Wednesday 27 June 2012

VOTING FOR RADICALS

Your vote matters, and your failure to vote matters. Only forty nine percent of eligible voters voted in the last school board election. Fifty one percent of the votes sat it out and let the radicals take our schools once again. I'm now going to tell you what that means in our schools.

Last night I was at a board meeting that had five radicals that rammed through having "domestic partners" on the school district health plan. What does this mean to you? Well, right now you're paying about a thousand dollars a month for each couple that is insured under the district health plan, which is way over what private companies charge. You are paying this much because the district wants to be self insured so they can do things like wellness plans and actions like accepting domestic partners with no fiscal note and no thought of cost.

These five radicals (one was patched in on the phone so they could get their majority) voted for domestic partners WITHOUT the recommendation of the HEALTH COMMITTEE, WITHOUT the recommendation of the SUPERINTENDENT, WITHOUT the support of the UNION, WITHOUT  a fiscal note determining what this would cost, WITHOUT a legal document determining the definition of what a domestic partner will be determined to be , AND WITHOUT ALLOWING THE FULL BOARD AND THE PUBLIC TO HEAR WHY THE HEALTH COMMITTEE ,WHO HAD RESEARCHED IT FULLY, DID NOT RECOMMEND THIS ACTION. Three trustees just didn't show up. The vote was held at five o'clock and the only notice to the public was BURIED in a news story written the day before the vote. Essentially there was no notice, the vote was held while people were still at work, and once again, like in the sex standards debate, was held in the summer when the radicals think people might be on vacation and not paying attention. This is what happens when you vote for radicals. They believe their ends justify their means and they do not govern with care and common sense.

This vote hurts a lot of people. Let's start with the tax payers. Our state legislature has not recognized domestic partners so there is no legal standing here. The school board is the lowest level of governance and they have taken it upon themselves to recognize domestic partners. There will be no legal  documents determining what partnership is allowed to be paid for under the district plan. One board member mentioned that "maybe" you could determine it by a shared bank account! SERIOUSLY-  all I have to do is deposit a few bucks in a bank account and the district is on the hook for who knows what serious illnesses and long term care? This puts the district plan, and the taxpayers who pay for it, at great risk of increased liabilities. What happens when these costs go up as they inevitably will? Retirees who live on a fixed income and have to pay in full for this terrible plan will be forced to pay more. They already pay about a thousand dollars a month on the premium plan (which they also pay for, for the employees in their taxes) and almost eight hundred dollars for the standard plan which is major medical (does not cover dental,tests,doctor visits etc.).

The school board is there for the students but I do not think they voted for the best interests of the students in this case.. What happens when the health care costs go up? Someone has to pay. First the school board will inevitably go to the taxpayers saying they need more money, can't pay for kids (no mention of their irresponsible behavior). The people who don't pay attention will just think the costs for the students have gone up. The taxpayers will pay for awhile but then that will come to an end. Taxpayers have bills and obligations in their lives too, I'd like to let the radicals on the school board in on  this little secret. So what then? Teachers will not get raises, teachers will have to contribute more for their health care, and teachers may get laid off because the district can't continue meeting the payroll and the cost of benefits.

But lets talk about what is REALLY important, really important to you and to me. Let me put my  heart on my sleeve here, THIS IS GOING TO HURT THE MOST INNOCENT AMONG US, THE CHILDREN.This is not an ad or a political slogan, this is real life. Less teachers means crowded classrooms. Closed schools mean kids can't go to their neighborhood school. But much more than that, what kind of environment are we encouraging and building in our schools? One young lady who testified (NOT a student but had been the founder of the LGBT club on campus, NO STUDENTS TESTIFIED), said teachers talk to students about these things and the district needed to model
FAIRNESS. SERIOUSLY? Teachers are telling students what their living arrangements are? This is what pedophiles do, they tell young children about their private lives and intimacy. DO YOU WANT TEACHERS TALKING TO YOUR YOUNG STUDENTS AND TELLING THEM WHAT THEIR PRIVATE LIVING ARRANGEMENTS ARE? One woman who testified for domestic partners said this was "progressive". I have news for her, this is her values and her opinion, but her opinion has no more weight than anyone else's. This may be how she wants the future to look but it's not how many other people want the future to look. I'd like a future where children are taught modesty, respect and sexual restraint rather than being taught there is no morality, anything goes, and they can just make up their mind when they are ready. We've seen where that philosophy has gotten us- unwed pregnancies and huge dropout rates.

