Canadian University Provost Wants to Send Me to Jail… For a Speech I Haven’t Given Yet
by Ann CoulterI was hoping for a fruit basket, not a threat to prosecute:
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Education
AmeriCorps: Obama’s Scandal-Plagued Indoctrination Machine
by Pamela GellerIt’s great to be a prisoner in Obama’s America: you get stimulus dollars, preferential job placement, and a place in AmeriCorps. But if you’re a child in public school, watch out.
Obama said he was going to build a civilian army — and he is using our children. He is recruiting in public school classrooms: I exclusively broke the story about how his group Organizing for America is recruiting in the classroom. But AmeriCorps (can Obama pronounce the second syllable?) is the primary machinery for his youth army. And there is huge dough behind it — yours and mine. And that money is now being used to mandate service programs that indoctrinate our children to work for “the common good.”
America is the most beneficent nation in the world. We give the most to charity (though Republicans far out-give Democrats), and whenever there is a disaster in the world, we are there. On a local level, we donate a ton of money to community programs.
So why is service being mandated? Mandated service is slavery. Voluntary service is empathy. Empathy is the positive result of a moral value system, as taught in a proper educational curriculum.
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Yet Another Government Takeover: Student Loan Edition
by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)This week will be a defining moment for Congress and our country. As Democratic leaders map out their health care end game, we as elected officials have a choice to make: Will people control their lives, or will government?
The stakes of the health care debate are clear. On the table is a bill that would put the federal government in charge of one-sixth of the American economy and, perhaps even more stunningly, the way Americans get medical care. Yet far too few Americans realize there is another government takeover in the offing – this one in how Americans pay for college.
First, some history. Since 1965, the Federal Family Education Loan Program has helped tens of millions of students and parents by providing low-cost, federally guaranteed loans. This public-private partnership offers students and schools choice and competition among loan providers, as well as essential value-added benefits such as college outreach, debt management and financial literacy.
For these reasons, FFELP has consistently been the more popular choice among colleges and universities. It leverages the innovation and competitive forces of the private sector with congressionally mandated benefits and protections that keep interest rates and fees low.
Yet right now, the Majority in Congress and the President want to make it more difficult to pay for college by putting the government between you and the money you need to pay for higher education.
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Stimulus!: Cosmetology and Massage Schools Win Big Under Obama
by PubliusFrom Florida’s Herald Tribune:
When President Barack Obama touted the passage of the $787 billion federal stimulus bill a year ago, he highlighted billions of dollars for higher education to help retrain workers for the new economy.
But an examination of government records shows that some of the biggest recipients of $17 billion in federal educational grants have been online universities, cosmetology academies, massage therapy schools and other profitmaking career training schools – and not traditional public universities and colleges.
Many of the for-profit schools have spotty graduation and placement records, critics contend, and do not provide the educational foundation of traditional colleges and universities.
In Sarasota County, the Sun State College of Hair Design, the Sarasota School of Massage Therapy and Sarasota’s Fashion Focus Hair Academy combined to receive $689,000 in Pell Grant stimulus funding in 2009, more than the New College of Florida, a state-sponsored school with more than 800 students in Sarasota, and the Ringling College of Art & Design, a private, nonprofit school with about 1,200 students that is also in Sarasota.
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That Thin Envelope: Time to Resist Racist Education Policy
by Charles C. JohnsonEvery March, college students from around the country receive either a thick or a thin envelope. For many of them, this will be the biggest event in their lifetimes. It will be a source of pride for some; envy and disappointment for others.
As Americans, we’d like to believe our meritocratic sensibilities do a great job allocating talent, but alas, the truth is that at many colleges throughout America race matters more than brains.
Proponents of affirmative action, though, present a false picture when they suggest that they’d be fine with wealthy, white kids being denied admissions in favor of lesser qualified (and often just as wealthy) blacks and Hispanics. In actuality, the people who most often lose their spots at elite colleges in higher education are Asians and Asian-Americans. [The adverse impact of affirmative action against poor whites remains a source of contention and research.]
