Posted 12:24 PM by Susan Darst Williams

TAXPAYERS HYPNOTIZED; NEXT TARGET: STUDENTS

Watch the watch. Watch the watch.

Nebraska taxpayers sometimes seem hypnotized. They seem out of their senses, the way they keep pouring more and more money into the public schools to keep doing so many things that we already know don't improve student learning.

Watch the watch. Watch the watch.

Tax watchdogs (such as www.netaxpayers.org) report that the public is so numb and mesmerized, it's difficult to get people to wake up to reality and join the fight against wasteful school spending. The apathy is especially distressing in school districts where student achievement is lackluster and disappointing.

Watch the watch. Watch the watch.

And now we have tax dollars spent on a whole new tactic: hypnotizing the students.

That's right: Fremont High School had a hypnotist come to a school assembly for the 1,400 students plus teachers on a Friday morning right before the kids went off to take their last two finals.

According to the student newspaper, ''The Rustler,”'' the hypnotist led students in ''potential make-out scenes, pretending to be fish, and crying to sad movies.''

One girl was quoted as saying: ''My favorite part was when Aaron Paden thought he was naked!'' A senior boy and girl were ''crawling all over each other's lap smelling one another's 'sweet aroma.''' There was a picture of five hypnotized sophomores struggling to get straws in their mouths.

Oh, the EXCELLENCE! Your tax dollars at work, folks. Fremont spends $7,086.61per pupil and taxpayers have given the district $94 million worth of facilities, according to the annual report on file with the Nebraska Department of Education:http://ess.nde.state.ne.us/SchoolFinance/AFR/search/afr.htm

Fremont High School's average ACT score is 22.3, below the state average of 22.6, and consistently below the state average for the last four years. On nationally standardized tests, 40.8 percent of the 10th through 12th graders scored below the national average in reading, and 39 percent were below par in math:
www.nde.state.ne.us)

So now they’re turning to hypnosis to try to raise those test scores. Or something.

Watch the watch? Yeah . . . a stopwatch. It's time to snap out of our self-induced hypnosis, and put a stop to stuff like this.