Thomas Sowell, in addition to his genius, appears to also have a sense of humor.

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DECEMBER 2021

SCHOOL BOARD ASSOCIATION MAKES UPSET PARENTS A FEDERAL CASE
Grand Ledge Public Schools in the national spotlight
By Michigan Capitol Confidential Staff Reports, November 3, 2021

In September, the National School Boards Association sent a letter requesting the Biden administration to respond to what it called “acts of intimidation” and disruptions at local school board meetings. It asked officials to treat these incidents as potential crimes to be investigated by federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Secret Service, Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security.

The organization sent the letter following reports of tense school board meetings in Michigan and other states, at which concerned parents confronted school officials over race-based curriculums, stringent face mask mandates on children and more.

On Oct. 4, the U.S. Justice Department responded with an announcement that Attorney General Merrick B. Garland had directed the FBI to develop strategies to address what the letter called a disturbing trend. The department also set up a task force to investigate incidents at local school board meetings.

Many observers have expressed concern that Garland’s directive could have a chilling effect on parents who wanted to voice their opinion to school officials.

That fear appears to have been realized for one Grand Ledge parent.

Eric Delaporte is an attorney representing parent Amber Redman in a lawsuit against Grand Ledge Public Schools. He characterizes the district’s conduct as “despicable,” and has advised his client on how to respond to potential interactions with federal law enforcement officials.

Redman, who recently withdrew her child from the district, shared a text from Delaporte, in which he advised her on what to say if the FBI contacted her. He stated:

“If an FBI agent shows up to speak with you, (say) ‘My attorney is Eric Delaporte. You will need to talk to him.’”

Redman says she was confused. “I was like, why is this happening?”

The Grand Ledge district has received a great deal of media attention lately, due to parents raising concerns over its pandemic responses and racializing of curriculums.

The district was mentioned in a footnote in the NSBA letter. The letter itself stated: “As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

Grand Ledge schools received further national attention when its school board president, Sara Clark Pierson, told National Public Radio that parents at a June 14 board meeting, with raised fists, had stormed the stage. She called the incident a “mini January 6 insurrection.”

But parents who attended the meeting deny her characterization of events. Clark Pierson’s fellow school board member, Ben Cwayna, has said what she described never happened .

Delaporte says of the situation in Grand Ledge, “I’m appalled at the clear violation of parents’ Constitutional rights associated with the use of the FBI to suppress Free Speech. While I fully support boards of education who daily model civic behavior for their students in support of the Constitution, I cannot help but stand against GLPS’s despicable conduct.”

Redman fears interacting with federal law enforcement. She says of the prospect, “It made me nervous and scared to think they could come to my house and hassle me, but I know we didn’t do anything wrong so we will continue to show up and speak up for our children. But it is uncomfortable to feel threatened in that fashion.”

The NSBA has since apologized for its letter. The Justice Department, however, says it will continue with the task force as well as its investigations.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research and educational institute headquartered in Midland, Michigan. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author and the Mackinac Center are properly cited.

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MARCH 2021

RETHINKING AMERICAN EDUCATION
By Dennis L. Weisman, February 12, 2021

Public K-12 education in this country suffers from a lack of effective competition that prevents market forces from working the way they should. What would happen if there was school choice in America today? Parents who are dissatisfied with the educational product their public schools provide could vote with their feet and take their tax dollars and their children to schools that offer better value. Opposition to school choice is highly regressive because the wealthiest families have the ability to pay twice for their children’s education, first through taxes and second through private school tuition. This is not an option for lower-income households.

The benefits of school choice are substantial. First, the public schools in most of the country would have to reopen to compete with the private schools that never closed or did so only briefly. Second, the salaries of exceptional teachers would rise, while those of underperforming teachers would fall and the least proficient among those would be driven from teaching altogether. Most importantly, the quality of instruction would increase while expenditures decrease as a direct result of competition between schools. The teachers’ unions oppose school choice precisely because it would force public schools across the country to actually compete on the merits or perish the way any underperforming enterprise should.

Public K-12 education suffers as a result of high barriers to entry that prevent competition from instilling the requisite discipline in public education. The aforementioned absence of school choice is one problem and an unduly cumbersome teacher certification/licensing process is another. Lower these barriers to entry and competition will flourish. Our children will receive a higher-quality education at lower prices which will improve productivity and America’s competitiveness. Unfortunately, the institutional constraints that sustain these barriers to entry and impede effective competition are firmly entrenched with support at the highest levels of government. The teachers’ unions are a strong Democrat political lobby.

Where to Begin?

A significant number of dedicated and highly intelligent college students major in education. Nonetheless, on average, education majors do not rank in the highest percentiles on college aptitude tests. This is consistent with my university teaching experience wherein education majors were overrepresented in the lower half of the grade distribution. If we want to improve educational outputs, we need to improve educational inputs and that begins with higher teacher proficiency.

The problem with the teachers’ unions is primarily twofold. First, they prop up the salaries of average and below-average teachers. Exceptional teachers are paid too little, while poor teachers are paid too much. Second, tenure makes it all but impossible to terminate underperforming teachers who, in many cases, are recycled from one school to the next before their ineptitude poses an insurmountable problem for administrators. Exceptional teachers do not require tenure. A competitive market for teachers will reward them with job security through long-term contracts at salary premia that duly reflect their superior performance. It is the average and below-average teachers that are the true beneficiaries of tenure, because they enjoy the protection of job security that a competitive market would never provide.

In its present form, teacher certification/licensing is a counterproductive barrier to entry that should be lowered for the well-being of our children. It serves largely to artificially inflate teacher salaries by preventing the entry of those that may be able to perform at a more proficient level. A four-year degree in education is not required to be an effective teacher. This is evident from the fact that university professors have little or no formal training in teaching and yet many exhibit considerable prowess in the classroom. Unfortunately, the market is not self-correcting because the teachers’ unions and school administrators are shielded from the discipline of the competitive process. No matter how poor the instruction, or indifferent the teacher, the tax dollars continue to flow to support their salaries and pensions.

Dramatically reforming the education major and lowering the barriers to entry in the form of teacher certification/licensing would clear the way for those in a multitude of different fields, including engineering, mathematics, medicine, law, and business to enter the ranks of K-12 teaching. Many of these professionals are willing to trade off higher remuneration for more personal satisfaction because they desire a career change or simply want to give back to society. Rudimentary training in teaching methods will be necessary to ensure the requisite teaching competence, but this does not require four years of training. It never did.

Creative Destruction

Creative destruction is the idea that dynamic forces work incessantly to destroy existing business models and institutions over time and replace them with superior alternatives. It is necessary to fuel the process of creative destruction to reinvigorate the nation’s public schools.

The scientific evidence is mounting that schools are safer than homes in terms of the spread of the virus and yet the teachers’ unions refuse to allow their members to return to the classroom. Where is the concern for students from low-income households that are denied instruction altogether because they lack access to computers and broadband? I am not suggesting that teachers lives should be valued less than those of their students, but they should certainly not be valued more. Drug abuse and domestic abuse have increased along with student depression during the pandemic while teenage suicides have surged.

To address the problem du jour, teachers that are willing to assume the minimal risk of COVID transmission should be allowed to return to the classroom and be paid a premium for doing so as a form of combat pay. Teachers unwilling to assume that risk should be tasked with providing virtual instruction or accept an administrative position at reduced compensation.

The pandemic has highlighted a serious problem with K-12 education that we ignore at our own peril. The public K-12 educational system has no real incentive to be responsive to the communities it serves. This explains why private schools are open and public schools are closed. The former must meet a payroll by offering a high-quality, competitive product, while the latter meets its ever-increasing payrolls by raising taxes on customers held captive by the absence of school choice.

The educational system in this country is broken, perhaps irreparably. The system can be reclaimed only by breaking down barriers to entry: eliminate tenure, reduce the complexity of teacher certification/licensing and promote school choice. It is only then that we can unleash the power of competition and creative destruction to improve our nation’s schools.

Dr. Weisman is Professor of Economics Emeritus at Kansas State University and a former Director of Strategic Marketing at SBC (now AT&T). He has published more than 140 articles, books, and book chapters, principally in the fields of economic regulation, antitrust and public policy. He is the author of An Essay on the Art and Science of Teaching and How to Integrate Economic Analysis into Classroom Discussions of Diversity? His research has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Reprinted with permission from the American Thinker: https://www.americanthinker.com

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JULY 2020

K-12: ELON MUSK SAYS TAKE THE RED PILL
By Bruce Deitrick Price, May 30. 2020

Elon Musk is one of the brainiest people on the planet and a fighter. He invented PayPal on his way to launching SpaceX and Tesla. Last week, Musk threatened to sue Alameda County because the pols wanted his employees to stay well distanced on a Tesla production line. Yeah, right, Musk replied — you'll have to arrest me first.  Musk, once a liberal in good standing, explained his outrage: "Somebody wants to stay in the house, that's great[.] ... But to say that they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom. Give people back their g------ freedom[.] ...