But what would a world without affirmative action look like? Putting aside your view of whether or not should exist let’s examine how it actually works by examining such a world. In 2005, The Chronicle of Higher Education cited a paper that looked at just that question.
A [2005] study by two Princeton University researchers uses admissions data from elite colleges to portray what would happen in such a world without affirmative action. In short, black and Latino enrollment would tank, while white enrollments would hardly be affected. The big winners would be Asian applicants, who appear to face “disaffirmative action” right now. They would pick up about four out of five spots lost by black and Latino applicants.
. . .
The research looked at admissions decisions at elite colleges and found that without affirmative action, the acceptance rate for African American candidates would be likely to fall by nearly two-thirds, from 33.7 percent to 12.2 percent, while the acceptance rate for Hispanic applicants probably would be cut in half, from 26.8 percent to 12.9 percent.
While white admit rates would stay steady, Asian students would be big winners under such a system. Their admission rate in a race-neutral system would go to 23.4 percent, from 17.6 percent. And their share of a class of admitted students would rise to 31.5 percent, from 23.7 percent.
But what about blacks at selective colleges? Who are they? Again, The Chronicle of Higher Education,
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Reason.tv: Fix The Schools!: Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey, episode 2
by Nick GillespieCleveland’s public schools are failing to prepare students for their futures and as a result, all parents who can afford to have been fleeing to the suburbs for decades. Yet some urban schools, like Think College Now in Oakland, California are finding out that a combination of administrative autonomy and accountability can lead to amazing results. Within Cleveland’s own boundaries, charter schools are booming and delivering quality education at a fraction of the cost of traditional public schools. Does Cleveland have what it takes to fundamentally reform its K-12 education system and become a leader in 21st-century education?
Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey is written and produced by Paul Feine; camera and editing by Roger Richards and Alex Manning; narrated by Nick Gillespie; music by the Cleveland band Cats on Holiday. This is the second of six episodes that will air March 15-19, 2010.
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New CATO Study Shows Educators Lie
by Mytheos HoltAs any exasperated advocate of commonsense education reform can tell you, liberals and their allies in the teachers unions will, like drunken spammers, never cease to declaim on how “PUBLIC EDUCATION NEEDS MORE MONEYS LOL.” Yet, as highlighted in the video above, a recent study by the CATO Institute has found that public educators routinely lie about the exorbitant costs of education so as to keep parents from realizing just how little the vaunted Leftist sacred cow of public education actually provides for their child. Yes, you read right. When it comes to public education costs, some of the biggest liars are people who our tax dollars pay to teach the truth.
Just as an example, the CATO study found that, while Washington DC public schools claim to spend about $17,000/student, the actual price tag is closer to $28,000. Just to put this in perspective, this is a higher price than the private Potomac School, Georgetown Preparatory School, Stone Ridge School and Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School. In fact, it’s only $2,000 less than Sidwell Friends, the ultra-exclusive private academy where President Obama’s own daughters attend.
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The Educated Idiots Award (Vol. 1, No. 2): ‘Hurt so Good’
by Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-MI)The people have written!
After sorting through scores of nominations from readers, I am dyspeptic to present another recipient of the “Educated Idiots Award” (EIA), which is given to the arrogant intellectuals unacquainted with real life who foist their insane ideas upon the “unenlightened” rest of us.
Nominated by former State Department Official, John Tkacik, this week’s EIA goes to the Obama Administration’s “smart power” savants. (Okay, that’s not quite what John called them, but the sentiment is simpatico.)
To witless:
Per a March 5th Washington Post article, the Obama Administration’s “smart power” savants want the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to get a sweetheart sanctions deal: If the Beijing regime relents and supports tightened UN sanctions against Iran, the PRC will be exempted from tightened US sanctions against Iran.
This dysfunctional case of “the enemy of my enemy is my enemy” bemuses our allies who have steadfastly supported sanctioning Iran due to its nuclear program; and have already been divesting from the mullah’s murderous regime.
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Who Is The Stimulus Money Stimulating? Teachers
by Veronique de RugyBased on the Recovery.gov data, more than two third of the 594,754.3 jobs “created or saved” with the stimulus funds were “created or saved” in the Department of Education (see chart). Basically, what the administration meant by shovel ready projects was funding for your next door teacher.
