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EducationalFreedom.com News Update
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Learn more about EducationalFreedom.com
http://educationalfreedom.com
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March 17, 2004
FROM THE EFC EDITORS
0) Scaring Liberals for Fun and Profit?
HOMESCHOOLING IN THE NEWS
1) New [NY] regulations prompt complaints from home-schooled students
2) NYS Educators Crackdown On Home Schoolers
3) Madison [SD] board allows home schoolers into activities
4) [IA] Bill would allow parents to teach driving
5) Who Should Teach Iowa Teens to Drive?
6) Editorial: Wrong turn on driver ed
7) Parents Of Virtual Academy Students Ask For Funding
8) [MS] 2004 Legislature bill status
9) I Team Commune Update
10) In pursuit of Christian athletes
11) [SC] A battle on the homefront
12) [PA] Home school policy upheld
13) [PA] Wohar knows about home schooling, claims it's better
14) [PA] Mon Valley districts split
15) Lawmakers need to decide if homeschoolers can play sports
16) When home is the school, there's time for extras
17) Home schooling is a shared commitment in Clarke and Loudoun
18) Stafford parents seek to combine best of home-school, prep-school
education
19) Some parents prefer freedom, flexibility of home schooling
20) Expert Hails Home Schooling As American Family's Great Hope
HOMESCHOOLERS Talk Back To The NEWS
21) Home-schooling put at risk
22) Somebody should whack this guy with a cluestick
23) It takes a village idiot to write an editorial
HOMESCHOOLERS IN THE NEWS
24) Science fair shows off student skills
25) Patti Radle of District 5 is devoted to serving the poor, Hispanics,
women and children
26) Teens achieve harmony
27) Courtney Jackson is a poster child who can't see the poster.
28) Education on wheels
29) Home-schooled 7th-grader state spelling champion
30) Word perfect: Tiverton eighth-grader finishes runner-up to Pawtucket
boy at statewide spelling bee
31) Daily spelling practice makes perfect for seventh-grader
32) Eighth-grader wins county spelling bee
INSTITUTIONALIZED EDUCATION
33) Sexual Abuse by Educators Is Scrutinized
34) Probe: Chicago schools left computers unused
35) Time May Be Up for Naps in Pre-K Class
36) Web site calling for education secretary's dismissal
37) Kids Fingerprinted for Fla. School Bus Rides
38) Go Ahead, Kids, Chase the Alligator
39) Teachers behaving badly
40) Student Suspended After Police Dog Smells Drugs
41) Minnesota's school testing results inflated
42) Whistle-blower in Education Department is fired
43) 'Greatest Generation' Struggled With History, Too
44) President's Initiative to Shake Up Education Is Facing Protests
45) Ninth grade: a school year to be reckoned with
46) Students to DC: More aid
47) Excess aid pushes up college costs
THE EXPERTS
48) Drug Tests on Foster Kids Spark Scandal in NYC
49) Washington State Population Control Bill Would Urge Only Two Children
50) Teen pregnancies increase after sex education classes
51) US study of teenage sexual disease destroys basis of virginity crusade
52) DSS Follows The Money, Makes An Extra $90 Million Per Year
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
53) Freedom Biography: Rose Wilder Lane
54) Give Me Liberty [full text link]
55) Mars Fun Zone
56) Native American Geometry
57) Leon's Almanac of Political History
COMMENTARY
58) For they know not what they do
59) The pressure to be perfect parents
60) Repeal every law enacted since 1912
61) Who's the Boss? Why Government Schools Fear Parental Involvement
62) The Rat in Bureaucrat
63) The Home School Revolution: Towards Rational Education
64) Feminist Homeschooling
65) A New American Century
66) Globalization of quotas
67) California Court Ignores Separation of Church and State
68) When dads are disposable, I fear for my sons
69) The Voucher System -Trap for the Unwary
70) The Pledge of a Grievance
THE LIGHTER SIDE
71) EVOLUTION OF MATH INSTRUCTION IN CALIFORNIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS
72) Around and Around and...
73) Forget Mars, just open the refrigerator
74) Lockstep Thinking -- Spare Me
RECOMMENDED READING
75) Rational Review News Digest
76) Dale Reed's Math Pages
SUPPORTING EFC
77) EFC DVD Rental Program
78) Amazon.com
79) What the Heck!
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FROM THE EFC EDITORS
0) Scaring Liberals for Fun and Profit?
The Secret is Out, We've Been Busted, The Jig is Up.
On February 26th, the Economist proclaimed that homeschoolers are "George
Bush's Secret Weapon". (http://tinyurl.com/2llk2)
On March 8th, the NY Times revealed more about that "secret weapon" in
"College for the Home-Schooled Is Shaping Leaders for the Right" -- now NY
Times premium content but text can still be viewed here, if you look
quickly :-). http://tinyurl.com/2fklc.
And this week we have Kyle Williams, the 15-year-old WorldNet Daily
protegee, with "Homeschoolers: Political force of the future" -- proudly
deeming homeschoolers the last great hope of the "vast right-wing
conspiracy" (http://tinyurl.com/yr6f9).
My my. Amazing that individuals who reject, as much if not more than
anything else, the cookie-cutter mentality of government-run,
taxpayer-funded factory-model school -- should find themselves boxed up and
labeled like so many little gingerbread men.
