Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
No wonder public schools always seem to be strapped for funds
Male power
This sure is heartwarming, especially considering this is occurring on a university campus. Most universities, owing to rampant liberalism and women’s studies, are where women and limp-wristed men seek to emasculate real men. One guy has finally said enough’s enough.
A third-year student from Lake Bluff has formed Men in Power, a student organization that promises to help men get ahead professionally. But the group’s emergence has been controversial, with some critics charging that its premise is misogynistic.
Others say it’s about time men are championed, noting that recent job losses hit men harder and that women earn far more bachelor’s and master’s degrees than do men.
“It’s an enormous disparity now,” said Warren Farrell, author of “The Myth of Male Power” and former board member of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women. He noted, among other things, an imbalance in government and private initiatives that advance the interests of women and girls.
Advocacy group wants to create Office of Men’s Health Further, Farrell said, just because some men are doing well is hardly a reason not to applaud efforts to boost the careers of other men.
‘Power’ move by male students ruffles U. of C. — chicagotribune.com.
Nice work, kids
This one is for the locals. The family and I went to see the musical The Secret Garden last evening at Friendship Christian School in Lebanon. It was put on by a group of 20 middle and high schoolers. I never knew we had that many talented kids. Actually, I did. I wasn’t surprised that it was done so well. Everything they do at FCS, whether it be sports, academics, theater, or whatever, is A+. It’s worth every dime.
Why Democrats oppose school vouchers
As has been discussed before here at Right Minded, Democrats have scuttled a highly-effective school voucher program in Washington, D.C. Why? The short answer is that the Democrat Party is beholden to teachers’ unions. The teachers’ unions, meanwhile, care far more about protecting the taxpayer-funded public school establishment than about actually educating children. School vouchers pose a threat to the public school establishment. Also, school vouchers give parents a choice that they otherwise would not have, and liberals are decidedly anti-choice, especially when it comes to education. Liberals believe they, and not the parents, know what’s best for the children. As State Representative Tommie Brown remarked recently in a committee hearing, the state really is the parent of the child. Liberals actually believe this.
Rush Limbaugh had a first-class monologue on this very topic during his show on Wednesday. Here’s an excerpt:
You have to ask yourself this question. How in the world have we gotten to the point where a program that does not only a great job of educating children, but a better job of educating children, how have we gotten to the point where a program that does a better job of educating black children with less money than public schools is considered controversial? How in the hell have we gotten there? And how in the hell have we gotten to the point where a school that educates poor black kids better and cheaper, that that poses a threat to somebody and the school has to be shut down? How in the world have we gotten to this point? These kids going to these voucher schools have a great chance, at least a greater chance to succeed. Doctors, lawyers, hedge funds. And Michelle Obama is telling them, don’t do that, don’t do that, don’t become doctors, don’t become lawyers, don’t become hedge funds, stay in your community and be a nurse, a community organizer, or what have you. And so you might say the worst thing the Obamas can have is an educated underclass because they don’t want them escaping the underclass, regardless their race.
While gays are in, God is out
The ACLU, which is trying to push gay websites onto Tennessee school children, is also largely responsible for the banishment of God from public schools, including right here in Wilson County.
Five sets of Lakeview parents sued the Wilson County Board of Education, Director of Schools Mike Davis, Lakeview principal Stan Moss and assistant principal Bertie Alligood, alleging their first amendment rights were violated when they were told posters advertising September’s See You at the Pole event could not include the word “God” or specific Bible verses. In turn, the parents covered the references up with green paper.
According to affidavits from two of the parents – Jennifer Walker and Christy Gold – Alligood provided the paper to them and watched as they covered up the phrases, including “In God We Trust” and “God Bless America.” Alligood, however, testified she supplied the paper, but assumed the women were going to make new posters without the references and said that when she saw the altered posters in the hallway, they looked “desecrated” and she “felt badly about the situation.”
Judge rules to allow religious wording on posters on The Lebanon Democrat.
ACLU trying to push gay websites onto Tennessee school children
I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again: America’s public schools have become the single, largest repository of homosexual activism in the country. That’s because liberals who run teacher’s unions and control school curriculum long ago abandoned the pretense that public schools are about academics. Liberals view the captive audiences in America’s classrooms as prime targets for their proselytizing.
Knox County’s school system is among 107 in Tennessee targeted by the American Civil Liberties Union in a campaign to lift blocks to student access to nonsexual Web sites with information about “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.”
In a letter to officials of the school systems and the Tennessee Schools Cooperative, the ACLU says it will file lawsuits if the school systems do not develop, by April 29, a plan to unblock the “LGBT” filtering category “or any other category that blocks nonsexual Web sites advocating the fair treatment of LGBT people by the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year.”