Everything people have worked for all their lives is being destroyed in real time. I think the people are going to be very angry about this and are very angry."

Musk exhorted his 34 million Twitter followers: "Take the red pill."

The New York Times goofily referred to his message as "cryptic." Most people know that the hero in The Matrix films is offered a choice between a blue pill (comfortable delusions) and a red pill that lets you see reality and truth.  Never mind what the Times suggests; taking the red pill is not a new development. Fox News reported in 2017: "People of all ages and ethnicities are posting YouTube videos describing 'red pill moments' — personal awakenings that have caused them to reject leftist narratives imbibed since childhood from friends, teachers, and the news and entertainment media."

According to Newsweek in 2018, "The pop culture metaphor has become a popular phrase among conservatives. 'Being red pilled' widely signifies a free-thinking attitude and having been awakened."  Piers Morgan, once a CNN host and a typical liberal, found political upheaval in his red pill. "Populism is rising because liberals have become unbearable," Morgan explained in a 2019 interview with Ben Shapiro. "Liberals have become utterly, pathetically illiberal and it is a massive problem. Populism is rising because people are fed up with the PC culture. They're fed up with snowflakery."

Professor Steve Turley, a conservative commentator, said Morgan's new attitudes are "easily understandable and indeed justified by the tyrannical nature of PC culture."

What's all this got to do with public schools? Everything. They are the perfect embodiment of a tyrannical P.C. culture, which populism and conservatism should oppose.  Go ahead: take the red pill, and grapple with the shocking truths of K–12 malfeasance. The professors and bureaucrats who mismanage our public schools claim they care about education, your kids, and our country. A steady diet of blue pills makes that sound reasonable.  It took years for me to be red-pilled. Finally, I couldn't escape the conviction that deep down in their Progressive hearts, our professors of education are actively hostile to kids, this country, and education as traditionally defined.  When you take the red pill, you see with clarity that millions of American children don't learn to read for a horrifyingly specific reason. No, it's not bad eyesight or a genuine disability. It's because American public schools insist on using a method known not to work. Whole Word (AKA sight-words) devastates genuine literacy and thus educational progress. 

Math is more of the same perverse intent. Your kids may struggle with basic arithmetic and become calculator-dependent at an early age. Why? Because Reform Math and Common Core Math befuddle children and deflate whatever native abilities they have. Take the red pill, and you will likely conclude that such bizarre instruction is not education, but a dirty trick that should be stopped.  Take the red pill, and then you see an impossible truth as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

Constructivism? Oh, that's the hoax that prohibits teachers from teaching. Teachers are ordered to be facilitators, not teachers, so children have to be their own teachers. Now and then, this approach might work. But what typically happens is that children are overwhelmed by their galloping ignorance. They have no joy in learning.  Everyone, please take the red pill. As long as you think the schools are your friends, you won't take the time to grasp what sneaky tricks go on inside the classrooms. You won't exert yourself to make the schools better. 

All these years, the fraud in the public schools was right there before you. With the red pill, you may say, oh, my God, how could I have been part of this deception? They manipulate little kids and break their spirits.  Education officials have become arrogantly anti-education. They seem to be an alien presence that has foisted itself on us. Progressives appear to carry forward the aggression of Karl Marx, who threatened his fellow socialists, if they dared to disagree: "I will annihilate you!" 

Kanye West, unexpected fan of Donald Trump, released a tirade of tweets including a call for people to break "out of our mental prisons." Many conclude he has been red-pilled. We can hope so.  Kanye can give red pills to the people in Hollywood. Maybe they'll want to help our schools break out of their mental prisons.

Reprinted with permission from the American Thinker: https://www.americanthinker.com

Bruce Deitrick Price's new book is Saving K–12: What happened to our public schools? How do we fix them? Price deconstructs educational methods on Improve-Education.org.

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JANUARY 2019

K-12: MEET SUE DICKSON, A HERO OF AMERICAN LITERACY
By Bruce Deitrick Price, December 1, 2018

Sue Dickson is best known as the creator of Sing, Spell, Read, and Write, one of the most popular phonics programs.

Now in her 80s, she is still active as ever, pushing phonics however possible and refining a new approach.

The ups and downs in her career tell us a lot about the sad state of American education. In her college's pre-teacher program, she was taught nothing about phonics. Not only that, but when she started to teach first grade, her superiors constantly emphasized their verdict that phonics is useless and even dangerous.

Sue Dickson recalls: "I was told that phonics doesn't work, that the English language is too complicated to be taught that way. I accepted that reasoning hook, line, and sinker. So, during my first two years as a teacher, I didn't use any phonics even though I had lots of kids in trouble."

But in 1955, her mother bought a book by Rudolf Flesch called Why Johnny Can't Read. Dickson recalls, "At first I rejected his recommendations. After all, I was the one with the teaching degree. But my mother wouldn't stop. She followed me around the house reading from that book!"

"Finally, I decided I had to do something because I was losing whole groups of students through the cracks. I would give phonics a try. There was considerable apprehension, as my administrators were adamantly against it. They put a three-page memo in every teacher's mailbox warning us to stay away from phonics!"

Then came the big shock. Her class scored so high on the standardized test that these same administrators seemed about to accuse her of cheating. Instead, they offered her a summer job teaching reading to students who were at least three years below the national norm. She never went back to teaching "look and say." She knew that phonics was the answer for all students.

More than that, she started work on her own system. She wanted to integrate the principles of phonics with music and movement. This was a natural goal because, in college, she had minored in music education. She believed that learning to read could be fun and physical. Her program requires that students jump up, move around, and sing phonics songs. School was suddenly lively.

Over the next 30 years Dickson perfected Sing, Spell, Read, and Write. By then, it was used all over the country. One Mississippi school system found in 1988 that first-graders improved their reading performance by 42 percentile points on the Stanford Achievement Test. Reading comprehension improved 34 percentile points, and spelling went up 30 points.

In 1986, the Selma (Calif.) Enterprise reported that Sing, Spell, Read, and Write is "an educational phenomenon" for its power at teaching Spanish-speaking students to read.

Arguably, K-12 reading has been a disaster for 85 years, and this short biography tells you why. The school system at every level was opposed to the best way to teach reading. Talk about comically incompetent. All the stuff that the professional educators claim to know was basically less than zero. Memorizing sight-words is a bad way to proceed. Children rarely learn to read fluently; additionally, they are harmed by the whole process.

If you Google Sue Dickson, you will find something surprising. She is labeled a "musical artist." That's because she has written many "songs that teach," such as the "Presidents Song," the "Inventors and Inventions Song," and varied titles such as "Counting to 100," "Mr. Nine," "Counting Backwards," and 25 more.

Her newest venture is called Winning Reading Boost, developed in cooperation with the University of Florida's Lastinger Center, where it was shown to teach both non-readers and troubled readers, even in poverty-area schools, to read fluently in 90 hours!

An official at the Lastinger Center acknowledged: "In the state of Florida we know that large numbers of students – in some schools, 30, 40, 50 or even 80% – are not learning to read and are failing the state assessment." That is, sometimes only 20% actually learn to read, a shameful statistic.

QED: Every smart teacher in America has to work twice as hard because the Education Establishment is so bizarrely prejudiced against what works best.

Ever since 1931, America had been on a two-tier system. The lucky kids learn to read with phonics. The unlucky kids, the great majority, learn various non-phonetic methods and stay illiterate, to one degree or another. It's a big scam and should be recognized as a preposterous and unnecessary national scandal.

Another official in Florida conceded that fourth-grade boys, unable to read, are often embarrassed and belligerent and will start fights so they don't have to reveal their inability. Sue Dickson beautifully sums up all the literacy nonsense: "It's amazing how much their personalities and behavior improve when they can read!"

The message is clear, she insists: "Teach intensive, systematic phonics! In only four or five months, our kids are reading."

Unexpectedly, The New York Times recently agreed. After more than a half-century of looking the other way, the Times has effectively announced: Sue Dickson and others on the phonics side were right all along. Excellent. Now everyone can learn to read.

Sue Dickson is working on a book about her life in education: SCHOOL DAZE: 50 Years of Folly & Failure in Our Schools.

Bruce Deitrick Price's new book is Saving K-12: What happened to our public schools? How do we fix them? He deconstructs educational theories and methods at Improve-Education.org.

