They’re Called Outpatient Orphanages

Unfortunately, I think I’ve called it well in advance. As reported in The Daily Sheeple.com it seems our current Education Czar, Arne Duncan, believes that because there are so many children without a quality home life, the providers of a “quality education” should start looking into boarding schools for these lost boys (and girls). Boarding schools are just another name for Outpatient Orphanages.

Back in the old days, the institutions where children without parents went were called Orphanages. Nowadays, we have the framework for Orphanages already built and ready to go. They are called Public Schools. The only thing one need add is a few dorm rooms, and the green light for derelict and dependent parents to just leave their extra children at the school for pick up, when (or if) it’s convenient for them.

I wonder if there will be a time when attendance at government Outpatient Orphanages will be compulsory? Are you going to keep taking your children there, until it’s too late to take them out?

The New American reports:

In essence, according to Duncan in various speeches, government schools, now largely controlled from Washington, D.C., are being used as a “weapon” to “change the world.” With the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as what the education secretary called his “global partner,” public education will also serve as a tool to transform children into what he described as “green citizens.” If Obama’s “Green Jobs” Czar Van Jones had not been forced to resign over his self-declared revolutionary communist views, he could have even placed the newly minted “green citizens” into the “green jobs” Duncan says the feds are preparing them for.

Obama and Duncan Sittin’ in a Tree Holding Back our RTtT

Well… Indiana lost it. No big bucks … for the schools and teachers children. Reach To the Top (RTtT) funds were doled out this month, and guess what? Surprise! Indiana, with a great plan (I hear) didn’t get a DIME!

What about the CHILDREN? What about all of those State Schools out there that are losing money left and right because they are losing students left and right?

Arne (Duncan)! What about all those charter schools we need to build, to help create the competition needed to lift ALL schools up?

Arne Duncan, Education Czar

I don’t have time, but if someone would do me a favor and please look up all of the states that DID get RTtT funds, and check on a couple of things:

1) Do they have Democrat governors?

2) Do they have abysmal, bloated, bankrupt education systems that are on life support? (Because they have been managed by Democrat governors for more than a few years?

3) Did the states that got the funds actually vote in a BIG WAY for Obama? (Indiana barely squeaked him a win pretty much on Gary’s (South Chicago) votes and probably more than a few union thugs manning the voting booths.)

3a) Actually… how many states that got funds did NOT give Obama the nod?

This raises the final question: Are these funds really about educating children and reforming American Public Education? Or, are they more about keeping the unions (NEA – Teachers; SEIU – Lunch room workers) happy?

I think Indiana should just take is lovely plan for reforming schools… and implement it WITHOUT the Federal Government’s dirty ol’ money.

After all, if they’re good ideas, blessings from Mr. Duncan and Mr. Obama shouldn’t be necessary. Right? It’s for the children.

BbB

Rhode Island School Fires Everyone!

This is what should have started happening years ago under NCLB.

All teachers fired at R.I. school. Will that happen elsewhere?

Nothing much more to say, other than to comment on how dorky one poor teacher’s sign looks:

Rhode Island teachers picket after being sacked. You just don't do that to "family" do you?

“OUR STUDENTS?” Let’s just dispense with the shallow and sometimes scary idea that our children belong to the state? They don’t. Ask any public school student if they think of their teachers as family, and I don’t believe you’ll get answers worth putting on picket signs.

These are union teachers and they’ve been part of this failing school system for years. They have only themselves and their union reps to blame, if THE PEOPLE aren’t happy with their work product.

The union is apparently still trying to make sure they can keep the new school union:

The Obama administration is “pushing the envelope” more than would be traditionally expected by a Democratic administration supported by unions, Mr. Domenech says. But, he adds, there are also efforts under way for state superintendents and union representatives to reach some compromises for revising union contracts to support school improvement.

Four words: I Hope They Fail. It’s interesting that under an unprecedented pile of support from unions (mostly SEIU but certainly the NEA put a few tens of millions into getting Obama elected) the administration is seemingly allowing this sort of thing to happen. What gives?

My theory is that there will be a few more of these massive school reorganizations and just before the majority of the public begins to think they can start doing this to ALL their failing schools, and just before the unions start calling for nation-wide strikes, President Obama will come to the rescue.

Or… not.

Could it be possible that our president WANTS people agitated to the brink of civil unrest? If you read “Rules For Radicals” (the playbook for the Obama administration) then all of this pressure, unrest, and confusion makes perfect sense.

Who Is The Target?

As we see a few more of these mini revolts peek into the news, remember the big picture. Who is the target? Quoting from “Rules For Radicals”:

13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. In conflict tactics there are certain rules that [should be regarded] as universalities. One is that the opposition must be singled out as the target and ‘frozen.’…

“…any target can always say, ‘Why do you center on me when there are others to blame as well?’ When you ‘freeze the target,’ you disregard these [rational but distracting] arguments…. Then, as you zero in and freeze your target and carry out your attack, all the ‘others’ come out of the woodwork very soon. They become visible by their support of the target…’

What does this mean? If, ultimately, parents revolting against compulsory state schooling are the targets (And why wouldn’t they be? They are the ones who are not forcing their children to go to school and feeding the schools with tax dollars!) then it seems logical to create situations whereby parents grow more and more agitated. To the point of revolt. THEN is when the target will be frozen. PARENTS will be the “bad guys.”

If a few union teachers lose their jobs in the process of the ultimate goal… so be it.

BbB

NEA for Jobs Not Kids

Really? Can that be true? Surely this idea is coming from some sort of teacher-hating, anti-government, right-wing radical that wants all kids homeschooled and all public schools to fail. Right?

Well, let’s just get to the point.

Arne Duncan

“When an ineffective teacher gets a chance to improve and doesn’t – and when the tenure system keeps that teacher in the classroom anyway – then the system is protecting jobs rather than children. That’s not a good thing. We need to work together to change that.”

– U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, taken from a speech he gave to the National Education Association

I agree. Don’t you? I think it’s time we all get behind Mr. Duncan (on this issue) and ask all of our public school board members if they would please stop cowering under the threats of the NEA (and the state affiliates) and see if we can fire a few bad teachers. Like These.

Don’t you think Arne would like that?

Hat Tip: Linda Dobson for her post at ParentAtTheHelm.com

BbB