Just thumbing through one of my daughter's composition books a few weeks
ago, I stumbled upon an essay she had written entitled
"Government." Although it was short, it revealed a clear understanding of
force, power, fraud, the inherent nature of government, and liberty and
freedom -- clearer than I would have thought she could be at her
age. Clearer than I thought she could be, in spite of all the hours on
original source documents and discussions of the history of government and
that most important factor -- the fact that she's mine :-). At the bottom
of her essay, she had signed her name, and beside her name, "J.N.", which,
upon questioning, she told me was "Juris Naturalist". When I asked her
what this term meant about her, she replied that it means just two
things: (1) Do all you have agreed to do and (2) Don't mess with others or
their stuff. "No," she said, "make it three things. Nobody messes with me
or mine either."
By golly, I do believe she's got it.
Perhaps, as Kyle said, "liberals should be scared" -- but so should those
other power-hungry, collectivist, group-think, force-your-beliefs-on-others
type fella's. Because Kyle. And whomever else it may concern. There are
way too many homeschoolers who won't be marching lock-step -- Left Right
Left Right / Left of Left Right of Right / Left Left / Right Right -- to
_anybody's_ tune.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
HOMESCHOOLING IN THE NEWS
1) New [NY] regulations prompt complaints from home-schooled students
"NY State education officials say they are trying to provide more ways for
home-schooled students to prove their worthiness for college, but advocates
for the estimated 25,000 youths being educated at home in New York argue
that proposed new regulations fail to correct injustices and may make them
worse. At issue is the state's decision last year to begin enforcing rules
that students have to have a high school diploma or its equivalent to get
into public colleges."
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--homeschoolers-col0314mar14,0,2494067.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire
http://tinyurl.com/3go6p
=========
2) NYS Educators Crackdown On Home Schoolers
"Advocates for home-schooled children say proposed new regulations will
make it harder to prove their worthiness for college. At issue is the
state's decision to begin enforcing rules that students need a high school
diploma or equivalent to get into public colleges."
http://1010wins.com/topstories/winstopstories_story_075073931.html
http://tinyurl.com/36d5v
=========
3) Madison [SD] board allows home schoolers into activities
"The school board in Madison has decided to let home-schooled students take
part in interscholastic activities if they enroll in at least one academic
class per year. ...Before the measure passed, board member Rod Goeman
urged consideration of a two-class requirement. It was generous of the
district to consider allowing home-schooler participation at all, he
said. 'I just think it's important for those kids to have a little more
rounded education,' he said."
[More rounded. Got it.]
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/8162492.htm
http://tinyurl.com/3ds95
=========
4) [IA] Bill would allow parents to teach driving
"A bill that would allow parents to teach driver's education to their own
home-schooled children passed the House on Tuesday. ... Rep. Mary Mascher,
D-Iowa City, said she opposed the bill for safety reasons, saying
home-school parents may not be qualified to teach driving. 'Being a good
driver does not automatically make you a good teacher,' Mascher said. She
also said the bill will invite lawsuits because it establishes a two-tiered
system in which parents of home-schooled students could teach their own
children to drive, but parents of public and private school students could
not."
http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2004/03/10/news/breaking_news/27c677444a9102a986256e530041edbf.txt
http://tinyurl.com/3bfyk
=========
5) Who Should Teach Iowa Teens to Drive?
"Who is more qualified to teach teenagers how to drive, an instructor or
the kid's parents? The answer is at the center of the debate over a bill
that's made its way into the Iowa senate. And if it's signed into law, the
measure would allow home-school parents to educate their children behind
the wheel.
Students at the Triple 'R' Driving School spend hours in the classroom and
behind the wheel with instructors with years of experience. The instructors
say those years are their most valuable resource when they teach a teen to
drive."
http://www.kcrg.com/article.aspx?art_id=78399&cat_id=123
http://tinyurl.com/2lxc7
=========
6) Editorial: Wrong turn on driver ed
"Some Iowa lawmakers want to give parents who home school children the
opportunity to also be their driver education teachers. A bill to do this
passed the House and is headed for the Senate. It's dangerous legislation:
Parents won't typically be as well-trained as current driver ed teachers."
http://desmoinesregister.com/opinion/stories/c2125555/23777581.html
http://tinyurl.com/2ag59
=========
7) Parents Of Virtual Academy Students Ask For Funding
"Parents of students at the Idaho Virtual Academy, the state's largest
charter school asked state lawmakers for what they called fair and adequate
funding. ... The parents at the gathering said they believe the Department
of Education has refused Idaho Virtual Charter the same funding other
online charter schools have received. 'I would go back to home school and
that means I'm on my own, it means extreme hardship financially on the
family and it means no testing to see how they're doing,' said Linda Tinker
a parent of an Idaho Virtual Academy student."
http://www.kbcitv.com/x5154.xml?ParentPageID=x5157&ContentID=x51473&Layout=KBCI.xsl&AdGroupID=x5154
http://tinyurl.com/2o3lw
=========
8) [MS] 2004 Legislature bill status
[Dead in Committee]
"HOME SCHOOL: SB 2056 would have required public schools to give
home-schooled students the option of "dual enrollment," to take classes or
participate in extracurricular activities."
http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0403/10/ma03a.html
http://tinyurl.com/yumys
=========
9) I Team Commune Update
"Investigators say the children they saw at the commune were around a nasty
odor, flies and backed up sewage. If you think that sounds bad, the leader
of the so-called commune is facing rape charges. The commune is located off
Angola Road, west of Crissey Road towards Swanton. Police say there may
have been as many as 29 children seen there in filthy conditions. The man
who runs it is Hashim El-Amin. El-Amin calls himself 'Imam' which means the
leader of prayer in the Muslim religion. He calls the commune a home school
and egg farm."
