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Tag Archives: public schools

Let’s Remember and Celebrate our Independence Day.

03 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by Mike Sengewalt in Commentary

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Founders, Independence, left, public schools

The history of our founding has not been properly taught in schools for decades. Independence Day is routinely called the 4th of July holiday, a day for cook outs, not remembrance.

It is up to us to make sure our children understand how and why our country was formed. One way is to read to them this our Declaration Of Independence.

________________________________________________________________________________________

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

New Hampshire:

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:

John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

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Is Opposing School Vouchers Racist?

18 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Mike Sengewalt in Commentary

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Democrat Party, education, public schools, vouchers

The free market is a wonderful thing when it is allowed to operate unfettered by obstacles. Take for instance the world of personal computers.  IBM’s first personal computer (pc) was the Model 5120 released in early 1980. It weighed about 100 pounds and came with 64 kilobytes of RAM, a 16 bit processor, a 9 inch black and white monitor and two floppy drives. It did not have a hard drive.  It sold for $13,500 which is about $40,000 in today’s dollars! This caused a boom in companies competing to make the best PC.  Innovation exploded and as the pcs became more powerful they became cheaper. Contrast  IBM’s first PC  with today’s PCs that sport a dual core 64 bit processor, 16 gigabytes of RAM, a 128 gigabyte boot hard drive and a terabyte data hard drive, a 27” flat screen monitor and much more for about $2,300.

Now imagine what would have happened if the federal government decided that everyone should have an IBM PC. IBM would have a huge captive market with little or no incentive to change. Costs would go up, not down and quality would decline. There would be little innovation. Does anyone believe that we would be able to buy PCs as described above at 17 times less than the original model in today’s dollars? Not a chance.

This is easy for most people to understand. They see similar stories in other industries such as the television industry. But when it comes to our education system most are blind. The government pays for primary and secondary education for anyone who wants it.  The schools are operated by state and local governments and are staffed by teachers unions. The federal government provides funding help to the states which gives them control over the schools. The schools have little incentive to improve since they have a captive market. They block any measure to allow competition in the system.  This is due in large part because of the dominance of the unions in the school system. To compound matters, the unions collect dues from their members and use these dues to fund the Democrat Party. In turn The Democrat Party fights any attempts at real reform and competition.

The results are predictable.  In the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ‘s 2014 report the US ranked 24th in reading, 36th in math and 28th in science.  Even more disturbing is the fact that the trend data show no significant changes in the average performance of U.S. 15-year-old students in the mathematics, reading and science over time. “The Nations Report Card’s” 2013 study revealed that only 34% of 8th graders in public schools are proficient in math as compared to 47% in private schools.  Only 34% of 8th graders in public schools are proficient in reading as compared to 57% in private schools.

The left always blame lack of funding for our poor results. The facts are contrary to this oft repeated myth.  In 2010 the USA spent $11,826 per FTE student per year. The OECD average in 2010 was $9,803. Of the 35 countries in the comparison only three countries spend more than us. Japan, which ranked 4th in reading and 7th in math spent $9,168 in 2010. Korea, ranked 5th in both math and reading spent $7,396 during the same timeframe. In 2013 the average tuition for private schools (elementary and secondary) was $10,740, about 10% less than the 2010 level of spending for public schools.

The truth is that we are not preparing our children for college or for life. This is especially true for minorities. Only one in four high school students graduate ready for college in all four core subjects (English, reading, math and science), which is why a third of students entering college have to take remedial courses. Only 4 percent of African American students and 11 percent of Hispanic students finish high school ready for college in their core subjects.

So what do we do? How about allowing parents to choose where their children go to school. Competition is a good thing. Parents will choose schools that do the best to prepare students either for work or higher education. Parents who are more affluent do this now, paying private tuition even though they pay high taxes to support public schools. Low and middle class families are unable to afford private schools. A simple idea is to give parents school vouchers to use in their school of choice. As seen above issuing vouchers at today’s spending will open up the choice to most private schools. The Democrat Party, the party of choice, is steadfastly opposed to this for a couple of reasons. First and foremost is that they do not want to reduce the size and level of control of the government. Also they want to protect the teachers’ unions to retain their votes and their funding stream. The biggest losers to this obstruction are Blacks, Hispanics and lower class white families.

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Timely Advice

"Senator, my belief is we have to stay focused on a military that is so lethal that on the battle field it will be the enemy's longest day & worst day when they run into that force," - General James "Mad-Dog" Mattis

“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.” — H.L. Menken

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."

Thomas Jefferson

"The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife."

Teddy Roosevelt

An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.
John Marshall, McCullough v. Maryland, 1819

Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
Ronald Reagan

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