Tag Archives: Public Schools

News

Mandatory sex education for 11-year olds and up in New York city

5 Comments

From Fox News. (H/T Wes)

Excerpt:

Students in New York City will be required to take sex education classes that include lessons on how to use a condom – a curriculum that the head of the school system said is long overdue.

It’s the first time in nearly two decades that middle and high school students will be forced to take the mandatory classes, according to a report first published in The New York Times.

One of the lessons includes instruction on how to properly use a condom.

“We must be committed to ensuring that both middle school and high school students are exposed to this valuable information so they can learn to keep themselves safe before, and when, they decide to have sex,” NYC Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott wrote in a letter to principals and obtained by Fox News Radio.

Children as young as 11 years old will take part in discussions on a variety of topics ranging from the risks of unprotected sex to the appropriate age for sexual activity, the newspaper reported.

“I believe the school system has an important role to play with regard to educating our children about sex and the potential consequences of engaging in risky behavior,” he said. But there are concerns about the mandatory classes among New York City’s religious community.

[…]Until now, sex education classes had been left to the discretion of local principals, but Family Research Council senior fellow Peter Sprigg said now the city is trying to “impose a mandatory, top-down curriculum.”

“I think there’s a lot of virtue in allowing the local principals to make decisions based on the needs of their students,” Sprigg told Fox News Radio, noting that parents would have a lot of concern about the “explicit nature” of the lessons.

It’s a shame that taxpayers have to pay for a failing system that sexualizes children. If you want to opt out, you have to come up with the money for homeschooling or private schools. How is that fair?

News

Why school choice promotes good and restrains evil

4 Comments

First, let’s see how tax credits that promote school choice help the poorest children to find a better way forward.

The Institute for Justice will be arguing the case before the Supreme Court.

Excerpt:

On November 3, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the oral arguments in the case Garriot v. Winn. Arizona, like many states, offers tax credits to individuals and businesses for donations to fund scholarships for students to attend private schools. The goal of these programs is to give as many students as possible the resources they need to get a good education. The Dennard family has benefited from this program. Hear their story.

It’s good to help poor children to avoid failing schools. In fact, the only people who are hurt by this are the teachers who are paid way too much and yet fail to perform because they are insulated from competitive pressures with no accountability to parents and students.

Should we be funneling money into public schools to pay teachers to fail to do their jobs for our kids?

Well, here an example of what unionized teachers do in public schools when parents aren’t looking.

Excerpt:

Three van loads of Hughes High students were taken last week – during school hours – to vote and given sample ballots only for Democratic candidates and then taken for ice cream, a Monday lawsuit alleges.

The complaint was made by Thomas Brinkman Jr., a Republican candidate for Hamilton County auditor, and the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending & Taxes against Cincinnati Public Schools.

“They plan to bring four more high schools (to vote) this week,” Christopher Finney, COAST attorney, said Monday after filing the suit.

It seeks a temporary restraining order to prevent school officials from participating or helping students participate in partisan politics during school hours or with school property or employees involved.

But the school district’s lawyer denies any school connection.

“No CPS personnel engaged in the promotion of candidates or any political party,” CPS attorney Mark Stepaniak noted in a written release.

That’s why we need to de-fund the Department of Education and force public schools to compete with private schools, charter schools and homeschooling. Public schools are nothing but indoctrination camps for teaching impressionable young people to favor bigger government, which leads to higher salaries for their indoctrinators – the public school teachers and their greedy unions. The fact that these teachers can coerce children to agree with them using the power of the red marking pen makes me sick to my stomach.

We need to enact vouchers and make public schools compete, just like private business have to compete. The public school system is a worthless monopoly and it needs to be broken up right away.

 

Commentary

How Obama’s new 2011 budget fails the poorest children in two ways

3 Comments

First of all, Obama’s budget ensures that future generations will be saddled with debt, paying for the entitlement programs (Social Security and Medicare) of their aging parents and grandparents.

Behold, the evidence of generational theft:

(Click for larger image)

Recall that the Democrats gained control of Congress at the beginning of 2007.

The second way that Obama’s budget hurts the poorest children is by denying them the right to access better schools.

Excerpt:

The president’s proposed FY2011 budget increases funding to the Department of Education by $3.5 billion. But despite this significant increase, his budget effectively cuts the freedom of choice and educational opportunities from the lives of children living in the District of Columbia. What began last year as a low-profile attempt to quietly phase out the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program has become a noticeable agenda of denying school choice to District families.

[…]The most recent casualty in the struggle to save the successful voucher program’s future is Holy Redeemer Catholic School. The Pre-K through 8th grade school, which has served the community of Northwest Washington, D.C. since 1955, is closing its doors. The Washington, D.C. Archdiocese’s decision to close or combine four Catholic schools in the area speaks to the difficult situation face by Catholic schools in general and the important role voucher programs play in the schools’ ability to provide a high quality, private school education.

This is in spite of the fact that school choice works.

Excerpt:

A recent report from School Choice Wisconsin presented an analysis of the number of calls made to 911 from schools in Milwaukee, similar to a Heritage analysis from last summer written up in The Washington Post. The Milwaukee School Safety report found that choice schools appeared to be relatively safer than Milwaukee’s traditional public schools:

Taking into account enrollment differences, police calls to [Milwaukee public schools] occur at a notably higher rate than at independent charter schools or at schools in the [Milwaukee parental choice program]. The [Milwaukee Public School] call rate per pupil in 2007 is more than three times that at schools in the [Milwaukee Parental Choice Program].

In addition, a new report out this week from Dr. John Robert Warren of the University of Minnesota analyzed the graduation rates of students attending high schools in Milwaukee, comparing the graduation rate of students participating in the school voucher program with the graduation rate of students who attend traditional public schools in the city. Warren found that during the 2007-08 school year, 77 percent of students in the school voucher program graduated compared to 65 percent in the traditional Milwaukee public school system.

Obama is in the pocket of the teacher unions, and he must ensure that they keep their jobs regardless of failure, so that the teacher unions can continue to contribute union dues into Democrat coffers. He doesn’t care about children – he cares about getting elected. It’s just another way that the irresponsible grown-ups attack the things that children need to succeed: a good education, low taxes, a job, and an intact family.