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

 

WELCOME TO THE CONTINUING COLLAPSE!

 

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

 Since 1997"

 

December, Anno Domini 2008

 

 

 

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies." (Groucho Marx)

 

 

     Merry Christmas from The Continuing Collapse! This edition runs a bit long because of all the "interesting" news that our highly trained education professionals kindly continue to provide.

 

     If you want to understand the direction government education will take during the first year of the Dalai Bama, you will need to read to the end. So, please feel free to dip into this edition from time to time while enjoying your favorite Yuletide beverage and cookies.

 

THE "OFFICE" OF THE PRESIDENT ELECT CHOOSES THE SECRETARY "ELECT"

 

    To begin, let us consider the Dalai Bama's gift to education, the Secretary of Education "elect", the Right Honorable Arne Duncan, superintendent of Chicago government schools, basketball buddy of the Dalai Bama, and holder of the much coveted Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Harvard.

 

Recall that the Dalai Bama considers school reform to be among his fortes. After all, from 1995 to 1999 he presided with Bill Ayers over the Chicago Annenberg Challenge program that spent $150 million to improve Chicago's government schools. And perhaps the Dalai Bama can with some justice claim that he has demonstrated unequivocally that he is an accomplished school reformer. After all, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge spent $150 million and accomplished nothing.

 

Well, perhaps "nothing" is a bit harsh. Below is a Chicagoan's description of an Annenberg Challenge School. Decide for yourself what the $150 million accomplished.

 

My favorite subject in all of this Chicago mess is the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which is the project on whose board Bill Ayers and Barack Obama served together. I love this project because right up the street from me, I have an Annenberg Challenge school, which I think is known in the community as the "Peace School," and is very interactive with residents of my little neighborhood. They hold peace studies rallies, drum circles, indoctrinate children in what appear to be Marxist values and hold the weekly farmers market (who said communism couldn't taste fresh?). They are a continual annoyance to me, particularly because, in the summer, my favorite Thai restaurant has a mini-cafe right across the street and I have to stare at their peace signs and "Vote" posters until I seethe, and it ruins my basil chicken. 

 

Now the Dalai Bama presents the man who is admirably qualified to carry on the Dalai Bama's record of government school reform:

 

Duncan, hailed by Obama as a reformer, said he would like to take the lessons he learned in Chicago with him when he moves to Washington. “I'm also eager to apply some of the lessons we have learned here in Chicago to help school districts all across our country," Duncan said after Obama formally named him to the job in Chicago.
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=40911

 

For those unacquanted with the "Secretary Elect", his school reform credentials go far beyond his jump-shot that the Dalai Bama so much admires during their morning basketball games:

 

In 2007, only 17 percent of eighth graders tested at or above grade level in reading in Chicago Public Schools – the school system administered by Arne Duncan since 2001...

 

According to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report for 2007, Chicago public schools have consistently performed below the national average during Duncan’s tenure.

 

The report measures students at the fourth and eighth grade levels in the subjects of reading, math, science, and writing, and ranks them at below basic, basic, proficient, or advanced levels... http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=40911

 

So, all, or virtually all, of Chicago's 4th and 8th graders that were recently tested were entirely or mostly educated under the watchful gaze of the Secretary Elect, and his results are impressive.

 

Among Chicago 8th graders "only" 83% can't read at grade level (there has been no statistically significant improvement in reading scores on the Secretary Elect's watch - one of the key signs of a proficient school reformer), "only" 87% can't do math at grade level, "only" 77% can't write at grade level, and "only" 84% can't do science at grade level. Even more astonishing, the Secretary Elect managed to achieve these arresting results by spending a modest $10,555 per pupil per year.

 

But the Secretary Elect's accomplishments are certainly not limited to mundane academics. No, the Secretary Elect is firmly committed to a progressive worldview. In fact, he has endorsed establishing The Chicago Social Justice High School - Pride Campus, Chicago's first government high school for the promotion and reinforcement of the sodomite lifestyle.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, some "conservative" and "libertarian" school reform "experts" are clucking the praises of the Secretary Elect because they understand that he has spoken favorably of "accountability", charter schools, "per pupil funding", and "merit pay" for teachers.

 

 

Never forget, however, that in government school reform circles "words  speak louder than actions".

Thus, as is to be expected, there are reports that some of these same conservative school reformers are queing up to kiss the - ahem - ring of the Secretary Elect so that they can continue to claim to donors and assorted persons at cocktail parties that they still have "access" and are "relevant".

 

Oh, yes. And where does the Secretary Elect stand on the Annenberg Challenge schools? He worked with the Annenberg Challenge to implement the Challenge's curriculum in Chicago Public Schools. Here is a statement regarding the Secretary Elect from the "Challenge":

 

The Challenge's work is still carried on today through to the bipartisan Chicago Public Education Fund, which coordinates closely Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan and Mayor Daley . . .

 

The bottom line is that the Secretary Elect will (1) deliver rhetoric and perhaps some tokenism to the school reformers (who, like Chris Matthews, will be "thrilled"), (2) substantively advance the sodomite agenda in the schools to please the homosexual activists, and (3) use the resources at his disposal to encourage the spread of the ideology embedded in the Ayers/Obama Chicago Annenberg Challenge program.

 

But, the Dalai Bama's approach ot education can't be fully understood without knowing that Linda Darling-Hammond, a professorette of education from Stanford and a "darling" of the teachers' unions, heads the Dali Bama's education working group.

 

Darling-Hammond will make sure that the Secretary Elect's rhetoric on school reform is limited to symbolism and that the teachers' unions' troughs will be well filled with tax dollars. In other words, the reformers will get a head-fake, and the unions will get the cash. [BTW, this will be the Dalai Bama's style in all things - he will make a show of "bringing people together" by giving opponents symbolism and his supporters substance. The Rick Warren gambit is a good example. Foolish evangelicals will soften their views of the Dalai Bama because they get a prayer. Meanwhile the abortion industry will get massive amounts of federal money and perhaps FOCA].

