Muda69

How To Succeed In School Without Really Trying: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/how-to-succeed-in-school-without-really-trying-baltimore/ Read it all. You can say that Tiffany France ought to have been more on top of things with her kid’s grades, but she’s right to say that if the school was passing him, there is a basic trust that every parent has to have in their children’s school — and this school violated it. This is how the school advertises itself on its website: Of course, the Augusta Fells Savage Institute lied. If this kid was near the top half of his class with an 0.13 GPA, think about those lower! Does any learning happen in this school? Clearly not, but I bet Woke Inc. can explain why. It’s probably on account of racism! Maybe the Augusta Fells Savage Institute leaders need to rebrand themselves as at the forefront of woke pedagogy. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in collaboration with a number of California educational institutions, have produced Equitable Math, a guide to teach “anti-racist mathematics.” In what ways does mathematics instruction uphold white supremacy? Well, check out the guide: Perhaps Tiffany France’s ire at her son’s school is misdirected. Perhaps the school was practicing antiracism by not holding him to perfection on his classroom attendance, and his classwork. Sarcasm over. The thing is, sensible middle class parents of all races are not going to subject their kids to this kind of garbage pedagogy. They are going to move to school districts where their kids are taught actual math, or put them in private school. It’s going to be the children of the poor, especially the racial minority poor, who suffer the most.

Public Schools Refuse to Open. Give the Taxpayers Their Money Back https://mises.org/wire/public-schools-refuse-open-give-taxpayers-their-money-back The schools’ administrators do not know of a single case of anyone being hospitalized as a result of transmission through these schools. This is a fairly common experience for Catholic schools. In the archdiocese of Denver, schools were “100 percent open” beginning last fall, and Defenders of the public schools’ lackluster efforts have attempted to explain all this away by claiming private schools are all the well-heeled domain of the wealthy. Many articles point to the tuition rates of boutique schools, like the Germantown Friends school in Pennsylvania, which charges more than $40,000 per year. This, however, is an outlier. Many private schools charge far less than that. Yes, some Catholic schools—which are 37 percent of all private schools and comprise the largest nonpublic school system in America—are indeed expensive boutique schools run by “private orders.” But most Catholic schools are run-of-the-mill archdiocesan schools that charge under $9,000 per year for high schooling, and even less for elementary school. That may seem like a lot, but it’s well below what many public schools spend on educating each student. Moreover, anyone who is familiar with urban Catholic school knows that these schools hardly cater to the wealthy elites. This is largely because of extensive scholarship programs for lower-income families. These hapless parents who have been driven to private schooling by the public schools’ Covid shutdowns have to pay twice—once for the public schooling that’s been reduced to Zoom meetings, and once for the actual schooling taking place at private schools. What If We Ran Grocery Stores like Public Schools? The private sector could never get away with this. Just imagine, for example, if grocery stores functioned this way and that grocery stores were government-owned institutions. Funding would come from tax revenues and funding levels would be calculated on the assumption that at least 90 percent of consumers would obtain all their groceries through these stores.1 Taxpayers would be charged accordingly. Just as state governments now spend 20 to 40 percent of state budgets on public schools, state governments would budget a sizable portion of the budget to “grocery finance.” Naturally, taxes would be much higher than they are now. Moreover, since taxes would be much higher—and posttax income much lower—countless Americans would indeed shop at these government stores. They would likely do so even if the quality of the food were lower. "Hey, I already paid for it," the thinking would go, "so I might as well shop there." We’d be told these government grocery stores are indispensable. How could the poor buy groceries otherwise? Of course, your shopping list would have to meet the approval of grocery planners so as to fit within the budget. Don't like the menu that the grocers have selected for you? Tough luck. Moreover, given the enthusiasm with which public school staff and officials have abandoned their usual work in the face of Covid, it's easy to imagine a scenario in which government grocery services are even more limited in case of a public health scare. Admittedly, like the schools, these grocery stores would probably not end all their services. They’d likely still allow some limited shopping. No nonemployees would be allowed to enter the stores. As with schoolteachers, these public sector grocery workers would insist that the grocery stores function under numerous restrictions, perhaps with fewer business hours, and even long weekend closures to allow for extensive cleaning. And why not? The staffers and managers will get paid no matter what. Yes, there would be some private sector grocery stores for those insist on shopping in person or "after hours." If you want to shop for groceries elsewhere, you’ll just have to pay twice: once for the government stores, and a second time for your “private” groceries. Grocery Vouchers, a.k.a. “Food Stamps” Obviously, if presented with the option of a world of fully government-owned grocery stores, many Americans would consider such a thing to be madness. And rightly so. Moreover, even when confronted with the question of whether or not low-income people can afford groceries, few advocate for a government takeover of grocery stores. Instead, the taxpayers tolerate funding a system of monthly grocery vouchers for households below a certain income level. These vouchers are commonly called “food stamps.” Now, many people may take exception to food stamps as a boondoggle. But it’s also hard to deny that if voters and politicians are going to insist that low-income consumers be subsidized, this grocery voucher system is orders of magnitude better than an extensive system of government-owned grocery stores. Yet why do so many Americans think a system of government-owned schools makes sense? If the same commonsense thinking that prevents a government takeover of grocery stores were applied to schools, the situation would look very different. Schools would virtually all be private institutions. If a parent doesn’t want to “shop” at a particular school or school district by enrolling his child there, the parent need not spend any money there. Of course, politicians and many voters would insist that something be done to subsidize education for low-income residents. With this, the less bad strategy is the grocery model: provide the educational version of food stamps for students. These funds aren't tied to any institution or any government districts. They go where the consumers go. Meanwhile, so long as public schools continue to receive direct funding from government coffers—with no economic connection to consumer choice—the public schools won't have to care what the public wants or needs.

