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Continuing to follow up on what can be learned of Barack Obama's tenure as the Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), evaluations of the program during his tenure available on line demonstrate that in his only real executive test, Barack Obama was a dismal failure squandering millions of dollars on education programs which had basically no real effect. They also strongly suggest Obama's claim that un-repentant terrorist Bill Ayers is just a teacher who lived down the block is an outright lie. The structure and tone of the CAC, addressed in the documents, leave a strong...

In a dirty and dusty clay home in ancient Judea, the wizened old man worked over the swollen body of the girl. She had committed that gravest of sins in the Jewish culture of her time: She was unmarried and pregnant, and had left her hometown months ago to avoid bringing shame on her family. Now, she desperately hoped this old man could bring about an even greater transgression, aborting the child within her. "I think we have it," the old man muttered. "Now, we'll just …" Suddenly he gasped. "What is it?" asked the elderly woman who aided him....

When I listen to the AFT and NEA union thug bosses at the DNC two things POP out at me. 1) The teacher's Unions are firmly in the pocket of the Democrats, or vice versa. We will never have education reform until people understand the unions are political big government liberals, not interested in education, only interested in more pay for less work (smaller classes and thus the need for more dues paying teachers). 2) Their message alwasy goes unchallenged by the media. Thre is no connection with higher per pupil spending and educational outcomes - it's time to freeze...

On June 30, the board of education and the town council in Enfield, Conn., convened to hear the results of a citizen cost-cutting committee. Among its other recommendations, the 17 residents recommended replacing some public school teachers with low-cost college interns, restricting the use of school vehicles, and increasing employee contributions to benefit plans. These may seem modest steps toward fiscal responsibility -- but they are emblematic of a significant change in this very blue state: growing disenchantment with the price of government, especially of public education. [Cross Country] Corbis Over the past two and a half decades, the student...

Isn’t this British Olympic boasting all rather East German? Huge state-directed resources have been devoted to gathering supposed glory at a world sports festival. But these medals do not tell the truth about what sort of nation we are at all. In fact, they are designed to cover up the truth – that we are an international failure, that our people are increasingly fat, unfit and unhealthy, that our schools continue to lose their sports grounds to development, and that we are, for the most part, one of the least competitive and sporty countries on Earth. What’s more, the national...

Barack Obama says he believes in universal preschool and if he's elected president he'll pump "billions of dollars into early childhood education." Universal preschool is now second only to universal health care on the liberal policy wish list.... ..."Advocates and supporters of universal preschool often use existing research for purely political purposes," says James Heckman, a University of Chicago Noble laureate in economics whose work Mr. Obama and preschool activists routinely cite. "But the solid evidence for the effectiveness of early interventions is limited to those conducted on disadvantaged populations."... ...If anything, preschool may do lasting damage to many children....

Imagine you got a lousy haircut and complained about it, and you got this response: “Well, of course your haircut looks bad. What do you expect? You only paid us for a haircut. You didn’t also give us enough money to provide you with all the other services you need to look your best. Next time, pay us triple the price, and we won’t just give you a haircut, we’ll also give you a manicure and a new set of clothes. Then your haircut will look great!” Would you go back to that shop? Believe it or not, that more...

The Dallas Independent School District has decided that their 20% drop-out rate amongst DISD high school freshmen is a wee bit of a problem and have decided to go about fixing things. To me, the first step in fixing something is usually to find out why it needs fixing............ Anyhoo, it is readily apparent that I am not an employee for the Dallas Independent School District, because those worthies have decided that what is required is actually something called "effort-based grading".......... Under "effort-based grading" if a student turns in homework, and the grade received on said homework would lower the...

The Seattle Public school system may be finding itself in more hot water, following dustups over last fall’s “Myth Of Thanksgiving” incident, and last summer’s “Exploring White Privilege” conference. A reliable source has informed ORBUSMAX that at least one Obama supporter was caught openly selling Obama for President t-shirts, “on Seattle Public School premises during an official School District Training” for teachers, yesterday and today, at the Aki Kurose Middle school. The source says they overheard the Obama supporter being told by an attendee of the training on Monday that the table display was inappropriate and may be in violation...

