DC Charter School Board senior manager suspended for being a gun toting white supremacist who promotes raping feminists.

Courtesy of Crooks and Liars:

Until today, John Goldman was a Senior Manager of Finance, Analysis and Strategy for the Washington, DC Public Charter School Board. But today Goldman was suspended pending investigation after photos surfaced of him at parties with known neonazis and white supremacists as the pseudonymous "Jack Murphy," self-proclaimed liberal-turned-conservative in the age of Trump. 

"Murphy," it seems, was a foe of Richard Spencer. Still it appears they share some fundamental beliefs, though Murphy/Goldman claims he was a Democrat who now has a man-crush on Trump. Apparently former Democrats can be white supremacist men's rights advocates too! 

John Goldman has now admitted that his online alter ego is "Jack Murphy," but remains unapologetic about his stated beliefs and why he holds them.

By the way here are some of this stated beliefs:  

"Men have a natural tendency towards dominance and women to passivity and submission," Murphy wrote in 2015. "For a feminist who has rejected polarity and embraced sameness, this presents a paradox. The cognitive dissonance between her chosen dogma and the urge to get choked during sex is painful."

This is the argument for his central premise, which is simple: "Rape is the best therapy for the problem. Feminists need rape." 

But he is quick to qualify this by claiming that all feminists need is a man who loves her to rape her but not in a totally evil "illegal alien" rapey way, but a loving rape. Consensual, even.

"Loving, consensual rape" is a new one on me.

But wait, there's more: 

"However, the tragedy of a young girl getting raped in the bathroom at school just might be what turns the attention of limousine liberals from the brainwashing narrative of the Democrats and towards a more sane approach to immigration," "Murphy" wrote in a Medium post last year. 

"Let’s just hope it will only take one, and not an epidemic of heinous crime to finally get those suburban soccer moms out of their denial and into the real world," he continued.

Yeah, anybody else picking up on a rapey theme here?

There is of course more, but this is all I can stomach to post on my blog.

Keep in mind this guy worked for the Washington, DC "school board."

The mind reels.

Louisiana teacher gets handcuffed and manhandled for daring to ask the School Board about pay raises.

Courtesy of The Hill:

A teacher in Louisiana was removed Monday night from a school board meeting after a confrontation regarding teacher's pay. 

During the public comments portion of the Vermilion Parish school board meeting, Deyshia Hargrave, an English language arts teacher at Rene Rost Middle School, asked questions to the board regarding teacher's salaries, according to a report from KATC. 

She raised questions about the school board considering a $38,000 raise for the superintendent, saying she felt that giving raises to any person of leadership was a "slap in the face" to all the teachers, according to WGNTV. 

She was told she was out of order and that the public comments portion of the meeting was not a question-and-answer period. 

The teacher was called on a subsequent time and asked the board another question, according to the report. 

She was then removed from the meeting by an Abbeville city marshal and handcuffed outside. She could be heard in a video taken of the incident yelling that the officer pushed her to the ground and she was told by the officer to "stop resisting."

That poor woman is clearly not resisting, she is simply trying to stay on her feet.

There is absolutely NO excuse for treating a person like this. Especially one who dedicates their lives to teaching our children.

I was horrified when I watched this video, but I guess you will be happy to know that the school board did not press charges against the woman for exercising her 1st Amendment rights.

So I guess there's that at least.

Remember that conspiracy theory spouting lunatic running for the school board in Texas? Yeah well she lost.

Whatever you do don't stare directly into her eyes.

Courtesy of NBC News:

A retired Texas schoolteacher who received national attention for her outrageous conspiracy theories and claimed President Obama was once a gay prostitute was denied a spot on the state board of education Tuesday. 

Only several months ago, Mary Lou Bruner, 69, of Mineola, Texas, had been the front-runner for the powerful seat on the Texas State Board of Education, the second-largest school system in the nation. 

But as conspiracy theories in Bruner's old Facebook posts surfaced, her lead shrunk. Voters ultimately chose fellow Republican Keven Ellis, a local school board president, for the GOP nomination. Bruner lost by about 18 percent in the primary runoff.

Her defeat was celebrated by the group that had outed her Facebook posts. 

"Texas escaped an education train wreck tonight," Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller said in a statement. "If Bruner had ultimately won election to the board, she would have instantly become the most embarrassingly uninformed and divisive member on a board that already too often puts politics ahead of making sure our kids get a sound education."

You know I ding Texas fairly regularly, and often they deserve it, but this time they got one right.