Remove the Fences Surrounding the Capitol and Send the National Guard Home Now https://reason.com/2021/03/04/capitol-building-riot-national-guard-fences-remove/

Yep, and this is information a great many unions would like to keep as close to their chest a possible. Yet another reason to get rid of public sector unions entirely.

Do you find purpose in your work, Dante?

Why would a "master contract" for a labor union contain language bestowing certain extra benefits for non-members of that union? Make zero sense.

Depends on how you define "work" and "people".

Every Worker Is an Essential Worker https://reason.com/2021/03/03/every-worker-is-an-essential-worker-covid-19/ Here! Here!

Remember when the Left was against burying books for ideological reasons?: https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/dr-seuss-gets-blindsided-by-a-moral-minority/ This statement from the excellent opinion pieced couldn't be more true: "The Left today obsessively focuses on race with the purpose of apportioning good things according to the accident of skin color rather than the content of people’s character." Yet isn't this pretty much the exact opposite of those like MLK preached?

Young Carmel sisters spotted outdated 'men at work' sign. So they did something about it. https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2021/03/03/carmel-sisters-men-at-work-construction-signs-change-wording/6868371002/ Disheartening, but not surprised, to see young people so programmed. Such signs do not "communicate the false and unacceptable message". Only those looking to be outraged would come to such a conclusion. Pure woke PC drivel.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/last-exit-to-mulberry-street/ Brilliant.

Will The Courts Once Again Take Up The Issue of Mandatory Vaccination?: https://www.cato.org/blog/will-courts-once-again-take-issue-mandatory-vaccination On the other hand, people cannot be forced to associate with someone they consider—rightly or wrongly—to be a threat to their health. And employers cannot be forced to employ people they consider a threat to the health of their customers, clients, other employees, or themselves. Advocates of mandatory vaccination often point to the landmark 1905 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Jacobson v Massachusetts to claim that states may mandate vaccination. Actually, the decision was more nuanced. The Court upheld the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s finding that the state did not have the power to vaccinate by force a person that “deem[s] it important that vaccination should not be performed in his case.” However, the state could require the person to pay a nominal fine, which it did not consider a violation of that person’s “fundamental right.” In that case, in which the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts instituted compulsory smallpox vaccination, Henning Jacobson, after losing in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. He ultimately paid a fine but did not get vaccinated. While I have been very impressed with the efficacy and safety of the new COVID-19 vaccines and encourage people to get vaccinated as quickly as possible, I respect the right of individuals to refuse vaccination along with the right of others to refuse to associate with unvaccinated individuals. It will be interesting to see how this case plays out. Indeed it will.

Dr. Seuss Is Canceled https://reason.com/2021/03/02/dr-seuss-canceled-books-biden-library/ Agreed. I'll be looking for copies of these books at used bookstores and the like, and will delight in sharing them with my grandchildren some day.

https://reason.com/2021/03/02/paul-krugman-thinks-youll-be-happier-with-fewer-choices-nonsense/ Frankly Mr. Krugman is insane, and believes more government is the solution to practically everything.

Thank you. Doing the percentage calculation for Frankfort High school using the data from that spreadsheet matches the 68% now listed as "Economically Disadvantaged" on the FHS inview.doe.in.gov website. Why the DOE switched to using a more PC nomenclature instead of just "Free/Reduced Meals" is interesting:

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2021/03/02/indiana-state-get-rid-greg-lansing-have-sycamores-lost-their-mind/6886494002/ Note: URL is behind a paywall I sure hope common sense prevails in the ISU athletic and administration offices, and Mr. Lansing is retrained. Not renewing his contract would be a huge blow to the program.

https://babylonbee.com/news/we-found-17-different-instances-of-racism-on-just-one-page-of-a-dr-seuss-book/

