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The NEA’s (National Education Association’s, a.k.a. Nefarious Elitist A****’) recommended reading list includes two books by Brother O mentor and communist community organizer Saul Alinsky that advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. The Democrat-controlled teachers’ union praises Alinsky’s Reveille for Radicals and Rules for Radicals as “an inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community! And to every organizer!” The following book quotations are from the NEA website: “The Radical does not sit frozen by cold objectivity. He sees injustice and strikes at it with hot passion. He is a man of decision and action. “Society has good...

More city kids are graduating from high school, but that doesn't mean they can do college math. Basic algebra involving fractions and decimals stumped a group of City University of New York freshmen - suggesting city schools aren't preparing them... "These results are shocking," ... "They show that a disturbing proportion of New York City high school graduates lack basic skills." During their first math class at one of CUNY's four-year colleges, 90% of 200 students tested couldn't solve a simple algebra problem... Only a third could convert a fraction into a decimal. The lack of math skills means the...

California's educrats have put out new rules for teaching Islamic studies to seventh-graders in public schools, and they are as biased as ever. They'll also likely spread eastward. The lesson guidelines adopted by the bellwether state whitewash the violence and oppression of women codified in Islamic law, or Shariah. And they're loaded with revisionist history about the faith. In fact, "wife beating is allowed under Shariah" today, she added. "It allows a woman seen without a headdress to be flogged, punishes rape victims, and calls for beheading for adultery." California's course on world religions also omits Islam's long history of...

What’s most amazing to me, is that even among liberals there are very few people who can justify an anti-school choice stance. If it seems as though this video contains some “straw man” arguments… Believe me, it’s just THAT hard to find a logical case against school choice. If anyone can think of a more valid reason that hasn’t been included in the video, be sure to comment it below.

The total lack of respect among some of the young punks roaming the streets of America is absolutely appalling. They have no respect for their teachers, parents, law enforcement, neighbors, America, the rule of law, any authority or themselves. Some punks have no respect for your life or their own pathetic lives, and that makes them extremely dangerous. Rarely does a week go by that I don't read an article or hear of a teacher being attacked by one of these vicious punks in our schools. As I write this from moose camp in the Yukon Territory, this past week...

Two hours into a government shutdown last night, the Michigan legislature caved on passing a set of budget bills and instead approved a temporary measure that keeps the government running for another 30 days. The midnight hold-up: approval of a K-12 budget that cuts school aid fund spending by less than 3% ($218 per pupil). The demand: higher taxes on Michigan residents...

WASHINGTON – Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way. Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe. "Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

As a person working in education and a former school student I have to say that this is one of the dumbest requests I've heard in at least a week. President Obama looks like he will bow to the radical left-wing of the Education lobby and may increase not only the school day, but also the length of the school year.

High school dropouts, who are more likely to commit crimes than their peers with diplomas, cost the state $1.1 billion annually in law enforcement and victim costs while still minors, according to a study being released today. The California Dropout Research Project at UC Santa Barbara found that cutting the dropout rate in half would prevent 30,000 juvenile crimes and save $550 million every year. "This study demonstrates the immediate impact dropouts have on both public safety and the economy," said project Director Russell W. Rumberger. "If California could reduce the dropout rate, it could subsequently reduce the juvenile crime...

over the last six years, Buffalo taxpayers have paid millions of dollars to teachers not to teach. Twelve different teachers have collected $2.25 million in salary while under suspension and waiting for disciplinary hearings during that time. And that amount doesn't include the costs for substitutes and the hearings themselves. The average wait for those hearings: three years. The school district doesn't release the names of the teachers, or what they've been charged with, but we've learned that right now there's a Physical Education teacher awaiting a hearing who was suspended four years ago this month and has been paid...

With states across the country facing huge budget deficits and potential devastating cuts to services, the time has come to start charging parents tuition for their children’s public school education. If parents of the 47 million students in the United States who attend kindergarten through 12th grade were billed $360 per child per year — that’s $2 a day for each of the 180 days of instruction — nearly $17 billion would be generated. Can half of America’s parents afford $360 per year for each of their children? For the price of a cup of coffee, a child can get...

