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July 27, 2006

Nah... Really?

From the Daily News article...

"Carla Kurachi and Greg Stratton were both elected to the Simi Valley Unified School District's Board of Education in 2002.

They supported a group of unsuccessful candidates in a bitter 2004 race and said in the past they were passed over in organizational meetings when the board president was selected. "

--end--

Was there retribution to be had for supporting us losing candidates and was Sandland's election to Board President a day of reckoning?

Why were the board members so upset - after all, they WON?

Was the election negative, or was there impression of it negative because the challengers were running on the board's record (in other words, negative)

What is your impression of the 2004 Simi school board election?

Would you support Measure C4 now and it's 13% inflation rate?

As for the challengers, where are they now? There are two open seats now.

Let's do on the blog what the board seems incapable of doing - talk about it. Let's confront the election now, discuss why Stratton & Kurachi ended up isolated.

Let's also discuss the great accomplishments of the sitting board since November 2004.

As "one of the unsuccessful candidates", I welcome the debate.

Posted by Tim Keaney at 08:44 AM

Comments (13)

Did your VC school apply?

And if not...why not?

From the Daily News:

Two Valley schools get anti-violence grants

Daily News
LA Daily News

Canoga Park High and Columbus Middle School were among 33 schools awarded a total of $16.1 million in state grants to help protect students from violence, officials said Wednesday.
The two Canoga Park campuses will receive nearly $500,000 each, as will Hoover and Crescenta Valley High schools in the Glendale Unified School District, Antelope Valley and Lancaster high schools; and Isbell Middle School in Santa Paula.

"It's prevention," said Ron Martinez, assistant principal at 1,900-student Canoga Park High. "I think when you look at what's going on around the city, it's a lot easier to work with kids and teach them how to be respectful and how to behave than to wait until something happens."

The competitive grants were funded with money appropriated in 2004 by Assembly Bill 825, which consolidated six school safety programs.

"To be able to focus on learning, students need to feel safe at school," state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said. "These grant funds will help our schools develop violence prevention programs so that students can get the most out of their education."

Posted by Tim Keaney at 08:42 AM

July 24, 2006

Can you name the source?

We hear it a lot - "Keep the seperation of Church & State". "Keep the bible OUT of the classroom" and "That's what Sunday school is for" - But can you name the source of the following statement?

"Much of the great literature studied today was written in times when the general population was expected to have a firm understanding of the Bible's teachings. Works such as Heart of Darkness, The Grapes of Wrath, Lord of the Flies, and To Kill A Mockingbird are all rife with biblical allusions -- and there are more than 1,300 documented references in Shakespeare alone. Yet, in the decades-long struggle over political correctness and church/state separation, the Bible has been shut out of the public classroom. This breeds a lack of biblical familiarity that can impede a thorough understanding of literature and history and can seriously limit a student's potential for success in high school English. We are raising a generation of students who have not been exposed to the academic value of the Bible and, as a result, are suffering in literature classes and on standardized exams.

Confusion over the constitutionality of teaching the Bible in public schools has scared teachers and lawmakers away from the subject. However, the same 1963 Supreme Court ruling that prevents public schools from requiring devotional use of the Bible also explicitly confirms that academic study of the Bible is indeed constitutional. The distinguishing factor is objectivity: Indoctrination is prohibited, but education ought to be encouraged. "

Is this statement from the neo-cons? Bush? Conservatives looking for prayer in schools or the 10 commandments on the school room wall?

Place your bets...

DLC | Model Initiatives | July 24, 2006
Bible Elective Course

That's right... The DEMOCRATIC Leadership Council....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Dem Play | An objective course studying the Bible's academic and historical influences.
Where It's Working | Over 350 school districts in 37 states
Players | State and local officials
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More Education Plays
Much of the great literature studied today was written in times when the general population was expected to have a firm understanding of the Bible's teachings. Works such as Heart of Darkness, The Grapes of Wrath, Lord of the Flies, and To Kill A Mockingbird are all rife with biblical allusions -- and there are more than 1,300 documented references in Shakespeare alone. Yet, in the decades-long struggle over political correctness and church/state separation, the Bible has been shut out of the public classroom. This breeds a lack of biblical familiarity that can impede a thorough understanding of literature and history and can seriously limit a student's potential for success in high school English. We are raising a generation of students who have not been exposed to the academic value of the Bible and, as a result, are suffering in literature classes and on standardized exams.

