by Bruce Shortt, J.D., Ph.D.

WELCOME TO THE CONTINUING COLLAPSE!

 

"Doing the Education Research that Illegal Aliens Won't Do

 Since 1997"

 

 

October 2008

 

 Money may not make the world go 'round, but there is nothing as important as lucre to our highly trained education professionals. Nothing.

 

Alas for the taxpayer and parent, our Soviet collective farm model for education requires ever greater inputs (tax dollars) in order to prevent the system from collapsing into an utter shambles.

 

This unsustainable demand for tax money is largely what drives the ongoing collapse of the government school system. Now that a severe recession or worse is upon us, no amount of whining by our highly trained education professionals will allow them to continue to demand and receive ever greater amounts of money.

 

Do you think The Continuing Collapse exaggerates? The following stories, which were selected from the northern, southern, eastern, and western parts of the country to show that no region is immune, illustrate the financial pressures building for this school year BEFORE the mortgage induced financial crisis hit full force.

 

Please consider: Will many of your neighbors be willing to be taxed out of their homes and businesses to "save" government schools? The Continuing Collapse didn't think so.

 

We should rejoice, however. A financial catastrophe for the government school system means that our highly trained education professionals and all that they have wrought will be socially and politically delegitimized. This, in turn, will finally allow us to have a genuine discussion, not about "school reform", but about education reform.

 

And perhaps, just perhaps, Christians and churches will begin to assume again the responsibility for education that they so foolishly abandoned generations ago.

 

ACTION ITEM!!

Help Paul The Bond Slayer

 

The Continuing Collapse is never without solutions, and indeed there is something everyone of us can do accelerate the greatly desired collapse of the corrupt and decaying government school system.

 

School bond levies are a major source of the cashflow that highly trained education professionals use to buy the support of their special interest friends. Killing those levies will accelerate the demise of the government school system. But how can we do this systematically without a large investment of time?

 

Fortunately, all we need to do is let Paul Dorr (aka "Paul The Bond Slayer") know if we have a bond election coming up in our area. Paul The Bond Slayer has defeated about $1.2 billion in bonds so far and can increase that number substantially if he can get more information about where school bond elections are being held.

 

So, all you need to do is let The Continuing Collapse or Paul The Bond Slayer know about the bond election in your area, and The Bond Slayer will take it from there.

 

Here is how you get in touch with Paul The Bond Slayer and a link to an article from 2005 that describes what he does (notice that The Bond Slayer's bond-defeat-tally has gone from $175 million to $1.2 billion in just three years).

 

Paul R. Dorr, Consultant

Copperhead Consulting Services

Ocheyedan, IA

Ph 712-758-3660

dcs@iowatelecom.net

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/dorr1.html

 

NOW, ON TO NEWS OF THE LIVING DEAD...

 

DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS FORCED TO LAY-OFF ANOTHER 300 EMPLOYEES

(Hundreds of additional layoffs expected to come)

 

This is just the latest round of job cuts in Detroit. In June 1,700 job cuts were announced to close a $408 million budget deficit. Following those job cuts the highly trained education professionals in charge of the Detroit schools declared that the school district was in surplus.

 

Well, it appears the declaration of a surplus was an exercise in "irrational exuberance."

 

This time the grim job reaper has come for school social workers, psychologists, substitute custodians, bus attendants, and, horrors, the advisor to the Pershing High "drum line."

 

DETROIT -- To help trim the district's massive deficit, Detroit Public Schools' officials this week sent layoff notices to more than 300 employees, including social workers, psychologists, custodians and bus attendants who assist special needs students.

 

The district says it has to make cuts because of plummeting enrollment. But the layoffs, including those made in recent months, are sending shockwaves through schools, with parents, students and union officials saying students' health, safety and education are jeopardized.

 

At Pershing High, a music teacher who served as the band and orchestra director was laid off this summer, which could dismantle the school's drum line...

 

The school board in June reluctantly agreed to lay off more than 1,700 employees as part of $522 million in cuts following revelations the system faced a $408 million deficit. Administrators earlier said the district had a surplus.

