Sunday, June 21, 2015
My Turn: Freedom of choice is the future of education | Concord Monitor
My Turn: Freedom of choice is the future of education | Concord Monitor
It is always nice to see a public school teacher who understands what is in the best interests of the children and does not have in mind to protect union jobs and a broken system. The below piece appears in full on the Concord Monitor.
Meanwhile, the $67 billion U.S.
Department of Education is launching yet another leviathan program to
force all children to learn exactly the same things in the same way at
the same time. Do all children really learn the same way, and develop at
the same speed? Are all children going to have the same career? Does an
economy really need 330 million clones, or is diversity what makes Adam
Smith’s “division of labor” work?
Nevada’s Republican legislature and
governor have decided to go directly against Common Core conformism and
give all their state’s children a chance to succeed in their own way. On
June 2, Gov. Brian Sandoval signed the first universal school-choice
bill in the United States. The bill’s principal sponsor was Sen. Scott
Hammond, a Las Vegas Republican and Nevada public school teacher.
Under the bill, a low-income family can
receive $5,700 per year per child for an “Education Savings Account.”
Any Nevada family above the low-income level can receive $5,100 per year
per child.
These amounts will sound low to New
Hampshire residents. We spent $16,246 per pupil in the 2013 school year.
But Nevada’s public schools cost only $8,339 per pupil in 2013, and the
average Nevada private high school spent only $8,664 per pupil this
year. So a $5,100 ESA will make many private schools affordable to
working Nevada parents.
The Nevada plan will let every parent in
Nevada use every educational resource. Instead of walling off students
from the resources of the colleges in their own towns, and from the
massive education resources of the Internet, Nevada is opening the
school walls and bringing in the whole world.
For those who stay within the walls, the
Nevada plan raises the per-pupil funding for public schools. Every child
that takes a $5,100 ESA is leaving $3,239 behind to contribute to the
public system. Many parents will choose to add some of their own money
to their ESA funds in order to use a particular school or other
educational resource. Nevada’s Republicans are using school choice to
pump more money into better education, instead of just making an
outdated bureaucracy bigger and more expensive.
School choice is nothing new
internationally. The Netherlands has had its school choice program since
1917. About 70 percent of students in the Netherlands go to a wide
variety of private schools. Sixteen percent of Denmark’s children go to
private schools. Sweden has had school vouchers for more than 20 years.
So have Australia and New Zealand.
Unlike the United States, Canada scored
above most of the European countries on the PISA tests. Parents in
Canada have had publicly funded school choice since the 1800s. In the
province of Alberta, less than half the students go to the
geographically closest school. Canadian parents can choose their school
for the best fit to the child, not for the convenience of the
bureaucracy.
This is what Nevada has done. It has
given power back to the parents and opened a limitless world of
opportunities for their children. We in the “Live Free or Die” state
must do the same. Adding more bureaucracy and centralized control to
schools is just subsidizing failure. Diversity, innovation and freedom
of choice are the future of education, and of the world.
-----------
"The United States has more than 600,000 manufacturing jobs vacant
because there aren't enough qualified people to fill them." Referenced
in Samuel L Blumenfeld & Alex Newman, Crimes of the Educators How Utopians are Using Government Schools to Destroy America's Children
It is always nice to see a public school teacher who understands what is in the best interests of the children and does not have in mind to protect union jobs and a broken system. The below piece appears in full on the Concord Monitor.
Cathy
My Turn: Freedom of choice is the future of education
The United States spends more per pupil on
education than any other country in the world. But our public schools
have failed our children. U.S. companies are dependent on
foreign-educated programmers, engineers and gene splicers, while the
“labor participation rate” of the U.S. population is only 63 percent. We
have millions of potential jobs, and millions of unemployed U.S.
citizens without the skills for those jobs. The gap is caused by schools
that don’t work.
education than any other country in the world. But our public schools
have failed our children. U.S. companies are dependent on
foreign-educated programmers, engineers and gene splicers, while the
“labor participation rate” of the U.S. population is only 63 percent. We
have millions of potential jobs, and millions of unemployed U.S.
citizens without the skills for those jobs. The gap is caused by schools
that don’t work.
