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Our Hope, Our Children, Our Responsibility in Fighting Jihad September 3, 2008 Jeffrey Imm, Anti-Jihad League of America http://anti-jihad.org/blog/2008/09/our-hope/ http://www.unitedstatesaction.com/blog/imm-articles/102.html Sources: http://www.unitedstatesaction.com/blog/imm-articles/sources_beslan.html As children return to schools, we are reminded that they are our hope for the future, but they are also the target of Islamic supremacists around the world. We need to defend the future, hopes, and lives of these children, and assume the "grown-up" duty as responsible adults for defending them from the ideology of Islamic supremacism and Jihadist terrorism. On September 1, 2004, 770 children were kidnapped by Jihadists in Russia in a small town of Beslan....

He may have taken student as second wife The principal of an Islamic boarding school on Buffalo’s East Side has been forced to resign after allegations that he was sexually involved with one of his students and that he claimed to have taken her as a second wife. Evidence suggests Mohammed Ibrahim Memon, a father of seven, persuaded Sajidah Khan, then 21, to marry under Islamic law as a pretense to sleep with her. Memon, an Islamic scholar and imam, has agreed to leave his post at Darul-Uloom Al-Madania, 182 Sobieski St., for a minimum of seven years...

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...

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...

A noted child and family psychologist says spanking a child can be an effective form of discipline, despite a recent study that states otherwise. A new report titled "A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools" shows that more than 200,000 children received corporal punishment in U.S. schools. Texas accounted for the majority of the cases, although 21 U.S. states allow the use of corporal punishment. The study was conducted by Humans Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. According to a Reuters article on the study, "liberal groups regard corporal punishment as a barbaric relic...

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...

America's first charter school opened in Minnesota in 1992. Sixteen years later, there are 4,128 charter schools educating 1.24 million students in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Another 300 to 400 are expected to open in the coming school year. Charter schools are public schools, but they are very different. The Center for Education Reform's 2008 Annual Survey reports that responding charter schools are one-third smaller than conventional public schools, with about 348 students, compared with 521. They spend less—about $7,625 per student, compared with $9,138 in public schools—and they receive only about 61% of the per pupil...

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...

WICHITA, KN -- A lawsuit boiling in Wichita, Kansas over an English-only policy could have major ramifications for a Catholic school. Saint Anne's Catholic school, its principal, the church and the diocese are being sued for implementing an English only policy at school. When some students refused to sign a pledge to honor the policy they were expelled and their parents filed suit. Three families are suing alleging that the policy discriminates against those who speak other languages and lawyers for the families say it's racial discrimination and therefore violates their civil rights. The school says the policy was a...

Texas school district OKs pistols for staff HARROLD, Texas — A tiny Texas school district may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes begin later this month, a newspaper reported. Trustees at the Harrold Independent School District approved a district policy change last October so employees can carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting teachers follow certain requirements. In order for teachers and staff to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; must be authorized to...

More central Ohio school districts plan to close Nov. 4 to safeguard students and accommodate voters, but elections officials are divided over whether that's a good idea. Today, the Franklin County Board of Elections is to weigh whether to ask the Columbus schools to cancel classes on Election Day. The 54,000-student district is nicknamed the "Big Domino," a spokesman said, because others generally follow when Columbus calls a snow day. Deputy Elections Director Matt Damschroder is counting on that to set the trend and clear out space for voters in schools countywide. "Schools are not built for voting," Damschroder said,...

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...

Governor To Ask For Legal Immunity For Teachers FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels says teachers should have legal protections if they act in good faith to maintain discipline and order in their classrooms. Daniels said Monday that if he is re-elected, he would ask the General Assembly next year to give legal immunity to teachers who may become the target of litigation. For example, one Indiana student sued a principal for attempting to restrain the student after he was separated during a fight. Another student filed a tort claim after a gym teacher required the student to...

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...

The Uniontown Area School Board, as well as concerned citizens and parents, had an opportunity Wednesday to learn about Tasers that will be proposed in the school district and share their opinions on the subject. Even before Don Homer, the director of security for the school district, could show the proposed Tasers to be used and explain how they operate, those attending a special meeting voiced opposition. One resident, Mary Hackney, a teacher at Laurel Highlands School District for 35 years, said she had to break up many fights in her years but no incident required a Taser. "This is...