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/news/CommuneConcerns2_03102004.html
http://tinyurl.com/3f75k
=========
10) In pursuit of Christian athletes
"...this is a boom time for Christian colleges and universities, along with
their athletic programs. Many are asking: What does it mean to have
"Christian" athletics? ... Schools that emphasize academics and spiritual
values will also need stronger ties to national networks of ministries,
home-school families and Christian high schools that stress athletics,
noted McCaw."
http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=1197105&TP=getlifestyle
http://tinyurl.com/ytryc
=========
11) [SC] A battle on the homefront
Debate rages as SCHSL prepares to vote on proposal to allow home-schooled
students to play on public high school teams
"Like athletically inclined home-schoolers in most states, Hall's players
search for recreation opportunities wherever they can find them in church
leagues, YMCAs and community centers. Just not at their local public
school. But that could change. A proposal before the South Carolina High
School League this week would allow home-schoolers to participate on
public-school teams. The proposal, which is controversial and considered a
long shot even by supporters, would add South Carolina to a growing number
of states that allow nonstudents access to interscholastic teams."
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/sports/8182680.htm
http://tinyurl.com/27ykc
=========
12) [PA] Home school policy upheld
"A change of heart by some Monessen School Board directors Tuesday was
enough to keep home-schooled students from participating in
extra-curricular activities."
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleyindependent/news/s_183828.html
http://tinyurl.com/2ovst
=========
13) [PA] Wohar knows about home schooling, claims it's better
"Wohar said she had no choice but to send three of her kids to cyber school
because, 'I asked California three times to allow my kids to participate in
sports and they turned me down.' As a result, California Area is paying
$18,000 to $30,000 a year for the three Wohar children to be cyber schooled."
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleyindependent/news/s_183832.html
http://tinyurl.com/2gp25
=========
14) [PA] Mon Valley districts split
"Mid-Mon Valley school districts - like their counterparts across the
commonwealth - are split on whether home-schooled students can participate
in extra-curricular activities."
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleyindependent/news/s_183827.html
http://tinyurl.com/3ahvl
=========
15) Lawmakers need to decide if homeschoolers can play sports
"Whether or not homeschooled children can participate in public school
extracurricular activities is being posed in another Lehigh Valley school
district. For several years, an Allentown family tried to persuade the
Allentown School District to let their homeschooled son play soccer. They
never succeeded. Now it's a Bethlehem family who wants the Bethlehem Area
School District to allow their homeschooled daughter to participate in
sports. ...David and Laura Green who asked the school board Feb. 23 to let
their homeschooled children participate in extracurricular activities. 'We
pay taxes,' said Mrs. Green..."
http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/all-editorial2mar10,0,117456.story?coll=all-newsopinion-hed
http://tinyurl.com/28vds
=========
16) When home is the school, there's time for extras
"Home-schooled children participate in eight extracurricular activities
within a year on average, shattering any myths that these kids spend all
their time indoors studying, a new study shows. ...Ms. Van Pelt said the
fact that home-schooled children are so socially active while showing
strong academic skills speaks volumes of the positive impact of home
schooling. ...'Education delivered in an institutional setting doesn't tap
into all of what it takes to shape a kid,' she said. 'We give them the gift
of time. We give them the gift of space.'"
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040312/HOMESCHOOL12/TPEducation/
http://tinyurl.com/2vbff
=========
17) Home schooling is a shared commitment in Clarke and Loudoun
"Brenda Murn and her four young sons were busy baking 'kiribath' in their
kitchen in Berryville. The traditional Sri Lankan dish of rice cooked in
milk symbolizes a bountiful year ahead. But to the Murns it was a fun,
hands-on way to augment the history lesson of the day for these
home-schoolers. ... 'When the 2-year-old has one of those days when he
needs more attention, it can be tough,' she said. 'But we have a good
network of home-schoolers locally, and we all help each other.That network
spans Clarke and Loudoun counties. Approximately 150 children from 49
families in both counties come together regularly to share learning
experiences and fun. Dona DeGree, a mother of six children ages 9 months to
12 years, coordinates the group called the Covenant Learning Co-op."
http://www.zwire.com/site/tab3.cfm?newsid=11109798&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506078&rfi=6
http://tinyurl.com/2zxd9
=========
18) Stafford parents seek to combine best of home-school, prep-school
education
"A different type of Christian school will begin classes in Stafford County
this fall. A group of parents who teach their children at home are forming
Grace Preparatory, which blends a traditional private school with home
schooling."
http://www.freelancestar.com/News/FLS/2004/032004/03132004/1292716
http://tinyurl.com/2bohk
=========
19) Some parents prefer freedom, flexibility of home schooling
"Two home school associations in the area continue to flourish as a steady
number of parents opt to educate their children at home."
http://www.wisinfo.com/thereporter/news/archive/local_15174444.shtml
http://tinyurl.com/2b9g4
=========
20) Expert Hails Home Schooling As American Family's Great Hope
"An expert on the family is crediting the home schooling movement with
helping to re-establish the traditional family in the United States. Dr.
Allan Carlson of the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society, is
offering high praise for the home schoolers of the nation. Carlson says the
American family was being eroded by feminism, no-fault divorce, and the
growth of day-care. But then, he says, along came the home schooling
movement and much of that has started to change."