 

 

WHAT ELSE TO EXPECT

 DURING THE REIGN OF THE

DALAI BAMA AND THE SECRETARY ELECT?

 

 

Making predictions like these is easier than shooting fish in a barrel - if you can find a barrel of fish these days.

 

No Child Left Behind will be reauthorized and probably "rebranded" in 2009. While the reauthorization will retain the structure of NCLB, the legislation is likely to get a new name (partly as an effort to deprive Bush of his "education legacy").

 

The two basic changes to NCLB to expect are: (1) massive additional payoffs to the education special interests billed as "investments" in education and (2) a "reform" of the already nearly meaningless NCLB accountability standards in an effort to make it even more difficult for parents and taxpayers to understand the level of educational malfeasance being perpetrated on our children by our highly trained education professionals.

 

In sum, the academic shell game will be taken to a new level while increasing amounts of federal money will be handed out to the education special interests.

 

On the instructional side, indoctrination of children in "progressive" politics and values will intensify. Bill Ayers will not have a post in the new administration, but he will have influence. The Dalai Bama will see that his friend and fellow Alinskyite's vision is advanced as far as possible.

 

What is that vision? An Investor's Business Daily editorial captured it succinctly:

 

"Ayers, now a tenured distinguished professor of education at UIC, works to educate teachers in socialist revolutionary ideology, urging that it be passed on to impressionable students."

 

Christianity will increasingly be treated as if it is the intellectual equivalent of a South Seas "cargo cult", except that it is far more dangerous, and therefore no effort will be spared in eliminating any Christian influence in schools and on the children institutionalized therein.

 

Nevertheless, the biggest change will probably be the increase in the intensity with which "Progressive" values regarding sexuality, marriage, and the family will be pushed.

 

Here is a real life example from WorldNet Daily illustrating the type of promotion of the sodomite lifestyle that will become more common. Please note that this took place in one of our very small rural school districts, which, as we all know, are "different":

 

The mother of a Wisconsin teenager was stunned when her high school senior brought home a questionnaire assigned by his English teacher that asked, among several provocative questions, "Is it possible that your heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex?" ....

 

Hanson's son, Alex, originally thought he was required to complete the questionnaire for the next day's class. He was struggling, however, to answer the following questions:

•What do you think caused your heterosexuality?

•When and how did you decide you were a heterosexual?

•Is it possible that your heterosexuality is just a phase you may grow out of?

•Is it possible that your heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex?

•Do your parents know that you are straight? Do your friends and/or roommate(s) know? How did they react?

•Why do you insist on flaunting your heterosexuality? Can't you just be who you are and keep it quiet?

•Why do heterosexuals feel compelled to seduce others into their lifestyles?

•A disproportionate majority of child molesters are heterosexual. So you consider it safe to expose children to heterosexual teachers?

•With all the societal support marriage receives, the divorce rate is spiraling. Why are there so few stable relationships among heterosexuals?

•Statistics show that lesbians have the lowest incidence of sexually transmitted diseases. Is it really safe for a woman to maintain a heterosexual lifestyle and run the risk of disease and pregnancy?

•Considering the menace of overpopulation, how could the human race survive if everyone were heterosexual?

•Would you want your child to be heterosexual, knowing the problems that s/he would face?

•

Hanson told WND she went the next morning to see her son's teacher at Pecatonica High School in tiny Blanchardville, Wis., population 806.

 

"What does this questionnaire have to do with English class?" Hanson asked. Hanson told WND the teacher's response was that the questions were not an assignment but a discussion guide for the day's class on "tolerance."

 

...Principal Dave McSherry... told WND that the discussion was part of a comprehensive curriculum in critical thinking skills, preparing the students to make decisions on their own in college and beyond...

 

"We're not promoting homosexuality," McSherry said. "We never have, never will."

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=82529

 

Don't forget: government schools never promote homosexual sodomy, just tolerance, critical thinking, and the ability "think independently" [which is a euphemism for encouraging children to adopt "progressive" values opposed to those taught by their parents and the Bible].

 

 

NO, THE CONTINUING COLLAPSE IS NOT MAKING THIS UP:

 

 LESBIAN "YOUTH" MORE LIKELY TO GET PREGNANT

 

It must be the fault of the "lesbian" boys the girls are hanging out with.

 

VANCOUVER - Lesbian and bisexual youth are up to seven times more likely to get pregnant than their heterosexual peers, a study of British Columbia students has found.

 

The surprising findings were published in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality. The data used for the research were gathered from adolescent health surveys done in B.C. schools in 1992, 1998, and 2003...

 

Results from the surveys, which were conducted anonymously among about 30,000 students in grades 7 through 12, indicated as well that boys are more likely to cause a pregnancy if they identify as gay or bisexual...

 

In the 1998 survey, 10.6 per cent of girls who identified as bisexual reported pregnancy, and 7.3 per cent of lesbians reported pregnancy. Among the heterosexual girls, 1.8 per cent reported pregnancy...

 

The survey data did not provide Saewyc with concrete explanations for the heightened risk of pregnancy among gay, lesbian and bisexual youth, but she said there are several possible reasons...

http://www.vancouversun.com/teens+higher+risk+pregnancy+study/1082366/story.html

 

The conjectures offered as explanations for this interesting phenomenon by the author of the study are just P.C. pap. What is happening is in part a reflection of the confusion and immorality engendered by highly trained education professionals.

 

The beginning point is understanding that girls are increasingly coming from homes without fathers and that they desperately want attention from boys.

