Tag Archive for: public schools

Texas Will Stop Putting Kids in Prison for Skipping School by Jason Bedrick

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The AP reports some good news out of Texas over the weekend:

A long-standing Texas law that has sent about 100,000 students a year to criminal court – and some to jail – for missing school is off the books, though a Justice Department investigation into one county’s truancy courts continues.

Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law a measure to decriminalize unexcused absences and require school districts to implement preventive measures. It will take effect Sept. 1.

Reform advocates say the threat of a heavy fine – up to $500 plus court costs – and a criminal record wasn’t keeping children in school and was sending those who couldn’t pay into a criminal justice system spiral.

Under the old law, students as young as 12 could be ordered to court for three unexcused absences in four weeks. Schools were required to file a misdemeanor failure to attend school charge against students with more than 10 unexcused absences in six months. And unpaid fines landed some students behind bars when they turned 17.

Unsurprisingly, the truancy law had negatively impacted low-income and minority students the most.

In the wake of the arrest of a Georgia mother whose honor role student accumulated three unexcused absences more than the law allowed, Walter Olson noted that several states still have compulsory school attendance laws that carry criminal penalties:

Texas not only criminalized truancy but has provided for young offenders to be tried in adult courts, leading to extraordinarily harsh results especially for poorer families.

But truancy-law horror stories now come in regularly from all over the country, from Virginia to California. In Pennsylvania a woman died in jail after failing to pay truancy fines; “More than 1,600 people have been jailed in Berks County alone — where Reading is the county seat — over truancy fines since 2000.”)

The criminal penalties, combined with the serious consequences that can follow non-payment of civil penalties, are now an important component of what has been called carceral liberalism: we’re finding ever more ways to menace you with imprisonment, but don’t worry, it’s for your own good.

Yet jailing parents hardly seems a promising way to stabilize the lives of wavering students.

And as Colorado state Sen. Chris Holbert, sponsor of a decriminalization bill, has said, “Sending kids to jail — juvenile detention — for nothing more than truancy just didn’t make sense. When a student is referred to juvenile detention, he or she is co-mingling with criminals — juveniles who’ve committed theft or assault or drug dealing.”

It’s encouraging to see movement away from criminalized truancy, but it’s not enough. As Neal McCluskey has noted, compulsory government schooling is as American as Bavarian cream pie.

We shouldn’t be surprised when the one-size-fits-some district schools don’t work out for some of the students assigned to them. Instead, states should empower parents to choose the education that meets their child’s individual needs.


Jason Bedrick

Jason Bedrick is a policy analyst with the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom.

EDITORS NOTE: This post first appeared at Cato.org.

PARENTAL WARNING: Gaming is Coming to America’s Public Schools

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The U.S. Department of Education is partnering with the gaming industry to bring their products to the classroom. This effort, like textbooks, can become a billion dollar industry.

If every public school in America integrates gaming into the public school curriculum what will be the positives and negatives?

In her column “Transforming Education Beyond Common Core: Crony Capitalists Promote Gaming in the Classroom“, Dr. Mary Grabar writes:

It is true: the technology can offer promising results in many applications, for example in medicine or flight simulation. But the overall thrust [of the U.S. DOE Games for Learning Summit] was that games provide advantages in “cultivating dispositions” – games for “social change,” as the name of the group and festival indicates. As for such subjects as history, one wonders: can we really go back in history, or just the history that the game designer decides to create for us?

[ … ]

One of the reasons for the widespread opposition to Common Core has been the cost of buying new Common Core-aligned textbooks.  But the speakers enthused about replacing textbooks with games, and not only to teach such subjects as science, but also history and civics.  Games would “transform” education, taking the idea of “flipped classrooms,” where students watch videos at home and do homework in class, to a whole new level.  Virtual reality and augmented reality would produce amazing results.

The U.S. DOE Office of Educational Technology website states:

Video games are important learning tools that provide immersive, interactive, and creative spaces for students to learn and explore in the 21st century classroom. The U.S. Department of Education recognizes the proven power of digital games for learning and is committed to fostering the broader adoption of high quality games in schools and informal learning settings.

What are the pros and cons of this growing edu-entertainment complex?

Perhaps it is important to note the Department of Defense experiences since introducing gaming in 2002. In the column “Playing War: How the Military Uses Video Games: A new book unfolds how the “military-entertainment complex” entices soldiers to war and treats them when they return” Hamza Shaban writes:

According to popular discourse, video games are either the divine instrument of education’s future or the software of Satan himself, provoking young men to carry out all-too-real rampages. Much like discussions surrounding the Internet, debates on video games carry the vague, scattershot chatter that says too much about the medium (e.g. do video games cause violence?) without saying much at all about the particulars of games or gaming conventions (e.g. how can death be given more weight in first person shooters?).

