http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/feb/07020204.html
Unlike most conservative Christians, who implausibly insist that their schools are "different" and that their nine year-olds are little salt shakers sprinkling salt all over in their public schools, Liberal Christians believe that everyone should hand their children over to the government schools for the "common good". From EthicsDaily.com, the publication of the Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton Baptists:
Christians should support public education not as mission field for conversion, but out of a commitment to the common good, Robert Parham of the Baptist Center for Ethics told a Thursday gathering of educators and clergy exploring ways to build more meaningful relationships between churches and schools.
Thus, while we must admit that the promoters of a version of Christianity best described as liberalism with holidays may have, shall we say, an eccentric view of the "common good", at least they don't engage in the utterly mendacious blather of the typical evangelical pastor about how Christian children serve in the government's schools as missionaries.
Not content later on in the article with describing our highly trained education professionals as Hebrew slaves being asked to make bricks without straw, the Baptist Center for Ethics' Mr. Parham, without naming names, continues by taking a jab at Al Mohler and yours truly:
One seminary president, Parham said, supports a movement within the Southern Baptist Convention that labels public schools and "the enemies of God" and "dark and decaying places." The president, Parham said, has stated, "I believe that now is the time for responsible Southern Baptists to develop an exit strategy from the public schools."..."Calling public schools dark and decaying places bears false witness against public schools..."
Jimmy and Bill are rumored to been commissioned by the BCE to design an updated golden calf in the shape of a public school that will soon be made available impartially to liberal and conservative pastors. This will complement the public school worship liturgy quite nicely.
THE TRAGEDY OF OUR UNDERFUNDED SCHOOLS
Speaking of our highly trained education professionals being forced to make bricks without straw:
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, public school teachers earned $34.06 per hour in 2005, 36% more than the hourly wage of the average white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty or technical worker.
As it turns out, the famously successful Detroit schools are at the top of the "bricks without straw" heap:
Metro Detroit leads the nation, paying its public school teachers, on average, $47.28 per hour. That's 61% more than the average white-collar worker in the Detroit area and 36% more than the average professional worker.
Apparently, despite giving the Detroit public school Hebrew slaves so much straw, Detroit schools are now "at the boiling point":
Leaders of the Detroit Federation of Teachers vowed Thursday to recall the president of the school board as community tensions grew surrounding a plan to close 52 schools and a much-criticized candidate pool for superintendent
The 52 schools represent 20% of Detroit's schools. Over the last 8 years Detroit has lost 51,000, or roughly one-third, of its students, and the future looks bleak for Detroit's highly trained Hebrew slaves:
The district has seen a massive exodus of students over the past eight years -- more than 50,000 or nearly a third of its population. State funding, which is based on attendance, has also fallen sharply -- so much so that the district borrowed more than $200 million in 2005 to stay afloat.
The economic consequences of the diaspora from Detroit's schools are striking:
In light of the Detroit example, I may be having one of those "Damascus Road" moments. I could enthusiastically stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Mr. Parham in calling for more "straw" for our government school Hebrew slaves everywhere if we could be assured of the same rapid and exemplary results Detroit is producing.
THE SCHOOL BOND BLUES
In Washington State, the real slaves, the taxpayers, are a bit restive, and it is getting harder for our highly trained education professionals to grab more straw through levies. The solution they are promoting is lowering the required level of voter approval for school bonds from 60% to 50%. http://www.theolympian.com/101/story/60795.html
In New Jersey, the local tax slaves are better trained and understand that our highly trained education professionals must have lifetime job security unmatched by any other profession because....well, just because. Still, they must be wondering why our highly trained education professionals must be paid even in death.
A recent independent audit of the Camden School District has revealed that the District has been paying $130,000 a year to an employee who died in 1974. In addition, the district paid $953,000 for copying equipment that was invoiced for $55,000. Now, that's what I call a tip. http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=4986925
By the way, Iowa's Paul Dorr will consult with taxpayers anywhere on how to defeat school bond elections. He has helped taxpayers stop about $750,000,000 in school bonds and can be reached at 712-758-3660. The straw you save may be your own.
