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Education

When you hear the Educational-Industrial Complex saying that we don’t spend enough money…

…and that’s why our kids test so badly, I just shake my head.  How much do they want?  Really?

Educational spending internationally

And ask them – where are the better results for that larger amount of money?  You are supposed to be providing a service – educating our children.  It is obvious that the service is lacking – but costing us more.

So, why should we give you more?  We should be giving you less until we see positive trending results – without the excuses.  We are #2 in expenditures – certainly not #2 in results…

(H/T: Big Government)

Think I’m kidding – it is behavior like this that does NOTHING to educate – merely line the pockets of the Robber Barons of Public Education:

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What Would We Do Without Studies Like These?

Riding in on the heels of the UNH/Hirshberg cow fart research we have other news from the research front of which is just begging to be made fun.

Someone has discovered that oral sex is a gateway drug to intercourse among teenagers. A three-year study determined that teens who have oral sex are more likely to have intercourse than teens who do not. And if you ask the Baptists they will tell you that intercourse leads to dancing, or was that the other way around?

“I see most of the health policies out there and guidelines for preventive services talking about sex generally, but they do not specify oral sex. That is an important distinction because teens don’t consider oral sex to be sex, and many are not aware of the risks involved,” Halpern-Felsher said.

So oral sex leads to intercourse and intercourse leads to unwanted pregnancy.  Who is surprised?  The experts, of course.

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Our Superintendent, Dr. DiMinico, had something to say about this:

Once the elite high school in Washington, D.C., Dunbar High is out of control, reports the Washington Post. Nearly half the senior class is not on track to graduate, more than 100 students are taking courses they’ve already passed and the campus is growing increasingly unsafe. Oh Wait!  He DIDN’T!  Mea Culpa!  That was actually … Read more

How About Some Irony?

The Bedford school board has announced staff and program cuts to address problems with the next school budget. They are looking to trim $750,000.00 off the bottom line, $200,000.00 of which–it has been proposed–will come from eliminating full time teaching positions.

For Quite Some Time

For quite some time more than a few of us out here in the private sector have been paying into our own retirement plans–if we can–for years.  After the Housing bubble burst many of us began reducing the amount we contributed as a lousy economy consumed opportunities, wage growth and jobs–our neighbors jobs or even our own. 

Companies, small businesses in particular, that were once able to provide some benefits and 401K matching dollars shifted gears, re-directing that revenue (if they had it) to keeping the business afloat so they could pay enough remaining core employees to keep the company "a company"–with desks, paperclips, sticky-notes, and a space to keep them in.  We paid for our own retirement plans, owners and managers paid for theirs, took pay cuts, employees took pay cuts, millions accepted reduced hours, part time status, or were overcome by the recession and had to be let go.

At the same time various levels of government were handing out (or handed) billions and billions of dollars that did not exist, to prop up the public sector unions.  These unions, collective bargaining groups (emphasis on collective) were the primary benefactors of the past two years accumulation of debt.  Government rules favored them in opposition to all else and in contradiction to common sense, not just for cash handouts but the hand out of sparse jobs as well.  Even at the local level, the public sectors union handlers, who are really nothing more than fat cat capitalists selling shares in human flesh for a profit, in the from of a dues check each pay period, have fought against the tide to raise union salaries, benefits, and keep or create more jobs that must be paid for by the people going the opposite direction.

So the public sector unions, operating as nothing more than a private business, whose goal is to grow revenue, continued to do just that at taxpayers expense, all the while whining about private sector greed and malfeasance. We need to call them out for this. 

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The Illusion Of Zero Drop Outs

credit: ramblingrector.me

Governor Lynch is all about his success at reducing Drop Out rates in New Hampshire. That’s the number of high school age kids who leave school without graduation or achieving a recognized equivalent. He even has a goal. New Hampshire will have a zero percent drop out rate by 2012. And based on the available data, I think he will succeed, but not in reducing actual “drop outs” to zero.

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“The Professionals” vs the parents: “its instructional value outweighs its shortcomings.”

In our little town of Bedford, a controversy is brewing.  Recently parents of a high school student discovered a book had been assigned to their son in a Personal Finance class.  After reading the book, "Nickel and Dimed,…On Not Getting By In America!" the parents determined this book was not appropriate reading material for a 16 year old and wasn’t quality material one would expect to find in a Personal Finance class.
 
They went through the proper channels in an effort to either remove the book or remove parts of the book they found to be the most offensive.  Some of the most offensive parts to the book were: the profanity, references to Jesus and people of faith that readers would find offensive and instructions on how to clear your urine if you use drugs prior to applying for a job.
 
I think the average person expects a personal finance text to offer students information on banking, insurance, balancing a checkbook and other important financial matters that will face these kids as they move into adulthood.  What we found was, a book written by a social activist being used in  a Personal Finance class in an attempt to change the values, beliefs and attitudes of the students.
 