I recently had an extended conversation with John Jorgensen, founder and CEO of the Sylint Group, and USAF Brigadier General (Ret.) Charly Shugg, Sylint’s Chief Operations Officer, on where we are on cyber security and where we are headed. Both John and Charly understand that technology is ubiquitous. It is present, appearing and found everywhere. As technology expands so does the possibility of those with the necessary skills to use it for both good and evil.

The more we tune in, turn on and hook in to technology the greater the threat to individual privacy and freedom.

Gaming is becoming mainstream in education. But are we creating an environment where public school children will become addicted to gaming, if they aren’t already? One example of game-addiction is that of Clifford Davis. Davis, who lived with his mother,  in 2005 killed her, had sex with her dead body, then lured his grandfather to his mother’s home and killed him. John Jorgensen was called into the case to determine the sanity of Davis. He did a forensic study of Davis’s computer and found that Davis gamed 16+ hours a day. Jorgensen said that Davis became one of the characters in one a the games, a woman. Davis took on this female character’s personality. Gaming may have played a role is Davis’s bizarre and deadly actions in 2005.

The greatest threat is when a gamer takes on the values of the game, which are not necessarily societies values. What happens if your child or grandchild is required to become part of the edu-entertainment complex? Will your child become a character in the game or not?

That is the question. Time will tell.

RELATED ARTICLES: 

White House OSTP: The White House Education Game Jam

USA Today: White House “game jam” lures top video game developers

Wolf Sharks, energy drinks and learning standards: Reflections from White House Education Game Jam

Toward a better culture of games

Stupefying Generations of Americans

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I used the verb “stupefying” to describe a long process in our nation’s schools that has produced several generations of Americans, dumbed down and resulting in more than half who are functionally illiterate, nor can do math, and, as a recent headline reported “Student’s Results in Social Studies Stagnate.”

“U.S. middle-school students’ performance on social studies didn’t improve much between 2010 and 2014, federal test scores released Wednesday (April 29) show, underscoring concerns about the uniformed citizenry and workforce.” When it comes to U.S. history, the share of students scoring at or above proficiency last year was 18%, up one percentage point from 2010. In other words, over 80% failed to have a grasp on the subject, critical to every citizen’s understanding of U.S. history, its Constitution, and governance.

Cover - Crimes of the EducatorsAn extraordinary new book by Samuel Blumenfeld and Alex Newman, “Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians are Using Government Schools to Destroy America’s Children” should be the center of conversation for a nation’s media, but I suspect this may be among the few places you would learn about it. Blumenfeld has written ten books on education and Newman is an international journalist, educator and consultant.

What history does teach us is that progressives, also known as communists, have slaughtered millions in their quest to create the perfect society where everybody earns the same amount, thus abandoning them to equal poverty. To achieve this, it was necessary to exercise complete control over what the children learned and what the media shared as news.

Blumenfeld notes that “In the United States the socialist utopians adopted a new and unique method of conquering a nation; by dumbing down its people, by destroying the brainpower of millions of its citizens.”

This was launched in 1898 by John Dewey, a socialist, and outlined in his essay titled ‘The Primary-Education Fetich.’ “In it he showed his fellow progressives how to transform America into a collectivist utopia by taking over the public schools and destroying the literacy of millions of Americans.”

“The plan has been so successfully implemented that it is now a fact that half of America’s adult population are functionally illiterate. They can’t read their nation’s Constitution or its Declaration of Independence. They can’t even read their high school diploma.”

This was achieved by changing how children are taught to read in our government schools. Previously the method was phonetics in which children learned the alphabet, the sounds the letters represented, and how in combination they composed words. The present method is called “whole word” in which the child must recognize the whole word without identifying its alphabetical elements. “That forces children to read English as if it were Chinese,” says Blumenfeld.

He notes that most teachers are unaware of what they are doing and most parents trust the public schools that are supposed to represent the cherished values of our democratic republic. “But the unhappy truth is that today’s public schools have rejected the values of the Founding Fathers and adopted values from nineteenth-century European social Utopian plans that completely contradict our own concepts of individual freedom.”

pillsBlumenfeld also identifies a fact that is hidden in the growing numbers of people who having passed through our schools or attending experience dyslexia and learning disabilities. Brain scans have demonstrated this. Our schools are places where the answer to the normal child’s energy and curiosity is deemed being “over-active” and our schools “push various psychiatric drugs on millions of children by requiring them to take such powerful, mid-altering stimulants as Ritalin or Adderal to alleviate such school-induced disorders as attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These drugs are as potent as cocaine and have even caused sudden death among teen athletes.”

“The long-term utopian plan required destroying America’s political, social, and moral culture of religious freedom, individual rights, unobtrusive government, and high literacy for all.”

That is a virtual definition of what has occurred in America today. We see it in the attack on religion, particularly Christianity, in America. We see it in the attack on traditional marriage in the name of the homosexual objective of “same-sex marriage.” We see individual businesses attacked for not wanting to give up their spiritual values and beliefs when challenged by homosexuals. We see it in the vast growth in the numbers of single mothers, often never married. And, of late, we see it in the obscene hatred being directed against our nation’s police forces.

