Common Core is not Common Sense…

The newest push for creating education “standards” for the American public school system have taken shape and they are packaged in a program called the “Common Core Curriculum”. This new set of standards is supposed to focus on the learning needed to be a success in the world. But when an administrator in the Illinois public school system argues that it is more important to explain how a student gets an answer of 11 from a 4x3 multiplication problem, instead of getting the right answer, this is a program that lacks all common sense.

Anything created by Washington DC bureaucrats (and state politicians associated with DC) to teach our children should be thrown out just because it comes from Washington DC elites. It is also a product of the “do-gooder” types like Bill Gates (who does good through charities) and others that have forgotten what education is and is not. It is not a one size fits all proposition.

Centralized command and control of education dumbs down everyone. Education should be a local process that teaches to the strengths and skills of the individual student. Should every kid know how to read, write, and calculate numbers? Yes, but how they get there is best left to local educators and parents to determine.

Many educated men and women throughout our history were self-taught including President Lincoln. Education is the self-pursuit of knowledge. Our kids need to be taught a passion to learn and what will make them the most productive throughout their lives. By bringing together parents, educators, and the business community, local communities could determine what works best for their kids. Setting guidelines for students at certain levels is fine but to make a kid wait to take calculus until 10^th grade when a kid is ready in the 6^th grade is ludicrous. The study of the US Constitution and American history must replace all of this global push but that’s a post for another day.

Home school programs have the right formula in many ways. Most curriculums are self-paced. Kids are encouraged to keep moving forward and learning more at their pace. When you base education on a kid’s age it is limiting to so many kids. Kids are smarter than most people give them credit for.   

Common Core makes no sense. We have a 50% drop out rate in many urban public school systems. In many more affluent communities we have kids in first grade that can already read, write, add, multiply and subtract but when the get to school their education is slowed down to align what they learn with their age. How do you create a one size fits all program when there are millions of sizes of educational preparedness?

The answer is you can’t. The answer is not Common Core, it is common sense…

Failing our Posterity

Our youth is not being educated to appreciate this country and its undeniable role in making the world a better place for tens of millions of individuals. The critic’s knee jerk reaction to this opening sentence goes like this, “if you were a slave or Indian you may think differently about that.” I am being generous to the left here because they are usually more emotional and profane because that is easier than actual thought and analysis.

The reality is that the world was brutal, full of dictatorships, cast systems, slavery, monarchial kingdoms, regimes that had little respect for anything but their own power and survival. Along comes America and all of that changes. Do our kids get the real story or do they learn some dates about points of history? The reality is that our education system has failed, and worse, they are delinquent in teaching the American story in context of the world.

When talking about slavery it is rarely discussed that America was a catalyst for the ending of world slavery because of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. The fact that the founding of this Nation was focused on individual liberty is glazed over, and the focus is on the evil of America owning slaves. To put this into context, we will see a similar fate with the abortion “issue” one day. Abortion kills a potential human being and it has been an “accepted” practice but that is changing. Just as the practice of slavery had no moral justification, the abortion issue is similar. How can you justify killing a potential life with no justification? Time, understanding, technology, and knowledge will make future generations question our moral character on abortion. They will look back at us just like we look back at slave owners and wonder how we could have allowed it. How could the people of the world morally justify the enslavement of another human being? How could the world have allowed the killing of a potential human being?

Freedom and free markets have produced the wealthiest nation on the face of the earth. That is the result of the American experiment. The wealth prior to America was stolen by the government. Although we are moving back to that model in some ways, if our youth understood capitalism and our history, they would be supporting free markets and clamoring for smaller government. Instead they fret over recycling and worry about global warming.

This country is not perfect or is any country perfect. We are human beings after all is said and done. We are imperfect but we have been blessed with the genius of freedom and self-rule. That genius and self-rule is the current law of the land. It is embodied in the Constitution. It is embedded in a document that is currently being ignored and is no longer taught effectively in our classrooms.

We are failing our posterity and squandering their ability to have a productive and free future. And the sad thing is that so many of them don’t even know it…

It’s Time To Call Stupid, Stupid!

The economy has been stagnant for the last 3 years and the excuse continues to be that we are still digging out of an economic collapse rivaling the great depression. We believe that excuse? The reality is the economic collapse was caused by government interference. The government forced lenders to reduce or remove income requirements that people actually have the means to pay back the mortgages they agreed to. In order to convince the private sector to go along with this scheme to increase home ownership at any cost, the federal government guaranteed these loans so that there was no risk to the private institutions. The federal government is the root cause of this market meltdown.

The domino effect of these federal mandates to loan money to anyone and everyone impacted the overall economy, and sent the fragile auto industry into crisis. The economic crisis was compounding the fact that the auto industry had embarked on union contracts that were unsustainable. Add to that the years of regulations that have added costs to the production of cars by the federal government, and you have a cost model to produce a product that was sure to collapse. Instead of letting the companies go through bankruptcy, which has always proven to be the best method of restructuring, the federal government stepped in to take over GM and Chrysler. The federal government took tax payer dollars, saved the unions, and fired nonunion workers. Even though they say this was a “success”, it has hampered the auto industries comeback. Ford who refused the bailout is actually the healthiest car company today. The taxpayers are going to lose billions of dollars once the final tally is counted.