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/152004c.asp
http://tinyurl.com/2c2td
----------------------------------------------------------------------
HOMESCHOOLERS Talk Back To The NEWS
21) Home-schooling put at risk
"As a home-school parent myself, I feel obliged to inform you that the
public school system's alternative schools programs, which Herald Writer
Victor Balta reported on Feb. 20, are not the choice of most home-schoolers
nationwide. In fact, many home-schooling families are opposed to these
schools and view them as a threat to the autonomy and integrity of
home-schooling."
http://www.heraldnet.com/Stories/04/3/13/18316286.cfm
http://tinyurl.com/323jf
=========
22) Somebody should whack this guy with a cluestick
"Is it too much to expect that editorial writers will actually have a clue
about the subject they are editorializing?"
http://www.odonnellweb.com/mtarchives/000924.html
http://tinyurl.com/2673o
=========
23) It takes a village idiot to write an editorial
"The Virginia Pilot editorializes about homeschool standards, and in the
process proves they have absolutely no standards about who they hire for
the editorial board at the paper."
http://www.odonnellweb.com/mtarchives/000920.html
http://tinyurl.com/295tt
----------------------------------------------------------------------
HOMESCHOOLERS IN THE NEWS
24) Science fair shows off student skills
Exhibitors tackle high-tech, health topics at contest
"Trevor Powers made a nanowire four days ago. The tiny filament - just a
fraction of the width of a human hair - is on the leading edge of the next
generation of computers. ... He stood in front of the contraption that he
spent $700 to build at his home and explained to anyone who passed by how
it works - not that many people besides Trevor understood. ...The machine,
as Trevor, 17, explained, is designed to do what it normally takes two
$50,000 reactors to accomplish: create the tiny wire that will someday be
used to build computers faster and smaller than anything available now.
'There is a huge possibility of using these in microprocessors in computers
that will be more powerful than the supercomputers we have now,' said
Trevor, who is home-schooled."
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2004/03/14ky/B1-fair03140-5930.html
http://tinyurl.com/2kw6e
=========
25) Patti Radle of District 5 is devoted to serving the poor, Hispanics,
women and children
"At least three mornings a week, you will find District 5 Councilwoman
Patti Radle where you always would have found her -- at Inner City
Development, teaching the children. ... her family's life is deeply
embedded in the life of the near West Side, where they have made their home
for more than three decades. Although she was from a military family that
moved often, she spent her first three years of college at Our Lady of the
Lake University before transferring to Marquette. That's where she met Rod,
who was on his way to the priesthood before meeting Patti. The folk music
that brought them together is still part of who they are; they sing at
coffeehouse fund-raisers to support their work at Inner City Development,
the cooperative home school to which they have devoted their lives."
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/citycouncil/stories/MYSA14.01H.burkett0314.576a740b.html
http://tinyurl.com/373ch
=========
26) Teens achieve harmony
"'It's fun,' said Kelly, 16, of the passion that led her to found her own
Irish band, Seis. ... 'They have a lot of harmony between them. They seem
to be very musically disciplined. They are very serious about what they're
doing,' Esler noted of the four teenage musicians who make up Seis. ...
Kelly posted fliers, and one in the library caught the attention of the
Newburn family. They lived not far away in the rural Post Oak area of
Spotsylvania County, where they had recently moved after living in Japan
and England. Both families home-school. Devon, 17, and his sister,
Brittany, 13, were interested in making music, and the match was made."
http://www.freelancestar.com/News/FLS/2004/032004/03142004/1294861
http://tinyurl.com/3y5q7
=========
27) Courtney Jackson is a poster child who can't see the poster.
"Through her eyes, the 21-year-old from Lyon can only make out shapes and
colors. It's been that way all her life. Any reading she does is with very
large-print books or publications printed in Braille using her fingers to
feel for raised bumps on paper. But Jackson doesn't focus on what she can't
do. She stresses what she can do. ... Jackson attended the Mississippi
School for the Blind in Jackson, but then went the home-school route."
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11115590&BRD=2038&PAG=461&dept_id=230617&rfi=6
http://tinyurl.com/yvw9y
=========
28) Education on wheels
Kenai family takes home-school studies on the road
"Blair and Ronna Martin school their kids at home, which usually means at
their house in Kenai. However, for four and a half months last fall, home
was a vintage 1976 school bus and the classroom was the western United States."
http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/031004/sch_031004sch001001.shtml
http://tinyurl.com/2nqbs
=========
29) Home-schooled 7th-grader state spelling champion
"Laura Ann Brown had eyed the state spelling bee title for some time.
'Poliomyelitis' finally brought the prize home. Laura Ann, a home-schooled
seventh-grader from Etowah County, outspelled 64 others to win the 77th
Alabama Spelling Bee on Saturday."
http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1079235243122051.xml
http://tinyurl.com/2qsld
=========
30) Word perfect: Tiverton eighth-grader finishes runner-up to Pawtucket
boy at statewide spelling bee
A home-schooled student from Pawtucket correctly spelled "coquetry"
Saturday to earn his second consecutive Rhode Island Statewide Spelling Bee
championship.
http://www.newportdailynews.com/articles/2004/03/08/news/news5.txt
http://tinyurl.com/3hk3v
=========
31) Daily spelling practice makes perfect for seventh-grader
"AT ABOUT 11:30 A.M. each day, seventh-grader Kim Doudna reports for
spelling practice at the Doudna home school, taught by her mom, Heidi. This
takes place after she is finished with her daily studies of religion,
handwriting, reading, English, math and history. In the afternoon, she
practices her violin and will complete her science work if she didn't get
to it earlier. The 15 minutes of daily spelling practice paid off Saturday
when Kim, 12, won the Daily News-Miner Interior Alaska Spelling Bee."
http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7254~2005829,00.html
http://tinyurl.com/35xgz
=========
32) Eighth-grader wins county spelling bee
Home-schooled Vigue now advances to JS contest on March 26
"The spelling style that home-schooled Samuel Vigue has developed over the
last four years earned the eighth-grader his first appearance in the
central Illinois spelling bee finals, the last step before national
competition."
http://www.pjstar.com/news/local/b2ec53ai053.html
http://tinyurl.com/3e5jy
----------------------------------------------------------------------
INSTITUTIONALIZED EDUCATION
33) Sexual Abuse by Educators Is Scrutinized
"A draft report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education concludes
that far too little is known about the prevalence of sexual misconduct by
teachers or other school employees, but estimates that millions of children
are being affected by it during their school-age years. ... despite the
limitations of the existing research base, the scope of the problem appears
to far exceed the priest abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, said
Charol Shakeshaft, the Hofstra University scholar who prepared the report.
