Slightly more than 10 years ago, Texas provided up to 70 percent of the total budget for public education. Local government, mostly via home property taxes, provided the remaining 30 percent. Currently, those percentages are reversed and now the state is looking to provide even less to public schools in the Special Legislative Session under proposed Senate Bill 1 that seeks to cut public education financing down another 6 percent.
During the past decade legislators and various members of the elite business sector have given lip service to finding financing for Texas public education, but every year or two committees failed and fewer tax dollars were provided. The Texas Constitution outlines the state's responsibility to provide our children with a quality education; however, every year the Governor and Legislators have taken chunks of tax dollars slated for public education and have diverted them instead to various other special interests.
Few Texans should be surprised that their state wants to remove more financing from public education, since it has been doing so almost every year for the past decade. However, it is a sad commentary of a state that is almost last on the list of states providing quality public education.
Currently, it is quite clear that there has been an active push by Texas legislators to develop private education and to eliminate its responsibility for public education. In fact, many legislators already sit on the boards of private, charter and religious schools. Special interests continue to push for a voucher program to enable parents to take their children out of public schools and use the vouchers for private enrollment.
Viewing the education issue completely, we may see that the state of Texas wishes to maintain educational objectives for the wealthy elite rather than for the majority of Texans. Furthermore, by crying budget poverty Texas sees the opportunity to remove most or all tax dollars that finance public education and to divert those tax dollars to other special interests.
It is sad enough that Texas Governor Rick Perry and legislators have no problem shirking their responsibility to the majority of children in Texas by cutting the financing for public education, but, it is callous, irresponsible and un-American to remove educational opportunities for the majority of our children and their parents under the veil of secrecy and cries of state fiscal poverty.
Our legislators are trying to eliminate public education behind closed legislative doors. SB 1 is the largest attempt of any previous bill to eliminate the financing of public education for our children and it is a symptom of special interest politics permeating throughout Texas.
If the majority of voters sit back and do nothing, Texas may succeed as the first state in the US to eliminate public education.
(Courtesy of Buzzflash, written by Peter Stern is a former Director of Information Services in private industry and government, a University Professor, Public School Administrator and Teacher. He is a disabled Vietnam Veteran and holds three post-graduate degrees.)
I cannot tell you how MUCH this shit pisses me off!
The Republicans have been actively trying to destroy the public school system since back when Reagan was in office and NOBODY seems to be calling them out on it.
School vouchers, Charter schools, No Child Left Behind, these all sound like good ideas, but when you REALLY examine the agenda behind them you quickly realize that their entire purpose is to make the public school system look ineffective, and essentially broken, in order to justify taking away their funding.
Look it is no exaggeration on my part to say that I had some of the BEST public school teachers you can imagine, who spent long hours working to inspire me to channel my hyperactivity toward sports and my over active mind toward writing. Nor is it much of an exaggeration to suggest that my life was literally saved by an Assistant Principal who called me down to his office halfway through my Junior year, closed the door behind me, and proceeded to read me the riot act about getting into so many fistfights. He told me, using language I had never heard an educator use before, to straighten up and get my act together before I found myself being the smartest guy on cell block 15. He also challenged me to stop taking from the school, and to "use that ridiculous IQ of yours" to give something back.
Do you know how they say that kids never listen? Well I DID listen to him, and afterward had the best, most productive Senior year of high school anybody could ever hope to have. And if I had stubbornly refused to listen chances are I would have been expelled, and would therefore never had that very first taste of success that let me know what I could achieve when I really set my mind to it.
THAT is what my public school education did for me. And I resent the hell out of those who are trying to take that educational opportunity away from our children and grandchildren.
If you are financially capable of paying for a private school education for your child, or you prefer a charter school, more power to you, but these options should not come at the expense of a well funded public education system. Not in America.
I'm soooo glad you posted that where everyone can read it easily!! Thanks, Gryphen.
ReplyDeleteIf the Constitution of the State of Texas does state that the legislature has the responsibility to provide a quality education, then the School Districts need to file a lawsuit. That happened here in Washington State and the School Districts won. In Washington, the term is "basic education" and yes, there was quite a lengthy battle over the definition.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post, Gryphen. I know your love for public education mirrors mine. Our country has no future without an educated workforce and electorate. I suspect some of the Republicans don't want the educated electorate, but without the workforce, they won't have anyone to buy their goods and services.
It's absolutely terrifying. A sound democracy depends on a healthy public education system. We must work to improve it.
ReplyDeleteRemember when we've seen horror stories about privatized jails? Same stuff will happen if it happens to our schools.
The GOP wastes no opportunity to make money, do they? They disgust me.
Oh can I PLEASE start my own religious school? An athiest religious school? One that teaches ALL religions and focuses on the hypocrisy and laughability of them all?
ReplyDeleteAnd then demand public funding for them?
Just to stick one in the eye of the religious right?
A stupid populace = more GOP voters. Simple.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to piss you off even more, Gryphen, but people should know the kind of things that take priority over education in Texas.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-11/texas-taxpayers-finance-formula-one-auto-races-as-schools-dismiss-teachers.html
Very well said, Gryphen. There is a reason this nation adopted the idea of education accessible to all children as it grew and developed. This is the only way we will have a strong and thriving country.