The statistics cited in “Crimes of the Educators” have been published by Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education and they include:

Eighty-one percent of American 18 year olds are unprepared for college coursework.

More than 25 percent of students fail to graduate from high school in four years; for African-American and Hispanic students, this number is approaching 40 percent.

Seventy percent of those in prison and 70 percent of those on welfare read at the lowest literacy levels according to the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey.

According to tests in 2012 given to 15-year-olds by the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development, U.S. students were at 17th place in the world on reading, 29th in math, and 20th in science.

“These failures,” says Blumenfeld, “ are not the result of an accident. They are the result of programs created by the best-organized and best-paid educators on the planet. All of these programs that create failure were conceived to produce precisely the results we are getting.”

This explains, too, why many concerned parents have decided to teach their children at home while others spend their money to have their children tutored to overcome the damage of our public schools.

If you have looked around and thought to yourself that too many of the people who see, hear, work with, and who vote are dumb, you now know why.

© Alan Caruba, 2015

Surveys given to children in schools across America on sexuality, suicide, drug use, criminal activity…

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Wait until you see the questions (below)!

Across Massachusetts – and across America – thousands of schoolchildren are given sexually graphic, psychologically intrusive surveys by the public schools without parents’ knowledge. These surveys also ask youth to reveal their criminal activity, personal family matters, and other intimate issues.

This is done in the public middle schools and high schools during school hours. At best, parents are told about the surveys in vague terms, but are rarely allowed read them beforehand.  The surveys are “officially” anonymous and voluntary.  But they are administered by the teacher in a classroom and (according to teachers we’ve talked to) there is often pressure for all kids to participate.

NOTE: Public hearing this WEDNESDAY, May 6, at the 10 am in the Massachusetts State House, Room A2. MassResistance has filed bill H382 in the Legislature to make all these surveys “opt-in” (not “opt out”) and force schools to let parents see them beforehand! Please join us and testify if you can!

The major survey given to kids across America is the “Youth Risk Behavior Survey” put together every two years by the national Centers for Disease Control and handed off to state and local education departments (which they can modify). And there are many similar surveys administered in various districts.

Here are questions from the actual “Youth Risk Behavior Survey” surveysgiven to children in Massachusetts schools, grades 7-12.

How old are you?

A.  12 years old or younger
B.  13 years old
C.  14 years old
D.  15 years old
E.  16 years old
F.  17 years old
G.  18 years old or older

Sexual Behavior

Which of the following best describes you?
A.  Heterosexual (straight)
B.  Gay or lesbian
C.  Bisexual
D.  Not sure

A transgender person is someone whose biological sex at birth does not match the way they think or feel about themselves. Are you transgender?

A.  No, I am not transgender
B.  Yes, I am transgender and I think of myself as really a boy or man
C.  Yes, I am transgender and I think of myself as really a girl or woman
D.  Yes, I am transgender and I think of myself in some other way
E.  I do not know if I am transgender
F.  I do not know what this question is asking

Have you ever had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal)?

A.  Yes
B.  No

How old were you when you had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal) for the first time?

A.  I have never had sexual intercourse
B.  11 years old or younger
C.  12 years old
D.  13 years old
E.  14 years old
F.  15 years old
G.  16 years old
H.  17 years old or older

During your life, with how many people have you had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal)?

A.  I have never had sexual intercourse
B.  1 person
C.  2 people
D.  3 people
E.  4 people
F.  5 people
G.  6 or more people

During the past 3 months, with how many people did you have sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal)?

A.  I have never had sexual intercourse
B.  I have had sexual intercourse, but not during the past 3 months
C.  1 person
D.  2 people
E.  3 people
F.  4 people
G.  5 people
H.  6 or more people

Did you drink alcohol or use drugs before you had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal) the last time?

A.  I have never had sexual intercourse
B.  Yes
C.  No

The last time you had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal), did you or your partner use a condom?

A.  I have never had sexual intercourse
B.  Yes
C.  No

During your life, with whom have you had sexual contact?

A.  I have never had sexual contact
B.  Females
C.  Males
D.  Females and males

How many times have you been pregnant or gotten someone pregnant?

A.  0 times
B.  1 time
C.  2 or more times
D.  Not sure

Have you ever been tested for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS? (Do not count tests done if you donated blood.)

A.  Yes
B.  No
C.  Not sure

Have you ever been tested for other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as genital herpes, chlamydia, syphilis, or genital warts?

A.  Yes
B.  No
C.  Not sure

Family and personal life

How often does your parent/guardian(s) wear a seat belt when driving or riding in a car?

A.  Never
B.  Rarely
C.  Sometimes
D.  Most of the time
E.  Always

Do your parents text, e-mail or use any other form of social media while driving a car or other vehicle?

A.  Yes
B.  No

Can you talk with at least one of your parents or other adult family members about things that are
important to you?

A.  Yes
B.  No

My parent/guardian(s) talk to me about the dangers of alcohol and drugs?

