Muda69

Must We Fight over What Children Will Learn?: https://www.cato.org/blog/must-we-fight-over-what-children-will-learn What caused this misery? The public schools, the very institutions that “father of the common school” Horace Mann said would create harmony, fostering “a general acquaintanceship…between the children of the same neighborhood….[Where] the affinities of a common nature should unite them together so as to give the advantages of pre‐occupancy and a stable possession of fraternal feelings….” Specifically at issue was the teaching of the development of life on Earth, a topic that inescapably implicates deep‐seated religious beliefs, and that for many requires either that only creationism or evolution be taught. As ABC News explained, “The argument in Dover is of a special kind, where to let the other side win a little is to lose your own cause entirely.” Public schooling — in which diverse people are required to pay for a single system of government‐run schools — inherently sets up such “special” conflicts. When two things cannot be simultaneously taught as true, or different values dictate different polices, one side must win, and the other lose. Alas, such conflicts, while not always as destructive as Dover’s, are not particularly rare. In 2005 — the same year as the Dover battle — Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom began collecting examples of conflicts like Dover’s, pitting diverse values, or other intensely personal matters such as racial identity or culture, against each other. The intent was to illustrate that assuming public schooling will create harmony is dangerous, even if it is widely accepted. Indeed, it makes little logical sense: as we’ve learned from history, people do not happily sacrifice the things that make them who they are. The end product of that initial collection was the report “Why We Fight: How Public Schools Cause Social Conflict.” Later, as we continued to collect conflicts, we decided to put our growing database on the Web, in searchable map form, so that wonks, reporters, and members of the public could see the kinds of very personal battles being fought in public schools, and get a sense that neither side is absolutely “right” nor “wrong,” but all are following their beliefs about what is right. We also wanted people in districts experiencing conflicts, and reporters covering them, to be able to locate places that may have suffered similar conflicts, and perhaps learn how they were ameliorated. Unfortunately, about nine months ago the application we had been using to generate Cato’s Public Schooling Battle Map was phased out, and ever since we have been working to replace it. But today, in the midst of National School Choice Week, we are ecstatic to report that the new Map is up and running! It is not perfect — we will be adding more features soon — but it is working once again. The Map contains 2,267 conflicts in thousands of districts and every state. Often the battles are centered at the state level, where everything from sex education standards to history curricula may be determined, meaning no one in the state can escape the conflict. And while the districts on the Map represent only around 9 percent of all districts, they contain roughly 44 percent of the country’s total student population. This is likely a function of our primary information source being media reports, and media tending to be concentrated in places with more people. There are also doubtless some people unhappy with school policies or curricula who do not formally complain, or if they do no reporter hears about it. The Map, then, is at best a baseline of conflicts, not a comprehensive view. What does this have to do with school choice? Choice is fundamentally different from public schooling; its basic structure is far more conducive to peace and equality. Rather than forcing diverse families and communities to control a single system to get what they want taught, choice enables everyone to seek out what they need and desire. Rather than forcing everyone into a political arena, it lets them peacefully coexist. Hopefully the Map will reach many eyes, and help people realize that one side winning and the other losing, or maybe both having to sacrifice cherished parts of themselves, should not be the only possible outcomes when people disagree. Especially, we hope that reporters will use the Map, and write more articles like the too‐rare ABC News piece with which this post started. Articles that focus not just on the two sides, like reporting on a boxing match, but that delve into the nature and underlying causes of the conflict. Maybe even articles that turn a spotlight directly on the zero‐sum nature of public schooling. Because there is a more equal, more peaceful, way to structure an education system: school choice.

And you expect such a "tax the rich" scheme to actually pay for all these huge government entitlements? Good luck with that. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/02/26/698057356/if-a-wealth-tax-is-such-a-good-idea-why-did-europe-kill-theirs

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/15/723518379/u-s-births-fell-to-a-32-year-low-in-2018-cdc-says-birthrate-is-at-record-level The uni-party has to look at this trend with dismay. Without more happy little worker drones to fund their increasingly larger tax-and-spend schemes like Medicare For All, Free College Education, Endless Wars in the Middle East, etc. what are they going to do? "Tax the rich" even more?

Discrediting Bolton Won’t Be Easy for Team Trump: https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/trump-impeachment-trial-john-bolton-not-easy-to-discredit/ On one side I want this Senate Trial to be over, on the other side it would be interesting to hear what Mr. Bolton has to say under oath.

Go Cardinals! Chirp! Chirp!