The book was brought to a review committee when the Administrators decided it was appropriate reading material.  The Committee listened to their concerns, read the book and decided the book is acceptable as instructional material because "its instructional value outweighs its shortcomings."
 
So what are we trying to teach students in Personal Finance?  Instructional value in what?  The author is an avowed Marxist pushing her own Socialist agenda on those who read her books.  Does Personal Finance now equal political indoctrination?  That certainly seems to be the instructional…

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You know who I blame for this?

As Ann Marie pointed out, bullying has become quite the topic in schools today thanks to a new law that purports to be the "fin du fin" of the issue – top down control from Concord with a strictly controlled law that does not allow for absolutely minimal "local control" over what happens in the schools.

Look, I can agree with sentiment.  I was bullied in high school – I was one of the nerds.  And contrary to today’s politically correct, pacifist education world, I solved the problem myself in a most incorrect fashion.  No, I didn’t knock the snot out of my main protagonist; rather, a head lock was turned into a full Nelson and then I simply kept squeezing until he dropped. And cried.  And cried some more.  He never bothered me again.  His friends left me alone, too. A mark was left on him, but not a physical one – it was unnecessary.  The point was made, learned, and kept

Is that THE solution as well?  No, and I willingly admit to such.  It worked for me and in that situation.  And I didn’t have to run to the Government (the teachers or the Administrators) to solve my problem, either. And I didn’t have to resort to perverting some base principles in doing so. I realize that today is a different time and place – at least that’s what others keep telling me.  However, they seem to have this great problem in answering my question: sure and indeed – but do we have to have basic principles changed?

Funny think, principles.  Often, base principles never changed – or shouldn’t be changed.  So, in the context of the above, add this from this article in the Concord Monitor on this.  Tell me, what’s wrong here?  And what is the two principle that these seem to advocate for (one obvious and one not-so-obvious)?

‘If someone writes something mean about you on Facebook, your mom might tell you not to look at it or to just turn off your computer. But that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt you, because your friends can still look at it. And it might make it hard to go to school. So the mean person should get in trouble at school."…

…"A student should have the right to say what they want in a text message or e-mail, but not if it’s going to hurt someone’s reputation – like calling a person fat or stupid or saying that you hate them," a girl from a parochial school wrote. "I personally know someone who had that happen to her, and those comments never go away."

"The First Amendment gives us the right to say what we want in this country, but not if it affects our right to a safe environment," a local high school boy wrote. "I know a kid who doesn’t like to come to school out of fear."

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It’s not about “saving the planet” – it all about the Benjamins and control

Burning Planet Once again, we’re seeing the pronouncements, even in the background of Climategate and Al "I created the Internet" Gore’s (let’s see again, how big is his carbon footprint?) admission that his support for corn based ethanol was just pandering to farmers to bolster his run for President.  Once again, it is easy to see what the real agenda is.

After all, all of us little people just don’t seem to understand all these really smart people that have a much bigger problem to solve than our petty little ones.  And they are getting some uppity and upset that the vast majority of us just won’t listen to them.  But the gaffes keep coming out anyways – what’s beyond the smoke and curtains.

From The Scotsman:

Mexican president Felipe Calderon called on climate negotiators to put national interests aside and act on behalf of all humanity to fight global warming.

Opening a two-week conference in Cancun last night, Mr Calderon urged delegates to overcome the deep divide between rich and poor countries that has hampered efforts to negotiate a new climate treaty for three years.

"It would be a tragedy if our inability to see beyond our personal interests or national interests makes us fail," he said in a speech to delegates, businessmen and activists. "The atmosphere is indifferent to the sovereignty of states."

But the money transfers he wants are NOT indifferent to the sovereignty of national borders.  A poor excuse of an argument and ‘victimization’ – and like many, his self-interest is to see that transfer goes into his country.  Sorry, but my national self-interest comes into view here.  15,000 people?  And that carbon footprint is so small, right?  And frankly, any time I see anything like "indifferent to the sovereignty of states.", the fuzzy antenna go up and start wigging out.

Why?  There was this from his fellow countryman:

"Climate change is the most serious challenge our society has ever confronted," said Mario Molina, a Mexican chemist who won the Nobel Prize in 1995 for his studies on the ozone layer.

Really?  I would posit that…

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Who really is accountable for the rise of bullying in schools?

Bullying is all over the news lately and some of these stories end in tragedy.  It’s created national attention and schools seem to be responding to the public outcry.
 
I guess what I do not understand is, why are those who’ve allowed this to become an epidemic escaping accountability?

I sat in on the hearings before the House and Senate Education Committees and listened to the many students who came before the legislators to tell their stories.  Time after time these students received little or no action from the school administration.  You could sense their desperation and their tears spoke volumes.
 
