Posted on 10/04/2023 8:52:54 AM PDT by Heartlander
It may be true, as the late, great Andrew Breitbart famously said, that “politics is downstream of culture.” But both are downstream of education. Nothing is more important to our families or to the future of our country than the moral, social, psychological, and intellectual development of our children.
In that regard, the pandemic lockdowns created quite a conundrum for traditionally conservative and “red-pilled” parents. They were on the front lines of the school reopening movement, demanding that children—who were at virtually no risk from covid—be allowed to attend school in person (and without masks). Yet once the public schools did reopen, those same parents found that their children were being exposed to a level of sexual and political indoctrination never before seen.
The backlash, predictably, was swift and harsh, with parents across the country crowding into school board meetings to demand an end to the nonsense. Sadly, that strategy has not been especially effective, at least not on a broad scale. Notwithstanding viral videos of brave moms and dads giving red-faced board members what-for, many of those board members have just dug in their heels on issues like Critical Race Theory, “transgenderism,” and their own “authority” to issue mask mandates whenever they please. By and large, the government education establishment remains indifferent to parents’ concerns. They’re certain they know better, and that’s that.
This has led commentators like Matt Walsh and Dennis Prager—and more recently, Brownstone’s own Charles Krblich—to argue that the public schools are irreparably broken and the best thing parents can do is remove their children as soon as possible. I came to that conclusion myself a few years ago, after decades of defending public schools as our primary instrument for producing thoughtful, informed citizens. That is a role the schools appear to have abandoned, at least since the covid shutdowns if not much earlier. Parents are thus justified in abandoning them.
Unfortunately, for large numbers of parents, it’s not that easy. Many remain invested in their local schools, which in some cases their families have attended for generations, and they’re loath to just up and leave. And even for those who agree it’s time to go, where exactly will they go?
Homeschooling is growing in popularity, especially after many parents discovered during the closures (ironically enough) that they could educate their children just fine on their own. But for other parents, particularly in two-career families, homeschooling simply isn’t practical. Many also have legitimate concerns about their children missing out on important social opportunities and extracurricular activities. Variations on the concept, such as homeschool academies or co-ops, can help alleviate some of those problems, but again—not for everyone.
Traditional private schools, long the refuge of disgruntled, affluent parents, present their own set of problems. First, they tend to be prohibitively expensive, far beyond the ability of most families to pay, especially if they have multiple school-age children.
Besides that, many private schools these days seem beset by exactly the same problems dogging their public counterparts. In many cases, they, too, have become “woke” indoctrination centers and bastions of “safetyism.” So what do families gain for their money?
Charter schools can be a viable alternative, where they exist. But they are difficult to get off the ground, often facing stiff opposition from within. And because they are publicly funded, they must follow many of the same policies as other public institutions. Fundamentally, charter schools are still government schools.
And then there are “classical academies,” essentially combining private education with homeschooling—bringing kids on campus two or three days a week and having them study at home the other days. Unfortunately, they also combine the necessity of paying tuition with the requirement that at least one parent be home some of the time. Once again, not every family can do that.
I don’t mean to disparage any of these models. All have their advantages, and one of them might be the best fit for you and your family. But clearly, even taken together, they are insufficient to address the problem, because millions of parents who would like to get their kids out of the government schools still feel trapped there.
For those desperate parents, I would like to offer another alternative: that communities, churches, and other charitable organizations band together to create their own private (which is to say, non-government) schools that would offer high-quality education and be open to all, regardless of beliefs or ability to pay. I propose that these schools be built upon three main pillars: excellence, affordability, and accessibility.
To foster “excellence,” the schools would borrow heavily from the classical model, emphasizing academic skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics along with accurate history, foreign languages, and the arts.
“Affordability” means that the cost of attending would be subsidized as needed, financed by donations, fundraisers, and community-based capital campaigns. Tuition should be as low as possible to begin with, so that vouchers (in states where they exist) will cover most of the cost for students who qualify. For students who can’t afford to pay the balance or who don’t qualify for vouchers, the schools will make up the difference through need-based scholarships. No child will be turned away because his or her family lacks the ability to pay.
Nor would any child be turned away because of his or her beliefs, which is what I mean by “accessibility.” Note that I include churches in this proposal not because I’m advocating for explicitly religious education—far from it—but because churches have one thing that is absolutely essential to the plan’s success: facilities. Yes, many churches already sponsor private schools, though those can be nearly as expensive as their nonreligious counterparts. But many other churches boast large, well-appointed buildings that remain mostly unused throughout the week.
