Posted on 09/04/2009 5:54:03 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Everybody panic! President Obama is going to speak to the nation's schoolchildren on Tuesday. And a new group of worrywarts -- call them "speechers" -- can't stand the idea.
The prospect of the nation's elected leader addressing its youngest citizens has turned into a coast-to-coast freakout, with parents threatening to pull their children from school lest Barack Obama pollute their minds with his thoughts about the importance of staying in school and getting an education. Even schools in the liberal stronghold of northern California, where Barack Obama pulled nearly four times as many votes as John McCain in last year election, are begging parents not to pull their kids from class for the president's address.
The Pleasanton Unified School District east of San Francisco sent parents a note announcing that they may pull their children from the classroom if teachers choose to show the speech, joining a number of school districts coast to coast which are letting parents opt out.
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Obama: The Family Man
Obama's Littlest Constituents In the note, Myla Grasso, a spokesperson for the district, wrote that "there have been some questions from families" about the speech and that "a few parents have expressed concern about their child viewing the President's address." She also added: "Know the facts: Students will not be asked to sign any sort of 'pledge' related to Mr. Obama's speech."
"Speechers," as Twitter's jillosopher has dubbed them, have been spreading the rumor that students would have to pledge support for the president's agenda, a charge tha the White House has denied. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs has dismissed such talk as sign of a political "silly season."
The "speecher" silliness is akin to the persistent critics known as "birthers" who maintain, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that Barack Obama's U.S. birth certificate is somehow suspect. Why dignify the conspiracy theory and let students opt out of hearing from their elected leader?
"We had enough concern about it that we wanted to set the record straight," Grasso told me. "We had parents say that they were going to keep their kids from school."
And that's a bottom-line concern. If enough "speechers" pulled their kids from school, an already-strapped school district would take a further financial hit. The Pleasanton School District has cut its budget by 16 percent -- approximately $17 million -- over the last two years, according to Grasso.
"I think some parents don't realize that any absence, excused or unexcused, costs the district money," says Grasso -- nearly $50 per absent student per day. That's beyond silly, and speaks volumes about "speechers": If Obama's for education, they're against it.
NBC, nobody trusts you. Go away now. Nothing But Crap...
Absences cost the school money? Why?
Obama, like the marine said, “stay away from my kids”!
My kids are going to school, but sitting out of the speech. I also know some other parents who are writing notes to keep their children from indoctrination.
The reaction would have been the same or worse, if President Bush tried this, I guarantee it....and I wouldn't have wanted him to do this, either.
The media should ask just why Zero’s nosedive is occurring and just why the parents don’t trust him.
From what I’ve seen over the past seven months, the Obama Administration has created a new class of enemies and it’s open season on them.
The disingenuous notion that it’s “other” people in his admin who are speaking out of turn is enraging.
The current atmosphere is “Fool me once,” for those who voted for this Joker, the Gollum in the White House.
I’m for the speech, but all the monitors need to have a Joker sticker placed over 0be’s face as he reads from the Soros teleprompter.
I guess those mfers will get out and vote in 2012! Where were they last November?!
Been saying it all along.
Question Obama and you’re a conspiracy theorist no matter what the issue is.
Outright oppose him and you’re a conspirator against him.
Bush couldn't do anything without being excoriated, but The Dear Leader is just so unfairly criticized.
Liberals are fine with living in an Idiocracy, as long as it's their Idiocracy.
Owen has to write garbage like this. His audience is a bunch of dumbasses who expect and want to hear this kind of crap.
Oh, sure.
That's the re-written speech NOW.
Tell me why we should trust this racist, back stabbing liar again?
Tell me why we should trust the liberal teachers, administrators, and union activists?
Face it - liberals got caught, and it is amateur hour in the White House......yet again.
It's not too hard to understand.
Obama never gets anything right. Why should parents trust Obama to speak to their children.
Not me, I'm a Healther.
“Life in the USSR modeled the socialist ideal. God-based religion was suppressed and replaced with cultlike adoration for political figures.” - Perspective of a Russian Immigrant
Schools are paid ADA money.
Average Daily Attendance
This is one reason why people are fleeing from the NBC.
Parents are not upset Obama wants to tell kids to study hard and stay in school, parents are mad as hell that Obama wants students to draft letters to themselves discussing “what they can do to help the president.”
The letters “would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals,” the plan stated.
They are going to be graded on ‘how they helped the president’?
what ever it takes. Liberals can not operate with out govt. money. They don’t know how REAL AMERICANS actually work
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