“Students at Knox County and Metro Nashville schools are being denied access to content that is protected speech under the First Amendment as well as the Tennessee state Constitution,” said Tricia Herzfeld, staff attorney with the ACLU of Tennessee. “This kind of censorship does nothing but hurt students, whether they’re being harassed at school and want to know about their legal rights or are just trying to finish an assignment for a class.”
Free speech on the left? Are you kidding?
They may have good basketball, but the University of North Carolina isn’t much on tolerance and free speech.
And yes, it is time for UNC-Chapel Hill administrators to turn the mirror on themselves and ask how they fostered this pathetic climate of intolerance. After driving Tom Tancredo off campus, student mobsters again attempted to shut down a pro-immigration enforcement advocate, Rep. Virgil Goode. He was to speak on the suppression of free speech in the immigration debate, and also try to finish Tancredo’s talk on illegal immigration and the DREAM Act that was stifled by window-smashing, tantrum-throwing student thugs.
Michelle Malkin » More speech-stiflers at UNC-Chapel Hill Updated.
It shouldn’t be this difficult
In Memphis, Tennessee, parents lined up early to get their children enrolled in one of the few choice schools the city has to offer. This, in a nutshell, illustrates the sorry state of public education in places like Memphis, and other districts around the U.S. that are owned lock, stock, and barrel by liberals.
By late afternoon, more than 2,800 applications had been given out. Some parents are afraid of the schools where their children are assigned. Others are willing to move mountains to get their children in a specific school, eagerly investing sweat equity in public education.
“You want to improve the world. To do that, your children have to have a good education,” said Felicia Mallard.
Next to her, Tamyka Brown, swaddled in layers including long underwear and earmuffs, summed up the group sentiment: “If you care, you’re here. But at 5 o’clock, I had to remind myself why I was getting out of bed.”
Many left the night shift at FedEx sometime after 3 a.m. to get in line. By 7, they were checking their watches, hoping to get to day jobs or home in time to get children ready for school.
Parents brave long, chilly lines for choice schools : Local News : Memphis Commercial Appeal.
Don’t act surprised
Liberals, who claim to be both pro-education and pro-choice, are, in reality, neither. They are pro-government who are more interested in empowering useless teachers’ unions than the students they “teach.” So it stands to reason that the left doesn’t care too much for charter schools. After all, charter schools get results.
President Obama’s stimulus is sending some $100 billion to the nation’s school districts. What will he demand in return? The state budget passed by the New York legislature last week freezes funding for charters but increases it by more that $400 million for other public schools. Perhaps a visit to a charter school in Harlem would help Mr. Obama honor his reform pledge. “I’m looking at the data here in front of me,” Mr. Duncan told the New York Post. “Graduation rates are up. Test scores are up. Teacher salaries are up. Social promotion was eliminated. Dramatically increasing parental choice. That’s real progress.”
Zero tolerance, zero common sense
Okay, but what happens if you accidentally bump into someone in a crowded hallway?
A Connecticut middle school principal has laid down the law: You put your hands on someone — anyone — in any way, you’re going to pay.
A violent incident that put one student in the hospital has officials at the Milford school implementing a “no touching” policy, according to a letter written by the school’s principal.
East Shore Middle School parents said the change came after a student was sent to the hospital after being struck in the groin.
Principal Catherine Williams sent out a letter earlier in the week telling parents recent behavior has seriously impacted the safety and learning at the school.
“Observed behaviors of concern recently exhibited include kicking others in the groin area, grabbing and touching of others in personal areas, hugging and horseplay. Physical contact is prohibited to keep all students safe in the learning environment,” Williams wrote.
Liberals are NOT pro-choice
Liberals are liberals, and it doesn’t matter where they’re from. For the last several years, the left has been trying to shove homosexuality down the throats of those who speak out against things like same-sex marriage, while using liberal-dominated public schools to normalize the deviant behavior of homosexuality, often against the wishes of parents. Of course, liberals know better than parents what’s best for their children. Liberals know what’s best for everyone.
Christian and Muslim parents in London who kept their primary school children away from controversial lessons promoting homosexuality could now face legal action by the local council.
The lessons – part of LGBT History Month – used books such as King and King, promoted by homosexual rights activists to help teach children about homosexual relationships.
Around 30 children were withdrawn from the week of lessons at George Tomlinson Primary School in Waltham Forest, East London.
A Waltham Forest Council spokesman confirmed that the withdrawals are being treated as “unauthorised absences” and that “action has been taken”.
Although the Council refused to say how they plan to punish parents, the Council website says that parents of truant children can be asked to sign a contract, fined on the spot or taken to court.
Parents face prosecution over gay lessons protest | 2009 News | The Christian Institute.
Obama steps on the teachers’ unions
President Obama has come out in favor of merit pay for teachers — something that teachers’ unions are totally against. Anything that the teachers’ unions are against is something that I’m for.
“The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens,” he said. “We have everything we need to be that nation … and yet, despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we have let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short and other nations outpace us.”