ReplyDeleteYou want a specialty school? One with expensive options that the funding agency cannot justify? Fine. Open a private school. You want a school where your spiritual beliefs are an integral part of the curriculum? Fine, start a school accordingly. You have any other bee in your bonnet about education? Fine, start your charter school.
But sorry, all citizens should fund the local public school system.
The self-centered fund my own kid and the hell with anyone less fortunate attitude will harm this country greatly (in my opinion).
I REALLY agree with you. I also had an incredible public school education. I heard that Chris Christie is also trying to privatize education. How did the Republican party become so crazy and far right. It is truly frightning what their vision is for America. Basically it's each person for him or herself. God forbid if you need education or health care. Only the extremely rich get these things! Wouldn't Jesus approve?? And no regulations for banks or industry anymore. Those job creators will surely be looking out for our planet and the welfare of all the people. No???
ReplyDeleteSo what do these jerks think government should do? They seem to feel that governments role is to help the very rich and big corporations, don't you think?? Not we, the people. Yet millions of these people vote for douchebags like this.
Obama and the Democrats better start getting more proactive or we are not going to recognize our country. It really will be a plutocracy if isn't already. And if the economy gets worse, Obama could lose and the brainless dimwit conservatives who are not millionaires will vote in an extremist who could give an F about people.
We are headed for scary times.
Thank you Gryphen for posting this. Peter Stern tells it like it is, I've been reading his posts for years. It's time the full story about Texas and Rick Perry is revealed. Do we really want him as our president? NOOOOOOO.
ReplyDeleteUnderstand that Obama and Duncan, his Sec of Education, are for exactly the same thing. This is why the teacher's unions are finished with Obama.
ReplyDeleteBoth parties are working hard to destroy public education. It seems to be what big business wants ... wonder where they think educated workers will come from or do they plan on returning to pretechnology? Is the US committing economic suicide? Hello, we're a third world country.
In PA special needs students are forced to mainstream next year because the idiot Republican governor cut funds for special needs support staffs while he gave himself and the Executive branches raises. Now imagine how that will effect quality education.
No taxes. equals
No education. No roads. No libraries. No bridges. No police. No firemen. No teachers.
I remember a time when this country was proud of it's public education. So when do the sheep quit sleeping and figure out they have destroyed the future for their children.
One of the greatest foundations of our nation was public school for all children. Our country has become a Corrupt Bastards Club for the wealthy. Of course, the same businesses pushing this plan will start screaming when they can't find educated employees.
ReplyDeleteThe good news is that Minnesota have reached a deal for the Vikings. Unfortunately, no deal for all the public employees in the state who have received or will receive layoff notices in the next few days. Michelle, Tim, anyone, Bueller?
ReplyDeleteAmen Gryphen. For more on Rick Perry's world read this post at Margaret and Helen blog.
ReplyDeleteI tried to post it to Facebook, but it includes the word vagina and Facebook was having none of that.
http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/make-a-donation-to-planned-parenthood/
The GOP's mission statement should be: "We break things so we can prove they don't work, and then we can get rid of it."
ReplyDeleteIt's becoming more and more apparent that the GOP is de-evolving into corporate fascists, but they're just too greedy to see it.
I grew up attending a private, Christian dominionist school in which we were taught that education is absolutely not the responsibility of the government. The idea of a state de-funding public education would have been a wet dream for my principal. We heard repeatedly about how superior our education was, how much higher our test scores were than those of the local public schools, and how fortunate we were that our parents were willing to sacrifice, if necessary, to pay tuition. (I always thought it chafed my mother that she and my dad were well-off enough that we never had to forgo family vacations or even meals to pay tuition.)
ReplyDeleteImagine my surprise when I got to college and realized that classmates who had attended public schools had a much educationally better, more well-rounded, and FAR less emotionally and psychologically scarring high school experience than I'd had.
Unlike you, Gryph, my turning-point confrontations in the principal's office were about things like why I dressed flamboyantly, because even though I wasn't violating the dress code, I was drawing attention to myself and that was not pleasing to God; and about a complete meltdown I had, in which I could not stop crying for hours. The principal exhibited a stunning lack of compassion, and everyone else showed a staggering ignorance about the fact that anything was wrong. They thought I was being a brat. They didn't understand that I was nearly suicidal and having a breakdown.
Twenty years later, I still cut myself. I believe if I'd been in a different (read: public school) environment, in which teachers and counselors were educated about depression, in which they focused more on compassion and less on sin, and in which there were students with whom I might have found common ground, I would never have felt the need to start cutting.
That's how awesome my private school education was. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
When kids transfer into the Shawnee Mission Schools here in Kansas, we find that they are three to four grade levels behind.
ReplyDeleteAs if that were not enough, Texas school boards allow schools to kick kids out for very little reason to inflate their graduation levels. If their tests scores are low, more low-performing kids have to go in order to keep the test score averages higher.
How do we know? Teachers have migrated from Texas because of their disgust at these practices.