Obamacare is mandating insurance coverage, forcing doctors to take ridiculously low fees to see government funded patients (Medicare), increasing taxes on medical devices and innovative companies trying to make the industry more productive, forcing patients to tell the IRS about their personal healthcare matters, and people are surprised that the cost of healthcare is rising and the quality is going to be impacted as well. What do stupid people think will happen?

The EPA and the president stop the energy production of fossil fuels including the Keystone pipeline, put tax payer money into sustainable energy companies whose business models are unsustainable, and people wonder why gas prices average $3.50 a gallon. What do stupid people think about this?

The intrusion of the federal government into our markets and lives is destroying the wealth and health of this country and we applaud this president for “caring” about the “common guy.” Tax the rich because they make so much anyway!! It doesn’t matter that the people that are wealthy have created most of the jobs in this country, or the fact that rewards improve the likelihood people will risk their money to start a business, but we are too stupid to figure this out. Stupid people want to punish the people that create jobs as companies announce layoffs. What did the stupid people expect?

The federal government has not presented the country with a budget for 3 years. We accept it and chalk it up to politics. Chalk it up to people too stupid to hold their government accountable.

If we don’t take back our educational institutions from the incompetent people in charge, we are doomed forever. Our kids are not taught about our founding, constitution, the power of capitalism and free markets or how to think analytically, and we wonder why people are stupid enough to vote for more of this policy chaos?

  Stupid is what stupid does…

Teacher/Education Reform Can’t Wait

I wrote about education reform and in particular the way we hire teachers in my book, “The Teenager’s Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…” The education “industry” monopolizes the way teachers are hired in the major public school systems. The education industry uses certificate programs to weed out the most qualified individuals willing to share their talent in the pursuit of educating our kids. I am not against certificate or higher education but when the results are what we see in Chicago, NY, LA, Detroit, and other major cities, we need another approach.

There are tens of thousands of experienced and qualified “teachers” in industry today willing to teach. The roadblock? Is the certification process to become eligible to teach our kids in public schools. Many smart and talented people that have a passion to help our kids get a head start in the real world don’t have the time to go back and get credentialed. They may be at the twilight of their careers and have time to dedicate to teaching part time or full time, and the passion to pass on that experience. At one time in history this was the education system; elders teaching children.

Here is my question to parents of kids locked into failing public schools: what have you got to lose? If we focused on results in the education industry as we do in the private sector, we would have to conclude the system is failing. There are a lot of things that account for that but one of them is the way we hire teachers. We hire kids out of college with no life experience. Many have spent their entire lives in a system that does not reflect the real world in any imagination of the term, and now they are the “leaders” that are given the awesome opportunity to get our kids ready for the real world. And how do they pass on an experience they have little if any knowledge of? Certification should focus on three areas, knowledge of the subject (discipline study needs review as well), experience in the private sector, and a passionate communications skill that energizes a love for learning.

I believe many, many teachers are doing a great job! I have had the pleasure of meeting many in my kids classrooms. But too many do not understand the importance of their role and don’t connect what they learn with applications in the real world. Much of the problem is curriculum that is driven by politics, unions, and people with specific agendas like special interest groups. Schools should produce a product for parents to consume. Curriculum is part of that product, methods for teaching and teachers are the other elements. Parents must be able to choose and schools need to have the ability to be flexible.

We watch as Chicago teachers strike and the kids wonder the streets in gangs killing each other. We need to reject the adage that all kids are worth educating. If kids are disruptive they are expelled. Once the message is clear behavior will change. You chuckle but you’re wrong.

On average Chicago pays its teachers $76,000 a year then add benefits including pensions that are bankrupting taxpayers. All the while not educating kids but providing an example of selfish greed and criticizing accountability measures designed to improve performance.

As a parent and American I am done with paying lavish pensions when I get squat!! Teachers, firefighters, policemen, and municipal employees need to pay their own damn pensions. I respect what they do when they do it well. I don’t begrudge these service employees a fair wage. But I am done scrounging for my family while these people cry when they have to contribute a small percentage toward their retirement or benefits and I have to fund my retirement 100%!

We can do better by firing every Chicago teacher that doesn’t go back to work and replacing them with experienced people that have a passion for their craft, and are willing to be held accountable for test results. Just as we hire engineers, sales people, technical workers in the private sector and hold them accountable, we need to break the unions and the education “industry” from holding us and our kids hostage to failure.

It is time to end this madness and see how many more kids we can educate by hiring passionate, skilled teachers, with real world experience to educate our kids. God knows it can only get better!

The Racial Divide

It saddens me to see how little racial progress we seem to have made since my days in a public High School in the Bronx. I went to John F Kennedy HS in the Bronx (70’s) and learned first-hand that success didn’t depend on the color of your skin but the determination of the individual. That determination comes in the form of first and foremost getting an education. Education is the foundation of a fruitful life.

If you look at the reasons why the Black community is over represented in poverty it can be traced to three basic reasons:

·         The Family

·         Education

·         Self-Reliance

The Black Family has been decimated by the government programs that demand that a mother and father be separated in order to obtain benefits like housing vouchers and food stamps. The welfare system has destroyed the family in general but it has disproportionately destroyed the Black family. The only way to fix the family is to reject government subsidies and embrace the family unit again. Welfare needs to be transformed into a skills building agency with a limited time frame of services. It needs to be phased out for the upcoming generations. The system needs to return to its intended transitional status as a way to help in true times of need. It can no longer be an accepted way of life.

