Keith D. Milby :: blog

Students carried out raucous rallies on college campuses nationwide Thursday in protests against deep education cuts that turned violent as demonstrators threw punches and ice chunks in Wisconsin and blocked university gates and smashed car windows in California.

At least 15 protesters were detained by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee police after as many as 150 students gathered at the student union then moved to an administrative building to deliver petitions to the school chancellor.

Young idiots - if they think I am going to support this foolishness while we have not the money to pay for it, they are idiots.

via Students rally on college campuses for funding - Education- msnbc.com.

Twelve-year-old Alexa Gonzalez scribbled “Lex was here 2/1/10″ on her desk Monday at Junior High School 190 in Queens. She also wrote “I love my friends Abby and Faith.” The girl says the doodles could have been erased.

…

Education department spokesman David Cantor said the incident shouldn’t have happened, and that common sense should prevail.

via NYC student arrested for doodling on school desk.

This is really not surprising, but still discouraging about government school systems. It does serve yet another argument to disband government education and give parents choice.

High School Bans American Flag

N.C. – On the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, students at one high school were not allowed to wear clothes with an American flag.
 
Under a new school rule, students at Hobbton High School are not allowed to wear items with flags, from any country, including the United States.
 
The new rule stems from a controversy over students wearing shirts bearing flags of other countries.
 
Gayle Langston said her daughter, Jessica, was told to remove her Stars and Stripes t-shirt.
 
“Today she wanted to wear her shirt, and I had to tell her no,” said Langston. “She didn’t like it at all because I knew it would get her in trouble. Of all days, 9/11, she could not wear her American Flag shirt.”
 
The superintendent of schools in Sampson County calls the situation unfortunate, but says educators didn’t want to be forced to pick and choose which flags should be permissible.

“pick and choose which flags should be permissible” - you have to be kidding. Are these morons not familiar which country they live in. It should not be a question what so ever. “Stupid is and stupid does” though.

UDPATE: School Rescinds Ban On Flag Clothing

A North Carolina High School that came under national attention over their rule that prohibited students from wearing items with the American flag, or any flag from other countries, has lifted the ban. 

It is really a shame that a ban on the American flag was in place in the first place. But hey, that’s what you get when you let the government run things. Idiots…

More reasons for breaking up the teachers unions and allow for school choice. 

These are the idiots we have educating our kids.

Colo. School Bans Tag on Its Playground

An elementary school has banned tag on its playground after some children complained they were harassed or chased against their will.

“It causes a lot of conflict on the playground,” said Cindy Fesgen, assistant principal of the Discovery Canyon Campus school.

God forbid kids learn anything about conflict resolution on the play ground.

The Washington Examiner has a good write up of the absolute failure of Washington DC government schools. It can only be a government program, that continues to pile more money into a failing system and continue to expect better results. I think the definition for insanity applies to that some how.

School for scandal

Monday’s Examiner Exclusive on double-dipping in the District of Columbia Public School System should come as no surprise to anybody who’s been wondering how the city can spend so much on education — and get so little in return. With DCPS student scores perennially among the worst in the nation, it’s long been clear that millions in school money have gone into pockets, not into classrooms.

Last year, Examiner reporter Bill Myers investigated Brenda Belton, who recently pleaded guilty to making $649,000 in illegal payments and sweetheart contracts to enrich herself and her friends while serving as executive director of D.C.’s Office of Charter School Oversight.

I also like what Don Surber had to say about this.

Take the money, give half of it to the Catholics for tuition for DC kids and give the other half back to taxpayers.

That would be a good start.

Note to Self: Refer to this article at Real Clear Politics by John Stossel when you start thinking about taking the boys out of private school and put them in a government school, to save having to pay the tuition when times are tough.

Several hundred people showed up at my door Wednesday to teach me a lesson by offering me a job. They were unionized public-school teachers, and they wanted me to go into a school and teach for a week. “Teach, John, teach!” they chanted.

I wasn’t expecting that.

I did expect them to demand an apology for my TV special on education, “Stupid in America,” which was critical of union work rules.