The latest round of layoffs includes 40 social workers, four speech therapists and six psychologists, according to the Detroit Federation of Teachers. Hundreds more are anticipated.

 

Keith January, president of AFSCME Local 345, said he received notice Friday that 102 of the school system's 260 bus attendants will be laid off, as well as all 125 of the district's substitute custodians, and 50 of the 660 full-time custodians.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081004/SCHOOLS/810040374/1409/METRO

 

By the way, did you notice that the financial crisis was caused by "plummeting enrollment"?

 

NOT SURPRISINGLY, MONEY ISN'T THE ONLY PROBLEM IN DETROIT SCHOOLS:

 

DETROIT'S HIGHLY TRAINED EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS HAVE NO FACILITIES MANAGEMENT PLAN,  COLLAPSING FINANCIAL SYSTEMS, AND NO PLAN FOR IMPROVING ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

 

(Are you surprised?)

 

An audit of Detroit Public Schools found serious systemic problems across many facets of the district, including lack of a strategy for raising academic performance, financial systems teetering on the edge of a breakdown and a nonexistent facilities management plan...

 

State Superintendent for Public Instruction Mike Flanagan last month asked the governor to appoint a team to review the district's books, a move that could lead to a state takeover of the schools' finances.

 

And last week, preliminary enrollment figures, upon which state funding is based, showed a drastic decline, according to administrators. Officials since have said all students hadn't been counted...

 

The system's information technology systems, the review said, put the entire district at risk. For example, the maintenance agreement for the payroll system will expire soon, leaving the district unable to generate payroll and tax information....

 

The audit found that the district has no long-range facilities plan and has largely avoided closing schools. When it did close schools, it did so with inadequate criteria or analysis.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081001/SCHOOLS/810010384/1409/METRO

 

Pittsburgh Schools' Enrollment Dropping Fast...

 

Enrollment in the Pittsburgh Public Schools fell just over 5.7 percent in the past year...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08281/917964-298.stm

 

 

AND NOW FOR A LOOK DOWN SOUTH, WHERE ALL THE SCHOOLS ARE "DIFFERENT" AND ALL THE CHILDREN ARE ABOVE AVERAGE

 

(JUST ASK THE PARENTS)

 

Dallas Independent School District is laying off 1,100 employees, about half of them teachers...and there is still a growing deficit.

 

The Dallas school board on Thursday night authorized Superintendent Michael Hinojosa to lay off nearly 1,100 employees, including about 550 teachers....

 

State officials, meanwhile, continue to express concern about DISD's finances, saying they're still monitoring district efforts to reduce an anticipated $84 million budget deficit.

 

They also expect an explanation of how the financial mess happened.

State Education Commissioner Robert Scott watched Thursday night's meeting online and said through a spokeswoman Friday that he's pleased the district is taking "necessary action" to reduce spending....

 

The staff cuts outlined by district officials are expected to save about $30 million, while reductions to nonpersonnel budgets are expected to save $38 million more.

But even those deep cuts won't get the district out of the hole.

 

Administrators acknowledged that even with the reductions, they're still headed toward a $15 million deficit. They have not yet said how they will make up that gap....

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/100408dnmetdisdtarget.1be0b7f.html

 

 

 AND IT WILL BE HARD FOR DALLAS TO CLOSE ITS BUDGET GAP WITH STATE MONEY

 

State officials blame boring games for $100 million drop that takes funds from school coffers

 

The "games" are the lottery scams that Texas and other states sell to the mathematical illiterates that the schools are so skilled in producing.

 

In a sense, our highly trained education professionals must have seen this as a perfect way to turn their failure to educate students into a windfall: Let the schools vomit forth hordes of illiterate and semi-literate "graduates" every year who then will fund the system by buying lottery tickets in the hope of getting rich.

 

Unfortunately our highly trained education professionals just didn't realize that even illiterates can get bored.