It was indeed a heartwarming moment. With teachers, representatives, and affiliates to the National Education Association's annual convention gathered around, the NEA's retiring General Counsel Bob Chanin took to the stage to deliver his outgoing remarks. His inspiring and uplifting message asserted the profound commitment held by the NEA to the betterment of American society: "We are not paranoid, someone really is after us. Why are these conservative and right-wing b****rds picking on NEA and its affiliates? I will tell you why: it is the price we pay for success." As one of those right-wing "fatherless lads" Mr. Chanin was...

For years, top Manhattan public schools have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from parents to independently hire assistants to help teachers with reading, writing, tying shoelaces or supervising recess. But after a complaint by the city’s powerful teachers union, the Bloomberg administration has ordered an end to the makeshift practice. Principals have been told that any such aides hired for the coming school year must be employees of the Department of Education, their positions included in official school budgets. But such employees can command nearly double the pay of the independently hired assistants, and several schools on the Upper...

During its late conference held during the Independence Day holiday weekend, the National Education Association took up a series of new resolutions that targeted charter schools. The union was looking for ways to reign in the success of charter schools to make their own woeful attempts at education in the public schools look better. The union was also looking for ways to cash in on charter school's success as well as for a way to get more union oversight into them. But, here is the thing: when they work, charter schools work because they have less union meddling involved in...

I have written a great deal about the feminization of America's boys. While Feminists have become more masculine with every passing year, men and boys have become wimpy, feminized and afraid of their own shadows. About five years ago at a Boy Scout meeting for my son who had been recently promoted to Boy Scout from Weeblos, I looked around the room and shivered. I leaned over to my husband and whispered, "There's not a single male role model in this room." Shortly after that meeting, my son changed Boy Scout troops to another where men ran the troop -...

A number of reports are making their way into the press about how various teachers' unions are being hurt by the drop in the stock market. It is realistic to assume that the leaders and many, though not all, members of the teachers' unions are liberal Democrat Obama supporters. So, let us see how it is going for them. The Minnesota state teachers pension fund is hurt badly by the drop in stock prices - and they want a government bailout. I gather they aren't members of the Ayn Rand Institute. Some quotes from Twin Cities' own Star Tribune: Through their Education Minnesota...

Democrats are once again proving that "choice" as it relates to children applies only to killing them, not to parents choosing where to educate them. Sorry, but for pro-choice politicians to argue against school choice shows that they care only about the teachers unions that elect them, and not for the lives of the people they represent. The Washington Post called congressional democrats on their hypocrisy in an editorial today: REP. DAVID R. Obey (Wis.) and other congressional Democrats should spare us their phony concern about the children participating in the District's school voucher program. If they cared for the...

Westview Elementary in Phenix City will host "A Salute to Barack Obama" tonight at 6 p.m. at the school on Ingersoll Drive. The program is part of the school's black history month celebration and will feature student performances, dances and skits. For more information on the program, contact the school at 334-298-4507 ************** Sara Pauff spauff@ledger-enquirer.com

Have a look at the brief clip MSNBC aired this afternoon of Michelle Obama’s remarks made during her appearance today at the Department of Education, and tell me if it sounds to you like someone: a. committed to the kind of tough, innovative reforms needed to turn our failing schools around; or b. more interested in preserving the kind of status quo that the teachers unions favor, with an emphasis on maintaining federal funding flows? Listen also to the reaction from the Education Department employees audible in the clip. Are these people cheering serious reform to come, or the assurance...

Some schoolchildren stood and recited the oath along with the new president. Others shouted "Amen" at the end of the invocation. But perhaps no school in the country celebrated the historic inauguration of the nation's 44th president with more enthusiasm than the hundreds of students at the newly renamed Barack Obama Elementary School in Hempstead, Long Island. "I was just speechless. I don't even have the words to explain the feelings," said Principal Jean Bligen, who won tickets to the inauguration in a lottery, but decided the only place she wanted to be Tuesday was with her students. "It was...

