Suspended Teacher Speaks at Public Hearing on her Students Get-well Letters to Convicted Cop Killer

Marilyn Zuniga, a third-grade teacher, has been suspended with pay for sending Mumia Abul-Jamal get well letters written by her students.  The board is deciding on what, if any, further action will be taken.  

During the meeting that was being held, Ms. Zuniga made a public statement.  In this statement she said:

"Growing up in a predominantly white suburb, attending a majority white school district, my teachers and peers marginalized me as a first generation immigrant, Peruvian-American. The cultural gap between my educators and me caused me to feel disconnected from my school work and learning altogether. It wasn't until my experience in the classroom my senior year of high school that I realized I could be the teacher I never had."

 Ok, fair enough.  I hope that every teacher in the country has a passion to help all students learn and to think for themselves.  That is what a teacher should be doing.  The problem is that she is going beyond that mission.  She is putting her viewpoints into the classroom and to the heads of very innocent 8-year-olds.  

Now the problem with the supporters of Mumia is that they never answer the question about why he has never told who the murderer of Officer Faulkner is.  There is no dispute that he was there and witnesses it.  There is no dispute that he had a gun.  There is no dispute that his brother assaulted Officer Faulkner.  There is no dispute that the police arrived on the scene within minutes of the shooting.  There is no dispute that Mumia was shot by the police officer.  He was a very short distance away with a gun shot wound and a weapon when the police arrived.  

Most people want to say he was arrested due to his political beliefs.  The problem is that he was arrested within minutes of the police arriving on the scene.  They didn't have time to find out about his political beliefs and writings.  Writing that includes talk about "killing pigs".  For those that may be unclear what that means, it is police officers.  

Anyone that has read my writing over the years knows that I am against the death penalty.  I have no problem with him be taken off death row.  But I certainly don't think he is some innocent lamb that is being led to slaughter.  

She is entitled to her beliefs, but she isn't entitled to bring those beliefs into the classroom.  No teacher is.  What really kills me is the people who were at this meeting supporting her.  

"It is teaching children at a tender age one of the most valuable lessons that they need to absorb in order to mature into adults who sympathize with the plight of their fellow human beings,"

It goes on:

"The lesson that was taught through this project is that in order for society to be peaceful and just, we must care about or reach out to those members of society who are most vulnerable, including children, the frail, elderly, the sick and disabled, the poor and, yes, even prisoners."

What about the family of the dead officer?  Don't they deserve someone to reach out to them as well?  What about the compassion for the young woman who had to go the hospital in very early hours of the morning to see her husband with a gunshot wound to his face?  A wound that was done at very close range and literally blew most of his head off.  Where is the compassion for a woman who didn't have her happily ever after simply because her husband was doing his job?  A car was driving down the wrong way on a one-way street so he pulled it over.  He didn't pull that car over because the driver was black.  He pulled it over because is was posing a safety hazard and violated the law.  She has lived her life without the man she loved enough to marry and pledge the rest of her life to.  

"We are here tonight because Marylin Zuniga is our hero," Larry Hamm, chairman of the People's Organization for Progress, said to the board members. "We ask that you restore her to her job and let her continue to teach the compassion that our children need to learn."

Sorry to tell you Mr. Hamm, that isn't her job.  Teaching compassion is the job of the parent.  Her job is to teach children how to think for themselves, not what to think.  Did she go over the evidence of the case?  Did she tell these students that this man has had two trials and numerous hearings and the best the defense can come up with is that it was a racist police force that sent an innocent man to jail because he was black and a political activist?  If not, that isn't compassion, that is indoctrination.  There are two sides to this story.  Now, don't get me wrong, I think this way beyond what a third-grader should be taught in a classroom.  But the point is still the same.  

Yes Ms. Zuniga should lose her job.  She wasn't doing her job.  She was making political points in a classroom.  That is a job of an activist, not an educator.  She should lose her job the same way the teacher who went an anti-Obama rant should lose hers.  You are not there to push your point of view.  You are there to help them develop their own point of view.  

If you have any doubts that she is an activist her tweet that caused this uproar says it all:

Just dropped off these letters to comrade Johanna Fernandez. My 3rd graders wrote to Mumia to lift up his spirits as he is ill. #freemumia

Comrade?  Oh yeah, she doesn't have an agenda.   

The part I think I like best about this whole thing is this:

"In April, I mentioned to my students that Mumia was very ill and they told me they would like to write 'get well' letters to Mumia,"

That's right, lets throw the eight-year-olds under the bus.  

Middle School Children Assigned a Writing Assignment - Write a Good-Bye Letter to One Loved One from Twin Towers on 9/11

A middle school teacher asked the students to pretend that they were on one of the hi-jacked planes or in the Twin Towers on 9/11 and to write one letter to say good-bye as a homework assignment to mark the anniversary of 9/11.   These kids are in the seventh grade, that would roughly put them about 11 or 12.  9/11 happened before most of these children were born.  

There is an uproar about the assignment.  Many feel that this is very inappropriate and outright ghoulish.  I happen to disagree.  I think this is a good assignment.  One of the things that I feel is vital in education is teaching how to think, not what to think.  This is a way to bring the finality of that tragic event to the people who were killed that day.  As a person who is lets just say older than these kids, I remember clearly that day.  I remember hearing the recordings of calls made from inside the building as well as the planes.  Betty Ong calling the airline emergency number talking about the hijackers and how low the plane was flying.  Simply heartbreaking.  Or the calls from flight 93, ending with "Lets Roll" as the passengers tried to stop the plane from hitting another building, likely the U.S. Capitol or an attempt at the White House.  Simply heroic.  

I also believe that empathy is sincerely lacking in our society today.  We don't put as much value on human life as we should.  I think this teaches these kids to think about that.  To look at their loved ones and come to the realization that on that day, thousands of people knew they were never going to see those people again.  One of the most indelible images of 9/11 are those of the jumpers.  Imagine what those people were thinking while falling to their deaths.  