Reprinted with permission from the American Thinker: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/12/k12_meet_sue_dickson_a_hero_of_american_literacy.html#ixzz5YSXHiHxg

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AUGUST 2018

UNIVERSITY SPENDING, NOT A LACK OF TAXPAYER SUPPORT, DRIVES HIGHER TUITION
History suggests the schools pocket the additional taxpayer contributions and still raise tuition
Michigan Capitol Confidential, July 17, 2018, https://www.mackinac.org

To push lawmakers to spend even more on Michigan’s 15 public universities, the Michigan Association of State Universities is promoting a poll which finds an overwhelming majority of residents agree to spend more – if that keeps tuition down. “Michigan Residents Say State Should Boost Higher Education Funding to Keep Tuition Low, Poll Shows.”

ForTheRecord says: Spending by Michigan’s 15 state universities in the 2016-17 school year increased 6.4 percent over the previous year, well above the rate of inflation. That’s about $400 million in additional spending, with fewer students to educate. And the students who did attend had to pay $200 million of that increase through higher tuition and fees.

That year continues the trend of university spending going up faster than the inflation rate over the past decade. And legislators have been increasing the amount that taxpayers contribute to spending by public universities.

With low inflation and a flat student population, the driver of higher tuition is the failure of universities to control their costs.

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Mackinac Center policy staff.

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JUNE 2018

K-12: ILLITERATE NEW WORLD
By Bruce Deitrick Price, March 30, 2018 

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World appeared in 1932.  Everyone at that time was dazzled by the technocratic skills of the Ford Motor Company, able to turn out identical cars by the millions on highly efficient assembly lines.  In Huxley's novel, the calendar counts years A.F. – After Ford – and God's new name is Ford.

The zeitgeist was obsessed with control.  Ideologues liked the possibility of more precise social engineering. Communists in particular were focused on planned societies and central economies, with super-smart experts sitting around a table and deciding what every citizen could do and could not do.  Psychiatrists like Ivan Pavlov wanted to show how drastically you could manipulate cognition and personality.

Aldous Huxley devised a single beautiful image for capturing all of these hopes and fears: a hi-tech assembly line where infants were manufactured to specification.  In particular, oxygen levels were adjusted to create babies of very low, low, medium, and very high intelligence.  This image, this metaphor, was stunning in its concreteness.  A huge industrial operation, all clean and shiny, all stainless steel and glass, did what nobody had thought of doing before: control human intelligence in embryo.

It turns out there is an activity in the real world, in real society, that is exactly parallel.  That was the creation of readers to order.  By the simple device of depriving some children of certain key information, they were stunted, no longer able to become professors, more or less predestined for low-level jobs.

As Huxley in the year 1931 was doing the final edit on his book, this country's Education Establishment built a new sort of assembly line for producing flawed children.  Instead of withholding oxygen, this factory withheld the alphabet. Parents were told that the ABCs are not essential and could be ignored. As one famous expert announced dogmatically, "[c]urrent practice in the teaching of reading does not require knowledge of letters."  Really?

Instead of the alphabet (twenty-six fairly simple objects that can be memorized in a month or two), children in this new factory were told to focus on complete words.  Instead of memorizing B, for example, you had to memorize BEACH. Just five letters, but a hugely complex design – and there were more than 200,000 of them.  Parents were told their children could routinely memorize these visual designs with "automaticity."  That's like instant recall.  The child was supposed to know hundreds and then thousands of these designs with perfect accuracy.  In reality, virtually no child could do this, except the few with photographic memories.  So in practice, the factory created millions of non-readers and weak readers.

In this ruthless new factory, the obsession with power and control was the same as in Huxley's factory.  Humans would be conditioned and engineered to be what the controllers wanted.  This creepy, highly invasive scheme was a brilliant "success," once it's understood that the new goal was limited literacy.  Anyway, that was the predictable result.  Reading levels dropped from 1931 onward.  Several decades later, the country had tens of millions of functional illiterates. Those are people who memorize several hundred sight-words with good accuracy, and probably hundreds more with medium or low accuracy.  Reading as traditionally understood – a skill both easy and fun – was extinct for a great percentage of the population.  What this bold new factory was creating was damaged readers, like the embryos that didn't get enough oxygen.

This scheme was wildly improbable from the first day.  What sort of unconscionable people would dare to perpetrate it?  That the citizenry could accept it was improbable.  How many semi-literate people would the society tolerate?  That so-called "experts" could put this scheme over on the public remains unlikely to this day.  It's probably not doable unless the Education Establishment has the support of certain unions, certain government agencies, certain foundations, certain universities, and much of the media.  There is a big silence.  How will the public learn the truth if the controllers make sure it's well hidden?  (Check the archives of the New York Times.  You will not find insight into why sight-words can be considered a dubious development.)

Hardly 20 years after the introduction of this brave new illiteracy, the situation was already so bad that Rudolf Flesch felt compelled to write a book explaining what had happened to the country (Why Johnny Can't Read, 1955).  Many millions of Americans felt compelled to read the book.  Almost everyone knew that something had gone horribly wrong.  It continues to go wrong today.

In Brave New World, the controllers are always smugly pleased with their factory.  The same sort of people seem to be controlling K-12 education for the past century.

Bruce Deitrick Price's new book is Saving K-12. He deconstructs educational theories and methods on Improve-Education.org.  Support his work on Patreon.
Reprinted with permission from the American Thinker: https://www.americanthinker.com

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FEBRUARY 2017

WHY THE EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENT HATES CURSIVE
By Bruce Deitrick Price, December 23, 2016

Modern educators are dismissive of cursive. Indeed, many are hostile to such a degree that you should immediately suspect that they are up to something.

Here is an education journalist providing the Party Line: "Cursive writing is an anachronism. Spending any classroom time on it is comparable to teaching how to use an abacus: it's interesting as a history lesson, and probably offers some side benefits, but it is not at all practical as a day-to-day skill in the modern, connected world."

A professor of education argues: "Cursive should be allowed to die. In fact, it's already dying, despite having been taught for decades." (You can depend on education professors to confuse "decades" with "centuries.")

When you read such swaggering attacks on cursive, you might assume that the question is settled. The old geezer is dead, so take him off life support. You rarely see thoughtful praise of cursive. Even people who are sentimentally inclined to support cursive can't think of many reasons to do so.

I propose a higher truth: the Education Establishment is always a reliable guide to what is good. If our socialist professors rail against X, you know that X is educational gold. Here are eight reasons why cursive is valuable and we should fight to keep it in the classroom:

1) LEARN TO READ FASTER. The main thing is that learning cursive accelerates learning to read. If it did nothing else, this alone would still make it a huge asset. Cursive obviously makes a child more aware of letter forms and how words are spelled. Don Potter, the phonics guru, states: "Any attempt to educate American children that neglects the direct development of fluent handwriting is doomed to fail. The little dribble of handwriting done with the typical phonics programs is FAR below optimal."

2) HIGHER I.Q. Reading itself has unexpected benefits. Namely, it makes you smarter. Some researchers speculate that the brain rewires itself to become better at reading. K-12 is full of inferior methods that let children remain poor readers for years. Their I.Q.s will not advance; their academic skills will not improve. In contrast, cursive accelerates reading, which will accelerate everything else.

3) PRECISION. Cursive requires that young students do something precisely. Not sloppily, not incompletely, not according to personal whim. Cursive says: This is an M. Draw it exactly like the diagram. Practice until you can do it correctly. Penmanship is the perfect path to precision.

Precision is a valuable concept for young people. They will learn to read faster and think faster, and it will influence how they approach everything else. When you spell a word, it needs to be spelled a certain way. Grammar says words must be used in particular ways.

So much of what they do in public schools nowadays is a blanket endorsement of sloppiness. Kids can do anything any way they want. That is not education. That's "academic child abuse."

4) FINE MOTOR SKILLS. Even detractors of phonics acknowledge that it teaches fine motor skills. Simply holding a pencil is a big accomplishment for little kids. We know from the history of carpets that little kids are capable of extraordinarily delicate work. If children are working within the context of their family, this work can be largely beneficial. They learn how to create something really complicated, with lots of counting required.

But where do kids today get a chance to perform anything exacting, even for ten minutes? Few children build models anymore. Videogames require the same actions over and over again. Cursive demands both physical and mental dexterity.

5) CALLIGRAPHY. This word, which is almost pure Greek, means beautiful writing. Learning cursive introduces a child to the world of logos, type design, and graphic design generally. Children can compare cursive writing to typefaces they see in the newspaper. They can design their own names in different ways – each is a logo. Many products have script logos; today's students cannot read these beautiful names.

6) HISTORY. When children learn cursive, they can read the Declaration of Independence and many other historical documents. They can read letters from older relatives.

