Posted on 06/25/2010 11:36:31 AM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
Anyone who has ever tried to sue a school, change a PTA, join a school board, or in any way to manipulate what a public school was doing, please share your experiences and suggestions. To start the discussion, here are a few options:
YAHOO GROUPS: anybody can form a group on Yahoo. I know of a group in Jersey City where parents share notes about teachers, courses, and candidates. This is an easy way to mobilize 100 or 200 people so theyre all on the same page when they deal with the school.
PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATION: Martin Gross, in his book The Conspiracy of Ignorance, argues that most PTAs have been corrupted. He recommends that parents regroup in independent local groups called Parent-Teacher Organizations or PTOs.
SCHOOL BOARD: Martin Gross also offers his opinion that many school boards are controlled by the NEA, and the apparent free discussions you see at meetings are stage-managed. How do we liberate the school boards?
INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION PLAN (IEP): Rudolf Flesch in his Why Johnnys Still Cant Read book, says that if your child is having trouble reading, that child can take advantage of provisions for special ed kids. Specifically, Flesch says take a lawyer to the school and demand that the school sign a contract promising your child will be taught phonics, not sight-words. Anyone ever done this?
STATE SUPERINTENDENTS: What if these people were elected officials? My impression is that most superintendents are conduits for orders coming down from the commissars at the top. (Ann Coulter proposed firing all superintendents.) Are these people ever elected? Would that be an improvement?
LOCAL POLITICS: Martin Gross also notes that while the NEA might give money to lots of candidates, the big donations go to liberals who will do what the NEA dictates. If the NEA favors a candidate, thats a red flag.
PEOPLE TO THE PEOPLE! FIGHT THE SYSTEM! Maybe those old hippies had it right. So the question is, what can parents do to make schools work for the people?
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[Builds on an earlier post called What Are The Best Ways To Defend Your Child Against Dumbing Down (see link). Im lookiing for ANY ideas that empower parents. The results will appear here in August and on my site Improve-Education.org.]
Start with abolishing the unconstitutional DOE since Article 1 Section 8 does not specifically list regulating education as an enumerated power.
We definitely need to regain local control of the schools even if it means turning down federal money.
I really like the Yahoo idea. My child is only three but I find myself worrying about this stuff more & more, especially since the older I get the more I realize how crappy my own education was.
I really always thought like minded conservatives in the area should elect one another to the school board but it appears from this article that that would be a worthless venture. Thoughts?
Homeschool: deprive them of ‘subjects’ to Rule and Indoctrinate.
When the system has little to no attendance the bureaucracy will crush the system.
You can’t take back the government and union-controlled Leftist indoctrination centers. It’s best to just take your children out of them and either start your own private school, send them to a private or parochial school, home school them or start a home school coop that you can get the neighborhood involved in.
Put your time and effort into educating your child, not fighting the system.
Sell your big house and buy one with a much lower property tax assessment value. Engage in as few taxable activities is possible, including commerce. Buy only what you need.
Force the government/labor-union school system to collapse of its own weight.
Mr. BruceDeitrickPrice, I have just two words for you... Face Book!
Schools get money from Uncle Sugar based on Average Daily Attendance. Take several million children off the money headcount and school districts will be falling all over themselves to try to get their little cash cows back.
It's easy to get onto your PTA. First, pay the few dollars to join, and get everyone you know to join, too.
Get a copy of your bylaws - if necessary, demand in writing - or you can get them from the State PTA after your membership is processed.
Read the bylaws to find out how to run for office. Follow the bylaws precisely.
Get on the slate.
Have your friends and supporters show up and VOTE.
Viola! You are on the PTA board.
Believe it or not, most PTA board members continue serving year after year because no one else will bother to step up (this is my 5th year with the PTA, now acting as Treasurer, even though I started to homeschool my kids). If you let the principal know you want to serve on the PTA, you will get a chance to serve. Volunteer to be a Committee Chair or Committee member, so you can see how it all works from the inside.
Moreover, most PTAs have NO - ZERO, ZIP, NADA, ZILCH - control over what gets taught. That is dictated by the local ISD.
Only a fraction of the PTA membership dues gets to stay with the PTA locally - the rest gets funneled upwards to State and National PTA.
The PTA does have control over other things: family nights, carnivals, dances, Drug Free Awareness Week, Science Expos, teacher appreciation, graduation, supporting clubs and programs, etc. Most PTA members are eager for any kind of help and welcome folks who can give even just a few hours to a single event. It's a volunteer organization, and it's common that 20% of the folks are carrying the load for 80% of the people - so JOIN your PTA and volunteer for a day, PLEASE!
If you really want to rock things in the schools, get on the school board. They dictate policy and the State School Board dictates curriculum.
My wife and I took our eldest out of the L.A. Unified schools after his first six months of kindergarten and began home schooling.
The three kids born after him have never seen the inside of a public school.
The public schools these days are good for little more than anti-American leftist indoctrination, destruction of morals, over-sexualization, dumbing down of basic education, forced multi-culturalism, and criminalization.
Bump. This is a critical strategic point in controlling our culture. Home school is fine, but a LOT of people can’t do it. And the larger Leftists could one day “deem” it as illegal, with the MSM backing them up.
Raise up your own children.
“Anyone who has ever tried to sue a school, change a PTA, join a school board, or in any way to manipulate what a public school was doing, please share your experiences and suggestions. To start the discussion, here are a few options: “
Get likeminded people in the PTA and kick out every Marxist. The sue the school board for every little thing. Then go after the local elected official and get rid of him/her. Then go after the congressman representing your district and get rid of him.
If you live in a Conservative district, just stay active so the left cannotinfiltrate.
Thats easy defund them. make them all private.
If you want to see “educator’s” heads explode, tell them that you have a zero tolerance policy for their zero tolerance policies that get kids suspended or expelled because teachers and administrators don’t want to either think or do their jobs, so they insert stupidity as policy.
Be sure not to let any of their “stuff” get on your clothes when their heads explode - it’s VERY hard to get out!!!
It’s a mistake to entrust any part of your child’s upbringing to the government.
“Bump. This is a critical strategic point in controlling our culture. Home school is fine, but a LOT of people cant do it. And the larger Leftists could one day deem it as illegal, with the MSM backing them up.”
Good point. Need to suggest infiltration. On every front.
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