Obama On, “Putting Children First”

"I sometimes wonder why there is not more outrage within the Black and Hispanic communities at Barack Obama for his betrayal of these two ethnic groups who voted overwhelmingly for him. I would think that this is an issue that would be of real importance to both those communities, as well as the American community as a whole. Maybe they are still under the influence of the Obama Cool Aid … and still chanting …..

"The simple truth is that this Hope and Change president has destroyed the chances of a good education for minority children in high risk areas like Washington, D.C. Barack Obama’s administration has ended the Hope for Washington, D.C. area children who were able to attend private schools, some on the verge of graduating. The Change is that they will now be back in the failed public school system.

"Some of these fortunate children who had recieved vouchers were even able to attend the Sidwell Friends School, a D.C. area private school where Obama sends his own children. Form his campaing speeches, one might have thought Obama would break the mold … step up … and maybe even lead by example by enrolling his children into the same public schools he is now condemning these children to … since those vouchers, which allowed some families to make up the difference and send their children to this $29000 per year private school, are now history.

"When Obama signed that Omnibus Spending Bill several weeks back, he put into effect legislation that had been included by several congressional democrats that will effectively end the school voucher program, and consign almost 2000 mainly Black and Hispanic school children back to the failed, violent, and poorly-performing D.C. public schools. He has, in effect, ended one of the rare federal programs which has actually achieved some success."

Still Love Those Comments

"By going along with Secretary Duncan’s plan to hollow out the D.C. voucher program this president, who has spoken so passionately about the importance of education, is playing rank politics with the education of poor children. It is an outrage…" -- Juan Williams

Comments:

"Unlike Juan, this black man was not ecstatic the night of Obama’s election. Quite the contrary. However, I understand why Juan and others would feel that way. The mere fact that a black man, any black man had assumed the highest office in not only America but the world, would most definitely engender pride and yes, ecstacy in most black people. But after the euphoria comes the reality. And the reality with Obama is that neither race nor ideology nor whatever could match the massive ego of this man. Everything is about him; Barack Hussien Obama. A choice between the rich and powerful NEA and black kids in DC will see Obama coming down squarely on the side of the NEA, everytime! Obama does, and will always do what’s good for Obama. About Juan Williams. This is not the first time he stood up to the so-called black power structure. In his book 'Enough' he shredded Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, The NAACP and most every other race hustler in America. So, to me anyway, this article taking Obama to task and exposing him as the lying little weasel that he is is not a surprise."

"All public officials should be forced to send their children/grandchildren to public schools. Then we will see how quickly they fix our failing schools."

"Education President? You mean the guy that spent $160 million with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, for no change in test scores? You gotta be kidding! Vouchers let parents control their children’s education–but only Big Brother Barack is wise enough to control education. Winston Smith, report to Room 101, immediately."

"Well better late than never Juan. Now that you are awake why don’t you fully open your eyes, open them, rub out the unicorn dust and see what is really happening. The DC voucher program was killed because it worked - not that it raised test scores - but it got parents involved… yes parents, the real enemy of the union and the administration. For generations the NEA and the Department of Education have worked to take over the role of parenting, and completely demoralize a whole sub-section of society (the poor). Vouchers showed the potential to empowered and change that class in a single generation. A simple program that would have lifted whole families out of poverty, illiteracy, crime and hopelessness. And at no additional cost to tax payers, in fact in a cost outcome it probably saves us all money. The program was killed to preserve the voting class the Democrats depend on - the Dependant class."

"You have to see things the media’s way to understand this. The amount of tax money spent on a project is the sole indicator of its success. What the project actually does, or fails to do, is irrelevant. The other things people might have done with that tax money are invisible. The alternatives to spending tax money range from unthinkable to absurd. What a different view of these government boondoggles the public might have, if news stations were required to display the actual results of a program in an on-screen text box. During the campaign, Obama could have been boasting of how the (Chicago) Annenberg Challenge is the crown jewel of his resume, and a box could have appeared next to him that said '$160 million spent with no improvement in test scores.' Or every appearance by a teacher’s union shill could be accompanied by a bar graph tracking increase in funding for the Department of Education versus the decline in test scores. Advocates of increased welfare benefits could be forced to share the screen with a running tally of how much money was spent on the War on Poverty, with no reduction in poverty. As it stands, a dollar spent on education by private citizens is meaningless, but place it into the hands of the government and it magically changes into thirty highly significant cents, radiant with caring and wisdom."

THE LAST AMERICANS

"As for those of you who’ve read some or even all of the above and still believe I’m exaggerating our current state of affairs, please let me point out a few things. Many of you may have read my first NWVs article, The Seven Deadly Sins of Public Education. I know you did because several hundred of you have written me and thanked me for saying what’s wrong with 'some' public schools. As I told you then, not all public schools are practicing all of the Seven Deadies, but some schools are indeed up to their eyeballs in Big Brother’s prole producing teaching strategies, and all schools are using some of these anti-learning devices. Public schools are NOT failures. They’re doing exactly what they were designed to do – dumb down the masses, so they can be more easily managed! If you have a child in a public school, please get him or her out."

Empty Promises on School Vouchers

"These new findings come on the heels of positive empirical findings for Milwaukee vouchers the week before and build on a large body of high-quality previous research consistently finding the same thing. If evidence were going to decide the voucher debate, there wouldn’t be a debate any more."