Good on ya Texas!

Portland school board bans textbooks that question climate change.

Courtesy of Oregon Live:

The Portland Public Schools Board on Tuesday decided to ban any classroom materials that cast doubt on climate change. The resolution passed unanimously and requires that textbooks and other material purchased by the district present climate change as a fact rather than theory. 

Material will also need to present human activity as one of the phenomenon's causes. 

In testimony to the board, Bill Bigelow, a former Portland teacher, told district officials that "we don't want kids in Portland learning material courtesy of the fossil fuel industry." 

Bigelow said that material that treats climate change as anything other than fact is published by companies making concessions for fossil fuel companies. He pointed to words such as "might," "may" and "could" in educational materials.

Gee textbooks that contain actual facts and to do not promote misinformation. What a truly novel concept.

My understanding is that Portland is the first school board to take such an aggressive stance to protect their students from fossil fuel company propaganda.

Let's hope they are not the last.

Extra bonus points if you can guess in which state this woman is running for a seat on the Board of Education.

Answer beneath the fold.

Texas education officials reject allowing academics to check their school textbooks for accuracy.

Courtesy of ABC News:  

Top Texas education officials rejected Wednesday letting university experts fact-check textbooks approved for use in public-school classrooms statewide, instead reaffirming a vetting system that has helped spark years of ideological battles over how potentially thorny lessons in history and science are taught. 

Republican board member Thomas Ratliff had proposed bringing in academics to check textbooks only for factual errors, but his measure failed 8-7 after lengthy discussion.

"I know people are concerned about pointy-headed liberals in the ivory tower making our process different or worse," Ratliff, of Mount Pleasant, said before the vote. "But I hold our institutions of higher education in fairly high regard." 

Texas has 5.2 million public-school students, a large enough textbook market that publishers making modifications to meet its standards can affect material in other states. 

As it mulls books proposed for approval, the board relies on citizen review panels — often teachers, parents, business leaders or other experts — whose members are nominated by board members. Other Texans can also check the books on their own and identify what they see as errors in public testimony during board meetings. 

Ratliff had noted that some conservative board members have long stocked review panels with people more concerned with ideology than subject matter expertise. That gave rise to controversies over how textbooks handle climate change and evolution, or how they describe the influence biblical figures such as Moses had on America's Founding Fathers.

Apparently creating textbooks to dumb down the American people is now a Texas export.

Of course what can you expect from Texas?

After all that is where then Governor George W. Bush first started formulating what would one day be No Child Left Behind.

And literally NOTHING has damaged public education as thoroughly as that did.

Perhaps the most articulate nine year old you will ever see speaks out against school testing in Florida.

Okay for the record I would just like to admit that I am not that articulate now much less than when I was in the fourth grade.

Her name is Sydney Smoot, and she is speaking in front of the Hernando County School Board. Here is more on her story: 

"This test defines me as a number," she said, holding up an index finger for emphasis. "One test defines me as either a failure or a success." 

She questioned the merit of the exam that has been subjected to little vetting: 

"Why am I being forced to take a test that hasn't even been tested on students in Florida?" 

And she had a particular objection that brought all her other ones to a head. 

Before taking the reading section of the FSA last week, she was required to sign a form that prohibited her from talking about its contents, even to her parents. 

Jennifer Smoot, her mother, said her daughter came home upset because she felt as though this form kept her from sharing the burden of her testing anxieties with her parents. 

"My daughter talks to me about everything," said Smoot, 38. "She was very upset."

I am a little late to this story as it happened over a week ago, but once I saw that video I knew I had to share it here.

As many of you know I am firmly against most of the standardized testing that resulted from No Child Left Behind, but I don't believe I ever expressed myself with near the eloquence of nine year old Sydney Smoot.

Take my word for it, this will not be the last time we hear from this young lady.

During Michigan school board meeting open carry advocate is laughed at for saying that "guns in schools just makes sense."

(Second man to the podium is Joshua Wade a 22 year old open carry advocate. There were 25 other open carry activists there to support him.)

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

“As a law abiding citizen, I’m very concerned that this board may attempt to circumvent state law in the area of firearms regulation,” Wade told the board. “Board members, I hope that you yourselves, like me, are law-abiding citizens.” 

The otherwise quiet audience burst into laughter at Wade’s claim that “guns in schools just makes sense,” causing the board to call for silence. 

“The reason we have seen so many tragic school shootings is that laws across the nation have made our schools mass murder enablement zones,” he insisted. “The more good people who carry in our schools, the fewer criminals will see those schools as easy targets.” 