To me this new "woke" ideology in regards to hiring practices is a form of cancel culture: Blacklists In The Woke Workplace: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/blacklists-woke-workplace-national-association-of-realtors/ Here we see an example of the pre-totalitarian valuing of loyalty — in this case, to diversity ideology — over competence. In Live Not By Lies, I quote Arendt thus: This university — trust me, if you’re an engineering student, you’d be honored to have this school on your CV — was so excited about this man’s application that it reached out to him. But when he did not say the correct woke things in the interview, which interrogated him about his supposed racism, that was the end of that. This is the new America. This is soft totalitarianism. He’s not being thrown into prison by the secret police, but he’s not able to get a job in his field, despite his qualifications, because the institution judges him to be ideologically unsound. This particular university is a public one. You think he’s not going to face the same at other universities, both public and private? And most liberals support this stuff, and except for a brave few, those who don’t are too intimidated to speak out against it. Here’s another one. The letter is too detailed for me to reprint it here, even with redactions. To summarize, the author is a practicing conservative Protestant who is in leadership at his Midwestern church. He also is a Realtor by trade. A week ago, the broker/owner of his office called to ask his opinion about starting a new Multiple Listing Service in their local area. Why? The National Association of Realtors has a new ethics code that punishes Realtors for any hate speech or discrimination, not only on the job, but 24 hours, seven days a week. Well, the author of the letter attends a church that publicly dissents from the pro-LGBT line the NAR demands. The guy’s boss is trying to help him out, but it’s going to be hard, maybe impossible. And if the Realtor is not a member of the National Association of Realtors, it dramatically affects his ability to do his job. The Realtor does not see how he can both affirm the NAR Code Of Ethics and his Church’s constitution, which he has also sworn to uphold. Here is a churchgoing man who might have to surrender his livelihood rather than affirm what he believes is a lie. And why? It’s one thing for the NAR to hold its agents to a certain standard in the workplace, but by what right do they have the right to tell those agents what they can do and say in the privacy of their own homes, and in their churches on Sunday morning? Law professor Eugene Volokh says: Yeah, they’re McCarthyites, but they’re McCarthyites for the Left, so it’s okay by our media. /sarc It is incredible to me that this hasn’t raised the roof nationwide. We know what kind of people want to manage your every thought: totalitarians. The fact that this totalitarian prospect of the company owning your soul has not prompted an outcry tells you how far gone we are down a bad road we already are. A group of conservative, religious Realtors better lawyer up and sue. You’ll recall the point I made about Amazon’s recent decision to start cancelling books it finds politically problematic (like Ryan T. Anderson’s book critical of gender ideology): that the real threat here is not just to Anderson’s ability to sell books, but, given Amazon’s massive power in book retailing, the threat is to the ability of any books on that one’s theme being published. Amazon cancelled Anderson’s, but has not (yet) cancelled a similar one by Abigail Shrier. Why not? Who knows? The thing is, shoot one author, teach a hundred publishers. How likely are you, as a publisher, to consider now publishing a book critical of gender ideology? Sure, Abigail Shrier has sold a massive number of them, so it would appear that there is a market for them. And she hasn’t been cancelled yet. But now that we know that Amazon will cancel these kinds of books, no matter how professionally written, and it will do so without feeling the obligation to alert publishers and writers, and without feeling required to offer an explanation. Therefore, it’s a real risk for a publisher to take a chance on a book that might out of nowhere be yanked from the shelves of America’s largest bookseller by far. If Amazon won’t sell it, it won’t likely be printed. Given that, given what the NAR is doing, and given what universities are doing, it is long past time for conservatives to settle for a laissez-faire attitude towards running businesses, at least businesses of a certain size. Take universities out of it for a second. Both Amazon and the NAR are private organizations that have the right to govern themselves. A government powerful enough to tell Amazon that it must sell a certain title is powerful enough to tell a Christian bookseller that he has to sell The Satanic Bible. Technically, you don’t have to be a member of the NAR to sell real estate, but practically you do. In both cases, real life doesn’t match real-world power. Why not let’s start unions? you might say. OK, but notice that the Newspaper Guild didn’t do Donald McNeil Jr. much good when he got on the wrong side of the Woke at The New York Times. If we don’t get some major reforms in labor law, this woke blacklist is going to find its expression across institutions. Unless you are running a religious, political, or in some other sense an institution driven by a specific mission, why should you enjoy broad rights to hire or fire people based on their willingness to affirm an ethics creed that has little to nothing to do with their ability to do their jobs? Again: why the totalitarian urge? Why on earth does the National Association of Realtors care if on Sunday morning, one of its members gives a church school lesson on what the Bible has to say about human sexuality, and expresses Wrong Thoughts™? Next time, I want to see the Republican Party led by somebody who doesn’t just tweet and give incendiary speeches, but who also has the focus, competence, and determination to use state power to protect people like the church elder who only wants to make a living doing what he’s always done: sell houses.

But you don't even see that data on the IDOE's website anymore, do you?

*sigh* Sonny, you need to go back and read what you previously typed.

But aren't you in effect wanting scabs to automatically be including in labor contracts, based on your previous comments that all employees should be in a union? No, just calling it as I read it.

From your unabashed love of public sector teacher's unions and overall disdain for non-government education.

Do you really believe a HS football coach would instruct player A to drop a pass on purpose or ask player B to purposefully miss a tackle?

Yep, classic misdirection tactic.