In two Southern states, Democratic legislators are promoting an idea that reconciles constitutional protections with the sound public aim of making sure school children understand this country's religious heritage.

"The history of our country was significantly influenced and intertwined with the Bible. Having a high-quality course enhances teaching and learning, especially the study of literature and history."
-- State Senator Kasim Reed, Georgia

Alabama House Majority Leader Ken Guin (supported by House Speaker Seth Hammett) and Georgia State Sen. Kasim Reed (in conjunction with fellow senators Tim Golden, Doug Stoner, and J.B. Powell) have sponsored legislation authorizing public high schools to teach an elective academic study of the Bible and its influence on art, literature, music, culture, and politics.

Guin and Reed proposed the use of a new text, The Bible and Its Influence, to give teachers and school districts clear guidelines for a nonsectarian, nonreligious academic examination of the Bible in literature, art, and history. The book, a product of the nonpartisan, ecumenical Bible Literacy Project, exposes students to many different interpretations of biblical passages and acknowledges both the positive and negative uses of the Bible throughout history. It is the result of a thorough and intense editing process, having filtered through the hands of 40 reviewers. This group of academics, teachers, and religious scholars worked with the clear goal of producing a strictly objective, educational, and nonreligious book. The text is designed specifically as a student guide and the primary goal of the course is described as "basic biblical literacy -- a grasp of the language, major narratives, symbols, and characters of the Bible."

Legislation authorizing academic study of the Bible in the public high school curriculum is both good policy and good politics. Such legislation will not only provide students with a distinct educational advantage, but will offer Democrats the opportunity to talk to voters about their faith and values.

Resources for Action

The Bible Literacy Project

Additional Reading

New Dems of the Week: Ken Guin & Kasim Reed

Democrats in 2 Southern States Push Bills on Bible Study
www.bibleliteracy.org/Site/News/bibl_news060127NYT.htm

Public schools looking at Bible literacy class
www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-01-24-bible-elective_x.htm

Contacts

Elizabeth Walker
Office of Representative Ken Guin
Alabama House of Representatives
PO Box 470
Carbon Hill, AL 35549
(334) 353-3090

Posted by Tim Keaney at 11:08 PM

Comments (4)

July 21, 2006

Roy works at the bad analogy department

With 17% reading at grade level, is it any wonder Roy can't come up with a better analogy. At the same time, Los Angeles parents must love that the heated debate is about insensitive racial remarks, instead of say, improving LA's schools.

Racial insensitivity = bad. Educational insensitivity = no problem!

Anyone want to help them re-arrange the deck chairs?

Read the story...

Mayor demands apology
Romer's comparison `insensitive'
BY NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN Staff Writer
LA Daily News

Superintendent Roy Romer's annual "State of the Schools" address erupted in controversy Thursday after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Japanese-American community leaders demanded an apology for what they claimed was a "racially insensitive" comment made during the speech.

During his second annual address, Romer blasted Villaraigosa for portraying the district as failing, comparing his comments to "propaganda spread by the U.S. government during World War II that resulted in the internment of more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans."

"In that period of time, we brainwashed the United States that those folks are unreliable and needed to be detained," said Romer, who grew up near an internment camp in Colorado. "I remember several mistruths being repeated and repeated."

During an afternoon news conference called in response to Romer's speech, Villaraigosa called Romer's internment comparison "outrageous" and he demanded that the superintendent retract the statement and apologize to Japanese-Americans.

And community leaders also demanded an apology during an afternoon news conference on the steps of the Japanese-American National Museum - an event organized by Nathan James, a spokesman for the mayor's school-takeover bid.

"I agree with him that there was a lot of propaganda and manipulation of information to get Japanese-Americans into the camps, but that was a civil rights thing," said Bill Watanabe, director of the Little Tokyo Service Center. "The debate about how the school district should be run - well, there's no comparison. The remark was racially insensitive."

