Killing Children While At The Same Time Helping Bankrupt Economy

Fiscal Commission Calls for Elimination of Safe Schools Czar’s Office

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 
By Fred Lucas

(CNSNews.com) – A draft report by the president’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform calls for, among other items, eliminating a division of the Education Department run by one of the most controversial appointees in the Obama administration: Kevin Jennings, the safe schools czar.

The draft report, which will be finalized by Dec. 1 if 14 of the 18 members agree, calls for eliminating the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, which would save taxpayers an estimated $1.8 billion.

“In the President’s budget, funding for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools is more than double the allocation from 2008,” says the draft report, released on Wednesday. “This option eliminates the office, saving about $1.8 billion in 2015. While school safety should be protected, violence and drug abuse are problems that occur far less on school grounds than elsewhere.”

“As CBO [Congressional Budget Office] points out in the Budget Options Volume 2 report, children are more likely to be victims of violence away from school, and while drug use is more common than violence, it still occurs infrequently on school property,” the report says.

“Further, the results hoped for in creation of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools have not been demonstrated,” states the report.

For a decade, Jennings ran the organization Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), of which he was also a founding member. The organization advocated gay-straight alliance clubs in public high schools.

Because of his role in promoting homosexuality in public schools, 52 House Republicans signed a letter to President Barack Obama in October 2009 calling for Jennings to be removed from the safe schools post. Rep. Steve King (R.-Iowa) circulated the letter.

"Support is growing in Congress and across America for President Obama to fire Kevin Jennings and replace him with someone possessing the appropriate qualifications and ethical standards to serve in a presidential administration," Rep. King said at the time the letter was released.  

"Despite serving as the ‘safe schools' czar, Jennings has no experience keeping students safe or keeping our schools drug free. Jennings is committed to the ‘safety' of only a narrow portion of American students, while expressing disdain for religion and traditional values. President Obama should fire Kevin Jennings immediately."

In a widely circulated 2000 speech, Jennings recalled a 15-year-old teenager named Brewster. “And I said, ‘Brewster, what are you doing in there asleep?’” Jennings said of the 1988 incident. “And he said, ‘Well, I’m tired.’ And I said, ‘Well, we all are tired and we all got to school today. And he said, ‘Well I was out late last night.’”

 “And I said, ‘What were you doing out late on a school night.’ And he said, ‘Well, I was in Boston,’” Jennings recalled. “Boston was about 45 minutes from Concord. So I said, ‘What were you doing in Boston on a school night, Brewster?’”
 
 “He got very quiet, and he finally looked at me and said, ‘Well, I met someone in the bus station bathroom and I went home with him.’ High school sophomore, 15 years old. That was the only way he knew how to meet gay people. I was a closeted gay teacher, 24 years old, didn’t know what to say,” Jennings added.
 
“Knew I should say something quickly, so I finally said, my best friend had just died of AIDS the week before. I looked at Brewster and said, ‘You know, I hope you knew to use a condom.’ He said to me something I will never forget. He said, ‘Why should I, my life isn’t worth saving anyway,’” Jennings said.

URL to CNSNews.com: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/fiscal-commission-calls-elimination-safe

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To learn more about Kevin Jennings and his “bullying agenda,” please continue:

http://www.educationnews.org/index.php?news=102567

Dangerous Agenda Sweeping over Our Schools

09/11/2010 03:03:00 Donna Garner Senior Education Policy Advisor EducationNews.org

Donna Garner - On Nov. 6, 2010, the New York Times weighed in on the bullying issue in schools, and the article affirms what I have been saying in my articles: The Obama administration aligned with Kevin Jennings’ gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender agenda is being forced into schools under the guise of the “bullying” issue.

On Nov. 6, 2010, the New York Times weighed in on the bullying issue in schools, and the article affirms what I have been saying in my articles: The Obama administration aligned with Kevin Jennings’ gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender agenda is being forced into schools under the guise of the “bullying” issue.     

To give you important background information, please take the time to read through my three articles before you read the New York Times article (posted below).

One of the most gripping statistics that I found in the latest Centers for Disease Control HIV report (2005-2008) is the following; and I believe it says it all:

From 2005-2008…Most (74%) diagnoses of HIV infection in adults and adolescents were in males. Among males diagnosed with HIV infection from 2005-2008, 70% were attributed to male-to-male sexual contact. The percentage of diagnosed HIV infections attributed to male-to-male sexual contact was even larger (85%) among males aged 13 to 24 years.”