Principals and Superintendents would also pour more money into football teams than academic courses.
Oh, yeah. Texas is so good at educating their youth.
What is truly sad is that charter schools and religious schools can screen kids they don't want and get rid of kids that don't perform or cause trouble because they don't have to answer to the same guidelines and standards.
Plus, if a family cannot afford tuition - what then? Will they just become the folks who scrub toilets or sell drugs to get by?
What the hell do these legislators think they are doing - oh, yeah, you said many of them have shares in the private schools - they are lining their own pockets at the expense of the state and the country.
May God truly damn them. If there isn't a God, we need to invent one and invest him/her/it with mighty powers to roast these thieves of our children's future.
@SameOld. "Understand that Obama and Duncan, his Sec of Education, are for exactly the same thing."
ReplyDeleteI don't understand that. Please explain.
Maybe everyone needs to look up the history of public education - why it was deemed important to the development of the country.
ReplyDeleteEducating the masses is a crucial hallmark of a civilized country. Having basic standards and required core courses creates a citizenry that has a shared cultural paradigm, a shared knowledge base and a solid foundation upon which to build higher skill sets.
These a$$wipes in Texas and elsewhere are undermining the fabric of our country and will be responsible for turning our country into a third-world level nation in record time!
The United States is already 18th in the world as regards educational quality. How much farther and faster will we fall with these dimwits destroying our public educational system?
So, let me get this straight...the same people who want to ban birth control, and then when you get pregnant, want to make it illegal for you to abort that child, now want you to be responsible for paying for the education of all your children, and hey, if you don't want to "home-school" them that's YOUR problem...shall I go on? I'm very quickly falling OUT of love with the "United" States of America.....what is happening to this country?
ReplyDeleteChina DESERVES to surpass us for world supremacy, if this is going to be the way we treat our citizens. The war on the lower and middle class in the U.S. is despicable. Maybe the Civil War SHOULD have divided the states. I honestly don't know how much more of this insanity I can take.
ReplyDeleteI want all religious institutions to be taxed from this moment forward. Maybe there will be a sudden spike in atheism if that were the case.
ReplyDeleteSameOld - special needs kids have been mainstreamed in Kansas for over a decade. It is a mixed bag.
ReplyDeleteIn ideal situations, the most challenged kids were assigned a paraprofessional to accompany them to classes, thereby relieving the teacher from having to focus most of his or her time to that student. The paras received special training in each area to be able to translate the lessons to the levels of each special needs kid.
However, our GOP politicians here have decided to cut funds for paras. That means that these truly needy kids cannot get the specialized individual attention they need or the rest of the class has to suffer while the teacher tries to assist the special needs kids.
Imagine a kid who cannot use his or her arms being put into a sculpture or drawing class. That happens. Imagine a kid who can only make basic sounds being put into a drama class. That happens.
Mainstreaming was originally meant to help kids with mild challenges acclimate to society and vice versa. Then politicians and school boards tried to get more bang for their buck by cutting special schools or classes for the severely limited or wildly unsocial kids by placing them into regular classes as well.
That might even work if class sizes were small, but when class sizes are rapidly approaching 40 kids in a class, you know for certain this is not realistic.
Private schools and religious schools are under no mandate to take special needs kids or provide them with special care or instruction. Image what is going to happen to them in Texas.
Governor Brownback of Kansas is proposing that there will be no taxes for corporations and reducing the taxes for everyone.
ReplyDeleteJust how is his salary going to be paid?
The fool - a sneaky, stupid fool.
Thank you Gryph for your passion for public education! I, too, am passionate about this topic. I know that we can once again offer a first class education to all children if we (adults) would support the system and support the staff.
ReplyDeleteI just attended my first grandchild's graduation from kindergarten today and was thrilled that so many parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. were there to cheer on these kids.
This particular kindergarten teacher is a true jewel. I've never heard her raise her voice, yet she had complete control over the 26 individual kids in her classroom.
She gave out accolades her students and I'm guessing each child earned at least one. My wonderful grandchild was the only one with perfect attendance. She also was recognized for her outstanding art from the art teacher; her reading at the third grade level; and her advanced math work. Needless to say, I was very proud.
There were four kids who are now ready to leave the ELL (English Language Learning) program, moving from little to no English to being proficient enough (Level 4)to not needing intervention as they move into the first grade. There were five kids who moved up to Level 3 and the same to Level 2. That is amazing in one classroom!
I am so thankful that our school district (the most diverse in our state and maybe the nation - the high school was recognized as the most diverse in the nation a few years back) has full day kindergarten. That is so helpful to these kids and I'm glad to live in a community that truly supports excellent education for all students.
1smartcanerican - a very proud Grandma today :)
This is a great and frightening post. Gryphen you are the best!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in junior high, Latin was a core course because so many words had Latin roots. I struggled in that class but I learned so much that has served me my entire life.
ReplyDeleteElementary schools taught handwriting. Now kids barely get taught to print because boards prefer keyboarding.
When kids got bad grades, the parents yelled at the kids and told them to do better. Now when kids get bad grades, parents yell at the teachers and tell them they are failures.