Warren Furutani, a former school board member who now serves as a Los Angeles Community College District trustee, said the comment was "out of bounds" and "trivialized" the importance of that historical event.

Late in the day, Romer issued a statement in response to the community outcry, saying he'd used a life experience to illustrate how propaganda can harm people and society.

"As someone who grew up in an era where propaganda was used to damage communities, I continue to believe that the mayor's continued labeling of L.A. schools as failing is damaging to all the students, classroom teachers, parents and principals who are committed to improving the lives of children every day in our schools.

"In no way did I intend to offend anyone and if I did I apologize if the use of this example did so," his statement said.

The controversy over Romer's statements overshadowed his address, in which he vehemently defended the nation's second-largest school district and presented charts showing improvement in student achievement over the last six years - statistics that Villaraigosa disputed during his own news conference.

The rhetoric between Villaraigosa and Romer has escalated in recent weeks as the mayor aggressively pursues his campaign to exercise greater control of Los Angeles Unified.

After initially announcing he planned to take over Los Angeles Unified, Villaraigosa hammered out proposed legislation that would give him a more significant role in the public schools and grant local educators greater control over budget, instruction and curriculum at individual campuses.

The resulting measure, Assembly Bill 1381, is scheduled to be debated next month by the Legislature.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, who opposes the legislation, spoke at Romer's event, saying that Los Angeles Unified is on the right track, citing its $19.2 billion construction program and mandatory college preparatory classes.

"There's so much a city can do in terms of health care, safety, after-school programs," O'Connell said. "The district has taken some bold steps to improve student achievement. More needs to be done, but they're moving in the right direction."

But newly sworn in board member Monica Garcia, a Villaraigosa supporter, questioned Romer's claims of improved student performance, saying that black and Latino students are not getting the support they need.

She also said she was concerned that Romer refers to the large Latino and English-learner populations as the main sources of difficulty in improving performance.

"What we're saying with the charts is, `I'm less of a failure than other nearby districts, but I'm not necessarily good.' I salute and celebrate the progress, but I'm not satisfied with it," Garcia said.

City News Service contributed to this report.

Posted by Tim Keaney at 09:48 PM

Comments (4)

July 20, 2006

Universal preschool, well, uh, local - universal, Oh Nevermind!

I think the recent Reiner pre-school initiative failed for the following two reasons:

1. It was meant to provide free "universal" preschool for 70% of California kids (which isn't universal, it's 70%...up from 66% now, so less universal, let's call it "Galactic preschool")

2. I think most taxpayers realized that preschool, run through county school boards are preschools, with unionized instructors. What's next, Preschool PTA's?

I think California voters chose wisely (weren't these the same voters that overcame that nasty governor power grab? Sounds like a LOT of the same people that didn't like the guv's reforms didn't like Galactic Preschool either, but I digress)...

So what lesson did we learn?

HEY - WE NEED GALACTIC PRESCHOOL FOR 70% OF KIDS, and UNIONIZED INSTRUCTORS...

Don't believe me? Read the story below...

Do you think we need tax payer funded galactic preschool?

Did you vote for it?

Do you think Weis is on a fool's errand?

What happens to those "other" 30%? Do they go to black hole preschool?

I personally love the "no standardized tests" shot - Why do these folks hate Gray Davis so?

I'd welcome your comments on galactic preschool, and why the county schools office is hell-bent to make it happen - regardless of whether it meets their charter or not.

To print this page, select File then Print from your browser
URL: http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/news/article/0,1375,VCS_121_4858154,00.html
Universal preschool may occur locally
By Jean Cowden Moore, jcmoore@VenturaCountyStar.com
July 20, 2006

California voters may have turned down free preschool for all 4-year-olds earlier this year, but proponents are trying to keep the idea alive locally.

The key to offering universal preschool in this area will be funding, said Charles Weis, Ventura County superintendent of schools.

The latest state budget provides $100 million in additional preschool funding, which certainly will help, Weis said. But, if California is going to close its achievement gap, the state must invest in preschool for all children, regardless of their income level, he said.

