As the nation’s children return to elementary and secondary schools, it is increasingly essential that their parents and communities coast to coast realize how poorly served they are and how their learning environment is increasingly tainted by a socialist agenda.

Our nation’s schools have long been factories of boredom, centers of academic incompetence. High school graduation rates have been in a fairly steady decline. At its peak in 1969, the rate was 77 percent. By 2007 it was 68.8 percent.

In mid-August, The Wall Street Journal reported that “New data show that fewer than 25% of 2010 graduates who took the ACT college-entrance exam possessed the academic skills necessary to pass entry-level courses, despite modest gains in college-readiness among U.S. high school students in the last few years.”

What caught my eye was a quote from Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, who said that “if our kids aren’t dropping out physically, they are dropping out mentally.”

The subject of education is important because they are the generation to which the future of the nation must be entrusted and “A recent study found the U.S. ranks only 12^th in the percentage of adults aged 25 to 34 who hold college degrees.”

The failure of our nation’s schools, to my mind, coincides with the creation of the U.S. Department of Education in 1979, signed into law by President Jimmy Carter, and which began operating on May 16, 1980.

The word “education” does not appear in the U.S. Constitution and, until the Department of Education came along, it was the responsibility of States and local communities. A government that has managed Conrail since 1976 without once making a profit should not have been trusted with the nation’s educational system.

I opposed No Child Left Behind when former President Bush proposed it and, like former President Reagan, I have long believed the Department of Education should be ended and that responsibility be returned to the States and local communities. The DOE exists today as little more than an obstacle to learning in the classroom and a giant funding machine.

The DOE is pretty much owned by the National Education Association which is not an “association”, but a powerful union, the largest with an estimated 3.2 members. The Democrat Party is heavily indebted to it for funds and campaign workers.

It is doubtful that most Americans know that, for the past several months, the NEA’s website has recommended that its members read “Rules for Radicals” by the late Saul Alinsky, a dedicated communist. If NEA members adopt its political agenda, the enemy will literally be in our nation’s classrooms.

It has not gone unnoticed that Obama’s “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act”, otherwise known as the “Stimulus Act” enabled the education lobby to suck up billions more from taxpayers.

The Act allocated $5 billion to early learning programs, including the failed Head Start and Early Head Start, child care and programs for children with special needs. It also allocated $77 billion for “reforms” to allegedly strengthen elementary and secondary education, including $48.6 billion to “stabilize” state education budgets. It was a Full Employment Act for teachers and school administrators.

Apparently those billions were not enough because on August 11, President Obama signed a bill authorizing an additional $10 billion to states for education salaries. The Senate was so concerned the money might be spent for other purposes it included a provision that the money could not be used for anything else.

It apparently was not enough because in July the NEA president, Dennis Van Roekel, was calling for a complete overhaul of the No Child Left Behind Act, one that is entirely test-based without any notice of the fact that individual children learn at different rates. He didn’t much like the Obama Race to the Top program where schools competed for grants if they demonstrated any improvement in learning and graduation rates. Another $3.4 billion in grants is at yet unspent. Roekel didn’t like the idea of competition.

Clearly, schools that are graduating students ill-prepared to go onto college and that continue to experience high dropout rates are doing something wrong. Putting kids into teach-to-the-test straight jackets is not working.

In a new book by Dr. Tim Elmore, “Generation iY: Our Last Change to Save Their Future”, the author who founded a non-profit organization, Growing Leaders, writes that “I have spoken to employers who told me they will never hire another new graduate. I have heard teachers say they can hardly wait for retirement since they can’t do a thing about kids today. I’ve had parents confide in me that they don’t know what to do with their kids except scream at them.”

Statistics published by UNESCO and the CIA reveal that, while American students spend twelve years in school, ranking them first out of a hundred, they rank fifteenth out of twenty-seven in terms of literacy. Their math and science scores are poor. They poll at 35%, fifth out of seventeen, for their dislike of school, and 61%, second out of seventeen, find school boring.

The schools are failing, the students are being cheated of the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to become productive adults, and the U.S. government thinks that, if it just spends a few more billions, this will change. It won’t.

The federal government must get out of the education business, must devolve responsibility back to the states and local communities, and they in turn should refuse to deal with teachers unions in order to regain control over the education of the nation’s most precious resource, its children.