It is estimated that between ten and twenty percent of children in the United States are exposed to domestic violence annually. While much is known about the impact of domestic violence and other family problems on children within the home, little is known regarding the extent to which these problems spill over to children outside the family. The widespread perception among parents and school officials is that these externalities are significant, though measuring them is difficult due to data and methodological limitations. We estimate the negative spillovers caused by children from troubled families by exploiting a unique data set in...

Islam is using the ideological approach to acculturate its belief system into main stream America. Of course, like most ideologies, Islam is using America’s public schools as its springboard for indoctrinating America’s children. By introducing Islam to students in their mandated curriculums, the next generation of Americans could possibly be pro-Islam in their belief system. However, since Islam is a religion and a political ideology, why is the United States government permitting this indoctrination to occur in America’s public schools? Even though some people promote the idea of the separation of church and state in America, the concept is not...

WASHINGTON - Hard times and higher fuel prices will follow kids back to school this fall. Children will walk farther to the bus stop, pay more for lunch, study from old textbooks and wear last year's clothes. Field trips? Forget about it. This year, it could cost nearly twice as much to fuel the yellow buses that rumble to school each morning. If you think it's expensive to fill up a sport utility vehicle, try topping off a tank that is two or even three times as big. At the same time, costs for air conditioning and heating, cafeteria food...

http://www.amazon.com/Tools-Mind-Vygotskian-Childhood-Education/dp/0023698748

Schools: While Obama's children enjoy the best education money can buy, he wants to deny inner-city children the education change we can believe in — school choice. He prefers cradle-to-diploma collectivist education. When Barack Obama collected the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers, he told the teachers that support for alternatives to the education monopoly amounted to "tired rhetoric about vouchers and school choice." He recently told an interviewer that he opposes school choice because "although it might benefit some kids at the top, what you're going to do is leave a lot of kids at the bottom." Not...

Teen Screen Lawsuit Advances: Federal Court Affirms Family’s Right to Sue School for Subjecting Teen to Mental Health Test Without Parental Consent SOUTH BEND, Ind.—A federal court has given the green light to a civil rights lawsuit filed by Rutherford Institute attorneys in defense of a 15-year-old Indiana student who was subjected by school officials to a controversial mental health examination without the knowledge or consent of her parents. In ruling that the lawsuit filed on behalf of Chelsea Rhoades and her parents, Teresa and Michael, may proceed to trial, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana...

The UN Deforms Education by: Deborah Lambert, August 11, 2008 “It’s not easy being three years old,” said Mike McNally, writing on Pajamas Media, adding that with potty training, play dates, and learning to feed yourself, life can be a constant challenge. A case in point is the fact that British tots will soon be subjected to “lessons on human rights and multiculturalism, in between finger-painting sessions and nap time.” It’s all part of the “United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,” a plan to develop “Rights Respecting Schools” not only in elementary schools, but at the nursery...

For many young'uns around the country this is a momentous day. Sadly, for many of them, it is also a tragic one. Today millions of parents who should know better are going to take the most precious things in their lives, their children, and turn them over to the government to be educated. These parents all know that our government education system in this country is beyond horrible --- but for some reason they operate under the impression that the very school that, by chance, their child is going to attend is the one and only exception. Their child's school...

In 1937, Hitler ordered all German children into the government schools. He said: "The Youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of innoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own...

Parents concerned with latest math curriculum Georgia parents were outraged after thousands of students failed statewide math exams in May. Now with the start of a new school year, parents fear for their children as the state expands the new math curriculum to high schools. Fayette County parent Wendy Ashabranner worries how her son will handle this new math when he starts at Fayette County High on Monday. He was among the 38 percent of the state's eighth-graders who failed the state's new, redesigned math exam, which was based on harder material. While parents and teachers expected some students to...

CCF MEDIA: News Releases CAMPAIGN FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES For Immediate Release August 07, 2008   California Legislature Approves Gay Day in Public Schools Democrats send AB 2567 to Governor Schwarzenegger Sacramento, California – Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), a leading California organization protecting parents’ rights and children’s innocence, condemns the passage of AB 2567, which will instruct all California public schools to “conduct suitable commemorative exercises� in support of the anti-religious, sexual-anarchy agenda of the late San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk.Today, the California Assembly passed AB 2567 on a 43 to 26 vote, Democrats for, Republicans silently...

