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School Choice is Good For America; round 3


Muda69

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22 minutes ago, DanteEstonia said:

Here’s an example from my own life: I’ve worked as a Homebound teacher, and one of my students had autism and a history of violent outbursts.

So government schools are the only option for those kind of students?  I find that hard to believe.

 

 

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13 hours ago, Muda69 said:

So government schools are the only option for those kind of students?  I find that hard to believe.

 

 

Only certain government schools are the only option. Not all government schools will take them either. They have to be bussed to the schools that accept them.

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10 hours ago, gonzoron said:

Only certain government schools are the only option. Not all government schools will take them either. They have to be bussed to the schools that accept them.

Well, there ought to be a law forcing them to take this child, right?

 

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2 hours ago, Muda69 said:

Do you think there should be?

I don't care one way or the other.

 

2 hours ago, Muda69 said:

Just mimicking the big government, socialist stances you have taken in the past on this forum.

Oh. I thought you were just flip flopping again like you have done consistently in the past on this forum.

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On 11/10/2019 at 8:54 AM, gonzoron said:

Oh. I thought you were just flip flopping again like you have done consistently in the past on this forum.

Links please.  My consistent principles are maximum personal freedom and minimal government.   What are yours?

 

 

Edited by Muda69
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Lafayette joins 75 other districts out Nov. 19, as teachers take off for 'Red for Ed' rally at Statehouse: https://www.jconline.com/story/news/2019/11/11/lsc-cancels-school-nov-19-130-teachers-plan-go-red-ed-rally-statehouse/2562848001/

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Lafayette School Corp. will cancel class for all schools Nov. 19, joining more than 70 other districts across the state, as more than 130 teachers from the district requested personal days to attend the statewide "Red for Ed" rally in Indianapolis, LSC Superintendent Les Huddle confirmed Monday. 

LSC will make up the day at the end of the school year, according to Huddle. Oakland Elementary and Oakland High School will make up the day on the first Monday of their spring break, which is March 23. Lafayette teachers will be joining teachers from across the state, many of whom are coming from a growing list of districts that will be closed because of the number of teachers rallying at the Statehouse.

....

So families that have already scheduled plans for 2020 Spring Bring have to now modify those plans, possibly costing them $.   Nice. 

If yesterday's weather was any predictor when we do get into the actual winter season look for most government school corporations to burn through their built in snow days pretty quick. So those 'snow make up days' will have to be used,  therefore the end result of this ISTA political stunt will be reduced summer vacation for thousands of Indiana children.

 

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11 hours ago, Muda69 said:

Lafayette joins 75 other districts out Nov. 19, as teachers take off for 'Red for Ed' rally at Statehouse: https://www.jconline.com/story/news/2019/11/11/lsc-cancels-school-nov-19-130-teachers-plan-go-red-ed-rally-statehouse/2562848001/

So families that have already scheduled plans for 2020 Spring Bring have to now modify those plans, possibly costing them $.   Nice. 

If yesterday's weather was any predictor when we do get into the actual winter season look for most government school corporations to burn through their built in snow days pretty quick. So those 'snow make up days' will have to be used,  therefore the end result of this ISTA political stunt will be reduced summer vacation for thousands of Indiana children.

 

Oh look everyone....the MASTER of jumping to conclusions fails to actually check facts....go figure. lol

 

F59AEC29-D017-49CC-A8F1-4E45AA7B411F.jpeg

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11 hours ago, Irishman said:

Oh look everyone....the MASTER of jumping to conclusions fails to actually check facts....go figure. lol

 

F59AEC29-D017-49CC-A8F1-4E45AA7B411F.jpeg

Again, a "make up" day that was probably originally built into the school schedule for weather purposes.  My statement still stands.  And sorry I don't use twitter.

 

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This Ohio Bill Gives Students Religious Exemptions for Facts: https://gizmodo.com/this-ohio-bill-gives-students-religious-exemptions-for-1839878738

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This week part of Ohio’s state legislature decided students have a right to be wrong when it comes to their religion; screw whatever those nutty scientists say!

On Wednesday the Ohio House of Representatives passed the “Student Religious Liberties Act,” a law prohibiting students from being penalized when their work is scientifically incorrect so long as they attribute it to their religious beliefs, a local news outlet reported. Rather than using silly metrics based on logic and demonstrable facts, teachers should instead grade students on “ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance” in these cases according to the bill. It doesn’t elaborate on how to parse that brazenly doublespeak decree.