Now, I have spent the majority of my life living outside of NYC and Washington D.C., so 9/11 is very personal to me.  I know people who were first responders, who made it out of those buildings, and sadly I knew someone who died, and I know others who lost a close loved one that fateful day.  But, these kids don't have that connection.  This assignment may help bring those feelings alive to these students.  The further we get away from that day, the harder it will be to really understand what happened and the shock that people in this country felt.  

Again, since I have lived in the areas most directly affected by that day, I look at from that perspective.  These are children from Texas.  Now, as strange as this sounds, I remember having a conversation with a work colleague shortly after the event.  He worked in outside of Las Vegas, and I remember him saying something all the lines of he could only imagine how hard it was for people like me who lived in the D.C. area.  His connection to the event wasn't what mine was.  I found it to be an odd comment at the time and obviously it really struck me since I remember that conversation all these years later.  

Not all parents are upset about this assignment.  One mother read the letter after her daughter went to bed.  The letter was addressed to her.  She said that she cried and cried after reading it and brought her daughter into her bed to sleep with her that night.  Her words "mission accomplished".  

I don't think this would be assignment that would go over well in the New York City area as it way too fresh for most of the people who live in this area.  The museum isn't open, the new tower is not yet finished, New Yorker's still live with the idea that being in that city automatically puts a target on their backs.  But do people who live in smaller towns in more rural areas think about that in the same way?  I don't think that they do.  So trying to get that to come alive for younger students in those areas must be a very difficult task.  I think this teacher did that.  These children had to really think about what it would be like to be in a building that was on fire from jet fuel knowing that they were never going home again.  They were never going to see their loved ones again.  Of course you can never fully accomplish that, but it at least got them thinking about it.  

That is what I expect from teachers, get these kids to think.  Not what they should be thinking.  

Only Bad People Want a Good Education for their Children

So says Allison Benedikt of Slate Magazine.   Seriously, she said that.

This article had me laughing out loud.  Of course I was laughing in a way that is really just to cover my utter shock, disbelief, and total dismay.

I am not an education policy wonk: I’m just judgmental. But it seems to me that if every single parent sent every single child to public school, public schools would improve. This would not happen immediately. It could take generations. Your children and grandchildren might get mediocre educations in the meantime, but it will be worth it, for the eventual common good.

Apparently it is perfectly fine for at least a few generations to get a lousy education because down the road it will help all.  Now that is logic isn't it?  Insert primal scream here.

Now correct me if I am wrong, but I thought liberals thought there was nothing better than education.  Matter of fact don't they say that public schools are a human right?  I seem to remember former congressman and convicted felon Jesse Jackson, Jr. talking about that on the floor of congress.  Yeah matter of fact there is video of that conversation, oh and don't forget the constitutionally protected iPad too.

What is really funny about this entire article is that by the end she completely contradicts herself:

I went K–12 to a terrible public school. My high school didn’t offer AP classes, and in four years, I only had to read one book. There wasn’t even soccer. This is not a humblebrag! I left home woefully unprepared for college, and without that preparation, I left college without having learned much there either. You know all those important novels that everyone’s read? I haven’t. I know nothing about poetry, very little about art, and please don’t quiz me on the dates of the Civil War. I’m not proud of my ignorance. But guess what the horrible result is? I’m doing fine. I’m not saying it’s a good thing that I got a lame education. I’m saying that I survived it, and so will your child, who must endure having no AP calculus so that in 25 years there will be AP calculus for all.

Again, correct me if I am wrong, if she is doing just fine without AP classes and no organized soccer teams, why wouldn't future generations do "just fine" as well?  I mean why would anyone need it regardless of what generation they come from?  It would seem to me that everyone will be able to find their dream job, such as working at Slate Magazine even though they learned virtually nothing after 17 years of education.  Now I did take AP Calculus and I don't work at Slate.  So apparently my "better" education didn't really help me that much did it?

She believes that if all children go to public school we will have a better school system.  Lets think about that for a minute.  Because it seems what she is saying is that people are stuck living in the neighborhoods with horrible public schools don't care that their kids are receiving a bad education.  Because after all if they did they would push for change right?  Oh wait, they are pushing for change and the unions stand in the way of those changes and much-needed reforms.  She never mentions that part of the equation.  I guess she didn't get algebra in her crappy public school either.  You know the thing that has you put all parts of the equation together to come to the correct solution.  There are millions upon millions of parents who are fighting to make changes in their local schools only to be met with hostility and resistance.  We have the NAACP suing to keep open the worst performing school system in the country all the while the lawyer filing the suit sends her child to boarding school in another state.  She knows her kid will be cheated if she attends those schools.  She has money, to heck with the poor and struggling middle class that can't afford the same.

Also remember that there’s more to education than what’s taught. As rotten as my school’s English, history, science, social studies, math, art, music, and language programs were, going to school with poor kids and rich kids, black kids and brown kids, smart kids and not-so-smart ones, kids with superconservative Christian parents and other upper-middle-class Jews like me was its own education and life preparation. Reading Walt Whitman in ninth grade changed the way you see the world? Well, getting drunk before basketball games with kids who lived at the trailer park near my house did the same for me. In fact it’s part of the reason I feel so strongly about public schools.

I totally don't get how getting drunk at trailer parks makes her feel strongly about public schools and that leading to the willingness to allow at least two or three more generations to have a substandard education, but that's just me.

Education reform is a passion of mine.  I would love to see every child in this country have the best education possible.  The problem is that, as of today, the last thing that will get us there is the public school system.  We are failing in virtually every measure and it will become a national security issue when people in this country can't compete on the world stage.  The system needs serious reform, unions and the government have far more power over the system than any PTA will ever have.  The current system doesn't allow those types of changes nor does it give parents many options when trying to push for change.

No one is a bad parent for wanting their child to get the best possible education that they can give to their child, for this woman to say that they are makes me wonder if she has any children of her own.  If so, doesn't her great job at Slate pay her enough to live in a neighborhood that has a better school system than say the ones in Harlem or the south side of Chicago?  I would venture to say the answer to that question is yes.

But I have to say I really appreciate one line in the article:

 Don’t just acknowledge your liberal guilt—listen to it.