7) INDIVIDUAL SIGNATURES. Cursive allows for personal expression. A person's signature is nearly as unique as a fingerprint. Nowadays, children learn to print their signatures; these will not be distinctive, probably causing lots of confusion in the legal system. Probably our collectivist educators like the idea of all people looking the same and having almost identical signatures. The world will be more boring.

8) TAKING NOTES. Handwriting is faster than printing. That was the main reason they developed it. If students want to take notes in the classroom, cursive is the obvious choice.

The aforementioned education journalist specifically squealed: "I shudder to think of the time I spent learning cursive: 15 minutes of schooling, every day."

Let's think about that. What, in the typical public school, is accomplished in the entire day? Almost nothing, judging by literacy and other test scores. But we're supposed to believe that "almost nothing" reduced by 15 minutes is a big deal.

Let's turn it around. Apparently, 15 minutes a day is all it takes to learn cursive. Now, that's a bargain, readily and cheaply available for every child in America. A mere 15 minutes a day will result in higher I.Q., faster and better reading, a greater appreciation of the aesthetic aspects of type, faster note-taking, one's very own signature, more coordinated fingers, and the ability to find out what Thomas Jefferson is famous for. Cursive may be the best deal offered in K-12 education.

QED: The pattern I see is that our Education Establishment tends to promote methods that don't work. If you are engaged in "the deliberate dumbing down of America," cursive is your natural enemy.

Probably the real reason our experts condemn cursive is because cursive actually works.

Bruce Deitrick Price explains theories and methods on his education sites Improve-Education.org. For info on his four new novels, see his literary site Lit4u.com.

Reprinted with permission from the American Thinker: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/12/why_the_education_establishment_hates_cursive.html#ixzz4TgRlGm00

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MAY 2016

KILLING KNOWLEDGE IN K-12
By Bruce Deitrick Price, April 1, 2016

The first schools, the first great universities, were focused on knowledge: figuring out what it is, collecting and verifying it, and passing it on from teachers to students.

Our K-12 schools have drifted far away from this ideal. Knowledge itself is disparaged. The transmission of knowledge is sneered at. These shifts are huge and destructive, and they are by design.

Consider what any real school looks like: judo schools, medical schools, language schools, flight schools, bartending schools, flower-arranging schools. All possess a body of knowledge they strive to give to the next generation.

That's not what our public schools are focused on now.

It used to be well understood that the human race is divided into uneducated people (they don't know anything) and educated people (they know lots of information). Creating educated people takes work, by the school and the student. K-12 no longer believes in the importance of that work.

What changed?

John Dewey and his socialist brotherhood, a hundred years ago, decided they would use the public schools to transform the entire society. They first had to seize control of what is taught in K-12 classrooms. Dewey and his successors settled on two major strategies for controlling what educators call "content."

First, they discarded as much of the traditional curriculum as possible – i.e., knowledge was thrown out the window by the boxload. Secondly, they invented many techniques for scrambling classroom instruction so that knowledge was no longer taught efficiently.

So we have here, across a wide front, a well organized war against knowledge and the transmission of knowledge. Dumbed down schools were created intentionally in order to create dumbed down students. That, my research suggests, is the horrible reality.

Consider for a moment how extraordinarily successful this campaign has been. Jay Leno used to go "Jaywalking" and find people who didn't know which ocean is to the west of California. That same tradition has been continued by Jesse Watters on Fox News and others. In this video, Watters asks people what country we fought against in the Revolutionary War. People say things like "the French?"

To repeat, this rising tide of ignorance is not an accident. It's too relentless to be anything but intentional. So how exactly do our social engineers achieve what Charlotte Iserbyt called "the deliberate dumbing down of America"?

First, they invent redundant, overlapping sophistries that mandate teaching less, always less. Multiculturalism says you can teach only about foreign cultures. Relevance says you can teach only about the child's own life. Readiness says you can teach only what children are ready to learn. Self-esteem says you can teach only information the child finds easy to learn. Constructivism says you can't teach directly – kids have to assemble knowledge for themselves. You can't expect children to actually know anything, therefore no memorization should be required. That's six separate gimmicks that guarantee, in toto, a scorched earth policy toward the acquisition of knowledge.

Secondly, you invent sophistical gimmicks that will jumble whatever little knowledge can still be taught. We see this, par excellence, in New Math circa 1962, where basic arithmetic was mixed up with complicated high school- and college-level material. Bingo: total confusion and kids learning little. In reading, you have bogus instruction known as Look-say, Whole Word, Dolch words, and so on. The schools spend years teaching children to read, but few students become fluent readers. (This is happening year after year. Don't we have to assume that schools are achieving the results they want?)

The schools always profess hostility to direct instruction, mastery of basics, memorization, traditional testing – in short, all the things that work. They teach as little as possible, and then they create a disconnect with what little they do teach. The result is probably the least educated general population we've had in a century.

One particularly striking result is that students have little sense of historical time. You can ask kids in college which came first, World War II, World War I, or the Civil War, and many won't know. Students aren't told to memorize dates, people, or places, so when American citizens are asked, on the 4th of July, what country did we break away from, they look at you in amazement: who knows stuff like that?

People should give credit where credit is due: our Education Establishment, in its war against knowledge, has been cunningly successful.

Where does all this go? The American people are increasingly like a big blob of jelly. They can't think critically because they don't know much. If leaders lie to them, who is going to realize this? If the media tell them only half of what's going on, how could they know the difference?

Thomas Jefferson said it long ago: you can be ignorant or free, not both.

Our professional education class, what I call the Education Establishment, is hopelessly incompetent (or deeply into subversion). Either way, Americans have to get much more involved in improving their local schools. Be sure that every kid can read by the end of the first grade. Make sure they learn basic arithmetic the old-fashioned way. And teach them lots of facts, one after the other.

It would probably be easy to teach children a new fact each hour, assuming that the fact was taught dramatically and repeated at intervals. But for the sake of discussion, let's settle on teaching one fact each day. Think what that would add up to in a few years. Our middle school students would know more than our college graduates do today.

Only one thing is required for this dramatic turnaround. Schools have to love knowledge.

At present, our public schools are having a squalid love affair with ignorance.

Bruce Deitrick Price explains theories and methods on his education sites Improve-Education.org. (For info on his four new novels, see his literary site Lit4u.com.)

Reprinted with permission from the American Thinker: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/03/killing_knowledge_in_k12.html#ixzz44b724H2n

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MARCH 2015

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PHONICS?
By Bruce Deitrick Price, January 24, 2015

One of the most important books in America’s intellectual history, Why Johnny Can't Read, by Rudolf Flesch, was published 60 years ago in 1955. This book sold 8 million copies, was the talk of the country, and explained why children need phonics to become successful readers.

There are many fascinating aspects to this story. Flesch fled from Austria just before the Germans invaded his country; at that time he was pursuing a law degree. In the United States, he went to Columbia University and earned a doctorate in English. Safe to say, he was exceptionally smart. In addition, he was obsessed with lucid language. He flourished, as Wikipedia notes, “as a writing teacher, plain-English consultant and author. He published many books on the subject of clear, effective communication: How to Test Readability (1951), How to Write Better (1951), The Art of Plain Talk (1946), The Art of Readable Writing (1949), The ABC of Style: A Guide to Plain English (1964), and Rudolf Flesch on Business Communications: How to Say What You Mean in Plain English (1972),” and others.

So we arrive at a sad, unexpected irony. This master communicator believed that he had settled the reading matter forever. Phonics was essential. Whole Word (also known by such names as Look-say, sight-words, Dolch words, Whole Language, etc.) was an obvious fraud and as well dangerous to children. Flesch assumed that any dunce would understand this. He was wrong.

Flesch explained that if you make children memorize English words as graphic designs, you have changed English into a hieroglyphic language. You have thrown away 40 centuries of human history, making English much like Egyptian circa 2000 BC. You have turned a phonetic language, which most children can learn to read in first grade, into a symbol-language that most children can never learn to read. Nobody could possibly be that stupid, right? Wrong.

Here is how Flesch explained our predicament in the famous 1955 book:

We have decided to…learn to read English as if it were Chinese. One word after another after another after another. If we want to read materials with a vocabulary of 10,000 words, then we have to memorize 10,000 words; if we want to go to the 20,000 word range, we have to learn, one by one, 20,000 words; and so on. We have thrown 3500 years of civilization out the window and have gone back to the age of Hammurabi.”

Certainly that settles the matter, right? Unfortunately, no.

Here’s the huge problem. Flesch did not close the deal. He believed he had, of course. He thought that if you say 2+2 = 4, what else is there to say? That was his mistake. He needed to explain it again and again and again (and again) until every parent and teacher understood, and no dishonest literacy professor could claim to miss the point.