Need a little bit of help from knowledgable Freepers. I am looking for books that explain and trace the origins of todays public education system. I tried searching through Amazon.com but I'm not finding the books I am looking for. Can anyone give me a good list? Thank you in advance.

Majority Democrats in the California Assembly have rejected two amendments that would have allowed schools to fire any employee discovered to be part of an extremist terror network and require users of school facilities to affirm they are not terrorists. A report from Karen England at the Capital Resource Institute said the amendments were submitted by assemblymen Martin Garrick and Chuck DeVore to a plan that also would allow members of the Communist Party to teach in public schools. "I am appalled that Democrat lawmakers will not agree to these commonsense amendments," said England, executive director of CRFI. "My son...

Before Congress spends billions to build public schools that meet "green" environmental standards, it should review Washington state's experience, which shows that green buildings have higher than expected costs, and the energy savings and other projected benefits are either small or nonexistent, says Todd Myers, director of the Center for the Environment at the Washington Policy Center and an National Center for Policy Analysis E-Team adjunct scholar. Several pilot schools in the Olympia, Northshore and Spokane school districts were created to test the effectiveness of green building strategies. By the summer of 2007, all but one of these schools had...

The School District in the City of Madison, Ohio will save $300,000 each year for the next 5 years by privatizing their school busses. Naturally, the union is trying to stop this savings by taking the city to court. Apparently, the union contract for the school busses ran out and the city decided to privatize the system instead of continue with the union. Of course, this is a long term savings, too. It eliminates the healthcare costs and pension costs to the city, as well. All good policy decisions, to be sure. Saving the tax payers hundreds of thousands of...

Governor vetoes climate change curriculum California public students will stick to reading, writing and arithmetic, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decided as he vetoed a bill late Friday that would have required climate change be added to schools' curriculum. The measure, sponsored by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, also would have required future science textbooks to include climate change as a subject. In January, the state Senate approved the bill, SB 908, by a 26-13 vote. Only two Republicans supported the proposal. In his veto statement, Schwarzenegger said he supported education that spotlights the dangers of climate change. However, the Republican...

The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to debate two bills that could give the federal government unprecedented control over the way parents raise their children – even providing funds for state workers to come into homes and screen babies for emotional and developmental problems. The Pre-K Act (HR 3289) and the Education Begins at Home Act (HR 2343) are two bills geared toward military and families who fall below state poverty lines. The measures are said to be a way to prevent child abuse, close the achievement gap in education between poor and minority infants versus middle-class children and...

The process that began in the 1960s to transform America’s elementary, middle and high schools into places where students could literally graduate without being able to read their diploma, where the teaching of mathematics was reduced to mush without rules, and where it was more important for students to feel really good about themselves than having to measure up scholastically with millions in foreign nations, has now reached the campuses of America’s colleges and universities. In a nation where it now costs thousands of dollars to fire an incompetent teacher, we have the specter of university and college presidents eliminating...

Arguments were heard today in a federal district court case to determine whether a state university system can dictate that private Christian schools in the state teach their college prep courses from exclusively secular, Bible- and God-free textbooks. As WND reported earlier, the University of California system adopted a policy last year that basic science, history, and literature textbooks by major Christian book publishers wouldn't qualify for core admissions requirements because of the inclusion of Christian perspectives. Robert Tyler, who is representing Calvary Chapel Christian School and five students in the case against the University of California, told WND that...

NEA Family Feud by: Bethany Stotts, July 18, 2008 It’s that time again. The National Education Association teacher’s union met in Washington, D.C. over July 4th week for its annual convention and to endorse Barack Obama for president. Obama has drawn criticism from pro-life groups for his strongly pro-choice stance, having declared in 2007 that “the first thing I’d do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” which would overturn state restrictions on abortion. Following in this pro-choice vein, the NEA convention also once again upheld the original language of Resolution I-15, which “supports family planning, including the...

Pop Quiz by: Bethany Stotts, July 15, 2008 How much do American high-schoolers know about their literary heritage? A non-profit group called Common Core surveyed 12,000 17-year-olds this year in order to answer just that question. Barely over half (52%) of the surveyed teenagers knew that 1984 was about “a dictatorship in which every citizen was watched in order to stamp out all individuality,” reports Frederick Hess, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Hess authored the Common Core study. Far more prevalent was knowledge of civil-rights-related literature such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Uncle Tom’s Cabin,...