 

Texas lottery revenues are slumping, but experts say the sluggish economy isn't to blame....

 

Rather, Texas officials fear that revenues dropped more than $100 million in the most recent fiscal year — a $49 million blow to public education — because the current crop of games are tired, unappealing and at the end of their life cycle. Sales are down 2.7 percent, including a $73 million decrease in the normally mega-popular scratch-offs.

 

"People get bored. How many times can you employ the same games?"

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6041760.html

 

 

AND NOW TO THE LEFT COAST

("The train wreck is in 2009-2010.")

 

With the financial crisis going at full throttle and California asking for a $7 billion bailout from the feds, the train wreck has probably arrived. Sometimes it's good to be ahead of schedule...

 

Here we have a story about the financial woes of LAUSD, whose board and superintendent perhaps represent the very apotheosis of government school management skills.

 

In any event, at the time of the story the highly trained education professionals were relieved that they "only" had to deal with a $165 million reduction in state funding. Wait until they find out what is happening to sales tax, property tax, and income tax revenues...

  

Expecting huge cuts in funding from the new state budget, Los Angeles Unified officials recently learned they will get back about $165 million more than they anticipated.

 

The district is still facing a cut of $188 million from the budget signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week. But officials last month had expected to lose $353 million.

 

Now they have to figure out what programs to restore with the additional funds...

In a recent analysis, the Daily News found that the LAUSD's bureaucracy ballooned nearly 20 percent from 2001 to 2007. During that same period, 500 teaching positions were cut and enrollment dropped by 6 percent.

The district has approximately 4,000 administrators, managers and other nonschool-based employees, ex- cluding clerks and office workers, whose average salary is about $95,000.

 

About 2,400 administrators are among the 3,478 LAUSD employees who earn more than $100,000 annually. The average teacher salary is $63,000.

Though the unexpected funding provides some relief, Reilly said, it doesn't fully cover the cost of 20:1 class ratios in elementary and high schools.

Already, there are dire predictions for the next budget and Reilly said the small classes will not continue next year.

 

"In 2009, our classes are going from 20 to 29," she said, adding that no one expects a cost-of-living increase next year.

"The train wreck is in 2009-2010."

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10613198

 

 

"THE EAST IS IN THE RED"

 

(Here we have one of those annoying obscure punning references. Let The Continuing Collapse

 know if you figure it out.)

 

What's a $300 million shortfall among friends? Problems on Wall Street (NYC's biggest industry) will certainly drive the shortfall numbers up. A classic Darwinian struggle for the survival of the special educational interests with the most clout is shaping up....Oh, and New York State's budget gap is growing toward $8 billion.

 

 

For years, the city schools have not only been immune to budget cuts. They have seen their funding increase dramatically. Now, though, that has started to change, and the controversy over whether to cut, how much and where has touched off a heated debate....

 

By most measures, the cut is not exactly a cut. Overall, according to a statement by Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, funding for schools will increase by $664 million in fiscal year 2009, with $535 million coming from the state largely as a result of the settlement in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity suit over school financing. However, Klein said, basic costs for education are projected to rise by $963 million next year because of contract agreements with teachers and other education department employees, and rising fuel, energy and special education costs.

 

This leaves the city with a $299 million gap in money for education. (The city has already reduced education spending this year from its anticipated level.)

Klein said he has identified some $200 million in cuts in what the department calls "non-school spending" -- such as the central and district administrations. That leaves almost $100 million to come out of spending for the district's approximately 1,200 schools.

http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/education/20080528/6/2537

 

 

AND NOW FOR THE BIG PICTURE...

 

"Reginald Weaver, former president of the National Education Association, says10 states have announced cuts in K12 funding, while another 16 are cutting funds for higher education. As of July 1, Weaver says, 29 states were facing budget shortfalls. “Put that all together,” he says, “and that’s about $48 billion” in the red, he says."

 

If the "shortfall" was about $48 billion in July, The Continuing Collapse suspects that the total will be above $100 billion by the time the recession really gets going.

 

The Continuing Collapse loves the smell of education pink slips in the morning...

 

If it wasn't the worst budget cycle in decades, it was one of the worst for school district administrators trying to juggle union-negotiated salary increases, higher fuel and food prices, and federal mandates with less money, district leaders and education experts say.

 

While most districts have increased budgets for the 2008- 2009 school year over last year, the increases do not meet the higher costs of fuel, insurance and food, according to the American Association of School Administrators’ public policy department members. Few districts will see decreased budgets this year, below the 2007-2008 school year, but if the budget includes fewer funds from the state or local sources, districts still have to make cuts. And if fuel and food costs are higher than budgeted, they have to make more cuts. Some districts such as Miami-Dade County Public Schools and Detroit Public Schools are dealing with outright decreases in their school budgets over last year.

 

It’s a perfect storm of conditions for districts in part because of the collapse of homeowners’ loans and the nation’s mortgage fiasco, which lower local property revenues that help fund school district budgets; state money reductions in part due to lower sales tax revenue because consumer spending is low; and districts’ own rising costs for fuel and food, according to Daniel Domenech, AASA executive director. On top of that, student enrollment nationwide should hit its highest peak this year, with about 50 million public school students. Some large, urban districts are seeing reduced enrollments, but those districts must compensate for receiving a reduction in state funds because of the lower enrollment.

 

A recent survey by the National School Boards Association (NSBA) found that 35 percent of school districts across the county this past spring and summer were making “substantial” cuts in their budgets: One quarter of those districts reduced spending on instruction, while another 30 percent were planning “minor” cuts.

Reginald Weaver, former president of the National Education Association, says 10 states have announced cuts in K12 funding, while another 16 are cutting funds for higher education. As of July 1, Weaver says, 29 states were facing budget shortfalls. “Put that all together,” he says, “and that’s about $48 billion” in the red, he says.

http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1673

 

 

MEET THE HIGHLY TRAINED EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS WHO ARE AT THE HELM FOR THE DURATION OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

 

OK, here's a clue - who has lower GRE scores that primary school teachers? Diligent readers of The Continuing Collapse will immediately answer "school administrators" and go to the head of the class.

 

Yes, indeed, we have put a government bureaucracy with a cashflow of $600 billion or so in the hands of a group of people who are intellectually less capable than teachers who spend their days coloring and teaching 8 year-olds that "cat" is spelled c-a-t (in those schools that still teach spelling). 

 

Rest assured that our highly trained education professionals will not be able to manage their way out of the crisis. In fact, they are likely to make it worse (thanks in advance, guys).

 

Even the mainstream media is willing to admit that the coveted "doctorate in education" is a fraud. Remember this next time the self-important principal or superintendent with the nice suit and an air of arrogant confidence tells parents that education decisions are best left to the "professionals".

 

Most top school officials in the Washington area -- and a growing number across the country -- hold doctorates, even though some experts contend the advanced degrees are often too easy to obtain and of questionable value for education leadership....

 

Superintendents and many academics say the doctoral programs teach vital management and statistical skills while providing an intellectual challenge. But critics say the programs mostly provide financial rewards -- for the universities that collect tuition and for educators who pick up a credential that helps them earn a higher salary and a "doctor" title...."It's a very wise investment. I calculated that I'd almost have to find an oil well in my back yard to have any equivalent return," said James W. Guthrie, a professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University. "In many places, there's an implied deal: 'You get in, you pay your tuition and we don't work you very hard.' " ...

 

Other experts said the quality of education-related dissertations is often poor.

"Oh, it just gets so bad," said Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and former president of the Teachers College at Columbia University. "People writing dissertations in which they ask, 'How do you feel about this? How do you feel about that?' They run statistical tests that you can't run. They pose questions that you can't answer with the research you've done."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/01/AR2008100102958.html?nav=rss_education 

 

 

BRITISH TEACHERS' UNION DEMANDS THAT SCHOOLCHILDREN AND TEACHERS BE ALLOWED TO BE "FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS"

 

In The Continuing Collapse for September we pointed out that a lawyer for a teachers' union was in court arguing that teachers should be able to have "consensual" sex with high school students.