Bullying has many consequences on the students who are harmed.  Administrators who’ve lost the will and the courage to confront bullies have only added to this problem.

New Hampshire passed an anti-bullying Bill that I believe will be challenged in court at some point.  However if it is challenged, our…

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Meet Professor “Screw You”

On the front page of this mornings Union Leader reporter Clyntnon Mamuo covers negotiations between the University of New Hampshire, and some 630 professors over their new contract.  As is often the case with such things, there is some disparity between what the University feels is economically feasible and what the white-tower and it’s union representatives actually want.

Keep in mind that the article quotes inflation at around 0.5%, and we know that over the past few years the government method of calculating inflation overall have shown it almost flat.  Using these figures along with what we know about pension issues and what Obamacare is doing to the cost of health insurance ‘the smartest people in the state’…

"…proposed a 12.5 percent pay increase, one percent of which would be merit-based, and no increase in health insurance premiums."

So the education establishment liberals in the university system think like the establishment progressives who ran up the state budget in the past four years. Screw the economy we deserve a huge raise. (The progressive political class gets their reward through a larger public sector union, which gives them money to try and keep them in office so they can rinse, lather and repeat.) And it is no surprise that they, democrats and educators, are fiscally (and ideologically) co-dependent.

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Governor Rapes School Funding To Hide Budget Shortfall

Again, we see the smoke clear over the wreckage of the Lynch budget.  In this mornings UL Tom Fahey reports on how the Legislative Fiscal Committee plans to pilfer half of the $41 million dollar federal educations stimulus meant to save teachers jobs and the minds of our future leaders. They voted for a plan … Read more

“The definition of greed & arrogance…”

Stop me if you’ve heard this story before… Tell me this doesn’t describe some superintendent in or somewhere near YOUR town.     Is there any wonder the Holder "justice" department is now hot on his tail… for two grand… over SIX years? For a BOGUS case? They FEAR the "fat" man!

Separation Of State…from Church.

Let me be clear.  My towns middle school does not do all that bad a job covering the US constitution.  I can say this mostly because they actually cover it for a few weeks, during an exploration of American history and the founding of the nation.   But being either a victim of or party to the kinds of support materials embedded into the public education system, I still manage to find a few ringers that make me shake my head and smile.

Not too long ago I regaled you on these pages with the tale of just such a ringer on the Middle Schools ‘citizenship quiz,’ where it asked the question, where does free speech come from?  The correct answer is of course, ‘our creator,’ who provided us with a set of unalienable rights that exist even in the vacuum of the necessary evil of government.  But that’s not the answer they were looking for.  They expect you to write ‘The 1st amendment.’ This is of course incorrect.  It assumes people could not speak freely prior 1791 when the bill of rights was ratified which is why I  am forever reminding my children that the US Constitution does not give rights, it protects them.

Which brings me to this newly discovered Gem. Yesterday I came across a series of poorly worded essay questions—my second sons homework–the worst of which was this; What part of Article VI of the US constitution supports the idea of separation of church and state? Explain. (Go ahead and roll your eyes or make a grunting noise, or whatever it is you do when confronted with such nonsense.)

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Redistribution of wealth

The Obama disaster tour is on the road complaining about how the Republicans are going to cut education funding by 20%. First, let me clarify that federal education funding could get cut 100% and I’d start to feel better, but since 20% is what we have to work with let’s work with it.

Number Poems

I neglected to share this, but on the first day of school this year my 5th grader’s first homework assignment in math was a math poem. Using numbers in a poem. That was the Math homework that day. Use numbers….to make a poem.

National Education Standards

Guest Post: Ann Marie Banfield

 

Dear Editor:

At the last Bedford School Board Meeting, the Board was presented information on the adoption of National Standards.  

The New Hampshire Department of Education recently voted to approve the adoption of Common Core Standards in Math and English.  During the testimony before the NH DOE, several people testified that the New Hampshire State Standards were not adequate.  The Fordham Foundation agreed and gave NH math standards a "D".

Under Governor Lynch, the NH DOE set the bar incredibly low.  While other states moved to improve their standards to an "A" level, our DOE was content to leave the bar low. 

(Continued on the jump)

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Public School Propoganda So Obvious It’s Absurd.

Have you heard of Upfront Magazine?  It’s a product of the New York Times, delivered through Scholastic, to public schools and then public school students, and it is not much different from the actual New York Times.  For example, the September 6th 2010 issue has articles that promote workers rights in China (promoting Unions), seek to explain the complex problem with illegal immigrants (soft selling Amnesty), and then there’s the cover article–‘Americas Challenges 2011,’ a discourse on some of the issues that our new President Obama must cope with.

Here are the opening few paragraphs.  You ready for it?

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