"I don't want to send another generation of American children to failing schools." (Barack Obama, Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, Des Moines, Iowa, November 10, 2007) The signature initiative of an Obama campaign for a second term would be nationalizing public education, kindergarten through grade 12. If it happens, say goodbye to the Independent School District (I.S.D.) as we've known it. The Obama campaign document entitled "The Blueprint For Change: Barack Obama's Plan For America" continues to be ignored by the old media news. The section entitled "Plan To Give Every American Child A World Class Education," was profiled earlier in much of...

Two seventh-grade boys were given detention and their classmates forced to miss their scheduled refreshment break when the pair refused to kneel and pray to Allah during a religious studies class. Outraged parents called the punishment of the boys for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration at Alsager High School near Stoke-on-Trent, UK, of how Muslims' worship Allah a breach of their human rights. "This isn't right, it's taking things too far," parent Sharon Luinen told the London Daily Mail. "I understand that they have to learn about other religions. I can live with that, but it...

Washington (CNSNews.com) - Some of the almost 10,000 members of the National Education Association (NEA) attending the teachers union's annual conference this week in the nation's capital spoke out on the issues they hope their lobbyists will fight for during next year's legislative session, including the establishment of a peace academy, in-state college tuition and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who graduate from high school. Susie Jablinske, a first grade teacher at Central Elementary School in Edgewater, Md., said children who are in the country illegally should have the same educational rights as American children. She proposed that...

Here's how rising fuel prices affect an organization with a fleet of 1,273 school buses: The Montgomery County school board today will consider giving Superintendent Jerry D. Weast emergency powers to make students walk farther to school, if need be, in the coming academic year. (snip) Should prices continue to rise, the school system could save money by raising maximum walking distances for students, because more walkers means fewer buses. Currently, elementary school students walk up to a mile, middle school students 1.5 miles and high school students two miles.

Saying their son was "silenced" by his teacher for talking about hunting in the classroom, the parents of a fourth-grade student at North Bennington Graded School took their son out of school and have taken their case to the local school board. Jared Harrington's mother, Wendy Bordwell, and his father, Martin Harrington, removed their son from school with 10 days left in the school year and home-schooled the 10-year-old boy. "We are aggressively pursuing Jared's right to free speech," Bordwell said. The couple addressed the local school board Monday night to air their grievance. Bordwell said in a telephone interview...

In the last eight months the Save Our Kids coalition and volunteers have made incredible headway in the campaign to protect our children. Without the tireless, dedicated efforts of our supporters, none of what we have accomplished would be possible. The generous support, prayers, and donations have humbled our staff and we will remain forever appreciative. Even with the setback last fall of coming just short of our referendum qualifying, Save Our Kids supporters have continually reinforced our resolve to overturn SB 777. This cause is bigger than one campaign-it is part of the overarching battle to defend our values...

Massachusetts High School Faces Pregnancy Boom Thursday, June 19, 2008 A Massachusetts high school is facing a pregnancy boom with 17 girls entering summer vacation expecting babies in what some have called a pregnancy pact. Officials at Gloucester High School in Gloucester, Mass., are investigating whether half of the teens made a pact to get pregnant during the school year, Time.com reported. Officials said that beginning last fall a large group of girls started asking the school clinic for pregnancy tests, the site said. "Some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," principal Joseph Sullivan...

U.S. states are being surveyed one at a time by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice in order to determine the feelings of residents on school choice. Spokesman Paul Diperna says Idaho is the latest of four states that have been checked thus far. "The broad takeaway is that Idaho parents ... want more [alternative school] choices...," he says. "... [W]e've seen overwhelming support for private schools, charter schools, home schooling, and even virtual schools to some extent," Diperna reports.   According to a press release, 39 percent of Idahoans would prefer sending their child to a private school; 25 percent, a charter...

One dhimmi elementary school principal in Oregon has banned the Pledge of Allegiance, so as not to offend Muslims. Slowly they chip away at life as we know it. If this does not stop. Eventually Bibles and all non-Islamic religious symbols will be banned. All for a group of people who have never heard the expression "respect is a two-way street". When will this madness end? http://islaminaction08.blogspot.com/2008/06/oregon-school-bans-pledge-of-allegiance.html

When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, he notably dissented from liberal orthodoxy on welfare and the death penalty. Many observers have been wondering if Barack Obama will follow Clinton's example. They frequently raise school choice as a cause Obama could take up to show his independence from Democratic interest groups. It doesn't look as if that's going to happen, as ABC News's Jake Tapper reports: On the same day that he was extolling the need to shake up the "status quo" in education, Obama also defended his opposition to school vouchers. "We don't have enough slots for every...