The inner city public school system should be eliminated immediately. The money should be block granted to private groups with a set standard for success. How many generations must be destroyed in the wake of a union jobs program? The only way to break the cycle of poverty is to have an education system that actually educates. We need dedicated people willing to become education entrepreneurs. What do we have to lose by trying? A cushy union gig with out of balance retirement programs is all we have to lose. We have already lost too many children.

People like me who care about the plight of Black America pose a risk when we write about it. In order to fix the problem we must first admit we have a problem. Recently there has been an escalation of hatred toward the “Whities” and capitalist system as the reason for Black poverty. This is dangerous and destined to perpetuate the cycle. If these people were truly concerned about their brethren they would promote capitalism as the way out of poverty. Capitalism has been the only successful economic program in history. Communism and socialism which are being touted by the New Black Panther Party have failed and will fail every time they are tried. The NBP leadership is revving up the masses and playing the class warfare blame game. And the numbers and evidence are not in their favor. I suggest that Black Americans reject this group and join the Tea Party group. At least they will find an ally for success there.

There is too much crime, poverty, single motherhood, and too little hope on the horizon for Black America. We are all Americans in the end and in order to break the cycles of dependency and poverty we have to try something new and it isn’t revolution as is being suggested by NBP leaders. Well it’s a kind of revolution but it is not the violent one they are calling for, it is about placing your hope in people that truly want to help than those that only want to offer handouts for votes…

A Failure to Educate…

What we are seeing with the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd is the result of a failure to educate our citizens properly at the elementary and high school levels. It is embarrassing to listen to these protesters who have little clue about capitalism or the reason they exist in this world.

One of the protesters was asked if you want to change the capitalist system, what would you like to replace it with? The blank stare said it all. The student had no idea what the alternative should be and I would guess didn’t even understand how capitalism actually works.

This country is the greatest economic and moral engine of the world. It is the greatest economic engine because we have a capitalist system. We are a beacon for the world because our moral foundation is based on Judeo Christian values. We have a constitution that limits the federal government from infringing on both of these attributes but the current administration along with previous administrations have ignored these limits therefore giving us the malaise we are currently in.

We spend too much time teaching about recycling, diversity, and political correctness and not enough time on the American history, economics, the constitution, and American values.  We need our kids to be taking a full four years of American history, the constitution, and the capitalist system of economics in High School. Too many schools can’t even teach kids to read by the time they graduate High School. Colleges are now forced to have remedial programs in order to accept certain students.

The United States has been the means of good in the world because we have values and an economic system that enables us the free time to worry about others. Our religious institutions are an engine of compassion. To protest against the foundation of our success is ignorance.

What these Occupy Wall Street people need to realize is the reason they are unemployed is the fact that the capitalist system is being undermined by an out of control government. They should be in Washington DC not Wall Street or Main Street. It is not Wall Street “fat cats” that are the problem. It is politicians and business executives that are stealing tax payer dollars and conducting “crony capitalism” that should be the target of the protest. The problem resides in DC. If these people had the proper education they would be in the Tea Party.

Success begins with education and there are many schools that do an OK job. But the public system needs to be completely overhauled and handed back to communities to control. The federal government has been destroying the family, the economy, and personal accountability for long enough. We need to take back the education system because that is the root of the problem.

Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to the history and future of our country…

The Wealth Gap Isn’t About Race…

A recent census report highlights the income disparity between Black, Hispanics, and Whites. It focuses on everything but the problem. The disparity is not a function of race but rather of education and personal responsibility. It is easy to suggest that race is a factor but income is an outcome of productivity and has nothing to do with a person’s skin color. It has everything to do with what their value is to the market place.


Why do some people have more income and wealth than others? It is simply the product of years of investment in education and job skills. By investing in education and improving job skills through experience individuals create personal wealth. Of course you must invest and save the income you produce to accumulate greater wealth rather than spending every penny made on wants and desires, but I contend it is behavioral and has little to do with race.

Does that mean the Black community or Hispanic community have failed to produce greater wealth? Yes, but not because they are Black or Hispanic. There are many White people that have failed to produce wealth for themselves as well. What is the cause? Is it simply the color of their skin? Of course not. Skin color is irrelevant to success.

When you dig into the statistics, education is a key indicator of success. Of people that are educated (regardless of skin color) wealth over a lifetime is much more likely. What is the graduation rate of each race? The graduation rate is horrific for inner city minorities and therefore makes them less likely to succeed. If you can’t read, you have a harder time creating wealth.

Personal responsibility is a value instilled in families that creates a foundation for creating wealth. Personal responsibility ranges from strong family values, two parent households, and a strong commitment to self reliance. Government programs have undermined every aspect of personal responsibility. Therefore, any disproportionate number of people from any race on government programs is likely to be a key indicator of failure. The more reliant a person is on government programs the less likely they are to be successful.

So just because you are Black, White, or Hispanic doesn’t matter. Race is a red herring. Anyone in America that educates themselves and avoids a reliance on government programs, believes in the values of personal responsibility is more likely to create wealth. The scary thing about this report is it will be followed by a chorus of people that will want to expand the government programs that are actually creating the problem. The entire effort to increase the wealth of minorities will be focused on increasing government programs, and that will just exasperate the problem instead of fixing it.