... figures suggest that 'the physical sexual abuse of students in schools
is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests,' contended Ms.
Shakeshaft, who is a professor of educational administration at Hofstra, in
Hempstead, N.Y."
http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=26abuse.h23
http://tinyurl.com/39hun
=========
34) Probe: Chicago schools left computers unused
"Congressional investigators visiting Chicago as part of a probe into how
billions of dollars were spent to connect schools and libraries to the
Internet said they discovered Chicago Public Schools allowed $5 million of
computer equipment to languish in a warehouse for years. The discovery by
House Commerce and Energy Committee investigators, combined with findings
of waste in other cities, was likely to add to long-standing criticisms of
the $2.25 billion E-rate program that was launched by the Clinton
administration. ... 'We are knee-deep in our investigation,' which started
last year, Johnson said. 'It is clear to us that consumers around America
have been ripped off to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.' ... The
E-rate program was an extension of the Universal Service Fund, initially
created to help underwrite the cost of providing telephone service to rural
areas. ...The Center for Public Integrity, a non-profit watchdog group,
said in a report last year that 10 percent or more of consumers' monthly
telephone bills went toward the program."
[We pay Phone Bills.]
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0401160190jan16,1,7627409.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-utl
http://tinyurl.com/2dsmh
=========
35) Time May Be Up for Naps in Pre-K Class
"After lunch and snacks, alphabet and story times, the lights go off.
Sixteen tiny bodies sprawl on a sea of red foam mats, the sounds of
classical piano coaxing them to sleep. ...It's a daily ritual for the
pre-kindergarten students at Hoffman-Boston Elementary School in Arlington,
as it is at countless schools across the country. But in the increasingly
urgent world of public education, is it a luxury that 4-year-olds no longer
can afford?"
["Hey, Sleep at home cauze your mind time belongs to US" sez the
educrats.] Pediatricians say they don't need naps after age
3. Really? Was that fact determined before or _after_ they started
spending their days in Institutionalized Pressure Suits?]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58706-2004Mar14.html
http://tinyurl.com/3xn93
=========
36) Web site calling for education secretary's dismissal
"Unsatisfied with Secretary of Education Rod Paige's apology for calling
the nation's largest teachers union a "terrorist organization," a liberal
think tank has created a Web site calling on President Bush to fire the
former HISD superintendent. More than 2,000 people have signed the petition
at <http://www.firepaige.org>www.firepaige.org,
said Robert Borosage, the
co-director of Campaign for America's Future."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2441016
http://tinyurl.com/yvz8x
=========
37) Kids Fingerprinted for Fla. School Bus Rides
"For the past month, students in Lee County, Fla., have been thumbprinted
every time they get on and off the school bus. .. critics say thumbprinting
school kids and putting them on what they call 'Big Brother buses' is wrong."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,114118,00.html
http://tinyurl.com/2mvpq
=========
[Can you Fingerprint your way to safety?]
38) Go Ahead, Kids, Chase the Alligator
"A Florida school-bus driver is off the road for a while after letting some
kids play 'Crocodile Hunter' for real. Sherry Hattaway was taking students
from Pasco Middle and High Schools in Lacoochee, Fla., home last Thursday
afternoon when a four-foot alligator crossed the road and went into a
field, reports the St. Petersburg Times. 'Can we catch it? Can we catch
it?' asked some of the 11 kids on board, according to Jimmie Scroggins,
father of two riders. Hattaway first said no, then changed her mind and
pulled over."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,113746,00.html
http://tinyurl.com/2ogrd
=========
39) Teachers behaving badly
Utah schools work to screen bad eggs among applicants
"Sex with students. Buying drugs from kids. Writing pornographic stories
about children on school computers. Utah schools have been investigating a
rash of misconduct by their employees. The activity raises questions as to
how the public school system screens its hires."
[Unique Solution Found. Spend more money.]
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0%2C1249%2C595049061%2C00.html
http://tinyurl.com/yvc9h
=========
40) Student Suspended After Police Dog Smells Drugs
"Renard is your typical 16-year-old. A 'B' student, he's in school chorus,
and spends most of his free time on his computer. When Jenkins High campus
police called his name for a random drug check, he didn't think twice.
'They searched our classroom, lined us up outside in the hallway, and had
us empty our pockets,' he recalled. Then, the police dog started sniffing
his backpack. 'They told me my bag smelled like marijuana and cocaine,'
Renard said. ...When police searched Renard's bag, they found some books
and papers, all the normal stuff a kid who goes to school would have. They
did not find any drugs but suspended Renard and charged him with passive
participation. The school calls it part of its zero-tolerance policy."
http://wtoctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1698605&nav=0qq5LOnQ
http://tinyurl.com/2urwf
=========
41) Minnesota's school testing results inflated
"Those terrific statewide test score results released by the state
Department of Education last summer were too good to be true. ...the error
apparently was brought to the attention of the state's testing director
months earlier -- and before the state released the inaccurate results."