LOS ANGELES - -- A state appeals court reversed itself today and ruled that parents in California have the right to home school their children even if they lack a teaching credential. The Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles had ruled Feb. 28 that the state's compulsory education law requires parents to send their children to a full-time public or private school or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home. The ruling caused an uproar among home-schooling advocates and could have made truants out of an estimated 166,000 children in California who are taught at home by...

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...

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(An anti-war activist seeks permission to set up a table in the high school hallway — just like military recruiters.) RAYNHAM, Mass. — Some call it counter-recruitment. Ray Ajemian prefers to call it “truth in advertising.” Whatever the terminology, the question of whether the Bridgewater-Raynham schools in Raynham, Mass., should allow anti-war groups equal access to students as military recruiters will be taken up Wednesday at a meeting of the Counter Recruitment Subcommittee. The meeting will take place at the LaLiberte Elementary School in Raynham. Ajemian, 66, a member of Bridgewater-based Citizens for an Informed Community, an anti-war group, wants...

The Review-Journal editorialized, back on July 25: "To understand and explain American exceptionalism, like it or not, it may be necessary to at least understand why aeroplanes were not used in the Civil War, why the British couldn't use the train to get back and forth between New York and Philadelphia in 1788, and why the Jackson Democrats kept making such a fuss about the National Bank. What is this? "Nevada's Council to Establish Academic Standards was scheduled to meet July 21 to adopt new public-school history standards. When some attention was drawn to what they're up to, they promptly...

RAMADI — Ramadi Mayor Latif Obaid joined Iraqi and Coalition leaders for the reopening of the teacher’s union building in Ramadi recently. The building will be used by the region’s education instructors to come together for meetings to discuss ideas and increase their effectiveness in teaching students. “This building will help the teachers in Ramadi become even better at their jobs,” said Abdullah Abd Shaib, the teacher’s union manager. “It’s a place where all of the teachers can come for special activities and meetings.” Shaib was a key proponent in reopening the building, and believes it is a necessary component...

When the Rev. John Haney came to St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin in 1983, the church elementary school charged a $50 book fee for each parish child to attend. Get rid of it, Haney said. Providing a free Catholic education to parishioners is vital. Flash forward 25 years. The Whitehall school remains free, and it's the only Catholic school in the state without tuition. Staying free matters, according to Haney, school officials and parish members, because of the pride, sense of community and passion it creates. They have done it for one another and God through tithing, said parishioner...

Supporting more money for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is not the same thing as being a supporter of public education. This distinction is lost on both the media and our political class as witnessed by PR stunts like the one pulled by Illinois State Senator James Meeks yesterday. Meeks wants to bus Chicago public school students up to New Trier High School in Winnetka on the first day of school to protest the disparity in funding levels. While it may be that per pupil expenditures for the Chicago Public Schools (roughly $11,000 per student) exceed the national average, exceed...

July 28, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A judge in Holmes County, Florida, has ruled that the school board cannot forbid students from "wearing or displaying t-shirts, armbands, stickers, or buttons containing messages and symbols which advocate the acceptance of and fair treatment for persons who are homosexual."The case that led to the ruling surrounded incidents at Ponce de Leon High School in Holmes County. According to court documents, a 12th grade student - called "Jane Doe" by the court - went to school officials last year to complain that she was being taunted by a group of middle schools students...

(SNIP) Private, Christian education is not a matter of “if we can manage it” to these people – it’s their top priority for their children. It’s an integral part of their lives. School isn’t someplace they send the kids off to in the morning and pick them up from at night – it’s an extension of their homes and the principles and values they wish to instill in their children. They expect their school to reinforce their values and they facilitate the process. School is hands-on for these parents. And the time they put in is not in trying to...

A student of the Al Abbas primary school explains locations on a map that is painted on the outside of the newly refurbished school, July 17. Photo by Staff Sgt. J.B. Jaso III. CAMP TAJI — The schoolhouse is run down. Water leaks through numerous cracks in the roof and air conditioners do not operate, effectively causing temperatures inside the building to climb to unbearable lengths.The walls covered with mold, no doors to the classrooms, broken windows, and cracks in the walls large enough to see the surrounding farmlands.Despite all this, approximately 600 students at the Al Abbas primary school,...