What I’m suggesting is that some of those churches allow the local community to use their facilities—either free or at very low cost—to create schools that are not only inexpensive but also accessible to all, regardless of beliefs. No “statement of faith” will be required, of either students or faculty (although there could certainly be some kind of behavioral contract or “honor code.”)
I realize this is a potential sticking point. For many churches, evangelizing is part of their mission. But consider this: When a church invites a child into its building, whether the child ever joins that church or embraces its doctrines, the congregation has performed a vital service not only for the child but for the entire community. Everyone benefits because the child attended that school, regardless of whether he or she is Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Latter-day Saint, Jewish, Muslim, or atheist.
As the former Archbishop of Washington, John Cardinal Hickey, put it, “We don’t teach children because THEY are Catholics; we teach them because WE are.” Speaking to my own tribe for a moment, can Christians think of a better, more impactful way of fulfilling Christ’s admonition to love our neighbors?
And yes, I do recognize that what I’m proposing in many ways resembles the system of Catholic schools that performed so much good in this country for so many years. Unfortunately, that system did not reach every part of the country and appears to be dying out in others. My proposal builds on that model in a way that I believe is feasible for any community.
All it will take is a group of dedicated, determined parents working hand-in-hand with local pastors, community leaders, and other experts in areas like education, law, finance, and marketing. Some of those experts would no doubt be the parents themselves, bringing to the table whatever knowledge and experience they have acquired. If they put their minds to it, I am confident such a group could procure a facility, raise the necessary money to get started, hire a handful of teachers (and/or recruit qualified parent volunteers), and launch a school.
If you find this idea appealing and would like to act on it, I suggest you start by seeking out and organizing a group of like-minded parents and professionals in your community. Then you can task one sub-group with identifying a suitable facility, another with planning fundraising activities, a third with researching state or local requirements for chartering a private school, and a fourth with reaching out to potential students and their families.
Alternatively, perhaps a large and affluent church would like to take on this project itself as a service to the community, using its own facilities, human capital, and donations from its members. Either way, with a little hard work, a relatively small group of committed individuals could probably have a school up and running by next fall.
Please feel free to reach out to me if you have additional suggestions or would like to talk more about how to put this idea into action. My email address is in my author bio here at Brownstone Institute.
The public schools in many (most?) parts of this country are indeed broken, and there’s no point in trying to “work within the system” to fix them. They’re too far gone. Meanwhile, our children are suffering. All children are suffering. Our only option is to bypass the “system” altogether, take matters into our own hands, and create our own schools, focused on excellence and open to everyone. Then maybe whatever is “downstream” of our children’s education will be something we can all live with.
Simple - you throw God out of our kids lives and you open the door to Satan! - imho
School Choice is a winning issue for the GOP. Let parents use their tax money to fund their children’s education wherever they want. The only folks who will suffer are the Teachers Unions at government schools. And they don’t vote GOP anyway. But I don’t think the GOP is looking for winning issues.
Schools "open to everyone" cannot succeed in this century.
9/8/2019
Washington DC charter schools did not significantly outperform public schools or even match them on the last two years of PARCC testing. These disappointing results for the charter school industry come almost a quarter-century after Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich teamed up to bring neoliberal education reform to Washington DC. As their “reforms” accelerated, residents were assured that innovative privatized schools would bring better outcomes and performance gaps would close.
https://tultican.com/2019/09/08/dc-charter-school-performance-almost-matches-public-schools/
NOTE: The author of that almost certainly is leftist.
In Japan, teachers have to rotate among schools about once every seven years.
“School Choice is a winning issue for the GOP.”
What’s the problem:
The school building?
The curriculum?
The teachers?
The students?
“you throw God out of our kids lives”
In 1872, Florida law required public school teachers to capitalize on opportunities to teach every Christian virtue.
The woke curriculum
The unionized teachers
The disruptive students who cannot be removed because it’s a public school
The schools and the students should be focused on Excellence. Government schools are manifestly not.
Let’s go to an urban school which once primarily served Jewish students.
I suspect many of its graduates did quite well in life.
What are the differences now?
“The unionized teachers”
Are the teachers incompetent? lazy?
What’s wrong with unionization?
The government will still try to worm their way in - esp. to place restrictions on churches. I’m a little irked by it as well as it sounds a lot like, “Hey, you churches... give us your facilities but not your Jesus, and everything will work out just fine!” Our problems as a country are just symptoms of our abandonment of God and his Word. We traded Truth for the elites ‘wisdom.’ Yes, John Dewey, I’m looking at you. We are now reaping what we’ve sown - but not yet willing to repent.
“The disruptive students who cannot be removed because it’s a public school”
Perhaps the kid’s household’s SNAP choices could be restricted to WIC choices by teacher decision.
