Fools in Public Schools

It seems like we can’t go more than three or four days without seeing a story about the foolishness that goes on at America’s public schools. I don’t mean the fights, the assaults, the murders, the gang activity, vulgarity, and the general mayhem perpetrated by students; but rather the lunacy carried out by teachers and administrators. It’s a subject to which we could dedicate a month’s worth of Political Cesspool broadcasts – and that still wouldn’t be enough time to catalog and discuss a month’s worth of shenanigans and outrages. Read on, for a sampling of what I mean from the past couple of days.

The deceptively-named National Education Association has already endorsed Barack Obama for a second term as President. Wow! A hyper-Liberal quasi-Marxist activist labor union supporting a Socialist candidate! Who could have seen that coming? Make no mistake about it, folks – the NEA is a labor union, Marxist in its mission, rabid in its activism, and concerned with education only insofar as it impacts its members. NEA leaders will look determined and emotional as they repeat variations of their Clintonesque “for the children” mantras.

[NEA President Dennis] Van Roekel said the nation “cannot sacrifice our students’ futures by shortchanging them now. There are two very distinct visions for this country. One is about opportunities for all and one is not.”

For NEA leaders to claim the union exists for the benefit of students is like United Auto Workers leaders claiming the UAW exists for the benefit of cars. The real story about the NEA’s announcement of support for Obama is the timing—it’s a year earlier than the time it typically announces its support for the Democrat candidate.

The NEA statement said the organization usually waits until the summer of an election year to endorse a candidate. This year, it did so earlier than normal “in order to provide early and strong support to help ensure the election of a candidate who is on the side of students and working families.”

Why would the NEA break from its usual practice? I suspect it’s for PR and fund-raising purposes. Being the first organization to announce support for Obama will get the donation money rolling in sooner. And after Obama wins, they’ll be able to claim that they were they were the first to endorse his second term, which will snag them more donations and even more of what passes for prestige in Liberal World.

Continuing, we now go to that bottomless pit of insanity—California. The state is in shambles: a stratospheric cost of living, a government debt that can be seen from outer space, illegal immigrants pouring into the state for the taxpayer-funded freebies, gang terrorism in cities, and so on. According to the California legislature, the solution to all the state’s problems is to mandate the teaching of queer history in public schools.

A bill to require California public schools to teach the historical accomplishments of gay men and lesbians passed the state Legislature on Tuesday in what supporters call a first for the nation.

California already requires public schools to teach the contributions made to society by women and by racial and ethnic groups that were historically discriminated against, such as blacks, Latinos and Native Americans.

Supporters of the latest bill said it would simply include gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals in that existing requirement, making it part of the curriculum in history and other social studies classes.

“It’s unfair to leave out or exclude an entire portion of our population from history,” said Carolyn Laub, executive director of San Francisco-based Gay-Straight Alliance Network.

Except, of course, if you want to mention the accomplishments straight White men. If you mention them, then you have to link whatever they did to racism.

I wonder if they’ll teach queer history classes in Spanish.

Moving on, it seems the Devil went down to Georgia, specifically, Atlanta, where the teachers and administrators have been caught in a massive cheating scandal.

In recent years, Atlanta public schools have been praised to no end for their upward spiral of improvement as demonstrated by the increasing scores on standardized tests. And since the Atlanta school system is majority Black in both student body and administration, it has been lauded as a sterling exmple of Black achievement. So eye-catching were the improvements that Superintendent Beverly Hall was named National Superintendent of the Year in 2009.

But now, we find out that the much-ballyhooed success is an illusion:

Award-winning gains by Atlanta students were based on widespread cheating by 178 named teachers and principals, said Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday. His office released a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that names 178 teachers and principals – 82 of whom confessed – in what’s likely the biggest cheating scandal in US history.

This appears to be the largest of dozens of major cheating scandals, unearthed across the country.

The report on the Atlanta Public Schools, released Tuesday, indicates a “widespread” conspiracy by teachers, principals and administrators to fix answers on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT), punish whistle-blowers, and hide improprieties.

The motive for the cheating was money. Public schools that perform well get more funding. Teachers who post high student test scores are eligible for rewards as large as $25,000. Principals of low-scoring schools can be fired, and schools can even be shut down for poor test performance.

As if all that isn’t bad enough, students at a Sandy, Utah high school were paid a visit by the $PLC.

Students from Canyons District high schools were given sensitivity training after claims of racism at Alta High were investigated.

Students received sensitivity training Tuesday from the $outhern Poverty Law Center.

When the Canyons superintendent turned to the $outhern Poverty Law Center for help after allegations of racism at Alta High, center educators didn’t hesitate.

The $outhern Poverty Law Center will be back in August to meet with parents and community leaders in Sandy for the same type of training.

The school administrators probably didn’t know that the $PLC is one of the leading merchants in the hate-monger industry. Most likely, all they knew of the $PLC is what CNN says about them, that they “monitor hate groups.” The truth is that the $PLC manufactures and markets hate groups, and keeps its multi-million dollar income in tax-free off-shore accounts in the Cayman Islands.

I understand that job situations or other circumstances make public schools the only option for many European American parents. But even then, parents must realize that their obligation is to manage and monitor their children’s education, and not turn it over to public schools. Private schools are an option, but the cost is often beyond the budgets of most families; besides, many private schools are as bad as public schools, or only marginally better. The best option is, of course, homeschooling, and there are plenty of resources out there to get you started and to help you make the most of it. Who knows? Your homeschooled child might even grow up to become the founder and host of an nationally syndicated radio program and an acclaimed author, whose book you can order here.

Based on the originally article posted at The Political Cesspool.