Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky on Organizing for America's Recommended Reading List

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/01/atlas-exclusive-obama-organizing-for-communism-and-youth-corps-in-the-public-school-1.html

Her government class passed out this propaganda recruiting paper so students could sign up as interns for Obama's Organizing for America (OFA is the former mybarackobama.com site.)
Obama is using our public school system to recruit for his Alinsky-inspired private army. Organizing for America is (and I quote) recruiting in our high schools to "build on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering students across the country to help us bring about our agenda" ............of national socialism.

Check out the recommended reading list page 4:

• Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky
• The New Organizers, Zack Exley
• Stir It Up: Lessons from Community Organizing and Advocacy, Rinku Sen
• Obama Field Organizers Plot a Miracle, Zack Exley, Huffington Post
• Dreams of My Father Chicago Chapters, Barack Hussein Obama

Forty Years of Feminism Now Bearing Fruit

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/forty_years_of_feminism_now_be.html

A new documentary, Oral Sex Is the New Goodnight Kiss, chronicles America's moral decay. Sharlene Azam, a Canadian filmmaker, says, "If you talk to teens [about oral sex], they'll tell you it's not a big deal. In fact, they don't consider it sex. They don't consider a lot of things sex." In the documentary, teenage girls talk casually about their sexual experiences and even their forays into prostitution.

This is the bitter fruit of forty years of feminist domination in the United States.
Virtue, self-worth, and man's moral value are DOA in the age of the cultural domination of the left. What an awful stench this decaying corpse gives off, lying in a smoldering, fetid pile of ash.

This is how the phony feminist movement empowered women? Girls selling the it for a handbag? Those men-hating parasites have ruined the glorious exaltation of women in 20th-century America.

To say that feminism was one of the worst things to happen to women is being easy. It has been worse for men. The demon seeds of the "liberation" movement are everywhere -- including the epidemic of single motherhood, the breakdown of the American family, the street vernacular of "bitches and hos," the emasculation of men, and the bone-crushing responsibility of single moms acting as mother, father, breadwinner, chief cook, and bottle-washer.

And what has Obama done about all this? He has appointed Kevin Jennings, the founder of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network), to be his Safe Schools Czar. GLSEN is notorious for having sponsored a conference at Tufts University at which teenagers were given instruction in an array of risky and dangerous sexual practices. Obama has appointed this radical to head up America's "safe schools," but who is going to keep kids safe from him? This is another terrible Obama choice. Whatever one's sexual preferences or proclivities may be, do not traumatize children. Why can't the schools just teach reading, writing, arithmetic -- and civics?

Berkeley's Unbearable Whiteness of Science

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/berkeleys_unbearable_whiteness.html

The racial madness that has left-wing America in its thrall finds its apogee in the Berkeley, California public schools. Berkeley High School is now poised to eliminate science laboratory classes because "science labs were largely classes for white students."

The proposal to put the science-lab cuts on the table was approved recently by Berkeley High's School Governance Council, a body of teachers, parents, and students who oversee a plan to change the structure of the high school to address Berkeley's dismal racial achievement gap, where white students are doing far better than the state average while black and Latino students are doing worse.

So in order to "help" black and Latino students, the idea is to eliminate the opportunity for said students to make something of themselves through science. Those students who excel will be disfavored, while those who do not will be given more resources.

Obama to Nationalize Student Lending with Pending Budget Bill

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/60074

A bill currently before the Senate would empower the Obama administration to nationalize the student lending industry, eliminating the federally subsidized private loans millions of university students rely on to finance their educations.

Under the current system, the federal government subsidizes private financial institutions in order to entice those institutions to provide low-interest loans to students.

Under this arrangement the government sets the interest rates lenders may charge students. In return, the government reimburses lenders if market interest rates rise above the interest rates on the loans – in essence, the government reimburses private lenders if they begin losing money on the loans.

In return, the lenders agree to return any windfall profits made from the loans to the government. In other words, if market interest rates fall below the interest rates of the loans, the lenders pay the government the difference.

The government also agrees to reimburse the lenders should a student default.

Under the system proposed by Obama, the government would cut private lenders out of the picture entirely, setting the interest rates and collecting payments directly for all student lending.

Whether or not the government saw a profit or a loss from the new, federal loans would depend on the rate at which the government borrows money. For instance, the law currently sets the interest rate for direct loans at a maximum of 6.8 percent.

