Posted 11:01 AM by Susan Darst Williams

FORMER STATE BOARD OF ED MEMBER
CALLS FOR REJECTING THE USE OF
FEDERAL STIMULUS MONEY FOR EDUCATION

Urgent need to contact state senators today:

Kathy Wilmot of Beaver City, Neb., warns that if the Unicameral decides to use some of the unexpected federal stimulus money for use in its regular state aid to education funding, it'll lead to a tremendous state tax increase in the future when the federal money has dried up.

The former member of the Nebraska State Board of Education agrees with Gov. Heineman that we would be creating new educational entitlements if we use the one-time federal money to pay for ongoing state education costs, and then would have to resort to increasing state taxes in the future to keep those things paid for when the federal stimulus funding has run out.

It's kind of like adding on a room to your house: after the one-time expense, there are ongoing expenses year after year, of heating it and cooling it and furnishing it and cleaning it . . . and the money to pay for those ongoing expenses has to come from somewhere.

She urges citizens to act NOW. Find your state senator's phone number and e-mail address at http://www.unicam.state.ne.us/

Labels: education, Unicameral

Posted 11:35 PM by Susan Darst Williams

GO BIG ED BLOG BACK FULL STRENGTH!

WHY DID UNL TRY TO GIVE A MAD BOMBER THE PULPIT,
INSTEAD OF A REAL EDUCATOR FROM CHICAGO?

So glad the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is backing out of its boneheaded plan to host mad bomber Bill Ayers to come speak to educators. That move really exposes the utter lack of common sense in our teachers' colleges today. Sheesh Louishe.

Might be different if Ayers actually had ever done anything GOOD for education. But he hasn't. The verdict is in: his worldview is atrociously anti-American, his "reforms" are Marxist hogwash, and that $50 million Chicago Annenberg Challenge that he and Barack Obama cooked up that was supposed to help Chicago's inner-city poor was instead a colossal waste of money, according to the project's own final report.

Here it is, and note the line where it admits that "the Challenge had little impact on student outcomes" in the executive summary:

http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/downloads/p62.pdf


The $50 million went down a rathole of political "capital" that was being built for Obama, according to Ayers' cynical design. Instead of kids learning to read, write and figure, "social justice" groups such as ACORN, now mixed up in that horrible voter fraud mess, got the money, and the collectivist "site-based management councils" set up in the schools frittered it away.

Then many of those who got enriched at the children's expense returned the favor to Obama with political help, contributions and muscle power as he launched his formal political career. And Ayers, who learned from Saul Alinsky (and his book, Rules for Radicals), set it all up.

Yeah, here are Ayers' 3 R's: radicalism, revolution and riots.

I'll tell you a Chicago educator who SHOULD be invited to speak at UNL, and to educators across the land: Marva Collins (www.marvacollins.com). Remember? She started a private school for the poorest of the poor out of her house in inner-city Chicago, Westside Prep. She accepted literally pennies per week from the parents, whatever they could pay.

She taught them the 3 R's, with firm but kind discipline and respect thrown in for good measure. She taught them the classics of western civilization; observers I've talked to have been amazed at the young inncer-city children reciting lines from Shakespeare, Plato and Homer without any problem handling the complex vocabulary. Now, THAT'S how you build a child's self-esteem: by teaching him or her to be COMPETENT!

Years after Marva Collins got started, 60 Minutes followed up on her first 33 graduates. Demographically speaking, quite a few of them "should" have been dead, in prison, on welfare, in gangs, and so forth, based on the tough neighborhood from which they began life. But all 33 were employed and doing well! Some of her grads went on to Harvard, Yale, Stanford . . . and not a mad bomber in the bunch.

Now, THAT'S a miracle, and THAT'S what our educators need to be hearing about.

De-politicizing teachers' colleges and public schools, and giving disadvantaged children basic academics again, the way our schools USED to before Ayers and his ilk seized control of our teachers' colleges, is what we really need to do. It would be . . . THE BOMB!

Labels: Ayers, education, Marva Collins, UNL