Alan Caruba blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author, science and business writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

 

WesternFront America

by Larry Miller

It’s easy to get caught up in the fight to keep our country free and forget our real purpose on earth. It was outlined when Jesus told his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We see the shenanigans of the Obama administration and the machinations of SEIU, ACORN, NEA and the whole alphabet soup of other leftist groups looking to pick our pockets and run our lives. But we have to keep in mind who the real enemy is while we follow James Madison’s advice that “Resistance to tyranny is service to God.”

We may not have much of a chance of changing the leaders, but the voters that picked these leaders will only change when they have a change of heart. We see tea parties increasing in influence, but how much better would it be if the values of the founders were internalized once again by the American people? And how much better for them as well if many could be shown the error of the “social gospel” or “liberation theology” ways?

As angry as we can get with Barack Hussein Obama, Andy Stern, John Holdren, Rahm Emanuel and the whole gang leading this country astray, we need to remember the words of Ephesians 6:12 that tells us “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (NIV)

Seeing these people as victims themselves is not falling into the same trap that they are setting for the country by declaring everyone to be some sort of victim in need of governmental assistance. It also does not mean that we give them a pass for their nefarious deeds, but it does somehow mellow the personal aspect of our struggle.

Now being viewed this way will send many of the secular statists of both parties bouncing off the wall, causing them to increase their hostility, yet I believe it is the way we must go. That doesn’t mean we roll over when confronted by their plans to deify leaders and the state. Our task is to put everything we have into the fight, but to keep in mind that the real enemy is spiritual and that is how we need to fight the fight.

We need to fight this battle on our knees, in the state houses, in Washington and anywhere else we have to smack down these intrusions on the liberty of the American people. If we recognize this, we can count on the promise that the battle is not ours, but the Lords. Not only the battle, but the ultimate victory.

Originally posted at Political Christian © Larry Miller

 

WesternFront America

The left tends to define Conservatives by what they are against, rather that what they favor or support.  While this is a little piece of propaganda, i.e., “the party of no,” I think it’s always useful to define what we are supporting.  So, I thought I might review a few issues that most Conservatives and Libertarians would be able to support, and are, frankly, important to me.  As such, these are my opinions, not necessarily the opinions of the other contributors at the CH 2.0.  They are open for debate, as debate is good.

As for the series, I will cover what I think Conservative politicians should pursue.  I know repealing ObamaCare will be attempted (or there will be more “angry mobs”).  I also know that there will be other things that will need removing.  But rather than say what we’re against, and it’s pretty obvious what those things are, I will discuss things that we are for.

My top priority has most always been to free our children from the government and it’s influences.  I have posted several times before regarding the openly stated goal of achieving socialism by infiltrating the major institutions of our society and using them to manipulate the people towards a pre-determined goal.  That goal of course, is socialism (or fascism, or progressivism-all closely related).  The weapon of choice is Cultural Marxism, and the targets are children.  Here are some quotes from public education supporters to justify this point of view.

John Dewey, called “the father of modern education,” was an avowed socialist, the co-author of the ‘Humanist Manifesto’ and cited as belonging to fifteen Marxist-front organizations by the Committee on Un-American Activities. Do the words (the father of modern education) now take on new meaning? Remember, Dewey taught the professors who would train America’s teachers. He was obsessed with “the group.” In his own words, “You can’t make socialists out of individualists. Children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society which is coming, where everyone is interdependent.”

Paul Haubner, specialist for the NEA, tells us, “The schools cannot allow parents to influence the kind of values-education their children receive in school. That is what is wrong with those who say there is a universal system of values. Our goals are incompatible with theirs. We must change their values.”

Professor Chester M. Pierce, M.D., Professor of Education and Psychiatry at Harvard, has this to say, “Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill because he comes to school with certain allegiances to our Founding Fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being, and toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It’s up to you as teachers to make all these sick children well — by creating the international child of the future.”

In the Humanist Review magazine it was observed that, “Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism. What can a theistic Sunday school’s meeting for an hour once a week and teaching only a fraction of the children do to stem the tide of the five-day program of humanistic teaching?”

P. Blanchard, in ‘The Humanist” 1983, continues: “I think that the most important factor moving us toward a secular society has been the educational factor. Our schools may not teach Johnny how to read properly, but the fact that Johnny is in school until he is 16 tends toward the elimination of religious superstition. The average American child now acquires a high school education, and this militates against Adam and Eve and all other myths of alleged history.”