Ah, the reasoning behind most of what liberals do.

Michelle Obama's Message to the Black Community - Education Is Not "Acting White"

It rare, but I happen to agree with Michelle Obama on something.  Over the weekend she gave a commencement speech at a historically black college and during this speech she said:

“reject the slander that a black child with a book is trying to act white.”

There was a time in my life that I wouldn't believe that this was so widespread of a belief in the black community.  But that naiveté is long gone.  I have done some volunteer work with the scholarship program in Washington, D.C..  It is basically a voucher program that allows low-income families to apply for money to be used at the school of their choice.  The forms can be a little overwhelming, so I would help parents fill out the forms for the application.  I also did outreach to get as many as possible to apply.  During this outreach I got a little education of my own.  This is a common theme among the inner city blacks, at least in D.C..  I heard this mantra over and over again.   I also heard far too often that learning how to fight wouldn't happen in those "white schools".  Sadly, that is true story.

What exactly is "acting white" supposed to mean anyway?  Why would getting an education that can lift your child out of poverty and a life of low earning jobs a bad thing?  Every one of the parents I spoke with were living in low-income, high crime areas of The District.  They have lived the life of not having enough money to get their children into a neighborhood that would provide them a better school and reduce the amount of violence around them.  I went into doing this work thinking every parent would jump at the chance to get some help for their child. Wrong.

Education is an issue that I feel very strongly about.  Every child in this country deserves a quality education; regardless of the income of their parents.  Sadly, when you are living in low-income areas, the public schools are failing your children.  A lack of a good education leads to all kinds of social ills throughout your life and in many instances leads to a life dependent on government subsidies just to survive.  It also costs the taxpayers a great deal of money when you start looking at the rates of incarceration among people who don't finish high school.  They are far less likely to add to the economy; actually they become a drain to tax payers.  From a human point of view it is a difficult life to lead.

It has also been shown that pay disparities between blacks and whites disappear within one generation.  A black person who finishes two-year of college will have children that makes just as much as their white counterparts.  This is among one of the chief complaints among "civil rights" leaders.  Well, here is a your solution.  Yet, this is something that is rarely, if ever, spoken about by these race hustlers.  They just talk about all that is wrong, but rarely every talk about the 'unspeakable".  The apathy in the black community that has haunted far too many and allows generation after generation to live a life of poverty need to hear this message.  You can lift yourself and your family out of poverty by getting yourself an education.

She went on:

“Today, more than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, more than 50 years after the end of ‘separate but equal,’ when it comes to getting an education, too many of our young people just can’t be bothered,” she said.

“Today, instead of walking miles every day to school, they’re sitting on couches for hours, playing video games, watching TV. Instead of dreaming of being a teacher or a lawyer or a business leader, they’re fantasizing about being a baller or a rapper,” Obama kept going. “Right now, one in three African American students are dropping out of high school, only one in five African Americans between the ages of 25 and 29 has gotten a college degree.”

This is something that the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton don't understand.  They continue to hold onto the belief that somehow only access to the same public schools that whites go to is enough.  The evidence that clearly isn't true sadly is the many inner city black youths who are being robbed of a decent education.  This is demonstrated quite clearly when the NAACP sued the City of New York to keep the worst performing school in the country open.  That incident also clearly demonstrated how hypocritical they truly are about the issue.  The lawyer for the NAACP that filed the lawsuit sends her daughter to boarding school in New Hampshire.  If you are stunned by that, you really shouldn't be.  It is par for the course.  Education for me, but not for thee seems to be mantra of the race hustlers that have money.  Letting those poor kids stay in the under performing schools is perfectly fine, as long as it isn't their children.

I have waited four long years for the Obama family to make these type of statements.  While I truly believe that singling out people by race is a bad thing, I also truly believe that with the type of platform that they have it is a crying shame that they have not used it more effectively to reach those in the black community.  Simply being president and first lady isn't enough.  The message must be that you too, with an education, can accomplish what we have accomplished.  You too can make it to Harvard and Princeton if you work hard.  You too can lift your families to greater heights.  I also feel that they need to talk about the family dinner table and the importance of fathers in the home and being around to raise your children.  While I have heard it from him, it isn't nearly often enough.  Every study shows that having a father around increases grades, decreases drug use, and makes the possibility of that child growing up in poverty that much less.  In fact, the percentage that lift themselves out of poverty is more than 70% when three simple things are done, finishing high school, not marrying before the age of 21, and not having children out-of-wedlock.  This study was also confirmed by a left leaning think tank that tried to prove it wrong.

I will always give credit where credit is due.  I want to hear more of this from Michelle Obama.  I also would like other leaders in the black community to follow her lead.  Lets talk about some of the uncomfortable truths, that sometimes blacks are their own worst enemies.  Believing that getting an education is "white" then getting ahead will be nearly impossible.  The choice is yours black community, the choice is yours.

And Liberals Don’t Understand Why Conservatives Don’t Trust the Educational System

Exhibit A.

This is a page from a college text book:

You Have a Headache? Too Bad. Oh, You Need Morning After Pill, No Problem. - NYC City Schools Give out Plan B Without Parental Consent

As unbelievable as this sounds, it is true.  If you a high school student in New York City you will be given nothing to help you with a headache, but you can be given the morning after pill.  Your daughter can also get an injection of birth control that will last for three months.  New York City also does hand out free condoms as well.

Birth control pills can cause hypertension and stroke.  Are these girls being given a full exam before these are administered?  Are they being monitored by an actual doctor?

About 28 percent of city students entering ninth grade have already had sex, and more than half are sexually active before completing high school, according to city data.

My heart just breaks for these girls.  I remember when I was that age I knew only girl who was sexually active and nearly everyone had a name for her.   I was 13 when I started high school.  It is heartbreaking to me that girls that young are already engaging in an activity that they do not have the maturity to understand.  They are looking for love in all the wrong places.