Don’t Let Utopian Public Schooling Rhetoric Block School Choice: https://www.cato.org/blog/dont-let-utopian-public-schooling-rhetoric-block-school-choice Public schools were not forging unified, enlightened citizens, as was the goal, but were largely just a mundane part of life. Which would be fine, except that taxpayer support of uniform public schooling is compelled on the grounds that it is so much more than what it actually is — it is essential for “democracy,” right? — and in that privileged position it has often been worse than just ineffectual at its professed purpose. It has imposed or reinforced inequality and injustice. I won’t go over all the injustice in detail — you can see where I’ve discussed it in more depth—but remember that for much of its history public schooling often discriminated against minority religions, most notably Roman Catholics. It often either completely barred or segregated African Americans—not just in the South—and in some places Mexican and Asian Americans. It attacked the culturally unifying language of German immigrant communities. It now systematically treats religious Americans as second‐class citizens. And it forces people with different values, cultures, and identities to fight to see which “equal” people win, and which lose. School choice is fundamentally different from this. Based not on rhetoric about creating social and personal perfection, but on the reality of diverse human beings and communities, choice enables families to pursue the education that they want, that respects their cherished values and cultures, and that removes the threat that those with the most political power will impose their idea of “the good” on everyone. No doubt believers in public schooling such as Neem are guided by good intentions — they truly seek the ideal of unity and enlightenment for all — but too often, especially if they oppose school choice, they may let their ideals overtake their understanding of reality. And sometimes, it may lead them to forget that liberty is the country’s truly bedrock value.

Presidential Candidates Promise Freebies for Everyone Politicians win, taxpayers lose. : https://reason.com/2020/01/29/presidential-candidates-promise-freebies-for-everyone/ And what is sad is the taxpayers who vote for a uni-party candidate. They are as short-sighted as the candidates themselves, enamored with what kind of "free" stuff they can get from the federal government. They are perfectly willing to sacrifice the future American, the country of their children and grandchildren. Pitiful.

https://www.bestplaces.net/docs/studies/hurricane_hotspots.aspx http://www.hurricanecity.com/city/fortmyers.htm Again, no thanks. But to each his own.

Former Tri-West football coach charged with child seduction, obstruction: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2020/01/29/former-tri-west-football-coach-charged-seduction-obstruction/4607128002/

Yeah, looks great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbCzoUTvAWg

I'll take tornadoes over rain deluges and storm surges.

https://reason.com/2020/01/28/1619-project-new-york-times-public-schools/ May be interesting how this plays out. Any Indiana government schools districts planning on using this material?

1. Hurricanes. No thank you.

https://www.jconline.com/story/news/2020/01/28/frankfort-mayor-chris-mcbarnes-stepping-down-moving-wyoming/4597775002/ Well, well. This was a surprise, only about 3 months after winning an unprecedented (for Frankfort) third term as Mayor. Expect some good political fallout and conspiracy theories over this one. Mr. McBarnes and the city council have saddled the city with all kinds of debt, guess he is the first to literally get out of Dodge. Not the mention the frankly asinine and IMHO should-be-illegal method of choosing a new Mayor, this time for an almost full term. There should be another election..................

You are welcome. Care to tell us about your storied local political career as a member of the uni-party?

Yale Will Eliminate a Beloved Introductory Art Class for Being Too White, Male, and Western: https://reason.com/2020/01/27/yale-university-art-department-western-white-male-problematic/ Poor little sheltered snowflakes may feel uncomfortable by an art class. Pitiful.

Be careful using the word 'any' IO: https://www.lp.org/elected-officials Now are these mostly small town, local, political arenas? Of course they are. But a movement has to start somewhere, and after all government is more effective the more local it is.

A couple have been in business, and growing, for 30+ years now. So I guess it has worked.

The Libertarian political party, of which I am not a member, is not part of the uni-party.

Yes, but I know of a number of large manufacturing facilities here in Indiana that run their operations, from factory floor to the administrative areas, on Windows servers.

So Seattle doesn't have a government school system?

https://reason.com/2020/01/28/why-alaskans-cant-get-alaskan-natural-gas/ Yet another example on why the insidious Jones Act needs to be repealed.

Seattle's School System Wants to Dismantle Its Gifted Programs. This Is Why School Choice Matters.: https://reason.com/2020/01/27/seattles-school-system-wants-to-dismantle-its-gifted-programs-this-is-why-school-choice-matters/ Only 1.6 percent of program's participants are African-American. But for these parents, that's a reason expand it, not end it. One parent told Herzog that Juneau hasn't talked to minority parents who have kids in the program to get their feedback. They don't seem to care about how minority students who do participate in the program have benefited. Instead, School Board Director Chandra Hampson claimed that these parents were being "tokenized" and used by white people to maintain the program. Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat is baffled by those at the school district who want to eliminate a successful program rather than trying to expand its reach. One school administrator told a parent that the program is "manufactured brilliance" that leads to "opportunity hoarding" by the privileged. Westneat has been seeing the term tossed around a lot lately, and he thinks it leads to a very ugly place: It should be horrifying to any parent that there are people out there who think educational equality means not just improving opportunities for those who are struggling but purposefully impeding opportunities for those the district deems too far ahead. And this isn't just happening in Seattle. Reason's Matt Welch has written about a similar fight in New York City. When I was in middle school, we read Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron," a science fiction story about a future that achieved equality by handicapping those who were more talented than others. How else could we describe dismantling an education program entirely because it helps high-achieving students? Parent Chun Ng tells Westneat the likely outcome if the program disappears: And that, ultimately, is why school choice matters. Parents should be able to respond to Juneau's blunt dismissal of their children's needs by taking their business elsewhere.

My definition of 'Uni-Party' has not wavered. It is the Democratic Party and the Republican party. The only real difference between the two anymore is exactly who's money they want to steal in order to fund an over sized, bloated federal government. Just two sides of the same corrupt coin.