THE CHECK IS IN THE MAIL AND YOUR CHILDREN ARE SAFE IN GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS...
Still, our highly trained education professionals have been able to maintain the illusion that the schools are "safe" places for children through their normal expedient of not telling the truth. Even John Stossel has been taken in by the data self-reported by the school districts compiled by the DOE.
Now, however, it seems an awareness of the true level of crime and physical danger within the government school system is beginning to seep into the public conscious. From USA Today, the newspaper for folks who don't really like to read, a surprisingly candid story:
What's evolved, safety experts say, is a system where states have made it very hard for schools to be classified as unsafe and schools can report incidents as they see fit. Fewer than 100 of the nation's 90,000-plus public schools have ever been slapped with the label since the law took effect in 2002. Although studies indicate school crime has been declining since the 1990s, many experts say schools under report incidents...
The stigma of a "persistently dangerous" label is enough to keep most schools from being completely honest, said Beverly Caffee Glenn, executive director of the Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
"There's realty prices to be considered. Would you want to move into a school district where you knew it was unsafe?" said Glenn, referring to the importance schools have on home values. "There's also the issue: Do you want to be the principal of a school where you can't control your kids?"
As I have reported before, when schools are audited the actual crime, violence, and disciplinary situation on campus bears little resemblance to the data reported to the DOE and fondly cited by the government education monopoly. Here is an example from the USA Today article (emphasis added):
New York state added 17 schools to its list in August after state auditors found severe under-reporting of incidents at most of the districts they examined.
One that wasn't added to the list was White Plains High School, which has never been tagged as "persistently dangerous." The school reported 22 serious incidents to the state for the 2003-2004 school year, even though school records indicated there were 289 others unreported, including 35 assaults with physical injury and one sexual assault.
For the complete article:
Behind all of the statistics and abstract talk about school crime and violence, there is a flesh and blood reality. Here are a just a few examples to illustrate - but, remember, every "incident", every data point, is really a horror endured by a child, some of whom do not survive:
WHITEWASHING FAILURE
The government school enablers never stop trying to spin even the most preposterous "things are just swell in the schools" narratives.
As with the Lubienski math and reading "studies" that got a lot of front page attention last year for claiming that public schools do a better job teaching math and reading than private schools (even though the actual data said otherwise), there is too much twaddle in the article and the underlying "study" to unpack here.
Notable, however, is the rationalization, which is trotted out with tedious regularity by government school apologists, that our students, in part, do worse in international comparisons because of we are "ethnically diverse". This is liberal speak for, "we would do really well if it weren't for those dumb ___s and ____s" A subtext the Klan would approve.
As for the "things aren't getting worse" mantra of the educational left, here is a fascinating analysis from a math professor at Johns Hopkins, who concludes that the (very talented) students he is getting today come with preparation in math that is at least a semester behind the preparation of the (similarly very talented) students he taught in 1989:
In case you have forgotten, 1989 was the year that the National Council of Mathematics Teachers (NCMT) issued its now "infamous" reform math curriculum and evaluation standards that institutionalized "fuzzy" math and "rain forest algebra".
Because almost no one has heard of the work of the NCMT and how it has contributed to math illiteracy, here is a brief video that vividly and accurately illustrates the perils of reform math - one of the most pernicious idiocies ever served up by the educational establishment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI
Just in case parents aren't getting the message that government schools are the most heroically successful educational institutions known to history, unflattering comparisons with homeschoolers are to be eliminated by excluding homeschoolers from spelling bees.
Remember, friends don't let friends send their children to government schools.
God's peace be with you, Bruce
Bruce Shortt is the author of, "The Harsh Truth About Public Schools."
TOS Items of Interest
Feb. 5, 2007
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