that region. Sadly, even as these rights have slipped backwards in some areas of Afghanistan in the last few years, Obama eschewed any reference to the subject.

At the end of his brief and perfunctory comments, Obama spoke of the “opportunity to ensure our [that] hard-won progress is preserved” and this would have been the perfect chance to at least mention civil rights for women. Instead, President Obama hewed close to the US support for Afghan security forces. “(A)s Afghans stand up they will not stand alone,” the president said as he hailed the “long-term relationship with Afghanistan beyond 2014” that was being cultivated.
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Civil Rights Make no Appearance in Obama NATO Afghanistan Address”

Budget - Education - Larry Sand - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

NEA: Poverty Pimp #1

May 19, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

The teachers union not only plays the poverty card, but by battling reforms, ensures that the impoverished will remain that way

“No Education Reform Without Tackling Poverty, Experts Say,” is the title of an article on the National Education Association website. Experts? A trip into the weeds leads to something called the Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy at Georgetown University. Its main benefactor is none other than the Open Society Foundations run by former Nazi sympathizer, rabid America hater and megalomaniac, George Soros, a man who once said he saw himself as “some kind of god, the creator of everything.” Expecting anything without an agenda from this bunch would be foolish.

The NEA’s “experts” claim that pouring money into education will eradicate poverty is wrong on all counts. For example, they state that children would be better educated by attending a “high quality pre-school.” Yet Head Start, according to Reason’s Lisa Snell, U. of Arkansas Professor Jay Greene and others, has been a bust. In 2010, Lindsey Burke at the Heritage Foundation wrote,

Taxpayers have been on the hook for more than $100 billion for the Head Start program since 1965. This federal evaluation, which effectively shows no lasting impact on children after first grade and no difference between those children who attended Head Start and those who did not, should call into question the merits of increasing funding for the program, which the Obama administration recently did as part of the so-called “stimulus” bill.

So, $100 billion later, children are no better off attending a preschool, but what’s important to the unions is that more adults are employed. And that means more dues for them to spend on their progressive political agenda which favors causes that have nothing to do with education – e.g. abortion on demand, same-sex marriage, income redistribution, and nationalized health care. In 2010-2011, NEA spent $133 million in lobbying and gifts to further its progressive agenda.
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NEA: Poverty Pimp #1″

Anti-Americanism - Boston - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - Ethics - Family - Government - Liberals - Massachusetts - Race - Warner Todd Huston

Why is the New England Historic Genealogical Society Lying Abut Warren’s Amer. Indian Claims?

May 15, 2012 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

As each day rolls on in this investigation of the claims made by Massachusetts Democrat Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren that she has Native American heritage in her background we are finding fewer and fewer reasons to believe her. Sadly, she is dragging down once well-respected groups with her unprovable claims and Boston-based New England Historic Genealogical Society is one of them.

As this story came to the fore recently one of the main sources that buttressed Warren’s now faltering claims that she is part Native American came from the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS). Famously, or perhaps now infamously, NEHGS genealogist Christopher Child substantiated Warren’s claim that her great-great-great grandmother, O.C. Sarah Smith, had Cherokee blood.

This evidence, Mr. Child claimed, is substantiated by a “marriage application” filed with the state of Oklahoma upon which, Child insists, is a section where this supposed native heritage is noted. This document, however, does not seem to actually exist.
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Why is the New England Historic Genealogical Society Lying Abut Warren’s Amer. Indian Claims?”

Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

Stand Up To Bullying Day

May 11, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

The NEA says that May 4th should be devoted to anti-bullying. Okay, and to be fair, I suggest that we start with the biggest organized bullies in the country – the teachers unions themselves.

The National Education Association celebrated “Stand Up To Bullying Day” on May 4th. Its website is full of advice about how to deal with what it calls “everyone’s problem.” With a solemnity ordinarily reserved for a Sunday morning sermon, NEA has created a pledge –

I agree to be identified as a caring adult who pledges to help bullied students. I will listen carefully to all students who seek my help and act on their behalf to put an immediate stop to the bullying. I will work with other caring adults to create a safe learning environment for all the students in my school.

Please note, the union talks only about children bullying other children; there is nothing about adults bullying other adults.
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Stand Up To Bullying Day”

California - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Unions

The Tragic Consequences of Social Justice Education

May 7, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

The president of the National Education Association continues to promote ideas that are anti-American and are turning our kids into progressive, anti-wealth, equality-obsessed robots.

Last week, the drone-like National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel gave a talk at the annual gathering of the Nebraska State Education Association. He unleashed the same tired old class warfare hogwash that teacher union leaders have been yammering about for years. The latest version of this old whine stresses closing corporate tax loopholes. As I wrote last week, the NEA claims the U.S. can recoup $1.5 trillion in taxes if those greedy corporate types would just pay their “fair share.” Van Roekel conveniently omits the fact that NEA took in $400,000,000 in 2010-2011, mostly in dues forcibly taken from its members, and didn’t pay one red cent in taxes.

Van Roekel then reprised another union mantra – claiming that NEA must pursue “social justice.” He said,
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The Tragic Consequences of Social Justice Education”

Budget - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

The Second American Revolution

May 6, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

If education reformers stick to principle and don’t back down, all other obstacles to victory can be overcome.

Recently, Andrew Rotherham wrote a short piece in The Atlantic in which he describes “The 3 Main Obstacles in the Way of Education Reform.” The first obstacle he mentions is that currently “We buy reform.”

Or at least we try to. Some politicians really think that throwing money at the problem will help and the less principled ones do it because they are trying to pay back certain political allies. The result is that untold billions are taken from taxpayers to support giant bureaucracies on the federal and state levels and to prop up programs that do little or nothing to help the students who desperately need it. Rotherham writes:
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The Second American Revolution”

Anti-Americanism - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Iran - Islam - Islamofascism - Koran - Liberals - Occupy Wall Street - Patriotism - PCism - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Terrorism - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Traitors: American Professors Go to Tehran to Help Mad Mullahs

April 24, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A couple of so-called American professors recently went to Tehran University to help the radical, anti-American, racist, Islamists propagandize about how wonderful the Mad Mullahs think the Occupy Wall Street “movement” here in America is.

Wonderful, no?

Anti-Americans Alex Vitae, professor at Brooklyn College, Heather Gautney, professor at Fordham University, John Hammond, professor at City University of New York all appeared at the terrorist’s little convention to speak glowingly of the hate spewed by both the OWSers and the Mad Mullahs.

The fact that the Mad Mullahs love the OWS “movement” says an awful lot about what the true nature of OWS is, doesn’t it? It’d be like being on the KKK’s Christmas card list!
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Traitors: American Professors Go to Tehran to Help Mad Mullahs”

Anti-Americanism - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Race - Tennessee - Warner Todd Huston

Black School Kids Take Bat to Piñata Shaped Like White Woman, Media Yawns

April 23, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Todd Starnes reports that the University of Memphis recently hastened to express its deep regret that it sponsored an event for grade school kids featuring the opportunity to have a grad ol’ time using a stick to smack around a piñata shaped like a white woman. No “racial or gender animosity was intended,” the University plaintively said.

In this day and age when the TV News goes crazy over every example of racism, real or perceived — and mostly just perceived — one cannot help but imagine that were this piñata shaped like a black woman, the media would have lost its tiny mind to report on this incident.

Still, local TV got into the act and noted that some locals were looking askance at the whole situation.
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Black School Kids Take Bat to Piñata Shaped Like White Woman, Media Yawns”

Budget - California - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

Perverts Prevail in Public Schools

April 19, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

With teacher union enabling, child abuse goes on unabated.

A male business owner joking about life for homosexuals in prison, forced a junior accountant to bend over a desk, lined up behind him to simulate a sex act, then quipped, “I’ll show you what’s gay.”

An insurance company middle manager who had been warned about touching secretaries brushed his lower body against a new employee, coming so close that she told company investigators she could feel his genitals through his pants.

A corporate vice-president sent text messages to and called one of his female underlings nearly 50 times in a four-week period and, over the winter holidays, parked himself near her home.
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Perverts Prevail in Public Schools”

California - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Larry Sand - Liberals

Publishing Teacher Value Added Rankings: Shame on Whom?

April 7, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

The release of teachers’ VA rankings should not be viewed as an attack on teachers, but as a wake-up call for the rest of us.

The recent release of teachers’ value added (VA) rankings by the New York Times reignited a controversy which began when the Los Angeles Times did the same thing in 2010. The value added technique of rating teachers is “based on their students’ progress on standardized tests year after year. The difference between a student’s expected growth and actual performance is the ‘value’ a teacher adds or subtracts during the year.”

The imbroglio has two facets – the first being whether or not teachers can be accurately evaluated by how well their students do on a standardized test. As I wrote in January,

In perhaps the most in-depth study on the subject to date, three Ivy League economists studied how much the quality of individual teachers matters to their students over the long term. The paper, by Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard and Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia, tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years, and using a value added approach, found that teachers who help students raise their standardized test scores have a lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates, greater college matriculation and higher adult earnings. (The authors of the study define “value added” as the average test-score gain for a teacher’s students “…adjusted for differences across classrooms in student characteristics such as prior scores.”)

The second and more contentious element of VA concerns itself with who should get to see the teacher’s ranking. Some think it should be just the principal who can use the data to help low performing teachers. Others think that parents should also be allowed to learn about the effectiveness of their child’s teacher. And finally there are those who demand that all people — especially taxpayers — should have access to them. The reasoning, of course, is that since taxpayers are shelling out for the teachers’ salaries, they have a right to know what they are getting for their money.
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Publishing Teacher Value Added Rankings: Shame on Whom?”

Budget - California - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

Good Teachers: Beware The Ides of March

March 31, 2012 by 2 Comments

-By Larry Sand

Julius Caesar came to a bad end on March 15th, the same date many good teachers were warned that they may be unemployed in June.

“Nearly 20,000 Teacher Pink Slips Statewide Show Drastic Need for More Education Funding” screamed the headline on the California Teachers Association website.

First, let’s straighten out the union spin. Typically when a person receives a “pink slip,” it means that they are fired. What some teachers actually received is a Reduction in Force (RIF) notice, which according to state law, must be sent to teachers by March 15th if there is the slightest chance that they will be laid off in June. School districts really don’t know in March what their budget will be for the next school year so they plan for the worst case scenario. It’s unheard of for all teachers who get the notices to actually be laid off, but some will, and they must be notified if there is any chance they will lose their jobs.

As a young teacher in New York City in 1975, I lost my 6th grade teaching because the city was in the midst of a fiscal swoon. A few thousand of us were laid off because we were the newest hires, not because we were the worst teachers. The union contract did not make any provision for getting rid of the poorest performers, just the newly employed. Fast forward 37 years and we are still doing the same stupid thing.
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Good Teachers: Beware The Ides of March”

Alan Caruba - Budget - Children - Education - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions

A Failing Grade for America’s Educational System

March 19, 2012 by

-By Alan Caruba

Back in 2001 I wrote a four-part series on “The Subversion of Education in America” and more than a decade later not much has improved. The causes are easily identified. One is federal control and the other is the National Education Association (NEA) which, despite its name, is a union.

Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey became a nationally known figure when he took on the teacher’s union for the way contracts with generous pension and health benefits were bankrupting the State. Other civil service contracts also came under review for the same reason.

A recent headline in The Wall Street Journal caught my eye. “No-Child Law Faces Wave of Opt-Outs” reported that “Twenty-six more states asked to be excused from key requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, an exemption that would curb the education law’s impact considerably.” If the Obama administration grants waivers to all the new applicants, three quarters of the statesContinue reading “

A Failing Grade for America’s Educational System”

Budget - California - Children - Education - Larry Sand - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions

Seattle Teachers Union Seeks to Ban Teach For America

March 14, 2012 by 1 Comment

-By Larry Sand

Teachers unions, known for fighting to keep pedophiles in the classroom, try to get rid of good teachers in Seattle.

Last week, I wrote about the particularly egregious case of a teacher in Rochester, NY who sent sexually charged emails to her principal and was subsequently jailed for ignoring a restraining order. Upon her release, she returned to the classroom, and in short order was accused of fondling her middle school students. But due to her union’s pressure tactics, the school board cannot get rid of this tenured teacher.

Across the country in Seattle, we now have a situation where it would appear that the local teachers union may have success in getting six teachers removed from the district.

Pedophiles? Of course not. They are talented Teach For America teachers who have received good reviews from their principals. In what could be a new low for teachers unions – and that’s really saying something – it would appear that through heavy pressure from the Seattle Education Association, the Seattle School Board may terminate the contracts of the six teachers for absolutely no good reason.
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Seattle Teachers Union Seeks to Ban Teach For America”

Children - Crime - Education - Race - Selwyn Duke

Was Boy in K.C. Fire Attack Burned by His School’s Racist Teaching?

March 14, 2012 by 2 Comments

-By Selwyn Duke

The boy raised his hand, eager to answer the question. “What would you know about it?” exclaimed the teacher dismissively. “You’re not our race.”

This was not dialogue from a Hollywood movie. According to a woman named Melissa Coon, it was what a teacher at East High School in Kansas City told her 13-year-old son, Allen, when he attempted to answer a question during Black History Month. Coon identifies that teacher as Mrs. Karla Dorsey, who is black; Allen is white.

As has already been reported, Allen was a victim of a vicious racial attack last week in which two older black teens doused him with gasoline and set him alight, saying “This is what you deserve. You get what you deserve, white boy.” Not surprisingly, Coon has pulled her son out of East High and, concerned about further racial violence, intends to leave the K.C. area.

While this crime is making headlines, Coon states that it was merely the horrible culmination of continual racial harassment her son had to endure at East High. Moreover, after conducting an investigation that included extensive interviews with parents and students, I’ve learned that Coon’s son is not alone. Other white students also report a pattern of racial harassment at the high school at the hands of their peers – and, shockingly, their teachers.
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Was Boy in K.C. Fire Attack Burned by His School’s Racist Teaching?”

Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Unions

Adults’ Rights Come Before Children’s Health and Welfare in Public Schools

March 8, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

Parents send their children to school assuming that kids are its number one priority. But as recent events have shown, public schools are Ground Zero for a culture that puts children last and doesn’t hold adults accountable.

In Waiting For Superman, Michelle Rhee stated that it took her a while, but she finally realized that public education is really about the adults, not the kids. No truer words have ever been spoken. In too many cases, a small group of inept and corrupt adults – district administrators, school boards and teachers unions – is in charge of what has become an increasingly incompetent public education system. Recently, several scandalous events point to deep-seated problems.

First and foremost, we have the Mark Berndt case in Los Angeles. This man sexually abused children for years at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles. For many reasons — including careless dismissal of children’s claims, missing teacher files and operating in a culture of non-accountability — Berndt got away with doing unspeakable things to his students for over 20 years. The system is so perverse that the school district couldn’t get rid of Berndt without going through a lengthy appeals process costing over $300,000. So, when his crimes were exposed, Berndt gamed the system by accepting a $40,000 bribe and retired – but only after racking up another year of credit toward his pension.
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Adults’ Rights Come Before Children’s Health and Welfare in Public Schools”

Children - Christianity - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Liberals - Michael Bresciani‏ - Morals/Sex - Religion

Buckets for Babies – Sex-Ed for Kindergarten – But No Bag Lunches, Please!

March 1, 2012 by

-By Rev Michael Bresciani

This may be the only article ever written that needs only its title and no further elucidation of any kind. It also is the only article that this writer has ever added a scriptural quote to, in the opening paragraphs, rather than as an appendage.

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Romans 1: 28)

In the very chapter of the Bible that condemns the practice of homosexuality which President Obama claimed was “obscure,” is found a description of modern man that appears to have been ripped from the pages of today’s headlines. This tiny, but power packed descriptive of the depths to which humanity will sink in the last days uses verbiage that cannot be mistaken as pertaining to any other time in history.
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Buckets for Babies – Sex-Ed for Kindergarten – But No Bag Lunches, Please!”

Barack Obama - Climate Change - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Environment - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - The Atlantic - The New York Times - Warner Todd Huston

Heartland Institute: The ‘Gate’ Scandal That Never Was

February 17, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Global warmists finally have an email “gate” of their own that they can turn against “deniers” and they are taking full advantage of it. The Warmists are excited that the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based state policy group, has been “outed” for attempting to undermine the religiously held tenets of global warming. Emails to that effect are claimed to have been leaked from this group and the warmists as well as their handmaidens in the Old Media are touting this scandal as proof of… well, it’s a bit hard to discern what it is proof of. In fact, it isn’t “proof” of much of anything, really.

For one thing the documents are fakes, but even if they weren’t… so what?

For quite some time, for instance, Chicago’s Heartland Institute has been holding events, debates, and seminars on the hoax of global warming. The Heartland Institute has an entire section of its website dedicated to debunking global warming and it has produced books and pamphlets attacking the false “consensus” of man-made global warming. Without question, global warming (a quasi religious belief I personally call globabloney) has been a major focus at Heartland for a long time, to be sure.

That being understood — not only understood but glaringly obvious — leaked emails that purport to show that Heartland has a plan to influence lawmakers, scientists, members of the media, and even schools against global warming is a bit of a “well, duh!” Any ten seconds of time spent on the Institute’s website would tend to make it clear that they are against claims of man-made global warming. At some point, even if the documents were real it should not come as any sort of shocking revelation.
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Heartland Institute: The ‘Gate’ Scandal That Never Was”

Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Jobs - Larry Sand - Liberals - Los Angeles - Public Employees Unions - School Choice - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

Exposing a 40-Year Education Crime: Why California Needs School Choice

January 28, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

Busting LAUSD and every other school district in the state for negligence should help kids, but it’s anyone’s guess as to when. In the meantime, giving families more educational options would be a great help, but don’t hold your breath, California.

With National School Choice Week underway, we see many positive things happening across the country. In states like New Jersey and Louisiana, governors are taking the lead in proposing ways to break the devastating monopoly that government run schools – their educrat leaders, corrupt and/or inept school boards and the powerful teachers unions — have held for far too long.

As an example of Big Education gone bad, I write in City Journal about a crime that has been perpetrated on the children of California for 40 years and the lawsuit that addresses it:
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Exposing a 40-Year Education Crime: Why California Needs School Choice”

1st Amendment - Anti-Americanism - Christianity - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Free Speech - Freedom - Government - Hate Crimes - Liberals - Liberty - Regulation - Religion - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

Wisconsin School Punishes Christian Kid for Being a… Christian Kid

January 27, 2012 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Superintendent Todd Carlson of Shawano High School in Shawano, Wisconsin is sorry a student observed his First Amendment rights and had his article published in the school newspaper that denounces homosexuals adopting children. And so Superintendent Carlson is making amends by punishing this Christian kid for being so darn Christian. Superintendent Carlson has also decided in his infinite wisdom to censure this article by having it sent down the memory hole so that no one else will be confronted with this evil Christian’s views.