 

One way to get this attention in the government school culture is to act like a lesbian or bisexual with another girl in front of an "appropriate" group of boys. This not only gets the desired attention, but it also allows the girls to pose as the sexually enlightened among the hoi polloi.

 

The boys, in turn, recognize an opportunity when they see one, and present themselves to the girls as similarly enlightened. Then many of the "enlightened" find an excuse to "hook up" as a sign of solidarity among "progressives".

 

This mating ritual may be a bit more complicated than one you might observe in the Amazon rain forest or Borneo, but this or something like it is the explanation. Howard Stern's show has been exploiting this phenomenon for years.

 

 

WAPO WRITER DISCOVERS THAT GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS DON'T PROMOTE JUST

THE SODOMITE LIFESTYLE

 

Of course, it isn't only the sodomites who are trying to promote their peculiar conception of fun in government schools, but the heterosexual side of the government school follies is normally ignored as yesterday's news.

 

Recently, however, a writer for the Washington Post, at the risk of being considered an aging fuddy duddy, raised the question of whether government school promotion of bastardy is really such a good idea:

 

...Once a girl gets pregnant....the school leaps in to do everything for her. But I wonder: Is it possible that all this assistance -- with little or no comment about the kids' actions -- has the unintended effect of actually encouraging them to get pregnant? Are we making it easier for girls to make a bad choice and helping them avoid the truth about the consequences?

 

And for many, it does seem to be a choice. "There's a myth that these pregnancies are accidental," says school nurse Nancy Runton. "But many of them aren't. I've known girls who've made 'I'll get pregnant if you get pregnant' pacts. It's a status thing. These girls go around school telling each other how beautiful they look pregnant, how cute their tummies look."...

 

Social worker Terri Wright says that for many girls, getting pregnant before they turn 18 is a rite of passage. "They don't wear sweatshirts or baggy dresses to conceal their pregnancies," says Wright. "I get invitations to baby showers. Girls bring me pictures of their kids dressed up like little dolls."

 

"There is zero shame," agrees school nurse Runton. One girl walked into a colleague's class last month, announced that she was pregnant and began showing her sonogram around...

 

Cynthia says that lots of her friends actively tried to get pregnant, but she didn't. Like many girls she knows, she was getting a shot of the contraceptive DMPA/Depo-Provera every three months at the teen health clinic starting when she was 13....[then]  she missed her shots and got pregnant at 15 by an 18-year-old guy....

 

The fact is, says Robert Wolverton, medical director of the teen health clinic, most of these girls and their families see no problem with being unmarried and having a child at 16 or 17.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/12/AR2008121203507.html

 

"BUT OUR SUBURBAN AND RURAL SCHOOLS ARE DIFFERENT..."

 

When the vomiting, tremors, and chills she felt each morning became overwhelming, Jessica Polmann started selling her body to finance her heroin addiction and halt the debilitating physical symptoms of withdrawal. The petite, blond cheerleader, who made the honor roll before she started doing heroin at age 13, received $60 and some cigarettes each time she had sex with a man in his 50s who lived near her suburban New Jersey home.

 

Jessica also traded sex for drugs with her dealers and male friends if they had extra bags of dope....

 

She even introduced her friends and boyfriend to heroin to expand the pool of people she could call on to pick up more drugs. "I was," she says now, "really disgusting."

 

Polmann, now 18, is just one in a wave of teens and 20-somethings in suburbs across the Northeast who are becoming addicted to and dying from abuse of heroin and prescription opiates like OxyContin. Once prevalent mostly in big cities, heroin has been spreading out to smaller towns in New England and the mid-Atlantic as the drug is becoming more widely available in a highly pure, inexpensive form that can be snorted.

 

Many of these young addicts get started on prescription drugs, move on to cheap heroin that can be snorted, and end up injecting it for a more potent high. Either way, the effects have been deadly.

 

In Massachusetts, for example, the number of opiate-related deaths, which include overdoses and fatal drug interactions, among people ages 13 to 30 was five times as great in 2006 as it was in 1997. And according to drug intelligence, law enforcement, and treatment officials at both the federal and state level, the trend has not yet shown signs of reversing or slowing down.

 

...Five years ago, the National Drug Intelligence Center noted in its annual report that heroin was just beginning to move into the suburbs...[In] 2008, the NDIC's National Drug Threat Assessment, which is based on interviews with local law enforcement and public-health officials across the country [warned]... that heroin abuse "is increasing among young adults in a number of suburban and rural areas."

 

Low-level dealers had found the suburbs could be quite lucrative because they could more easily monopolize the local heroin market.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2008/12/05/heroin-hits-the-suburbs-hard-amid-wave-of-drug-abuse-by-teens-and-20-somethings.html

 

FORTUNATELY, THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA ARE STILL ABLE TO RECOGNIZE

A REAL THREAT TO EDUCATION

WHEN THEY SEE ONE

 

There is no more gloriously quixotic group in government education than the Texas State Board of Education. Not only is there a genuinely conservative majority, but they are willing to stand up for decency, Christian principles, and effective pedagogy.

 

Needless to say, the SBOE majority is depised by the mainstream media,  our highly trained education professionals, Texas Democrats (including leftists of all stripes), and the Texas Republican establishment (which is all too happy to do the bidding of the the education special interests). In fact, the Rino Republicans in Austin not infrequently try to undermine the power of the SBOE (which is an elected body).

 

Recently one of the conservative members of the SBOE, Cynthia Dunbar, published a book in which she not only told some of the truth about government education, but she also told Christians that they should be more actively involved in public policy. GASP.

 

Predictably this has the unusal suspects in a snit...the nerve of that woman...