Now, let’s recap some of findings and news of the previous weeks.
1. Most jobs are created in the Department of Education
2. In 2009, for the first time ever, more public-sector employees (7.9 million) belonged to a union than did private-sector employees (7.4 million) despite there being five times more wage and salary workers in the private sector.
3. A third of all union jobs are in Education
4. 33 percent of the education industry is unionized
5. The union boss, Andy Stern, was appointed to be on the president’s debt commission.
It all makes sense, doesn’t it?
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Terrorists at Fla. Atlantic U Are O.K., Young Americans for Freedom VERBOTEN
by Warner Todd HustonWe send our young adults to university to be educated in the ways of the world, we all know. Following that well-worn path, young James Schackleford decided on the publicly funded Florida Atlantic University for his edification and boy did he learn a lesson about modern education last week. Mr. Schackleford learned that the FAU administration prefers its campus Islamic terrorist supporters over representatives of the conservative Young Americans for Freedom organization. He also learned that it’s open season on all conservatives at our American universities.
![Florida_Atlantic_University_op_800x578[1].JPG](http://biggovernment.com/files/2010/03/Florida_Atlantic_University_op_800x5781.JPG1.jpeg "Florida_Atlantic_University_op_800x578[1].JPG")
At the Boca Raton campus Mr. Schackleford determined that his school needed a chapter of YAF, a 40-year-old conservative student organization, and so gathered a few like-minded students to meet with YAF State Director Daniel P. Diaz to discuss how they should proceed on organizing a chapter in the school.
As the few gathered were meeting, university administrator David Blank* burst into the room and demanded that they cease their meeting and vacate the room. According to the YAF press release, Mr. Schackleford asked for an additional 15 minutes to finish and Blank acquiesced to the request. But the 15-minute grant was short lived.
Upon hearing Diaz address the liberal bias on the FAU campus, Blank stopped the meeting again and boorishly ordered the students to vacate the meeting room. Blank the shut off the room lights, tore down the group’s promotional posters, and called the campus police.
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Crack-pot Detroit Socialist Explains His, Unions’ Agenda for Soviet States of America
by Kyle OlsonMilitant socialists were out in full force Thursday, March 4th, for a “Day of Action to Defend Public Education.” The nationwide event was organized by fringe, left-wing groups like Michigan’s “By Any Means Necessary,” Ohio-organized “Community Organizing Center for Mother Earth,” Los Angeles-based “County Peace and Freedom Party,” the “League for the Revolutionary Party” of New York, and North Carolina’s “Destroy Industry.”
In Detroit, a chap representing the Che Guevara-loving, Mumia Abu-Jamal-supporting “FIST Youth” educated a crowd of about two dozen about the virtues of socialism. He also lectured on the Soviet Union, its roots and the glory days when the “people’s council” made all of the important decisions.
Strangely, that’s not the Soviet Union I learned about in public school. I was taught about a ruthless nation that annihilated the United States. I learned about a Soviet Union that starved its people and constructed drab buildings while its leaders lived the high life. (Well, that last part I had to find out on my own.)
But that’s enough of my take on the socialist rally in Detroit. You can enjoy the history lesson for yourself.
I respect this guy - he represents the strain of socialism that lays it all out for America to ponder. That’s more than I can say for our current leaders, who couch their true beliefss in poll-tested phrases and flowery language.
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The Educated Idiots Award (Vol. 1, No. 1): “Baby, You Can’t Drive My Car”
by Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-MI)My late father had a phrase to describe the arrogant intellectuals unacquainted with real life who foist their insane ideas on the “unenlightened” rest of us: The phrase was “educated idiots.”
Sadly, today his words ring ever truer. To witless:
(In what is rarely a good sign) a New York Times blog reports the Harvard-based Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has determined fuel prices must rise significantly to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Thus, in the name of discredited Leftist psuedo-science, your gas prices could reach $7 a gallon.
In this tepid spat of Think Tanks vs. Gas Tanks, we glean two things: these researchers have recession-proof jobs; and they are unconcerned you don’t.