[And yet the focus remains on _academic_ standards.]
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1592/4652640.html
http://tinyurl.com/2op5q
=========
42) Whistle-blower in Education Department is fired
"The state Education Department fired a whistle-blower whose complaint
helped lead to a criminal charge and several probes of Gov. Jeb Bush's
school voucher programs."
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/03/09/State/Whistle_blower_in_Edu.shtml
http://tinyurl.com/22lg9
=========
43) 'Greatest Generation' Struggled With History, Too
"...according to recent papers by two researchers, it turns out Americans
have been deeply ignorant of their history for a very long time, while
still creating the strongest, if not the brightest, country in the world.
...'If anything,' writes Sam Wineburg ...'test results across the last
century point to a peculiar American neurosis: each generation's obsession
with testing its young only to discover -- and rediscover -- their
'shameful' ignorance. The consistency of results across time casts doubt on
a presumed golden age of fact retention. Appeals to it,' the article
continues, 'are more the stuff of national lore and wistful nostalgia for a
time that never was than a claim that can be anchored in the documentary
record.'"
[And that documentary record begins and ends with the government-run school
eras, measuring what they taught against what was retained. Thus we can
agree that public school has _never_ worked. "The reading in the first
stage, where [the people] will receive their whole education, is proposed..
to be chiefly historical. History by apprising them of the past will enable
them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other
times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and
designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise
it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views." and "A morsel of
genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable." ~~ Thomas
Jefferson. ]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41555-2004Mar8.html
http://tinyurl.com/2vaep
=========
44) President's Initiative to Shake Up Education Is Facing Protests
"Democratic legislators in Oklahoma were so unhappy with President Bush's
No Child Left Behind school improvement law that they drafted a resolution
calling on Congress to overhaul it. But at the last minute one of the
state's most conservative Republicans, State Representative Bill Graves,
stepped up with his own suggestion: Tell Congress to repeal it entirely.
The resolution passed, and Mr. Graves got a standing ovation."
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_5575.shtml
http://tinyurl.com/yss2b
=========
45) Ninth grade: a school year to be reckoned with
"Nationwide, the rate at which ninth-grade students don't get to 10th has
tripled in the past 30 years, according to a new study by Boston College.
...In North Carolina - an extreme case, but emblematic of a national trend
- about 15 percent of kids are now "retained" in ninth grade... Some
suspect a correlation with the staggering dropout rate: Nearly 1 in 5
students never returns for grade 10. Then, too, by the time retained
students finish ninth grade, many are near the age at which they can quit
without parental permission."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0316/p01s02-ussc.html
http://tinyurl.com/26pds
=========
46) Students to DC: More aid
"Tungekar was one of 22 NYU students who joined about 50 students from
Columbia and Cornell universities on what has become an annual two-day trip
to the nation's capital, to lobby legislators on behalf of their fellow
students for aid hikes. ...This year's trip was especially important as
Congress is now considering the 2005 budget and re-authorization of the
Higher Education Act, which governs most federal college programs,
including aid, said Dr. Alicia Hurley, director of the federal policy office."
http://www.nyunews.com/news/campus/6942.html
http://tinyurl.com/39ewx
=========
[Related editorial -- from 11/03:]
47) Excess aid pushes up college costs
"Colleges and their administrators, in short, have become aid addicts.
Government officials and politicians are the pushers; students and parents
the witting or unwitting enablers. And, as we weigh whether to reauthorize
the Higher Education Act, it's time to examine whether we should reverse
course."
http://www.uh.edu/ednews/2003/valley/200311/20031104finaideditorial.html
http://tinyurl.com/2fslo
----------------------------------------------------------------
THE EXPERTS
48) Drug Tests on Foster Kids Spark Scandal in NYC
"Were HIV-positive infants and children in the Manhattan foster care system
(search) used as guinea pigs in medical experiments? That question is at
the heart of a potential scandal that could propel child welfare systems in
North America toward greater transparency and accountability."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,113734,00.html
http://tinyurl.com/yszed
=========
49) Washington State Population Control Bill Would Urge Only Two Children
"While the bill stops short of setting Chinese-style limits on the number
of children a couple can have, it would require a taxpayer-funded pamphlet
from the state health department to talk about the alleged benefits of
having no more than two children."
http://www.lifenews.com/state365.html
http://tinyurl.com/yswol
=========
[Dueling Studies -- Or -- You could raise your own.]
50) Teen pregnancies increase after sex education classes
"Teenage pregnancies have risen fastest in areas of the country where the
Government has specifically targeted resources to reduce them, a new survey
has revealed. ... The Family Education Trust report analyses areas where
the Teenage Pregnancy Unit have set up programmes to reduce the number of
girls falling pregnant. The unit's strategy involves more explicit sex
education in schools, often conducted by nurses without teachers present;
free condoms; and sending birthday cards when girls reach 14 asking them to
attend confidential health checks without their parents. The trust
discovered, however, that in most places the strategy had backfired."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/14/npreg14.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/14/ixhome.html
http://tinyurl.com/2cbyg
=========
51) US study of teenage sexual disease destroys basis of virginity crusade
"American teenagers who take the pledge to remain virgins until they marry
have almost the same rate of sexually transmitted disease as other young
people, a new study of adolescent behaviour says. The finding destroys a
key rationale for the abstinence crusade - that it prevents disease - and
poses a strong challenge to a social engineering project that has been
embraced by the White House."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1166168,00.html
http://tinyurl.com/2ntxs
=========
[Massachusetts News is apparently highlighting this older article.]