A.  Yes
B.  No

Is there at least one teacher or other adult in this school that you can talk to if you have a problem?

A.  Yes
B.  No

During the past 12 months, how  often did you talk with your parents  or other adults in your family about  sexuality or ways to prevent HIV  infection, other sexually transmitted  diseases (STDs), or pregnancy?

A.  Not at all during the past 12  months
B.  About once during the past  12 months
C.  About once every few  months
D.  About once a month
E.  More than once a month

How long have you lived in the United States?

A.  Less than 1 year
B.  1 to 3 years
C.  4 to 6 years
D.  More than 6 years but not my whole life
E.  I have always lived in the United States

Where do you typically sleep at night?

A.  At home with my parents or guardians
B.  At a friend’s or relative’s home with my parents or  guardians
C.  At a friend’s or relative’s home without my parents or  guardians
D.  In a supervised shelter with  my parents or guardians
E.  In a supervised shelter  without my parents or  guardians
F.  In a hotel or motel, car, park, campground, or other public  place with my parents or  guardians
G.  In a hotel or motel, car, park, campground, or other public  place without my parents or guardians
H.  Somewhere else

Weapons

During the past 30 days, on how many days did you carry a weapon such as a gun, knife, or club?

A.  0 days
B.  1 day
C.  2 or 3 days
D.  4 or 5 days
E.  6 or more days

During the past 30 days, on how many days did you carry a gun?

A.  0 days
B.  1 day
C.  2 or 3 days
D.  4 or 5 days
E.  6 or more days

Suicide

During the past 12 months, did you ever seriously consider attempting suicide?

A.  Yes
B.  No

During the past 12 months, did you make a plan about how you would attempt suicide?

A.  Yes
B.  No

During the past 12 months, how many times did you actually attempt suicide?

A.  0 times
B.  1 time
C.  2 or 3 times
D.  4 or 5 times
E.  6 or more times

Tobacco, alcohol, drugs

How old were you when you smoked a whole cigarette or other tobacco/nicotine product for the first
time?

A.  I have never smoked a whole cigarette
B.  8 years old or younger
C.  9 years old
D.  10 years old
E.  11 years old
F.  12 years old
G.  13 years old or older

During the past 30 days, how did you usually get your own cigarettes, or other tobacco/nicotine product?

(Select all that apply)
A.  I did not smoke cigarettes during the past 30 days
B.  I bought them in a store such as a convenience store, supermarket, discount store, or gas station
C.  I got them on the Internet
D.  I bought them at a public event such as a concert or sporting event
E.  I gave someone else money to buy them for me
F.  A person 18 years old or older gave them to me
G.  I took them from a store
H.  I took them from a family member
I.  I took them from someone else’s home
J.  I got them some other way

During the past 30 days, what is the largest number of alcoholic drinks you had in a 4 hour period?

A.  I did not drink alcohol during the past 30 days
B.  1 or 2 drinks
C.  3 drinks
D.  4 drinks
E.  5 drinks
F.  6 or 7 drinks
G.  8 or 9 drinks
H.  10 or more drinks

During the past 30 days, how many  times did you drive a car or other vehicle when you had been  drinking alcohol?

A.  I did not drive a car or other vehicle during the past 30 days
B.  0 times
C.  1 time
D.  2 or 3 times
E.  4 or 5 times
F.  6 or more times

During the past 30 days, how many times did you use marijuana?

A.  0 times
B.  1 or 2 times
C.  3 to 9 times
D.  10 to 19 times
E.  20 to 39 times
F.  40 or more times

During your life, how many times have you used any form of cocaine, including powder, crack, or freebase?

A.  0 times
B.  1 or 2 times
C.  3 to 9 times
D.  10 to 19 times
E.  20 to 39 times
F.  40 or more times

During your life, how many times have you used heroin (also called smack, junk, or China White)?

A.  0 times
B.  1 or 2 times
C.  3 to 9 times
D.  10 to 19 times
E.  20 to 39 times
F.  40 or more times

During your life, how many times have you taken a prescription drug (such as OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin, codeine, Adderall, Ritalin, or Xanax) without a doctor’s prescription?

A.  0 times
B.  1 or 2 times
C.  3 to 9 times
D.  10 to 19 times
E.  20 to 39 times
F.  40 or more times

The above questions are from the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey given to students in Canton, Mass, (which parents there were able to get for us) and from the statewide Massachusetts 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey posted on the Mass Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education (DOE) website.

Unscientific, destructive and deceitful

Parents and others who see these surveys are overwhelmingly shocked, upset, and angry. Here are just a few of the problems:

1. Psychological distortion of reality. Going through a battery of questions asking “how many times” a child has engaged in certain sex acts, drug use, illegal or unhealthy activity (or attempting suicide) will likely cause the child to believe he is abnormal if he is not doing it at all – especially since the survey comes from an authority figure.

2. Personal information. Having children to reveal personal issues about themselves and their family can have emotional consequences and from the parents’ point of view is extremely invasive.