For nearly two years, the South Florida middle school art teacher forced the boy to have sex in a classroom supply closet. Sometimes, Aaron Mohanlal would call in sick to work, take the boy to his home for sex and drop the seventh-grader back off at school at the end of the day. To keep the abuse secret, Mohanlal bought the 13-year-old a cell phone and created nicknames for their genitalia. When police arrested him, the teacher was caught on hidden video trying to destroy letters threatening the boy if he ever told. Last summer, a Broward County jury convicted...

...Longer school days and longer school years work. Giving principals the power to hire good teachers and fire bad ones works. High expectations work. Giving a teacher freedom to hug a child who needs hugging works. Parental involvement works. Counseling for troubled students and families works. Consistency of effort works. Incentives work. Field trips that expose kids to possibilities you can't see from their broken neighborhoods, work. Indeed, the most important thing I've learned is that none of this is rocket science. We already know what works. What we lack is the will to do it. Instead, we have a...

The University of Hawaii at Manoa, Kapolei High School, isisHawaii and Ainoa, Inc. have partnered to launch UHM SEED Academy, a new public 'bricks and clicks' high school offering a blended curriculum of core, Advanced Placement, and world language courses taken online and hands-on STEM electives in science, technology, engineering and math taught on-campus at Kapolei High School. The UHM SEED Academy is a high-quality, innovative alternative to the traditional school experience and is currently enrolling students tuition-free for the 2008-09 school year, which begins August 11. The combined online and face-to-face curriculum provides students enrolled at UHM SEED Academy...

BAGHDAD — “This ancient civilization of Mesopotamia, between the two historic rivers, taught the world how to read and how to write,” said Ahmed Rubayee, the Director General of Baghdad’s Rusafa 2 Education Department at al Neel school opening last week. “That is what we are doing here today, establishing a school, and to once again, be civilized and concentrate on teaching our children to read and write.” During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Director General Rubayee congratulated Officer in Charge of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Loyalty Resident Office Maj. Robert Culberson for the successful completion of the $797,000...

The long-serving president of New York City's powerful teachers' union was tapped last week to lead the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers - a post from which she'll have ample opportunity to push her education agenda on the national level. "Imagine schools that are open all day and offer after-school and evening recreational activities and homework assistance," she said. "And suppose the schools included child care and dental, medical and counseling clinics." A one-stop nanny state, in other words - owned and operated by Randi Weingarten & Co. Weingarten's push for all-purpose schools is hardly surprising, of course. What...

California Proposes Sales Tax Hike To Fund Transport, Government Services July 18, 2008 11:32 a.m. ESTVittorio Hernandez - AHN News WriterSacramento, CA (AHN) - To close California's $17.2 billion budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger considered on Thursday hiking the state sales tax and using funds intended for transportation and government services.State legislators proposed the two measures, which the governor initially described as bad ideas, but he did not rule out adopting the measures to avoid a cash crisis in California.The lawmakers plan to close the budget gap by collecting $5.6 billion income tax increase on the rich and borrowing $1.1...

Per this whole is it schools or is it society debate, studies like this new one from Andrew Zau and Julian Betts (pdf) are pretty depressing. They show that it’s possible at a pretty early point in a child’s schooling experience to see what their trajectory is. The don’t blame the schools crowd would have a stronger case if, armed with this information, states and schools were seriously crafting interventions to get these kids back on track. But no. Instead, perversely, they often get the least.

Our liberty is placed at risk when academic freedom is abused in academia. In order to address the misuse of academic freedom, one must first understand the exact meaning of the words academic freedom in order to understand how it is abused. Herein lies the heart of the problem, there is no consensus definition of the words academic freedom. The Random House Dictionary defines academic freedom as: Freedom of a teacher to discuss or investigate any controversial social, economic, or political problems without interference or penalty from officials, organized groups, etc. or, Freedom of a student to explore any field...

FALLUJAH — Albu Hawa, a small sub-tribe south of Fallujah resides in a farmland district that lines the Euphrates River. Only a year ago, it was a rural battlespace with daily violence that harbored al-Qaida terrorists. Known as one of the last strongholds for al-Qaida, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines performed operations during last year’s deployment to rid Albu Hawa of terrorist activity. This year, the battalion has returned to the area and witnessed the progress of this farmland community from when it was plagued with everyday violence. Now with terrorism on the brink of defeat, Iraqi Police have developed a...