I didn’t expect one of the speakers to be so blunt as to complain that school choice, whose value I had shown in the broadcast, would “take money away from . . . our union leaders” and a special program they had built to pay college tuition for a special-interest group within their union.

That is what it is all about. Not giving students a great education but protecting their own union interests.

Then there is this:

Another speaker said the union’s goal was to ensure that a quality education was “free and accessible to all of New York City’s children, regardless of income . . . or geography.”

There is nothing free about government schools. Everybody pays for government schools whether they like it or not, whether they have children are not. Everybody pays.

The sad part being, we pay more and get less for an education in a government controlled school. School Choice would infuse competition and force government schools to do better. This would benefit the nation as a whole.

Government Schools and the Unions that control them are afraid of this competition.

From FOXNEWS: Colorado Teacher in Bush-Hitler Flap Reinstated

DENVER — A high school teacher who was placed on leave after comparing President Bush’s State of the Union address to speeches by Adolf Hitler has been reinstated without any loss of pay, his attorney and school officials said Friday.

Officials declined to say whether social studies instructor Jay Bennish faced disciplinary action, but his attorney, David Lane, said Bennish would be back in the classroom Monday “with full pay.”

Bennish had been on paid leave from Overland High School in suburban Aurora since March 1 while Cherry Creek School District determined whether he violated a district rule that teachers must present balancing viewpoints in the classroom.

Me: This is all great news. This idiot / socialist / communist / America hater can serve as a shinning example of what’s wrong with sending your children to government schools to be educated by government union teachers.

Thank God for private Catholic Schools.

Note to editor: You might have gone a little over-board calling this scumbag an “idiot / socialist / communist / America hater”. This could result in some angry email from idiot / socialist / communist / America haters.

Yea right, like anyone reads this blog.

From Opinion Journal: Black
Flight

Black leaders like Louis King have had enough. He has a message for the school
board: “You’ll have to make big changes to get us back.” He says the district needs
a board that views families as customers and understands that competition has unalterably
changed the rules of the game. “I’m a strong believer in public education,” says Mr.
King. “But this district’s leaders have to make big changes or go out of business.
If they don’t, we’ll see them in a museum, like the dinosaurs.”

This is all encouraging but sadly we still have a long way to travel for school choice.

Minneapolis families seeking to escape troubled schools are fortunate to have
the options they do. That’s not the case in many other states, where artificial barriers–from
enrollment caps to severe underfunding–have stymied the growth of charter schools.

The city’s experience should lead such states to reconsider the benefits of expansive
school choice. Conventional wisdom holds that middle-class parents take an interest
in their children’s education, while low-income and minority parents lack the drive
and savvy necessary. The black exodus here demonstrates that, when the walls
are torn down, poor, black parents will do what it takes to find the best schools
for their kids.

That is what the government educators in government schools are afraid of. If given
a choice, parents will choose the best for their children. Why should we not have
a choice on how and where our tax dollars are spent on the education for our children?

Dismantle the teachers union. They are harming the future of our children and the
future of America.

John Stossel nails the attitude and the problem with government educators in government
schools in America with
this passage:

This winter’s Florida court ruling against school choice came after former teacher
Ruth Holmes Cameron brought a suit. “To say that competition is going to improve education
— it’s just not going to work,” she said. “You know, competition is not for
children. It’s not for human beings, it’s not for public education.”

If you are a parent and this attitude expressed, by this government educator does
not make you take your children out of government schools tomorrow or soon there after,
then you are truly lost.

Thank God for private Catholic Schools that I am barely affording.

It is true that there is school choice. I have to sacrifice money I could otherwise
use else where for other things. But, those tax dollars, my tax dollars are going
to public schools that I choose not to send my sons. Why should I not have the ability
to use my tax dollars to send my sons to a school of my choice.

The only real reason, is because of the attitudes expressed by government educators,
in powerful teacher unions, that will do everything they can to keep it from
happening.

“You know, competition is not for children. It’s not for human beings,
it’s not for public education.”