When did parents and communities decide it was okay for kids to just get by, to do as little as possible, to put sports above academics, to put work above school?
I am so angry I could spit in the eye of every politician who is against public education.
We, the people, have to stop this madness. We can, if we stand up and demand politicians and school board members who care about our kids and the future of our nation.
If all us pay a fair share of taxes, we can return to quality education, quality communities with strong police and firefighting forces. Everyone - including those special persons called corporations - must pay a fair share to rebuild a strong country.
We have to stop letting these fat cats getting fatter at our expense and the expense of our children's future.
Thank you, Gryphen, for caring enough to help educate your readers as to what is happening. We have to know about it to stop it.
Perry has no soul.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad our family moved away from Texas. That was three years of my life I'll never get back! Texas is almost at the bottom of the list in high school graduate numbers (And at the top of the list in teen pregnancies...even teens who give birth more than once). I can say this with confidence...if they go with privatization, I guarantee that ALL the schools with have not so subtle religious overtones in their curriculums.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was shopping for a pre-school for my kids, not a one of them was secular. They ALL advertised as being "Christian".
I think this bill might be a back door for the religious right to get religion back in schools there in Texas. Lots of X-tian Texans were and still are quite upset about prayer being taken out of school.
I agree with you, but in Alaska, charter schools work well. They don't come at public expense-- they get the same funding per student, but since they don't have bus service and lunches, those moneys go back to the local school. Charter schools are public schools.
ReplyDeleteThe rest I am behind you on, and Texas is going to pull us into Third World status.
I read somewhere that we are in worse financial shape than Greece-- is this true?
I am glad to see someone had an option to consider. Thanks, Elizabeth at 2:53 for your suggestion.
ReplyDeleteSo then how does this message get to the educators of Texas so they can act on it?
I am a victim of Perry's agenda. We live in Dallas. We pay ridiculously high property taxes. The Dallas ISD sucks. Our roads suck. We have to pay for private police patrol in our neighborhood because break-ins got so bad (yet we live in an upscale community). No one sends their kids to public schools in my neighborhood unless they just can't find any other way. When our toddler is old enough I plan on either getting her into the charter school (fingers crossed that she'll test high enough to get admitted and save us thousands a year), or sending her to private school. She simply will not go to our local public school as the scores and climate are poor. We are being held hostage here by Perry and republicans. All the money goes to big business (trickle down economics is a myth) or special interests. The whole Texas has avoided the depression thing is a myth. My husband's company is gearing up to lay off about 1,100 people, we're praying he's not one of them.
ReplyDelete4:17 p.m., another big issue is the teaching of evolution and sex ed in public schools. The reasoning goes, "Why should my tax dollars go to support evolution and/or education about contraception when I don't believe in those things?" and "Why should I pay tax dollars to support public schools I ALSO pay out of my pocket to send my kids to private schools?"
ReplyDeleteI heard these arguments a LOT growing up because I was cursed with parents who believed in Christian school at any cost, including the souls of their children.
Alaska officials are investigating an apparent gap in the release last week of more than 24,199 pages of emails sent and received by former Alaska. Gov. Sarah Palin during her first 21 months in office.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/14/sarah-palin-emails-missing_n_877051.html
Thank you Gryphen. My parents were teachers in the public school system. I taught community college. I am so sad about the state of public education. I got a GREAT public school education in spite of changing schools 14 times between kindergarten and my senior year (my son got a HORRIBLE public school education). ALL of my college education (three degrees) was in the public school system. Public school WAS one of our great American successes. Somewhere the path was lost. We need to take back the momentum and turn around our public school system.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous at 4 on Kansas schools. That is exactly what is going to happen in PA with our new fascist "no taxes", crush the middle-class Republican governor.
ReplyDeleteObama champions what I call "All children left behind" with Arne Duncan. Try a little google and see what his bad policies are. Like so many of his policies, he is just Bush continued. Trash the teachers and schools for not fixing poverty and no local tax base; don't bother with jobs and training; give lip service to class size but fund nothing except testing. Pretend to be be "nicer" with the same crude policies.
He is frightening looking in that photo. Like a mug shot!
ReplyDeleteGo to YouTube and search for Taylor Mali. Then watch his video on What teachers make. No one can deliver it as well as he can.
ReplyDeleteYou can follow that up with his performance about taking back the library.
Parents are stupid if they think a voucher will cover the entire cost of their kid's education in a private school. So, they'll pay extra to send their kid to private school, but they won't pay extra to fund our public schools.
Private schools are no better than public schools and in many cases not as good. Studies and test scores prove it. Private school teachers aren't regulated as public school teachers are. It is up to the individual private school if their teachers have credentials, degrees or even background checks.
Yes, this is all about funneling public education tax dollars into private for profit corporate hands.
Next, they'll be back to trying to take social security money. Because those are their two targets.
@4:17 p.m What amazes me is that those same folks who are cackling about American exceptionalism don't allow their kids to study REAL science. If they knew how to read (the parents or the kids) they'd know the US now ranks #14 in science below such powerhouses as Estonia and Poland. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010).
