President Obama's omnibus spending bill contains many odd line items. Here's one: $1.2 billion for what the bill calls "anti-bullying" curricula. One may wonder when it became the federal government's responsibility to protect our children from the schoolyard bullies. In my long ago high school, the Boys' Leaders Club stopped bullies from even getting started. And if they didn't succeed, there was always Mr. Martinell's "board of education," firmly applied to the seat of the pants.
Ever since the horror of Columbine High School in 1999, and the mass murders on campus at Virginia Tech several years ago, worried parents have been trying to find answers to why some students "snap" and attack their classmates with murderous violence.
Yesterday, nearly 500 students from across the country visited the U.S. Capitol to lobby their legislators on retaining abstinence funding. Many of these students have directly been impacted by abstinence education programs and come from areas that have extremely high teenage pregnancy rates. These eager and enthusiastic teens listened to FRC's own David Christensen and Valerie Huber, Executive Director of the National Abstinence Education Assocation. Rep. Lee Terry of Nebraska also stopped by the event and added his own remarks. He urged the students to enjoy their time in Washington, D.C. and briefed them about the impact that they are making by visiting their legislators to discuss retaining abstinence funding.
Islam is very much in the news these days. Even before 9/11, Americans had become aware of a powerful presence that had never really gone away. The 45-year Cold War between the U.S. and the USSR seemed to submerge Islamic identity in an East-West struggle. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, a resurgent Islam often intruded into the headlines of Western newspapers. Even before the terror attacks on New York and Washington, Americans had been targeted by Islamist radicals for murder -at the World Trade Center in 1993, Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the U.S. Embassies in East Africa in 1998, and aboard the USS Cole in 2000. Then, however, we seemed to be in a decade-long "holiday from history."
It's normal to expect that American history and world history textbooks would take a few years to catch up with world events. Textbook production is not an overnight process. The headlines, however, don't wait. And the headlines all have some lessons to teach us about those regions where Islam predominates.
School Choice is Key to Parental Involvement in Education, not Punishment
A Kentucky state legislator, Rep. Adam Koenig, has introduced a bill that would impose fines on parents who don't attend parent-teacher conferences. [Source]
Rep. Koenig is certainly right that parental involvement in their children's education is important, but this hardly seems the right way of encouraging it.
It might be better to use a carrot, rather than a stick. Instead of imposing on parents we should be empowering them, by expanding school choice. That could include magnet schools, charter schools, vouchers, tax breaks for private schools, and support for homeschooling. Giving parents real choices about their children's education would be more effective that just forcing them to show up for a meeting.
"From Crayons to Condoms:" Another Glimpse into America's failing Public Schools
Over the Christmas break, there were several books waiting for my attention. Among the books, I chose to read was "From Crayons to Condoms: The Ugly Truth about America's Public Schools." This book definitely looked like it would provide some insights on what is being taught in public education. However, upon reading the book, I was appalled to read the stories from parents, students and teachers about the curriculum being taught in schools across the country, which seemed to provide a barrage of sex, promiscuity, lessons on being gay or lesbian, grotesque violence and talking about feelings.
As a public school graduate, I received a quality education that provided a strong background for college preparation without hearing any liberal propaganda being taught by my teachers. However, there are students all over America who subject to the leftist curriculum by either reading pornographic material or listening to an openly gay couple describe the discrimination they face because of their full-blown AIDS.
The book, which featured open accounts from concerned parents, students and teachers, also featured a section about what parents can do to improve the current state of public education. Suggestions include: reviewing what your child is reading for class, not signing any permission forms, and checking out the curriculum.
"From Crayons to Condoms" was written by Steve Baldwin, a former California state legislator and Karen Holgate, who is an advocate for education reform. I strongly urge every parent, who has a student in public schools, to read this book and to become active in their child's education. In a society where education is crucial, it is better for a student to learn in an environment that is not infiltrated with liberal propaganda.
As a follow-up to my earlier post on the growing unaffordability of higher education and its effects on families, I bring your attention to a Wall Street Journal article. The author, Philip Shiskin, writes, "As the economy shrinks, joblessness expands and small-business owners lose income, many students and their parents are struggling to make payments for the second half of the academic year, which are typically due this month or in January."The story describes one parent who is carrying $100,000 in debt for her three children while planning to fund a fourth child.Finally, it seems standard now that a good private college or university will be cost $50,000 per year.In my opinion, this "business model" is completely unsustainable and is crushing parents and young adults across America.