3. Grossly unscientific.  Experts in surveys we’ve shown these to say they’re unscientific on several levels. The respondents are (officially) self-selected. The surveys include “leading questions” similar to push-polls. The questions are so outrageous that (we’ve been told by students) they provoke exaggeration and untruthful answers.

4. Results used for funding of radical groups. This is the main reason for the existence of these surveys: The surveys create misleading “statistics” that are used by radical groups from Planned Parenthood to LGBT groups to persuade politicians to give more taxpayer money these groups – and to let them into schools – to “help solve” these “huge” problems that these surveys reveal. It is a very emotional appeal, and millions of dollars are budgeted on the basis of these very questionable surveys.

How the Youth Risk surveys are done in Massachusetts

Every two years the Mass. DOE creates a new statewide version of the CDC national Youth Risk Behavior Survey and makes it available to each school district. The school districts can further modify the surveys if they wish and are given wide discretion as to how they notify parents, whether they allow the parents to see the surveys, how the surveys are administered to the students, etc.

In many districts, it’s a nightmare for parents, who rarely even know that their children were given the survey. That’s not an accident. School officials are well aware that if parents were to read these surveys beforehand, almost none of them would want their children to participate.

We telephoned the Mass. DOE to ask them questions about how schools administer the test and whether we can get a copy of the 2015 statewide survey.They were not eager to discuss it with us. We were told they were “too busy” to answer our questions over the phone and we must submit them via email. We did so, and are still waiting for a reply.

Many teachers uncomfortable with the surveys

We have spoken with teachers in Massachusetts who have told us that they are pressured by schools to present the surveys to kids as if it were a normal procedure, and to not to discourage them from taking it. But some teachers do rebel against that. A parent in Canton, Mass., told us that a two years ago a teacher in that town was disciplined for telling his students they had a constitutional right to decline the survey. In 2010 a teacher in Illinois was also reprimanded for that (which was reported in the Chicago Tribune).

Parents and others need to stop this!

It’s been our experience that the people who do this have no interest whatsoever in how this affects children or their families. From the politicians and the activists down to the school officials, it’s mostly about money, ideology, politics, and control. Even when the obvious and harmful flaws are pointed out, there is no effort to change. It will take angry parents and citizens to stop this. That’s why MassResistance filed Bill H382 in the Massachusetts Legislature which will completely empower parents. The fight begins!

#Take Back Our Kids

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Our nineteen fifty something station-wagon was loaded with Mom, Dad, big fat Aunt Nee (300 lbs ), myself and four younger siblings. Aunt Nee raised my Dad; his surrogate Mom. Our family was excited about spending a hot summer day at Carr’s Beach, Maryland. I had no idea at that time that it was the only Maryland beach open to blacks.

Before hitting the road to the beach, the ritual included riding from our black suburban community into Baltimore city to pick up Aunt Nee and stopping down “Jew Town” to purchase corned-beef and a bread that the adults loved. I did not get a sense that my parents calling it Jew Town was meant in a derogatory way. It was simply an area of Baltimore filled with Jewish businesses that sold great food.

As a matter of fact, most of the corner stores in black neighborhoods were owned by Jews. Blacks purchased items without cash, put on their account. Store owners would log items in their book; no bulletproof wall and turn-style between the Jewish store owners and their black customers.

We always had a wonderful time at the beach and rode home exhausted. Dad’s car was not air conditioned. Looking back, I wonder how on earth did we endure; three adults, five kids, food and beach supplies stuffed in a hot station-wagon. And yet, all my memories of family days at the beach bring a warm smile to my face.

Mom was a great cook. Two of mom’s weekday dinner menus stick out as favorites. One was mom’s hot homemade biscuits with butter and King Syrup. The other was collard greens with cornbread dumplings. We kids were clueless about the economic component surrounding these meals. We simply enjoyed them, never feeling deprived.

Wednesday nights were prayer service at the storefront church in Baltimore city where dad was assistant pastor. On the way home, there was a corner bakery right before we crossed over the Hanover Street bridge. Whenever dad unexpectedly pulled over to purchase a dozen donuts, it was an exciting family treat.

As the eldest, I remember my parent’s lean years more than my siblings. One Christmas, I was extremely excited receiving a secondhand bicycle. Years later, Santa delivered new bikes for my younger brothers and sister.

Dad was among Baltimore City’s first black firefighters and mom worked part-time as a custodian at a high school and a domestic for white folks.

My point is we did not have what kids have today. And yet, we enjoyed the little things. We did not feel deprived. Mom and dad always found a way to get us whatever we needed. I remember wearing my new suit for 6th grade graduation looking at my friend Martin wearing a suit a few sizes too small. My three brothers, sister and I were happy.

The Bible says “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). While my siblings and I had our individual periods of rebellion, like the prodigal son, we defaulted back to our home training; our parent’s principles and values.

Today, the Left is aggressively usurping authority over your kids, ripping parenting out of your hands.