ReplyDeleteI've been sitting at my computer, playing a silly game, and thinking. Here is one example why America's public schools are absolutely essential to our future. My daughter works for a multi-national, high-tech company based in this country. She heads a group in this company. Her group has one other American citizen; all the rest come from other countries. Some are here on work VISAs, some work in their own countries. When they first hired some foreign nationals, she wasn't too happy, but they were not up to speed in the technology, and just didn't have the skills, she expected. Recently she mentioned some new hires who were covering the night shift from their homeland. I asked how it was going. Oh, they are great! They are up to speed, and fully educated in the high tech field. These are good paying jobs in this country. Our young people are competing with the world for the good paying jobs. The young people in other countries are getting the educations they need to be competitive. What about America?
ReplyDeleteOT: On the Huffington Post, I posted the link to the McGuinness story and the comment actually went through...do you think this means even the HuffPo is seeing the Trigtruther way?
ReplyDelete(PS a troll commented on my comment, saying: "Oh, just let it go, it's not like she did anything ILLEGAL"...I went ballistic...She kinda DID do something illegal. And even if not illegal, then icky.
Many thanks to Gryphen's Asst. Principal! The ripple effect of his actions is beautiful to behold.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, curses on all who seek to destroy quality public educations.
The reality of the economic, budget, job problems of Texas are vastly underreported.
ReplyDeleteThere was a poll result issued today by the Dallas Morning News (buried beneath the coverage devoted to the Mavericks):
Texans believe education - vaulting over the weighty subjects of the economy, jobs and immigration - is the most important issue facing the state today, according to a new public policy poll released Tuesday.
"The poll indicates that Texans are taking note of the deep cuts of $4 billion to public education and $1 billion to universities that the Legislature is poised to enact for the upcoming two-year budget."
Governor Perry has SIGNIFICANT problems on his hands and he is fully responsible for the mess that Texas is in.
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/06/education-issues-move-to-the-f.html
Gryphen, I survived Catholic Parochial School, and was emotionally and physically tortured. I somehow excaped the pedophile priests, but my parents felt at the time it was a better option than public schools.
ReplyDeleteI learned penmanship, history, math, english and many other subjects, and I was basically bored out of my skull.
I got kicked out of Freshman Year, because on the one day girls could wear casual clothes (to get their uniforms dry cleaned), I made a horrendous choice. I wore a blue hot pant outfit, white blouse, platform shoes and no bra under my vest (not that anyone would notice anyway, but that's not the point) I was labelled a whore, floozie, comunist, incorrigable, pinko with no chance of redemption.
My parents thought they were doing their best, but I must point out, at the time, public schools in pennsylvania's big cities weren't condusive to proper education. My parents thought they were doing the right thing, but they had the balls to stand up for me.
I was saved, however, when we moved to New Jersey, paid higher taxes, and had an excellent public school education. I was expected to achieve to my best potential, and the teachers worked as a team to make sure I not only survived, but thrived beyond what anyone thought possible.
The Republicans need to open their eyes. People are not line items on a spreadsheet, when you red-line a line item, real people are adversely affected.
We need to value teachers, we need to lengthen the school day and years. We need to make sure our kids can compete with other countries. If we can find money to fund wars, politicians golf fees and extavagent lifestyles, we sure as hell can find money to raise a generation to do better than we did.
This Texas crap is only the beginning. Running a school like a business will get us nowhere.
Thank You for bringing this to my attention, we need to push back against this harder than we did with union busting. Our greatest national resourse, our children, are in the crosshairs.
if they pull state funding from the schools then the state zealots can't dictate what should be in the textbooks, right?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your excellent post.
ReplyDeleteyeah gryphen, these people don't know what they wish for. they do not think of the long-term consequences of such actions (I'll go out on a limb and say that 30-40% of americans in general don't think of the consequences).
ReplyDeletewhat will happen to business in the state when people go elsewhere because their kids can't get educated in texas? what will happen when people will not move to the state because their kids can't get educated? the state falls apart. so stupid, but really, fuck texas any damn way. let them be the example to show the rest of america the wrong way to do things.
Perry has nothing on Kasuck (that's how we refer to him here in Ohio). That prick is destroying Ohio!
ReplyDeleteOhiovoter
4:19, for mant poor kids, bus transportation is the only way they make it to school and school lunch is the only meal they eat all day. So, yay for charter schools, but the'll leave many kids behind.
ReplyDeleteIt's becoming clear that the Republicans and Big Business want to turn the United States into something that can compete with Mexico and other '3rd world' countries when it comes to wages, education, healthcare, and environmental stewardship. All the time ignoring the fact that we are DESTROYING our planet.
ReplyDeleteFrom everything I am seeing, the goal is to create an extermely small wealthy class to dominate a huge lower middle class of worker bees.
The only answer seems to be a 21st century version of the French Revolution.
RE: The Formula One race...I am a fan of the sport. I think it's ridiculous that they will be having, in the heart of the summer, like August, in Texas, at 2 pm. which is the traditional start time, a Formula One race, where the drivers are forced to wear tons of gear and then get into a car, an overheated, open wheel car, and drive for an hour and a half. It's a disaster waiting to happen...And the fans from Europe, I doubt they will schlep to Austin for the race. From Paris or England, it would be two or three flights...for a WEEKEND...fleh, is all I have to say...fleh..