Jay Ambrose has written an important column about a recent study publicizing the skyrocketing costs of higher education.Ambrose's article discussed the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education's recent report, "Mearusing Up 2008"."Measuring Up" makes it clear that the higher education business model is broken - like a lot of American institutions, it seems. These hard realities are underscored by the current economic downturn.
From 1982-2007, college costs increased 439% while median family income went up only 147%.Of course, such numbers are always subject to various adjustments and corrections, but that it is a huge disparity that reflects what we have all observed.College costs are out of control. The New York Times has also discussed the report here and here.
Ambrose notes that some leaders in the educational establishment want more government money, but he correctly points out that "government assistance and student loan programs have contributed to the inflationary spiral at these institutions already, supporting them in their bad, old ways and keeping them from needed reform."There is a great deal of truth in this observation.
Finally, Ambrose reiterates a point made by Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute, and with which I agree, that a major restructuring of college education may be in the offing.It may be time for us to consider training professionals - like accountants, financial advisers, software engineers, nurses - with a combination of online education and apprenticeships.A larger point is this:the universal four-year liberal arts education may have become economically untenable given the debt levels students are being forced to bear post-graduation.If the federal government would like to do something, it should construct aid programs that force colleges to compete for federal aid monies and students based on affordable tuition prices and cost containment.
The great popularity of the recent HBO series, John Adams, is well deserved. The movie, unlike the fine David McCullough book, shows how good old honest John got himself in a peck of trouble as the first Vice President. He took up six weeks of the time of the first Senate with long and tedious lectures on titles. David McCullough, when he spoke at the National Press Club in 2000, airily dismissed Adams' disastrous misstep. "Oh, he was a good, thrifty New Englander. He didn't want to make the titles hereditary. But he knew everyone loves distinction and he thought titles would be cheap." The HBO series shows the revulsion of many of the senators at the very idea. Adams wanted the President to be titled: "His high Mightiness, President of the United States and Protector of their Liberties." Behind Adams' back, the senators snickered at the portly, balding Vice President, calling him "His Rotundity."
The series shows Adams in the best of lights, and he deserves much good light. Even when he's wrong, even when he's vain and prone to temper tantrums, we see the human toll of his brave labors for Independence. His son Charles dies of alcoholism. His beloved daughter Nabbie dies of breast cancer. Our hearts go out to him and to his beloved Abigail. McCullough told the National Press Club that the correspondence between John and Abigail is on microfiche--and the indelible record of their fidelity and love is five miles long!
When I take the Witherspoon Fellows to Monticello, I always speak of my reverence for Mr. Jefferson, that great defender of religious and civil liberty. But I always disagree with George Will. Will famously wrote that "Thomas Jefferson lived as a free man should live." No, John Adams lived as a free man should live; he never freed his slaves because he never had any!
My favorite John Adams story dates to the year 2000. Then, Bill Clinton occupied the Oval Office. That December, the Clintons invited their nearest and dearest friends to celebrate the two hundred years that the White House had been the Executive Mansion. They asked David McCullough to come and read from his wonderful biography of John Adams.
As the liberal Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory reported, McCullough ended with John Adams' famous prayer, the one FDR had had engraved in the mantle in the State Dining Room:
"I pray Heaven to bestow the best blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof."
Miss McGrory wrote that when the prayer was read, all of Bill Clinton's best friends looked at their shoes in embarrassment. Honest John Adams had crafted that inspiring petition in 1800. He hurled it like a javelin two centuries into the future and he punctured Bill Clinton's pretensions with his pointed prayer. God bless John Adams!
Inner-city Catholic schools are rapidly vanishing, according to the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s new report, Who Will Save America’s Urban Catholic Schools? Since 1990, 1,300 Catholic schools have closed, displacing 300,000 students and costing taxpayers $20 billion to absorb these students into public schools. These closures have had little to do with performance and much to do with Catholics leaving the inner cities for suburbia.
The report calls on parishioners, philanthropists, and others who recognize the quality educational option Catholic schools can provide, even to non-Catholics, to support these inner-city schools directly and through development and marketing plans that will ensure Catholic schools remain a vibrant and valuable player in American education.