VOTE  in the next school board election . FIND responsible people to run. STOP this travesty before kids get hurt.

Tuesday 19 June 2012

END OF THE YEAR GOLD

How can it be that a school district that is in $251,000.00 deficit, as reported by the district itself and the local  newspaper, suddenly comes up with hundreds of thousands of dollars at the end of the school year? Where does this money come from? Why does the newspaper have such a lack of interest in this budgeting slight of hand? My husband and I pay $250.00 a month in property taxes for our modest home. So I'm guessing most of you pony up similar amounts. Helena just passed a levy, so these taxes are all going up PERMANENTLY.That means forever,your grand children will be paying this money and their children after them. Every new levy that gets passed is FOREVER too, and each one is added to the ones from all the years before- you get the idea- accumulated paying.People vote for these levies because they think the district needs the money. They think the district is down to its last dime and can't make it without more money. But, is this really true if the school district has hundreds of thousands of dollars left at the end of the year? The newspaper has such a lack of interest in this subject it wouldn't even report about my public comment on the issue at the last board meeting.

Is there a cover up here? Maybe an actual honest budget that details all the school districts expenditures and income should be required to be sent out to each homeowner before every levy election. Do you think we have a right to see honest budgets? I do. So how much money did the district have left this year? They had $620,463.00 left in round numbers, or around four times the amount of the levy. I can understand that the district may round things up so as not to run short, and you can't budget down to the penny- but seriously, more than a half million dollars over? THIS HAPPENS EVERY YEAR.  That's right, the budget is set to have hundreds of thousands of dollars left as a slush fund at the end of every year.

So how is the money spent? This year $35,675.00 is being spent on Common Core (Obama's national curriculum).$17,500.00 of that amount on who knows what- it just says Common Core in the "Proposed list of expenditures for  "unexpected" budget balance". $21,175.00 of the Common Core amount for MASCD/MEI professional development Common Core. This is undoubtedly for teacher workshops. MASCD is the Montana branch of the ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development).The founder of this organization believed, and the stated objective of the organization is, that NOTHING should be taught in school that is not teaching Values. Another words, you never teach reading for example, for the sake of reading alone- you teach it with the INTENT of changing values.So, Common Core, along with being odious, is a money wagon for places like the ASCD. We get to pay for this. There are many other things on the list but one that I thought was of particular interest was the $142,600.00 for land purchased next to Lincoln School . The school is closed to our elementary students but open for programs. Now the district has purchased a new lot next door, and supposedly, they have no idea why they want the land. Is this where they will put one of there new "Family Resource Centers"( centers for job training, mental health, food, and who knows what else, in the socialist nonprofit dream world) when you pass the bond?

But here's the point- if they can't afford trailers for Jim Darcy why can they afford $142,600.00 for land that they have no purpose for? There are "No immediate plans for the property" as stated in the school board minutes.  Parents who think the schools are out of money and that is why there is overcrowding in the valley are mistaken. The school district just has other plans. The principal at Rossiter stated that they could take ALL THE INCOMING KINDERGARTNERS IF THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO HAVE HEADSTART IN A CLASSROOM. Even with full day kindergarten, which took classrooms away, the valley could house all their children. The district has other plans.

Remember this when the schools come with pockets turned out begging for a big bond. You might keep in mind that apparently the city, which overspends on every Federal Grant from Urban Foresters to Complete Streets( bike paths) and is looking at funding a "non-discrimination" ordinance to control your free speech, has a proposal to raise your property taxes too.You can't stop the city (unless you finally,someday, vote for a conservative city council), but you can vote against levies and bonds. Vote against this stuff and put that year end gold in your own pocket!!