So, for many decades now, there has been a concerted effort to take over our education system.  They have succeeded.    The system itself is now set up as a progressive manipulation machine.  Why try for universal daycare?  To separate kids from the parents!  Why belittle and attempt to limit home schooling, especially when home schooled kids, as a group, out perform the public schools by a large margin?  It’s all about control!  Get the kids away from the parents, and their beliefs, and indoctrinate them into the collective/progressive drones of the future.

I wrote this a few months ago…

People that believe in freedom are already the new pariahs for the left.  One only needs to look at the media coverage of the Tea Parties to confirm this.  The drumbeat will only grow.  As it does, the left will continue to indoctrinate more and more children.  We might yet defeat the socialized medicine, and we might prevent passage of Cap and Trade.  Obama may lose his congressional majorities in 2010.  He might even be defeated in 2012.  But if we continue to give our kids to the government every day, those victories will be temporary, delaying the socialists for a few years to be sure, but in the end, futile.

So, what is the solution?  The Parental Rights Amendment has been discussed since the 90’s.  It’s gaining more and more traction as our government becomes increasingly intrusive.  Its text is simple.  The following is from the site that supports the Amendment, with an explanation of each of the three sections.

SECTION ONE

The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right.

In the 1925 decision of Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a compulsory attendance act that required all parents to send their students to public schools, instead of private or religious schools. The court concluded that the act was unconstitutional because it “unreasonably interferes with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.”

Section Two

Neither the United States nor any State shall infringe upon this right without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served.

Because fundamental rights are so important to our freedom as Americans, the government must meet a heightened burden of proof in order to restrict those rights. In legal terms, the government’s case begins with a positive demonstration – they must prove that there is a government interest in restricting the right, and that the government has a specific interest in restricting the right of the particular parents whose actions are being challenged. In early 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court used this very language when talking about violations of religious liberty. According to the Court, the government must “demonstrate that the compelling interest test is satisfied through application of the challenged law ‘to the person’–the particular claimant whose sincere exercise of religion is being substantially burdened.” Gonzales v. O Centro Espirito Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, 548 U.S. 418, 430-431 (2006). The text of this proposed parental rights amendment merely takes this well-established principle of law, and applies it explicitly to the fundamental right of parents.

SECTION THREE

No treaty may be adopted nor shall any source of international law be employed to supersede, modify, interpret, or apply to the rights guaranteed by this article.

According to Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, international law is comprised of international treaties, international customs which have been accepted as law by general practice, the general principles of law recognized in civilized nations, and the judicial decisions and teachings of legal authors and scholars. All four channels of international law currently pose a significant threat to parental rights.

The Parental Rights Amendment would prohibit the use of all four sources of international law in determining what rights of parents should be protected. Treaties that were ratified by the United States would need to be interpreted in light of what the Amendment guarantees to citizens, instead of using the treaty to interpret the meaning and extent of constitutional liberties. Furthermore, federal courts would not be able to impose harmful principles of customary international law on parents, because the rights granted in the text of the Constitution override and overwhelm conflicting principles of customary international law.

So, this would protect the rights of parents to raise them in accordance with their wishes and conscience.  It would provide safeguards against child abuse, and would, at the same time, make children immune from such things as UN treaties that undermine families.

Will this prevent the schools from being indoctrination centers?  No.  Will it make all the Marxist professors or “progressive” educational programs go way?  Also no.  What it will do is “etch in stone” the rights of parents to guide the upbringing of children.  It prevents the government from moving on desired usurpations of rights, and it gives parents recourse to defend their children against the indoctrination machine.

So, why make this first?  For me, it protects our children from indoctrination.  It frees home-schooled families from the fear of one day being forced to subject their children to something they may not want.  But also, it is achievable; the left will have to ties itself into knots to not appear to be anti-family.  It could also give a new Conservative administration or Congress a quick win.

Now, some will say that I’m being political and playing the game.  Perhaps that is true.  But I know the left will have a significant reaction to this.  Untold billions of dollars are tied up in the public indoctrination machine.  The unions, the special interests, and the politicians that want a complaint army of useful idiots, all have a stake in indoctrinating youth.  They won’t let this pass lying down.  So, we structure the fight so they have to show their true colors.  Let them come with false claims.  We’ll show where the money goes.  Let them deride the supporters of the Amendment.  We’ll point out that they are anti-family.  We don’t have to lie, or invent any evidence.  They do.  Let them fall on their swords for it.  It’ll take the wind out of their sails for other efforts.

© Matt Ross

Originally posted at Conservative Hideout 2.0

The Liberty Pen

 

WesternFront America