Although a few other open carry activists did address the board, the majority of speaker opposed guns in schools. 

“Mr. Wade told [WXYZ] Channel 7 News that it was his Christian duty to do this,” one man noted. “I see that as an insult to people of faith everywhere.”

Apparently the testimony of Joshua Wade and his openly armed pals did not sway the Ann Arbor school board who passed a resolution asking to ban guns on school property.

You know try as they might nobody will ever convince me that, outside of law enforcement, allowing guns on school property is a good idea.

Texas school board member posts image to Facebook of KKK member labeled "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas." Claims not to be racist. Ooookay.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

 A Texas school board member is facing disciplinary action over his racist Facebook post. 

Chris Harris, an elected member of the Hooks Independent School Board, posted a viral image of a Ku Klux Klan member with the caption, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.” 

He apologized for the post after receiving negative feedback in the comments, reported KTAL-TV. 

Harris said he realized the post was inappropriate and offensive, but he insisted he was not racist. 

His Facebook profile no longer appears to be active, and he declined requests for additional comment.

Okay look I am trying to give this guy the benefit of the doubt, but seriously, if you are not a racist then what in the hell would possess you to post this image?

And if he thought his Facebook friends would find it funny, then doesn't that sort of mean that his friends are probably racist too?

Oh I know, he has one black friend.

They ALWAYS have one black friend.

So my question is, does your black friend know you're racist?

Arizona school board member complains that Biology textbook violates her "religious rights." Decides to cut out offending pages. A little thing we call "censorship."

Courtesy of The New York Times:  

The textbook, the one with the wide-eyed lemur peering off the cover, has been handed out for years to students in honors biology classes at the high schools here, offering lessons on bread-and-butter subjects like mitosis and meiosis, photosynthesis and anatomy. 

But now, the school board in this suburb of Phoenix has voted to excise or redact two pages deep inside the book — 544 and 545 — because they discuss sexually transmitted diseases and contraception, including mifepristone, a drug that can be used to prevent or halt a pregnancy. 

A law passed two years ago in Arizona requires schools to teach “preference, encouragement and support to childbirth and adoption” over abortion, and the school board decided that those pages were in violation of this law — even though the Arizona Education Department, which examined the book for compliance, found that they were not. 

The controversy has turned into a referendum on the 2012 law, with supporters saying the textbook content cannot be removed fast enough and opponents crying foul for any number of reasons: technical, ethical, pedagogical. But the Gilbert school board is moving forward, trying to figure out how to remove the material in question — by way of black markers or scissors, if need be — despite resistance from parents, residents, the American Civil Liberties Union and even the district’s superintendent. 

“It comes down to, it’s the law, and we need to be in compliance with the law,” said Julie Smith, a member of the Gilbert Public Schools governing board and also a parent who raised concerns about the book. “If people don’t like the law, they need to take it up with their state legislator. I don’t write the law. It’s my job to uphold it.”

The offending pages.

By the way that Julie Smith woman is apparently the driving force behind this censorship.

And here are her reasons why:

Ms. Smith, the school board member and parent, said she had been driving her family home from church back in January when her son told her about what was in the textbook. “I almost drove off the road,” she said. 

“I’m Catholic; we do not contracept,” Ms. Smith said. “It is a grave sin.” By including those pages in the curriculum, she added, “you have violated my religious rights.”

"We do not contracept?"  Well considering this woman's heavy handed parenting style that's probably too bad.

As for violating her religions rights? Well nobody's religious rights should have any impact whatsoever on what is taught in a public school classroom.

And in my opinion if science classes are taught in a factual manner than they should violate somebody's religious beliefs almost daily.

By the way you know that removing these pages, or using a sharpie to black them out, is going to do NOTHING to stop students from accessing them. It's called the internet folks, and if the kids want to read them (And after this you they all will.), then by gosh they will do exactly that.

Attempts by conservative school board members in Colorado to teach revisionist history to AP students is turning angry Republicans into Democrats.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

"For the first time in my life, I will probably vote a straight Democratic ticket." 

That realization came as something of a surprise to non-practicing attorney Wendy McCord, who has always thought of herself as a Republican. The mother of two children in Jefferson County's public school system, McCord told The Huffington Post that she has been politically transformed by the actions of the new conservative majority on the county school board, which presides over the state's second-largest school district. 

