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Continuing
Collapse... #2
A New
Frontier for Zero Tolerance Policies
Bruce Shortt
See #1, #3,
#4
[COMMENT: The continuing (and sometimes hilarious) collapse of
public education. Well, if it were not so tragic for so many lives, it
would be hilarious. Some of the things reported below are appalling.
The continuing collapse of so-called public education (neither
public nor education) is documented below. The whole thing is a farce, and
indicative of two things: 1. The clamp which the globalist establishment
has on the public thinking; & 2. the incompetence of the public to do anything
about it.
But a few are, and growing numbers of those few.
Are you one of them??? Get your children out of government-run schools.
Help to re-establish our free-market education system. When we had such a
system (prior to about the 1850's) we had the best educated citizenry in the
world. Now look at us. This can be explained only by the people in
control not wanting to put up with an educated and genuinely free people. E. Fox]
Happy New Year! There is never a dull moment in the
culturally and intellectually inbred world of public education. 2007 is
already offering up a cornucopia bizarre and bewildering stories for your
delectation.
Of course, government schools have other ways of dealing with
special education students:
"ALTHOUGH the New York State Department of Education bans corporal
punishment, each year it uses taxpayer money to send dozens of children with
emotional or learning disabilities to schools that use physically and
mentally abusive forms of behavior modification. These include electric
shocks, seclusion and sleep and food deprivation. Because these punishments
are euphemized as “aversive therapy,” they have until recently stayed under
the department’s radar...In May, New York investigators made an unannounced
visit to Rotenberg, where about 150 New Yorkers are enrolled. There, they
found that shocks were being administered for such minor infractions as
“nagging” or “failing to maintain a neat appearance.” "
I hope you noticed what the taxpayers are paying for this
"treatment." No wonder homeschooling of special needs children is growing.
I'll spare you the reports of special education children being duct-taped to
their chairs and shackled while riding the bus...
MORE ON THE ALWAYS ENTERTAINING NO CHILD
LEFT BEHIND FOLLIES
Margaret Spellings, key architect of the "Texas Education
Miracle", now the Secretary of Education and chief enforcer for No Child
Left Behind, sees NCLB as "on track" and urges renewal:
"U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said yesterday that she
welcomed proposals to "perfect and tweak" the No Child Left
Behind law as Congress prepares for what could become a divisive debate on
renewal of the landmark education initiative.
As you may recall, NCLB seeks to ensure that all children can
read and do math at grade level by 2014.
Secretary Spellings may be right that NCLB is "on track", but
the question is "which track"? For example, reading proficiency on the NAEP
among Mississippi 4th graders only increased by 13% from 1992 to 2005.
Consequently, 100% NAEP proficiency in reading among
Mississippi's 4th graders looks like an event that should occur somewhere in
the 2085-90 time frame. Actually Mississippi is doing well, because it
appears that in Iowa NAEP reading proficiency will be heading toward
zero. From 1992 to 2005 the reading skills of Iowa's 4th graders actually
declined. (See the NAEP link below).
Nationally, at current rates of improvement (and decline), it
is almost certain that NCLB's proficiency goals will not be met within the
natural life of anyone reading this if NAEP is the standard....but there's
the rub. NCLB lets states define their own proficiency standards, which is
why the state "accountability tests" report proficiency results vastly
higher than those reported by the not-all-that-challenging NAEP. Still, no
matter what the test, it will be almost impossible to hit the 2014
proficiency goals, unless, of course, students get a lot of extra credit for
being able to breathe.
By the way, speaking of Spellings' "Texas Education
Miracle":
OK. Now I understand. If you can get an education in
Texas public schools, it's a miracle.
LIES, DAMN LIES, and STATISTICS
One of Secretary Spelling's "tweaks" will be understood by
almost no one:
"Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings told the Dec. 8 session that she
doesn’t believe in forcing a single standard on states, at least when it
comes to one of the more technical, but critical, factors of state
accountability plans: a state’s “N” size, or the minimum subgroup size that
counts toward schools’ and districts’ accountability under the federal
education law."
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/12/20/16ayp.h26.html
For those who are statistically impaired, this means that
school districts will be free to move students in and out of various
minority and non-minority categories to make it appear that they are making
"adequate yearly progress", thereby avoiding embarrassment and possible
sanctions under NCLB. This scam, which caused a fair amount of consternation
when it was publicized earlier this year, is partly explained here: [Link
missing...]
THE OLD PUBLIC SCHOOL "DOG IN THE MANGER
ROUTINE" (with apologies to our canine friends)
Having failed to teach children to read, our highly trained
education professionals aren't about to let anyone else fix the problem.