Friday 15 June 2012

IT ISN'T ABOUT THE CHILDREN

Have you noticed that every time the Schools want to pick your pocket for more money they say it's "For the children"? But is it really about the children?Schools are such a sleeper issue. It gets so frustrating for someone such as  myself. The liberal left/communists know exactly what they're doing and the rest of society, for the most part, just doesn't seem to get it. Even conservative publications will say that Bill Clinton was a "moderate"or that he had good "policies".  SERIOUSLY?!! Bill Clinton, under Hillary Clinton, emasculated our schools. Our schools are a nightmare for America today. The "village" concept is in full play, right down to mental health care , feeding, daycare and gardens. Today, the Obama administration has in place a national curriculum, and it seems that hardly anyone not involved in education, even knows about it, or cares. Who would have ever thought that the United States would have a centralized curriculum such as in the old Soviet Union?!! We used to be horrified at the Soviet schools that were dictated to by the Federal government and were forced to teach propaganda. It is reported that Nikita Kruschev said the Soviet Union would take over the United States without firing a shot. Eventually there would be so little difference between the United States and the Soviet Union that they would blend without a whimper. The Socialists/ Communists have put our schools on this course.

 When I was behind the wall in 1975 the people had no rights, everything was for the good of all. The good of all was what the government wanted- just like here in America, public land is not for the public, it's for the government, you can't even walk on it without government permission. Everything was supposedly done because, sometime in the future, there would be this wonderful panacea. It never happened. Government does not make panaceas, government amasses power. Think of Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler or Assad- it's all the same- government power. Our schools are raising the next generation to love big government, to believe in big government more than themselves or their parents, to trust big government, to let big government determine what the truth is and not question it. Like a sick family, the sick government we have coming from the left will say the opposite of what they do. So-if they say higher level thinking skills, what they are really doing is  mind control.

How are they doing this? I'll give you a few examples. My husband and I worked the polls at the recent primary election and we were in a school cafeteria. There were many posters where they served all the free food. One of them was of the Statue of Liberty and underneath it, it said JUSTICE. Were the children supposed to believe that the Statue of Liberty stands for Justice, which is FREE FOOD?Along  the wall in front of our polling table were a series of posters. They said- Eat, Learn, EARTH, Friends and Play. What does EARTH have to do with eating your lunch? The  Friends poster showed a peace circle. The recycling bins were there also.Our children are being taught the phony idea that justice in America is redistributive justice rather than justice under the law. They are being taught to accept socialism/communism. They are being taught to accept everything the environmental whackos come up with as truth.

 Under the new Common Core , or National Curriculum, children will start learning about global warming in Kindergarten. There is no global warming, this is catastrophe politics bent on convincing the population to give up freedoms and rights over the land. Al Gore said we'd all be under water by now. If Global Warming was happening it would have happened by now. Where are you Al? Which mansion have you jetted off to in your private jet while our little ones are being fed this garbage? Twenty Six states have signed on to the Common Core, National Curriculum, science standards already. I don't know if Montana is one of them but I wouldn't be surprised. Denise Juneau and the State School Board are cooking all this up SANS the legislature. I just looked at all the bill drafts briefly, I didn't see one to repeal Common Core in Montana, but hopefully the people will demand it.

Trying to control the people by amassing power over their schools is an idea as old as time. Even in the sandbox someone wants to control others. The grand Constitution of the United States of America is one of it's kind. It was written to stop tyranny over the people. It has made America rich beyond the founders imaginations. America, the hope of the free world, what will the world be if America and it's grand constitution comes to an end because of these socialists who prey on our schools? Freedom, as it was written and has lived in America, will die out forever and tyranny and repression will return as in days of old. Will the American people allow this to happen? You see, it's not about the children, it's about America and the rights of men to live free. Children still go to school in the yellow school buses  but what is happening there is a dire threat to America. If only the people will finally realize what is happening and put a stop to it. In Helena the people are so blind they just voted the president of the union's wife onto the school board! Sounds unbelievable, but it has happened here.People have only to reach out and take the vote their founders gave them and save themselves, save all of us , including the children.