We as adults must protect our children from being indoctrinated into the homosexual lifestyle; it is truly a matter of life and death.

My Three Articles

(1) “What Is the Centers for Disease Control?” -- 10.23.10: http://www.educationnews.org/breaking_news/health/101841.html

(2) “Bullying Agenda” -- 10.26.10:  http://www.educationnews.org/index.php?news=101979

(3) “Open Letter to Parents, Legislators, School Personnel: Which Policy Are You Going To Promote?” -- 11.7.10:

http://www.educationnews.org/blogs/102489.html

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/us/07bully.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=education

New York Times

November 6, 2010

In Efforts to End Bullying, Some See Agenda

By ERIK ECKHOLM

Handwriting is more than what you see--keys to learning and expression--even wellness and more...

[The new Texas English / Language Arts / Reading standards (TEKS) that were passed by the Texas State Board of Education in May 2008 include an emphasis on handwriting.  However, unless the Texas Legislature decides to allow the Permanent School Fund to be utilized to pay publishers for new Handwriting books, teachers will continue to neglect the teaching of handwriting skills.  

Please see my 9.13.09 article entitled “Texans Care About Our School Children” -- http://www.educationnews.org/commentaries/99926.html  -- Donna Garner]

Wall Street Journal -- Business -- Oct. 5, 2010

How Handwriting Trains the Brain

Forming Letters Is Key to Learning, Memory, Ideas

By GWENDOLYN BOUNDS

Ask preschooler Zane Pike to write his name or the alphabet, then watch this 4-year-old's stubborn side kick in. He spurns practice at school and tosses aside workbooks at home. But Angie Pike, Zane's mom, persists, believing that handwriting is a building block to learning.

Gwendolyn Bounds discusses the fading art of handwriting, pointing out that new research shows it can benefit children's motor skills and their ability to compose ideas and achieve goals throughout life.

Gwendolyn Bounds reports on what your handwriting says about your brain and everything else.

She's right. Using advanced tools such as magnetic resonance imaging, researchers are finding that writing by hand is more than just a way to communicate. The practice helps with learning letters and shapes, can improve idea composition and expression, and may aid fine motor-skill development.

It's not just children who benefit. Adults studying new symbols, such as Chinese characters, might enhance recognition by writing the characters by hand, researchers say. Some physicians say handwriting could be a good cognitive exercise for baby boomers working to keep their minds sharp as they age…

Most schools still include conventional handwriting instruction in their primary-grade curriculum, but today that amounts to just over an hour a week, according to Zaner-Bloser Inc., one of the nation's largest handwriting-curriculum publishers.

Even at institutions that make it a strong priority, such as the private Brearley School in New York City, "some parents say, 'I can't believe you are wasting a minute on this,'" says Linda Boldt, the school's head of learning skills.

Recent research illustrates how writing by hand engages the brain in learning.

During one study at Indiana University published this year, researchers invited children to man a "spaceship," actually an MRI machine using a specialized scan called "functional" MRI that spots neural activity in the brain. The kids were shown letters before and after receiving different letter-learning instruction. In children who had practiced printing by hand, the neural activity was far more enhanced and "adult-like" than in those who had simply looked at letters.

"It seems there is something really important about manually manipulating and drawing out two-dimensional things we see all the time," says Karin Harman James, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Indiana University who led the study.

The Juggle: In Digital Age, Does Handwriting Still Matter?

Adults may benefit similarly when learning a new graphically different language, such as Mandarin, or symbol systems for mathematics, music and chemistry, Dr. James says. For instance, in a 2008 study in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, adults were asked to distinguish between new characters and a mirror image of them after producing the characters using pen-and-paper writing and a computer keyboard.

The result: For those writing by hand, there was stronger and longer-lasting recognition of the characters' proper orientation, suggesting that the specific movements memorized when learning how to write aided the visual identification of graphic shapes.

Other research highlights the hand's unique relationship with the brain when it comes to composing thoughts and ideas. Virginia Berninger, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, says handwriting differs from typing because it requires executing sequential strokes to form a letter, whereas keyboarding involves selecting a whole letter by touching a key.

She says pictures of the brain have illustrated that sequential finger movements activated massive regions involved in thinking, language and working memory—the system for temporarily storing and managing information.

And one recent study of hers demonstrated that in grades two, four and six, children wrote more words, faster, and expressed more ideas when writing essays by hand versus with a keyboard.