Decades of allowing liberal indoctrination to go unchallenged has produced a generation of youths who believe in the name of “fairness” that no one should have more than anyone else (income inequality). Needs and desires are now declared to be rights (government entitlements). In our quest to prove our tolerance as conservatives, we allowed the Left to steal our kid’s minds.

Youths are idealistic. Once liberalized guilt-ridden youths are led down the road of trying to make life fair, the consequences are far reaching. For example: Pressure from students is forcing colleges to make all campus restrooms “all gender”. An Oregon High School created gender-neutral restrooms for transgender students.

In case you have not noticed, the Left has zero tolerance for anyone daring to disagree with their far left radical liberal agenda. They punish and even seek to criminalize opposing points of view. How long will it be before our kids are reporting their parents to authorities after overhearing them express an opinion out-of-step with that of the Left, government and the mainstream media?

Folks, it is time that we take back our kids from Leftist’s indoctrination.

Though “#Bring Back Our Girls” won rave reviews from liberals, sadly, it did nothing to free the 200 girls kidnapped and made sex slaves by Islamic extremists. A year later, the girls have not been returned.

I wish to implement, #Take Back Our Kids. I am calling all parents to closely monitor their local school administrators and school boards, confronting them when necessary. Home schooling is a great option. We can no longer sit back and passively allow the Left to totally control the thinking and beliefs of our kids. We must #Take Back Our Kids.

Major corporations funding “gay” indoctrination in elementary schools across America [+ Video]

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It’s every parent’s nightmare, but true: Major U.S. corporations are funding a campaign of sophisticated, psychologically intrusive “gay” indoctrination programs targeting very young children in elementary schools across America. It’s part of a very well-planned and well-funded effort to reach children as young as possible without their parents’ intervention.

From the “Welcoming Schools” website.

The national program, called “Welcoming Schools”, skillfully works on the minds of young children in three ways:

(1) Introducing the concept of homosexuality to children.

(2) Telling them that homosexuality is normal and natural.

(3) Telling them that their parents or friends who portray homosexuality in a less than positive way are bad people – intolerant, bigoted, etc.

The “Welcoming schools” website has even posted a video that describes their program and shows how effective these psychological techniques are in molding young children’s minds:

As MassResistance has reported, major US corporations are enabling this through large donations to the radical national LGBT group Human Rights Campaign (HRC). HRC created and runs the Welcoming Schools program and has representatives in regions around the country pushing it in elementary schools.

Of particular concern and outrage was the recent arrest of HRC’s founder and current Board member, Terry Bean, for “third degree sodomy” of a 15-year-old boy. HRC has had no comment on that incident, but it continues a vicious campaign of harassment against pro-family leaders with whom it disagrees. But this has not deterred corporate donations to HRC in any way that we can determine.

Bringing it into the schools

Among the vehicles they use to bring this into the schools are the “anti-bullying” laws which the national LGBT movement lobbied heavily for in states across the country over the last several years. As MassResistance warned at the time these laws, which were largely written and/or influenced by LGBT groups, invariably have little to do with legitimate anti-bullying behavioral science. Instead they require schools to provide LGBT “diversity training” and mete out punishment for “anti-gay” opinions or discussion.

Not surprisingly, nothing is said told to kids about the extensive medical and psychological dangers of homosexual behavior, including a range of diseases, addictions, domestic violence, and other social pathologies.

Confronting the corporations that fund this

The companies pouring money into HRC read like a who’s who of corporate America. You can see some of the names HERE.

But MassResistance is fighting back. As we’ve reported, we have been helping people to contact these companies – by phone, email, and letter – and tell their corporate staffs in no uncertain terms what we think of their actions – and demand that they stop it.

It’s quite shocking. Companies that many of you patronize at one time or another are using your money to subvert your own young children’s minds to accept and support a dangerous perversion.

When people manage to actually speak with corporate representatives, the companies don’t deny what they’re doing. They talk about how proud they are to be fighting for “tolerance” and “diversity.” They seem to have no misgivings at all when outraged parents contact them.




We contacted these four companies — to start with.

What that tells us is that we need to step up this fight. Most of these companies have never heard from pro-family people before. They only hear from radical homosexual activists. With your help, that will change!

$10,000 matching challenge for MassResistance!

Help us meet $10,000 matching challenge by midnight Dec. 31!

A generous donor has offered to donate $10,000 if we can raise an equal amount by midnight Wednesday, Dec. 31. You can really make your money work for you — and get a year-end tax donation also. (See our 77-second video on what MassResistance is doing.)

But it needs to be done by midnight Wednesday, Dec. 31.

Here are two ways you can do it:

1. Non-tax-deductible gift. To MassResistance:  You donate by credit card online HERE or mail a check to MassResistance, PO Box 1612, Waltham, MA 02454.

2. Tax-deductible gift. To Parents’ Education Foundation, which funds our research and education work.  You can mail a check to: Parents’ Education Foundation, PO Box 1612, Waltham, MA  02454. Or to give by credit card, call our office at 781-890-6001.