Saturday 2 June 2012

CALIFORNIA SUNSHINE

I have to admit, you really have to love that California weather. I just got back from a couple of weeks in the Golden State and it gave me a much needed rest and some new perspectives.We hardly saw any bumper stickers in California - it almost seems like they're not into this whole culture war thing. Young people I talked to from San Francisco won't touch the public schools with a ten foot pole- they're going to send their children to charter schools. Why is Montana so backward? We don't even have the charter school option here. California, one of the most liberal states in the country, if not the most liberal, has beat the union and Montana can't. This is a sad state of affairs for Montana parents.

As we walked along the pier in San Francisco I thought about the Embarcadero. This freeway overpass was destroyed in the earthquake (1989). The whole pier area was a slum before the earthquake destroyed that freeway overpass. When the overpass came down businesses started moving into the area. Now it's a fun and beautiful high rent area with shops and restaurants. Who knew? Without the earthquake this area would probably still be a slum. School reform advocates like to pretend they have a corner on knowledge about the future. They don't know the future. They just want to make the future what they want it to be for all the rest of us. Like the earthquake, the future will happen as they talk and they won't know anything more about it than anyone else.

Louisiana had a hurricane. The hurricane destroyed most of the public schools in New Orleans so they were forced to go to a charter concept temporarily. When reconstruction took place, the parents, who realized their children were doing a whole lot better in the charter schools than they ever did in the public schools, demanded to keep the charter schools. Louisiana just passed a voucher program that gives all students access to private and charter education. Who could have predicted a hurricane and what it would bring? Will it take a natural disaster to provide REAL school reform in Montana?

Phyllis Schlaffley who has been in the culture wars since time began says that any time someone starts talking about school reform in public education what they really want to do is to change values. Phyllis is right. I have never seen such a shameless attempt to use children for political activism as I have seen since "Goals 2000" happened under the Clinton's in the 90's. I can't think of one lobby from arts to homosexuality which is not now represented in our schools. Children are collecting food for food share, wearing pink T- shirts, doing artists in residency, gardening (environmentalists don't like trucking in produce), advocating for their school endangered species, and learning about anal sex in 5th grade, and that's just a few examples. They are also being taught collectivist redistributive values instead of the
strong values of the rugged individual. Every lesson is supposed to encourage "collaboration", there is very little value put on, or encouragement for, independent work and thought.

The new Common Core Standards are supposed to have the answer to success in education for the WORLD. I have to wonder why the National Math and Science foundation is still doing research on how best to teach math- I thought David Coleman and his buddies already had all that figured out and that was why all the states are having to pony up billions and turn their schools and teachers inside out for this new miracle curriculum!! Do you think maybe David doesn't really have all the answers in this curriculum he turned out at warp speed for the Obama administration?

The Common Core people now have their super star advocates like Jeb Bush (they needed at least one Republican) and Exxon. Do you think these people know any more about education than Bill Gates who funded it? Of course they don't, none of them know education, and apparently they are too ignorant to realize they don't know what they're advocating for. The one worlders are no better than the socialists/liberals/progressives. They want centralized power. Jeb says each state can implement the Core Standards the way they want, but Jeb better catch up on his reading, Common Core is advertised to not only tell schools what to teach ,but how to teach it, and brags about every school in the country being exactly the same"every place in the world will be teaching the same things at the same time so students who move will not have to make any adjustments."!!!

Do you think centralized curriculums will work any better than centralized economies? NO!! Childhood goes by in a Nano second and our students don't have the time for all this nonsense. They're losing their education while these one worlders and socialists/liberals/ progressives work their politics. The best education will happen locally. Competition will allow parents to choose the best schools and eliminate those that don't work. America is the  shining example of how free markets are SO SUPERIOR, OBVIOUSLY!! Free markets will work in schools too. Maybe California and I have something in common, I'm just working to get some sunshine on the subject!