WIC ALLOWABLE FOODS
Baby Food
Baby Cereal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Baby Food – Fruits and Vegetables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Baby Food – Meats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Beans – Canned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Beans/Peas/Lentils – Dried . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Breakfast Cereal – Cold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Breakfast Cereal – Hot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Cheese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Eggs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Fish – Canned and Pouches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Fruits and Vegetables
Fresh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Frozen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Canned Fruits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Canned Vegetables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Juice
Adult Participants – Tomato/Vegetable (46 oz) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Adult Participants – Frozen (11.5 or 12 oz) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Children’s Juice – Mixed or Blends (64 oz) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-23
Children’s Juice – Single Fruit (64oz) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Children’s Juice – Vegetable Juice (64oz) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Milk – Cow Milk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26–28
Milk – Goat Milk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Milk – Yogurt................................................................................30
Peanut Butter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Soy Beverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Tofu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Whole Grain Choices
Brown Rice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Oatmeal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Soft Tortillas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Whole Wheat Pasta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Whole Wheat Bread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Whole Wheat Hamburger and Hot Dog Buns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
https://doh.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-02/960-278-WICShoppingGuide-en.pdf
I’d knock fruit juices off the WIC program.
Perhaps SNAP should be made more like WIC in terms of choice.
Put Dr. Carol Swain in charge.
According to the report, Catholic school students in 4th grade achieved an average score of 235 in reading compared to 219 for their public school peers. Similarly, Catholic school 4th graders achieved an average score of 246 in math and 164 in science, compared to their public school peers, who achieved average scores of 240 and 150 respectively.
The distribution was similar for 8th grade, with Catholic school students outperforming their public school peers in reading with scores of 278 to 262, in math with scores of 293 to 281, and in science with scores of 167 to 153.
WIKI
Carol Miller Swain was born on March 7, 1954, in Bedford, Virginia, the second of twelve children. Her father dropped out of school in the third grade and her mother dropped out in high school. Her stepfather used to physically abuse her mother, Dorothy Henderson, who is disabled due to polio. Swain grew up in poverty, living in a shack without running water, and sharing two beds with her eleven siblings. She did not have shoes and thus missed school whenever it snowed. She did not finish high school, dropping out in ninth grade. She moved to Roanoke with her family in the 1960s and appealed to a judge to be transferred to a foster home, which was denied. Swain instead lived with her grandmother in a trailer park.
After she divorced in 1975, Swain earned a GED and worked as a cashier at McDonald’s, a door-to-door salesperson, and an assistant in a retirement facility. She later earned an associate degree from Virginia Western Community College. She went on to earn a B.A., magna cum laude, in criminal justice from Roanoke College and a master’s degree in political science from Virginia Tech. While an undergraduate at Roanoke College, she organized a scholarship fund for black students that by 2002 had an endowment of $350,000. She finished a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989. In 2000, she earned a Master of Legal Studies from Yale Law School.
In November 2015, Vanderbilt University students started a petition asking university administrators to halt Swain’s teaching and require her to attend diversity training sessions.
In January 2017, Swain announced that she would retire from Vanderbilt in August, saying, “I will not miss what American universities have allowed themselves to become”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_M._Swain
I can FIX the Public School system in 24 hours EASILY!!
One Executive Order by the Presid3ent will do it:
All Public Employee’s Shall be required to send their offspring to the Public School in their neighborhood or be Terminated Immediately and ALL Pension and Retirement Benefits will be rescinded. All States shall Guarantee that every Public Employee in their State also has their offspring enrolled in the Public School System or that State will receive NO Federal Funds for anything.
Problem Solved, Make them live by their very own rules.
The demographics are different now. 79% hispanic, 3% asian, 2% black, 12% white. Math proficiency 29%. Reading proficiency 57%. Graduation rate 93%. It is now a top 50% school instead of a top 10% school.
The campus is expanded significantly from the time I graduated. Air conditioners in classrooms. Foreign language offering including Japanese, Chinese, French, German, Spanish. A robotics facility is present. Far more classroom space. The football field/track is nicely upgraded. No more door knobs. Classes have a deadbolt key and a pull handle. Lockers are bolted closed. The poorer performance is certainly not for lack of investment in physical facilities or curriculum.
I love this woman! She’s such an inspiration. Would be a great VP!!
I was educated at public schools, from kindergarten to 12th grade in Arizona. That included honors and AP classes in high school, as well as accurate American History and Civics. This education got me into MIT and Harvard!
Alas, that was a very long time ago. Now we need education plans that bypass the teachers’ unions and woke administrators. That is very hard for many parents, students, and communities. Besides that, MIT and Harvard are not what they used to be. Lord have Mercy!!
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