 

This appears to be a movement now being pushed by the "Government Education Internationale" because the very same argument is now being made in Britain.

 

After all, highly trained education professionals work really, really hard and you can't expect them to take time away from their heroic work of teaching to look for "relationships" outside of school. Besides, The Continuing Collapse is sure that the intention is just to provide students with "safe sex" in a "mentoring" environment.

 

A British teachers’ union representative has come under fire after claiming that teachers who engage in consensual sex with students over the age of 16 should not be prosecuted, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported Sunday.

 

Chris Keates, the general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said in an interview to be broadcast in the U.K. on Monday that teachers who have sex with pupils over the age of consent are guilty of a mere “error in professional judgment,” and should not be placed on the sex offenders register, the Mail reported....

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432881,00.html

 

Bear in mind, pedophiles regard those who object to their "sexual preference" as being bigoted against "inter-generational intimacy". The education establishment is full of people with advanced views like this. Especially sodomites.

 

 

WHY SHOULD GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES HAVE ALL THE "FUN"?

 

Undoubtedly aware of the adult-schoolchild trysts that have become so common in the government schools, private parties are trying to get in on the action. (Children aren't even safe getting on and off the school bus)

 

Syrena Berry never saw any danger in sending her 16-year-old daughter outside to wait for the school bus. After all, the bus stop was only four doors down.

But four months ago, the Channelview homemaker's secure world turned upside down. A stranger tried to snatch her daughter — and a 12-year-old friend two days later — from bus stops about a mile apart. As classes resume after Hurricane Ike, Berry is insisting upon driving her daughter to school.

 

Both girls are among five students from Channelview and South Houston who reported attempted abductions from May 28 to the end of June, records show.

The cases all involve a man with "missing teeth."...

 

In Montgomery County at bus stops six miles apart, an unidentified couple within a five-day span tried to entice a 7-year-old boy and a 5-year-old boy into a faded Toyota 4Runner a month ago....These incidents are typical of a growing number of reported attempts to abduct children as they wait at bus stops or walk to schools in the Houston area.

 http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6041759.html

 

Although some of you might think that the culprits in this story might be highly trained education professionals cruising on their days off, the "missing teeth" make it clear that that at least one suspect is a "civilian".

 

Highly trained education professionals are allowed to be less intelligent than Jethro from the Ozarks and to have genetic dispositions worse than the Jukes and the Kallikaks, but highly trained education professionals are always required to have teeth (or at least a good set of dentures). Even in Arkansas...

 

 

NOW SHOWING AT THE VIDEO CORNER

 

THE SNL BAILOUT SKIT SOROS DIDN'T THINK WAS FUNNY

 

This SNL skit is very hard to find because it was taken off most of the web after George Soros complained about it.

 http://msunderestimated.com/SNLBailoutSkit.wmv

 

ALL ABOUT BILL AYERS MR. ROGERS STYLE

 

Here is a quick video explaining the relationship between Bill Ayers and The Messiah, Barack Obama. The presentation is at a child's level in a Mr. Rogers style, which makes it perfect for showing to your "moderate" and liberal friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIXTnBAfr0s

 

 

PUBLIC SCHOOL DOLLARS AT WORK:

 

SCHOOL CHILDREN CHANTING "ALPHA OMEGA" IN PRAISE OF WHAT THE MESSIAH, BARACK OBAMA, HAS DONE FOR THEM

 

A teacher at a Kansas City charter school was suspended Monday after video of his public school students chanting in praise of Barack Obama became a national sensation on YouTube....

http://www.kansascity.com/772/story/829703.html

 

REMEMBER

 

1. Feel free to circulate The Continuing Collapse.

 

2. If you aren't hearing about at least some these government school problems from your pastor, why is he your pastor?

 

3. FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS.

 

“Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm – but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.” T.S. Eliot