His solutions include teacher pay and charter school proposals that have met resistance among members of teachers unions, which constitute an important segment of the Democratic Party.
Obama acknowledged that conflict, saying, “Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom.”
Of course, I’ve also been running Obama’s words through the “he-means-the-opposite-of-what-he-says” translator, so I really don’t know what to make of this.
Killing school choice
The U.S. House has passed another $410 spending bill. What a yawner there. That’s chump change. But buried in the bill was a measure that, according to Michelle Malkin, “will kill school choice in the rotten public schools of Washington, D.C.”
That’s the Democrats for you. They talk a good talk on education, but in the end, all they do is pour money down that black hole while protecting incompetent teachers’ unions. It never matters to Democrats what might actually be best for the children, and it never matters what their parents might want. After all, with Democrats, government always knows best.
Michelle Malkin » House roll call vote 245-178: Another $410 billion down the drain.
Hope over hype
I’ve decided to officially rename the era of hope to the era of hype. Given that, there is hope in the way some high-schoolers greeted President Obama’s latest speech — hope that these soon-to-be voters aren’t buying the hype of hope.
Some of the students attentively watched the speech, giving questioning looks and comments, shaking their heads and laughing at some of Obama’s words. Other students listened, occasionally glancing up to watch, while texting on their cell phones, reading a book or finishing school work.
The gymnasium’s events were shown simultaneously in rooms throughout the Mesa school, and teachers were given discretion on whether to show the speech, the students said.
The students in the class were hopeful things will work out but questioned whether Obama’s plan would actually work to dig the country out of its economic woes.
Michelle Malkin » Hope lives! High school students skeptical of Obama spending binge.
The next stop for the left’s parade of victims: Big University
College students are about to get hit with their largest tuition increase in years, and, of course, the AP throws a pity party for the poor, defenseless students and their families who must pat them.
Jim Boyle, president of the membership and advocacy group College Parents of America, said next year will be especially painful because so many families have lost college savings in the stock market, or can no longer tap home equity loans because of the real estate crash.
Donna Kopec, who lives in the Chicago suburb of Palatine, Ill., planned to use a mutual fund her parents opened for her daughter to help pay expenses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But that fund has lost one-third of its value, and an e-mail from the school about economic conditions left her alarmed — particularly because she has three younger children.
“Were probably going to have to take some options off the table for the other children unless things change,” said Kopec, who works in book publishing. “Its not easy.” She hopes President-elect Barack Obama will implement campaign promises such as offering college grants in exchange for community service.
For the most part, liberals run Big University lock, stock, and barrel. Yet tuition keeps going up every year, often rising faster than inflation. So why doesn’t the left scream about windfall profits the way they do at Big Oil? Why can Big University raise its prices, and it’s okay, but when the price of gasoline goes up, we have to slap oil companies with higher taxes?
Families await sharpest tuition increases in years – Yahoo News.
ACLU zealots strike Pensacola
The Anti-Christian Liberal Utopia has swooped down to censor Christian activity in Pensacola public schools.
Among the First Amendment violations listed in the ACLU suit:
Elementary graduations and middle school Christmas concerts held at churches.
Teachers and staff at Pace High School preaching about “Judgment Day with the Lord.”
Teachers and staff offering Bible readings and biblical interpretations during student meetings.
Actually, not a single one of these activities is prohibited by the First Amendment. In fact, these are protected by the free exercise clause. But never mind accurate definitions.
Officials ordered to stop prayer at schools | pnj.com | Pensacola News Journal.
Paranoid about Christmas
It’s amazing the lengths to which liberals will go in order to sidestep anything related to Christianity. These people are absolutely paranoid about offending that one person, even if it means the manjority gets the shaft.
A public interest law firm has launched a new attack on what it calls an “anti-Christmas virus” evidenced by a school district that banned even traditional Christmas tunes.
The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Thomas More Law Center says its lawyers filed a brief in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia in a case challenging a New Jersey districts ban on the melodies.
“As so often is the case,” the firm said, “a complaint from one parent resulted in the districts policy that banned the playing of all Christmas music, including simple instrumentals without words.”
Obama U.
At least one school in the U.S. has renamed itself after the Obamessiah. Michelle Malkin has posted some billboards the new Obama School might find useful.
Why I have zero tolerance for zero tolerance policies
From time-to-time, I have documented asinine decisions made by school administrators based on their slave-like adherance to zero tolerance policies. My problem with zero tolerance policies is that they force otherwise intelligent human beings to completely suspend logic and common sense. Terry Frank has a recent example of zero tolerance idiocy that happened right here in Tennessee.
Despicable
Michelle Malkin has a video and transcript of public classroom discussion where an Obama-supporting teacher bullies the teen-aged daughter of a soldier because she supported John McCain. This is exactly who liberals are and how they treat people who believe differently than they do.
Michelle Malkin » Child abuser: Obama-supporting teacher bullies soldier’s daughter