Flesch underestimated our Education Establishment. These professors of education, essentially a far-left cult, had forced sight-words into the schools circa 1935 and they were not going to let go. They would pretend, they would lie, they would wiggle like a snake to victory any way possible.

So what did they do? They ridiculed Rudolf Flesch (“Devil in the Flesch”) and went right on doing all the bad things they had previously been doing. They formed the International Reading Association (IRA) to consolidate their gains, and to quarantine Flesch. Further, they fashioned endless sophistries to justify their incorrect methods. They kept the field of reading mired in jargon and techno-talk.

It is arguably one of the greatest tragedies the country suffered in the 20th century. To repeat, Rudolf Flesch did not close the deal. Flesch, the master of clear English, underestimated the malevolent power of unclear English. He underestimated the power of lockstep orthodoxy, as when thousands of professors agree to support every wrong detail of an absurd doctrine.

Still today, many schools in the United States proudly boast on their websites that they use Dolch words or the equivalent. Millions of students are still being turned into functional illiterates.

What can be done now to rectify this terrible mistake?

First, every parent should take a few minutes to understand why phonics is essential but memorizing sight-words one by one makes no sense at all. Very few people, for example, could memorize even 100 license plates or instantly identify 100 celebrities. Even when you know the name, you can’t always bring it up from your memory in a fraction of a second. It's no different with sight-words.

Second, teachers who haven’t read “Why Johnny Can’t Read” (or “Why Johnny STILL Can’t Read,” 1981) should acknowledge that they are clueless amateurs. Such a person should not be allowed in an elementary school. Why? Because you will not be able to recognize inferior methods and the damage they’re doing to children. All phonics experts confidently assert that 99% of children can learn to read in the first grade. If you are accepting a lower level of achievement, then you are part of the problem.

Third, our newspapers and other media can help people to understand these matters. By remaining detached and silent, our media remain a big part of the problem.

There is a maxim in police work: “lie once, lie always.” Translation: if you lied, you can no longer be considered a reliable witness. That would seem to blackball all the people who gave us Whole Word from any further involvement with literacy. Legal codes sometimes stipulate who can testify at a trial; for example, convicted criminals might be excluded because it is assumed they will lie. There is another category of people who can’t testify: those with a financial interest in the outcome. Once again, there goes the entire Education Establishment. They cannot testify about reading methods because they’re all making money from the inferior methods now used. It’s not just all the expensive but worthless textbooks. When children don’t learn to read after a year or two, they are sent to interventions, sent for psychiatric counseling, sent to pick up their Ritalin. There are billions of dollars being made off of stunted readers, i.e., children victimized by Whole Word. Lots of people are making lots of money from the cash cow known as K-12 education. (So-called dyslexia, all by itself, has become a cash cow.) Are these pretend-experts now going to start telling the truth? Unlikely.

Don’t trust anything they say. Trust Rudolf Flesch. His books are available on Amazon. Used versions might sell for pennies. Read even a few chapters and you will be free at last.

For a great look back at the reading situation as of 1975, read Samuel Blumenfeld’s wonderful speech at the Reading Reform Foundation that year.

Blumenfeld also chronicled our tragedy in his book “Victims of Dick and Jane” where he said:

"Flesch naively assumed back then that after the educators read his book, they would recognize the error of their ways and return to the sane phonetic method of teaching. What he didn't understand, however, was the political agenda behind what those progressive professors were doing. Their goal was to use education as a means for changing America from an individualist, capitalist, religious society into a socialist, collectivist, humanist society.”

Make no mistake. The Education Establishment, or perhaps we should say the Illiteracy Establishment, has tormented and abused the children of this country for 80 years. These phony experts should not be forgiven.

Bruce Deitrick Price explains educational theories and methods on his site Improve-Education.org.

Reprinted with permission from the American Thinker: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/01/whatever_happened_to_phonics.html

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DECEMBER 2014

COMMON CORE: JUST STANDARDS OR DECEIT?
By Mary Anne Marcella, November 20, 2014

There are many things that concern this parent and teacher involving the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the least of which is the actual standards themselves. My work as a teacher exposes me directly to what seem to be underhanded acts of educational tyranny. My friends, family, and co-workers, preoccupied just trying to get their children and students prepared for the “rigorous” set of Common Core Standards, don’t notice the red flags. While they are focused on how to achieve success with Common Core, I am losing sleep over what I see and what I fear may be the endgame.

Today, the testing of CCSS is being used to ultimately transfer local control, in violation of the Tenth Amendment, to the federal government. With that transfer comes the possibility that this power in the hands of the federal government could be used for worrisome purposes. Would the federal government use this power to mold the minds of children by defining moral values? Would they attempt to influence the beliefs of the citizenry through messages hidden in texts? Would they push and try to normalize a leftist agenda that contradicts the beliefs of most Americans? Would they use data to track our children through adulthood using hundreds of data points? Would they keep a watchful eye on children across America, via I-pads and other devices, and know who to re-educate? Would they divide students who are willing and able to comply from those who will not accept their worldview? Would they indoctrinate for the common good of a centralized controlled government? Would America become a nation, not of achievers and innovators, but of mediocre workers to be utilized for the collective good of the state?

Evidence is showing that much of this is already happening. For example, teachers across America are forced to use Common Core compliant materials (textbooks, modules, performance assessments, et al) via an evaluation system that punishes them if they don’t comply. (See, American Thinker, October 3, 2014, “Common Core Teacher Evaluations: Ensuring Conformity in Every Classroom"). The “Common Core compliant” materials are sought by teachers, school districts, and parents because they trust that using them will ensure that their children perform well on the “rigorous” Common Core assessments. One thread woven through these “common core compliant” materials is moral relativism. My fifth-grade class read a book called Sounder. This book has been around many years, but it illustrates just how simple it is to train children to think a certain way. The book tells the story of a poor black sharecropper, and presumably takes place in the south in the 1940s. The man loves his wife and children. He is extremely poor. He is terribly exhausted. He works gruelingly hard, but he just can’t get anywhere. He hunts every day with the family dog but food is still difficult to come by. It’s easy to empathize with the character, a man who is doing the right thing and getting nothing for it. One day he comes home with a ham. His wife is worried because she knows he didn’t buy it. Despite this, the family enjoys the ham for days. Even the dog gets scraps. Eventually, the police come and arrest him for stealing the ham. Suffice to say, the punishment is severe. The dog is even shot by the ruthless (white) police. I won’t give away any more of the book. After reading this story, children who agreed that stealing is wrong under absolutely any circumstances, now are not so sure. Maybe it is okay to steal to feed your family. Then, after reading the book, the children may be asked to write an opinion essay in which they address, “Under what circumstances is it okay to steal?” The premise being that stealing can be justified. In addition to the textbooks themselves, you can find examples like this hidden within Common Core compliant math word problems, quizzes, assessments and even sentences. (For example, place the proper punctuation on this sentence: “Government gives us our rights”.) Throughout these Common Core materials are messages that normalize things, in small impressionable brains, that may be contrary to your worldview. Throughout these Common Core materials are values that are being taught that parents might protest if they were made clearer. Parents, are you okay with this?

There are more tentacles to Common Core, and admittedly, some of the standards seem benign. (For example, “Students will understand how characters react to challenges in the story.”) However, the purpose of Common Core is not revealed in the standards. It is revealed in the view that there are no absolute truths or values. It is revealed in the teaching of “higher order thinking” which is attained when a child no longer believes in right and wrong. It is revealed in the view that all that is new is better than what comes from previous generations of knowledge, and much more. Common Core is not just a set of standards. That we very well may have been deceived and that we fell for it with such unflinching obedience, and that there is the potential for total control in the hands of a few who may or may not exploit it, is what keeps this teacher and parent up at night.

Mary Anne Marcella received a B.A from New York University and an M.S in Elementary Education from Lehman College. She lives with her family in New Canaan, CT. She is a parent and public school teacher who cares about her children and her students. Her views are her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of others in the education field. You may contact her maryannem@optonline.net or twitter Maryanne@maryannemercog

Reprinted by permission from the American Thinker: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/11/common_core_just_standards_or_deceit.html

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MARCH 2013

HHS: $8 BILLION PRE-K PROGRAM TOUTED BY OBAMA ISN'T WORKING
February 22, 2013, The Judicial Watch Blog http://www.judicialwatch.org

President Obama loves to tout the success of a multi-billion-dollar early education program that supposedly helps reduce poverty, yet a government study reveals that it really doesn’t work.

Obama keeps pushing the federally-funded universal preschool program known as Head Start even though his own Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has determined that it’s ineffective. Remember how he cited “study after study” showing that the government’s investment in universal preschool pays for itself during the State of Union earlier this month?