All donations sent by Dec. 31 will receive TWO of our “not equal” stickers, suitable for your car … or, be creative!

Let’s ring in the New Year with a big push!

Tired of seeing the obnoxious homosexual Human Rights Campaign’s “equal” stickers everywhere?

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RELATED VIDEO: Taco Bell Makes Commercial with Two Men Falling in Love and Getting Married

The Catalyst Message: Are God’s children returning Him to public schools? [+Video]

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There is a student lead high-school campus coalition that is bringing God back to public school campuses across the United States. It is a living, breathing adventure. A real life adventure as explained by Jean Carlos Diaz in the below video.

Watch Jean Carlos Diaz explain this movement, a grand adventure:

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Jean Carlos Diaz

Alice Patterson, President of Justice at the Gate, reports:

A coalition of youth pastor networks and students forged a movement that is touching high school campuses across the nation. It started with a freshman at Blaine High School in Minnesota in January 2011. Jean Carlos Diaz, born in Puerto Rico and raised in Iowa then Minnesota is the catalyst that Jean Carlos used to start the movement. Jean Carlos attended See You at the Pole at his high school. That led him to a Bible study of 25 students that dwindled to 6 by year end. When the leaders graduated, he was asked to lead what was left of the group. Shortly after that the group went on a missions trip to Kansas City. They were fired up, sad to leave and came home with a heart to impact their school. So they had a sleepover with three guys where they worshipped, prayed and dreamt all night. They wanted to pray something big, so they prayed, “Jesus, would You finish the Great Commission in our generation?”

At the same time they were praying for the Lord to use them on their campus, a network of youth ministers called Allies Ministries, led by Dan Buschow in Minneapolis, were praying for the youth of Minnesota. They sensed that the Lord wanted them to keep praying and not initiate anything.

God was doing the initiating through Jean Carlos. From the very beginning, everything was student-led and student-driven. It was a movement for students by students. We had learned from our mistakes and were able to teach and train other students. Since we were only teenagers in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of the church, God was the only one who could get the credit. We didn’t want to be a class about God; we wanted to be an agent of change in our school. We changed our focus, our name and started the first Catalyst.

As youth pastors prayed and waited, students stepped up and led. Shortly after that, a coalition between Catalyst and Allies Ministries, other shepherds and caring adults was formed. The first year Catalyst grew from 1 school to over 15 and from 30 students to over 500. Catalyst has now grown to over 50 groups and is spreading past Minnesota to 20 in Iowa and to Illinois, New York, Maryland, Arizona, California and Texas.

Read more.

Educators Set Student Goals By Race?

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The Florida Board of Education has a history of lowering educational standards and has now come under-fire for doing so based upon a student’s race. CBS Tampa reports, “The Florida State Board of Education passed a plan that sets goals for students in math and reading based upon their race.”

“On Tuesday [October 9, 2012], the board passed a revised strategic plan that says that by 2018, it wants 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of black students to be reading at or above grade level. For math, the goals are 92 percent of Asian kids to be proficient, whites at 86 percent, Hispanics at 80 percent and blacks at 74 percent. It also measures by other groupings, such as poverty and disabilities, reported the Palm Beach Post,” states CBS Tampa.

This decision has raised eyebrows, some calling it racist. But is it racism or reality? Is lowering goals the right way to deal with student achievement in reading and math?

This issue is not new, rather it has been swept under the rug since 1994. Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray in their seminal book on cognitive ability The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life state, “The question is how to redistribute in ways that increase the chances for people at the bottom of society to take control of their lives, to be engaged meaningfully in their communities, and to find valued places for themselves.”

Herrnstein and Murray found, “Ethnic differences in higher education, occupations, and wages are strikingly diminished after controlling for IQ. Often they vanish. In this sense, America has equalized these central indicators of social success.”

Herrnstein and Murray asked, “What are the odds that a black or Latino with an IQ of 103 – the average IQ of all high school graduates – completed high school? The answer is that a youngster from either minority group had a higher probability of graduating from high school than a white, if all of them had IQs of 103: The odds were 93 percent and 91 percent for blacks and Latinos respectively, compared to 89 percent for whites.”

The key factor in setting goals is IQ. Is it time for Florida to lead the way and reintroduce IQ testing for all students?

Herrnstein and Murray concluded:

  • We have tried to point out that a small segment of the population accounts for such a large proportion of those [social] problems. To the extent that the [social] problems of this small segment are susceptible to social-engineering solutions at all, should be highly targeted.
  • The vast majority of Americans can run their own lives just fine, and [public] policy should above all be constructed so that it permits them to do so.
  • Much of the policy toward the disadvantaged starts from the premise that interventions can make up for genetic or environmental disadvantages, and that premise is overly optimistic.
  • Cognitive ability, so desperately denied for so long, can best be handled – can only be handled – by a return to individualism.
  • Cognitive partitioning will continue. It cannot be stopped, because the forces driving it cannot be stopped.
  • Americans can choose to preserve a society in which every citizen has access to the central satisfactions of life. Its people can, through an interweaving of choice and responsibility, create valued places for themselves in their worlds.