Under Obama’s proposal, if the government can borrow money at a rate lower than 6.8 percent, it would realize the difference as profit. If the government’s borrowing rate were to fall in the future, its profit on student loans would grow.

The idea to nationalize student lending was first put forth in President Obama’s fiscal-year 2010 budget and marketed as a way to save the government billions of dollars. According to a CBO estimate, the proposal would save the government $87 billion over 10 years.

The savings estimate results from the fact that the government believes it will collect more in interest payments from students than it would otherwise have to pay in fees to lenders.

AFT President Randi Weingarten on Social Justice

"We have to do more than simply instruct children 7 hours a day...the community school can be the hub of the community. If you know kids...need resources to level the playing field for themselves...it became a no brainer."

Survey on the American Revolution

http://www.americanrevolutioncenter.org/sites/default/files/ARCv27_web.pdf

• On the 27-question test within the survey, a national sample of American adults scored an average of only 44 percent correct.
• Nearly 83 percent received a failing grade.
• Only four of the 27 questions were answered correctly by 70 percent or more of respondents.
• Half did not have even a basic understanding of historical chronology, believing that either the Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation, or War of 1812 occurred before the American Revolution.
• Many more Americans knew that Michael Jackson authored “Beat It” and “Billie Jean” than knew that James Madison was the Father of the Constitution, or that Alexander Hamilton was the first Treasury Secretary.
• Only 11 percent of Americans could identify John Jay as the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Compare that to the 60 percent who knew the number of children of Jon and Kate Gosselin, a reality-TV show couple.
• More than 50 percent of Americans wrongly attributed the quote “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” to either George Washington, Thomas Paine, or President Barack Obama, when it is in fact a quote from Karl Marx, author of The Communist Manifesto.
• One-third did not know that the right to a jury trial is covered in the Bill of Rights, while 40
  percent mistakenly thought that the right to vote is.
• From a list of major battles, two-thirds of Americans could not correctly name Yorktown
  as the last major military action of the American Revolution.

'Homophobia' and Music Ed?

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=839752

In the article, Bergonzi contends that traditional music education reinforces a heterosexual lifestyle to the detriment of homosexual students who often feel left out. He notes that traditionally speaking, heterosexual love is often the subject of most music -- and argues that as a result, heterosexual students are often more privileged than their homosexual counterparts. He goes on to argue that homosexual music students often feel left out and have no one to talk to about their love issues. The music professor also makes mention that heterosexual music teachers have advantages over their homosexual co-workers because they do not have to hide their true selves. Bergonzi ultimately concludes that sexual orientation should be a vital aspect of music education, and that homosexual musicians should be highlighted and celebrated.

Wow, just wow.

New Grade Scale Raises Questions

http://www.educationnews.org/educationnewstoday/18474.html

Concord High School [NH] has begun rolling out a new grading system aimed at encouraging progress rather than marking achievement. But two years after the new 1-to-5 grade scale saw its first limited use, major questions remain about how competency-based education will work in Concord

The shift away from the 100-point grading scale will foster a different mindset about assessment, Crumrine told the 16 or so adults gathered at the parents meeting Thursday. Though the school will continue using the 100-point scale on transcripts, the current plan calls for teachers to mark report cards with grades ranging from 1, when a student shows no grasp of a competency, to 5, when he or she masters it.

The shift is intended to strip grades of association with judgment, so they become a tool of communication. A teacher can tell a student it's all right to begin with a 1 more convincingly than he could say it's all right to begin with an F, said Crumrine, who teaches two chemistry classes.

We're doomed...

Study: Schools Face Shortfalls After Stimulus Ends

http://newsmax.com/US/US-School-Funding/2009/12/22/id/344281

Using federal stimulus money to avoid layoffs at schools is going to create a shortfall even more difficult for states and schools to contend with when that money runs out, according to a first-of-its-kind study released Monday.

In July, the GAO cautioned that many states facing deep deficits were using stimulus dollars to fill budget holes and avoid layoffs, rather than reforms that could mean longer-term savings or programs such as building new schools.

When one saves a job, it doesn't mean one saves it indefinitely," she said.

The Congressional Budget Office has noted the difficulty of measuring the number of jobs saved by the stimulus. "It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package," a CBO report said last month.