 

AUSTIN — A member of the State Board of Education is drawing fire from a watchdog group because of her critical views on public education in a new book she has written that advocates more Christianity in the public square.

 

Board member Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, should be booted from the Committee on Instruction following the publication of a new book in which she attacks a public education system she helps govern, the Texas Freedom Network's president said Thursday.

In her book, One Nation Under God, Dunbar argues that the country's founding fathers created "an emphatically Christian government" and believed that government should be guided by a "biblical litmus test."

 

Dunbar endorses a belief system requiring "any person desiring to govern have a sincere knowledge and appreciation for the Word of God in order to rightly govern."

 

She calls public education a "subtly deceptive tool of perversion." The establishment of public schools is unconstitutional and even "tyrannical," she writes in the book, because it threatens the authority of families, granted by God through Scripture, to direct the instruction of their children.

 

Her book was not written for the general public, said Dunbar, whose 16-county area includes Fort Bend and Brazoria counties and part of Travis County.

 

"It's mainly an educational tool to the body of Christ," Dunbar said, adding that Christians appear to be targeted once they become active politically.

 

"I don't think most people in the churches are aware of the venom against Christian America," she said. "So, it's more of a wake-up call to be informed, to be involved. They are fine with the body of Christ as long as we stay hidden in our four walls of the church, sitting quietly in our pews.... 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6148239.html

 

We need many more Christians with the courage of Dunbar and the other SBOE conservatives. By the way, not only are the SBOE conservatives courageous, they

serve without compensation. 

 

 

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Washington, D.C., and Detroit

 

    The TIME Magazine cover story may be the beginning of the end for Michelle Rhee, the controversial head of the Washington D.C. school system. On the cover TIME did Rhee no favor by posing her in a classroom holding a broom and wearing an expression that comes close to a scowl.

 

    Inside the article, the "broom" symbolism becomes obvious as the reporter tells readers that Rhee has fired 270 teachers, hired assistants to help process the paper work for firing more, and has gotten rid of principals that she felt weren't performing, including the principal of her daughters' school. Equally bad from the education establishment's perspective, Rhee wants teachers to give up tenure for merit pay. [Undoubtedly, Washington D.C.'s highly trained education professionals and teachers' unions have a different take on the broom symbolism and the photo - it is an image of Rhee as the Wicked Witched of the East holding her broomstick.]

 

Here is some coverage of Rhee from the Washington Post that touches on the TIME story, as well as some other matters:

 

The Atlantic Monthly, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have chronicled her battles with the Washington Teachers' Union. The PBS "NewsHour" and "60 Minutes" have trailed her up and down school corridors. She can be seen at A-list gatherings, from Herbert Allen's annual Sun Valley, Idaho, retreat for corporate moguls to education summits hosted by Bill Gates and the Aspen Institute....

 

Last week, on the cover of Time, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee cemented her status as the national standard-bearer of tough-minded, no-excuses urban school reform. She is photographed at the front of a classroom, stern-faced and clutching a broom, symbolizing her promise of sweeping change....

 

Others see her pursuing a national platform for a message that is hostile to older, experienced teachers and partial to younger instructors from nontraditional training programs such as Teach for America, where she started her career...

Describing Rhee's unusual outspokenness for a school leader, Time reporter Amanda Ripley writes:

 

Then she raises her chin and does what I come to recognize as her standard imitation of people she doesn't respect. Sometimes she uses this voice to imitate teachers; other times, politicians or parents. Never students. "People say, 'Well, you know, test scores don't take into account creativity and the love of learning,' " she says with a drippy, grating voice, lowering her eyelids halfway. Then she snaps back to herself. "I'm like, 'You know what? I don't give a crap.' Don't get me wrong. Creativity is good and whatever. But if the children don't know how to read, I don't care how creative you are. You're not doing your job."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/07/AR2008120702255.html

 

From the quote in the story you can see that Rhee comes across rather like Attila-The-Hen with Valley Girl diction (" I'm like, You know what..."). Please understand, The Continuing Collapse admires anyone, including a government school employee, who fires incompetent teachers. There, however, is Rhee's difficulty.

 

Most of the teachers in the D.C. schools would probably strike the average parent as perhaps being better cut out for a job as a greeter at Walmart. Don't doubt that the teachers themselves know that their "school gig" is probably the only way they will enjoy indoor work with no heavy lifting, and doubtless they harbor fears that someone, like Rhee, will discover that they have no business being in the classroom.

 

Enter the unions. What teachers' unions offer above all else is ironclad job security. A school regime in which an administrator like Rhee can fire teachers and reward others with merit pay is anathema to the unions because it makes them irrelevant.

 

Consequently, the education establishment has an enormous stake in making sure that Rhee does not succeed, particularly now that she has such a high profile (note that she is not only on the cover of TIME, but is also hanging out with jet setters and the "beautiful people" of the salons of Georgetown).

 

Will the education establishment succeed in ousting Rhee? Let us contemplate another Washington Post story - this time about D.C.'s charter schools:

 

...Students in the District's charter schools have opened a solid academic lead over those in its traditional public schools, adding momentum to a movement that is recasting public education in the city....Without unions and seniority rules, they can decide who to hire and fire. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/14/AR2008121402654.html

 

Although the unions hate charter schools, The Continuing Collapse suspects that they see opportunity in the relative success of D.C.'s charters. After all, if Rhee's approach were any good the charters would not be out in front. In fact, the education establishment's narrative might continue, "all Rhee has done is create division, discriminate against older teachers, and showboat, but she really hasn't gotten results."

 

Is this "narrative" honest or logical? In the world of politics it doesn't have to be either to be an effective weapon. The Continuing Collapse believes that Rhee will be gone before the end of the Dalai Bama's first term, either by being let go or, more likely, by being forced out by a slowly growing tide of restrictions that eventually so impede her effectiveness that she quits.