Love those comments:

DavidN:

"This is a really simple issue. The Democrats, frankly, are racists on this one, though no one will call them on it. Barack Obama sends his girls to a pricey private school, but takes steps to make certain that those who can’t afford the $30K/year tuition don’t have the same opportunity. Some of his supporters actually call those who support vouchers racist, usually because of the devastation they’d supposedly inflict on the public school system and its teacher contingent, which is heavily minority. Interestingly, Ariana Huffington, last I heard, sends her kids to private school also, but advocates that those who can’t afford it should be forced to send their kids to public schools, even when the schools are failing. The whole thing is ridiculous, and incredibly hypocritical."

Ford: Democrat School Choice Hypocrisy

"State Senator Robert Ford from Charleston County, South Carolina, is blasting his Democratic Party and saying it is not fair that elected politicians can exercise school choice while their constituents have to remain in the failing public schools.

"Senator Ford said: 'Whatever the amount of money that we spend on a child per year, that money is for the child — it's not for the school. So if you got a failing school, it simply means that that parent is wasting taxpayer money.' Senator Ford also says that parents should be able to use school choice vouchers to send their children to religious schools."

Education in America: A Study in Stupid

"Technology has enabled business to outsource most employment. Technical call centers, tax preparation, journalism, medical consulting, sales, diagnostics, unit purchasing, artwork, computer graphics, architectural design, and photo printing make up just a small fraction of the labors that can all be handled by workers hundreds or thousands of miles away. There are few geographic barriers remaining for employment.

"To date most of the outsourcing of jobs has been in the low skilled or unskilled category. At the same time eight out of ten new jobs becoming available are demanding high skilled workers. As this is taking place, almost half of our present and future work force cannot qualify for the new positions being offered and since the American workforce is unavailable, those jobs are being offered either abroad or to immigrants brought in to fill particular needs.

"We only have ourselves to blame. We have allowed parents to abandon their children, expecting an army of educational union activists to take over parental duties. We have allowed work-place rules and regulations to keep sub-standard teachers on the job long after they should have been banned from every campus. Most of all, we have failed to motivate our children to work."

Obama's educational hypocrisy

"Of the 1,700 students, starting in kindergarten, in this private-school voucher program, 90 percent are black and 9 percent are Hispanic. First the House and then the Senate inserted into the $410 billion omnibus spending bill language that will eliminate the $7,500 annual scholarships for these poor children after the next school year. It could only be reauthorized by the same Democrat-controlled Congress and the anti-voucher District of Columbia Council.

"Fat chance!

"A key executioner in the Senate of the OSP was Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois. I have written admiringly of Durbin's concern for human rights abroad and his trenchant criticism of the CIA's rendition-to-torture history. How about education rights in the nation's capital?

"Andre J. Coulson, director of the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom, supplies the answer. (I am a senior fellow, specializing in civil liberties and education at Cato.) Wrote Coulson in the Feb. 26 New York Post:

"'Because they saw it as a threat to their political power, Democrats in Washington appear willing to extinguish the dreams of a few thousand poor kids to protect their political base.' Teachers' unions are a vital part of that base, many of whose members fear competition. Not all of them. Randi Weingarten, who is also head of New York's United Federation of Teachers, has started UFT charter schools in that state. But, like Obama, she is silent about stripping these OSP kids of their alternatives. And the largest teachers union, the National Education Association, urged Congress to kill the D.C. program.

"Two of these children, Sarah and James Parker, attend Washington's prestigious Sidwell Friends School. At the end of the next school year and the end of their scholarships, among the classmates they'll be leaving are Sasha and Malia Obama – who, of course, do not need voucher money."

From the O CRAP! department

"Will William Ayers be secretary of education in a Barack Obama administration? All parents should ponder that possibility before making their choice for president on Nov. 4.

"After all, Ayers is a friend of Obama, and professor Ayers's expertise is training teachers and developing public school curriculum. That's been his mission since he gave up planting bombs in government buildings (including the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon) and assaulting police officers."

Anyplace Ayers is in the government would be dangerous.

God help us.

Obama-Led Foundation Spent $49 Million But Had 'Little Impact' on Improving Chicago Schools

This is what I have been trying to tell people. I lived in Chicago before Obama got there. There was no "change" in education there.

"Despite six years and $49.2 million spent to improve schools in the Chicago area, an education reform initiative run by Barack Obama was less than effective, according to two studies, with one in particular describing the grant program as a 'failure' that had 'little impact on school improvement and student outcomes.'"

And he wants to change America when he cannot even change Chicago or Illinois?

Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools

"One unsettled question is how Mr. Obama, a former community organizer fresh out of law school, could vault to the top of a new foundation? In response to my questions, the Obama campaign issued a statement saying that Mr. Ayers had nothing to do with Obama's 'recruitment' to the board. The statement says Deborah Leff and Patricia Albjerg Graham (presidents of other foundations) recruited him. Yet the archives show that, along with Ms. Leff and Ms. Graham, Mr. Ayers was one of a working group of five who assembled the initial board in 1994. Mr. Ayers founded CAC and was its guiding spirit. No one would have been appointed the CAC chairman without his approval."

and

"Mr. Obama once conducted 'leadership training' seminars with Acorn, and Acorn members also served as volunteers in Mr. Obama's early campaigns. External partners like the South Shore African Village Collaborative and the Dual Language Exchange focused more on political consciousness, Afrocentricity and bilingualism than traditional education. CAC's in-house evaluators comprehensively studied the effects of its grants on the test scores of Chicago public-school students. They found no evidence of educational improvement."