52) DSS Follows The Money, Makes An Extra $90 Million Per Year
What's "Best For The Child" Is Secondary To More Federal Money
http://www.massnews.com/2002_editions/01_Jan/0102dss6.htm
http://tinyurl.com/2xwaq
----------------------------------------------------------------
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
The Future of Freedom Foundation
53) Freedom Biography: Rose Wilder Lane
http://www.fff.org/whatsnew/2004-03-13.htm
=========
The FFF biography contains excerpts from Lane's "Give Me Liberty". But the
entire article is online and well worth the read:
54) Give Me Liberty
"In 1919 I was a communist. My Bolshevik friends of those days are
scattered now; some are bourgeois, some are dead, some are in China and
Russia, and I did not know the last American chiefs of the Third
International, who now officially embrace Democracy. They would repudiate
me even as a renegade comrade, for I was never a member of The Party. But
it was merely an accident that I was not."
http://www.libertystory.net/LSDOCLANEGIVEMELIBERTY.htm
http://tinyurl.com/35tdk
=========
55) Mars Fun Zone
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/funzone_flash.html
=========
56) Native American Geometry
"Grade" "levels" -- 2nd to 9th
http://www.earthmeasure.com/Education/index.html
=========
Unique among Today in History Sites...
57) Leon's Almanac of Political History
http://perspicuity.net/cgi/hypercal.cgi
On March 12, 1953, the Department of Health, Welfare and Education was
created.
http://perspicuity.net/cgi/disp_day.cgi?3&12&2004
http://tinyurl.com/2o7wp
----------------------------------------------------------------
COMMENTARY
58) For they know not what they do
"The suggestion that the government should get out of the business of
running educational programs usually does not sit well with people. They
seem to think that the government invented schooling and that without
centralized guidance, it would disappear from the face of the earth and all
of our children would be stupid and destitute. This is far from the truth.
Like everything else that the government gets its grubby hands on, the
federal and state powers complain that local educational programs never
have enough money. ... The logic seems to follow that the more money that
is thrown at it, the better it will be. This could not be a more fatal line
of reasoning."
http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/bsmith/2004/03/11
http://tinyurl.com/2bc6r
=========
59) The pressure to be perfect parents
"Americans have been hounded on family issues to the point where we are
defensive, especially about children. We're preached at by experts,
politicians, and pompous organizations... all 'concerned' about the
children. Politically, it has become the most powerful appeal. Anyone
'standing up for kids' is almost assured of panicky support. American
parents have been hounded to the point where they're quite unsure whether
they're good parents or not. ...Government schools have had a lot to do
with creating such attitudes. They've inflicted 'expert' methods on what
can happen in school, and have instilled it to the point that parents feel
forced to adopt the same nonsensical attitudes at home."
http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/bsmith/2004/03/12
http://tinyurl.com/yvppo
=========
60) VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: Repeal every law enacted since 1912
"The problem with proposing 'pragmatic' solutions that might help the
statists out of the hideous swamps in which they have bemired themselves is
that we're surrounded by proud government-school graduates with little
historical perspective, who therefore assume everything our government now
does is historically 'normal,' and who are equally likely to denounce as
either a failed comedian or a 'nut' anyone who proposes anything radically
different."
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Mar-14-Sun-2004/opinion/23315601.html
http://tinyurl.com/3aad6
=========
61) Who's the Boss? Why Government Schools Fear Parental Involvement
"...Taken in tandem, the increase in the boy's punishment and the
superintendent's statement could be interpreted as a signal to parents: Get
involved in the school's disciplinary policies, and your child will suffer
the consequences."
http://www.acton.org/ppolicy/comment/article.php?id=186
http://tinyurl.com/3fnvz
=========
62) The Rat in Bureaucrat
"On February 23, the Arizona Republic printed a fascinating story about how
Christian Alf set up his own after-school business rat-proofing his
neighbors' houses. Two days later that same newspaper printed a follow-up:
the state of Arizona had put young Mr. Alf out of business, citing him with
two separate violations of state law."
http://www.termlimits.org/Press/Common_Sense/cs1065.html
http://tinyurl.com/yt6u8
=========
63) The Home School Revolution: Towards Rational Education
"Most people agree there has been a severe decline in the moral character
and quality of our population. Most still in the dating pool will tell you
there is a shortage of marriageable mates. Employers will tell you there is
a shortage of employable employees including many that cant even read or
write. Professors will tell you there is a lack of serious students. People
put the blame on all sorts of places, but usually fail to ask: what are we
being taught?"
http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/p/pawlik/2004/pawlik031404.htm
http://tinyurl.com/2tvko
=========
64) Feminist Homeschooling
"In many ways, it was Women and Gender Studies that pushed me along the
path to homeschooling. I was already on the path, with my critical-thinking
upbringing and horrible experiences in school. But WGST and sociology
taught me to look at the institutions of our culture, to examine how they
produce and alter our self-definitions and our definitions of others.
Learning about the workings of the assembly line of identity production
that is our consumer culture made me loathe to send my children into that
system. ...I'm doing serious work here. I'm doing my absolute best to
raise two fine thinkers. Two scholars and citizens who will have the skills
and training to be able to live their dreams, achieve their goals, and bear
their responsibilities. I don't want to level the playing field. I want to
change the game."
http://www.upsaid.com/teachermom/index.php?action=viewcom&id=289
http://tinyurl.com/2gn4t
=========
65) A New American Century
The Foundering Fathers Would Have Wept
"It is possible to become so inured to being told what to do, and how to do
it, and who to do it with -- to become so accustomed to being told what we
can say, what we may publicly believe, what we must seem to think, how we
must manage our affairs -- that we cease to notice just how regimented we
are. We are there. We now accept that very nearly everything whatsoever is
the proper domain of government. Why? ... Why is the government involved in
the schools?"