 

The education establishment simply can't allow firing teachers and merit pay to be perceived nationally as an effective way to "reform" schools. As a result, Rhee, who has become the face of that particular approach to "reform", must fail. When all is said and done,

the teachers' unions' girl-Friday, Linda Darling-Hammond, will probably be tasked with finding a subtle way of getting rid of Rhee. 

 

This brings us to Detroit - figuratively, of course, because no one would actually want to go there.

 

"AND ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST"

 

Connie Calloway, like Rhee, was brought in as a "no nonsense" outsider to clean up a school district that was a grossly embarrassing monument to government ineptitude. Unlike Rhee, however, Calloway had a local school board and a district that had deep "legacy" problems of all kinds. Not the least of the legacy problems was a financial nightmare that was created by at least two generations of fiscal mismanagent. Once those problems became fully apparent, the State of Michigan stepped in to take over the financial affairs of the district:

 

Three years after it stopped managing Detroit Public Schools, the state announced Monday it plans to return, this time to take control of the district's financial operations.

 

The district's financial operation is in such disarray that Michigan Department of Education intends to install an emergency financial manager with the power to negotiate contracts, hire and fire staff and close schools....

 

The decision follows months of controversy over the district's finances, with administrators going from declaring a fund surplus to saying the school system faces a $408 million deficit, forcing the board to approve hundreds of layoffs and other cuts. Vendors also came forward to say they weren't being paid, and the district had to rely on the state to advance funds so the school system could meet its payroll....

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081208/METRO/812080412

 

While it isn't surprising that Detroit schools, like many school districts, suffer from rampant financial irregularities (a.k.a. fraud, theft, and managerial incompetence), it was interesting that this became the pretext for the school board to fire Calloway after she had been on the job less than 18 months.

 

Calloway obviously didn't create the financial problems.  In fact, according to at least one parent, it was Calloway's uncovering of financial and other improprieties that was the real reason for her ouster:

 

Tamara Wills, a parent of two children, later shouted at the board and said parents should pull their kids out of the district on the next pupil count day in February.

 

"This is the first time we have a superintendent who listens to you," she said. Wills added that Calloway has uncovered misspending and stealing in the district and said the board should keep her.... http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081216/SCHOOLS/812160369/1409/METRO

 

Unlike their suburban counterparts, Detroit's parents seem to understand that the entire education establishment is the real problem. Stay tuned for more drama out of Detroit:

 

After the meeting [at which Calloway was fired], about 75 parents and students formed a coalition, vowing to walk out of schools and protest Wednesday. Members are asking that officials "get rid of the whole district and start from scratch," said Raheem Warren, who has seven children in DPS. "(Calloway is) not the only problem. She can't turn schools around in one year." http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081216/SCHOOLS/812160369/1409/METRO

 

By the way, for those of you wondering about the caliber of people who serve on major school boards, meet Detroit's Reverend Murray:

 

DETROIT -- Almost nine months after six children were removed from his care for allegations of abuse and neglect, Detroit Public Schools board member Reverend David Murray has failed to persuade authorities he is fit to have them back...

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081205/METRO01/812050394/1409/METRO

 

Speaking of Detroit: The New Illegals

 

A new wave of illegals is pouring across the border. No, not illegal aliens coming across our southern border, but native born students sneaking across the Detroit School District border into adjoining districts to escape Detroit's highly trained education professionals:

 

...this year, some districts have hired staffers to investigate them [border jumping students]. At least one fines parents who send their children to school illegally.

Districts like Southfield, Birmingham, Grosse Pointe and Dearborn investigate hundreds of students attending schools illegally every year, sent by parents who lied about living within a district's borders in an effort to give their children what they believe to be better educational opportunities and safer learning environments....

 

More parents and residents within districts are raising concerns about such students benefitting from a district's tax dollars and decreasing state aid funds...

 

"As people see schools having to make financial reductions, they're obviously wanting to make sure that the people who are entitled to the services are the ones receiving them," said Marcia Wilkinson, spokeswoman for Birmingham Public Schools...

 

The district came under pressure in 2005 from parents concerned about the residency status of some students. The Avondale School District in Oakland County faced a similar situation last year. The district hired a staffer who conducted residency checks this past summer on about 1,000 students whose parents rent housing or live with other residents...Southfield, which has two staffers handling residency investigations, removes up to 200 students every year after checking the status of the 3,000-some students living in apartments and any others suspected of attending school fraudulently, officials said... 

http://www.freep.com/article/20081214/NEWS05/812140458/1007

 

So why has The Continuing Collapse devoted so much space to the problems of two school districts? Because both illustrate the impossibility of what even the average secular parent would consider meaningful school reform.

 

 

A TEACHER'S CERTIFICATE:

 

ONE OF THE SEVEN WARNING

SIGNS OF PEDAGOGICAL INCOMPETENCE

 

...Traditional state certification rules help to limit the supply of "certified" teachers. But a new study suggests that such requirements also hinder student learning.

 

Harvard researchers Paul Peterson and Daniel Nadler compared states that have genuine alternative certification with those that have it in name only. And they found that between 2003 and 2007 students in states with a real alternative pathway to teaching gained more on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (a federal standardized test) than did students in other states.

 

"In states that had genuine alternative certification, test-score gains on the NAEP exceeded those in the other states by 4.8 points and 7.6 points in 4th- and 8th-grade math, respectively," report the authors in the current issue of Education Next. "In reading, the additional gains in the states with genuine alternative certification were 10.6 points and 3.9 points for the two grade levels respectively."

 

The study undermines the arguments from colleges of education and teachers unions, which say that traditional certification, which they control, is the only process that can produce quality teachers. The findings hold up even after controlling for race, ethnicity, free-lunch eligibility, class size and per-pupil state spending....