It turns out that one of those studies, published last fall by his own HHS, reveals that Head Start isn’t working despite its whopping $8 billion a year price tag. In fact, children who participated in Head Start did worse in math and had problems with social interactions by third grade than those who didn’t go through the federal program.

“There were initial positive impacts from having access to Head Start, but by the end of 3rd grade there were very few impacts….in any of the four domains of cognitive, social-emotional, health and parenting practices,” according to the HHS study. “The few impacts that were found did not show a clear pattern of favorable or unfavorable impacts for children.”

Yet the president is committed to the program and will keep pouring more money into it. His White House education web site explains that Head Start “helps prevent achievement gaps before they start” because the program will provide children from disadvantaged backgrounds with a strong start and a foundation for school success. “Expanding access to high quality early childhood education is among the smartest investments that we can make,” according to the White House site.

Public education— from kindergarten through 12th grade—has long been available for free in the U.S., but parents must pay to send their children to preschool. This creates a disadvantage for those who can’t afford it, according to the Obama administration. So the government must step in with the federally-funded Head Start.

The goal is to “boost the school readiness of low-income children.” The program is based on the “whole child” model and also provides “comprehensive services” such as medical, dental, mental health care and nutritional services designed around a family’s ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage. Thank you Uncle Sam!

Permission is granted by Judicial Watch to reprint its materials as long as credit is given.

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MAY 2009

THE UNIVERSAL PRE-K SCAM

In a column on Townhall.com on April 08, 2009, John Stossel exposed the foolishness of a government-run universal pre-kindergarten program.  He interviewed a woman who runs 6 preschools and whose reaction to the proposal is: "This whole thing is a scam."

She doesn't want to have to answer to the government because her programs are so far superior and parents choose to send their children her way.  Since public schools, in many cases, aren't doing their jobs and still get to keep their doors open there is no reason to think that pre-K would be different.  Most American kids already attend preschool.  Parents pay for it themselves, and those who can't afford it can get government subsidies or use free programs like Head Start.  Under universal pre-K, taxpayers would pay for every child.

Lots of studies show that any positive effect of preschool vanishes by grades 3 or 4.  Some studies have found that too much school may lead to disruptive and aggressive behavior.  These programs were put in place 10 years ago in Oklahoma and Georgia and have not worked to improve the students results.  Oklahoma's students lost ground to kids from other states.

The supporters then say it helps the kids socially.  How much do you want to pay for that?

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JULY 2003

TEACHER'S PAY

In Education Next, a school-reform journal journal published by The Hoover Institution, a recent study questions the conventional view that public school teachers are woefully underpaid.

According to USA Today, commenting on the study on June 2, 2003, in the 2000-01 school year, the average teacher made $43,250 according to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).  By comparison, midlevel accountants earned an average of $52,664.  

In The Journal Times, May 30, 2003, the study was further analyzed.

Relying on data from the National Compensation Survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which computes hourly earning for workers, teachers earn more per hour than architects, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, registered nurses and reporters.

Elementary school teachers earned $28.79 an hour, secondary school teachers earned $29.79 an hour and special education teachers earned $29.97 an hour.  In comparison, architects earned $23.22 an hour; editors and reporters, $24.81 an hour; civil engineers, $27.35 an hour.

According to the latest salary information from the AFT, in a press release dated July 16, 2002, Michigan pays well.

When comparing salaries with the national average of $43,250, the AFT report stated:

States with the highest average salary: Connecticut had the highest average salary at $53,507. The other top five states were California, at $52,480; New Jersey, at $51,955; New York, at $51,020; and Michigan, at $50,515. California teacher salaries spiked 10.1 percent, improving its rank from seventh to second. California’s increase reflects state efforts to reduce class size and hire more teachers.

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MAY 2003

  WHAT'S A "PIRG?"

An article in Tech Central Station, March 3, 2003, answers that question.

A student in a Missouri Community College noted that each semester on her tuition bill an item was listed as MOPIRG.  The fine print below said: "If you opt not to support MOPIRG, please deduct this amount from your payment."  However, the tuition bill gave no explanation of what exactly MOPIRG was.

The same situation was found around the country. PennPIRG, MASSPIRG, CALPIRG -- students in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Colorado and California had been paying small fees to all of these groups, and almost none of the students knew at first what it was they were paying for.  Almost all students are donating to a PIRG.

And Ralph Nader would like to thank you for your support.

The same man who rails against corporate welfare has set up this underhanded, manipulative method of coercing money from college kids and funneling it to Ralph Nader.

The PIRG scam is short for "Public Interest Research Group," and there are well over a hundred chapters across the country.  The scams vary from campus to campus, but basically it works like this:

Each time your kid registers for classes, the local PIRG chapter has arranged with the school to tack a fee on the his tuition.  On most every campus, the PIRG chapter has made attempts to make this "contribution" as secretive and misleading as possible.  Just how secretive and manipulative the method depends on how much resistance each chapter has met in trying to get the scheme implemented.  At most schools, they first attempt to make the fee both mandatory and nonrefundable.  If that doesn't work, they lobby for as underhanded and sneaky a scheme as the school will allow.

This has been going on for 25 years.

If a student attempts to avoid the charge, signs up and then tries to "unsign," it can be very difficult to do.  In some schools, it is not possible, because the charge is mandatory.

The money is not necessarily spent on the campus where it is collected.  This is particularly true in the Northeast, where most, if not all, goes directly to the state PIRG, where it's used to pay political lawyers and statehouse lobbyists, or is used as "seed money" for further fundraising efforts.  About 10% of campus-collected money goes to the national chapter, USPIRG.

While it is always difficult to obtain financial information on Nader's organizations, it is estimated that PIRG chapters manage to collect between $10 and $20 million.

These funds are used to finance a variety of Nader causes, left-wing, anti-capitalist, Green party positions.

If you have a student in college, you should check to see if a PIRG charge appears on the tuition bill.  If so, and you do not wish to support Nader, see if your student can avoid paying it.  Some campuses have been convinced to change their policies when awareness occurred and pressure was applied.

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APRIL 2003

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE NUTS

The Sun Online reported on March 4, 2003 on the madness which overtook the English school of Park Road Junior Infant and Nursery in Batley, West Yorks.

All words relating to pigs have been removed from the school, including the stories of the Three Little Pigs, Babe and all others which refer to pigs.  The school insists that any talk of pigs is offensive to Muslims who make up 60% of the 250 pupils.

Leading Muslims disagreed saying there is nothing in their religious rules to stop children READING about pigs.  A fuming parent said: "I've never heard of anything so ridiculous.  It is absurd."

A member of the Muslim Council of Britain said: "This is bizarre -- there is nothing to stop children reading about pigs.  The ban is simply on the consumption of pork and pig products."

Another religious leader added: "It is rather sad.  Muslims would not find the Three Little Pigs offensive."

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JANUARY 2001

1999 IOSCO COUNTY SCHOOL STATISTICS

These tables are based on the 1999 edition of the Michigan School Report compiled by the Michigan Department of Education. The information is supplied by the schools, and, except for the MEAP scores, is subject to revision by the school personnel.  The Jan. 1999 High School Test Results are based on revised tests.  The range of the number of students taking the test is noted, however, the number of 11th graders for each school district is not. The students who excelled, met Michigan standards and met basic standards were combined for each subject.

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AUGUST 2000

MICHIGAN TEACHERS ARE WELL PAID

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has produced a table comparing teachers' salaries across the country using the 1997-1998 school year, the latest year available.

Using the AFT estimate of an average salary of $48,361, Michigan came in fourth, behind Connecticut at $51,727, New Jersey at $50,284 and New York at $48,712.  The average country wide was  approximately $39,350.  (The entire table can be seen at www.aft.org .)

The State of Michigan reported the average reported annual teacher salary (not including benefits) as $47,359.  Corresponding 1998 school year as: Hale -- $43,648, Tawas -- $42,691, Oscoda -- $46,342 and W-P -- $41,059.

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JULY 2000

HAVE WE BEEN DUMBED DOWN?

 Could You Have Passed the 8th Grade in 1895? Take a Look:

 This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 from Salina, Kansas. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, Kansas and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

 8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, Kansas - 1895

 Grammar  (Time, one hour)
 1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
 2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications.
 3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.
 4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of do, lie, lay and run.
 5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.
 6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
 7-10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

 Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)
 1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
 2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
 3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50 cts. Per bu, deducting 1050 lbs. For tare?
 4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
 5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
 6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
 7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $.20 per inch?
 8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
 9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods?
 10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

 U.S. History  (Time, 45 minutes)
 1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.
 2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
 3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
 4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
 5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
 6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
 7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
 8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, and 1865?

