PUBLIC EDUCATION GETS A BIG FAT "F"

Hat Tip to Gates of Vienna

By Dr. Patrick Johnston
September 13, 201

A recent Columbus Dispatch article reveals the horrifyingly bad news about our public schools. The “Public Education Report Card” was dismal: “Four F’s, Three D’s, Two C’s.”

Not enough kids can pass tests, the Dispatch reports. A year’s worth of learning did not take place. Far too few students graduate. Public education is “outright failing.” All but eight of the district’s 115 schools earned at least one “F” grade.

“The community can no longer pretend all is well here,” Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman says. “It is not.” He calls the academic report “disgraceful.” Ohio’s capital only met three of the 24 standards. “We as a community have failed this school and the children of this district.” The Dispatch hails the mayor for his courageous honesty.

Did the community really fail the children of Columbus’ district as Mayor Coleman claims? When ”the community” – the people – educate children instead of government bureaucracies, the children do much better at much less expense. If education were taken out of the government’s jurisdiction and put in the people’s lap, we’d still have prayer in school, wouldn’t we? It wasn’t a democratic consensus that ripped prayer and Ten Commandments out of public school classrooms. It was a federal judiciary that had no regard for constitutional limitations. If education were put in the people’s charge, we wouldn’t have gay propaganda shoved down our children’s throats. We wouldn’t have the transgendered son of two lesbian parents using the girl’s restroom under California state law. If education were put in the people’s jurisdiction, we wouldn’t have students punching teachers in the face, all the while being assured that they wouldn’t be spanked for it. We wouldn’t have teachers like John Freshwater fired keeping a Bible on their desk, or for presenting scientific criticism of the theory of evolution. No, it’s not the people enforcing “Next Generation Science Standards” on students, forcing even more Darwinian dogmatism in science classes at even earlier ages. According to a 2009 Zogby poll, 78% of American voters agree that “Biology teachers should teach Darwin’s theory of evolution, but also the scientific evidence against it.” It’s not the people that dreamed up a _________ per year per student educational system whose report card reads “Four F’s, Three D’s, and Two C’s.” Nope, it’s not the people of Columbus that have failed the children.

World Magazine reports in this week’s edition that the National Education Association’s annual convention in Atlanta saw “Common Core” curricula being presented as the remedy to the failing educational outcomes (as if more federal control will repair the disaster that federal control has caused.) The NEA conference attendees shouted down a brave proposal to prevent NEA funds from supporting abortion, and vigorously cheered a proposal to shove lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered history, people, and issues more thoroughly into their instruction. These, along with the godless judges, are the crooks at the steering wheel of our nation’s highly expensive, failing education system.

What did Mayor Coleman propose to fix the glaring deficiencies in the education deficiencies? “Pass a 9.01 million dollar levy this November.”

The schools run by the people – private schools and home schools – do a much better job at much less expense. The best private schools Mayor Coleman’s district cost half as much with far superior results. 80% of home schooling families spend less than $800 per year per child, with better testing scores, better graduation rates, and more students progressing to higher education. Yet Mayor Coleman thinks that he and the NEA can fix the problem if only they had more money.

Pretend your physician has hurt you more than he’s helped you, and has done so at great financial expense to you. As a matter of fact, he’s the most expensive physician within 150 miles! Yet in 24 measurements of quality of care, he’s only passed three of them. You upbraid him for his malpractice, and his remedy is “pay me more money and I’ll do better.” What?

How about firing him and get another physician?

Pretend your attorney has failed to defend you well from a false charge in court, and he’s cost you a fortune in the process. The billboard ensured you that he’s the best lawyer in town! Yet in 24 ways of measuring the attorney’s abilities, he only passed three of the measurements. You reprove him for failing you, for not keeping his promises, for costing you millions with nothing to show for it except time behind bars for something you didn’t do, and he rebuts, “If you only paid me more, I could do better!”

How about suing him for doing drugs when he’s defending you in court, and hiring another attorney?

Mayor Coleman proposed the city adopt a “Declaration of Independence” from the “old way of doing business.” I agree.

The “old way of doing business” is the state monopoly on public education. The “old way of doing business” is forcing even those who object to atheistic evolution theory to pay for the pagan education of other people’s kids upon pain of fine, prison, or property confiscation. The “old way of doing business” is forcing parents who are trying to teach their children abstinence, to fund the condom-distributing, abortion-drug-prescribing safe sex propaganda of their local public school. The “old way of doing business” is to have teachers read “Heather Has Two Mommies” to underage kids, and have them practice putting a condom on a wooden dummy, as Ohio’s safe sex education curricula recommends.