The bill now moves on to the state’s Republican-controlled Senate for the final OK.

With this legislation, any religious content a student includes in their homework or other assignments can’t be considered incorrect regardless of whatever that content may contradict. So, for instance, if a test asks what started World War II, and a student claims it was the flying spaghetti monster—as, after all, this invisible cosmic being has used its noodly appendages to orchestrate mankind’s history behind the scenes since it created the life, the universe, and everything—then they legally can’t be marked wrong.

Or if, say, you were part of a religion I just founded after hearing this news that believes all written numbers are demonic iconography that summons tiny gremlins who will stop at nothing to burrow into your eyeholes, countermand your brain, and force you to reenact viral TikToks in perpetuity, then I guess sorry Miss Sanders but Timmy can’t do his math homework. Ever.

Also, Fridays are a no-go too. They’re a holy day, after all, celebrating the birth of our Lord, Savior, and ultimate global executioner a la Godzilla-style carnage and mayhem: Mark Zuckerberg.

Yet another example of why government, and the fickle politics that come with it, should get out of the K-12 educations business entirely.   This is shameful legislation.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thankful for More Educational Freedom (Hopefully) On Its Way: https://www.cato.org/blog/thankful-more-educational-freedom-hopefully-its-way

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If you know your United States history, you know that the Pilgrims came to North America seeking to practice their religion free from the constraints of the Church of England. If you know your U.S. history well, you know that what many call the beginning of public schooling was the Massachusetts Bay colony’s law of 1647 requiring towns to supply some form of education, lest children fall victim to “that old deluder, Satan.” And if you know your history really well, you know that as public schooling developed it was repeatedly beset by religious conflicts, first as the schools were de facto Protestant, then as they became de facto agnostic.

What am I thankful for this Thanksgiving? That we may be on the verge of tearing down barriers to people directing education funds to schools sharing their religious values, barriers that do not just hurt religious families, but by forcing all to support one system of schools also keep non-religious families from getting what they want. Where religious people are sufficiently numerous, they can sometimes create de facto religious public schools, and where they are not sufficiently numerous to exert outright control educators will often avoid things that upset them.

The barriers I’m speaking of are “Blaine Amendments,” named after 19th century U.S. Senator James G. Blaine but found in 37 state constitutions. They are being challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. The case involves a scholarship tax credit program that was struck down by Montana’s supreme court because it would have allowed scholarships to be used at religious schools. Oral arguments are scheduled for January 22, 2020.

These amendments, originally created to keep money in de facto Protestant public schools and out of Catholic institutions, are often interpreted to mean that no government money may go to religious schools even if directed by the free choice of parents. Basically—and as these Cato amicus briefs lay out in greater depth—they force religious people to pay for government schools that legally cannot teach religious beliefs as true, or make policies based on religious convictions. Indeed, the schools often teach things and institute policies that contradict people’s religious beliefs. That violates religious freedom and renders religious people unequal under the law.

The prospects for these amendments being struck down, or at least sufficiently curbed that people can get tax credits for funding religious school scholarships, are good. From Zelman v. Simmons Harris, in which the U.S. Supreme Court established that parents can take state vouchers to religious schools without violating the U.S. Constitution, to the Trinity Lutheran decision that states cannot bar institutions from participating in funding programs simply because they are religious, precedent is on freedom’s side.

For this we should all be thankful. Because more freedom is what America is supposed to be about.

 

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3 minutes ago, Irishman said:

Yeah, the kind of freedom special needs kids had at Roncalli, right? 

Wow, Irishman.  Can't believe you stooped so low as to go there.  It appears you are saying that that tragedy couldn't possibly happen at a traditional government school like Carmel, Penn, or New Haven, right?

 

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Just now, Muda69 said:

Wow, Irishman.  Can't believe you stooped so low as to go there.  It appears you are saying that that tragedy couldn't possibly happen at a traditional government school like Carmel, Penn, or New Haven, right?

 

Not saying that all.....you know what would NOT happen in those buildings though? They would not cover it up. Not stooping low at all, just showing the hypocrisy in your thinking. 

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1 minute ago, Irishman said:

Not saying that all.....you know what would NOT happen in those buildings though? They would not cover it up. Not stooping low at all, just showing the hypocrisy in your thinking. 