For research at Indiana University, children undergo specialized MRI brain scans that spot neurological activity.

Even in the digital age, people remain enthralled by handwriting for myriad reasons—the intimacy implied by a loved one's script, or what the slant and shape of letters might reveal about personality.

During actress Lindsay Lohan's probation violation court appearance this summer, a swarm of handwriting experts proffered analysis of her blocky courtroom scribbling. "Projecting a false image" and "crossing boundaries," concluded two on celebrity news and entertainment sitehollywoodlife.com.

Beyond identifying personality traits through handwriting, called graphology, some doctors treating neurological disorders say handwriting can be an early diagnostic tool.

"Some patients bring in journals from the years, and you can see dramatic change from when they were 55 and doing fine and now at 70," says P. Murali Doraiswamy, a neuroscientist at Duke University. "As more people lose writing skills and migrate to the computer, retraining people in handwriting skills could be a useful cognitive exercise."

In high schools, where laptops are increasingly used, handwriting still matters. In the essay section of SAT college-entrance exams, scorers unable to read a student's writing can assign that portion an "illegible" score of 0.

Even legible handwriting that's messy can have its own ramifications, says Steve Graham, professor of education at Vanderbilt University. He cites several studies indicating that good handwriting can take a generic classroom test score from the 50th percentile to the 84th percentile, while bad penmanship could tank it to the 16th.

"There is a reader effect that is insidious," Dr. Graham says. "People judge the quality of your ideas based on your handwriting."

Handwriting-curriculum creators say they're seeing renewed interest among parents looking to hone older children's skills—or even their own penmanship.

Nan Barchowsky, who developed the Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting method to ease transition from print-script to joined cursive letters, says she's sold more than 1,500 copies of "Fix It … Write" in the past year…

Indiana University

In children who had practiced writing by hand, the scans showed heightened brain activity in a key area, circled on the image at right, indicating learning took place.

[Please go to this Wall Street Journal link to see the graphics in this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531932754922518.html -- Donna Garner]

Write to Gwendolyn Bounds at wendy.bounds@wsj.com

Hope Alabama Board of Education Will Envision Their Legacy Nov 18th As They Vote On Common Core Standards

My response to Alabama Board of Education’s decision on Nov. 18 to commit to the Common Core Standards:

Please remember this little graphic that explains succinctly the dangers of the Common Core Standards/Race to the Top. 

*The arrow means “lead(s) to”: 

National standards  →  national assessments  →  national curriculum → teachers’ salaries tied to students’ test scores  →  teachers teaching to the test each and every day  → national indoctrination of our public school children  →  national database of students and teachers

===================================================================

The dangers of Alabama being forced to teach the Obama administration’s national curriculum:

“Obama’s Dangerous Agenda Sweeping over our Schools”

by Donna Garner

11.8.10

On Nov. 6, 2010, the New York Times weighed in on the bullying issue in schools, and the article affirms what I have been saying in my articles: The Obama administration aligned with Kevin Jennings’ gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender agenda is being forced into schools under the guise of the “bullying” issue.     

To give you important background information, please take the time to read through my three articles before you read the New York Times article (posted below).

One of the most gripping statistics that I found in the latest Centers for Disease Control HIV report (2005-2008) is the following; and I believe it says it all:

From 2005-2008…Most (74%) diagnoses of HIV infection in adults and adolescents were in males. Among males diagnosed with HIV infection from 2005-2008, 70% were attributed to male-to-male sexual contact. The percentage of diagnosed HIV infections attributed to male-to-male sexual contact was even larger (85%) among males aged 13 to 24 years.”

We as adults must protect our children from being indoctrinated into the homosexual lifestyle; it is truly a matter of life and death.

My Three Articles

(1) “What Is the Centers for Disease Control?” -- 10.23.10:  http://www.educationnews.org/breaking_news/health/101841.html

(2) “Bullying Agenda” -- 10.26.10:  http://www.educationnews.org/index.php?news=101979

(3) “Open Letter to Parents, Legislators, School Personnel: Which Policy Are You Going To Promote?” -- 11.7.10:

http://www.educationnews.org/blogs/102489.html

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/us/07bully.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=education

New York Times

November 6, 2010

In Efforts to End Bullying, Some See Agenda

By ERIK ECKHOLM

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

Texas Gov Rick Perry asks "Why would we trade our ability to educate our children?"