Under NCLB children in failing schools are entitled to federally funded
tutoring. This spawned a number of private sector start-ups that were to
provide "supplemental education services" (SES) to the child-victims of
government school malpractice.
Being ever resourceful, and determined to prevent any
learning for which they cannot take credit, the usual suspects have been
successful in reducing the federal budget deficit by making sure that only
about 15% of the federal money budgeted to help the victims of their
educational malpractice got spent:
"Much of the initial enthusiasm felt by SES providers—and by the
venture-capital firms investing in them—evaporated after they encountered
such obstacles as district reluctance to permit companies to provide
tutoring on school grounds, lack of communication between districts and
parents about the tutoring programs, and what the companies see as
bureaucratic red tape, market experts say."
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/12/20/16tutor.h26.html
TO THE VICTOR GOES THE SPOILS
We don't want anyone interfering with our failure - St. Louis
schools fight state takeover:
While we should never doubt that the motives involved in
these struggles for control are at least as pure as Ivory Soap (that is,
Ivory Soap before Marilyn Chambers somehow ended up as the cover-girl on the
box), one can't help but wonder if control would be so strenuously contested
if victory didn't confer upon the winner control over enormous amounts of
money and power...No, I'm sure it's all "for the children."
By the way, once the central role of "the love of money" by
the government school establishment is thoroughly understood, the
incomprehensible becomes comprehensible. Consider, for example, this story
from Sacramento:
Investigative Report: School Crime Soars But Few Kicked Out
| |
Serious crime at high schools in the
Sacramento City Unified School District has more than
doubled in the past five years, while the number of students
facing the most severe punishment -- expulsion -- has
plummeted...
As the president of a major teachers' union local observed a
few years ago regarding the same problem: "..district
administrators consistently refuse to honestly report
on-campus violence...A student would would damn near have to
kill somebody...to be expelled before that snapshot date."
The "snapshot date" is the day on which the district's
funding is determined by the size of the district's
enrollment.
|
MORE ENROLLMENT AND SCHOOL CLOSURE BLUES
More news to make Arizona parents feel good about "their
schools":
FYI, here is the state by state "chance for success"
index that causes Superintendent Horne's bosom to swell with pride:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/qc/2007/17csi.h26.html .
A
palpably absurd exercise? Yes, but it gives the education industry
something to talk about for a few months.
Fortunately, some parents in Mesa, Arizona, understand the
difference between "education policy" and educational results -
another district losing funding because of declining enrollment:
School enrollment in the Mile High City is also shrinking
prompting the usual hand-wringing over school closures:
"...leaders have warned that closings are coming because the district has
lost so many students. About 8,500 fewer students are attending traditional
schools today than in 2002. More than a dozen DPS schools, including Del
Pueblo and Mann, are less than half full. leaders have warned that closings
are coming because the district has lost so many students. About 8,500 fewer
students are attending traditional schools today than in 2002. More than a
dozen DPS schools, including Del Pueblo and Mann, are less than half full."
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4969665
THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL
Speaking about the love of money... From the "There's never
enough money department", Seattle's highly trained education professionals
join the movement to have judicial mandarins extract from taxpayers ever
higher taxes for schools:
"Around the country, 45 states have experienced similar lawsuits. In most
cases filed since the 1980s, the plaintiffs won, and the state government
was forced by court order to do something about education, said Molly
Hunter, managing director of the National Access Network at Columbia
University's Teachers College in New York.
The lawsuits are fairly similar, alleging that educational funding is
inadequate and violates guarantees in state constitutions. Washington put
even greater emphasis on education than many other states by declaring it
the state's "paramount duty," Hunter said.
One reason states often lose such lawsuits can be tied to educational
standards established by the states and high-stakes tests such as the
Washington Assessment of Student Learning. Such standards generate lots of
data about test scores and academic achievement that can later be used in
court.
Some cases take weeks in court and, if plaintiffs win, the legislative
remedy can come quickly. In other cases, legal wrangling drags on with
governors and legislators arguing with judges over how much of their budget
should be devoted to education."
SEX AND LIES IN MARYLAND
They're back.... In Maryland, the anti-Baptist condom and
anal sex brigade has returned with its curriculum for 8th and 10th graders:
Not surprisingly, 30 years or so of "sex education" by our
highly trained education professionals has pushed back the frontiers of
acceptable social behavior in many ways. The birthday-suit party is one
manifestation of what public school sex educators and their college and
media allies have wrought:
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=36832007 . Now, ask
yourself, what is the next group of students going do to show they are more
"liberated" than this crowd?
Remember, friends don't let friends send their children to
public schools.
God's peace be with you, Bruce
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