The cure to any problem is rarely a government program…

American’s Aren’t Buying Teacher Union Thuggery Anymore…

The Teacher’s unions in Wisconsin are showing the union agenda again to the American people and the American people are not buying. Public School Teachers are well paid in this country. People talk about how they are underpaid but when you compare wages with the people that pay the teachers through taxes, the benefit packages, and the number of hours worked in a year, teachers are well paid. It is not a job for everyone but neither is being a computer programmer.

The reality is that the way education is structured, teachers work for the taxpayers and parents. They don’t work for “greedy corporations” that are trying to “screw” them while management takes home hefty profits on the backs of those teachers. That argument doesn’t work because the people have only one agenda for their kid’s education; they want the best they can get for a fair price. The reality is the teachers in Wisconsin as well as many other teachers across the country don’t pay into health care or pension funds. Those tend to be outside the salary cost. Some areas have started to implement small changes but overall the public sector is way out of balance from the people that pay the bills in the private sector.

There is a financial reality with most public careers; an inherent salary cap based on what taxpayers are willing to pay. If you think you are going to get rich working in the public sector you will not. Most public sector employees have moved beyond what most taxpayers believe to be fair wages and benefits. Public employees in most sectors make more than their private sector counterparts and that causes resentment. It is especially concerning when teachers complain and strike based on the very small concessions they are being asked to make. Teachers aren’t the most important people in a kid’s education, parents and family is. Teachers come in a close second but if we lost every teacher in the country tomorrow there are millions of well qualified individuals that could pick up and make sure our kids learn what they need to know to be productive citizens in society. To act as if public education is the Holy Grail is to be utopian. Just look at any inner city public school system and tell me that we need those schools?

There are great teachers in many schools around the country but the system is broken and we need to address the systemic problems. And one of the biggest problems is teacher unions. Teacher unions could care less about the kids. Unions are political arms that buy politicians to get more money for teachers and unions. The kids are just an excuse to take your money. Teachers unions take our hard earned tax money that is supposed to go to hard working teachers to pay Union bosses huge wages to distribute money to politicians to maintain mediocrity. Every dollar that goes to unions is a dollar that could have gone toward our kid’s education. Parents are done paying into this antiquated and failing system.

As the teachers and union members walk the streets of Wisconsin when they should be in school teaching, parents are taking it all in and are coming to the same conclusion; get back to work and get rid of these unions. Unions are political organizations that have no place in our classrooms. Good teachers will be rewarded and bad teachers fired fairly without unions. The taxpayer is tired of paying for useless political thugs that impede great education and creativity. The taxpayer wants to pay a fair wage and benefit package to good teachers. The taxpayers also want results for their investment.

The taxpayers aren’t greedy corporate executives. We are parents making sure our kids get the best education for the money we are investing. We are on to the Union thuggery and we are done paying for it…

Inner City Education is Paramount…

Education is the absolute key to success so why do we entrust it to politicians and teachers unions? Why would we place our most precious assets and source of future entrepreneurial creativity in the hands of people that are deep in the syrup of bureaucracy? It is not an argument about public and private but simply an argument about competence.


Have the unions that control the public schools in our inner cities acted competently? Have they found ways to educate our kids from difficult circumstances? The only answer we hear coming from the education bureaucracy in more money. More money has been tried and failed. Why? The consequences of failure have been neutralized by social welfare programs that incentivize a life style that has become acceptable for an entire generation of individuals. It is a crime against humanity. The people responsible for the education system in inner cities should be prosecuted for child abuse. Not because they have failed but because they have failed to adjust and innovate while accepting another generation of under educated inner city youth.

When the few do get through to the college level they end up needing remedial programs that are the result of the failures at the high school level. Education at the college level has become an overpriced extension of high school for too many individuals. Colleges and Universities are not focused on preparing kids for the work force they are simply milking a cash cow. The private colleges that focus on nursing, computer programming, business, accounting, etc…, are the only institutions living up to the promise an education offers.

What is needed is a fresh perspective on education at all levels that rejects the current structure and starts to transform using the new technologies available to today’s families. Home schooling should be expanded into community schools that offer incentives for small groups and families to work together in smaller settings in conjunction with technology centers and social hubs. One of the biggest stumbling blocks to changes is this propensity to hang on to the traditional High School experience that many parents remember as the “glory days”.

The glory days are gone for the kids in the inner city, and the cost of managing huge complexes of brick and mortar in a day when any building can be outfitted with the equipment to educate, needs to be cast off. A new day and way has to be adopted. Bringing together kids in the inner city to schools that attract drug dealers and criminals is no longer a model that works. We need to focus on learning, not buildings and sports teams. The sports, band, and other activities can be offered outside the traditional HS experience.

These are just a few ideas for our education bureaucrats. They will fight them tooth and nail but if we expect to end the bigotry of low expectations for our inner city kids we need a new approach. The one they keep dishing out is not working. Just walk through any inner city in this country and you will find kids being left behind for another generation of lost hopes and dreams.

Can we just try something new?