ReplyDeleteUm, the reason public education blows is because of the teachers union.
ReplyDeleteI also have been pissed at the GOP attempt to destroy public education. I lived in Texas for 14 years, so I know what morons they can be. W did his best as governor to destroy the schools with the goddamn standardized tests - the precursor of NCLB. It looks like Perry wants to deliver the coup de grâce.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how they see this playing out in their favor. It won't be long before colleges and universities in other states start rejecting students from Texas simply because their high school education will be so lacking.
How is having the dumbest population in the country actually a good thing for anybody?
Give me an fnn...break..
ReplyDeleteTHose that do not study/know history repeat history...
THere is a good reason that the United States became the Great Nation that it used to be - and that was insuring that EVERYONE had access to a FREE PUBLIC education.
It is obvious that the ruling class of the current oligarchy are determined to create a nation of ignorant undereducated serfs if not slaves - let us not forget the religious warriors of our paid and private armies - to further thier goals of riches.
And may God forgive you...
We - the people of the thirteen colonies that stood up to the colonial power known as Great Britian did so to enable the people living
So then I guess we need to eliminate the "state of Texas" -
ReplyDeleteBreak it all UP!
Lousiana can have everthing east of the Red river ... New Mexico would get the Texas panhandle and west Texas. Oklahoma can have the north half... Leaving of course Galvesten and the coast! Horray!
Gov. Perry and the Bush's are welcome to emigrate to Mexico and iniatiate of coup of that COUNTRY!
What they are trying for is (Xtian)religion based education for all. What easier way to turn a Democracy in a Theocracy?
ReplyDeleteAnd then there is all that MONEY to be made by corporations by privatizing all education... Follow the money.
O/T: These threads fly so fast!
ReplyDeletePalin on Charlie Rose (10/15/07):
Palin: I think it's our biggest responsibility,
I do the National
Guard also in Alaska,
the troops that we have serving overseas
also. What a responsibility we have to make sure that they are taken
care of, that their families are being taken care of, also, that's on
our watch, and very significant, lots of accountability there, and I
cherish that role that we have also.
__________
I think the Morlock family might disagree with Palin.
President Obama and Arne Duncan absolutely believe in public education. Just because they are also willing to support and encourage charter schools (many times in poor neighborhoods with insufficient real estate taxes to support local schools these are the only hope for some kids, in our current system), does not mean they are abandoning public education.
ReplyDeleteJust because they plan to hold schools accountable, and want measures in place to remove poor quality teachers from our schools - something the unions have sometimes resisted in a knee jerk effort to preserve teacher contract protections - doesn't mean they are a continuation of the Bush era.
Bush really did want to privatize public education. He punished the very students and schools he should have been trying to help.
There are compromises in here that are necessary, and everyone knows it. Obama is a realist. People just hate that about him, it seems. I love that about him. Give him a chance to get somewhere on these issues, for goodness' sake. I would say he has had quite a lot on his plate in his first term, and no money to pay for anything.
I am amazed at the impatience of people.
http://unreasonablefaith.com/2010/03/23/the-new-apostolic-reformation-movement/
ReplyDeletePerry and Palin both use this movement for their political gain. I was once a part of these group myself. Admittedly, at this point I am very confused about spirituality, but dominionists trying to take over the country is just plain wrong. Politicians should stay out of the churches and the churches and its movements should stay out of politics. I feel very odd trying to deal with the fact that I was once a part of the religious right.
I thought it already did....
ReplyDeleteI met an older woman who traveled alot - in the north in the summer, and then down south in the winter. While in TX, she would be a substitute teacher, to pick up some extra money. I asked her if she had been a teacher when she was younger. She told me no, that you don't have to have a teaching degree or certificate to teach in TX. Now she may have been talking about just substitute teachers, but still...
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is WTF?!?
a little off topic, but this is what Donald Trump is doing.. no wonder he won't run for president.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thecourier.co.uk/News/Angus/article/14855/trump-group-goes-on-offensive-as-scottish-premiere-of-you-ve-been-trumped-approaches.html
sp on Public Schools:
ReplyDeleteYeah, just a myriad of examples I can give and how being a mom changes my perspective.
And education is very, very important to me because I have got kids today in the system, in the public school system.
I want to make sure that we are adequately funded, but that we have high standards and accountability in our schools so that every public dollar is spent wisely.
Because I walk into those schools on a regular basis and I want to make sure that our public schools are as good as they can be because my kids are a part of them.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1837536,00.html#ixzz1PJSlIaFO
6:26, I walked about a quarter of a mile from the bus stop to my car yesterday at 4:30pm and it was HIDEOUSLY HOT. It felt like Tucson, AZ in the middle of summer. Like an oven. (I swear it did not use to be so hot here in N Texas.) I cannot even imagine a Formula One race. Austin is no cooler...and more humid.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Gryphen. Great comment, 7:16 on Obama.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 7:17,
ReplyDeleteWelcome back from the dark side. Read Frank Schaeffer's work "Crazy for God." He used to be one of the elite hard right evangelical political players and he now is among their fiercest critics. He is also a very nice guy. I e-mailed him thanking him for a column which ran in the Baltimore Sun and he responded with a nice personal note.