Gov. Rick Perry on National Education Standards”

9.30.10

 

Quotes from Texas Governor Rick Perry in this excellent video:

“The fact is,” Perry said, “that Washington’s Race to the Top, with their national standards, and their national testing — yet to be worked out, of course — we think would be devastating to the young people in the state of Texas.”

“Why would we trade our ability to educate our children for some faceless bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., for, frankly, a small amount of money in the grand scheme of things?”

 

Please click on this link to watch a brief but very important video in which Gov. Perry warns about the federal takeover of the public schools by the Obama administration:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7hgCntt6zI&feature=player_embedded

 

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

 

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http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/29/dont-mess-with-texas-gov-rick-perry-leads-opposition-to-national-standards/

The Heritage Foundation -- The Foundry

Exclusive Interview with Gov. Rick Perry

Posted September 29th, 2010 at 3:00pm

President Obama and his administration have mostly escaped criticism during the week-long Education Nation series on NBC. But outside the friendly confines of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, there’s a different view of the Obama administration’s desire to centralize control in Washington, D.C.

While an alarming number of states have signed on to Obama’s education agenda — which seeks to consolidate power with federal bureaucrats — some leaders are willing to take a stand. Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) is one of them. He has led the opposition to national education standards. He makes a powerful and principled case for protecting local control and preserving federalism. Perry spoke exclusively to Heritage about the issue.

The administration has used its Race to the Top grant program to quietly convince 34 states to support national standards. Congress had no say in the matter. In fact, the standards were developed by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers.

“The fact is,” Perry said, “that Washington’s Race to the Top, with their national standards, and their national testing — yet to be worked out, of course — we think would be devastating to the young people in the state of Texas.”

Equally troubling for Perry is the process by which the Obama administration has persuaded states to support its education agenda. By dangling money before cash-starved states, many governors jumped at the chance to compete for Race to the Top grants. Perry wasn’t enticed.

“Why would we trade our ability to educate our children for some faceless bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., for, frankly, a small amount of money in the grand scheme of things?”

Perry might be the most vocal, but he’s not alone. After the first round of Race to the Top concluded, nine states had reconsidered and, for a variety of reasons, chose not to participate in the second round of competition. States with high standards — notably Massachusetts and Virginia — have expressed concern about moving backward. Still, it’s an uphill battle.

Perry recognizes the challenge, but remains hopeful that a new crop of governors might next year reconsider ceding so much control to the federal government.

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

Tying It Neatly--Title I Funds To Common Core=Nationalizing Education?

To:  All Texans 

Date:  9.18.10

Please read carefully these excerpts from one of my previous articles because there is a possibility that the Obama administration might try to tie Title I funds to Common Core Standards/ Race to the Top.  If that were to happen, we in Texas would need to be prepared to wage a huge battle to keep the feds from completely taking over our public schools (e.g., as my article below explains).

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

(1)  On 9.16.10, I wrote “Am I a Wacko Now?” (http://www.educationnews.org/index.php?news=100137 ) in which I tried to warn people all around the country that the Obama administration has succeeded in taking over the public schools of nearly every state (except for Texas and Alaska) through Common Core Standards (CCS) and Race to the Top (RTTT). This was done while many conservatives and Republicans basically “sat on their hands” and did nothing. 

Obama and his administration skillfully groomed CCS/RTTT to divide and conquer, thus silencing the usual conservative/Republican opposition to Big Government.  Obama, working with U. S. Sect. of Education Arne Duncan and using Bill Gates’ money, managed to inject into CCS/RTTT an  emphasis on charter schools (which the conservatives/Republicans basically like). 

Secondly, the Obama administration also tied individual students’ assessment scores directly to teacher evaluations, thus inflaming the teachers’ unions (another aspect that conservatives/Republicans generally like because they prefer private enterprise to unions).

By inserting these two provisions into CCS/RTTT, the Obama administration and the Democrats successfully silenced the usual opposition; and while the country was fighting the federal takeover of the public schools, most citizens missed the fact that the federal government was taking over their children’s public schools.

Unfortunately, the charter schools that the Obama administration is supporting are not the kind of charter schools that the conservatives/Republicans are picturing.  Remember that Sect. of Education Arne Duncan tried to establish a gay charter school while he was the superintendent in Chicago, and nothing could make the Obama crowd any happier than to have “social justice” charter schools.

As of Sept. 9, 2010, thirty-seven (37) states had signed up to follow the Common Core Standards.  