A Perfect Example…

I recently learned the High School I graduated from in 1977; John F Kennedy in the Bronx has finally closed its doors. I say finally because it has taken an ugly journey all too common with government run programs.

I was in the second graduating class of JFK. I was one of only a few in my neighborhood that attended a public High School. Most of my friend’s parents paid for their kids to go to Catholic High Schools known for teaching and discipline that graduated students competent enough to get a job or go to college. Most public High Schools in NYC were incubators of failure. But JFK did not start that way. That is one of the reasons my parents risked sending their oldest son to the school.

The school was approved for funding based on promises made to the neighborhood residents that surrounded the campus. Our families were told that JFK would be different; if the school was built the neighborhood would be guaranteed a good education, and would not suffer the fate of most of the other public schools in the city. The school was built, and for the four years I attended, many of the promises were realized.

The first principal of JFK High School was impressive and he took a no nonsense approach to education. Show up or get thrown out. Teachers were encouraged to teach and supported in their efforts to do so. Security was heavy to ensure “kids” with ill intent were kept out of classrooms and not allowed on the school grounds. He kept some sense of order.

The kids from the neighborhood came from decent family backgrounds not typical of most students in the inner city. The advantage of having interested and engaged families that supported the principal’s goals was a good foundation for the school’s academic success. For a little while the school operated with relative success for a public High School in the Bronx.

Over the years the school exploded to house over 6000 students. It was built for approximately 4000. The neighborhood changed and the parental engagement was replaced with gang activity. Eventually this activity resulted in a student being murdered at the school. The school achieved the ranking of being the worst High School in New York City. An achievement that I am truly sad to report being an Alumnus. An attempt was made to take the school and divide it into 6 different schools with a focus on different disciplines. The attempt to salvage the school with this effort failed.

So the inner city is left with a building built with hope and promise sitting empty. The public school system has failed another generation of inner city kids that will have less opportunity than their peers. It is heartbreaking to watch. It is really personal for me having seen it first hand and knowing that the answer is to allow private institutions to teach these kids. The answer is not to keep rewarding public schools with our tax dollars. The answer is more complex than just poor schools but if we don’t change the schools we will never break the chain of hopelessness for these inner city kids. We will pay tenfold for the failures of these schools and government dependency.

When will enough be enough? I’m not talking about money because NYC public schools spend in the vicinity of $15,000 a year per student, well over the countries average. When will we face reality that we need a solution that does not count on government bureaucracy? When will we let educational entrepreneurs take a shot at educating these kids? What have we got to lose?

Government run schools and programs always start with good intentions. Government programs always deliver the same results; failure. The government has no soul and cares nothing about the lives they destroy as long as politicians and bureaucrats get paid and keep their jobs. Government has proven test after test that they don’t understand the material and will continue to fail no matter how you mix up the questions on the test. Government does not deserve our trust or the trust of these victims within our cities. They are the most vulnerable because they can’t pick up and go to a better school in a better neighborhood. We need to bring better schools to them through private organizations with a passion to teach.

Trying something new is the least we can do for these kids. As public schools become havens for gangs, drugs, and danger these kids are left to the squalor of government and politics. They deserve a better effort on our part and what is the worst that can happen? These kids get an education that can save them from a life of dependency on a government that has failed them for generations…

“Blind Side”d - by Government…

I watched Blind Side last night with my family on video, and I thought it was a well done film. It is one of the better films I have seen lately. Having grown up in my formative years in the Bronx NY, I was very familiar with the housing projects, and the sad conditions created by this government “solution” to provide housing for the poor.

My heart was touched while I was watching the movie as I had flashbacks to similar scenes, with different faces, but the same miserable conditions I witnessed as a High School kid 35 years ago. The original intention of the projects was to provide “affordable” housing for the poor, but instead of helping the community, it created an atmosphere where the accepted life style was government welfare, section eight subsidies, food stamps, teenage pregnancy, HS drop outs, drug dealers, and the false impression that this was the way the rest of the world lived.

The community has been separated from the hope and opportunity that life offers. The kids in these projects, just like “Big Mike” in the movie, live in a world that offers no hope, and life is a day to day struggle for survival. “Big Mike’s” life was changed by being around people that knew a better way of life and valued education; a private education. If there was a clear morale to the story it was education is the key to success in life.

As a person who attended the same public schools that the people in the projects did, I understand that public education is far inferior to a private education in these communities at risk. Sending kids from the projects into public schools with more kids from the projects perpetuates the cycle of acceptance, and provides no examples of hope that these kids need. It can’t be fixed by busing these kids to different schools and forcing other schools to accept them as we did in the sixties, it’s about allowing the development of schools in these communities unburdened by the same government bureaucrats that have been running the programs that have created the mess.

Forcing teachers to teach in these schools as the Secretary of Education is considering is not the answer either. The SOE Arne Duncan talks about choices but he believes that education is a “civil rights” issue. This is the wrong approach, and adding more government, forced on people through legal battles will only inhibit the creative solutions that are needed to really fix the problem of education. The problems in education are targeted and don’t need blanket approaches. But the solution has to go beyond public schools, and needs to focus on a change of culture. This happens not through government but through individuals that care about their communities.

The inner city is a disgrace, and the common denominator is government programs. The cradle to grave approach of government has devastated the minority communities of this country. The government is the problem. Every “solution” adds to the misery. As we see in Blind Side, Big Mike found success when people around him believed he could do it, and helped him help himself. He was not surrounded by a culture of government; he was surrounded by compassion and success.