Meanwhile, the $67 billion U.S.
Department of Education is launching yet another leviathan program to
force all children to learn exactly the same things in the same way at
the same time. Do all children really learn the same way, and develop at
the same speed? Are all children going to have the same career? Does an
economy really need 330 million clones, or is diversity what makes Adam
Smith’s “division of labor” work?
Nevada’s Republican legislature and
governor have decided to go directly against Common Core conformism and
give all their state’s children a chance to succeed in their own way. On
June 2, Gov. Brian Sandoval signed the first universal school-choice
bill in the United States. The bill’s principal sponsor was Sen. Scott
Hammond, a Las Vegas Republican and Nevada public school teacher.
Under the bill, a low-income family can
receive $5,700 per year per child for an “Education Savings Account.”
Any Nevada family above the low-income level can receive $5,100 per year
per child.
These amounts will sound low to New
Hampshire residents. We spent $16,246 per pupil in the 2013 school year.
But Nevada’s public schools cost only $8,339 per pupil in 2013, and the
average Nevada private high school spent only $8,664 per pupil this
year. So a $5,100 ESA will make many private schools affordable to
working Nevada parents.
Nevada’s legislature has left the maximum
amount of flexibility in the plan. In addition to traditional private
schools, parents can use their ESAs to pay for custom-designed
educational programs for each child. The ESA can fund tutoring, Internet
courses, AP, CLEP, university entrance or other tests. Parents can use
it for curriculum materials. It can even be used to pay for dual-credit
courses at Nevada colleges.
amount of flexibility in the plan. In addition to traditional private
schools, parents can use their ESAs to pay for custom-designed
educational programs for each child. The ESA can fund tutoring, Internet
courses, AP, CLEP, university entrance or other tests. Parents can use
it for curriculum materials. It can even be used to pay for dual-credit
courses at Nevada colleges.
The Nevada plan will let every parent in
Nevada use every educational resource. Instead of walling off students
from the resources of the colleges in their own towns, and from the
massive education resources of the Internet, Nevada is opening the
school walls and bringing in the whole world.
For those who stay within the walls, the
Nevada plan raises the per-pupil funding for public schools. Every child
that takes a $5,100 ESA is leaving $3,239 behind to contribute to the
public system. Many parents will choose to add some of their own money
to their ESA funds in order to use a particular school or other
educational resource. Nevada’s Republicans are using school choice to
pump more money into better education, instead of just making an
outdated bureaucracy bigger and more expensive.
School choice is nothing new
internationally. The Netherlands has had its school choice program since
1917. About 70 percent of students in the Netherlands go to a wide
variety of private schools. Sixteen percent of Denmark’s children go to
private schools. Sweden has had school vouchers for more than 20 years.
So have Australia and New Zealand.
Unlike the United States, Canada scored
above most of the European countries on the PISA tests. Parents in
Canada have had publicly funded school choice since the 1800s. In the
province of Alberta, less than half the students go to the
geographically closest school. Canadian parents can choose their school
for the best fit to the child, not for the convenience of the
bureaucracy.
This is what Nevada has done. It has
given power back to the parents and opened a limitless world of
opportunities for their children. We in the “Live Free or Die” state
must do the same. Adding more bureaucracy and centralized control to
schools is just subsidizing failure. Diversity, innovation and freedom
of choice are the future of education, and of the world.
-----------
because there aren't enough qualified people to fill them." Referenced
in Samuel L Blumenfeld & Alex Newman, Crimes of the Educators How Utopians are Using Government Schools to Destroy America's Children
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Bullying in Schools
The below piece is an excerpt from,"To Parents Whose Child Is Being Bullied at School," by
Cathy
"SPINELESS ADMINISTRATORS
Here are the problems with bullying in school.