Here in Jefferson County, a bellwether battleground that is almost evenly split between Republicans, Democrats and independents, a local educational controversy is resonating with county voters who otherwise might not have been engaged in this year's elections. Frustrated Republicans like McCord could be the deciding votes in Colorado's gubernatorial race, in which Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) faces a strong challenge from former Rep. Bob Beauprez (R), as well as its Senate race, in which Democratic Sen. Mark Udall is in danger of being unseated by Republican challenger Rep. Cory Gardner. 

The battle began last November, when three conservative candidates for county school board swept into office, establishing a majority on the five-person board. The newly-elected board members hired their own attorney and proceeded to clash with teachers and parents over issues such as pay, charter schools and kindergarten expansion. The move that garnered the most national attention, however, was a proposal for a new Advanced Placement U.S. history curriculum that would de-emphasize civil disobedience and disorder while emphasizing patriotism, citizenship and "respect for authority." To protest the proposal, thousands of students left their classrooms and held demonstrations in solidarity with their teachers, who called in sick.

I have already covered this Colorado debacle both here and here.

At the time of those two posts I was frustrated that conservatives were once again trying to hijack public education, and also encouraged by the fact that the teachers and students were standing up to them.

But now it looks like the whole thing may be backfiring in a big way. Which of course is good for everyone.

Conservative Colorado school board member wants to know why AP classes do not teach that America "voluntarily" ended slavery proving its exceptionalism.

Courtesy of the Colorado Independent:  

Colorado’s latest education official to condemn high school history course standards wonders why those who wrote the curriculum missed what seems to her an obvious point — that the United States voluntarily ended slavery. 

Pam Mazanec, a Larkspur businesswoman who sits on Colorado’s Board of Education, posted on a Facebook discussion thread her concerns that questions asked on the Advanced Placement U.S. history test “portray the negative viewpoint as the correct answer.” 

“As an example, I note our slavery history,” she wrote to a woman who teaches AP U.S history. “Yes, we practiced slavery. But we also ended it voluntarily, at great sacrifice, while the practice continues in many countries still today! 

“Shouldn’t our students be provided that viewpoint? This is part of the argument that America is exceptional. Does our APUSH (AP U.S. History) framework support or denigrate that position?”

Did she say that we ended slavery voluntarily?  Boy she must never have lived down south.

As you might imagine her stupidity did not sit well with actual educators:

"The idea that the United States voluntarily gave up slavery is an outright misrepresentation of history. The United States engaged in a civil war to end slavery. There was nothing voluntary about it,” said Stephanie Rossi an AP U.S. history teacher at Wheat Ridge High School. “I’m just flabbergasted at anyone who would make that claim. Flabbergasted.” 

And this woman is on the freaking Board of Education. Yeah I think flabbergasted is definitely the proper choice of word. 

As you may remember both Colorado educators and students have been protesting the attempts by these conservative loons to dumb down the curriculum.  However so far it has been unsuccessful.

This is why it is very important to find, and support progressive candidates in local elections.

It is no accident that school boards and municipal assemblies get overrun by conservatives.  That is part of their plan to push forward an agenda to take this country back to the 50's.

The 1850's.

Colorado teachers call in sick in order to protest changes to school curriculum by conservatives on school board.

Courtesy of the Guardian:

Two high schools in Colorado canceled classes Monday after dozens of teachers called in sick in protest of a conservative school board’s proposal to change the history curriculum. 

This is the second such teacher sick-out in two weeks and comes on the heels of student walk-outs over the issue. At the two high schools where sick-outs were staged, Golden and Jefferson high school in Jefferson County, 73% and 81% of teachers called out, respectively. Unrest is also tied to new teacher evaluations. Negotiations for a new contract between the district and the union broke down last spring. 

The board wants to review Advanced Placement US history curriculum, which was recently revised by the College Board, the organization that sets standards for the courses. Some conservative school board members feel that the new curriculum has an overly negative view of US history, and advocate changes. 

“My feeling is it’s an attack on teachers and public education, and a disregard for the needs of our students,” said a social studies teacher who worked that day but had knowledge of the protest. The teacher wished to remain anonymous for fears of retribution. “It’s a really, really scary to be a teacher in Jefferson County right now,” the teacher said.

It seems that all of this was triggered by one conservative member of the school board

This courtesy of an earlier article at the Guardian:  

The spark which ignited the tinderbox was a proposal written by one of the conservative majority on the school board, Julie Williams. In it, she calls for a review of the Advanced Placement history curriculum using the following set of criteria: 

“Materials should promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free enterprise system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights. Materials should not encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.” 