 Orthography (Time, one hour)
 1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic orthography, etymology, syllabication?
 2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
 3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
 4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u'.
 5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e'.  Name two exceptions under each rule.
 6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling.   Illustrate each.
 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: Bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, super.
 8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: Card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
 9. Use the following correctly in sentences, Cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
 10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography  (Time, one hour)
 1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
 2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
 3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
 4. Describe the mountains of N.A.
 5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fermandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
 6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
 7. Name all the republics of Europe and give capital of each.
 8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
 9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
 10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give inclination of the earth.

 Imagine a college student who went to public school trying to pass this test, even if the few outdated questions were modernized. Imagine their professors even being able to Pass the 8th Grade. Can Americans, student and professor alike, get  back up to the 8th Grade level of 1895?  

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JUNE 2000

YOUR UNIVERSITY AT WORK

The State News reported on March 28, 2000 on a protest launched by Michigan's American Family Association against a new English course being added to the University of Michigan's fall schedule.  

The course, "How to be Gay: Male Homosexuality and Initiation" is being offered by a homosexual professor, David Halperin.  He says he doesn't understand where all the fuss is coming from.  "I know that they haven't attempted to contact me for information on the course. . . . I don't think they're interested in getting information.  They just want to mobilize opposition.  They have no idea what I'm teaching, because I don't know quite what it will be yet."

The course has already passed a review process by U of M's English department.  There are no plans for its removal, said Joel Seguine, a university spokesman.  "We are in complete support both of Professor Halperin's course and of his freedom to teach the course he has constructed," said Nancy Cantor, provost and vice president for academic affairs, in a prepared statement.

Thought you'd like to know so you can make an informed decision when the "Dear Alumnus" letter comes. . . .

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JANUARY 2000

The smallest Cabinet department, with 4800 employees, Education has 167 appointees -- one to every 29 workers.  The Los Angeles Times reported on October 3, 1999 that the Department of Education has become a haven for Clinton loyalists.  For example, when Carol Moseley-Braun lost her US Senate seat, she signed on as a consultant at $435.84 a day and received $23,145.84 from January through June, 1999.  Her contract calls for her to "develop outreach plans and initiatives to convey information on the need for school reconstruction to communities, officials of state and local government, parents, business and school administrators."  (She is awaiting confirmation as Ambassador to New Zealand.)

When Carol Rasco wanted to leave her post as White House domestic advisor, she was given a $125,000 job running a skeletal reading program that Congress has refused to fund.  Other appointees include a former Stanford University education dean, a onetime suburban New York school superintendent, the president's goddaughter, the Transportation secretary's sister-in-law and myriad Clinton-Gore campaign veterans.

The inspector general has warned that the department lacked employees with critical computer and financial skills and that it needed people with expertise to oversee outside contractors.  These positions are not filled because of the political appointees.  The Department of Education budget has risen to approximately $33.5 billion per year.

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JANUARY 2000

1999 IOSCO COUNTY SCHOOL STATISTICS

These tables are based on the 1999 edition of the Michigan School Report compiled by the Michigan Department of Education. The information is supplied by the schools, and, except for the MEAP scores, is subject to revision by the school personnel.  The Jan. 1999 High School Test Results are based on revised tests.  The range of the number of students taking the test is noted, however, the number of 11th graders for each school district is not. The students who excelled, met Michigan standards and met basic standards were combined for each subject.

THE CLASS-SIZE MYTH

In the March 13, 1999 Savannah Morning News, the editorial brought forth some interesting statistics in the wake of the Senate's passing of the $15 billion education bill which allows the states to use the money for programs which serve them best. Clinton has threatened to veto the bill because it doesn't include the required 100,000 teachers program.

The editorial points out that class sizes have been falling for more than 30 years. The average was 24.1 in 1965 and 17.3 in 1990. No corresponding increase in student achievement has been noted. In Kansas City, Missouri, a court-ordered desegregation plan that spent $2 billion in 12 years reduced class size to 12 or 13 students per teacher -- the lowest in America. Student performance didn't improve.

A 1987 New Jersey study concluded that "pupil-teacher ratios or class sizes are among the weakest effects on learning, except at class sizes below about five to 10, which amount to tutoring groups." A mid-1980's experiment in Tennessee put kindergartners in classes of 13 to 17 (rather than the usual 21 to 25) and found that the kids in the smaller classes did a little better than the ones in the larger rooms in kindergarten only. No continuing disparity in achievement was found in the later grades.

Mr. Clinton's plan seems more designed to increase the numbers of members of the teachers' unions, reliable supporters of the Democrat cause and designed to appeal to the soccer moms who believe the myth about class size. The real effect is to paper over the real problem, the quality of the teacher who is at the head of the class.

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APRIL 1999

NO CHOICE FOR GORE

Vice President Al Gore has been a loyal backer of President Clinton's education programs -- from opposing school vouchers to making plans that would link every school to the Internet.

Michael Chapman opined on 2/17/99 in Investor's Business Daily that Gore's goal might well push an extreme environmental agenda which would shunt facts and sound science aside and instead look for crises that demand "solutions," including higher taxes and more regulations.

He noted that in joining most of the Democratic Party establishment in opposing school vouchers Gore has called them "wrong-headed" and said they "would drain precious resources from our public schools, and would barely benefit the students who need help the most."

Gore and his wife, Tipper, went to private prep schools and graduated from private colleges. Two of their children go to private schools, as did two tohers who are now in elite private colleges.

"Al Gore carries on (Clinton's) hypocrisy," said William "Chip" Mellore, president of the Institute for Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm that defends voucher plans in court. "He refuses to make it possible for others to have the choice that he believes is essential for his own children's well-being -- the chance for a decent education."

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DECEMBER 1998

1998 IOSCO COUNTY SCHOOL STATISTICS

These tables are based on the 1998 edition of the Michigan School Report compiled by the Michigan Department of Education. The information is supplied by the schools, and, except for the MEAP scores, is subject to revision by the school personnel.

HIGH SCHOOL DATA (Except as Noted)

School District: ............Hale............Tawas...............Oscoda...........W-P

School Enrollment -- State Average 489
1998.............................421..............550.....................601.............402
1997.............................387..............570.....................576.............242
1996.............................389..............517.....................581.............233
1995.............................381..............511.....................547.............238

Pupils per teacher -- Michigan: 22.9 -- U.S.: 17
1998.............................19.6.............26.2.....................23.6...........22.4
1997.............................18.0.............27.1.....................N/A............22.4
1996..............................17.7.............26.5.....................25.0...........21.0
1995..............................18.1.............24.2.....................23.6...........22.7

Average expenditure per pupil -- N/A=Not Available -- State $4227
1998.............................N/A................N/A....................N/A.............N/A
1997.............................N/A..............$4229................$4286.........$5077
1996............................$4380...........$3855................$4281.........$3606
1995............................$4155...........$4066................$4698.........$3393

Average teacher annual salary -- does not include benefits --State --$47,120
1998..............................N/A................N/A....................N/A..............N/A
1997...........................$41,706*.......$42,015..............$52,499.......$41,127
1996...........................$37,119........$43,447..............$48,221.......$29,722
1995...........................$36,637........$45,013..............$54,060......$32,016
* District wide data, did not report by school

MEAP/HSPT Scores -- 1996-97 Results -- Per Cent Proficient....................................Michigan
11th Grade Science...........22.2...............51.3...................32.7..............33.3...............38.5
11th Grade Math..............28.6...............66.7...................20.7..............25.3...............52.9
11th Grade Reading.........13.9...............44.3...................30.5..............25.4...............41.1
11th Grade Writing...........16.7...............22.4...................21.0..............15.5...............30.3

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL DATA (Except as Noted)

Hale reports Secondary school data and does not separate out high school and junior high school enrollment, pupils per teacher, average expenditure and average teacher salaries.

School District: ............Hale............Tawas...............Oscoda...........W-P

School Enrollment -- N/A=Not Available -- State -- 489
1998.............................421..............349.....................417.............237
1997.............................387..............311.....................373.............242
1996.............................389..............297.....................N/A.............233
1995.............................381..............296.....................N/A.............238

Pupils per teacher -- Michigan: 22.9 -- U.S.: 17
1998..............................19.6.............24.8...................23.8.............22.6
1997..............................18.0.............23.6...................22.5.............22.4
1996..............................17.7.............23.4....................N/A.............21.0
1995..............................18.1.............23.4....................N/A.............22.7

Average expenditure per pupil -- N/A=Not Available -- State --$4227
1997.............................N/A...............$3428................$3944........$3284
1996............................$4380.............$3450..................N/A.........$3606
1995............................$4155.............$3705..................N/A.........$3393

Average teacher annual salary -- does not include benefits -- State -- $ 47,120
1997................................N/A...........$42,794..............$45,088.......$28,169
1996...........................$37,119..........$43,600................N/A...........$29,722
1995...........................$36,637..........$44,506................N/A...........$32,016

MEAP/HSPT Scores -- 1997-98 Results -- Per Cent Proficient....................................Michigan
8th Grade Science...........12.1...............26.4...................14.2..............14.2...............22.0
7th Grade Math..............62.0...............78.5...................73.9..............73.9...............61.4
7th Grade Reading.........58.0...............63.0...................46.1..............46.1..............48.8
8th Grade Writing..........51.7...............65.7...................54.5..............54.5..............69.0

ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL DATA (Except as Noted)

Elementary School data is maintained by school. Because of the number of schools involved, the following are the 1997-1998 school results, since these are the most complete recent statistics. N/A=Not Available.