We need to get government out of the lives of people so they can make their way in this world, and have the opportunity to succeed. We can’t provide success but we can provide the compassion needed to help all of the “Big Mike’s” of the world. We can be compassionate by getting them away from the government culture that is holding them back…

I love teachers and learning; not bureaucrats…

Teaching is a calling and the people that do it well are a special breed. So why do we shackle them by creating schools through a government bureaucracy? Why do we expect teachers to be able to teach under such oppressing circumstances? Why do we trust our most precious gift to our children, learning, to two establishments that have nothing to do with education; unions and government?

Unions teach our kids that we believe mediocrity is more important than merit, and government encumbers the teaching process with rules that focus on so many things unnecessary to an effective education. Education is a passion we must teach our children to embrace. We do that by teaching kids to love learning. We need teachers to be able to be creative in the process of teaching. Teachers need to be set free to do the things that get kids interested in learning. And they don’t need bureaucrats second guessing them. Parents do that quite nicely, thank you.

Public schools in the cities of our country are a disgrace as so many things the government bureaucracy controls. It is not a teacher problem; it is a bureaucratic and control problem. We need to address it or we will watch generations of children continue to be left out of the American Dream.

Education is not simply a building, books, or classes. It is the key to a successful life. Why would any sane nation leave such an important responsibility to the government and unions? Teachers will be paid according to results and have nothing to fear being separated from a union structure that keeps the focus off the children, and on the work rules that impede flexibility and creativity. People are willing to pay for a quality service. But as long as teaching is tied to government and unions, it will be mediocre, and generations of children remain at risk.

I want to support our teachers and great educational practices. In my opinion that means allowing teachers and schools to be creative in the way they teach our kids. That means providing a smart and simple funding process and getting unions and bureaucracy out of the classroom. That’s the type of education I can get passionate about. Education reform is critical to the future of every child and family in this state and country. The only way to improve it is to get government and unions out of it, and parents and teachers back in control of it…

The Results of Government Education…

All you need to do is look at the results of the Detroit Public School system to see the future of healthcare; a disaster. It is a sin, it is criminal, but it is typical of government programs. Good intention, pitiful reality. So why do we expect anything different?

Story after story can be found supporting the argument that government controlled services that are the people’s responsibility will end up in failure. That is why the founders designed the U.S. Constitution the way they did. It was a limitation on government to allow a free people to prosper in a free market. Government was only useful in a few key areas. The founders didn’t intend government to be in education, healthcare, or social services.

Sixty nine percent of 4th graders and seventy nine percent of 8th graders scored below basic levels of the math skills expected at that grade level. And the real sadness is that the basic level is so low that we are stealing the hope and dreams of every one of these children. It is outrageous and criminal. This is America and it seems our cities are becoming third world. And the common denominator; government dependence. Here is an excerpt from the article: “The state appointed emergency financial manager Robert Bobb said no school district in the 40 year history of the test has ever registered such low number. “

“Bobb made it a point to say the horrible test scores are not the fault of the students, management was to blame.”

“Management” is the government.

If we allow the government to take over our healthcare you can expect the same results; failure and misery. The government is a heartless bureaucracy that could care less about your health or well being. Their role will be to push papers, stamp denial on your request for service form, and complain they don’t make enough money for doing a task that is unnecessary.

We are Americans and we must re-emphasize the American spirit again. We must celebrate the individual and local churches and communities. We must work with our neighbors and build the greatness back into the American fabric one student and individual at a time. Government has been given a long enough chance to prove themselves.

And like the math tests in Detroit, the scores are all you need as evidence that the government control of education and healthcare needs to be stopped…

Chills Down Your Spine…

Two bit dictators and tyrants have always placed their focus on indoctrinating the youth to support their regimes. This video should be grounds to close this school down. At a minimum it shows us why we need to stop funding the federal department of education and teachers unions that believe this is the type of material children should be working on during school hours.

I am all for teaching the history of this nation but “equal pay for equal work” chants are not history, it is propaganda. These “teachers” should be fired for incompetence. We wonder why our country is a mess? This is why. Too many people teaching our kids are incompetent and tools for a socialist agenda that will destroy this country.

Click here to view.

It’s a Reflection of Our Education System…

This administration and their inability to understand simple math, basic human behaviors, and our history is the reason our nation is sinking into the current economic abyss. They are the product of a failed education policy that is run by government bureaucracy. The quality of public education and its focus on everything except what is important to the health of our nation has come home to roost.

Obama and his team may be educated but they are far from smart. We have been teaching community without a firm understanding of the importance of the individual. We have been teaching animal rights when we have not been teaching constitutional rights. We have been teaching economics without connecting it to the human behaviors that incentivize and stop economic transactions.

We have filled our schools with teachers that have only their educational experience to pass on and very little real life experience. The educational “diversity” is nil to none and it shows. The key to our future is education and controlling the curriculum. We have allowed people like the current administration too much control over our future and now we see how important that piece of the culture is.

It is time for some adult and analytical conversation in this country. Stop spending money we don’t have; cut the taxes on the engine of our freedom and economy (business and personal taxes), and return the power back to where it belongs in the states and the people. Finally we must take back education and control the curriculum to align with the American value system…

It’s a Failure to Educate; Stupid!

