Posted on 10/10/2006 7:18:17 AM PDT by cgk
I'm not averse to it. Problem is, too many FReepers are, sadly, nanny-staters that wouldn't want to return to the principles of the Framers any more than the libs would.
Vouchers. (For all students, in all states.)
From the article:
The "voucher" program exists to give the federal government control over private schools because, whoever pays the piper, chooses the tune. Schools that accept voucher students will soon find themselves required to accept federal education regulations as well.
Congrats & kudos to her as well! Not enough parents get as involved in their children's education as you did IMO, and too many don't know much of what is going on in the schools. I didn't know a lot of it until I saw a problem and looked into it. Not a happy experience all around. I realize not many can make such drastic 'life' changes: private schools, homeschool, etc but I would hope that all parents would put their children's needs first.
You too? :)
Case in point: The Lancaster, CA school that gave sex quizzes to 7 year olds, was sued by the parents; school was backed by 9th circuit (for now) who said "parents have no constitutional right ... to prevent a public school from providing its students with whatever information it wishes to provide, sexual or otherwise, when and as the school determines that it is appropriate to do so."
Subverting the Constitution in high school
Excerpt: Parents of high school students would be well advised to look at We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution, a book that is the federally-mandated [subsidized!] text for what these students learn about the founding and fundamental principles of this nation...
" Why," (Quist) asks, "should the federal government be involved in authorizing and subsidizing the publishing of a high school textbook?" All others are privately published and compete for use in schools, but We the People does not. Moreover, only one non-government organization was given the contract, the Center for Civic Education. Since Congress did not set up any review process for the book, there is no way to know how accurate it is, or whether it has a particular bias. Unless, of course, you read it!
When you do, you will discover that the "self-evident truths" of the Declaration of Independence have been magically transformed into mere "ideas" from the eighteenth century. The message is that it can be cast aside, or changed in our times. It gets worse, a lot worse. When this textbook looks at the Bill of Rights, those ten amendments that are the very heart of the protections extended to individual American citizens, insuring that government cannot run rampant over them, neither the Second Amendment, nor the Ninth, or Tenth are even mentioned!
The Second Amendment, of course, protects the right of citizens to bear arms. The Ninth and Tenth are called "reserved rights," and require the government to recognize that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." The United States is a republic composed of separate and sovereign republics. The ultimate government of the United States is the people!
Naturally, Quist asks, "How can a textbook teach the meaning of Constitutional government without teaching the Ninth and Tenth Amendments?" and he answers, "It cannot be done."
Isn't that a sad fact.
Also, from the article: Education is not about national standards and national testing. It’s about individual schools in individual school districts, all answerable to their communities and to the parents of the children entrusted to them.
The same schools that are routinely labelled as "failing" are also those schools, oftentimes, where "community control" is meaningless. You have to have a functioning community before you can have local control. Similarly, you have to have functioning parents for a school system to work.
there are many avenues to get your toe in the door.
Attend and participate in your local political party organizations - I started attending my county Republican Women's Committee and my County Republican Committee meetings, for example.
This will put you shoulder to shoulder with your party reps from local to DC. I soon found myself regularly being sent to the State Conferences as a delegate, and holding many offices - including Pres. of the Women's Committee. This afforded me many opportunities to meet our national leaders - (my favorite was a private dinner (only 16 of us) with Barbara Bush...invaluable.
I got to introduce candidates when they first threw their hats in the ring -= and work for, maintain contact with them up through their career - Governor/Congressman/Senators, etc.
Participation in these groups will give you contact with others who are involved in politically/socially active groups - groups you can "umbrella" your own organization with.
I started my "Families For Freedom" almost cold - having newly moved back to my home state and not knowing many people. Word of mouth got around fast and a state wide paper - published by L. L. Bean's granddaughter - called and did a front page "center fold" article on me.
It mushroomed from there: Charlotte called me as did other organizations...and this also led to my being an all expenses paid guest for the Washington "Easgle Forum Conference."
State reps sponsored bills for "Families" - and we fought hard - but our house and senate has been run by the socialists for 40 years now.
I was contacted and given an hour on Boston TV to debate the Lesbian Group that wrote the infamous book, pushed on our school kids "Our Bodies, Ourselves" - given as a "gift" to all schools by Planned Parenthood.
We fought for the right of parents to home school -= at that time, a 'crime' that was landing parents in jail here. (We had an 'underground railroad' to spirit parents and their kids to safety in Canada when the state was moving to take their kids and put them (parents) in jail. (Maine is now the premier state for home schooling - and that is one hard-won right the socialists cannot get back into the bottle.)
I found myself being invited to speak to groups around the state, even to a panelist on state run 'discussion' groups (I had a friend on the inside who would put me on the panel, much to the discomfort of the state robots. I had a lot of fun with those conferences. :o)
I also wrote investigative pieces for the aforementioned paper - once infiltrating a "NO PRESS" meeting of the Maine DSOC - Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee - and blew the lid off, with quotes from our Senate Majority Leader, (dem) who was their head speaker and who held up a card saying: "I, like you, am a card carrying Socialist..." and went on to lament that they were not going to be strong enough (now that Reagan had won) to operate openly as socialists, so their modus operandi would have to be to totally infiltrate and take over the democratic party. Then then outlined their strategy.
Well, on and on - it's really quite easy once you take the first step to get the ball rolling - like groups and folk will find you!
Go get 'em!
(I'm now an ole, retired great-granny...my 'activity' is now restricted to 'mouthing off' :o) -
FYI and I plan to pingify later.
Freepmail wagglebee or little jeremiah to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
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A must read!
Of course you need to let your eyes adjust to CGK's very bright colors!
lol - HEY! Those are the colors RIGHT FROM THE SOURCE! (this time, anyway hehe)... I copied the HTML completely so I could reproduce it as he represented it. :)
I just figured you were back to your old habits! :-)
It's pretty funny you mention that... after I posted the article, I sat there thinking ('Noone is going to click the link, noone ever does, maybe I should explain this is AS the author presented it - [red=important, green=eco agenda, etc]").
I decided not to :) I forgot about my REP for colorplay, it seems!
bfl
Thank you.
I will take the time to do that.
We have ours going to a private Christian school - the best of both worlds.
Not unlike what we might choose if our situation was slightly different. As it is, I was blessed with the opportunity to stay at home with my 4 year old, so have been researching homeschooling since before she was born LOL!
BTTT for an excellent post. Thank you for all the work you've done - what an amazing string of experiences you've had!
PING
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