That is a bald-face lie and you know it.  

Just one example:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steubenville_High_School_rape_case

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The nature of the case led to accusations that coaches and school officials knew about the rape and failed to report it. For example, several texts entered into evidence during the trial implied that Steubenville head coach Reno Saccoccia was trying to cover for the players, which led to nationwide outrage after he received a new contract as the district's administrative services director.[34] In response, shortly after the sentences were handed down Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced he would empanel a special grand jury to determine whether other crimes were committed—specifically, whether coaches and other school officials failed to report the rape even though Ohio law makes them mandated reporters.

The panel began meeting in April 2013. On October 8, 2013, the grand jury returned the first indictment of an adult in the case. William Rhinaman, the IT director for Steubenville City Schools, was charged with one count each of tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice, obstruction of a public official and grand jury perjury.[35] According to the indictment, Rhinaman hindered the investigation by various means as late as the week before the indictment was handed down. He was also accused of lying to the grand jury when he testified before it on April 8.[36] In February 2015, Rhinaman, under a deal reached with prosecutors, pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing official business. He was sentenced to 90 days of jail. 80 days of his 90-day sentence were suspended provided he completes one year of community control.[37]

On November 25, 2013, DeWine announced a second round of indictments. Another alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl came to light when a girl came forward after the August rape. No charges have ever been filed in that case,[38] or only after students discussed it.[39][40][41] The highest-profile indictment was that of Steubenville City Schools superintendent Michael McVey, who was charged with obstructing justice, tampering with evidence, obstructing official business and falsification. It was later revealed that the charges against McVey were not related to the August rape. In 2015, McVey agreed in exchange for not facing charges to resign from his post, never seek employment in Steubenville education again and avoid contact with anyone involved in the investigation or case.[42] In August 2015, McVey was hired by the Switzerland of Ohio Local School District as an elementary school principal, sparking outrage from many.[43] Three other adults were also indicted. An elementary school principal and a strength coach were charged with failing to report possible child abuse. Charges against the principal were unrelated to the August rape case and were dismissed before the case went to trial.[44] A former volunteer coach faces several misdemeanor charges, including making false statements and contributing to underage alcohol consumption.[45] Other school employees were reinstated after an investigation into the indictments.[46]

Oh, here is another:

https://deadspin.com/indiana-high-school-basketball-players-indicted-for-haz-5542160

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Four former members of Carmel High's varsity basketball team were indicted by a grand jury and will face misdemeanor battery charges for two incidents in which they hazed and/or sodomized school mates. This is definitely going in their permanent files.

 

It took four months and 57 grand jury witnesses, but investigators finally think they've figured out what happened in the back of a school bus on January 22, when a freshman manager was allegedly assaulted by two of the players. "Rudely" assaulted, that is. Oh, and January 8 when that same kid and another student were attacked in a locker room. The four seniors—who also posed for this unfortunate photo—have already been kicked off the team and will face various charges for their roles.

Meanwhile, four coaches who basically looked the other way and allowed this happen have all resigned. They won't face charges, even though it's pretty clear that they share some of the blame here. (Three of them were actually on the bus when one of the attacks happened.) The four defendants—one of whom has a dad who played for Bob Knight at IU—have supposedly hired a kickass defense attorney, so who knows if they'll actually be convicted of anything.

....

 

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I won’t make any excuses for them as there are non. BUT......you had to go back to 2010 and 2012 for examples. The fact is that DCS gets well over 200 calls every school year from public schools. So you site two examples....and yeah, I am sure there are more. But this is 2019. You are trying to promote educational freedom, and the world around the young man I mentioned has been turned on its head in a school setting you promote repeatedly on this thread. 

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7 minutes ago, Irishman said:

I won’t make any excuses for them as there are non. BUT......you had to go back to 2010 and 2012 for examples. The fact is that DCS gets well over 200 calls every school year from public schools. So you site two examples....and yeah, I am sure there are more. But this is 2019. You are trying to promote educational freedom, and the world around the young man I mentioned has been turned on its head in a school setting you promote repeatedly on this thread. 

Your attempts at some kind of argument that private and charter schools are hotbeds of evil behavior that is automatically covered up by administrators while traditional government schools (since 2012 I guess) are paragons or virtue, truth, and transparency is specious at best. 

