Posted 10:19 PM by Susan Darst Williams

SAD TO SEE OPS CAVES
ON GLOBAL EDUCATION PROGRAM

The board of the Omaha Public Schools went ahead and approved the spread of the International Baccalaureate globalist education system to Central High School and Lewis and Clark Middle School. The vote was unanimous.

Still no word on whether IB really will cost taxpayers an extra $1,400 per student per year. Maybe there was cost data divulged at the board meeting, but since no one spoke out against the move and asked questions, that data wasn't made available.

In other cities that have added IB programs, it isn't until years after the fact, when the programs are in place, that taxpayers finally feel the "bite" of the extra IB costs, which have been calculated to total about $1,400 per student per year above and beyond the regular per-student spending. These extra costs include the incessant, time-consuming training in deluxe, distant cities which is one of the hidden "perks" for IB coordinators, along with the other extra costs that aren't made public at the time of school board approval.

It's also unclear how exactly the OPS board intends to get around the Nebraska statute that requires an elected school board to retain control over the curriculum. The OPS board will have no say-so whatsoever, under a typical IB contract. Another Nebraska statute also requires the OPS board to make sure its schools teach American history, literature and civics intensively each school year, K-12. That will not be happening under globalist IB, either. Possibly Omaha parents will have to start an after-school club -- kind of like the Brownies -- to teach their children about America at their own expense and on their own time, which is a very sad commentary in these times.

The word on the street is that school boards fall over themselves to institute IB programs so that they can recruit the top scholars who are of Asian and East Indian descent, and in many cases not American citizens, simply to artificially inflate their schoolwide standardized test scores. Why? To cover up how ineffective their educational practices are for the majority of the students, who would not qualify for the selective IB program, including probably 99 percent of the African-American students in OPS. If you get enough kids who can score a 32 or higher on the ACT, statistically speaking you can cover up a LOT of academic underachievement or mediocre results from the many, many kids who score beneath a 20, which is a deplorably low score. I've said before that a POTATO could score a 20 just by sitting in any classroom for 13 years. By doing this, the OPS board is deciding to spend more tax dollars on non-American citizen students while continuing to widen the academic achievement gap that is pushing American citizens who are African-Americans further and further behind.

The IB curriculum is global in scope, and by definition minimizes teaching about the principles of American government, the significance of the U.S. Constitution, and facts and figures about American exceptionalism, including the benefits of liberty, capitalism and living in a nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Under IB rules, every system of government and every cultural feature must be considered of equal worth. It's Political Correctness run amok.

The other disappointing factor is that the OPS school board has effectively pulled a "Pontius Pilate" move by giving the keys to Central's academic honors program to a globalist organization that is immersed in the United Nations. So much for encouraging parental involvement in our schools; with IB, there won't be any that is meaningful, and parents will not have any leverage with the elected OPS board whatsoever. Parents who want to see the curriculum before it is delivered are turned away or brushed off, and if you have a beef, what are you going to do? Call Switzerland, where IB is based?

Guess it's not surprising, but is just another sign of the times.

Labels: IB comes to Omaha Public Schools