Never A Surprise

September 26, 2018April 14, 2012

by Rick Olson

“In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.” —Mark Twain

Londonderry School District Superintendent Nate Greenberg lobbied against HB 1607, “AN ACT establishing an education tax credit.” Not surprising at all…In fact, this is expected.

Long ago, educrats stopped caring about the delivery of a qualitative, substantive education for the communities children over their now-obvious priority of self-serving, fat-cat wielding power fiefdoms to preserve and continue the never-ending focus on how much the taxpayers can be bled to feed the whims of the edaucracy.

UBIQUITOUS (AND SNEAKY) FORMS OF THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL DISTRICT

September 26, 2018September 12, 2011

by Rick Olson

“Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies“—Honoré de Balzac, French novelist and playwright 1799 –1850

The beginning of the School year, brings the plethora of forms home from school with the kids for parents to fill out and return. A physical health form must be signed by the family physician. Conversely, I find such forms to be intrusive, asking for health insurance provider information, group numbers, policy numbers and a bunch of other information generally outside my personal comfort zone for the submission to local government bureaucrats. When I ask about it, my kid responds, “we must have this information in by (date certain) or else we’ll get into trouble…” Get into “trouble?” When bureaucrats say, “do this or else!” it is part of my personality to ask, “or else what?” What kind of bureaucracy punishes kids because of what the parent ‘might not’ do? What if a parent is English challenged? What if the parent is on crack?

I fully understand why educrats ask for such information. However, I question what happens to the information beyond the stated purpose. Often times other uses come into play, never intended. Seems to me only physicians and health care providers need insurance information, not the school. The educrats require a medical permission slip for just about everything to include a plastic back-scratcher, so given that layer, why must they have the insurance information? I assert, they don’t…

Next is the free or reduced lunch program. My family does not even come close to being eligible. Yet the educrats send home a form for us to fill out, directing the disclosure of our income and earnings. don’t think so! Summarily, I just put one red line through the whole stinking form and wrote on it that we do not meet the current eligibility requirements and I initialed it. If they don’t like it, SCREW EM! They’ll get over it with time and counseling.

Then today, we get this Middle School opt out form. There is a disclosure at the top which reads as follows:

Liberals Buzz Over Take Down Of Obama

September 26, 2018August 8, 2011

by Steve MacDonald

White Tower Liberal take down of obama Byron York in, Liberals Buzz over brutal take down of Obama, shares with us the thoughts of uber liberal (and very disappointed) professor, Drew Westen:

Perhaps Obama "is simply not up to the task" of being president. Perhaps the Democrats who were so dazzled by his campaign speeches should have noticed "some disquieting aspects of his biography." Among those disquieting aspects: "that he had accomplished very little before he ran for president, having never run a business or a state; that he had a singularly unremarkable career as a law professor, publishing nothing in 12 years at the University of Chicago other than an autobiography; and that, before joining the United States Senate, he had voted ‘present’ (instead of ‘yea’ or ‘nay’) 130 times, sometimes dodging difficult issues."

This is posted in the Washington Examiner, where this psychology professors disagreements with Obama are not just grist for the right wing blogosphere. When you read it you get a frightening reminder of how the institutional elites on the left think.

But instead of keeping Republicans under his heel, Obama negotiated with them. The "truly decisive move" that showed Obama to be a failure, Westen writes, was the president’s decision to settle for an $800 billion economic stimulus bill that was far smaller than many liberals wanted. Accepting a "half stimulus" instead of pushing for an even larger FDR-like program was a dismaying sign of "the tic-like gestures of compromise that have become the hallmark of [Obama’s] presidency."

This is supposed to be a smart guy. Has he forgotten that during the stimulus debate Obama had a virtual mandate from his political capital and momentum alone and a legislature completely controlled by his party? The were no Republicans to keep on any length leash. And compromise? There was none. The democrats won. Obama Won. He said it himself. It was a party talking point. Yet this whit tower socialsit still insists the left (and Obama) failed to keep Republicans under heel and that this is a significant part of Obama’s failure? He is a failure–He really cannot lead. But Republicans have nothing to do with that. That would be the democrats who are to balme. Not that any of you would come out of the Kool Aid long enough to realize.

SUPPORT LITERACY

September 26, 2018August 3, 2011

by Rick Olson

“I know a lot of people think I’m dumb. Well, at least I ain’t no educated fool.” ~Leon Spinks Literacy is the vital to individual success in our modern world. The ability to read, write, and speak English enables people to get jobs, participate in children’s education, maintain family health, and participate in our society. … Read more

If Supermarkets Were Run Like Public Education….

September 26, 2018May 5, 2011

Wow. What an eye-opener. Think about it this way….

From the May 5, 2011 Wall Street Journal:

If Supermarkets Were Like Public Schools

What if groceries were paid for by taxes, and you were assigned a store based on where you live?

By Donald J. Boudreaux

Teachers unions and their political allies argue that market forces can’t supply quality education. According to them, only our existing system—politicized and monopolistic—will do the trick. Yet Americans would find that approach ludicrous if applied to other vital goods or services.

Suppose that groceries were supplied in the same way as K-12 education….

What Education Is About

September 26, 2018April 16, 2011

by Steve MacDonald

Thanks to Ann Marie Banfield, Grok contributor at large, for posting this link on Facebook. It is a letter to the editor, in the Hollis -Brookline Journal, that needs no further exposition on my part:

What Regressives (not “progressives”) have done to us in 50 years

September 26, 2018April 16, 2011

HIGH SCHOOL — 1957 vs. 2010 Scenario 1: Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck’s gun rack. 1957 – Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.2010 – School goes into lock down, FBI called, … Read more

Dr. Brennan Picks His Poison

September 26, 2018March 8, 2011

by Rick Olson

Mid February 12-year-old Morgan Graveline had the front teeth knocked out of her head during school hours in the school cafeteria. Morgan’s mother Danielle Gauthier told the Union Leader neither medical assistance or the police were called. Gauther went on to tell the UL that no report was ever taken despite numerous calls to Police Headquarters and only after the story received media coverage.

The UL featured a follow-up story on Saturday, February 26 alleging that Morgan Graveline was the aggressor. Hassan Baruki, the father of 14-year-old, “tooth-knocker-outer, Abdi Karim Maalo, asserted his son to be a, “good boy” but added that his friend Ali is a “troublemaker.” Summarily, this becomes a, “She said-He said story. We need be less concerned about who said what to whom. A young girl received a concussion and the teeth knocked right out of her head. For all the preaching, policies and law changes, here is an example where nothing prevented this violence.

The UL’s Ted Seifer also included Danielle Gauthier’s brushes with the law and a bankruptcy filing in this story. What does that have to do with the price of eggs in China? Why? Does this inclusion effectively weight her “credibility?” Does Gauthier’s issues change any of the facts alleged here? In my view, the inclusion was a poor choice and reflected badly on Ted Seifer and the UL. But that is between Ted and his bosses at the UL. Enough said on that.