[Fred answered the first question with that last one quoted.]
http://fredoneverything.net/GummintUselessness.shtml
http://tinyurl.com/yvhgh
=========
66) Globalization of quotas
"A recent issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education had the front-page
headline: 'The global debate over affirmative action.' ... The Chronicle of
Higher Education's discussion of affirmative action in Malaysia, for
example, says it began because 'ethnic Malays held relatively little
economic power" and because of a "colonial legacy under which the country's
more urbanized Chinese inhabitants tended to prosper.' In reality, under
colonial rule the British provided free education to Malays, but the
Chinese minority had to provide their own. And the Chinese still completely
outperformed the Malays, both in educational institutions and in the economy."
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20040309-083303-4757r.htm
http://tinyurl.com/349td
=========
67) California Court Ignores Separation of Church and State
"...even the jaded may find their breath taken away by the stunning
decision of the California Supreme Court on March 2, holding that Catholic
Charities could be compelled to violate Catholic doctrine by offering its
employees insurance coverage for contraceptive products. ...Several federal
courts have rejected free exercise defenses claimed by conservative church
schools sued for sex discrimination by teachers fired for getting pregnant
out of wedlock. Similarly, religious universities have been required under
antidiscrimination principles to extend full recognition and funding to gay
rights organizations that advocate ideas contrary to the universities'
religious missions."
[Things to remember when contemplating "choice" programs and government
funding of faith-based services.]
http://www.cato.org/dailys/03-11-04.html
http://tinyurl.com/2aud3
=========
68) When dads are disposable, I fear for my sons
"Forty-four per cent of young (18 to 34-year-old) men questioned in the
2003 Australian Social Attitudes Survey agreed that "a single parent can
bring up children as well as a couple" - compared with about two-thirds (63
per cent) of same-aged women. So two in three young Australian males are
likely to partner a woman who may think she can do just as good a job
parenting on her own, and almost half these men don't see fathers as
essential. That's a lot of males having bought the message that they won't
play a critical role in the lives of their future children."
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/14/1079199092576.html
http://tinyurl.com/2m6sg
=========
[Worth Revisiting -- from 1971]
69) The Voucher System -Trap for the Unwary
"Given the apparent advantages of the voucher proposal and the nature of
the opposition, it is tempting for those who favor liberty to rush into the
breach and support it with unrestrained enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the
promise that some see in the voucher system is illusory."
http://www.libertyhaven.com/politicsandcurrentevents/educationhomeschoolingorchildren/vouchersys.html
http://tinyurl.com/2bucj
=========
70) The Pledge of a Grievance
"Extracting a government loyalty oath from public school children is
legalized extortion. Public schools are institutions of
coercion. Students are coerced to attend them. Parents are coerced to pay
for them. A compulsory pledge has no more legal or moral authority than a
confession tortured from a criminal suspect, no more validity than a
military oath extracted from a conscript, no more legitimacy than a promise
made to a burglar not to call the cops for two hours after your jewelry
walks out your front door in his pockets."
http://www.freecannon.com/PledgeOfAGrievance.htm
http://tinyurl.com/2aytw
----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE LIGHTER SIDE
Free Market Duck on
71) EVOLUTION OF MATH INSTRUCTION IN CALIFORNIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS
http://www.freemarketduck.com/pages/FMDBnCCol54.htm
http://tinyurl.com/2c32v
=========
72) Around and Around and...
"Thank goodness, after 49 years of unnoticed peril, the safety squads have
drastically slowed the Disney spinning teacups."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-tea7mar07,1,4528855.story
http://tinyurl.com/3bfd8
=========
73) Forget Mars, just open the refrigerator
"If NASA scientists really want to know about life on Mars, instead of
sending up robots that keep finding rocks, they need to send my wife, and
have her take a whiff of the Martian atmosphere. If there's a single
one-celled organism anywhere on the planet, she'll smell it. And if the
other astronauts don't stop her, she'll kill it with Lysol."
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/dave_barry/8170617.htm
http://tinyurl.com/2n863
=========
74) Lockstep Thinking
Spare Me
"Oh help. The religious orthodoxy that impedes discussion of biological
evolution continues with its accustomed dreadful tenacity. I'm going to
hide in Tierra del Fuego. ... If the faithful of evolution spent as much
time examining their theory as they do defending it, they might prove to be
right, or partly right, or discover all manner of interesting things
heretofore unsuspected."
http://fredoneverything.net/EvolutionAgain.shtml
http://tinyurl.com/29fj5
----------------------------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED READING
75) Rational Review News Digest
News:
http://www.rationalreview.com/news/
Rational Review News Digest
Early morning e-mail delivery, Monday through Friday
Subscribe:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rrnd/join
=========
76) Dale Reed's Math Pages
Are you looking for some interesting math ideas and web sites? If so,
this is a comprehensive list of sites for math and logo programming.
Check it out.
http://www.educationalfreedom.com/pages/dale_reed/index.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUPPORTING EFC
77) EFC DVD Rental Program
http://mentura.com/dvdrentals/EducationalFreedom.com.html
=========
78) Amazon.com
Shop at Amazon.com and support EducationalFreedom.com!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/educationalfr-20
=========
79) What the Heck!
Vote for EducationalFreedom.com in the WHat the Heck Top 25
Libertarian Sites Poll. Get us on the list!
http://www.whattheheck.com/cgi-bin/topsites/topsites.cgi?efreedom
----------------------------------------------------------------
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