The entire healthcare debate revolves around the loosely defined number of uninsured individuals. The number being thrown around is 47 million. When those numbers are analyzed there are a number of facts that are conveniently ignored when this figure is discussed. A third, approximately 17 million are people in this country illegally. Over 40 percent could afford it but choose not to buy it because they are young and single. The real number of people that want but can’t afford health insurance is more like 14 million.

These individuals that can’t afford insurance fall into the category of high school dropouts, single mothers, and the under educated that can’t find work due to their educational background. The issue is not healthcare rather it is an education and immigration policy problem.

The education system has been controlled by the government and is an abject failure at educating our most vulnerable citizens. Our immigration policy no longer focuses on deciding entry into the US based on the needs for labor and desire to assimilate; rather it has become a jump over the fence and turn our back policy combined with a system based on politically correct country quotas. Immigration is run by who? Oh that’s right, government.

So for most Americans, 84% have adequate insurance and like their own healthcare options. The government that has run our education and immigration system wants to do to healthcare what they have done for the above two programs. How does that make sense?

If we unleashed the education system in this country to support parents and tie the funding directly to the child and most important; untie the federal strings that are attached, we could solve most issues we have today. Actually we should close the federal DOE and send the 90 BILLION dollars that run through the agency back to the states and parents to support local education efforts.

There are a lot of very creative and entrepreneurial education efforts going on right now. But we need to allow every parent the option to use one of these creative programs by getting government out of education. Education is the most fundamental principle to a successful life. Why do you think we have so many failing? Because it has the government tentacles all throughout the system. If we want to solve the issues of poverty, health, and create happiness; it’s taking back the education system; stupid!

Obama Demolishing the American Dream…

Flint Michigan is one of the poorest cities in America, and Obama wants to demolish what is left of the neighborhoods and homes in this once great city. The proposal in Flint and now being considered by the Obama administration is to destroy the abandoned homes in all of the cities that have them. No one wants abandoned homes in their neighborhood but what this represents is a total failure of the American education and welfare systems in America.

If you look at where these neighborhoods reside and who makes up the people that live there it is apparent that government and the education systems run by government have failed; miserably. Our poorest communities have been promised by the Obama’s of the world that their trust of government would be rewarded with a better life. What the government has actually done is criminal. The government has failed to educate these communities and has created a dependence on welfare that has stolen and now has “demolished” literally the American Dream for these people.

This is what we need to consider as we see Obama’s socialist government trying to run our financial institutions, car companies, and healthcare. Government is a complete failure and has stolen the dreams of generations of Americans that have been fooled into believing their empty promises. The government has a proven track record that is an undisputed failure. Will we learn from their record or will we be fooled into more promises of a better tomorrow?

Ask yourself; are you willing to allow this government to demolish our healthcare, finances, and car companies just like they have demolished the inner cities of America?

Federal Borrowing Must Be Stopped…

The Federal Government is borrowing away our future and has taken away every American’s constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness. We can no longer stand by and watch our debt quadruple per family.

You now owe $546,668 as a family thanks to the out of control spending of this government, and it is mostly unconstitutional. How do you pursue your own happiness when the government has the ability to borrow in your name for things that bring no value to you?

The constitution allows for the federal government to borrow for things that are important to the nation as a whole, mostly defense. But when the federal government borrows from you as an individual to “buy” a car company it is obvious they have gone too far. When the government takes your money to give to others they deem more worthy they have gone too far. When the federal government takes our state and local tax money for educating our children they have gone too far.

The Federal government has gone too far. If I were to borrow $546,668 in your name I would be thrown in jail. None of this federal borrowing beyond our military is justified or needed. Our Governors must stand up for the rights of their states, and we as individuals must stand up for our rights to the protection of our property (hard earned money) and our pursuit of happiness. How can any family pursue their dreams when the federal government can take away our rights to a prosperous future by borrowing on our individual credit?

The tenth amendment and nullification of federal programs is our only chance. We must audit all federal expenditures on our behalf and determine the constitutionality of each federal expenditure. Then we need to nullify each program at the state level and reduce our federal tax burden accordingly.

The only way we can do that is each state must end individual federal withholding taxes and collect those taxes at the state level. Then the states can pay the taxes on behalf of their individual citizens. This will bring the balance of power back to where it belongs; in the hands of the states and individual Americans. With the state in control our state representatives will have greater ability to provide the services truly needed to run the state according to the citizens of the state. No more federal extortion to get our state funds back for our own use.

This is not a radical idea. This is an idea rooted in the US Constitution. What is happening now is a complete disregard for our constitution and especially our tenth amendment rights. Government programs are so much more manageable at the state level, and we have a much better chance of holding our state representatives accountable as opposed to holding a Federal Representative from San Francisco or a Federal Senator from Nevada accountable.

Our Federal system is broken. There is no true representation in congress when the rules are contrived to nullify representation from states that happen to elect a representative from the “wrong” party.

Does anyone feel represented anymore at the federal level? Did you approve $546,668 borrowing on your behalf? Do you want it to stop? Have your read the tenth amendment? Have you read the US Constitution?