Herrnstein and Murray found, “Inequality of endowments, including intelligence, is a reality.”

“Trying to pretend that inequality does not really exist has led to disaster. Trying to eradicate inequality with artificially manufactured outcomes has led to disaster. It is time for America once again to try living with inequality, as life is lived: understanding that each human being has strengths and weaknesses, qualities to admire and qualities we do not admire, competencies and in-competencies,  assets and debits; that the success of each human life is not measured externally but internally; that of all the rewards we can confer on each other, the most precious is a place as a valued fellow citizen,” found Herrnstein and Murray.

Finally, Herrnstein and Murray wrote, “Of all the uncomfortable topics we have explored, a pair of the most uncomfortable ones are that a society with a higher mean IQ is also likely to be a society with fewer social ills and brighter economic prospects, and that the most effective way to raise the IQ of a society is for smarter women to have higher birth rates than duller women.” Shocking words in 1994 and indeed even more so today. Is it time to have a national public debate on cognitive abilities?

RELATED COLUMNS:

Does Florida Really Want a Strong Commissioner of Education?

Watchdog Wire Education Archives

Do We Really Want a Strong Commissioner of Education?

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Jeffrey S. Solochek, staff writer for the Tampa Bay Times, reports, “Florida’s next education commissioner needs to have room to do the job without political interference, state Board of Education members said Friday as they set requirements for the vacancy.”

But do the Commissioners really want to stop political interference?

The Florida Board of Education (BOE) is itself political. Outgoing Chairwoman Kathleen M. Shanahan has held federal and state public policy positions of chief of staff for Florida Governor Jeb Bush, chief of staff to Vice President-elect Dick Cheney, deputy secretary of the California Trade and Commerce Agency, special assistant to then Vice President George Bush, and staff assistant on President Reagan’s National Security Council.

Vice Chairman Roberto Martinez, a lawyer, served as Chairman of the Florida Federal Judicial Nominating Commission; Special Counsel to Attorney General Charlie Crist; and as Chairman of the District Board of Trustees of Miami Dade College; Chair of Attorney-Elect Charlie Crist’s transition; General Counsel to Governor Jeb Bush during the gubernatorial transition.

Solochek quotes Martinez as saying, “The person has to be able to deal with the political process. But I think all of us … need to understand we need to give that person a lot of autonomy so they can function professionally with minimal interference from the political folks.”

On September 7, 2012 the State Board of Education moved forward with the search for the next Commissioner of Education approving the candidate profile developed by Ray and Associates. The search firm is conducting a nationwide search for Florida’s chief education officer who will be responsible for all aspects of the state’s Pre-K-20 education system. The deadline for applications is Sept. 27, 2012.

The Florida Legislature and Board of Education have come under fire from citizens with two actions that have disenfranchised students, parents and citizens.

The first action was removing citizen participation in the selection of text books used in Florida’s public schools. More recently the BOE unanimously voted to lower school passing scores after 2011 FCAT scores plummeted. This lowering of school passing scores occurred after political pressure from teachers unions, the superintendents association and school boards across Florida.

The Florida based Textbook Action Team (TAT) in May, 2011 became outraged with a provision in SB 2120 lines 118-120, which was passed by the Republican led legislature. The provision cuts out lay people from the State Instructional Materials Committee.

“Today all of Florida’s public school textbooks will be selected by bureaucrats, not citizens and parents” notes Sheri Krass, State Chairperson for TAT. Krass stated in a letter to Governor Scott, “Now, in a boldfaced attempt to avoid having to seat some of these individuals on the Committee, your State Legislature has passed SB 2120 which employs ‘three state or national experts in the content areas submitted for adoption’ to review the instructional materials and evaluate the content for alignment with the applicable Next Generation Sunshine State Standards. This move allows them to continue to deprive our students of the quality education they deserve.”

The second action was lowing the passing scores of public schools statewide.Cara Fitzpatrick, Shelly Rossetter and Jefferry S. Solochek of the Tampa Bay Times in their article “After FCAT scores plunge, state quickly lowers the passing grade” reported, “After conceding that poor communication with teachers could have contributed to the unprecedented plunge in Florida students’ writing scores this year, the state Board of Education voted Tuesday to lower the passing mark for the test.”

Teachers and administrators have known about the new testing standards for over a year. Teachers and school administrations actually write the Sunshine State Standards, the test questions and administer the tests. Many parents and citizens do not accept the premise that there was a communication gap. The new standards require that a student use proper sentence structure, punctuation and spelling. Each of these are fundamental to learning how to write.

All members of the Florida Board of Education are political appointees. How can politics be taken out of the classroom and replaced by empowered parents, students and citizens?

How do you take politics out of education? Perhaps this video from the Reason Foundation titled “The Machine” will help explain: