Displaying posts categorized under

EDUCATION

Covid Closures Expose Insidious Effects of Michelle Obama’s School Lunch Program Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2020/03/16/covid-closures-expose-insidious-effects-of-michelle-obamas-school-lunch-program/

Reexamining the community eligibility program, which has created a middle-class entitlement program while teaching kids all the wrong lessons, should be the administration’s to-do list. Its deep reach is just one more flawed government approach now exposed by the current public health threat.

As schools shut down across the nation over fears of the COVID-19 illness, it appears that administrators are less concerned about how to educate children and more worried about how to feed them. A basic parental task—making sure your child has breakfast and lunch during the day—like so many aspects of family life, has been relegated to government bureaucrats thanks in large part to Michelle Obama’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

Signed into law by Barack Obama in 2010, the bill initiated a massive overhaul of the nation’s school lunch program. The first lady’s pet project imposed restrictions on salt, sugar, and saturated fat content in an effort to slim down America’s youth. Nonfat dairy like skim milk replaced whole milk; whole grains replaced white flour. Some schools reported rations on pickles for sandwiches while students were caught smuggling in salt packets to make unappetizing meals more edible. Nearly a decade later, there is no evidence the costly and burdensome effort had any impact on childhood obesity rates.

But one part of the bill has met, even exceeded, its intended outcome: The expansion of taxpayer-subsidized meals to millions of American children and teenagers.

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), enacted nationwide in 2014, allows entire districts rather than individual families to apply for “free” or reduced-price meals based on low-income rates in the area. If at least 40 percent of the students in a district qualify, every student in the district is then entitled to a free breakfast, lunch, and snack.

NYT Admits, at Last, That Its 1619 Project Is Wrong By Bryan Preston

https://pjmedia.com/trending/nyt-admits-at-last-that-its-1619-project-is-wrong/

“Why?” is a fundamental question in both journalism and history. We’re constantly asking it, along with who, what, when, where, and how. We’re also constantly debating it. We know, for instance, that a given battle happened at a specific place. But why? Why were the combatants on that spot at that time, and what events or ideas led to conflict and bloodshed? In other words, why did it happen? We’re constantly debating and re-evaluating as new information comes to light and as we look at old information in new ways.

In August 2019, The New York Times launched a project it called the 1619 Project. Its aim was to locate the founding of America to that year, 1619.

Why?

Because 1619 was the year the first slave ships arrived in the New World.

The Times explicitly sought to diminish America’s actual founding in 1776 by changing the focus from 1776 to 1619.

Why?

Because in 1776, the American revolutionaries laid out their “Why?” in the Declaration of Independence as they commenced the revolution to throw off the yoke of the British monarchy. The Times explicitly set out to re-write America’s answer to its central purpose. The Times set out to make liars of  America’s founders.

The 1619 Project sought to re-write the American story. We would no longer be a nation built to protect the inalienable rights of all, as the Declaration states, but would instead become a nation forged specifically to enslave some. Who would, who could, be proud to be an American if our nation was founded specifically to protect and project the abomination of slavery? What would future Americans think, and do, if the Times’ version of history stands?

‘Whiteboard Girl’ Harassed For Expressing Conservative Views At University Of Chicago By Chrissy Clark

https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/09/whiteboard-girl-harassed-for-expressing-conservative-views-at-university-of-chicago/

The University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics asked students to participate in a digital initiate called “I vote because” on March 2. Students wrote on a whiteboard a brief reason why they vote, but one student was singled out for her conservative beliefs.

Evita Duffy, daughter of former Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., wrote, “I vote because the coronavirus won’t destroy America, but socialism will.”

Duffy received intense backlash from her classmates, including threats and personal attacks. Classmates called her racist, xenophobic, and told her she deserved to be bullied.

“Fellow students attacked my character, my intellect, my family, my appearance, and even threatened me with physical violence, using foul and offensive language,” Duffy wrote in an op-ed at the Chicago Maroon. “I was called a racist and a xenophobe. Some compared me to animals. Others declared that they would personally stop me from voting, and many defended the personal attacks, saying I deserved to be bullied and that I don’t belong at the University of Chicago on account of my beliefs.”

Here’s Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Cut Education Spending Teresa Mull

https://amgreatness.com/2020/03/08/heres-why-now-is-the-perfect-time-to-cut-education-spending/

What government-run schools do, in general, isn’t education. At best, it’s wasting money, energy, and resources. At worst, it’s dangerous indoctrination that threatens to destroy the entire identity of the nation our forefathers fought and died to build.

Leftists love to label those who favor cutting education spending as “anti-children,” “anti-public school,” and basically, “anti-education.” That’s because leftists are the ones benefiting most from the increases in education spending that have, until recently, been mandated like clockwork.

“Each year, President Trump has proposed a new budget with cuts to programs at the Department of Education,” Forbes reports. “This year is no different as his new proposal shows. In addition to cuts to other areas like Medicaid and food stamps, Trump has proposed nearly an 8 percent cut to education …”

Cue the dramatic, “Trump hates kids” chorus, as well as a less-than-flattering photo of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos looking devious and pleased, these sorts of stories suggest, at the announcement of more cuts. House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) called the reductions “destructive and irrational,” a hysterical view Democrats always take when any sort of spending reduction is proposed, but never more so than when cuts affect unions that serve as their campaign cash cows.

Although many of the Trump Administration’s proposed education budget cuts deal with college loans and student aid, now is the perfect time to examine federal education spending in general. For starters, why there’s so much of it; why it’s not only wasteful but damaging to society; and ultimately, how we can do better.

As a nation, U.S. schools are failing to compete with the rest of the world. A 2017 Pew Research report found “U.S. students’ academic achievement still lags that of their peers in many other countries.” How can this be, when we spend approximately $706 billion on education—or $13,847 per public school student?

Video: High School Teacher Reprimanded for Insulting Islam on Facebook Sharia is here.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/video-high-school-teacher-reprimanded-insulting-frontpagemagcom/

Subscribe to the Glazov Gang‘s YouTube Channel and follow us on Twitter: @JamieGlazov.

In this new Jamie Glazov Moment, Jamie discusses High School Teacher Reprimanded for Insulting Islam on Facebook, unveiling how Sharia is here.

Don’t miss it!

I’ve Been Fired. If You Value Academic Freedom, That Should Worry You by Bo Weingarten

https://quillette.com/2020/03/06/ive-been-fired-if-you-value-academic-freedom-that-should-worry-you/

“I followed all of the protocols of academia. I published articles in peer-reviewed journals. I shared my ideas, always politely, on Twitter, and I encouraged people to debate me and to criticize my ideas. And I was fired. If it can happen to me, then it can happen to any academic who challenges the prevailing views of their discipline. You may disagree with everything I believe, say, and write, but it is in everyone’s interests that you support my freedom to believe, say, and write it.”

…….Until a week ago, I was a tenure-track assistant professor at a small college. Then I was fired. And although I am but one professor at one small college in one small town, I want to persuade you that, if you care about free speech and free inquiry in academia, you should be alarmed by my termination. My troubles began in October 2019 when I was invited to address an evolutionary group at the University of Alabama. I had decided that I would discuss human population variation, the hypothesis that human biological differences are at least partially produced by different environments selecting for different physical and psychological traits in their populations over time. I planned to defend this view as most consistent with a Darwinian understanding of the world.

My first day in Tuscaloosa was uneventful. On the second day, I visited a class and had an enjoyable discussion with students about various topics, including human evolution and social signaling. I was then supposed to meet professors and students for lunch, but instead my guide delivered me to an empty room where I received a number of texts from my host: The professors had found my RationalWiki entry, which accuses me—inter alia—of writing “racist bullshit for the right-wing online magazine Quillette.”

Notwithstanding its name, which indicates a commitment to thought and reason, RationalWiki is a highly partisan and tendentious site which its authors use to mock and defame their political opponents.

Wyoming Public School Salaries Finally Posted Online – Payrolls Cost Taxpayers $1 Billion Adam Andrzejewski

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/03/06/wyoming-public-school-salaries-finally-posted-online–payrolls-cost-taxpayers-1-billion/#4c061b522f60

Transparency Victory in Wyoming!
It was a three-year fight to open the books on the entire payroll of the Wyoming public schools — and we’ve officially won! 

Finally, the salaries of every educator, administrator, staffer, and employee have been posted online. 

It was a three year fight to open the books on the entire payroll of the Wyoming public schools. Finally, the salaries of every educator, administrator, and staffer have been posted online.

Starting in 2017, our organization at OpenTheBooks.com filed open records requests with the 48 public school districts. Some districts wanted to charge us fees up to $3,600. Only 18 of the districts produced a responsive record of their payrolls – the rest of the districts arguably violated transparency law.

Enter Tom James a new state senator. He learned that the Superintendent of Public Instruction compiled the records each year. So James filed his request and successfully captured three years of data. Then, our organization requested a copy as well.

“Public school employees are paid by taxpayers and therefore taxpayers get to see where their dollars are going. For the first time in history, I made sure the books were open to the public.”

Hon. Tom James, Wyoming State Senator

The new data shows that there are 16,306 full-time employees making $816.5 million in cash compensation. Adding the cost of benefits such as paid time off and pensions, taxpayer costs are estimated to exceed $1 billion.

Poll of Harvard Faculty Reveals not even 1.5 Percent Identify as Conservative And just three of the 260 respondents said they support Trump.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/3/3/faculty-support-warren-president/,

Why Donors Must Abandon Their Ivy League Alma Maters Now by Amy Wax

Amy L. Wax is the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

These schools serve only a fraction of Americans, but they raise $44B a year through endowments and guzzle mightily from the federal trough.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-donors-must-abandon-their-ivy-league-alma-maters/?utm_source=ntnlreview&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=amconswap

Academia ought to be in crisis right now, as Americans increasingly doubt the value of a college education.

Pollsters at Gallup found that the percentage of persons regarding a college degree as “very important” has dropped from 71 percent in 2013 to 50 percent today. The National Association of Scholars issued a recent, damning report that presents universities as dominated by a progressive social justice agenda which distorts teaching and research and presents a one-sided picture of our national problems.

Critics have also faulted the academy for a dramatic increase in elaborate bureaucracies, expensive new buildings, and unproven programs. These developments have driven up costs, which in turn has burdened many students with heavy loans that contribute to economic distress and inequality. Yet universities continue to command generous public and private support. State and federal governments spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on university programs, infrastructure, and subsidized student loans and grants. This money is not evenly distributed. In 2016, out of over 3,000 universities offering four-year degrees and about half as many two-year colleges nationwide, 20 institutions accounted for over 30 percent of federal spending, with 100 universities garnering 80 percent of the total. Various proposals have been floated to reduce the degree of public support for colleges and universities and thereby force higher education to be more accountable, responsive, and thrifty. These austerity arguments have so far had little effect.

Money from non-governmental sources is also a vital revenue stream. Selective colleges and universities (defined as those that turn away most of their applicants) are especially dependent on generous contributions from alumni and big donors to fund elaborate infrastructure, extensive programs, and lavish amenities. These features are in turn used to attract top student and faculty talent to their ranks. Universities, and especially elite ones, regularly receive large gifts and generous grants from alumni, foundations, and wealthy individuals.

Such support has increased steadily in recent years. In the fiscal year ending in June 2017, four-year colleges and universities raised $43.6 billion from personal, individual, and voluntary gifts, marking a 6.3 percent increase from the year before. Highly ranked and already well-endowed institutions take in the largest sums, with schools like California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and Harvard University each receiving hundreds of millions annually. Wealthy individuals give the most. The top 10 percent of donors account for over 90 percent of the dollars raised, with the size of the average gift growing steadily since the 1980s.

The 1619 Project and its Critics by Peter Wood

https://amgreatness.com/2020/03/01/the-1619-project-and-its-critics/

Peter W. Wood is president of the National Association of Scholars.

Nikole Hannah-Jones ought to step up, be courageous, and debate the historians with whom she disagrees. They’re waiting. All historical claims, particularly those with as wide-reaching and radical ramifications as these, must be discussed and scrutinized by trained scholars.

The 1619 Project—the New York Times campaign launched in August 2019 to transform American history into a tale of racial oppression and nothing but for the last 400 years—has attracted a great deal of critical attention. Much of this attention has come from professional historians who are nonplussed by the numerous misstatements of fact, the disappearance of key historical events, and the forced march of polemical interpretation that the Times attempted to hang on American history.

The dissenting historians themselves have found various outlets to express their views. Among the most intriguing of these platforms has been the World Socialist Website, which has featured interviews with such luminaries as Gordon Wood, university professor at Brown University, and James McPherson, professor emeritus of U.S. history at Princeton University.

The socialists, upset with the Times for preferring racial grievance to class grievance, rounded up other prominent historians, including Victoria Bynum, James Oakes, Dolores Janiewski, Richard Carwardine, and Clayborne Carson, to express their critiques of the Times’ fanciful attempt to rewrite history.