The end of the year is traditionally a time of appraising the last year, and estimating what the next will bring. I’ll skip my personal history and my estimates for my family. Instead, the subject is what I have done for almost 40 years, now. I’ve spent those years primarily in research, writing, teaching, and practicing constitutional law. At this time, I conclude that the Constitution is in serious trouble. The idea of creating a democratic republic was extremely rare in 1776 when the intent was stated in the Declaration, as in 1787 when the Constitution was written. The irony...

Grammar (Time, one hour) 1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters. 2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications. 3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph. 4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of do, lie, lay and run. 5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case. 6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation. 7-10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar. Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours) 1. Name and define the Fundamental...

Nothing dramatizes the two-tier public-education system quite like the announcement by the First Couple that their daughters, 10 and 7, will attend Sidwell Friends, perhaps the elitist of the elite private schools in Washington, tuition $30,000 a year. "Sidwell," the parents joke, "is where Episcopalians teach Jews how to be Quakers." The Obamas called Sidwell, as the locals refer to it, the "best fit" of security and comfort for their children. No doubt. Few begrudge the Parents in Chief seeking the best education money can buy. It's easier than choosing a puppy. Unfortunately, most Americans don't have that kind of...

Can Barack Obama bring change to American education? The answer is: Yes he can. The question, however, is whether he actually will. Our president-elect has the potential to be an extraordinary leader, and that's why I've supported him since the beginning of his campaign. But on public education, he and the Democrats are faced with a dilemma that has boxed in the party for decades. Democrats are fervent supporters of public education, and the party genuinely wants to help disadvantaged kids stuck in bad schools. But it resists bold action. It is immobilized. Impotent. The explanation lies in its longstanding...

BISMARCK – North Dakota’s new Teacher of the Year was barred from a reception held to honor top teachers because she declined to join the North Dakota Education Association, education officials said.

Watch our latest TV ad to learn the truth about teaching gay marriage in public schools if Proposition 8 fails http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l61Pd5_jHQw

The New York City teachers’ union filed a federal lawsuit on Friday claiming that a policy banning political pins and signs in schools violates teachers’ First Amendment rights by blocking them from political expression. The lawsuit comes nearly two weeks after the Department of Education sent a memo to principals directing them to enforce the longstanding regulation, which requires that all school staff members show “complete neutrality” while on duty. The policy also prohibits teachers from using school property to promote a candidate. Randi Weingarten, president of the union, the United Federation of Teachers, said that while the policy has...

Teachers union e-mail touting Obama scorned Mike Drost Thursday, October 2, 2008 An e-mail distributed by a Virginia teachers union encouraged members to bring politics into the classroom by wearing blue in support of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and simultaneously suggested that the union's voter registration efforts include those "you teach." The Virginia Education Association (VEA) e-mail drew strong criticism Wednesday from elected Republican officials and some residents after the state Republican Party obtained a copy. The author of the e-mail conceded Wednesday that the e-mail should have been worded differently. The VEA is an affiliate of the...

Interestingly, several unions have this convention season tried to cross the aisle from their usual Democrat side over to Republicans looking to garner support from the Red States. The National Journal has an interesting little account of the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and the National Education Association (NEA) and a few others trying to warm up to Republicans soft on worker freedom. Under Stern, the SEIU is making a concerted effort to build bridges with the GOP, and for the first time ever it helped to finance a Republican convention by giving $50,000 to the host committee. Furthermore, the...

When I listen to the AFT and NEA union thug bosses at the DNC two things POP out at me. 1) The teacher's Unions are firmly in the pocket of the Democrats, or vice versa. We will never have education reform until people understand the unions are political big government liberals, not interested in education, only interested in more pay for less work (smaller classes and thus the need for more dues paying teachers). 2) Their message alwasy goes unchallenged by the media. Thre is no connection with higher per pupil spending and educational outcomes - it's time to freeze...

DENVER -- The Denver Public Schools' pay-for-performance plan to motivate teachers was hailed as a model for the rest of the country when it took effect three years ago. It now stands on the verge of collapse after months of contract negotiations have stalemated. Some teachers have staged sick-outs; others plan to welcome families back to school this week by handing out fliers denouncing the district's contract offer. There is even talk of a strike. National education experts are dismayed. If merit pay can't work in Denver, "future initiatives are destined to fail," said Matthew Springer, director of the National...

