Posted on 08/26/2010 10:32:54 AM PDT by Nachum
If you would ONLY READ IT! It is ALL there.
Did you know that as little as 10 years ago what our kids in NJ public schools are taught in high school USED to be taught in Junior High/ Middle School? That is a FACT. Now Obama doesn't want Algebra taught till 9th grade and and multiplication taught till 4th or 5th grade, I forget which. It's ALL part of the dumbing down.
Is THIS what you are excited about? LOWER STANDARDS? These are the strings attached to Race to the Top.
The money isn't going to students. It's going to teachers, unions. So yes, money will return to the state but NOT for what you think it is going to.
Where did you see he came out for it, I believe he said he’s not talking about it.
Published: Aug. 9, 2010
Updated: Aug. 10, 2010 7:16 a.m.
Editorial: Dumbing down for Race to the Top
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
What a bad civics lesson for our children. In school, California's students learn that, under the U.S. Constitution, America has a federal system of government. The federal government performs certain functions, such as national defense, while most things “are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people,” as the 10th Amendment mandates.
...
Education, obviously, is a state and local issue. But on Aug. 2, the California Board of Education knuckled under to federal pressure to ease California school standards. This was done when the board voted to implement the school standards for President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top initiative. The NEW standards REPLACE much more vigorous California standards. The unanimous vote of the 10-member board means that California now can qualify for a chunk of the $700 million in federal grants to state schools under the Race to the Top program. The board's vote promotes “California's high expectations and our belief that every student is capable of success in the classroom,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said.
(We all know California standards are pretty bad and now they are LOWER, for what? Money with strings attached that exasperate the problems in dumbed down education ?)
...
(NOTICE it's the usual DOUBLE TALK!
Obama says one thing and the OPPOSITE is TRUE!
Obama is CONSISTENT on this.)
Tying federal aid money to WEAKENING California's standards “is an extortion racket,” Lance Izumi told us; he's Koret Senior Fellow and Senior Director of Education Studies at the Pacific Research Institute. “President Obama says the federal standards are ‘voluntary,’ but to qualify for all the federal pots of money, you have to agree to adopt them. That doesn't seem to be voluntary to me.”
(Yes, it's like coerced volunteerism. In order to GET the money, you MUST adopt the federal standards that are LOWER. It's NOT “voluntary” if you want federal money.)
It's ironic because President Obama has insisted that American schools must better prepare students to meet the competitive pressures from other countries in the 21st century. But while California's old, state-approved standards were adequate, the new, federal-imposed standards “aren't as good as the leading high-achieving countries abroad, such as the Asian Tigers of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore,” Mr. Izumi said. Especially dumbed-down, he added, is algebra for eighth-graders.
Well, there is one civics lesson kids are learning: That we need governors and school board members with stronger backbones to stand up to federal mandates that make our schools worse – even if that means losing federal grant money.
...
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/federal-261378-standards-california.html
More about how we are forcing our kids to be dumber and dumber.
http://www.sntp.net/education/education_stats.htm
NOTICE that all the states so far that “won” this money have Demoncrat Governors!
Louisiana a loser in second round of Race to the Top education grants
Published: Tuesday, August 24, 2010, 10:15 AM Updated: Tuesday, August 24, 2010, 12:55 PM
...
For the second time, Louisiana has failed to secure a share of $4.35 billion in “Race to the Top” school reform grants, being doled out by the U.S. Education Department to reward states who agree to make ambitious changes to improve schools and close the achievement gap.
Instead, nine other states and the District of Columbia will receive money in the second round of the competition. With a score of 434, Louisiana placed 13th out of the 19 finalists, trailing 10th-place Ohio by seven points.
The winners are: Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C..
...
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2010/08/race_to_the_top_education_gran.html
So even if it was good news, Republicans wouldn't get any of it.
“Race To The Top” is fixed: just say No!
by Derek Sheriff
...
The Obama administration’s “Race To The Top” (RTTT) stimulus grant program should really be called the “Race to Nationalize Education”. Like the Bush administration’s “No Child Left Behind” program, it is nothing but another measure designed to enable the central government to take over control of our local schools and establish a government of occupation in the territory that exists between our children’s ears.
...
The result of accepting RTTT funds is described by Prof. Allen Quist, Professor of Political Science at Bethany Lutheran College. He writes, “This [RTTT program] will create a de facto federal curriculum. The Department of Education will financially reward those states that teach what DOE wants [to be] taught.”
...
While I sympathize with their desire to acquire additional funding forschools and teachers, the funding they seek comes with strings attached. The application, or participation agreement referred to above, lists a whole host of federal requirements that our state must comply with in order to receive funding. On page 25 of the application, it requires that evidence must be provided of the state’s, “..participation in a consortium of States that – Is working toward jointly developing and adopting a common set of K-12 standards (as defined in this notice) that are supported by evidence that they are internationally benchmarked…”.
...
http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2010/01/20/race-to-the-top-is-fixed-just-say-no/
Education has to stay at the local level.
Obama is LYING to people. It is his education czar, Duncan that is setting YOUR state standards and they are LOW standards. It is NOT “voluntary”. You are better off without the money.
What we do need is better teachers that can TEACH. We need traditional MATH and traditional SCIENCE.
We need to get “Gay Pride Day” OUT of schools. We should not be advocating perversion and taking up time with that.
We need to get SEX ed OUT of schools - make parents handle that. Did you know that when you sign a form for your child in New Jersey for your child to go beyond school grounds that could include a trip to an abortion clinic? Schools have NO business teaching anything in that area. Again, they are wasting time and usurping parental authority and responsibility.
We need to get school psychiatrists OUT of public schools. If there are “issues” then parent(s) need to deal with that. It should not be that the class has to “put up with disruptor's” who excel at that and why they are there. If kids act up or out, expel them and let the parent(s) deal with them.
None of this COSTS money. It SAVES money and is the kind of reform we need. Throwing MORE money at the problem and lowering standards is NOT the solution. It never has been and has NEVER worked. Yet, people leap at the milkbones like dogs. It's sickening. Obama is making a mockery of people begging for federal money in exchange for wrose standards.
I take this back that ALL the GOvernors that “won” federal money are Demoncrats.
“The winners are: Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C..”
ALL might as well be Demoncrats if they are not. They are an assortment of RINOs and Demoncrats. They are more than happy to play ball with Obama for $$$.
Why don’t you ask him about his stance on the 2nd Amendment then. I never met a CONSERVATIVE by ANY definition that was FOR MORE gun control especially in the already gun controlled to death state of NJ.
Ok. So how does the 400 million help with the budget hole?
Are you saying we can supplement our state funds here and use the 400 mil to help plug the hole?
Help me out here.
That's what I tend to think.
The budget hole consists mostly of unfunded education disbursements engineered by Corzine.
You spend the federal education money on filling that budget gap he left us.
Thanks. I see that the $1.3 billion budget hole you have been referring to is not for the state of NJ but the combined school districts themselves.
I’m still checking it out.
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