The following states “won” the right to have their students thoroughly indoctrinated by the federal government because these states are taking the federal funds from Race to the Top:  District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia,Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Tennessee 

The ironic part is that the threat/carrot/stick of Race to the Top caused other states to push through the Obama administration’s CCS/RTTT stipulations to try to get the funds, but the federal funds only pay the state a one-time fee of approximately $75 per student.  For this pittance, the above-mentioned states have put their students directly into the hands of the Obama administration.

As you study the graphic below (highlighted in red), please ask yourself how easy it would be for the Obama administration to input pro-Islam/anti-Christian, anti-Judeo and social justice bias (multiculturalism, political correctness, global warming, diversity, acceptance of homosexuality, etc.) into the national assessments.

The CCS (1) English / Language Arts and (2) Math standards have already been published; the (3) Science CCS are in the pipeline; and the (4) Social Studies CCS are coming soon.

No public hearings have been held on any of these curriculum requirement documents nor are any likely to be held in the future.

The people chosen to write these documents are aligned with the Obama administration.  The entire CCS/RTTT plan was never voted on by our elected members of Congress. 

As the graphic below shows, teachers will be forced by CCS/RTTT to “teach to the test” each and every day because their jobs will depend upon it.  Sadly, the “tests” will actually be “national assessments” meaning that they will not have right-or-wrong, up-or-down answers.

Instead, the national assessments will be performance-based and subjectively scored based upon the value system of the scorer.  Subjectivity allows for students’ opinions, beliefs, and emotions to be assessed by scorers who have opinions, beliefs, and emotions that may not be in line with those of students’ parents. The U. S. Department of Education has awarded $330 million for these national assessments to be developed.   

Worse yet, to whom will the parent go to complain if he feels his child’s national assessments have been graded wrong -- to the U. S. Department of Education in the insular world of  Washington, D. C.? 

This is the way that the Common Core Standards and Race to the Top work.  The arrows mean “lead to.”

National standards  →  national assessments  →  national curriculum → teachers’ salaries tied to students’ test scores  →  teachers teaching to the test each and every day  →  national indoctrination of our public school children  →  national database of students and teachers

It is past time for citizens to rise up and stop the takeover of the public schools by those who want to crush the principles upon which our country is founded.  

I would encourage each person who reads this e-mail to contact those who are running for elected office on Nov. 2, 2010, and get a firm commitment from them that they will commit to repeal the appropriation of funds for Common Core Standards and Race to the Top. 

So far, there was $100 Billion in the Stimulus package for public schools with $1.35 Billion in Obama’s 2011 budget for education. The jobs bill passed on 8.4.10 and contained $26 Billion for the public schools.  Enough is enough.  

I also believe it is time for Congress to repeal all funding for the

U. S. Department of Education because it has become a funnel through which indoctrination is pouring into our children’s minds.  Those duties that the U. S. Dept. of Education does that are imperative need to be shuffled off to other government agencies to perform.

Remember that Kevin Jennings was chosen to head up the U. S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. 

Jennings is also the founder of Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN); and it was his organization that led discussions at a “Fistgate” seminar in Massachusetts where young teens were guided on how to perform dangerous homosexual perversions, including fisting.

If you want to learn even more about Common Core Standards/Race to the Top, please read further:

Posted by Donna Garner on 9.8.10:

CCSI Exposed--Can America Afford To Be In The Dark?--The Price Are The Children--Beware and Act Now with Knowledge

Hear the true story of the takeover of the public schools by the Obama administration (with the help of Bill Gates et al) under the Common Core Standards Initiative and the Race to the Top. 

In this roundtable discussion, you will hear explanations from:

Professor Jim Milgram (mathematics content specialist, Stanford University)

Professor Sandra Stotsky (English / Language Arts content specialist,University of Arkansas)

Betty Peters (member of Alabama State Board of Education)

Peyton Wolcott (investigative journalist in Texas,www.peytonwolcott.com)

Beth Schultz (math educator, parent activist in Maine)

Diana Crews (Alabama radio host of City on a Hill,http://cityonahill.squarespace.com/city-on-a-hill-blogs/2010/9/4/nationalizing-or-federalizing-education-ccsi-the-inside-stor.html )

Donna Garner (activist and retired Texas teacher) 

Summary graphic:

National standards  →  national tests  →  national curriculum → teachers’ salaries tied to students’ test scores  →  teachers teaching to the test each and every day  →  national indoctrination of our public school children  →  national database

Please click here to listen to the roundtable discussion:

Direct download: 9-1-10_CCSI_part_2.mp3

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com