Williams gave an interview with Colorado’s Channel 9 News in which she made a statement that has since become a rallying cry for the students, parents and teachers protesting against the proposal: “I don’t think we should encourage our kids to be little rebels.”

You know "encourage our kids to be little rebels" is code for "encourage our kids to think for themselves."

The conservatives essentially want students to do well at memorizing information that can then be vomited onto a standardized test, but learn nothing which might encourage them to question the status quo or stand up for their rights in the face of authoritarianism.

But hey if those techniques have worked in other fascist regimes why would we not expect conservatives to embrace them as well?

Anchorage school board candidate knows exactly what is wrong with our schools. Too many non-white students.

Courtesy of ADN:  

An Anchorage school board candidate says some of the problems at the cash-strapped Anchorage School District have been caused by a shift in the ethnic background of its students. 

In an interview with Alaska Public Media broadcast and posted online this week, Don Smith, 75, compared the ethnic makeup of students in the district today to what he remembered from when he was in school. 

"When I was in Anchorage High School, it was about 98 percent white students, and the balance were probably Native, and one or two black students," he told reporter Daysha Eaton. "Today, we're 48 percent white, 52 percent other, and that clearly is causing problems. I think our numbers are dropping because we're importing all these people that aren't up to the standards that we had set for the school." 

Smith goes on to specifically blame the problem on what he sees as an influx of students from Africa and Indonesia.

For one thing he is right that when he went to school the population in Anchorage was almost exclusively Caucasian. They were also among the wealthiest of Alaska's residents, which is why they lived in Anchorage and had access to the best schools.

Schools in other parts of the state were not doing nearly as well, and in some rural communities the education was haphazard at best. That was not a problem with ethnicity, that was a problem with funding and access to well trained teachers.

Of course this was back before the Republicans launched their war on public education and started to strip away funding and undermine teachers. Don Smith is a Republican.

When I was a student in in the sixties and seventies Anchorage schools were among the best in the nation. That was not because they were filled with white faces, though in many parts of the city that was true, it was because teachers were respected, and supported by our local politicians.

The problem is not with the diversity among the Anchorage student body it is with the politicians who constantly attack public education and work to underfund our public schools.

And that is a problem perpetrated by the likes of Don Smith and other members of the Alaska Republican Party.

Only a racist unfit to sit on an Anchorage School Board would think to blame the result of their dirty work on the children of immigrants.

What happens when the Tea Party gets control of your school board? The folks at the West Clermont School District in Ohio found that out the hard way.

Courtesy of Freakout Nation: 

After it’s come to light that illegal activities, not to mention, extremely bad business decisions took place, folks in the area are fighting back, asking for three board members’ resignations. 

In a surprise move, a Tea Party member tried to implement a vote for the school board to use a different attorney, and when asked why, he said, it’s because he’s less expensive. That of course, was found to be a lie. The attorney turned out to specialize in fighting unions. In addition, that attorney has no experience with education law. On top of that, the attorney costs $15,000 more than the board’s lawyer. 

John Prager at Americans Against the Tea Party explains, “The lawyer who, under their plan, would be representing the school district is Kevin Maloof. Maloof is the President of the West Clermont Education Foundation, a fund-raising group. School board members Mark Merchant and Tina Sanborn are also on the board of the WCEF.” 

So much for Tea Party transparency.

This same thing is being attempted up here in Alaska as well, only for us the pressure is coming from our Governor, and in Anchorage the mayor, whose decisions to cut funding have resulted in the layoff of 6% of our teachers thus far.  

These people do not want to fix public education, they want to sabotage it.

Ohio school board considers mandating that Creationism be taught alongside Evolution in science classrooms. Here we go again!

I find the idea of introducing Creationism into a science classroom in an effort to get students to "think critically" to be so absurd that it should not be uttered by ANYBODY living in 2013.

However this is obviously yet another attempt by those who place faith over intelligence to undermine learning in the hopes that they can keep the populace uneducated enough to buy their bullshit.

I am also once again enraged by the fact that these idiots keep misrepresenting the definition for a scientific theory, and instead mix it up, possibly on purpose, with a hypothesis. (You can read the definitions here.)

By the way Americans United has warned this Ohio school board that they are risking a lengthy court case: 

Any public school contemplating teaching creationism might as well just hang up a giant banner that reads “Sue Us Now,’” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “Courts have been very clear about this: creationism is fundamentalist religion, not legitimate science, and it has no place in science classrooms.”