 

And some more info on heinous behavior and purported cover ups:

https://www.boston.com/news/national-news/2017/05/01/ap-uncovers-17000-reports-of-sexual-assaults-at-schools-across-us

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BRUNSWICK, Maine (AP) — Chaz Wing was 12 when they came after him. The classmates who tormented him were children, too, entering the age of pimples and cracking voices.

Eventually, he swore under oath, the boys raped him and left him bleeding, the culmination of a year of harassment. Though Chaz repeatedly told teachers and administrators about insults and physical attacks, he didn’t report being sexually assaulted until a year later, launching a long legal fight over whether his school had done enough to protect him.

Chaz’s saga is more than a tale of escalating bullying. Across the U.S., thousands of students have been sexually assaulted, by other students, in high schools, junior highs and even elementary schools — a hidden horror educators have long been warned not to ignore.

Relying on state education records, supplemented by federal crime data, a yearlong investigation by The Associated Press uncovered roughly 17,000 official reports of sex assaults by students over a four-year period, from fall 2011 to spring 2015.

Though that figure represents the most complete tally yet of sexual assaults among the nation’s 50 million K-12 students, it does not fully capture the problem because such attacks are greatly under-reported, some states don’t track them and those that do vary widely in how they classify and catalog sexual violence. A number of academic estimates range sharply higher.

“Schools are required to keep students safe,” said Charol Shakeshaft, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor who specializes in school sexual misconduct. “It is part of their mission. It is part of their legal responsibility. It isn’t happening. Why don’t we know more about it, and why isn’t it being stopped?”

Elementary and secondary schools have no national requirement to track or disclose sexual violence, and they feel tremendous pressure to hide it. Even under varying state laws, acknowledging an incident can trigger liabilities and requirements to act.

And when schools don’t act — or when their efforts to root out abuse are ineffectual — justice is not served.

This, Chaz Wing said in his lawsuit against the Brunswick school district, is precisely what happened to him.

Though both sides contest whether any rapes occurred, the AP found that school administrators allowed Chaz’s bullying to escalate and then failed to adequately investigate his allegations of sexual abuse.

From almost his first day at Brunswick Junior High, Chaz said kids harassed him, taunted him about his weight and subjected him to ordeals like a “gay test.” Complaining to teachers and administrators didn’t help, he said. He slid into depression and refused to go to school.

Then one day in 2012, his mom came home and found him curled up in her bed, rocking back and forth. She begged him to tell her what was wrong. Slowly, his words came out.

“They hurt me,” he cried.

He said he’d been raped. Three times.

Chaz told police, child-abuse investigators and lawyers under oath that he kept quiet about the assaults for nearly a year because of threats against him and his family if he talked.

..

Also 

http://freebrunswick.blogspot.com/2018/03/no-apologies-from-brunswicks-chief.html?m=1

 

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As evidenced by the AP article, it appears a clear case where child-abuse experts and examiners' conclusions went ignored. The AP article and Mark Waltz's statement indicates the school resource officer as investigator - did investigation include Mark Waltz's evaluation, a long-time, experienced BPD sexual assault investigator? Why would a school principal's conclusions carry more weight given he had no experience investigating sexual assaults? And since bullying is known sometimes as a precursor to sexual assault, why was the possibility ignored and then downplayed? BPD's Chief Rizzo, ultimately in charge, pursued no charges; did he and all officers involved also fail to provide reporting to the State's DHS of at least reasonable suspicion of sexual assault of a minor which occurred three times at the school? Lastly, one cannot help but also wonder if kidnapping charges were even considered given Chaz Wing's accounts in the same AP article.

 

 

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On 11/27/2019 at 8:09 AM, Muda69 said:

Wow, Irishman.  Can't believe you stooped so low as to go there.  It appears you are saying that that tragedy couldn't possibly happen at a traditional government school like Carmel, Penn, or New Haven, right?

 

https://m.lasvegassun.com/news/2015/may/22/agassi-prep-teacher-fired-faces-sex-assault-charge/

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  • 3 weeks later...

Double Jeopardy for School Choice: https://reason.com/2019/12/17/double-jeopardy-for-school-choice/

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In Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Cleveland, Ohio's school choice program against the charge that it was unconstitutional to provide tuition aid to parents who opted to send their children to religiously affiliated magnet schools. So long as "a government aid program is neutral with respect to religion, and provides assistance directly to a broad class of citizens who, in turn, direct government aid to religious schools wholly as a result of their own genuine and independent private choice," the Court said, the program passes constitutional muster.