Stand up and fight for the US Constitution and your rights. Let your governor know you want this federal oppression to stop. Read our constitution and start the ground work for a movement back to our future. We don’t need radical change, we just need to abide by the framework already in place; The United States Constitution!

The Tenth Amendment Gets Another Supporter; 47 to go!

The Oklahoma legislature has passed a resolution validating Oklahoma’s sovereignty and the importance of the 10th Amendment of our United States Constitution. This is powerful stuff being ignored by most of the media. The Tennessee legislature, Texas Governor Perry, and now the great state of Oklahoma have started the ball rolling by raising the 10th amendment and the importance of state’s rights. As the federal government continues to act in an unconstitutional manner these state efforts will grow to stop it. What state will be next? My guess is Wyoming or South Carolina.

These efforts can only grow with a strong educational component. You see our educational system gets an F in civics and history. As Dr. Walter Williams points out in an article today at TownHall.com, 70% of American college graduates fail a simple civics test on the role and structure of our government. I would argue a majority of the American electorate could not tell you the jest of the 10th amendment or any other amendment including the 1st amendment. How do you expect to win an argument about the importance of the 10th amendment if most people don’t even know what it is or what the importance of our constitution is? We must start on many fronts but we must start from the beginning.

I would suggest we recommend to everyone concerned about the current state of the government to read our constitution since it is only 4400 words. We should also be recommending the book; 5000 Year Leap for a very concise summary of our founding principles. I would also recommend the web site Tenth Amendment Center as a start to their education.

We are in a crisis that was predicted by our founders. It is amazing how intuitive these men were. They believed if we forgot our founding moral values we would perish as a free nation. How close we are getting to their prediction but only time will tell. We have and we are in a state of dangerous transition. We must fight again for the minds of anyone willing to listen because the argument of our founders is a simple, logical, and timeless one. The principles of our Constitution are timeless and as relevant today as they were in the eighteenth century.

We must explain it in simple terms like; our tenth amendment simply states that the federal government has a very defined and limited scope; all other issues are left to the states to determine. The closer the government is to the people the better and the less likely it will infringe on our freedoms.

I don’t think state governments are effective either but they are much easier to petition than our federal representatives. Individuals , the family, and community, are much more likely to be served properly by government if that government is held accountable by the people. That is easier to do if you only have to drive to the state house to petition your government than having to get to DC. It also makes it much harder for special interests to operate because instead of one office in DC they must petition 50 states. That is a really good thing for the tax payer.

So although we only have three states so far expressing the importance of state sovereignty and getting back control of our government, the movement is significant. The more people we get to read our founding documents and the more effective we are in making the case for reducing the power in Washington, the freer we will be. Free to live a life that has the greatest potential for every individual in this country, not just the future of the people most connected to DC and the Federal trough…

State Sponsored Racism and Public Education Policy…

The congress recently refused to continue funding of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program created to give minority youth a chance at a real education not a government sponsored one. Was the program successful at improving education for minorities? Yes, students in the program leapt 18 months ahead in their level of education. Was the program affordable? Yes it was half the cost of a normal public education in DC ($7500 program vs. $15,000 public tax cost for public education). So what was the problem?

Control and Racism.

The current bureaucrats believe that Black and Hispanic kids are inferior to white kids and therefore need government help. They would not benefit from the education the private sector would provide. They are not that smart and could not compete; bull,,,. The problem is that “government help” in education is actually the shackles that are holding back Black Americans and Hispanics from the American Dream. That’s right just look at the facts. Black and minority graduation and literacy results compared to whites are profound. Black children stuck in the public system have been getting these results for 30 years and it isn’t money. DC, NY, Chicago, Detroit spend at least as much and often more like in DC ($15,000 per child) and still the failure rate is twice that of white communities. Now you might say there is an income disparity between whites and blacks. Right again, and that’s because less white people by percentage of population count on the government to provide a better life for them. White communities are more engaged in driving the education of their children instead of relying on the government. Here again the government presumption is they cannot compete and are somehow inferior (government sponsored racism). Any educated person knows that counting on the government is synonymous to failure. The government has a motive to keep minority children ignorant to what they could achieve if given the chance to be in control of where they go to school.

The true intent of government controlling education is to control their political future. Educated kids pose a threat to the ignorance of voting for people that believe in the government collective over the individual. If you look at what our kids are passionate about in public schools it is recycling, “global warming”, the homeless, global citizenship, and diversity. This focus is not designed around reasoned thought like good stewardship of the earth but rather political movements based on a misunderstanding of the facts and science. It is a political agenda controlled by special interests that can control curriculum much easier in a public system than one controlled by the common sense of parents. If kids are kept ignorant of the facts, science, and constitution of this great nation the easier it is to destroy individual freedom over collective control of the statists.

I went to high school in New York City as a minority white youth in a mostly black and Hispanic school. My heart breaks to see that over thirty years later Black Americans are still falling prey to the lure of a government that promises a brighter future through public education but anyone willing to look at the results must ask; what does the government have against our wonderful brethren in the black community? If they really wanted to end government sponsored racism the education system would tie the money to the child and give them and their parents the choice of where they would like to go to school. This would unleash an education revolution in the minority community that would guarantee the success of our Black communities. That is what I pray for because I know the potential every American has if they count on themselves for success instead of the government. The first step is to unlock the shackles of public education…