That’ll show that darn Christian kid, won’t it?

The article, “Should Homosexual Partners Be Bale to Adopt?,” was written by Brandon Wegner who was assigned the task of writing a counter-point to another student’s pro-homosexual adoption article. The piece was then published as an insert in the school newspaper, the Shawano Leader.

Shortly after the newspapers containing the insert were distributed, Superintendent Carlson issued a formal apology to the school and parents, removed the insert from surplus issues of the paper, and censured young Mr. Wegner claiming his article violated the school’s “anti-bullying” policy.
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Wisconsin School Punishes Christian Kid for Being a… Christian Kid”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Chicago - Children - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - President - Public Employees Unions - Radio - Republicans - Rights - School Choice - Senate - Talk Radio - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Vouchers - Warner Todd Huston

Restoring American Exceptionalism – Chicago Townhall

January 24, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I just got back from a wonderful evening taking school choice at the Restoring American Exceptionalism, Chicago Townhall. In attendance were radio talk show host Michael Medved, Fox News contributor Juan Williams, and Dr. Paul Worfel, Director of Education of Trinity International University. The discussion was moderated by John Tillman of the Illinois Policy Institute.

The event was sponsored by National School Choice Week, an effort by Americans for Prosperity, and is one of many events being held across the country to encourage parents, legislators, and activists to work toward allowing parents a choice in their children’s education. Co-sponsors were Townhall.com, Salem Radio Networks, and Chicago’s WIND Radio, AM 560

Arriving at the sprawling campus of Trinity International University of Deerfield, Illinois, the biting cold outside was quickly forgotten by the warm reception all received by the event staff. The program started promptly with an introduction by local radio host Big John Howell of AM 560, WIND radio who turned the program over to John Tillman of the Illinois Policy Institute.

The night’s debate was nicely balanced from right, center and left with a panel featuring the conservative side of the debate on education represented by talk show host Michael Medved, the center represented by Fox News contributor Juan Williams, and the more traditional educrat’s position taken by Dr. Worfel.

I won’t repeat the whole discussion, but here are some of the more interesting (and some might say provocative) highlights.
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Restoring American Exceptionalism – Chicago Townhall”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Larry Sand - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

More Pension Truths and Why You Should be Very Angry

January 16, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

How much is that sweet retired teacher who lives down the street draining from your bank account? As the public employee pension mess worsens in California, little Rhode Island shows a way out.

In last week’s post, I focused on “air time,” a little known scheme in California and 20 other states that allows teachers and other public employees to pad their pensions at taxpayers’ expense. Also, not very well known is just how many of Joe and Jill Taxpayer’s tax dollars are going into the pockets of retired teachers.

In California, teachers contribute 8 percent of their pay to their retirement system. Where do the rest of the contributions come from? The current rates include 8.25 percent from the teacher’s employer and 2 percent from the state. But wait a minute. Who is the teacher’s employer? It’s the school district. In Los Angeles, for example, most school district money comes from the state, some from the federal government and the rest is local revenue. Hence, the employer’s contribution is all really the taxpayer’s burden, as the state, city and feds generate no money on their own. So it would be much more honest to say that 10.25 percent comes from the taxpayer.

Let’s look at the taxpayer’s responsibility another way. Sandy, a teacher I know, worked for 24 years in CA and retired at age 61. The amount of money she contributed into the system at retirement (including interest accrued along the way) was about $150,000. Sandy started collecting a pension of about $40,000 year (plus a yearly 2 percent COLA increase) for life. Whatever interest this money accrues over the next few years, Sandy’s contribution will have evaporated in about four years. So, at age 65 she will start living off other people’s money – whatever the “employer” (i.e. taxpayers) kicked in, whatever the “government” (i.e. taxpayers) kicked in and whatever is left, the taxpayers will have to fork over.
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More Pension Truths and Why You Should be Very Angry”