Thomas Jefferson said, “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” The “old way of doing business,” Mr. Mayor, is sinful and tyrannical, and your remedy is more sin and tyranny.

Let’s have a separation of school and state and see what the people can do. Before the advent of public education, the American colonies had a 97% literacy rate according to a study that President Thomas Jefferson ordered. The righteousness of our people gave them victory over Great Britain’s tyranny and Nazi Germany’s Holocaust – without all the suicides that characterize soldiers of the present generation. Noah Webster, our nations’ first education bureaucrat, said, “Education is useless without God and the Bible.” Education was never better when the people taught students to read instead of put on condoms, and when they taught them pray and memorize Scripture via the New England Primer, but thanks to the judiciary-approved pagans presently at the helm of public education’s ship, it’s been downhill ever since.

Let’s fire the government stooges and the condom-peddling homosexuals at the NEA, and let the people educate the children.

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Their Usefulness Is Over

Once the usefulness of a group is over to the liberal elites they are thrown by the waste side.  Under Stalin the peasants and workers of the Soviet Union were starved into submission to the State.  Here in the United States the Liberal elites are starting the same policy by cutting Food Stamps.

Ohio families receiving food stamps could get an unwelcome surprise come January: $50 less every month in assistance.

For the 869,000 households enrolled in the program for the poorest Ohioans, that could amount to about $520 million annually out of the grocery budgets.

Because of the way the federal government calculates utility expenses for people receiving the benefit, a mild winter nationwide last year, and a lower price for natural gas, many families could experience a significant cut in aid, those familiar with the program say.

Recipients should get a letter from the state Department of Job and Family Services this month explaining the change, said Ben Johnson, a spokesman for the agency.

Meanwhile, food banks and others that distribute food assistance are bracing for increased demand.

“They are going to increase hunger among our most vulnerable — working families, seniors, children, and persons with disabilities,” said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks.

Ms. Hamler-Fugitt said her organization is particularly concerned that some seniors or persons with disabilities who have a low benefit amount could lose all their monthly assistance.

We’re really worried about [the change],” she said.

What’s called the “standard utility allowance” — the amount deducted from a person’s income when the state determines his or her eligibility for the food stamp program — will decrease by $166 for 2013, translating to about $50 less per household in food assistance. State Job and Family Services officials tried to appeal the change to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the food stamp program, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but the USDA denied the request.

USDA officials did not respond to requests from The Blade for comment.

State and county Job and Family Services officials say there is little they can do other than letting their clients and community partners who provide food assistance know about the changes.

“This is a federal issue,” said Joel Potts, executive director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Directors’ Association. “It is what it is. They have a formula. ... We just think it is going to be really hard on families and individuals. They will see significantly less money starting in January.”

The average food-stamp recipient receives $138 per person, per month, according to state statistics. As of August, more than 1.7 million individual Ohioans, or about 869,000 families, received the assistance. A total of $3 billion in benefits was issued in 2011 in Ohio; the program is federally funded.

In Lucas County, about 91,000 people — 46,000 households — receive the benefit. Fifty fewer dollars per household per month would amount to about $27 million annually.

“It’s a concern,” said Deb Ortiz-Flores, director of Lucas County’s Job and Family Services agency. “Fifty dollars can buy quite a bit of food.”

Jack Frech, director of the Athens County Department of Job and Family Services in southeastern Ohio, said the loss of funds will cause a true hardship.

“Fifty dollars would be devastating” to families, he said. “These are folks that have already fallen off the fiscal cliff.” Mr. Frech added that many of his agency’s clients are not affected by lower natural gas prices.

“The majority of folks [here] don’t heat with natural gas in the first place,” he said. “They heat with fuel oil and propane.”

The Rev. Steve Anthony, executive director of Toledo Area Ministries, said, “It will put a strain on all organizations that provide emergency food. We’re going to have to find alternatives. We can’t pull food or money out of thin air.”

TAM runs the Feed Your Neighbor program, which has 13 food pantries in Toledo and surrounding suburbs.

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The price of food is rising yet the State of Ohio is cutting food stamps.  I expect many states will be doing this soon to cut expenses and reduce their debts.  I wonder what other "Welfare" programs are going to be cut.  And the funny thing is that the poor fools don't even know that they voted for this to happen.