I've read many pieces he's written in which he details how deceptive and potentially dangerous the hard right fundagelicals are. He takes them seriously and urges others to as well. However, he is definitely NOT one of them any longer.
http://www.frankschaeffer.com/
I flirted with the fundies when I was in high school, but could never quite buy into their crap.
You are much better off without them.
That's only ONE of the terrifying things Republicans are pushing while they can. Not to mention taking away same-day voter registration in many states right now before the next election.
ReplyDeleteFrom K-College I attended a "Christian" Academy -actually at what is now called Faulkner University where Palin spoke in Montgomery, AL. Both of my parents were professors & missionaries in Haiti & Belgium..so that was the family I was born in to. I always questioned EVERYTHING I was taught by my parents & school teachers - I can't tell you how many times I went to school with bloody stripes on my legs from my father's belt because I dared to question anything and everything I was being indoctrinated into...even as a child I realized this wasn't right for me. I knew I was sheltered and spent my 4 of my summers as a teen going to PUBLIC summer school - JUST FOR THE EXPERIENCE - not because I had to! Of course I lied & made up some excuse to my parents - they were against public schools because they weren't "christian".
Private school effed up my life for a while......I don't know which would be worse now. I guess it depends on what state you live in, what public school, what private school. Parents, before you move & put your kids in ANY school.....check out your options!
-Colleen
Anon @ 7:17,
ReplyDeleteAfter referring you to Frank Schaeffer's website, I spent some time reading his blog. There were some interesting tidbits. He speaks of "Jesus Predator[s] claiming God's special favor."
He goes on:
"Anyone who wants to understand American politics had better get acquainted with the Reconstructionists. Reconstructionism, also called Theonomism, seeks to reconstruct "our fallen society" and/or in the words of Sarah Palin "take America back."
Its worldview is best represented by the publications of the Chalcedon Foundation (which has been classified as an antigay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center).
According to the Chalcedon Foundation website, the mission of the movement is to apply "the whole Word of God" to all aspects of human life: "It is not only our duty as individuals, families and churches to be Christian, but it is also the duty of the state, the school, the arts and sciences, law, economics, and every other sphere to be under Christ the King. Nothing is exempt from His dominion. We must live by His Word, not our own."
Until Rushdoony, founder and late president of the Chalcedon Foundation, began writing in the 1960s, most American fundamentalists (including my religious leader parents parents) didn't try to apply biblical laws about capital punishment for homosexuality to the United States.
Even the most conservative Evangelicals said they were "New Testament Christians." In other words, they believed that after the coming of Jesus, the harsher bits of the Bible had been (at least to some extent) transformed by the "New Covenant" of Jesus' "Law of Love."
By contrast, the leaders of Reconstructionism believed that Old Testament teachings -- on everything from capital punishment for gays to the virtues of child-beating -- were still valid because they were the inerrant Word and Will of God and therefore should be enforced. Not only that, they said that biblical law should be imposed even on nonbelievers."
THIS is why we take Palin and the other sanctimonious ignoramus Christian Taliban so seriously. They want to KILL us!
Fuck them! I don't plan on giving up my Constitutional rights so willingly.
This is not about foisting their religion on every child, it's about what they really worship - the almighty dollar.
ReplyDeleteReligious folks have always had schools and always will. This is entirely different.
The Right wants endless war so they can make money off of it, they want a gun industry that is bursting at the seams, they want to take over anything they deem part of the safety net in our country, whether that be education, healthcare, and they want to destroy anything they consider regulatory and hence restricting of their ability to make money - because they want to get rich, rich and richer.
It's all about the benjamins with these people.
If anyone doubts the malevolence of the talibangelicals, read Frank Schaeffers' whole post today, from which I quoted earlier:
ReplyDeletehttp://frank-schaeffer.blogspot.com/2011/06/where-crazy-far-right-comes-from.html
THEN tell me how we don't need to worry about these arrogant homicidal assholes.
These fuckers are a threat to our country, to our Constitution, and to our very lives. I take them VERY seriously.
They may be morons, but they want to kill anybody and EVERYBODY who does not agree with them 100%.
Todd tried to hire John Ziegler to work on Palin's Presidential campaign...he refused, and has since turned on her..interesting read..
ReplyDeletehttp://dailycaller.com/2011/06/12/the-sarah-palin-i-know/
If they can't fund private religious schools with government $ then they will take away public education $ and fund private prisons to house the people who were failed by lack of education. Sickening.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if reverse psychology would work for these lamebrains!! Someone should start a campaign supporting China's education, that they should be the most educated people in the world (& the practice birth control)... The lamebrains may suddenly have a reason to support education in the US... kinda like Kennedy and the race to space with Russia.
ReplyDeleteHow long do we have to look at Perry's ugly mush?
ReplyDeleteAnyone who is thinking that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is fixing what is wrong with public education -you might be wrong.