First, the administrators are spineless. They are caught on the horns of multiple dilemmas, and they will do almost anything to avoid making a decision. They don't want lawsuits from parents who are outraged their hoodlum kids were expelled. They also don't want lawsuits from parents whose children are the victims of these hoodlums. They want their budgets increased next year. They want to keep all bad news out of the newspapers. They want to have all their sports teams win. They want things happy, happy, happy. But the world of Phil Robertson is not available to school administrators.
Most of the efforts of school administrators are put into keeping the lid on, but above all, the public relations lid.
They want to avoid making decisions. They have been trained not to make decisions. They have been bureaucrats all of their lives. They went from public school bureaucracy as students through public school bureaucracy as teachers; now they are administrators.
Bureaucrats want to avoid responsibility. The goal of the bureaucrat, above all, is to get next year's budget increased, but the second goal is to avoid a lawsuit. The rest of it doesn't matter.
Maybe a parent goes to the school administrator, and tells this story of woe. The administrator has an obvious reaction: to promise to clear it up. Then he has the second reaction, which is simple enough to explain: to sweep it under the rug. Things get cleared up by being swept under the rug.
If the school administrator can delay a decision long enough, the kid will graduate, and the parents will go away. So, delay is the order of the day. Only when parents are adamant will they be listened to. But even then, they probably will not be listened to much.
Anyone who does not understand this is willfully blind. Any parent who does not understand this is living in a fantasy land, because the parents grew up in this system. It is just the way it was in Back to the Future. Biff runs the show. There's a working relationship between him and the vice principal, because the vice principal is unwilling to expel Biff and his buddies -- bad publicity -- so Biff knows just how far to push. The vice principal knows just how far to go through the motions as if he were doing something to stop the problem.
Should we be surprised that children get bullied?
I would not let my child become a victim.
I would enlist him in a defensive program. It is defensive against the bully. It is offensive against school authorities.
The goal is to put more pressure on the principal than he is willing to bear. The pressure is imposed from below, meaning the parents, and from above, meaning the superintendent and possibly the school board.
Ultimately, the pressure is imposed by a lawyer."
To read the whole article, go to Ron Paul Curriculum.com.
Cathy
"Eighty-one percent of American eighteen-year olds are unprepared for college coursework." Crimes of the Educators How Utopians are Using Government Schools to Destroy America's Children
Cathy
"SPINELESS ADMINISTRATORS
Here are the problems with bullying in school.
First, the administrators are spineless. They are caught on the horns of multiple dilemmas, and they will do almost anything to avoid making a decision. They don't want lawsuits from parents who are outraged their hoodlum kids were expelled. They also don't want lawsuits from parents whose children are the victims of these hoodlums. They want their budgets increased next year. They want to keep all bad news out of the newspapers. They want to have all their sports teams win. They want things happy, happy, happy. But the world of Phil Robertson is not available to school administrators.
Most of the efforts of school administrators are put into keeping the lid on, but above all, the public relations lid.
They want to avoid making decisions. They have been trained not to make decisions. They have been bureaucrats all of their lives. They went from public school bureaucracy as students through public school bureaucracy as teachers; now they are administrators.
Bureaucrats want to avoid responsibility. The goal of the bureaucrat, above all, is to get next year's budget increased, but the second goal is to avoid a lawsuit. The rest of it doesn't matter.
Maybe a parent goes to the school administrator, and tells this story of woe. The administrator has an obvious reaction: to promise to clear it up. Then he has the second reaction, which is simple enough to explain: to sweep it under the rug. Things get cleared up by being swept under the rug.
If the school administrator can delay a decision long enough, the kid will graduate, and the parents will go away. So, delay is the order of the day. Only when parents are adamant will they be listened to. But even then, they probably will not be listened to much.
Anyone who does not understand this is willfully blind. Any parent who does not understand this is living in a fantasy land, because the parents grew up in this system. It is just the way it was in Back to the Future. Biff runs the show. There's a working relationship between him and the vice principal, because the vice principal is unwilling to expel Biff and his buddies -- bad publicity -- so Biff knows just how far to push. The vice principal knows just how far to go through the motions as if he were doing something to stop the problem.