One teacher says:

Teacher Rosa Chavez applauded CATCH, saying she had two pregnant students last year. Getting knocked up, she said, “is not cool and not accepted among peers.”
But Chavez worries that giving girls Plan B emergency contraception might encourage careless sex.

Gee, ya think?  Of course it gives girls the idea that they don't have to be responsible for their actions, someone else will help them take care of it later.

“We can’t give out a Tylenol without a doctor’ s order,” said a school staffer. “Why should we give out hormonal preparations with far more serious possible side effects, such as blood clots and hypertension?”

Here we are America, the public school system has decided that they can give your children hormones without your consent.  While they do offer an opt-out plan:

But sophomore Annette Palacios, 15, outside the school with her mom, said parents should give consent in case their children are “allergic” to the drugs.
“Girls shouldn’t be sexually active at that age,” she added.
Her mom, Pania, complained that she got no opt-out letter — and does not want Annette to secretly get Plan B or birth-control pills from the nurse.

You want your food cooked with salt?  Nope.  You want to eat something that contains trans fats?  Nope.  You want a Big Gulp?  Forgetaboutit.  Birth control and Plan B pills without parental consent?  Perfectly acceptable.

It is a brave new world, America.

Rahm Emanuel Now in the Crosshairs - Closing of Under Performing Public Schools Raises the Hackles of Jesse Jackson

Rahm Emanuel is about to experience for himself that the racebaiters of the world don't care about your politics.  He is planning on closing 17 poorly performing public schools.  Not something that is sitting well with the likes of Jesse Jackson.

“I cannot wait another year and allow a child to be caught in a school system that, for five years running, has been on the watch list or the troubled list with no prospect of getting off of it. … Nothing to me is worse in the sense of discrimination than leaving kids in a system that, year-in-and-year-out, has been scored as failing.”

Not that you are apt to hear me say this often, but he is right.  These schools need to be closed and these kids have the right to get a better quality education.  Jackson on the other hand is calling it:

“educational apartheid,"

No, Mr. Jackson apartheid is keeping these black children in a failing school that gives them little to chance of becoming a productive adult.  It would be apartheid to keep them there.  Jackson is under the impression that just spending more money will solve the problems.  Chicago spends more money per pupil then they do for the students in the public school system where I live.  We have a 90% on time graduation rate and almost 92% rate of students going onto a post-secondary education.  The problems go beyond money.

Someone actually took the time to write down the costs associated with the low graduation rates for the city of Chicago (which is just above 50%) and the results of what it costs the community are staggering:

15% of high school dropouts were in the jail system in the year 2010-2011 overall and rise to 25% for blacks.  More than 50% of the prison population in Illinois are high school dropouts.

Nearly 48% of 18 to 64-year-old high-school dropouts in Chicago did not work even one week last year. The statewide number, 42%, is not much better and is four times higher than the figure of those with bachelor's or higher degrees.

If those numbers are not enough:

The study, based on U.S. Census data, suggests that dropouts nationally will be a net drain on the government, collecting an average of $70,850 more in benefits like food stamps in their lifetimes than they'll pay in taxes. In comparison, the typical high-school grad will make a net positive contribution of $236,060.

About 33% of dropouts will collect food stamps, twice the share of graduates, and fewer than half will own a home. And such bleak figures tend to be passed down to their children.
"Children living in families headed by high-school dropouts face a substantially above average probability of encountering cognitive, health, housing adequacy and nutrition problems that will limit their future, their chances of securing a bachelor's degree by their mid-20s are close to zero."

Now, I don't believe that every person should go to college.  Some people are not cut out for it and they would prefer to do jobs that don't require a college degree.  But they will still usually need some sort of training or education in order to find a job that will allow them to live above the poverty line.  While that is not true in all cases, it is true in many.

So it seems that Jesse Jackson would prefer that these kids just stay in these schools, increase the odds of them dropping out and have a much harder time leading lives that will bring more financially security to them.   He plans on filing a lawsuit to stop the closing of these schools.

There are no words for the stupidity of what Jesse Jackson is doing.  People need to wake up and realize that the likes of Jesse Jackson has lost all relevance and his ideas of what constitutes fairness not only are outdated but dangerous to the community that he says he is trying to help.

This report details the costs to society as a whole in just one state.  multiply this by 50% and it is not hard to see why we are broke.  Our broken educational system is not just drain on us financially, it is becoming a national security issue.  It was just 40 years ago that we had the highest rates of high school and college graduates in the world.  We now rank at 21st.  That is how far we have fallen is such a short time.

Again, you not likely to see this again real soon - Kudos to Mayor Emanuel for having the courage to take on the unions and Jesse Jackson to do what is right for children instead of what is easy.

Yet Another Feel Good Gov't Program Going Awry - Free Breakfast Increases Obesity in School Children

We have heard a great deal about the obesity levels of young children in this country.  I agree they are startlingly high.  But the answers that the government has come up with don't seem to be working.  Who would have seen that coming?  

Turns out that the free breakfast that is being offered to low income children is actually increasing the levels of overweight children.  It seems that these parents are not as irresponsible as the government has thought that they were and the vast majority of these kids are now eating two breakfasts every morning, which of course increases their caloric intake for the day. 

Nearly half of New York’s elementary and middle-school students are overweight or obese, according to a public health official quoted in the news story. Thus the concern in expanding a free meal program created for malnourished kids from poor families that can’t afford food. Parents from low-income New York schools who were interviewed for the piece expressed concern that their kids were getting breakfast in class because they eat at home every morning.

One mother said she actually reduced what her five-year-old eats at home because he has a second breakfast at school. This obviously creates doubts about the need for this taxpayer-funded meal program. Uncle Sam is already feeding a record 45 million people via food stamps and the number is quickly growing, according to the most recent government figures.

It also turns out that many of the school systems in lower income areas are completely skipping the cafeteria and feeding the breakfast right in the classroom.  To remove the stigma.  So we are feeding children who are not even necessarily low income, because they don't anyone to feel bad so every child receives a free meal and the number of these free meals in the morning has more than tripled in school districts like Chicago.  