"If the state doesn't figure this out, we in Ventura County need to figure out how to make it happen," Weis said.

Weis was one of five panelists who spoke Wednesday evening at a forum sponsored by KCLU. The forum will be broadcast on KCLU Tuesday at 2 p.m.

The other speakers were Carrie Murphy, Preschool For All coordinator for First Five of Ventura; Jennie Martinez, child development coordinator with the Santa Barbara School Districts; Michelle Robertson, preschool specialist with First Five of Santa Barbara County; and Rachel Champagne, program director for Child Development, Inc.

First Five uses funds from a tobacco tax to provide services, including preschool, for children up to 5 years old statewide.

All five panelists spoke of the need for universal preschool, saying it gives children the emotional, social and academic skills they need to succeed in kindergarten. In other words, children who go to preschool "know how to learn," the panelists said.

"The intent of preschool is to level the playing field," said Robertson, with First Five of Santa Barbara County. "If we don't level the playing field, the achievement gap gets wider and wider. After fourth grade, it's hard to catch up with your peers."

But if preschools are going to breach that gap, they need to offer high-quality programs, the panelists said. That's what differentiates preschool from child-care, they said.

"Quality is what matters with preschool," said Champagne, with Child Development, Inc., which receives state and private funding for its programs. "You need quality programming to see the effects."

One person in the audience asked about accountability — how preschools can show that they are providing a high-quality education.

They won't do it by giving children standardized tests, panelists said. Instead, teachers will produce reports on each child's progress, based on their observations.

Locally, two local pilot programs have gotten a start on offering universal preschool.

One of those programs is in the Hueneme Elementary District, where nearly three-fourth of students come from low-income families. That program hopes to provide free preschool to 70 percent of 4-year-olds within the next five years.

Santa Barbara also has a program that provides free preschool for all children living within the boundaries of one of its elementary schools.

Wednesday's forum was the third in a series that KCLU is sponsoring. The next forum, which will be on immigration, is set for Aug. 23 at 6 p.m. That forum will be at CLU's Oxnard graduate center, in the Palms Shopping Center, 2000 Outlet Center Drive, Suite 150.

Posted by Tim Keaney at 11:21 PM

Comments (3)

July 19, 2006

How do you spell double-standard?

N-E-A...

From the USA Today:

Report: NEA pays opponents of No Child Left Behind law
Posted 7/10/2006 10:16 PM ET
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
The nation's largest teachers union has spent more than $8 million in a stealth campaign against President Bush's education reform law, paying for research and political opposition in an effort to derail it, according to a Washington think tank that supports the law.
A report to be released today by the group Education Sector says the National Education Association (NEA) has given at least $8.1 million to education, civil rights and policy groups that have opposed or criticized No Child Left Behind, Bush's far-reaching and controversial effort to reform public schools.

The law's critics cried foul in 2005, when documents revealed that the Bush administration paid TV and radio commentator Armstrong Williams $240,000 to promote it on his syndicated programs. The revelations led to a government-wide inquiry.

For the new report, Education Sector senior fellow Joe Williams examined federal tax forms filed by the NEA. He does not charge that the union broke or evaded the law. But "at the very least, it appears the NEA has actively pursued partnerships" with groups fighting the law, he says.

The donations "are not necessarily a quid pro quo," but they are "a connection worth knowing," says Williams, a former education writer for the New York Daily News.

During the union's annual meeting last week, NEA president Reg Weaver noted, "We have all kinds of organizations that want this law changed."

But Williams says the NEA has quietly supported several of these groups, bolstering the impression "that its positions have widespread support."

Weaver says that the NEA supports the law's goals but that it "is fundamentally flawed and changes need to be made. And nobody is more qualified to lead that effort than the people who are in the education front lines every day."

He says 86 groups have joined him to call for changes; though the union "might identify specific research questions we would like to see answered," there is "absolutely no quid pro quo" in the work it finances, he says.

Public support for the law is mixed. An independent survey released last month by the non-profit group Public Agenda found that 15% of teachers and 24% of parents say it is improving local education. Another 21% of parents say it is causing problems, but 55% say they don't know enough about it to judge its effects.