 

President-elect Barack Obama has expressed guarded support for education reforms like merit pay and charter schools. Yet he chose Linda Darling-Hammond to head the education policy team for his transition. Ms. Darling-Hammond, a professor at Stanford, is a union favorite and vocal supporter of traditional certification. She's also been a fierce critic of Teach for America and other successful alternative certification programs....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122912779960403217.html

 

This study couldn't have been better timed to illustrate the union payoff agenda behind the choice of Linda Darling-Hammond to head the Dalai Bama's education working group.

 

  SPEAKING OF THE QUALITY OF OUR CERTIFIED HIGHLY TRAINED

EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS...

 

The following story is particularly amusing because California educrats responded to the NCLB requirement for establishing standards for qualifying teachers as "highly qualified" by adopting standards that amounted to something only slightly more rigorous than a teacher being able to fog a mirror [No, The Continuing Collapse is not exaggerating. Even the very liberal California Congressman George Miller was angry about it.].

 

As a Sacramento Superior Court prepares to decide whether California public schools may require testing of all eighth-graders in algebra, a new study finds that 1 in 3 middle-school algebra teachers is unqualified to teach the subject...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/10/BAOT14L2C9.DTL&type=education

 

Let's see... the reason the 8th graders should NOT be tested is what? The teachers' qualifications, or lack of same, would be made apparent by the testing. The point of the testing is to show whether there is a problem. So, who benefits from parents, taxpayers, and students not knowing if 8th graders can do algebra? Who do you think knows without any testing whether the teaches really can or can't teach math?

 

Oh well, at least the students are being taught by what California educrats deem "highly qualified teachers". 

 

In the following story, a highly trained education professional in New York resorted to a time-honored government school technique used to avoid embarrassing scrutiny. Unfortunately, she got caught.

 

A Bronx high-school administrator [ Assistant Principal Ruth Ralston] brazenly erased 1,000 wrong answers on her students' algebra Regents exams and swapped them for the correct responses...

 

Ralston's motives were not made clear, but she was already on thin ice with school officials for poor performance, and major budget cuts were looming.

 

The positive test results would have looked good on her resume since she was the math Regents-exam organizer.

Ralston still teaches three classes a week at the school.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12042008/news/regionalnews/cheat_rap_vs__bronx_educator_142611.htm

 

 In Houston, a lot of the highly trained education professionals apparently have found a way to avoid worrying about test results - for a reason the story makes obvious.

 

The Houston school district plans to dispatch drug-detecting dogs to every campus in coming weeks in search of illegal narcotics in employee parking lots.

 

The move, which Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra announced Monday, follows a recent string of teacher drug arrests...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6153247.html

 

 

  LOOKEE HERE! WE'RE DOING BETTER ON AN INTERNATIONAL TEST!

(Or, "Borat's Revenge")

 

 Well, here we go again with a political press relations play designed to amaze and impress the rubes at the county fair. This story trumpets important improvement by US 4th and 8th graders on the TIMSS (an international math and science test):

http://thebulletin.us/articles/2008/12/12/top_stories/doc4941f4f8cbc70008686389.txt

 

...And here is at least part of what is really going on:

 

The Bush administration has always been in bed with the education establishment. Please remember that Teddy “the swimmer” Kennedy was his collaborator on NCLB. Bush’s DOE Secretary, Spellings, was a senior advisor on education and other policy issues to Bush in Texas.

 

You may also recall that much of Bush’s campaign in 2000 was based on the “Texas Education Miracle” and his promise to bring that miracle to Washington - a promise that resulted in NCLB.

 

After the 2000 election (perhaps with some reporting a little before the election), it became apparent that the “Texas education miracle” was largely the result of data manipulation.

 

Of course, The Continuing Collapse doesn't want to be entirely critical. There is indeed a continuing Texas education miracle: if your child gets a good education in Texas government schools, it's a miracle. But The Continuing Collapse acknowledges that that would make a very poor campaign theme.

 

What does all this have to do with the happy, clappy news about the TIMSS? The Bush administration, like other administrations, is trying to leave with a “legacy”. Part of that “legacy” is having reformed the government school system through NCLB. NCLB, however, is widely detested and has not been reauthorized. Without reauthorization, the Bush “education legacy” will sink out of sight faster than the General Belgrano.

 

Consequently, when the administration thinks there is something that looks favorable for influencing reauthorization of NCLB,  the administration has had Spellings trot out “good news”. It hasn’t worked so far, but the administration is still trying to create a favorable climate of opinion for reauthorization in Congress next year. It might work. After all,the new administration and Congress are owned by the education special interests. So, it would not be surprising if in 2009 The Messiah and his minions “reformed” (weakened) the already laughably weak accountability standards in NCLB while dumping an avalanche of additional money on his friends, particularly when it can be made to seem that reauthorization is good public policy.

 

This would be a true Washington “win-win”. Bush gets to claim an education legacy and the education special interests get more money and even less accountability.

 

The losers, of course, are the taxpayers, children, and parents out in fly-over country. But they don’t matter as far as our Washington masters-of-the-universe are concerned.

 

Why should this “good news” be greeted with a snicker? The Continuing Collapse will hum a few bars of the tune, and you can figure out the rest.

 

Let’s take, for example, the wonderful news that our fourth graders scored 11th out of 36 countries in math (based on the NCES chart). But in the 2003 administration of the TIMSS our 4th graders came in 12th out of 25 in math.

 

Where a country ranks depends to a large extent on who participates. [Please note that the NCES site indicates that there were 36 countries that participated in 2007, not 35 as reported in the posted article] Obviously, there are some changes in participation in comparison with the 2003 test.