ReplyDeleteHere is a report on how Arne ran and 'reformed' the Chicago public schools:
"A Look at Arne Duncan’s VIP List of Requests at Chicago Schools and the Effects of his Expansion of Charter Schools in Chicago"
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/26/a_look_at_arne_duncans_vip
When President Obama’s Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, was the head of Chicago’s Public Schools, his office kept a list of powerful, well-connected people who asked for help getting certain children into the city’s best public schools. The list—long kept confidential—was disclosed this week by the Chicago Tribune. We speak with the Chicago Tribune reporter who broke the story and with two Chicago organizers about Duncan and his aggressive plan to expand charter schools. [includes rush transcript]
Later on in the report the reason why so many VIPs wanted their children (and the children of friends and other associates) to go to CERTAIN Chicago schools and not to others.
PAULINE LIPMAN: Yes, good morning. I’m really glad that Azam has done this story, because it provides some evidence for what we’ve pretty much known on the ground all along. And as you said, I think that what it reveals is a bigger scandal.
The larger scandal is that Chicago has basically a two-tiered education system, with a handful of these selective enrollment magnet schools, or boutique schools, that have been set up under Renaissance 2010 in gentrifying and affluent neighborhoods, and then many disinvested neighborhood schools. So parents across the city are scrambling to try to get their kids into a few of these schools. So instead of creating quality schools in every neighborhood, what CPS has done is created this two-tier system and actually is closing down, as you said, neighborhood schools under Renaissance 2010 and replacing them with charter schools and a privatized education system, firing or laying off, I should say, certified teachers, dismantling locally elected school councils, and creating a market of public education in Chicago, turning schools over to private turnaround operators. And this is, in the bigger, bigger scandal, this is now the national agenda under the Obama administration for education.
The experts 'reforming' Chicago's schools are not educators.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And amazingly, Arne Duncan doesn’t have that much of a—he’s not an educator by trade, to speak of. Could you talk a little bit about his background?
PAULINE LIPMAN: Yeah, not only is he not an educator by trade, I mean, he was a functionary in the Daley administration. But because Chicago is under mayoral control of schools, which is another part of Obama’s and Duncan’s national agenda under the federal stimulus Race to the Top funds, because of that, what we have is exactly a school system that is led at the top by virtually no educators. There is only one educator in a high position. The board are all appointed by Daley. They are all bankers or corporate heads. The CEO of schools before Duncan, Paul Vallas, was in Daley’s budget office. The new CEO, Ron Huberman, ran the Chicago Transit Authority. So we have a school system that, as a whole, is led by corporate managers, not by educators.
Just google "education deform".
Bwahahahaha!! I would give a hundred bucks to see Granny's face!!
ReplyDelete___________________________
Ziegler (Palin sycophant, 1st time he met her):
______________________________
Before I left, I felt I had to give the governor at least one piece of advice. After all, I know how politicians work.
They surround themselves with yes-people. No one dares speak up.
I figured I’d never get another opportunity like this again, so, with the very best of intentions,
I told her:
“You have to know, you can’t beat Obama in 2012.
The media won’t let you.
They won’t let him lose and the narrative about you is too negative to correct in three-and-a-half years.”
She said nothing.
No-one else spoke, either.
I looked around at my crew, and the same thing was written on everyone’s face:
“What the hell are you doing, Ziegler?”
It was the first of several times where it would be obvious to me that
Sarah Palin does not like hearing bad news.
--------------
Duh, dumbass...
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/12/the-sarah-palin-i-know/#ixzz1PKFe9OSa
THE most important component of ANY education is teaching the importance of critical thinking. Sadly, this has been swept aside because of the emphasis on testing.
ReplyDeleteWe left the public school system over 30 years ago because we lived in West Virginia and I wanted my children to be literate. I was able to homeschool despite many attempts by the state to thwart us. Fortunately, we were also able to partner with a local community-type college that allowed my children to enroll there at 16.
I'll never forget the first week my oldest daughter started college. Her English teacher--a professor from Benin--practically grabbed me in the hall. "She can think!" he kept saying. "She can think!"
I come from a family of teachers, and I can't tell you how many of them are ready to quit in disgust because of what they're forced to "teach."
I just have to mention that a couple of years ago, while at my grandsons basketball practice there was a another mother there. I overheard her conversation with another, asking if she homeschooled her chhildren too, like it was a badge of honor. I'm sorry but watching her child and others that were homeschooled , I was not impressed at all. You could tell, that they were lacking. I'm sure that there some that do a good job of making sure , that their children get a good well rounded education, but that is not what I have seen. They get thier work done in 1/2 an hour and that it. We have had public schools since the early 1800's. It's too easy for abusers to homeschool children no checks. Next it will be children have to much free time. Parents won't be able to afford to send them to the pay schools,(since parents will have baby after baby). They will have to send children to work labor camps. The corporations will get their cheap labor just like in other 3rd world countries.
ReplyDeleteAvailable bumper stickers:
ReplyDeletePerry/Cheney--Rick & Lizzy in 2012!
If you don't have one, buy one today. I was right about the comet!