Ray Bonneville's advice to the States--"There's a Price to Pay"

Courtesy of Ray Bonneville, blues/country singer...here is a clip of his song "There's a Price to Pay". Check out the lyrics and images. Perfect analogy for the newest Obama bailout:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UUpF9I33qw


This is exactly what I've been saying the last few months: MISSOURI DOESN'T HAVE THE MONEY TO DO WHAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WANTS US TO DO IN EDUCATION.

The question you have to ask is "why does the government want control of our schools, which is constitutionally a STATE right"? Answer:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/08/forcing_states_into_debt.html

A convergence on Jefferson City AND YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES is the next step. Our legislature can refuse this money. This money does not get us out of debt (one billion dollars is projected for next year). This is not the answer to our money woes. This puts Missouri further into the red.

Tell our legislators NO. We are tired of paying off special interests. We are tired of giving our teachers raises in a severe recession and overpaying superintendents. WE CAN'T DO IT ANYMORE.

Question: How would they spin this in Economics 101? Perhaps we should audit an Econ course in our high schools. If THIS is what is being taught to our high school students, we are indeed on the road to financial ruin with no return. Teaching our children it's permissible to sell off principles for special interests AND circumvent the Constitution. Go back and listen to Ray Bonneville again. Watch the images. That's the new United States.

Arne Duncan wants your kids "Eight Days a Week"

Well the title might be a little exaggeration, but not by much. Arne Duncan wants your kids 12 hours a day and if he could, he would extend the school calendar to thirteen months.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/28/education-secretary-calls-for-12-hour-school-days-longer-school-years/

As the article states, "Duncan joked with attendees at a luncheon that he would like schools to stay open 13 months out of the year. But then he got serious and said, "In all seriousness, I think schools should be open 12, 13, 14 hours a day, seven days a week, 11-12 months a year".

A couple of thoughts come to mind.

• I wager the teacher unions in Missouri and other states would love to have their work hours extended to 12 hours, 11-12 months a year. Can you even begin to imagine a school district's budget with those hours clocked in by district employees?


• The time you would spend with your child would be limited and your control over your child's values would be minimal. There aren't enough hours remaining in the day to even talk with your child--that would be left up to a school employee. You wouldn't have to worry about those pesky family vacations and reunions. There's no time!

The article continues:

Duncan highlighted what he describes as a "quiet revolution" that he feels will reform the current education system. "This quiet revolution is driven by motivated parents who want better educational options for their children". Said Duncan, "They know how important education is to succeed and compete in the global economy, they insist on the very best, and they are willing to sacrifice to make it happen".

With all due respect, this must have been another part of the speech where he was joking. Do you remember when THIS Congress and THIS administration pulled voucher funding from the Washington DC council? This voucher funding allowed 1900 students to attend private and parochial schools so they wouldn't have to attend the failing public school system. It was wildly successful to these low-income families but who killed the program? The Obama administration, the Congress and the Department of Education. Read the article on what these parents said about the ending of this funding. They have been denied a "better educational option for their children".

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10008

Mr. Duncan's words are disingenuous. If he really wanted children to succeed, he would allow freedom of choice, instead of longer hours and more control. We know what this adminstration's agenda is: Control. Read the last sentence in the Daily Caller's article: "Nothing moves people as quickly as the opportunity for more funding, especially at a time like today," Duncan said. So what does he do with the DC system? He doesn't empower the parents or students, he makes the decision to pull the funding. That's control, pure and simple.

There IS a revolution going on, and it's becoming louder and louder. Parents and taxpayers do not want to give up local control of their schools, they do not want to have to pay for unfunded mandates, and they want more freedom to select the schools for their children.

Race to the Top will accomplish nothing except to feed a bureaucratic nightmare. A nightmare of 12-14 hour school days, 7 days a week, 11-12 months a year.

Lesson plan for taxpayers: "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help you"

As I wrote previously, it is a good practice to daily check the MO DESE website if you are wondering what Jeff City is planning for children and taxpayers. Once you begin accessing press releases and documents you start detecting a pattern of federal encroachment on our right (and other states) to educate our children. It is evident the push for Race to the Top and other federal controls are enthusiastically being sought by our Commissioner of Education Chris Nicastro.

This article was sent to me this morning:

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2010/07/17/update-missouri-wants-federal-money-save-teacher-jobs/?utm_source=daily-brief&utm_campaign=9170fc6faa-2010_07_19_Daily_Brief&utm_medium=email

While it is factual, it doesn't tell you "the rest of the story". It tells you the basics but you need to go to the source to understand exactly what is transpiring between DC and the states. And where can you find the source? Of course! At the MO DESE website! I found this link Friday:

http://www.ed.gov/blog/2010/07/call-with-reporters-on-jobs-and-reform/

This is an approximately 40 minute conference call between several reporters and the following government officials:

• Arne Duncan, Education Secretary
• Melody Barnes, White House Director of the Domestic Policy Council
• Christina Romer, White House Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
• Eric Smith, Commissioner of Education (FL)
• Chris Nicastro, Commissioner of Education (MO)

The call was orchestrated by the Department of Education so it could explain to the various reporters why even more millions of federal dollars are necessary to save teaching jobs. The department is hoping the reporters will jump on the funding bandwagon and report to readers why we just have to have more money and more reform. The common theme of the officials is jobs, jobs, jobs (teacher union jobs) and reform, reform, reform (the Federal version of reform).

The recession is an inconvenient truth. It doesn't make any difference to these officials. They want their vision to come to fruition, and it is immaterial the economy cannot financially support these mandates.

Over the next few days, we'll chronicle the conference call, document the double talk, the incorrect facts, and the inability of these officials to grapple with the realization we are out of money to reach the federal government's goals.

Take time to listen to the call and we'll talk more tomorrow. I'll leave you with a snippet from Christina Romer at the 6:30 mark: "the headwinds we face to a robust recovery, one of the biggest is the dire situation of the state budgets". But, she adds at around the 8:00 mark: the government has "made incredible progress on the economy from losing more than 750,000 jobs a month to consistently adding jobs; added 600,000 to the private sector since the start of the year. We all realize we have a long way to go. We all realize we're still 7.5 million jobs down since the start of the recession. Anything we can do to help accelerate the rate of growth and job creation is going to be very helpful and our estimates are that the money that is given to state governments for things like keeping teachers employed is some of the most effective spending(?) for the overall recovery and that is why this is a very sensible policy."

That's the gist of Romer's argument. Spend money to subsidize state education budgets. Where in the world is that money coming from? And what is the ultimate cost down the road?

Check back as we analyze this interesting conference call. It's clear what the ultimate goal is in this discussion. You just have to listen.

The Most Dangerous Place in the World is Between the Teachers Unions and the Public Trough

The Most Dangerous Place in the World is Between the Teachers Unions and the Public Trough:

The NEA posted a video on YouTube – which it has since, remarkably, taken down – with the headline, “The issue is JOBS.” Naturally. The most dangerous place to stand in the world is not on the streets of Baghdad or Kabul – it’s between teachers unions and the public trough.