 

What are they? Well, in 2003 11 countries did better than the US. All of those countries participated in 2007 except Belgium, and all that participated in 2007 except Hungary continued to have higher scores than the US. In addition, a country that participated in 2007, but not 2003, beat the US by a substantial margin - that wealthy, educational powerhouse - Kazakhstan. 

 

If you look at the rest of the 2007 participants, you see that three educationally relatively weak countries from 2003 - Cyprus, Moldova, and Philipines - that you would expect to continue to score below the US didn't participate in 2007. But...the 2007 test added many more countries like this (e.g. Ukraine, Kuwait, El Salvador, Yemen, Colombia, etc.)

 

What does this mean? Well if you look at simple rank order, which the educrats and journalists will seize on if they think it helps with public relations for the education industry, it is likely that if Belgium (Flemish) had participated, the US would have been 12th, just as in 2003, but with the added indignity of having been trounced by Kazakhstan. Moreover, the fact that in 2007 it would have been 12th out of 37 (adding Belgium back in) instead of 12th out of 25 largely reflects the addition of a lot of countries like Algeria. In sum, the rank order part of the story is relatively meaningless.

  

Ah, but what about the actual TIMSS scores and the fact that US 4th graders scored 529 in 2007 vs 518 in 2003? Well, that might indicate some improvement, but if you look at the notes in the report you find out that the US met statistical sample guidelines for sample participation rates only after substitute schools were included.

 

In fact, we had the second lowest participation rate (and thus 2nd highest substitution rate - 30%) of any country in 2007. Why? It isn’t discussed, but I would wager that school districts like Detroit, LAUSD, and Dallas were underweighted and that substitute schools came from better districts. In addition, the 2007 TIMSS allowed “within school exclusions for intellectual disabilities and non-native speakers”. Here we clearly have a smoking gun.

 

“Within schools” exclusions like these have been carefully cultivated over the last decade by our highly trained educatin professionals to increase school revenues (this is a key reason why the ranks of “special ed students” have grown), payoff the bilingual lobby with a jobs program, and, especially, “game” our own accountability tests. With the right exclusions The Continuing Collapse can give you just about any average you want.

 

Are our highly trained education professionals the only ones interested in "shaping" outcomes through manipulating participation rates and exclusions? No, but we are probably the world's foremost practitioners of these black arts, and our highly trained education professionals probably stand to lose the most if the public loses any more confidence in them.

 

Of course, The Continuing Collapse has barely scratched the surface of what is questionable here, and many of the people who make a good living as school reformers, on the one hand, and as school defenders, on the other, will to-and-fro these results until the average parent and taxpayer are thoroughly wornout and simply decide to accept the Lake Wobegon reality that is being constructed for them...which is one of the reasons for the toing-and-froing.

 

Nobody who isn’t paid to do it and who hasn’t got a large paid staff has the time to drill down into the internals on what DOE is offering up to find all the buried statistical bodies. Rest assured,however, your government schools (if your children attend them) aren’t “different” in any meaningful sense (unless Detroit is your benchmark).

 

BY THE WAY, as for impoverished, backward Kazakhstan doing significantly better than our 4th graders in math.... Think of it as Borat's Revenge.

 

 "ACCOUNTABILITY" WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES

 

You may wonder how The Continuous Collapse can fearlessly predict what will be done with NCLB. Actually it is easy. Just read what the people who have influence with the Dalai Bama have to say.

 

Below we have a union president calling for eliminating accountability under the guise of calling for accountability without "punishment" (i.e. no consequences for failure).

 

...Randi Weingarten [the lesbian who is President of the American Federation of Teachers]: We need a federal law that is really aligned with how to get continuous sustainable improvement in our education system. How do we address the achievement gap head-on? How do we improve teaching and learning head-on? How do we build a workable accountability system that helps and doesn't punish schools?... http://thebulletin.us/articles/2008/12/12/top_stories/doc4941f4f8cbc70008686389.txt

 

Here is another article promoting the idea that holding highly trained education professionals accountable for failing students is "punishment". The Continuing Collapse naively thinks that, on the contrary, subjecting students to such highly trained education professionals is punishment. Note that the article mentions how states are scamming NCLB by lowering testing standards.

 

Many educators are looking to President-elect Barack Obama to revise a much-maligned federal initiative requiring annual tests to chart the progress of every school in the country...

Schools are punished if not enough students pass the tests for several consecutive years. The entire faculty can be asked to reapply for their jobs, or school operations can be turned over to an independent operator or the state.

As each year passes and the passing standards increase, more schools are being put into the "failing" category. According to data collected by the National Education Association, at least 15 percent of schools in most states did not meet standards last year, and in some states the percentages rose in recent years to 50 percent.

Pressure is building to find a more precise way of focusing on the worst schools.

Some argue that states should be able to take into account the improvement a school's students make on the tests. Instead of only measuring whether today's fifth-graders have passed a test, schools might also be evaluated on how much those fifth graders knew at the end of fourth grade and whether they moved ahead by at least a year. That could help urban schools whose students may come to school years behind their counterparts in the suburbs.

There is growing evidence that some states have made their tests easier, creating a disparity between standards among states.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-id.education07dec07,0,3786265.story

 

Here is an example of how even the largely toothless standards established under NCLB are making themselves felt at the state level.

 

More than  1,000 Florida [low income] public schools do not meet federal academic standards and are drifting toward failure....Another 1,500 Florida schools don't meet the federal standards, either. But all except a handful of them aren't threatened by the law because they don't receive federal cash. Many of those that escape federal sanctions are in more-affluent neighborhoods, such as Dommerich Elementary in Maitland....