...On May 29, 2008 the Worcester Telegram & Gazette published a story concerning a ten year boy who was immediately suspended when a school employee found him with a spent blank shell. According to the story entitled "Souvenir Rifle Shell Gets 4th Grader Suspended" the young man was given two of the spent casings by a uniformed veteran after a Memorial Day event. "This is a tragic example of how far over the edge this state and our schools have gone. For the school officials to react in such a manner is simply inexcusable," said Jim Wallace Executive Director of...

Unsigned fliers in city schools urge 'job actions' . Not a single classroom teacher showed up for work at a northwest Denver school on Tuesday, an apparent "sickout" staged by teachers upset over stalled contract talks. All 16 classroom teachers plus the music teacher and a librarian called in sick... "I didn't have any warning," Kraft said. "I don't know what the goal is, so I can't really speak to whether or not that accomplished their goal. . . . (But) I'm not sure if leaving your students without a teacher is a way to address contract negotiations." DPS Superintendent...

That $13.2 million grant Washington state won last year to enhance the teaching of Advanced Placement courses in math and science is history. It’s lost because of the financial incentives it would have provided for teachers who improve test scores. The Washington Education Association didn’t much like the idea of tying teacher pay to student performance on exams. Neither did the teachers union like the involvement of an outside party, the grant provider, in teacher-pay decisions.

Berman Challenges Teachers Union's Payroll Deductions File State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler By ROY MAYNARD Staff Writer State Rep. Leo Berman has requested an attorney general’s opinion on whether it’s lawful for teachers unions to use payroll deductions to fund political campaigns. The Tyler Republican and chairman of the House Elections Committee says it’s a direct challenge to the Texas State Teachers Association Political Action Committee, which tends to contribute to far more Democrats than Republicans. The payroll deductions are voluntary, but Berman says it takes state time and resources to administer the deduction system — and that’s what he...

Conservative Christian leaders are outraged at the California appeals court decision last week rejecting a parent's right to educate their children at home. “What has occurred is another egregious decision handed down by a California appeals court that strikes at the very heart and soul of families and their children," said Focus on the Family founder and chairman Dr. James Dobson, in a broadcast Friday. "How dare these judges have the audacity to label tens of thousands of parents criminals – the equivalent to drug dealers or pickpockets – because they want to raise and educate their children according to...

Via Matt Drudge we learn that an appeals court in California has ruled that parents can only homeschool their children if they hold a valid teaching credential. Forget, for now, about the incredible infringement upon individual liberty this is. Or the hubris of those who assert that only WE know, and only WE have the right to dictate, what your child should be taught. Forget the objective evidence that homeschooled kids get an actual education at least as good as, if not usually better than, that doled out by the public school system. Forget what this means for kids who...

February 13, 2008 Dear xxxxxx, All knew that Tuesday’s news of Virginia’s Presidential primaries would dominate Wednesday’s front pages. The Governor chose this day to announce his budget cuts, including cuts to K-12 public education? Coincidence? Undoubtedly, the Governor did his best to spare K-12 given the constraints he perceives. But, given the fact that Virginians hold education to be the most important issue before the General Assembly, should he challenge the constraints that bind him? Is his decision the best one for Virginia’s children in the long run? At the Governor’s press conference revenue projections were downgraded. Anticipated increases...

ALBANY — Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to contain the rising property taxes that support New York’s schools could mean a confrontation with the state’s largest teachers’ union, whose president said on Thursday he was wary of a new commission leading the effort. ... Mr. Spitzer raised eyebrows in his speech when he said the new commission would be vested with powers from the Moreland Act, a century-old law giving commissions subpoena power in investigations of government entities. It will allow the commission to dig into a variety of information related to school district spending, including the costs of energy, administration...

MADISON, Wis.—Reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic and organized labor? The three Rs would be joined by mandatory instruction on collective bargaining and the history of unions in America under a proposal being considered in the Wisconsin Legislature. Labor unions are all for it. School groups aren't. The bill, by Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, would require every school board to incorporate the history of organized labor and the collective bargaining process into its curriculum. It's appalling how little high school graduates know about unions and labor history, said David Nack with the Wisconsin Labor History Society. A law is needed because...