Wouldn't the money we are spending on this program be more effectively used to improve the education that kids are receiving?  The drop out rate in the city of Chicago was 55.7% in 2008.  Well above the national average of 30%.  Other major metropolitan areas don't fare much better.  In the city of Detroit kids are going without school books in schools that are falling down. 

We need to look at how we are spending our educational dollars and realize that the main goal is educate our children and we are failing big time in giving the next generation the tools that they need in order to thrive in a competitive world.  We continue to lower standards; instead of raising our children up we are letting them down and continue with the dumbing down our kids.  

…the mathematics components of the Common Core State Standards Initiative are a bitter disappointment. In terms of their limited vision of math education, the pedestrian framework chosen to organize the standards, and the incoherent nature of the standards for mathematical practice in particular, I don’t see how these take us forward in any way.

Says Grant Wiggins, curriculum expert.   


But hey, at least they are getting fatter.  

Good Idea, Let's Lower Drop Out Rates by Passing Dummies

Seriously, I have long since thought that we should just let Mexico have California back.  Go ahead and give it to them.  Of course they have to take the debt with them too.  I am sure there are very nice people living in California; MAInfo and Left Coast Rebel to name just two, but they just keep scraping the bottom of the barrel.  I am at the point that I have to wonder how there is any barrel left to scrape.  


Drop out rates are alarmingly high in the Los Angeles Unified School District, 1 in 3 will not finish high school.  Considering that they are spending somewhere close to $28K per student one would have to say they are doing a bang up job with the taxpayer funds that they are allocated.  


One would think with numbers this abysmal they would try some out of the box thinking in order to get improvement.  Say maybe open more charter schools, maybe do a voucher program to help these students who want a good education to get into a better school system, or even allow students to go to better public schools.  Alas, no that is not what they decided to do.  In their infinite wisdom they have decided that the best course of action is to lower the standards it takes to graduate.  That's right, just pass them along anyway.  You will now be considered passed with a grade of D. Apparently learning something isn't the goal.  Just getting you passed along is good enough.  


As it stands now only 15% of the students from this school system can pass the entrance exams to enter into the Cal State University System, which really isn't so bad when you consider that 50% of them don't bother finishing the prep classes.  So lowering the standards is going to help with that endeavor?  I guess they will worry about those dismal numbers at a later date.  


Good call.  Homeschool anyone?  


Via Drudge.  

Homeschooling Reaching the Black Community

A dirty little secret that you won't find out about from the U.S. media (shocker, I know) is that more and more black families are turning to home schooling in an attempt to give their children the education that they deserve.  While I am sure it is very difficult in the more urban areas where the public schools are especially atrocious, it is still a growing trend.  Another thing many are probably not aware of the existence of is a homeschool cooperative dedicated to the black community.

 Monica Utsey, who runs a home schooling co-operative for African American children in Washington DC, says: "African-American mothers, especially those who have boys, have a lot of trouble in the school system. The way the classroom is designed is more conducive for girls."
For her, though, the main motivation was cultural - she wanted her sons to learn about their African roots and not "to believe that their history begins with slavery"

Another words, she doesn't want her sons to be taught that they are victims who have no real chance of succeeding because of a racist society that is America.  Derrick Bell will be rolling over in his grave.  How will the left indoctrinate these young sons who are taught they are equal human beings and have the same opportunities that their white counterparts have, they just have to work for it? Oh Al Sharpton, watch out, you may not be able to make a living peddling fear anymore.

It is true that homeschooling is not something that will work for every family.  Some parents don't have the discipline, the qualifications, and some children do well in a public school environment.  I know someone who has one child in public school and homeschools the other.  Her son was just not doing well in school and his teachers were not communicating that to them.  They pulled him out and have him at home.  She works full-time, but works from home most of the time.  He does much of his school work online and if she happens to be away from home she can log in and watch his progress.  She told me the difference is night and day; he is learning --eager even--and is much happier.  Her daughter has excelled in the public school and is a very social young lady, homeschooling wouldn't suit her personality.  It is a situation that works for their family.  It is the essence of choice.  Not every parent who has that choice will pull their children out of public school.

Of course that destroys the narrative that the public school system will crumble.  More homeschooling will make the public school system better.  Competition is a good thing.  If they need to compete for the dollars they make sure that they are giving an added benefit to the parents who are making that choice.  One of the things you hear unions complain about all the time is the fact that the class sizes are too large (they are right, they are in most cases) this will also help with this problem.  The teachers will have smaller classes and will be able to give more attention to the individual students.

Another topic that has come up with these homeschoolers is how they resent that teachers now are only teaching to the test (Thanks Sen. Kennedy and President Bush).  The evil of No Child Left Behind has left children behind.  The school systems are under so much financial pressure to keep and/or improve test scores that the joy of learning has been taken out of the equation.  I am sure it is no joy for the teachers either.  But students are suffering because of this piece of lousy legislation.  Parents are seeing for themselves that their kids are losing motivation:

It was not the violence, or even the fact that he was being bullied, that finally led to the decision to remove Copeland from his public school in what she describes as a "really bad area" of Washington DC, but the fact that he was "losing his love of learning".

Of course this little boy was learning his love of learning - which by the way, is innate in a child - if he is being bullied, seeing violence, and being taught only to a standardized test.

The shift to homeschooling has been much slower for the black community than for the white.  They are under even more pressure to keep pretending that the public school system has their child's best interests at heart:

"For the African-American community there was a huge amount of pressure against it, because in America, the grandparents of today's home-schooled children fought for desegregation of schools. They thought, 'The public schools are going to save us,'" he says.

But Dr Ray, who regularly interviews black home-schoolers as part of his research, says attitudes are changing fast - and it's also a lot easier today for black families to try it than it was 20 years ago, he points out.
Joyce Burges, co-founder of National Black Home Educators, who home-schooled all five of her children, aged 16 to 35, says the practice is growing "exponentially" in the African American community.
"The failings of public schools have caused all of us, whether we are white or black, to come up with creative ideas about how we can educate children.