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/orl-nochild0808dec08,0,7002146.story

 

Rest assured, the Dalai Bama and the Secretary Elect will find a way to get rid of the growing embarrassment being caused by the current version of NCLB as a way of shielding our highly trained education professionals from bad publicity. Most parents will also probably be relieved, too, because they don't like bad news. Of course, the changes will by portrayed by an obedient MSM as an improvement of standards and a "refinement" of accountability.

 

THE EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENT'S

"IRON RICE BOWL" IS IN DANGER

 OF CRACKING 

 

If the caption bewilders you, see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/special_report/1999/09/99/china_50/iron.htm

 

 

One benefit of the recession: budgetary "pain" that must be shared...Below we have a few stories in which we see that the tax eaters, including our highly trained education professionals, may be turning a bit cannibalistic.

 

Utah

 

The governor's budget recommendations have education leaders, teachers and parents worried about the future of Utah's schoolchildren.

 

"You can only squeeze a turnip so much," said Sandi Barber, who teaches Gifted and Talented classes at Orchard Elementary School in West Valley City.

 

"The bottom line is: What are we doing to our kids?" Barber said.

State public education budgets will get a 3 percent to 4 percent cut for fiscal year 2010, as recommended by the governor....

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705268645,00.html

 

New York

 

ALBANY — Providing New York's school districts with the flexibility to run on a four-day week could have some advantages, but it could hamper education quality and interfere with child-care arrangements, experts said Wednesday.

 

Charles Dawson of the state School Boards Association told the Senate Education Committee that there were potential cost savings in a four-day school week... http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20081211/NEWS01/812110338/1003

 

California

 

Republican legislative leaders released a long-awaited plan Monday to ease the state's massive shortfall without raising taxes.

 

Republican Senate leader Dave Cogdill and GOP Assembly leader Mike Villines said their joint proposal would cut $22 billion from the state's projected two-year $40 billion shortfall.

 

The GOP plan proposes that voters be asked to approve a stiff state spending cap, and it proposes a wide range of changes to environmental and labor laws to bolster businesses.

 

The proposal would cut deeper into public schools, $10.6 billion, than proposals by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger or Democratic leaders...

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1475895.html

 

Nevada

 

After a discussion called "emotionally repugnant" by Superintendent Walt Rulffes, Clark County School Board members Thursday night voted 5-1 to accept economic assumptions requiring $120 million in budget cuts for the 2009-10 school year.

 

If the school district proceeds with the recommended cuts, as many as a thousand jobs would be eliminated, including 260 administrative jobs and cuts in teaching and support staff.

 

"These cuts will hurt kids," School Board member Carolyn Edwards said. "I'm saddened, but that's where we are."

 

School Board member Larry Mason was the lone opposition in the 5-1 vote, arguing that Nevada has underfunded education for decades. The School Board should not validate further cuts of 14 percent for next year's budget, he said...

 

The district will need to shore up its savings before it seeks more bonds for school construction.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/36038649.html 

 

Kansas 

 

Public school districts were shortchanged this month because the state doesn’t have enough funds, officials said Monday....

 

The state paid the 297 school districts $165 million for the month of December, which was $55 million or 25 percent less than the amount school districts were supposed to receive, officials said.

 

Goossen said he didn’t know when the state would make up the 25 percent. “I hope that will be soon. That will depend on when the revenue comes in,” he said.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/dec/08/state-about-25-percent-short-payments-school-distr/?kansas_legislature

 

Wisconsin

 

Amid a swirl of uncertainty about where things will stand a few months from now, Milwaukee School Board members say administrators should develop a budget for MPS for next year that has no increase in spending.

 

While none of them was happy about it - and such a budget could still mean a substantial increase in property taxes for schools - the board's budget committee agreed 6-0 late Thursday that budget-makers should get the zero-increase guideline for developing a 2009-'10 budget.

 

If nothing changes, the result almost certainly would be another year of higher taxes for reduced services. While total spending could be kept flat, there are likely to be raises due teachers and other employees under labor contracts still to be negotiated, and other costs are sure to go up, such as a $12 million increase in payments on MPS debt. Those factors would crimp what can be paid for, and the vote can be seen as a strong signal of difficult decisions that lie ahead.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/35641039.html

 

 

Washington

 

The list of possible school closures in Seattle rose Wednesday from seven to nine....The district, she said, is working under a tight timeline if it wants to close schools by September, and the state budget picture continues to get worse. District staff say it looks increasingly likely the district's state funding could be cut as much as $20 million....

 

The district has said it has roughly 9,000 more seats than students overall — although the staff stresses that is a rough estimate. The superintendent's initial recommendation would have roughly reduced that by about 3,000 seats....

 

School closures alone will not save nearly enough to fill the district's budget gap, but they would help.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008468344_webschoolclosure04m.html

 

Virginia

  

Facing the prospect of cutting an additional $1 billion to $1.5 billion from the state's two-year budget, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said yesterday that the next round of cuts will include layoffs and reductions in funding for K-12 education....

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/state_regional/state_regional_govtpolitics/article/CUTS051_20081204-232608/140690/

 

Louisianna 

 

After several years of solid gains, state aid for public schools faces “dramatic” reductions because of the state’s looming shortfall of $1.3 billion, education officials said Wednesday....

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/35519639.html

 

 

A NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

 

We have an opportunity to accelerate the collapse of the government school system by stripping it of its public aura of legitimacy, defunding it by encouraging everyone to remove their little "revenue units" from the system and by working to defeat bond elections, and exposing our highly trained education professionals and the education special interests for the corrupt yokels they are. 

 

This means, among other things, kindly but firmly confronting the Vichy Christians and Quisling pastors in our midst with the truth about what the government schools are doing to our children, our families, our churches, and our culture.

 

The situation under the coming administration is going to be truly dangerous. We need to be the Godly advocates for Christian education that we are intended to be.

 

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