Better schools. Higher scores. And satisfied parents. That's the record of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. It is helping us keep our promise to leave no child behind in America. If Congress is thinking of breaking this promise, the nation deserves to know the story. Signed into law by President Bush four years ago, the program is the first to provide federally funded education vouchers to students. It awards up to $7,500 per child for tuition, transportation and fees; in 2007-08 it enabled 1,900 students from the underperforming Washington public school system -- the highest total yet -- to attend...

Graduates from the Village of Hope training center at PB Stone in Hawr Rajab do a celebratory dance following a graduation ceremony, July 3. Photo by Spc. Justin Snyder. CAMP STRIKER -- The second Village of Hope training center class graduated during a ceremony held at Patrol Base Stone in Hawr Rajab, July 3. The graduating class of 58 Iraqi citizens spent 60 days training in electricity, carpentry and plumbing. Six of the students were returning trainees who took part in a newly created supervisors’ course.The training program aims to teach local citizens of Hawr Rajab, about 10 kilometers southwest...

...This film takes a deeper look at how the three superpowers of the 21st Century - China, India and the United States - are preparing their students for the future. As we follow two students - a boy and a girl - from each of these countries, we compose a global snapshot of education, from the viewpoint of kids preparing for their future. Our goal is to tell the broader story of the universal importance of education today, and address what many are calling a crisis for U.S. schools regarding chronically low scores in math and science indicators...

The Quorum Report July 2, 2008 4:52 PM Copyright July 2, 2008 by Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved SCHLOMACH: HOW ABOUT A MULLIGAN? -- WILL TEXANS SEE THE MARGINS TAX, PART DEAUX Economist Byron Schlomach may have moved on, but even from afar he has some thought about Texas tax contortions I don’t know how seriously to take Lt. Governor Dewhurst’s threat to revisit the margins tax. When I read about his suggestion though, it brought back a flood of memories - memories of lost opportunities and unheeded warnings. There are two reasons the margins tax is likely...

Minister calls for children to be locked in school to stop them buying junk food Last updated at 16:47pm on 06.07.08   Children's Minister Kevin Brennan has called for secondary school children to be locked inside school grounds during breaks to stop them buying unhealthy food Children should be locked inside school grounds to stop them buying unhealthy food from shops and takeaways, a minister said yesterday.The drastic proposal comes amid new evidence that the Jamie Oliver-inspired drive to ensure school canteens offer more nutritious meals is being shunned by pupils.Children's Minister Kevin Brennan said secondary school children should...

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is proposing a contract that would give mid-level teachers who are paid $62,000 yearly the opportunity to earn more than $100,000 -- but they would have to give up seniority and tenure rights.....Under the proposal, the school system would establish two pay tiers, red and green....Teachers in the red tier would receive traditional raises and would maintain tenure. Those who voluntarily go into the green tier would receive thousands of dollars in bonuses and raises, funded with foundation grants, for relinquishing tenure. Teachers in the green tier would be reviewed yearly and would be...

GUILDERLAND -- Hundreds of people packed a Guilderland school board meeting Tuesday evening to protest the controversial reassignment of two popular teachers. Dozens of current and former students of Matt Nelligan and Anne Marie McManus spoke against the move even though board members walked out and refused to hear the messages of support in a public forum. There were howls from the crowd and calls to vote board members out of office after President Richard Weisz referred to the involuntary transfer of the teachers to Farnsworth Middle School as a personnel matter that could not be discussed. Nelligan and McManus,...

A Rogers husband and wife who worked as a pastor and school bus driver were sentenced Monday to four years in prison for cooking methamphetamine in their family home. Joseph and Barbara Sisneros pleaded guilty last week to a reduced charge of possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to manufacture as part of a plea agreement between Deputy Prosecutor Drew Ledbetter and defense attorneys Blake Warren and Bobby Digby. "This meth lab was not a small operation," Ledbetter told Benton County Senior Circuit Judge Tom Keith. "Certain people should be held to a higher standard. At best, the court could...

CCTV:New York,June 10/08:A school prank gone wrong on Long Island is caught on tape. Police said a group of students, dismissed early from Uniondale High School during the June 10th heat wave vandalized a 7-11 store. They're seen grabbing items off shelves and throwing items on the floor. According to police, they also stole candy and beverages from the store. Three teenagers are charged with riot and petty larceny.