The union sued the federal government last year, saying states and school districts can't be forced to make changes not paid for by Congress. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in December.

Joe Williams examined U.S. Labor Department LM-2 forms, which unions had to begin filing last year, and found that the NEA spent about $7.65 million supporting a start-up lobbying group called Communities for Quality Education, which has been critical of the law. The NEA also has funded, to a much lesser extent, other groups critical of the law, including the National Conference of Black Mayors, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Harvard Civil Rights Project.

Gary Orfield, the Civil Rights Project's director, says he got support from "a number of funders," none of which tried to control his work, he says. "The test of research is not whether or not it is funded by someone, but whether it is true and the evidence supports the conclusions."

Posted by Tim Keaney at 12:20 PM

Comments (5)

July 18, 2006

Kurachi & Stratton

Are stepping down - will not seek re-election. What are your thoughts on what they accomplished, what their legacy is and who will come next?

As you know, I have never thought the board worked well together, but it's interesting to hear it confirmed by the departing trustees... And what do you make of Trustee Sandland thinking everything is fine?

SVUSD has a lot of work to do to compete... Is it now going to get better, or much worse?

read the article:

Simi school board to lose 2 members
Pair decline to seek re-election

By Jake Finch, Correspondent
July 18, 2006

A former mayor and a longtime school board member said Monday that they won't run for re-election to the Simi Valley Unified School District board in November.

Former mayor Greg Stratton said personal issues influenced his decision to step down at the end of his first four-year term on the board.

Carla Kurachi, who has spent 16 years on the board, said personal issues and frustrations with the five-member board affected her decision.

Monday was the first day that board hopefuls could pick up applications to become candidates, and no one did, according to Maurice McTeague in the superintendent's office. The deadline for filing papers is Aug. 11 unless one of the two incumbents doesn't file. In that case, the deadline will be extended to Aug. 16.

Kurachi's last two years on the board were shadowed by personal tragedies.

Two years ago, her son, Scott, was almost killed in a skateboarding accident and spent many months recovering from severe head trauma.

In October, her husband, Roger, 55, died from a heart attack.

Kurachi said her time on the board was made more difficult by in-fighting among the board members and political retribution she said was aimed at her.

"It was payback politics," said Kurachi, who traces the start of the problems to 2004, when she didn't endorse incumbent Debbie Sandland in a contentious election that had nine candidates competing for three seats.

"Right now, I have to heal my heart; I have to heal my spirit. There's a lot of things I don't have control over, but I have the control not to be around mean-spirited people," Kurachi said.

Sandland, who is board president, said she was saddened by Kurachi's decision. Sandland said she felt that the board members worked well together and accomplished many projects.

"I'm sorry she feels that frustration," Sandland said. "As far as functioning as a board, I think we've done well."

Board member Janice DiFatta said she would not comment on how the board functioned but hoped whoever joins the board would be open to learning about the district and serving the students.

"We are dealing with an entity that needs to be understood before you come in and imagine any change. That's No. 1," DiFatta said. "I hope the motive is pure, in that the interest and intent is to make the best decisions to serve the young people in this community."

Over the past couple of years, the district had a number of high points, including having several campuses named California Distinguished Schools, rising test scores, renovations at the campuses funded by a $145 million bond, successful energy conservation efforts, and receiving huge community donations in cash and computers at the schools.

However, at times, Kurachi and Stratton tried to discuss some issues only to be out-voted or have the issues tabled, or they waited with frustration at never seeing the issues on upcoming agendas as requested.

Issues included boardmanship, how the board members work with one another, Stratton said.

"The board, they are just like everything's nice and wonderful and just keep going," Stratton said. "The world doesn't work that way. Things change. You have to start getting involved. It's very hard to get discussions going."

While Kurachi concedes that her frustration has spurred her decision not to run, Stratton says the opposite. If it weren't that he promised his wife that he'd retire and they could travel more, he'd stay to see some of his concerns addressed.