A great deal has happened since my Friday posting on the California home school decision -- In re Rachel L.First, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a press release on Friday striking out at the court decision:
"Every California child deserves a quality education and parents should have the right to decide what’s best for their children. Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children’s education. This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don’t protect parents’ rights then, as elected officials, we will."
This opens the possibility that political action, in addition to legal appeals, may lie ahead. However, proponents of home schooling in California are wary of a legislative option because a new law might codify a set of parent-school relationships that are less friendly than those in place before the court decision. Given the liberal composition of the California legislature, that is a justifiable concern.
Second, the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) has taken a step to nullify the decision. While the Rachel L. family and its California counsel plan to appeal the decision to the California Supreme Court, HSLDA has also posted a petition online collecting the signatures of those who would like the Court to "depublish" the opinion. HSLDA plans to formally ask the Court to depublish the Rachel L. opinion which would render it unusable "by other California courts" and eliminate the decision as a threat to other homeschoolers. By gathering signatures, HSLDA would like to demonstrate to the Court "that many other people, both in California and across the country, care deeply about homeschool freedom in California." Depublishing would be a simple way to alleviate this crisis.
Third, Eugene Volokh, a libertarian/conservative UCLA law professor and blogger wrote about the home schooling case on March 6th -- as edited by Alliance Defense Fund:
It’s pretty well-settled that the parental rights cases -- such as Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925) -- don’t secure a right to home-school . . . .
Religious homeschooling is a different matter. Wisconsin v. Yoder held that the Amish could pull children out of school at age 14, and then vocationally train the children at home, notwithstanding a compulsory education law that generally required school attendance until 16. And Yoder survives the Court’s decision in Employment Division v. Smith (which mostly holds that the Free Exercise Clause doesn’t require religious exemptions from generally applicable laws, but which expressly preserves such claims in parental rights cases like Yoder).
What appears to be the crucial California case, People v. Turner (1953), has some difficult language for the proposition that there is a constitutional right to homeschool:
..., we have been unable to find a single case in which it has been held that so-called compulsory attendance statutes are rendered unconstitutional and void merely by reason of a failure to recognize home instruction as an alternative to attendance in the public schools.
Well, only one thing is certain -- we are destined to hear a great deal more about this case and the related legal arguments. A great deal has changed in California since 1953, and the Court would be wise to accommodate the educational arrangements that now exist for something like 200,000 students.
California Decision Highlights Judicial Trend against Parental Rights in Education
On February 28, 2006, a three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeal handed down a ruling that may threaten the continued viability of home school arrangements in California. In this case, In re Rachel L., a lower court decision holding that parents have a constitutional right to home school their children was reversed. The appellate court held that parents do not have such rights. Furthermore, the decision appears to have rendered the vast majority of California home schooling arrangements violative of state law.
According to the Los Angeles Times, California law does not address home schooling in its statutes – unlike thirty states that do. Apparently, the California Department of Education and local school districts have had a somewhat relaxed approach to home schooling. This has allowed the number of home schoolers to grow considerably. Estimates are that 166,000 children in California are taught at home, so the impact of this decision will be significant.
This case and two others of recent vintage, Fields v. Palmdale School District (U.S. 9th Cir. 2005) and Parker v. Hurley (U.S. 1st Cir. 2008), remind us of the fact that powerful elements within our society believe that parents have few, if any, rights over the educational content of their children. Once the state has spoken parents have to fall in line. In Palmdale, the Ninth Circuit used a dispute over psychological surveys that included questions about sex to assert that parents “have no constitutional right … to prevent a public school from providing its students with whatever information it wishes to provide, sexual or otherwise….” (The parents were not told about the sex-related questions when their consent for participation was sought by the school.)
In Parker, a Christian parent objected to his young child being given educational materials promoting homosexual parenting and marriage. Here again, the appellate court affirmed the district court’s ruling which stated that “the constitutional right of parents to raise their children does not include the right to restrict what a public school may teach their children.”
At bottom, the current case in California (Rachel L.), Palmdale, and Parker indicate that parents, pro-family groups, and friendly politicians will have to fight for the right to protect their children. They will need to aggressively pursue legislatively corrections. That may be possible in California regarding the status of home schooling, but it will not always be possible. Barring a legislative fix, it becomes clear how important it is to have judges on the bench who understand that the rights of parents are not derived from the state. Rather, parents have inalienable rights that supersede those of government -- particularly when the moral education of their children is at stake.