They are afraid of competition. They are afraid of losing what they have a strangle
hold on. They have good reason to be afraid. Because if we the people were given the
choice, then those that are dragging the system down would be weeded out and replaced
with those that truly want to make a difference.

Thankfully, these people are not educating my sons.

School Vouchers in ‘08

h/t: InstaPundit

From the Christian Science Monitor: How
much education funding should go directly to classrooms?

ATLANTA – Patrick Byrne, of Overstock.com, is one of America’s young philosopher
CEOs and a man with eccentric ideas: The Stanford-educated executive has biked cross
country four times, turned a flea-market supply company into a major Internet player,
and founded Worldstock.com, aimed at eradicating global poverty.

One of Mr. Byrne’s latest groundbreaking ideas is how to tackle school funding reform.
“The public debate over school spending is typically over more or less,” he says.
“The real debate should be: What are we spending it on?”

His organization, First Class Education, aims for all 50 states and the District
of Columbia to reallocate school spending so that at least 65 cents on every dollar
goes directly into the classroom - on books and teacher pay - by the end of 2008.

The concept is taking hold: The “65 percent solution” has already swept through
state capitol domes in Texas, Kansas, and Louisiana. Earlier this month, Georgia Gov.
Sonny Perdue (R) introduced legislation, joining 17 other states that have proposed
bills to meet that 65 percent threshold. Currently, the national average classroom
spending is about 61.5 cents on the dollar, according to the National Center for Educational
Statistics (NCES).

It is because of the NEA teachers union that we have to have debates like this. The
NEA has always been more about there on issues and not about the children.

Government schools will never succeed until they face true competition, held
accountable and become results oriented.

Well I beg to differ with the 9th Circuit (Circus) Court of Appeals.

This has me so mad that I could spit nails. It also is yet another reason I send my
son and will send my youngest son to Private Catholic School. This is just unbelievable.
We can only hope that this will go the the Big Court and be struck down like so many
others from this circus of a court.

Yet another reason to stem the tide of activist courts in our land and to stop liberals
in their tracks.

From the opening graph in this Reuters
story that barely gave it any print.

Parents have no constitutional right to prevent public schools from exposing children
to sexual topics, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Wednesday.

See what I mean?

This
via The Corner from the ruling in this circus of a court. You can find the pdf
here.

…there is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider
of information regarding sexual matters to their children
, either independent of their right to direct the upbringing and education
of their children or encompassed by it. We also hold that parents have no
due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools as
to the information to which their children will be exposed while enrolled as students.
Finally, we hold that the defendants’ actions were rationally related to a legitimate
state purpose…In summary, we hold that there is no free-standing fundamental
right of parents “to control the upbringing of their children by introducing them
to matters of and relating to sex in accordance with their personal and religious
values and beliefs” and that the asserted right is not encompassed by any
other fundamental right. In doing so, we do not quarrel with the parents’ right to
inform and advise their children about the subject of sex as they see fit. We conclude
only that the parents are possessed of no constitutional right to prevent
the public schools from providing information on that subject to their students in
any forum or manner they select.> So do you still need any more proof to take your kids out of government run schools?

Well maybe this
closing graph from Jonathan R. at GOP
Bloggers will seal the deal.

The Ninth Circuit’s ruling implies that the right to privacy (of the mother, at
least, if not the father) ends at birth. The woman has total control over
the child (including the right to terminate its life) prior to birth. After birth,
the State takes over, which means that humans are nothing more than reproductive vassals
of the State. And this is what Democrats consider “mainstream?” If this is
the ground on which Liberals want to fight the judicial wars, we Conservatives ought
to be happy.

I strongly urge you to do whatever you have to do, sacrifice, do without something,
get another job, beg, borrow and plead, but just get your children of these government
run, socialist, liberal brain washing schools at any cost.

If given the opportunity, VOTE for school vouchers. We have to put an end to this
and stop liberals in their tracks.

UPDATED

Linked to The Political Teen and Wizbang.

Here is another example why I send my son and will be sending my youngest son to Private Catholic School.

Blogs for Bush has the details. You will not believe it.