How else to explain these researchers’ cavalier demand that your shrinking family budget must get smaller and your job must become more tenuous all so Goddess Gaia can keep her cool?
In our real world, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2009 annual summary reports that unemployment rates rose last year in all regions, divisions, and states. And nowhere is the pain of this recessed economy deeper than in my Michigan, which had the largest increase in unemployment percentage from last year (5.3%); and has held the nation’s highest unemployment rate since this recession began (at times exceeding 15%).
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Liberal Hypocrisy On Display In Berkeley As Student Defends Riots Against Education Immigration
by Andrew MarcusInstapundit points to this video interview of a Berkeley student representative explaining why it’s okay for students to riot in the streets in the name of their cause.
We posted the raw video of the rioting here.
What’s so interesting about this interview is that during two separate moments, the student representative displays an astounding level of liberal-Progressive hypocrisy.
We have taken the liberty of transcribing these two sections below.
Moment number 1 – (2:00)
HOST: Describe to me what exactly what you guys are going through that just absolutely causes this outrage.
STUDENT: Absolutely. Well um in the fall the UC regents voted in a %32 fee increase to over 10000 a year for in-state tuition. This at a time that they are cutting classes, letting in fewer student from in-state and more students from out of state. Um, so effectively we are closing off the campus, making it less accessible to people, and those who are here are getting less out of their education.
That complaint doesn’t sound too immigrant friendly. Is she saying that Berkeley students only want immigrants from other states and countries just as long as they go to private schools?
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Upward Bound Is Down… Radical Sexual Indoctrination of Kids Is In
by Jim HoftRecently the Obama Administration cut funding to Upward Bound, a successful educational program with a proven track record. Upward Bound provides support to participating students in their preparation for college entrance. Upward Bound serves high school students from low-income families and high school students from families in which neither parent holds a bachelor’s degree. 95% of Upward Bound graduates have entered post-secondary education and are four times more likely to earn a college degree than students from similar back-grounds who do not participate in the program. The Obama Administration will cut funding for this successful educational program.
Radical Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings will get a fat raise in funding this year.
At the same time, despite the runaway federal spending and record budget deficits, Barack Obama is including $410 million in the 2011 budget for his “safe schools” czar Kevin Jennings. This is an increase of $45 million over last year’s budget. Obviously, some things are more important than others. These funds ought to buy a whole mess of fisting kits, leather bar guides and child porn books. And, the money will come in handy for the sexual indoctrination of teens and pre-teens.
Citizen Link Blog reported:
So want does Jennings intend to do with this money?
For starters, he says he’s going to make “school climate” measurement a top priority—and, in fact, he’d love for “school climate” to eventually be made part of the “Common Core” national standards movement! He plans to begin with “a new grant program coming out of this department where we’ll be providing possibly as much as $70 million for investments in school climate projects.” (He revealed all this and much more in this month’s Phi Delta Kappan magazine. Scroll down to the “Safe at School” title.)
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Nation’s Schools Should Follow Rhode Island Superintendent Gallo’s Example
by Kyle OlsonThe Education Action Group Foundation will support Central Falls, Rhode Island school Superintendent Frances Gallo with a billboard dedicated to this public school patriot, smack dab in the middle of downtown Central Falls.
Gallo’s recent decision to push past teachers union obstruction and do what’s best for the district’s struggling high school students is a prime example of the bold actions needed to turn around the nation’s failing schools.
Gallo recommended firing all 74 Central Falls High School teachers after the local teachers union refused to sign off on long overdue reforms needed to save the chronically failing school, which has been on the state’s list of underperforming schools for seven years. Less than half of Central Falls High School’s students graduate and only seven percent are proficient in math, state data shows.
Gallo offered to pay teachers $30 an hour for some of the additional duties, and expected them to kick in a bit of their own time to improve instruction.
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The Mount Vernon Statement, A Poor Man’s Manifesto… Very Poor
by Warner Todd HustonA group made up of some of the biggest names in contemporary conservatism got together a few days ago and crafted what they are calling the “Mount Vernon Statement,” a manifesto of sorts meant to give direction to today’s conservative movement. Put succinctly, it fails to fill the bill.