FRC is honored to present a Witherspoon Lecture on Tuesday, February 12th at noon by Dr. John G. West. Dr. West will speak on Darwin Day in America? This lecture is co-sponsored with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) of Wilmington, Delaware. Dr. West’s new book is an in-depth analysis of the drive to replace Lincoln’s Birthday with an international secular holiday called Darwin Day. Dr. West is a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute. He will critically examine the movement to indoctrinate students in Darwinian naturalism. Darwin Day in America shows how our politics and culture have been dehumanized in the name of science.
Please join us in our newly redesigned Media Center at 801 G St. NW for this stimulating lecture and discussion. Hardbound copies of Darwin Day in America will available for purchase at a discounted price. Dr. West has graciously agreed to sign copies of his book for attendees. To RSVP, please call 1.800.225.4008 or register online here. The lecture will also be webcast live at www.frc.org.
The FRC Action Values Voter Straw Poll has been making lots of news, but one of the poll questions that hasn't yet gained as much attention was question #3, which asked participants to rank the order of importance among a set of issues. Here are the results:
Here's the statistical breakdown:
ISSUE
VOTES
PERCENTAGE
Abortion
2398
41.52%
Same-sex "Marriage"
1141
19.76%
Tax Cuts
626
10.84%
Permanent tax relief for families
563
9.75%
Federal "hate crimes" legislation
331
5.73%
No vote on this question
181
3.13%
Taxpayer funding for abortions
151
2.61%
Prayer in schools
93
1.61%
Reinstatement of the "Fairness Doctrine"
88
1.52%
Public display of the Ten Commandments
57
0.99%
Enforced obscenity laws
54
0.94%
Embryonic stem cell experiments
48
0.83%
Voluntary, student-led prayer in schools
44
0.76%
Total
5,775
100%
Now that you've got the numbers, feel free to crunch away.
As a guest speaker for an assembly at Boulder High School in Colorado, UCLA psychology professor Joel Becker had a surprising message of "encouragement": Becker encouraged the students—some as young as 14—to have sex (with men, women, or whatever combination they prefer), to do drugs, and to "please masturbate."
The following audio clips from Becker's portion of the "sex and drugs" assembly were provided by KOA Radio in Denver:
"It's not just 'The Good Book'," said Georgia State Sen. Tommie Williams. "It's a good book." Williams was referring to the Bible in an interview about the state's decision to introduce Bible literary classes in the public schools. The movement to bring the world's best-selling book back into the classroom is gaining ground across the U.S., demonstrated, in large part, by a thoughtful Time magazine cover story on the subject. The article, "The Case for Teaching the Bible," argues that the social and cultural benefits of secular Bible classes outweigh any hypersensitivity about Church and State.
Drawing on polls that show over 60% of Americans favor teaching about Scripture in a secular setting like public schools, writer David van Beima discusses the consequences of our nation's Biblical illiteracy. Among them, he notes the lack of knowledge and understanding about Western civilization at large. Van Beima writes, "[In the end], what is required in teaching the Bible in our public schools is patriotism: a belief that we live in a nation that understands the wisdom of its Constitution clearly enough to allow the most important book in its history to remain vibrantly accessible for everyone."
What was lost in the sweeping 1963 Supreme Court case that removed prayer from public schools is the reality that the Constitution does not bar an objective treatment of the Bible and religion in schools. It encourages it. Yet the case triggered a mass exodus of any reference to Christianity in education. The time has come for our nation to experience a true revelation on the Bible's relevance--not only to our personal lives but to our identity as Americans.
Stuart Buck found an interesting quote in psychology professor Richard G. Medlin's article, "Home Schooling and the Question of Socialization," Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 75 (2000): 107-23:
Shyers (1992a, 1992b), in the most thorough study of home-schooled children's social behavior to date, tested 70 children who had been entirely home-schooled and 70 children who had always attended traditional schools. The two groups were matched in age (all were 8-10 years old), race, gender, family size, socioeconomic status, and number and frequency of extracurricular activities. Shyers measured self-concept and assertiveness and found no significant differences between the two groups.
The most intriguing part of the study, however, involved observing the children as they played and worked together. Small groups of children who all had the same school background were videotaped while playing in a large room equipped with toys such as puzzles, puppets, and dolls. The children were then videotaped again in a structured activity: working in teams putting puzzles together for prizes.