School........Enroll-........pupils/.......expense/...teacher salary.............MEAP Results--% Proficient
.......................ment........teacher.......pupil*.........average**...4th Math...4th Read...5th Sci...5th Writ

Hale..............400............26.7............N/A..............N/A.............66.0............47.2..........26.8............51.8

Tawas El......411.............24.2...........3,421..........42,608............N/A............N/A...........N/A............N/A

C. Bolen......520.............24.8............3,448..........42,560...........N/A.............N/A...........N/A...........N/A

Tawas Area...............................................................................84.5.............68.9...........41.2...........71.2

Cedar Lk....470...............26.1............4,078..........48,825..........N/A..............N/A..........N/A...........N/A

Oscoda Area..............................................................................66.0...............42.7.........27.4...........57.2

W-P.............340...............26.2............3,577..........40,814..........43.7...............35.3.........28.6..........46.1

Michigan............................................6,507...........47,009.........74.1...............58.6..........40.4.........64.3

*1996-7 data, 1997-8 N/A. .....**This salary (and the state average) do not include benefits.
........................State average benefits for 1995 were 12,179.
....................................This data was N/A for the local schools and districts.

District Data per student --1996-97

District............................Hale...........Tawas..............Oscoda...........W-P..........State
Total Revenue..............$6433...........$5527................$6226.........$6120.........$7050
Foundation Allowance...$5381...........$4921................$5097.........$4843........$5878
Current Spending..........$6411...........$5074................$6119.........$5459........$6507
Dropout Rate..................4.3................0.7.....................5.1...............1.5...........6.6....
Graduation Rate............85.9...............96.8...................83.5..............93.9.........76.2..

Median Household Income -- Michigan: $31,020 -- U.S.: $30,056
...................................$16,527........$21,325..............$20,141......$14,325

1989 per capita Income -- Michigan: $14,154 -- U.S.: $14,420
.....................................$8,114.........$10,756............. $9,382.........$7,304

The Michigan Department of Education Website contains much more information, including data on the grade school performance and statistics. There is additional data on the communities themselves.

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JANUARY - FEBRUARY - MARCH 1998

IOSCO COUNTY SCHOOL STATS

These tables are based on the 1997 edition of the Michigan School Report compiled by the Michigan Department of Education. The information is supplied by the schools, and, except for the MEAP scores, is subject to revision by the school personnel.

HIGH SCHOOL DATA (Except as Noted)

School District: ............Hale............Tawas...............Oscoda...........W-P

School Enrollment
1997.............................387..............570.....................576.............242
1996.............................389..............517.....................581.............233
1995.............................381..............511.....................547.............238

Pupils per teacher -- Michigan: 20 -- U.S.: 17
District wide....................18................16.......................16...............17
1997.............................18.0.............27.1.....................N/A............22.4
1996..............................17.7.............26.5.....................25.0...........21.0
1995..............................18.1.............24.2.....................23.6...........22.7

Average expenditure per pupil -- N/A=Not Available
1997...............................N/A................N/A....................N/A.............N/A
1996............................$4380...........$3855................$4281.........$3606
1995............................$4155...........$4066................$4698.........$3393

Average teacher annual salary -- does not include benefits
1997................................N/A................N/A....................N/A..............N/A
1996...........................$37,119........$43,447..............$48,221......$29,722
1995...........................$36,637........$45,013..............$54,060......$32,016

MEAP/HSPT Scores -- 1996 Results -- Per Cent Proficient....................................Michigan
11th Grade Science...........12.1...............32.3...................33.7..............20.2...............38.5
11th Grade Math..............36.4...............61.5...................40.4..............26.6...............47.7
11th Grade Reading.........42.4...............38.0...................47.6..............22.8...............40.2
11th Grade Writing...........12.1...............38.5...................28.8..............10.9...............34.4

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL DATA (Except as Noted)

Hale and Whittemore-Prescott report Secondary school data and do not separate out high school and junior high school enrollment, pupils per teacher, average expenditure and average teacher salaries.

School District: ............Hale............Tawas...............Oscoda...........W-P

School Enrollment -- N/A=Not Available
1997.............................387..............311.....................373.............242
1996.............................389..............297.....................N/A.............233
1995.............................381..............296.....................N/A.............238

Pupils per teacher -- Michigan: 20 -- U.S.: 17
District wide....................18................16......................16................17
1997..............................18.0.............23.6...................22.5.............22.4
1996..............................17.7.............23.4....................N/A.............21.0
1995..............................18.1.............23.4....................N/A.............22.7

Average expenditure per pupil -- N/A=Not Available
1997.............................N/A................N/A....................N/A.............N/A
1996............................$4380.............$3450..................N/A.........$3606
1995............................$4155.............$3705..................N/A.........$3393

Average teacher annual salary -- does not include benefits
1997................................N/A................N/A.................N/A.................N/A
1996...........................$37,119..........$43,600................N/A...........$29,722
1995...........................$36,637..........$44,506................N/A...........$32,016

MEAP/HSPT Scores -- 1996 Results -- Per Cent Proficient....................................Michigan
8th Grade Science...........13.2...............31.9...................33.7..............19.8...............21.5
7th Grade Math..............43.3...............61.8...................40.4..............43.2...............55.0
7th Grade Reading.........56.7...............40.2...................47.6..............27.2...............42.3
8th Grade Writing...........62.3..............72.8....................28.8..............N/A...............69.1

ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL DATA (Except as Noted)

Elementary School data is maintained by school. Because of the number of schools involved, the following will reflect the 1995-1996 school results, since these are the most complete recent statistics. N/A=Not Available.

School........Enroll-........pupils/.......expense/...teacher salary.............MEAP Results--% Proficient
.......................ment........teacher.......pupil..........average**...4th Math...4th Read...5th Sci...5th Writ

Hale..............389............22.9...........3,898..........39,102............55.9............35.6..........25.0............57.0

Tawas El......438.............25.8...........3,370..........42,368............69.2............41.3..........28.1............48.6

C. Bolen......527.............25.1............3,144..........39,909...........N/A.............N/A...........N/A...........N/A

Tawas Area...............................................................................45.7..............48.6..........28.1...........48.6

Cedar Lk....520...............30.6............2,918..........42,604..........N/A..............N/A..........N/A...........N/A

Richardson.689...............48.2............3,688..........80,991...........49.3.............31.0..........15.3...........40.6

River Rd....355...............N/A...............643............N/A.............N/A..............N/A..........N/A...........N/A

Oscoda Area..............................................................................35.0...............29.9.........13.5...........38.2

Prescott.....351................22.6............3,865..........39,369...........N/A...............N/A.........N/A...........N/A

Whittemore325................23.9............3,626..........35,608...........29.3...............27.2.........25.2..........54.5

W-P Area...................................................................................30.6...............32.4..........25.2..........54.5

Michigan..........................................5,361*.........34,663*.........60.5...............49.0..........26.9..........55.6

*1995 data, 1996 N/A. .....**This salary (and the state average) do not include benefits.
........................State average benefits for 1995 were 12,179.
....................................This data was N/A for the local schools and districts.

District Data per student

District............................Hale...........Tawas..............Oscoda...........W-P
Total Revenue..............$3679...........$4045................$3789.........$3413
Local Taxes..................$3156...........$3274................$1758.........$1254
State Revenue.................$108............$100..................$836..........$1761
Federal Revenue.............$222............$147...................$926...........$184
Total Expenditure..........$3773...........$4890................$3995.........$3382
Current Spending..........$3751...........$3493................$3994.........$3163
Instructional Spending...$2223...........$2155................$2259.........$1608
Support Services............$1247...........$1110................$1415...........$871

Median Household Income -- Michigan: $31,020 -- U.S.: $30,056
...................................$16,527........$21,325..............$20,141......$14,325

1989 per capita Income -- Michigan: $14,154 -- U.S.: $14,420
.....................................$8,114.........$10,756............. $9,382.........$7,304

The Michigan Department of Education Website contains much more information, including data on the grade school performance and statistics. There is additional data on the communities themselves.

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