Last week, Clark Baker gave us a disturbing inside look at the disaster known in Los Angeles as LAUSD. This week, he points out that LAUSD has decided to "fix" the problem by changing public perceptions rather than actually doing anything for the students. LAUSD's Image MakeoverBy Clark BakerThe Daily News reports that Los Angeles Unified School District officials have quietly hired two consultants to help improve their public image. The recent hirings come in addition to a six-person communications staff with a nearly $1.4 million budget, an overall $10 million communications budget, and a separate consulting contract with Darry...

COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Maybe Mitt Romney should study his family tree. Surprised to see a distant relative in the front row at a campaign stop Wednesday, the Republican presidential hopeful interrupted his education speech at a children's museum to introduce her. "In the front row over here is my niece, Heather Glenn," Romney said. "That's probably not your last name anymore, Heather. But Heather is a school teacher. Are you a school teacher?" "No. I'm a pediatrician," she responded. "She's a pediatrician," Romney said, to laughter. "Deals with kids. I haven't seen Heather in, um, 20 years. Good to...

According to the NYPD, teenage boys at Pace High School were recently targeted as customers at a nearby brothel, located on 39 Eldridge St. Building owners Benjie Zheng and Ming Liuchang allegedly passed out game cards to male students as they left the High School building. The playing cards had explicit pictures of naked women with a contact number and the word "good" printed across it. The ping-pong hall served as a storefront while the undercover operation was held behind closed doors. "I think that the standards of the way people live are going down," freshman Steven Collins said. "This...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Acting on behalf of its more than 1.4 million members, the executive council of the American Federation of Teachers today endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president, citing her proven ability to advance our nation’s key priorities, and her bold plans for a stronger America. “Our members have told us that they want a leader they can trust to strengthen public education, increase access to healthcare, promote commonsense economic priorities and secure America’s place in the world,” said AFT President Edward J. McElroy. “Hillary Clinton is that leader.” Clinton thanked the AFT executive council for the union’s...

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But not a one of them even whispered a word of outrage about a public school system that spends $13,000 per child -- third-highest among big-city school systems -- and produces pupils who score among the lowest in just about any category you can name. The only area in which the Washington school system is No. 1 is in money spent on administration. Chests should not swell with pride. The litany of more and more when it comes to money often has little to do with what, in the military, are called facts on the ground: kids and parents. It...

Democracy is rule by persuasion, but the unpersuasive often try to coerce the unpersuaded. Recent days have provided two illustrations of this tendency, both of them pertaining to labor unions, whose decades of declining membership testify to their waning power to persuade workers that unions add more value to workers' lives than they subtract. Failing unions, like failing industries, turn to government for protection in the form of coercion. Failing industries have traditionally sought corporate welfare in the form of tariffs (coercion of consumers). Unions seek laws to confer what their persuasiveness cannot convince people to consent to. Last Thursday,...

Now that Congress is debating whether – and in what form – to renew No Child Left Behind (NCLB), some legislators on both sides of the aisle are openly wondering whether it’s time to face the reality that some children will never catch up, no matter what.When Congress passed NCLB in 2002, the breakthrough federal education program aimed to have every public school student – whether middle class or poor, white or minority, native born or illegal alien - performing at grade level in reading and math by 2014. Robert L. Linn, co-director of the National Center for Research on...

AUSTIN — Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs lambasted teacher unions today, claiming no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers. Jobs compared schools to businesses with principals serving as CEOs. "What kind of person could you get to run a small business if you told them that when they came in they couldn't get rid of people that they thought weren't any good?" he asked to loud applause during an education reform conference. "Not really great ones because if you're really smart you go, 'I can't win.'" "This unionization and lifetime...

...This is the most widely held myth about education in America--and the one most directly at odds with the available evidence. Few people are aware that our education spending per pupil has been growing steadily for 50 years. At the end of World War II, public schools in the United States spent a total of $1,214 per student in inflation-adjusted 2002 dollars. By the middle of the 1950s that figure had roughly doubled to $2,345. By 1972 it had almost doubled again, reaching $4,479. And since then, it has doubled a third time, climbing to $8,745 in 2002. Since the...