It is way past time that the black community push back and stop accepting the failing status quo that has become our public school system and take matters into their own hands.  Stop listening to the stories of the past generation that believed that it was going to be public schools that solved the ills of the black community.  Access is meaningless if the school is failing.  Your children will be much better off for it.

H/T Jammie Wearing Fool

Harry Belafonte in All his Socialist Wisdom

It never occurs to people like him that one of the reasons that blacks have higher rates of unemployment is the horrid public school system, a system that he and the unions defend to the death. Without an education the chances of people lifting themselves out of poverty is very difficult.


I have a tea party acquaintance that lives in D.C.; she volunteers her time to do tutoring to under-privileged children. Once the voucher system came back, she asked one of the mothers if she wanted some help in filling out the application for the lottery. The woman told her she didn't want her son going to some white school because he wouldn't learn how to fight. This decision by this woman is now putting her young son in the position that he has barely over a 50% chance of getting a high school diploma, based on dropout rates. His chances of getting a college education is even less. How is racism to blame for this? This is a mindset. Exactly what Herman Cain is trying to change. A change that the likes of Belafonte and Sharpton want to prevent

1st Annual Virginia Tea Party Summit on Education - Richmond, VA

Education is a topic I care about deeply.  There is no point in working to change this country if the next generation doesn't understand why.  My personal mision falls more within improving the educational system within country with school choice and badly needed public education reform.  But teaching about the consititution is of equal importance.  If you are in the Richmond area, plan on attending.  I have heard NRIE speak previously and they have some great stories and some wonderful ideas. 

1st Annual Virginia Tea Party Summit on Education

Where:


The Commonwealth Club


401 W. Franklin Street


Richmond, VA 23220






When:


Saturday July 30, 2011 from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM EDT


Dear Fellow Patriots,


(FYI: YOU MUST REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT TO BE ADMITTED, THANK YOU)


We are pleased to present the first annual tea party summit on education! We are holding this event because it has become clear that the heritage and foundational principles that made us the greatest country in the world are not being taught or are being distorted in K-12 education. Our public schools are not teaching kids the importance of the rule of law, economic freedom and individual achievement.


This is perilous and if we don't act, our hard work will be undone by an entire generation that doesn't understand or is actively opposed to individual freedom!


This seminar will provide you with an action plan that you can implement. Our goal is to build a coalition of tea party leaders, activists and educators that can work together to be more effective.


You will leave with a step by step action plan, resources, tools, and a support system to truly make a difference. We have invited national organizations that are 100% focused on getting young people not only the right information but also inspiring and engaging them on American exceptionalism. This seminar will tell you how to do it!


ORGANIZATIONS/PRESENTERS:


HILLSDALE COLLEGE


NEW RENAISSANCE IN EDUCATION


AMERICAN HERITAGE EDUCATION FOUNDATION


LIBERTY AND LAW INSTITUTE


CATO INSTITUTE


CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR FOUNDATION PROGRAM


DR. ILEANA JOHNSON, AUTHOR OF "ECHOES IN COMMUNISM" (LUNCH TIME SPEAKER)


BREAK OUT SESSIONS WITH FACILITATORS TO DEVELOP YOUR ACTION PLAN


You will receive a full action plan and resources in writing from every organization. A comprehensive, literal "how to" guide for each and every program and idea, no matter how small a step you take! There will be follow up and support planned for everyone. Future meetings and networking will be shaped by group need and consensus.


IMPORTANT INFO:


THERE IS A 30.00 DOLLAR FEE FOR LUNCH PREPAID (CREDIT CARD OR YOU CAN MAIL A CHECK) WHEN YOU REGISTER


YOU MAY REGISTER AND PAY FOR GUESTS WHEN YOU SIGN UP!


THERE IS A DRESS CODE AT THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB (COAT AND TIE FOR MEN, BUSINESS CASUAL FOR WOMEN). THOSE WITHOUT PROPER ATTIRE WILL NOT BE ADMITTED PER THE CLUB'S RULES. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE.




Get more information


Register Now!



Thank you so much for your inspiration and hard work in the tea party movement. Together, we can build a state wide network of activists and educators to stop the propaganda and truly educate and engage our children, the future leaders of the last great hope for mankind- America! Please feel free to contact us. See you on July 30th!


Sincerely,


Ms. Kerry Scott


Alexandria Tea Party


mail@alexandriateaparty.com


434-825-0609


Mrs. Rita Grace


Constitutional Tea Party


ccteaparty@gmail.com


540-937-3757



Mr. Ed Ametteti


NRIE.org

Guess What? You Agree with Conservatives

Today I was out doing some canvassing for Tito Munoz's senate campaign.  I was sitting at a local grocery store that happens to have WiFi and looking up some addresses on Mapquest.  The restaurant section was pretty full and this man asked if he could sit at my table.  Of course it was no big deal to me, I was not doing anything with state secrets or anything.  For some reason the man felt like he needed to have a conversation with me. 

He made a joke and asked me if I was a tax assessor because I had a clipboard of addresses.  I said no worse, I was doing work for the upcoming elections for the state legislator.  He asked me if the candidate was a minority or not.  I said as matter of fact yes he is.  I told him that Tito is a naturalized citizen who was born and raised in Columbia. 

We got to talking about politics and I told him that I have gotten very involved since 2008.  I think this man assumed that Tito and I are both democrats.  I then told him that no we are republicans and conservative republicans at that.  He then looked at me and said "oh, you are part of the tea party.".  Why yes we are.  This man happened to be a minority as well, a black man.  He told me that he would never vote for a republican because they don't care about him.  I asked him where he was from and he wasn't in Tito's district, matter fact he was from Maryland, so I figured I could say what I wanted to say without affecting anything as he didn't recognize Tito's name. 

So I explained to him my insight into the black community as it is and asked him some questions.

