Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Why We Need To Be Concerned About Education

The more I read the more disturbed I become.  This note provides a case in point.  Most Americans absolutely believe that a good education is vitally important to us, our children and grandchildren, and our nation.  However, in their zeal to pursue their specific objectives the liberal/progressive political/educational establishment is doing all of us, themselves included, a gross disservice.  Here are a few random examples which  make the point.
 
1.  You will recall the hype that followed implementation of the sequester.  As this article notes, in a television interview shortly after its enactment Secretary of Education Duncan made a claim that he was unable to later substantiate warning that teachers were getting pink slips and more would follow.  Education as we know it would come to a halt. Here is a quote that makes Duncan's remarks border on the ridiculous: "From 1970 to 2010, student enrollment in the nation’s public schools increased by only 7.8 percent. The number of teachers, however, increased by 60 percent." Could one interpret those numbers to mean that maybe some of those teachers should be laid off?  The article continues:  'Twenty-one 'Top-Heavy States’ employ fewer teachers than other non-teaching personnel,' according to a new report by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice that focuses on the worst offenders. 'Thus, those 21 states have more administrators and other non-teaching staff on the public payroll than teachers. Virginia ‘leads the way’ with 60,737 more administrators and other non-teaching staff than teachers in its public schools.”  Can you believe that?  And I am sure you also remember the education establishment's mantra that schools need more money.  What?  To pay for more administrators? To collect more union dues?   For sure if any lay-offs were to become necessary, bloated administrative staffs should be the first to go.  Check the link.  http://townhall.com/columnists/edfeulner/2013/03/09/a-lesson-in-education-hyperbole-n1529333?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
 
2.  If you have not already seen or read about this item, sit down please.  A Tulane University professor has publicly made the following proclamation: “We have never invested as much in public education as we should have because we’ve always had a private notion of children, your kid is yours and totally your responsibility. We haven’t had a very collective notion of these are our children.  So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families and recognize that kids belong to whole communities."  So, according to her, our children do not belong to us they, instead, belong to communities, ie; governments.  This is remanisant of Hillary Clinton's It Takes A Village.  Anyone who is familiar with the views of Marx and Engles will recognize this as being a distinctly communist view.  No parent I know thinks they "own" their children but they absolutely do know that the government doesn't.  This woman either does not know her facts or she knowingly lies...we are at or near the top of the list of advanced nations in our investment in educating our children.  But we are in the middle of the pack in educational achievements.  The far left wing MSNBC cable channel has seen fit to give her a platform to spout her radical views.  Remember, she is a vaunted professor, so her views must be right.  Right? Not!!!  See these links  :http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/blog/index.php/2013/04/melissa-harris-perry-says-your-kids-belong-to-whole-communities/  and  http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/04/07/MSNBC-Host-Says-Children-Belong-To-The-Community-Not-Their-Parents
 
3.  Talking about professors, lets consider another one.  This one may be a bit hard to swallow but bear with me.  Dr. William Ayers, a retired professor of education at the University of Chicago, has what can only be considered a very dark history.  Nonetheless, it was in Dr. Ayers house that President Obama's political career was launched.  Ayers himself confirms this as fact.  Regarding his relationship with Obama here is what he told the Daily Beast during a recent interview: “We were friendly, that was true; we served on a couple of boards together, that was true; he held a fundraiser in our living room, that was true; Michelle [Obama] and Bernardine [Ayers' wife] were at the law firm together, that was true. Hyde Park in Chicago is a tiny neighborhood, so when he said I was ‘a guy around the neighborhood,’ that was true.”  Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/bill-ayers-confirms-what-obama-has-denied/#E4vEL1BXR8UgSu1F.99   Let's get an even better understanding of Ayers' background and what must be the nature of his ongoing influence in developing Obama's educational policies/programs. Here is a quote from the next link:  "Working behind the scenes, implementing these [Common Core - more below] policies and writing the standards are associates from President Obama’s community organizing days. In de facto control of the education component is Linda Darling-Hammond, a radical left-wing educator and close colleague of William “Bill” Ayers, the former leader of the communist terrorist Weather Underground who became a professor of education and friend of Obama’s."  Afraid of the political consequences of admitting to an association with Ayers, prior to his election in 2008 Obama insisted that he barely knew Ayers - that was a lie.  Further confirmation of the relationship between Obama and Ayers is provided in this quote from the link:  "The two had worked together closely from the year Ayers hosted a political launch party for Obama, in 1995, to 2002. At the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, “the brainchild of Bill Ayers,” they funneled more that $100 million to radical groups like ACORN and Gamaliel, which used the funds to promote radical education.[i] This initiative was also promoted by Arne Duncan, now Secretary of Education. Also as board members of the Woods Fund, Ayers and Obama channeled money to ACORN and the Midwest Academy.[ii]"  There is much more that should concern you about the direction Obama with Ayers' help are taking American education. Read further details here:  http://www.aim.org/special-report/terrorist-professor-bill-ayers-and-obamas-federal-school-curriculum/
 
4.  Common Core is a little known and little understood initiative that has Ayers' fingerprints all over it.  Just what is Common Core?  This lift from a previous link will help. "Three years after the Department of Education announced a contest called Race-to-the-Top for $4.35 billion in stimulus funds, some parents, teachers, governors, and citizen and public policy groups are coming to an awful realization about the likely outcomes:
  • A national curriculum called Common Core
  • Regionalism, or the replacement of local governments by federally appointed bureaucrats
  • A leveling of all schools to one, low national standard, and a redistribution of education funds among school districts
  • An effective federal tracking of all students
  • The loss of the option of avoiding the national curriculum and tests through private school and home school"
While there are differing views about Common Core a growing number of citizens are increasingly concerned.  It has the hallmarks of a federal government attempt to seize control of and administer America's school system from a centralized and demonstratively inefficient and ineffective bureaucracy, the Department of Education.  Here are a few links that will help you understand the reasons for alarm: http://townhall.com/columnists/marygrabar/2013/04/05/common-core-when-radicals-defend-standards-n1558219?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl  and  http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/344897/why-there-s-backlash-against-common-core-lindsey-m-burke and this one helps teachers learn how to teach Common Core http://townhall.com/columnists/marygrabar/2013/04/01/dissident-prof-dispatch-common-core-teaching-demonstrating-a-crucifixion-n1554578?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl  and this one shows how the UN is involved in American education and the implications of their involvement http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/03/common-core-standards-the-un-has-penetrated-americas-public-school-system-supporting-videos-2600842.html  and this one extends discussion of UN envolvement and its socialistic principles 
 
For anyone just itching to learn more about where the liberal/progressive far left establishment is taking our education system, the below links are provided for you perusal.  Please share this note with others...we must not let what we now know is happening right before our eyes to continue.  Nice sounding words from those in charge hide the truth of the nefarious deeds they weave while far too many of us sleep.  Please wake up as many as you can and join the fight to stop this tragedy.  
 
George Burns
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

1 comment:

Ann Mosley said...

Quite a lot of valuable information and resources, thanks for sharing. And I have to agree, they are doing everything to ruin education system. The cost of tuition keeps grooving and students have to take enormous loans. of course it’s easier when your parents are ready to pay your college expenses and you can get custom essay writing online to have high grades. While talented but poor students have to give up on higher education and look for a job, it’s absurd. I really hope it will change soon enough, we need proper education and qualified graduates.