---end---

Posted by Tim Keaney at 09:46 AM

Comments (16)

July 17, 2006

Profiles - PART II

What do you make of Greg Stratton outting the SVUSD on state standards? Why is Greg speaking out, particularly in an election year, when the filing date is today?

What do you make of the SVUSD not following state standards (that Grey Davis AND Pete Wilson agree upon?)... Is SVUSD shortchanging kids?

And why is Greg alone in his comments? If you were running for the school board in the fall, how much of this would be an issue for you?

Greg's second editorial is below -

District ignores the state standards
By Greg Stratton
July 17, 2006

Re: letters to the editor in response to my June 22 commentary, "School district fails its students":

I confess. I am a scientist — bachelor's in physics from UCLA. Forty years in the technology business — my navigation units have guided NASA space probes — so I believe that science is important.

But I also understand that other teachers may think their field is important, too, and want to teach it to as many students as possible, just as the three middle-school teachers obviously do. They have every right to argue that their class is more important than science — or math or English or history. But this isn't about their beliefs or even mine. It's about the kids and what's best for them.

The Simi Valley Unified School District apparently bucked the educational tide and decided that only a semester of eighth-grade science was required. I guess it had forgotten the lesson of Sputnik and didn't believe that science was the key to our future. The "win-win" agreement was a loser for the kids.

But others in the state did think science was important. In 1998, the state Board of Education issued a comprehensive set of science standards that require a full year of science class to learn. We have ignored those standards and not changed our requirements, as most other districts have. Now, they are going to test our students to the standards. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict how our students will do. If we told parents that their students were going to be tested based on standards for a full year of science, we'd see far more yearlong science students.

Yes, the kids' choices will be impacted. I suspect that they wouldn't all take history, math and English if they were given that choice either. Our educational system is designed to prepare our children for the life ahead of them. So maybe science isn't as much fun as some of the electives, but it is very necessary and now required. This change is not a matter of "if" but a matter of "when." While we lament over these new standards and stall their implementation, more kids are not getting the education that the state says is mandatory.

That's a shame.

When I was first elected, I wondered why the state has such an intense oversight and distrust of school districts. I've learned that it's because districts don't always do what is right for the kids. This is just another example of the state making a district do what is right. We should have been doing the right thing in the first place.

— Greg Stratton is a trustee on the Simi Valley Unified School District.

Posted by Tim Keaney at 12:14 PM

July 14, 2006

Budgetary Bullying

Bullies are NOT allowed on the palyground, but they are still allowed to introduce legislation in the California Legislature...

Sen. Martha Escutia, a Whittier Democrat who chairs the Legislature's Latino Caucus and proposed SB 1769, said Wednesday that she was not surprised by the board's vote to oppose it.

"The board has never been very supportive of English language learners," she said. "They have not done anything that's practical, makes sense, is flexible and is aimed at benefiting English language learners."

Backstory - Escutia and fellow democrats stripped funding for the State Board or Education staff from the recent budget in retaliation for not getting their way in introducing new instructional material (p.s. Isn't that the educator's job, lot the State Senate?)... But I digress...

Read the full story by clicking below...

Basically, our friend Martha says what instructional materials to use, or we kill your funding...the moral equivalent of "give me your lunch money or I beat you up"

Nice....

Embattled California board of education names president
All Other News | National News | News
By JIM SANDERS
The California Board of Education took steps Wednesday to maintain business as usual in the wake of a political snub in which Democrats stripped its funding from the state's new budget.

The dispute stems from differing views over how best to educate students from immigrant families who are not proficient in English.

Kenneth Noonan, superintendent of the Oceanside Unified School District, was elected unanimously to serve as president of the 11-member state board, which helps set education policy.

Noonan replaces Glee Johnson, who abruptly quit the board on June 30, the same day that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a budget that did not include any money for the board's staff.

The board also opted Wednesday to continue an informal financial arrangement designed to provide breathing room for Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders to resolve the funding dispute.

Temporarily, the state Department of Education and the Governor's Office will split the tab for board staff, with the department bankrolling its three civil servants and the Governor's Office paying for Executive Director Roger Magyar and his management team.