New Evidence that Charter Schools Help Even Kids in Other Schools

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703574604574499592392782438.html

Stanford economist Caroline Hoxby recently found that poor urban children who attend a charter school from kindergarten through 8th grade can close the learning gap with affluent suburban kids by 86% in reading and 66% in math.

Obama Would Curtail Summer Vacation

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090927/ap_on_re_us/us_more_school

Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.

Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.

The problem isn't lack of classtime, it's lack of quality class time. Increasing class time won't make students any more competitive international unless they are taught correctly and the right material. Also, what ever happen to powers not expressively given to the Federal government are relegated to state governments?

Story of Stuff: The Liberal Worldview

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/education/11stuff.html?_r=3&em

"So far, six million people have viewed the film at its site, storyofstuff.com, and millions more have seen it on YouTube. More than 7,000 schools, churches and others have ordered a DVD version, and hundreds of teachers have written Ms. Leonard to say they have assigned students to view it on the Web."

We're doomed.

Obama's Education Speech

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/07/raw-data-obama-speech-american-school-children/

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don't do that - if you quit on school - you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.

Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

Good message, but way to guilt trip the kids. I ask, is it really your duty as a citizen to provide solutions for the country? I would argue it is not because you have the freedom to choose what to do with your life. If you want to give up, that's your choice. Are you letting yourself down, sure, the country, not so much. If you are the kind of person to drop out of school, I don't want you anywhere near solving our most difficult problems.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you're not going to be any of those things.

Again, good message however, if those are the things you are good at, you shouldn't be shooting down kids dreams. It's dreaming big that makes America great.

You'll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free.

Disagree, freedom flourishes when government stays out of the way. The insinuation here is that the more education you get the better you will be able to solve problems. The problem isn't lack of intelligent people, the problem is that too many people think they are intelligent enough to solve problems through the government.

I'm working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn.

The problem isn't the lack of books, equipment, or computers, i.e. more money is needed. The problems are the poor curriculum and the lack of a proper incentives system for teachers. Study after study has shown that an increase in money to education does not yield increased benefits Therefore, the problem lies elsewhere.

When Bush Sr Spoke to Students, Democrats Investigated, Held Hearings

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/When-Bush-spoke-to-students-Democrats-investigated-held-hearings-57694347.html

Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush's speech -- they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue.

With the Post article in hand, Democrats pounced. "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"

White House Withdraws Call for Students to 'Help' Obama

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/03/white-house-withdraws-students-help-obama/

The Obama administration is rethinking its course recommendations for students ahead of President Obama's address to the the nation's schoolchildren next week, rewriting its suggestions to teachers for student assignments on how to "help the president."

Who's running this show, seriously? Do you just throw radical stuff out there and see who complains and then back off of it? What are thinking?

President Obama to Address Students Across America on September 8, 2009

Announcement: http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/academic/bts.html

Classroom Activities (preK-6): http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/prek-6.pdf
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10582301/President%3C

Classroom Activities (7-12): http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/7-12.pdf

Article: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/02/critics-decry-obamas-lesson-plan-students/

700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090622/ap_on_re_us/us_rubber_rooms

Your tax dollars hard at work!

"Once their hearings are over, they are either sent back to the classroom or fired. But because their cases are heard by 23 arbitrators who work only five days a month, stints of two or three years in a rubber room are common, and some teachers have been there for five or six."

""The day just seemed to crawl by until I started painting," Cohen said, adding that others read, play dominoes or sleep."

"There was a bar across the street," Saunders said. "Teachers would sneak out and hang out there for hours."

Obama Administration Proposes New Federal Education Spending Increases

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Education/wm2363.cfm

"For starters, in 2008, the Bush Administration's Program Assessment Rating Tool evaluation identified 47 DOE programs that 'achieved their purpose, duplicate other programs, are narrowly focused, or unable to demonstrate effectiveness.' Eliminating these programs would have saved an estimated $3.8 billion."

That is 38 times more savings than the $100 million that Obama asked to be cut out of the budget: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/20/obama.cabinet.cuts/

D.C. Opportunity Scholarships Boost Reading Scores, Family Satisfaction

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Education/wm2391.cfm

"The third-year evaluation reports that the weighted mean tuition of participating private schools was $6,620. But even if private schools charged the full $7,500, that amount is still less than half of the $15,315 that D.C. taxpayers spent per pupil in the 2004–05 school year."

Ahh, the power of the free market: increased quality for less money.