1. Are you a religious man and regular church goer.  Yes he is.
2. Are you against gay marriage on religious beliefs.  Yes he is.
3. Wouldn't you say that if a family is going on third or fourth generation living in poverty and public assistance the system has failed them?  Yes, I guess so.
4. Shouldn't a poor black child get a good education?  Of course.
5. Shouldn't the poor black family have access to better schools like richer people?  Of course.
6. Would you agree that the high levels of black unemployment have a relationship to the less effective school systems in the poorer communities.  I guess so.
7. Would it shock you to learn that the NAACP has sided with the teachers unions in Harlem, NY to keep one of the lowest performing schools in the country open instead of allowing the students to attend a charter school?  He doesn't believe that is true.  I assured him it was. 
8. Do you think it is fair that public school teachers in New Jersey put in approx. $100K towards benefits and the tax payers pay them almost $1 Million in return.  He doesn't believe that is true.  I googled it for him. 
9. Do you  believe that tax payers should fund abortion?  No. 
10. Do you understand that the founder of Planned Parenthood was a racist who gave lectures to the KKK and wanted to rid the world of "undesirables?  Did you know that she considered blacks undesirables?  Did you know that many of the PP clinics are in minority neighborhoods?  Do you think that is just happenstance?  Did you know that the black community would be almost doubled in size in this country if Roe V. Wade had not become legal in this country.  He was dumbfounded.

My final question was

You vote for the democrats why?  He didn't have an answer.  Will he become a republican.  Maybe, maybe not.  But I gave him something to think about. 

One person at a time is how we will win the fight to get our country back on track.  Don't name call, just ask serious questions and give factual answers.  One person at a time.

Quote of the Day - Mark Bauerlein Edition

"Millions of lazy, incurious, disruptive, unintelligent and nearly illiterate youngsters flood classrooms every day, and none of the popular and hugely expensive initiatives and ideas peddled by 'education mayors,' well-meaning foundations and professors of education will change them."

Mark Bauerlein author of The Dumbest Generation.

I think it may be a little hard to dispute some of what he is saying.  We have many children who can't read at grade level in both middle and high school.  But, how did they get to high school without being able to read well?  That is a huge problem if we are passing students along just to get rid of them and pass the problem onto someone else.  Which I do believe happens, especially in the larger school systems that just don't have the resources to spend to help one child.  We also have to look at parents who seem fairly disinterested in the fact that their child is falling behind.  While this type of thinking was behind the failed No Child Left Behind program put into place by President Bush, but again, the government can't solve all problems.  While I am not an educator, I personally believe that you must capture the child's imagination when they are young.  Little kids are like sponges and naturally curious.  You must give them the foundation that they can continue to build on as they grow older before the realization that education is actually work and not a game kicks in.  It is just tragic that we have adults out there saying that the status quo in our public schools is acceptable, when it simply is not. 

Michelle Rhee's Students First

Michelle Rhee has decided on her next move.  She has decided to start a non-proft grassroots organization that will work towards reforming the education system in this country in order to give access to a quality education for every American child, regardless of socio-economic position or race. 



The Mission Statement

Our mission is to build a national movement to defend the interests of children in public education and pursue transformative reform, so that America has the best education system in the world.



America's schools are failing our kids. On this point, the data is clear. While some people blame the kids, or simply want to throw more money at the problem, we know that real change requires a better system — one that puts students' needs before those of special interests or wasteful bureaucracies.


To succeed in our mission, we're working with parents, teachers, administrators, and citizens across the country to ensure great teachers, access to great schools, and effective use of public dollars. Together, we'll demand that legislators, courts, district administrators, and school boards create and enforce policies that put students first. We'll make sure politicians and administrators recognize and reward excellent teachers, give novice teachers the training they need, and quickly improve or remove ineffective educators. We'll work to ensure that every family has a number of options for excellent schools to attend, so that getting into a great school becomes a matter of fact, not luck. And we'll make sure all Americans understand that our schools are not only an anchor for our communities, but an absolute gateway to our national prosperity and competitive standing in the world economy.


We Believe: Great teachers can make a tremendous difference for students of every background; all children deserve outstanding teachers.


Once inside the school, a great teacher is the single most important factor in a child's education. While there are many factors that influence a student's ability to learn, a great teacher can help any student overcome those barriers and realize their full potential. For this reason, we're doing everything we can to make sure teachers are supported and all schools are able to hire and retain the best teachers possible.


We Believe: Attending a great school should be a matter of fact, not luck; every family should be able to choose an excellent school.


In cities across America, parents are unable to enroll their kids in the best public schools — there just aren't enough seats. We're working to make sure all families have a range of high quality schools to choose from, because our kids shouldn't have to rely on a lottery or a certain Zip code to get a great education.


We Believe: Public dollars belong where they make the biggest difference—on effective instructional programs; we must fight ineffective practices and bureaucracy.


Schools need smart spending — not more money. Tax dollars should go toward programs that help our kids, ensure their long-term success, accurately evaluate teacher performance, and produce results — not layers or bureaucracy that only serve to protect the needs of special interests.


We Believe: Parent and family involvement is key to increased student achievement, but the entire community must be engaged in the effort to improve our schools.


Parental engagement is critical to ensuring student success, so we'll work to get all families more involved in their schools. But lasting reform requires that whole communities get involved in the fight for better schools. Without a widespread, concerted movement that engages all sectors of society, our country will continue to fall further and further behind the rest of the world.

If you agree with our mission, and want to help transform education in your community and throughout America, join us.

I don't think that Michelle Rhee is the end all of education reform, but she has passion and out of the box thinking, and it is a start.

Is the Tide Turning?

Education is a topic that I feel very passionately about. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum or age group you fall into, this is something that needs to matter to every American. We cannot stay competitive on the world stage if we are raising a generation of idiots.


Some of our school systems are more interested in the coddling of our young than they are in educating them. Part of the educational system in this country needs to concentrate on preparing these kids for the real world. I recently posted on one of my local schools that put a system into place that disallowed failing grades. The school didn't even bother to inform the parents of this until the end of October. A full two months after the school year started. An update to that post is that the parents were outraged to the point that the school has backed down and gotten rid of that program.