Should we be surprised that children get bullied?
I would not let my child become a victim.
I would enlist him in a defensive program. It is defensive against the bully. It is offensive against school authorities.
The goal is to put more pressure on the principal than he is willing to bear. The pressure is imposed from below, meaning the parents, and from above, meaning the superintendent and possibly the school board.
Ultimately, the pressure is imposed by a lawyer."
To read the whole article, go to Ron Paul Curriculum.com.
Cathy
"Eighty-one percent of American eighteen-year olds are unprepared for college coursework." Crimes of the Educators How Utopians are Using Government Schools to Destroy America's Children
Thursday, June 18, 2015
When Will Teachers' Unions Address Teacher Molestations on Students?
There is a serious problem in public schools, it needs to be addressed. The following is the list of teacher arrests I have received in my mailbox today.
Sheridan High School teacher arrested for raping child
THV 11
A Sheridan High School teacher was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly raping a young girl. Hot Spring County deputies first got the report on Monday.
Mid-South Teacher Arrested For Child Molestation
Local Memphis
SOUTHAVEN, MS (localmemphis.com)--A Mid-South teacher is in a Tate County ... He was arrested Wednesday morning at his home in Southaven.
Former Funky Munky music teacher accused of inappropriate touching arrested in California
Sean Dow, 27, is currently in the custody of LAPD. Dow went missing after he cut off his monitoring bracelet and disappeared on June 13. On April 14 ...
KNWAPolice: Rogers Chemistry Teacher Arrested for Possession of Glass Meth Pipe
KNWA
Erik Mulkey, former Rogers Heritage High School chemistry teacher, arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia. (via Centerton Police Department).
Former Reynolds, West Forsyth Teacher and Coach Arrested After Getting Student Pregnant
Camel City Dispatch
Mr. Mitchell was a teacher and a coach at R.J. Reynolds High School during that time. The female was also a student at R.J. Reynolds High School at ...
Sheridan High School teacher arrested for raping child
THV 11
A Sheridan High School teacher was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly raping a young girl. Hot Spring County deputies first got the report on Monday.
Mid-South Teacher Arrested For Child Molestation
Local Memphis
SOUTHAVEN, MS (localmemphis.com)--A Mid-South teacher is in a Tate County ... He was arrested Wednesday morning at his home in Southaven.
Former Funky Munky music teacher accused of inappropriate touching arrested in California
Sean Dow, 27, is currently in the custody of LAPD. Dow went missing after he cut off his monitoring bracelet and disappeared on June 13. On April 14 ...
KNWAPolice: Rogers Chemistry Teacher Arrested for Possession of Glass Meth Pipe
KNWA
Erik Mulkey, former Rogers Heritage High School chemistry teacher, arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia. (via Centerton Police Department).
Former Reynolds, West Forsyth Teacher and Coach Arrested After Getting Student Pregnant
Camel City Dispatch
Mr. Mitchell was a teacher and a coach at R.J. Reynolds High School during that time. The female was also a student at R.J. Reynolds High School at ...
Superintendent Arrested for Sexual Abuse
NYC Schools Deputy Superintendent Arrested in Alleged Endangerment, Sexual Contact of 14-Year-Old Boy
John DiFiore, a 53-year-old deputy superintendent assigned to the Board of Education headquarters, was charged Tuesday with three counts each of acting in a manner injurious to a child less than 17 and of sexual contact with an individual." Click here to read the rest of the story.
Cathy
“A leader without a clear vision and plans only abuses his power because visions, dreams and plans are the fulcrum along which the loads of success will spine by your own efforts. And where power is abused, there is manipulation instead of inspiration.”
― Israelmore Ayivor
"A New York City schools administrator
has been arrested for allegedly endangering and inappropriately
touching a 14-year-old boy, officials said.
John DiFiore, a 53-year-old deputy superintendent assigned to the Board of Education headquarters, was charged Tuesday with three counts each of acting in a manner injurious to a child less than 17 and of sexual contact with an individual." Click here to read the rest of the story.