Don't forget that Americans United were instrumental in keeping Intelligent Design (Creationism in sheep's clothing) out of Kansas elementary schools.

Okay Anchorage, you have but ONE extremely important task today, GO VOTE!!!

There are a number of bonds to vote on and two school board seats, which you can read about here (By the way Service High School REALLY needs that 37 million dollar upgrade.), but the main battle lines are drawn over Mayor Sullivan's attempt to oust three of the Anchorage Assembly members that refuse to let him fake a financial crisis so he can use it to cut city services. (I know, how dare they?)

They are Harriet Drummond, (My fiery Assemblywoman) Elvi Grey-Jackson, and Mike Gutierrez.  These three have held the line against Sullivan's careless fiscal policies and called him out on his lies repeatedly, and he wants to get them out of his way.

Personally I really like that they are in his way.  It makes me feel much better about my city and our future.

Now the opponents that Sullivan has hand picked to challenge these three are simply lapdogs and sycophants that will jump through whatever hoop he holds up, in exchange for a little tummy rub, or promises of working for him when he attains the office that he REALLY covets, which is Mark Begich's Senate seat. (Yes Danny-boy we know all about your secret backroom deals and shenanigans.)

In fact THAT is really the driving force behind Sullivan's attempts to paint himself as a fiscal conservative willing to take on the unions and kiss the ass of big business, rather than a bumbling moron using his father's famous name to get himself elected to a cushy, and influential, political position.

You can learn more about these candidates, and Sullivan's agenda, by visiting Mudflats, Alaska Commons, and Bent Alaska.

However for me the choice of who to vote for when it comes to the Anchorage Assembly could not be any more simple. If this fraudulent, morally bankrupt, sorry excuse for a public servant is FOR somebody, than in all good conscience I have no choice but to be against them.

In other words, would you accept a political endorsement from THIS GUY?

Nope!  Not me either!

As for the candidates for School Board, I admit I have no been paying as close attention as I should but I really hear good things about Pat Higgins, and here is a pretty sweet ad that my friend Dennis Zaki made for him.



Look the bottom line is. get out and vote. Your neighbors, your children, and your community are counting on you.

Namaste my friends.

The Texas Board of Education approves a new social studies and history curriculum that will certainly receive the Teabagger "seal of approval".

From TPM:

 The State Board of Education has adopted new social studies and history guidelines for Texas high school classrooms.

The standards have been given a more conservative bent by the board. They dictate how political events and figures will be taught to some 4.8 million schoolchildren in Texas and beyond for the next decade.

The standards also will be used by textbook publishers who often develop materials for other states based on those approved in Texas.

The debate has brought national attention to the effort, which this week featured testimony from educators, civil rights leaders and a former U.S. education secretary.

...conservatives scored a string of victories late Thursday, including a requirement that public school students in Texas evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty.

McLeroy, one of the board's most outspoken conservatives, offered the amendment requiring students to evaluate efforts by global organizations including the U.N. to undermine U.S. sovereignty, saying they threatened individual liberty and freedom.

With little criticism from Democrats on the board, conservatives added language that would require students to discuss the solvency of "long-term entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare."
During the monthslong process, conservatives also have successfully strengthened the requirements on teaching the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers and attempted to water down rationale for the separation of church and state. If adopted, the standards will refer to the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic," and students will be required to study the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.

In previous discussions, the board has added language heralding "American exceptionalism" and the U.S. free enterprise system, suggesting it thrives best without excessive government intervention. It also required students learn to about the Second Amendment right to bear arms specifically, in addition to the Bill of Rights. And they removed a suggestion that students learn about hip-hop as an example of a significant social movement.

They also agreed to delete a requirement that sociology students "explain how institutional racism is evident in American society."

Educators have blasted the proposed curriculum for politicizing education. Teachers also have said the document is too long and will force students to memorize lists of names rather than thinking critically.

Taking over school boards was one of the stated goals of the Moral Majority.  They believed that if they could bring their religious viewpoints and moral beliefs into the public schools they could drag this country away from the "immorality" of the new millennium and back to their romantic ideal of the 50's.  That would be the 1850's to be precise.

I have no doubt that Jerry Falwell is sitting in the hottest section of hell right now with a huge smile on his chubby face.

And if you think my point is mere hyperbole let me direct you to a this video which shows School Board member Cynthia Dunbar opening the debate over social studies with a very telling prayer.



Any questions?