Taken as a whole this statement is fine as a short history lesson. It explains pretty clearly what the founders had wrought when their basic work was done with the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. But as a statement of principles that might guide today’s discussion, I do not think the letter works.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that this effort is harmful. In fact, I think every young person should read it for its explication of our historically conservative American principles. The problem is that this thing doesn’t seem to speak directly to what we are facing today like a statement that perhaps aims to become boilerplate should.
Some of those involved with the statement said that the 1960 “Sharon Statement” served as their inspiration. The Sharon Statement, intended to give some ideological umph to Goldwater conservatives, is an effort that works much better as a rallying cry to action. Sadly, the Mount Vernon Statement falls a little flat in this respect.
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Democrats Push HR 4530, a Radical Safe Schools Czar’s Dream Come True
by Jim HoftOn January 20, 2009 President Barack Obama promised to “begin again the work of remaking America.” He wasn’t kidding. In his first year Barack Obama and Democrats set all kinds of spending records. They managed to triple the national debt in a year and watched the unemployment rate jump to double digits. President Obama dithered and waffled on national security and joined with Marxist dictators to side against an American ally.
But you haven’t seen anything yet. The democrats in Congress are moving closer to passing the most radical anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-family bill through Congress that we have seen in decades.
HR4530 is a radical Safe Schools Czar’s dream come true.
Forget reading, writing and arithmatic, Democrats have more important subjects in mind for your child. Democrats are working to push HR 4530 through Congress. This bill will force educators to prohibit harassment, violence and discrimination faced by students based on their sexual orientation. That doesn’t sound so bad, but that’s not all it does.
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Teachers Unions Spends Dues on Left-Wing Causes AND Ally of Robert Mugabe
by Kyle OlsonCourtesy of Victor Skinner, writing on NEAexposed.com:
A recent study of contributions made by the nation’s two largest teachers unions reveals that both shelled out millions in 2008-09, with a good chunk going to radical and scandal-ridden organizations.
The study, posted online by the Education Intelligence Agency, is further proof that the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers are out of step with their members, which union officials claim are evenly split between Democrat, Republican and Independent parties.
This is what the EIA found:
The AFT gave $46,894 to the scandal-plagued Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). That organization’s members gave tax evasion advice to pimps and prostitutes, encouraged struggling homeowners to walk away from their mortgages, and championed radical causes like softer immigration regulations and a government takeover of health care.
The AFT’s interest in government-run healthcare is also apparent in its $407,208 donation to the Economic Policy Institute, a union-funded progressive think tank that advocates for the expansion of unionized government jobs, and generally promotes organized labor’s interests.
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Isn’t It Time to Finally Put the Interests of Kids First Rather than Catering to the National Education Association?
by Dan MitchellThe Cato Institute’s Isabel Santa uses school choice as an example of why competition is better than government-imposed monopolies. The video explains that government schools cost more and deliver less, which is exactly what one might expect when there is an inefficient monopoly structure. The evidence about the school-choice systems in Sweden, Chile, and the Netherlands is particularly impressive. Leftists always argue that we should have government-run health care because it’s what exists in other nations. Yet they are conveniently silent about looking overseas when other nations are choosing market-based policies and getting better results.
There are many other reasons to support school choice, including diversity and innovation. There also is no need for fights over school prayer and sex education when parents can choose schools that reflect their values.
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14 Votes Cast…Total, for $1 Million Bond Issue
by PubliusFrom Sid Burgess:
According to this NewsOk article, a school district of 300 students and about 1000 registered voters really showed their civic pride and sense of duty on Tuesday when 14 voters showed up to decide the fate of a million dollar project that included updating the plumbing, repairing the roof, installing new bathrooms and handicap ramps, and gym improvements. The 1.5% of the voters came out overwhelmingly in favor of the issue with 11 or about 1% of the voting population casting their yeas. The opposition put up a good fight though with fully one third of a percent of the voting population opposing the bond.
Naturally, the school was ecstatic..
“We’re very excited…” – Crutcho Superintendent Teresa McAfee
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