Each child's behavior was rated by two observers who did not know whether the children they were rating were home-schooled or traditionally schooled. The observers used the Direct Observation Form of the Child Behavior Checklist . . . , a checklist of 97 problem behaviors such as argues, brags or boasts, doesn't pay attention long, cries, disturbs other children, isolates self from others, shy or timid, and shows off. The results were striking -- the mean problem behavior score for children attending conventional schools was more than eight times higher than that of the home-schooled group. Shyers (1992a) described the traditionally schooled children as "aggressive, loud, and competitive" (p. 6). In contrast, the home-schooled children acted in friendly, positive ways.
Montgomery County, Maryland, which had its last sex education curriculum thrown out by a federal judge in 2005, has started implementing a new version. In the new curriculum, condoms are demonstrated on a piece of wood (not a cucumber as before) and lessons on homosexuality no longer bad-mouth the long list of historic world religions that disapprove of it. But the lessons still fail to explain the high health risks of certain sexual acts favored by homosexuals and still stigmatize those who disapprove of homosexual behavior by using the loaded term "homophobia."
Two citizens' groups that oppose the curriculum, Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum (CRC) and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), appealed the curriculum to the State Board of Education--but the county rushed the pilot program into use without even waiting for a ruling on whether it complies with state laws and regulations. FRC's Peter Sprigg, a Montgomery County resident who served on a committee that reviewed the curriculum, will speak on its flaws at a town hall meeting tonight in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Order his pamphlet, "Homosexuality in Your Child's School," to learn how you can fight the homosexual agenda that is affecting schools across the country.
South Carolina: Learning Their Lesson on School Choice
Despite the sagging test scores in South Carolina and disappointing graduation results, The Wall Street Journaltells an inspiring story about one school that is raising the grades--and hopes--of low-income kids. In Charleston, Capers Preparatory Christian Academy has gotten by on a measly $160,000 budget, holding school in rented office space with a total of 42 students. As the WSJ tells it, teachers are either volunteers or work for a humble $8 an hour. "Only five students come from two-parent homes, and most of the students are African-American. Each year, [the principal] is forced to dip into her retirement account to keep the school running."
As the state debates whether or not to spend a small amount of government money on school choice, the Capers school makes a good case for why it should. Despite Capers' modest budget, the students' SAT scores are 164 points above the state average. Each graduate is expected to go on to college.
As the South Carolina lawmakers debate whether to create a tax credit for middle-class parents and a "scholarship" for poor students in failing schools, we urge them to look no further than Capers, where a small investment is paying dividends in the future of our next generation.
Federal Judge: No Room for Parents in the Classroom
According to a federal judge, public schools--not parents--have the right to control the curriculum to which children are exposed. Joseph and Robin Wirthlin sued Lexington, Massachusetts schools for allowing their son's second-grade teacher to read the homosexual fairy tale, King and King, to the class without prior notice to the Wirthlins. A couple FRC interviewed for Liberty Sunday, Tonia and David Parker, joined the suit when their son brought home a book about families that included two gay adults. Judge Mark Wolf sided with the school, saying, "...Under the Constitution public schools are entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become productive citizens in our democracy." Wolf continued by saying that if parents don't agree with the curriculum, they are welcome to send their kids to a private school. "It is increasingly evident that our diversity includes differences in sexual orientation."
Clearly, this is not about diversity but a political agenda. Massachusetts law on homosexual marriages was imposed by judicial decree and is far from settled. The government seems bent on overpowering parents and dictating what's in the best interest of children. At the very least, the Parkers, Wirthlins and others deserved to be informed about the content of the curriculum and to have their kids exempted from lessons that violate their moral beliefs. School administrators argued that the books did not focus on human sexuality but family structures. If they truly believe that, Lexington officials must be living in the very fairy tales their schools are promoting.
It's no wonder America is failing miserably to keep up with international test scores. Public schools are consumed with teaching not the basics reading and writing but the chic and the radical. Both couples will appeal the case to the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, where we can only hope that the inherent authority of parents will fare better.
Dr. Steven Taylor, associate professor of political science at Troy University, is depressed by his student's lack of geographic knowledge:
Out of 16 students in my general studies World Politics class only 1 could identify Iraq and Afghanistan on a blank map on their exam. One other student found Iraq and another correctly located Afghanistan.
Pardon me while I go weep quietly in the corner.
Well, it's not exactly as if those countries have been in the news lately. Perhaps we just need more globes in the classroom -- or more military veterans.