Magyar said the total tab would be roughly $95,000 to $105,000 if the dispute was not resolved until Aug. 31, the last day of the legislative session.

The Board of Education also voted 6-2, with two abstentions, to oppose Senate Bill 1769, which would have restored the panel's lost $1.6 million in funding but forced the board to accept proposed instructional materials for English language learners.

In April, the board had rejected those instructional materials, angering the Legislature's Latino Caucus. Democrats responded by stripping the board's funding from the budget bill.

Sen. Martha Escutia, a Whittier Democrat who chairs the Legislature's Latino Caucus and proposed SB 1769, said Wednesday that she was not surprised by the board's vote to oppose it.

Posted by Tim Keaney at 02:54 PM

July 12, 2006

There they go again...

Wading into an area that has questionable value to improving teacher pay, working conditions and improving the education of millions of youth, here comes the NEA on Gay Marriage.

Many (like me) laugh at congress when it wrestles with Gay Marriage, Flag Burning and online gambling when we have a war going on, but I think the NEA deserves a "DOH" from everyone on this one. With schools having a hard time preparing youth to compete in the global economy, is Gay Marriage really the issue to hang your hat on?

---article---

US National Education Association to Endorse Same-Sex ‘Marriage’
NEA president calls pro-marriage, pro-family groups ‘divisive’

By Gudrun Schultz

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 11, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The U.S. National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers’ union, has voted strongly in favour of supporting legal homosexual “marriages” and civil unions, AgapePress reported last week.

NEA delegates approved a resolution that would amend Section B-10 of the NEA handbook, “Racism, Sexism, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification Discrimination” to explicitly include homosexual “marriage”, where the union statement of belief declares that discrimination based on “race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identification…must be eliminated.”

The amendment reads:

“The Association also believes that these factors should not affect the legal rights and obligations of the partners in a legally-recognized domestic partnership, civil union, or marriage in regard to matters involving the other partner, such as medical decisions, taxes, inheritance, adoption, and immigration.”

The original amendment, proposed by the union’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus, called for the union’s endorsement of homosexual “marriages”, civil unions and homosexual adoptions in all 50 states, regardless of the states’ current laws. That amendment was changed to specify the union’s endorsement of homosexual “marriages” and civil unions only in states where such unions are legally recognized.

The NEA Resolutions Committee crafted the changes after the original amendment generated a massive protest from concerned individuals, led by the American Family Association.

In response to the protests, NEA President Reg Weaver wrote to state affiliate leaders: “While I understand that the e-mails and phone calls you are receiving are generating concern, we must not allow the tactics and manipulations of these divisive groups to derail our process.”

The union is also pushing for the mandatory inclusion of homosexual, bisexual and transgender issues in required content for teacher accreditation. The Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification issued a report stating, “that the NEA advocate for the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues in the ‘National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education’ review of the teacher education program, reported AgapePress.

The NEA anti-discrimination policy calls for programs to “encourage all members of the educational community to examine assumptions and prejudices, including…racism, sexism and homophobia.”

The union also voted to alter the wording of NEA policy statements, adopting the word “acceptance” in place of the word “tolerance.”

To contact the NEA and express concerns:

1201 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036-3290

Phone: 202-833-4000

---interesting that I couldn't find the story on the NEA web site...---

Posted by Tim Keaney at 09:39 AM

Comments (5)

July 05, 2006

Double Dog Dare for Jesus!

I don't often blog about constitutional law, but I got dared to write about this one by a co-blogger, so here we are.

So read the story and let me know what you think...

A picture of Jesus, hanging in a school hallway. Does this promote Christianity? Does it promote religion? I say, if it was Michaelangelo's "The Last Supper" would it promoting religion? Fine dining? The Davinci Code?

Let's all remember - before we start bloviating, what the first amendment actually says

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

So by posting the art work of Jesus in the hallway, is Congress (were they aware?) making a law establishing a religion, or is this simply the free exercise thereof?

The said picture has been hanging in the same spot for 30 years.

I welcome the debate -

Posted by Tim Keaney at 08:51 PM

Comments (11)

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