Cathy
“A leader without a clear vision and plans only abuses his power because visions, dreams and plans are the fulcrum along which the loads of success will spine by your own efforts. And where power is abused, there is manipulation instead of inspiration.”
― Israelmore Ayivor
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Crimes of the Educators
Below is a description of the book, Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians Are Using Government Schools to Destroy America's Children. The book is by Samuel Blumenfeld and Alex Newman, and is available for purchase on Amazon and at other outlets. A must read for any parent or taxpayer who actually cares about education.
Cathy
"Utopian dictators like Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and Mao are criminals – genocidal psychopaths who have killed more human beings in the last hundred years than any other ideologues in history. They don't limit their murder to individuals, but to entire nations.
In the United States another form of utopians, the "progressives," have tried to destroy traditional America by strategically dumbing down her people. America's future is being crippled on purpose in order to fundamentally transform the nation, its values, and its system of government. Laid out a century ago by progressive luminary John Dewey, the fruits of his schemes are plain to see today. Dewey got rid of the traditional intensive phonics method of instruction and imposed a "look-say," "sight," or "whole-word" method that forces children to read English as if it were Chinese. The method is widely used in today's public schools, which is a major reason there are so many failing public schools that cannot teach children the basics. This can only be considered a blatant form of child abuse.
American author and veteran educator Samuel Blumenfeld and journalist Alex Newman have taken on the public education establishment as never before and exposed it for the de facto criminal enterprise it is.
Crimes of the Educators reveals how the architects of America's public school disaster implemented a plan to socialize the United States by knowingly and willingly dumbing down the population, a mission closer to success than ever as the Obama administration works relentlessly to nationalize
K-12 schooling with Common Core.
The whole-word method of teaching children to read – introduced by John Dewey and colleagues in the early twentieth century and which permeates Common Core – is a significant cause of dyslexia among students. Public education's war against religion, the "great American math disaster," promotion of death education, and the government's plan to lower standards for all so "no one is left behind" is destroying the logic, reasoning, and overall educational prowess of America's next generation.
According to the Program for International Student Assessment, which collects test results from 65 countries for its rankings.
It is time to hold the Department of Education accountable for the crimes of the educators."
Cathy
"Utopian dictators like Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and Mao are criminals – genocidal psychopaths who have killed more human beings in the last hundred years than any other ideologues in history. They don't limit their murder to individuals, but to entire nations.
In the United States another form of utopians, the "progressives," have tried to destroy traditional America by strategically dumbing down her people. America's future is being crippled on purpose in order to fundamentally transform the nation, its values, and its system of government. Laid out a century ago by progressive luminary John Dewey, the fruits of his schemes are plain to see today. Dewey got rid of the traditional intensive phonics method of instruction and imposed a "look-say," "sight," or "whole-word" method that forces children to read English as if it were Chinese. The method is widely used in today's public schools, which is a major reason there are so many failing public schools that cannot teach children the basics. This can only be considered a blatant form of child abuse.
American author and veteran educator Samuel Blumenfeld and journalist Alex Newman have taken on the public education establishment as never before and exposed it for the de facto criminal enterprise it is.
Crimes of the Educators reveals how the architects of America's public school disaster implemented a plan to socialize the United States by knowingly and willingly dumbing down the population, a mission closer to success than ever as the Obama administration works relentlessly to nationalize
K-12 schooling with Common Core.
The whole-word method of teaching children to read – introduced by John Dewey and colleagues in the early twentieth century and which permeates Common Core – is a significant cause of dyslexia among students. Public education's war against religion, the "great American math disaster," promotion of death education, and the government's plan to lower standards for all so "no one is left behind" is destroying the logic, reasoning, and overall educational prowess of America's next generation.
According to the Program for International Student Assessment, which collects test results from 65 countries for its rankings.
- In reading, students in 19 other locales scored higher than U.S. students
- In science, 22 education systems scored above the U.S.
- In mathematics, 29 nations and other jurisdictions outperformed the United States
It is time to hold the Department of Education accountable for the crimes of the educators."
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