The mother of an autistic girl says the public school board was "completely unprofessional" to formulate a theory that her daughter was being sexually abused based on a psychic's perception.

I have been told by a social worker that 1 in 4 children will be sexually abused by the time they are 18 years old. She is offering no proof to back up her numbers other than one advocacy website. I simply do NOT believe these numbers.

State Department officials said Thursday they have no plans to close a Saudi-financed Islamic school in Northern Virginia that has failed to eliminate violent and intolerant language in textbooks. "They told us they would revise the textbooks by the 2008 school year," State Department spokesman Rob McInturff said. "We don't plan to take additional action apart from the discussions that have been going on with the Saudi government." Results released Wednesday from a federal investigation into the Islamic Saudi Academy - with campuses in Alexandria and Fairfax - found textbooks at the 900-student private school had passages that blame the...

Hot on the heels of my column yesterday, "Islam in America's Public Schools: Education or Indoctrination?," which included mention of the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in Fairfax, Virginia, comes news that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has released its findings from a review of the school's textbooks and found that they promote hatred, intolerance, and violence. As reported by the Associated Press: -The authors of a 12th-grade text on Koranic interpretation state that apostates (those who convert from Islam), adulterers and people who murder Muslims can be permissibly killed. -The authors of a 12th-grade text on monotheism write...

With fatal terrorist attacks on the decline worldwide and al Qaeda apparently in disarray, it would seem a time for optimism in the global war on terrorism. But the war has simply shifted to a different arena. Islamists, or those who believe that Islam is a political and religious system that must dominate all others, are focusing less on the military and more on the ideological. It turns out that Western liberal democracies can be subverted without firing a shot. Nowhere is this more evident than in the educational realm. Islamists have taken what's come to be known as the...

An Islamic group has been banned from visiting classrooms in Seminole County schools after officials said it crossed the line between telling students about the Muslim culture and pushing its religion. The flap over the Academy for Learning Islam's visit to Lake Brantley High School also has caused the school system to re-evaluate who it lets into county classrooms to present educational programs and what they can talk about. By fall, teachers will have stricter guidelines. Speakers on religion, drugs, alcohol and nearly 50 other touchy topics will get closer scrutiny before they can speak on campuses, Superintendent Bill Vogel...

PORTLAND, Ore. - The exclusion of the Pledge of Allegiance from a southwest Portland elementary school's ceremony has proved upsetting for a local mom. Departing fifth-graders at Capitol Hill Elementary usually open their promotion ceremony with the Pledge of Allegiance but not this year. "I was sad," said parent Briana Reese. "The flag was sitting up there, you know. Two of the kids went up and they said 'everybody rise' and we rose and I thought for just a second 'oh yeah, we're going to put our hands on our hearts and we're going to salute the flag' - but...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)- When Rock Hill school officials tell commencement crowds to hold their applause until the end, they mean it — police arrested seven people after they were accused of loud cheering during the ceremonies. Six people at Fort Mill High School's graduation were charged Saturday and a seventh at the graduation for York Comprehensive High School was charged Friday with disorderly conduct, authorities said. Police said the seven yelled after students’ names were called. “I just thought they were going to escort me out,� Jonathan Orr told The Herald of Rock Hill, about 70 miles north of Columbia....

The response of California's teachers' union to pro-family attempts to protect home schooling in that state has outraged one attorney who is working on the case. Numerous organizations on both sides of the issue have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the appeal of a California court's ruling that parents have no right to home school their children. But one reaction in particular caught the attention of pro-family attorney Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute. "The California Teachers Association ... decided to file an amicus brief arguing before the court that parents should have no right over the education of...

The Friendswood Junior High principal who outraged some parents by allowing an Islamic group to make a 40-minute presentation to students last month is now off the job. In a two-sentence statement sent late Wednesday, the school district said Robin Lowe "has accepted another administrative position effective immediately."