Some of our schools that are the worst are the ones in the inner cities. These particular schools are teaching some of America's poorest and neediest. All children deserve a good education, but it is of particular importance to teach these children. A good education is the only way out of the life of poverty that many of them face, some of these kids from generational poverty and public assistance. Sadly, many of these kids see gangs and drug dealing as the only way out. It doesn't need to be this way.


I came across two articles from poorer school systems in California where real questions are being asked about why the schools are failing our young. The first article is about the public school system in Compton. Compton is one of our poorest neighborhoods. Violence is commonplace and it is a life that is very difficult to get out of. A new law in California allows parents to force the school system to make the necessary changes to improve the school system. The parents of McKinley Elementary School have gotten the required signatures to force the school system to become a privately run Charter School. The Parent Trigger Law allows parents to band together and force the lowest performing schools to make this change.


One of the meme's that you hear so often is that there is not enough parental involvement in our schools. While I do believe this to be the case in some instances, obviously these parents are involved and want to see their children and grandchildren to get the education that they deserve.

Ismenia Guzman frets that her 6-year-old daughter is at least a year behind in reading. Victor Barela is worried that his fifth-grade grandson still doesn't know his multiplication and division tables. And Shemika Murphy is determined that her younger daughter get a better education than her older one, who seemed to be doing well in elementary school only to bring home Ds and Fs in middle school.

The Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, wrote an OP-ED piece on Huffington Post requesting that Teacher's Unions get on board for school reform. A full 25% of students in the Los Angeles school system fail to graduate. A number that no one can feel is acceptable. The vast majority of the drop-outs become a drag on the finances of the rest of the country. Many will spend time in jail and others will end up on public assistance in order to survive. Villaraigosa is no right-wing conservative; he is a democrat and strongly supports unions. Matter of fact he was once a union organizer and a former school teacher. It will be very difficult to paint him as someone who is just against unions.

Along the way, there has been one, unwavering roadblock to reform: teacher union leadership.


When we fought to change the seniority-based layoff system that was disproportionately hurting our neediest students, the teachers union fought back.


When we fought to empower parents to turn around failing schools and bring in outside school operators with proven records of success, the teachers union fought back.


And now, while we try to measure teacher effectiveness in order to reward the best teachers and replace the tiny portion who aren't helping our kids learn, the teachers union fights back.

It is a major problem when the unions stick by teachers who are just not performing. In the real world, when your performance is not up to par, you lose your job. There is no reason that teachers should be treated any differently than the rest of us. Especially when you consider what is at stake when they are incapable of doing their jobs. Sadly, they don't see that they lose all creditability when the fight to keep poor teachers. The leadership also falsely claims that reformers are trying to attack all teachers, when that simply is not the case. It is simply the leadership of the unions who keep standing in the way of the real reforms that are necessary in order to right this ship.


Al Sharpton has called education "the civil rights issue" of the day. What I find so hypocritical of him is that he is unwilling to work with the right on this fight as it is in his DNA to stick up for the union employees. There are individual tea parties around the country that are taking up education reform as an issue that they are going to pour energy into in order to obtain awareness. A Tea Party in Arizona rented out theatres in order to air "Waiting for Superman". The hope was to galvanize the community to start pressuring the school boards to make the necessary improvements.


The amount of money that we spend on education in this country we should be getting much more than the lackluster results that we are currently experiencing. The country's resources are limited, so we need to spend our money wisely. There is no one magic answer to the problems our school systems face. The problems differ depending on the individual community. It is time that we start thinking outside of the box and allow individuals to make the fixes that best fit their particular needs instead of forcing these one size fits all answers that have been failing our kids for more than 40 years.


Cross posted at PotLuck

The Average American?

Every three years The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development conducts testing on 15 year olds from 34 different countries.  The results of the U.S. is nothing less than disappointing.

 

The U.S. scores of 500 in reading and 502 in science, on a 1,000-point scale, were about the organization's average, according to the report. The U.S. math score of 487 was below the average of 496.

The Department of Education spends $70B per year.  What exactly are we getting for that?  It is time that we admit that our current system is just not working and we look at different way of thinking in order to tackle this problem, because a problem it is.  Our poor educational system affects both national and economic security for future generations of our country. 

We keep thinking that simply throwing money at the problem is the answer, when clearly it is not.  We have recently added dinner programs to some of our public schools.  This after we have been feeding breakfast to these students as well.  The rationale behind adding the breakfast was that students who are not eating well don't learn as well.  While that may very well be true, it obviously has not had the desired effect.  Our scores are not going up. 

The one size fits all program of No Child Left Behind has not worked, and President Obama has come out with a new program, Race to the Top.  At least with Race to the Top the government is allowing the individual states to make more of the decisions, but it is still being federally focused instead of locally focused. 

There are some administrators in the state of New Jersey that get higher salaries than the governor.  That is not an effective way to use the limited funds.  The majority of the money should be going to improve the classroom instead of paying for high salaries and a lifetime of benefits that the average person does not have.  We have done nothing to make easier to get rid of the teachers that are no longer performing up to par.  While it is true that the vast majority of teachers are dedicated and do a very good job, it should be every teacher.  We entrust our children's future to the staff at a public school and if they are not up to the job, then they need to find a new line of work. 

The time has come that left admit that high-flying rhetoric is not only failing our children, but is endangering the future of our country.  We can longer accept the fact that students in major urban areas don't deserve the same education as the students in suburban areas.  One needs to look no further than the cities of Chicago and Washington, DC.  Both school systems spend large amounts of money per pupil and continue to have lower than average scores and graduation rates.  Since, on a whole, our school system is only average, think of how bad the schools in these two cities are. 

If we continue to fail our children in this way, how will we stay competitive on the world stage?  How will we have enough educated people to perform such tasks as national security?  This is road that we no longer can afford to continue going down.  We need to look into using more charter schools and more voucher programs.  We can't continue to wait for the failing schools to improve.  That obviously is not happening. 

For me, it's a massive wake-up call," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Monday. "Have we ever been satisfied as Americans being average in anything? Is that our aspiration? Our goal should be absolutely to lead the world in education."

Time will tell what steps Arne Duncan will take now that he has his "wake up call". 



Cross posted at Potluck