The Supreme Court is now weighing the constitutional merits of another school choice initiative. At issue in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue is a 2015 scholarship program created by the Treasure State's legislature "to provide parental and student choice in education." The program operates by creating a tax credit for individuals and businesses that donate to private, nonprofit scholarship organizations, which then use such donations to fund educational scholarships. Families who qualify for the scholarships may use the money to help send their children to a "qualified education provider," a category which includes religiously affiliated K–12 private schools.

In 2018, however, the Montana Supreme Court declared religious schools entirely off-limits for the program, pointing to a provision of the Montana Constitution that prohibits the use of public funds "for any sectarian purpose or to aid any church, school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled in whole or in part by any church, sect, or denomination."

In effect, the ruling said, the Montana Constitution prohibits the very sort of school choice programs that the U.S. Supreme Court has previously upheld under the federal Constitution. "We conclude that Montana's Constitution more broadly prohibits 'any' state aid to sectarian schools and draws a 'more stringent line than that drawn' by its [federal] counterpart," the state court declared.

Assuming the Supreme Court justices follow their own precedents, Espinoza looks to be a winner for the school choice side. The Montana scholarship program seems to easily satisfy the test of constitutionality set out in Simmons-Harris and related cases, and the Supreme Court is unlikely to let a state court chart its own path in opposition to the federal jurisprudence that's in place for the rest of the country. It is one thing, after all, to let the states operate as "laboratories of democracy" and something else to let the Constitution effectively mean two different things in two different places.

It will be interesting to see what the SCOTUS decides in this case.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Government Standards Are Making 5-Year-Olds and Kindergarten Teachers Miserable: https://reason.com/2019/12/27/kindergarten-test-standards-reading-math-teachers/

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Increased academic pressure and testing in kindergarten is bringing everyone to tears—including the teachers.

When Dr. Peter Gray wrote a piece for his Psychology Today blog about kindergarten teachers in Brookline, Massachusetts, protesting dwindling recess time and mandated 90-minute reading and writing blocks, he received a virtual cubby full of comments from kindergarten teachers across the country at just about the end of their jump rope.

"I had to retire in 2017 because I could not take the pressure of having to force my 5- and 6-year-old students to sit with books…no talking allowed," wrote one. "I taught for 18 years and in the last three years…I heard students cry, talk about how they didn't understand, say they hated reading time."

Gray is a professor of psychology at Boston College and a co-founder, along with me, of Let Grow, a nonprofit promoting childhood independence. He writes often about how kids need to play—that this is how they learn how to get along, be creative, make things happen, and grow up. Playtime isn't wasted time: It's intensely educational, just not in a standardized test kind of way. When administrators replace play with academics, the gains are short-lived, but the damage is not.

The teachers writing Gray were in heated agreement—and despair. He curated about a dozen comments, which could almost be used to illustrate Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's five stages of grief.

"I have taught kindergarten for nearly 40 years," wrote one. "Common Core expectations for kindergarten seem to have trickled down from the top, and the people who wrote it thought that they could legislate quicker child development."

Another teacher wrote that she was appalled to hear these words coming out of her own mouth: "'We do NOT play in kindergarten. Do not do that again!' (to a student building a very cool 3D scorpion with the math blocks instead of completing his assigned task to practice addition.)"

Despite the requirements and testing, "I foolishly thought I could sneak art and play in, but I was wrong," wrote another disillusioned educator. "The Curriculum Cops showed up in the class I was doing my student teaching in, and that was the beginning of the end for me. Now I just sub and sneak in fun for the kids whenever I can."

The problem is that kindergarten has been dumbed up to first grade. That is, the kids are being taught a curriculum once reserved for older kids. This isn't making them smarter. It's just making them more miserable. You too would be ready to throw in the towel (and perhaps a couple of stuffed animals), if you were being prepped with materials like this teacher describes: "Last week I gave my 5-year-olds a reading assessment that required them to infer the meaning of 'bifocals' after hearing a 5-paragraph story about Ben Franklin (the story had no pictures). This is the kind of madness that permeates curriculum design for kindergarten. I'm retiring earlier than I had planned because I just can't be a part of this any longer."

The teachers can quit. The students have a 12-year-stretch ahead of them.

Yet another reason to get government out the education business, and let parents choose.

 

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