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Posts Tagged ‘Education’

Well, the 100 first days of HopeandChange are behind us. Every day that went by felt like a first date, we did not know what to expect and we were not sure if we wanted another one.

I found this great post by kathcetera at http://www.usnews.com/blogs/god-and-country/2009/4/29/gallup-poll-obama-closes-god-gap-further.html  that will help remind us of those first “enchanting” 100 days.

1. Calling for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act on the White House website.

 

2. Listing on the White House website a call for an expansion of the definition of federal hate crimes to include homosexual behavior.

 

3. Calling on the White House website for policies like the “Fairness Doctrine” that could silence conservative and Christian talk radio.

 

4. Repealing limitations on taxpayer-funding of human embryonic stem cell research.

 

5. Repealing limitations on taxpayer-funding of abortions overseas.

 

6. Pledging $50 million to the United Nation’s Population Fund, which supports China’s draconian one-child policy.

 

7. Proposing new rules to gut conscience clause protections for pro-life doctors and other medical personnel who don’t want to be forced to perform abortions or other procedures that violate their values.

 

8. Proposing increased funding for the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood.

 

9. Calling on the White House website for “a goal that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year,” (mandatory volunteerism).

 

10. Inviting homosexual families to the White House Easter Egg Roll.

 

11. Allowing his attorney general to call for the reinstatement of Clinton-era restrictions on the Second Amendment.

 

12. Breaking his promise not to appoint lobbyists to his administration. He hired 17 in his first two weeks.

 

13. Breaking his promise to sign legislation only after a five-day period of public comments.

 

14. Asking that the monogram for Jesus Christ be covered up during a televised speech at a Catholic university in which Obama quotes the Sermon on the Mount.

 

Undermining Our National Security

 

15. Apologizing for America in Europe and Latin America.

 

16. Bowing before the Muslim king of Saudi Arabia.

 

17. Pledging to base America’s foreign policy toward Iran on “mutual respect” in a video to the Iranian people and Iran’s Holocaust-denying dictator.

 

18. Returning the bust of Winston Churchill given to George Bush after 9/11 by our British allies.

 

19. Giving British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the leader of America’s most loyal ally, a box of DVDs that don’t work in British DVD players.

 

20. Ordering Guantanamo Bay closed without any idea of where to send the terrorist suspects held there.

 

21. Suggesting that some of those terrorists now at GITMO may kill again, but may also be released onto U.S. soil and set up with welfare benefits.

 

22. Caving to communist Cuba by relaxing travel restrictions and remittances for Cuban Americans before any Cuban political prisoners have been released.

 

23. Shaking hands with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

 

24. Sitting silently though a 50-minute anti-American diatribe by Nicaragua’s communist president, Daniel Ortega.

 

25. Releasing Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the suspected mastermind the 2000 suicide bombing of the U.S.S. Cole.

 

26. Releasing classified CIA memos outlining our interrogation techniques.

 

27. Telling our CIA agents not to be discouraged when he acknowledges their “mistakes.”

 

28. Declaring a new openness to “truth commissions” and prosecuting intelligence officials involved in enhanced interrogations of terrorists.

 

29. Proposing to send a $900 million foreign aid package to Palestinians in Gaza.

 

30. Asking Congress to relax the law so that some of that money could go to the terrorist organization Hamas.

 

31. Calling for the U.S. to eliminate its nuclear weapons.

 

32. Telling Russian President Demitri Medvedev that America’s commitment to missile defense is negotiable.

 

33. Dropping the term “enemy combatants” for GITMO detainees.

 

34. Dropping the term “terrorism” for “man-made disaster.”

 

35. Dropping the term “Global War on Terror” for “overseas contingency operations.”

 

36. Giving his first interview as president to the Arab language network Al-Arabiya.

 

37. Telling the Muslim world that his “job” was to communicate “that the Americans are not your enemy,” when it’s Muslim extremists who have declared war on us.

 

38. Proposing that military veterans use private insurance for the cost of a service-related injury before they would be eligible for coverage through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

 

Undermining Free Enterprise

 

39. Signing the trillion-dollar plus so-called “stimulus” bill, which the Congressional Budget Office said would actually hurt long-term economic growth.

 

40. Saying Caterpillar wouldn’t lay off workers if his trillion-dollar stimulus bill passed Congress. Obama signed the bill on Feb. 17th. On March 17th, Caterpillar laid off nearly 2,500 workers.

 

41. Hosting a “Fiscal Responsibility Summit” one week after signing the trillion-dollar “stimulus” bill.

 

42. Railing against “outrageous recklessness and greed” of AIG bonuses that were legally protected in the so-called “stimulus” bill he signed four days after it passed, not five as he promised.

 

43. Breaking his promise on earmark reform by signing the $410 billion “omnibus” spending bill with billions in earmarks.

 

44. Proposing a $3.6 trillion budget that doubles the national debt in five years and triples it in ten years.

 

45. Proposing a “carbon cap and trade” scheme that will raise energy taxes by hundreds of billions, even trillions, of dollars.

 

46. Burning more than 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to fly to Iowa for Earth Day to promote “wind power.”

 

47. Proposing $634 billion in higher taxes for socialized health care.

 

48. Proposing to raise taxes on small business owners.

 

49. Saying the White House is open to the idea of taxing employer-sponsored health care benefits as income.

 

50. Signing a massive expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, calling it “a down payment on my commitment to cover every single American.”

 

51. Establishing the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research to give bureaucrats the power to ration health care and tell your doctors what care you can and cannot have.

 

52. Signing the 2009 Omnibus Public Land Management Act, which the Sierra Club praised specifically because it “will safeguard millions of acres … from oil and gas leasing.”

 

53. Suggesting he has found $1.5 trillion in bogus “savings” by not spending money in Iraq that we were not planning to spend years from now.

 

54. Ordering his Cabinet to “cut” $100 million in spending in 90 days, after proposing nearly $5 trillion in spending in his first 90 days.

 

55. Proposing to limit tax deductions for home mortgage interest.

 

56. Proposing to limit tax deductions for charitable donations.

 

57. Refusing to allow banks to repay TARP money.

 

58. Bailing out AMTRAK with a 10% increase in its taxpayer subsidies.

 

59. Bailing out the United Auto Workers Union with billions of taxpayer dollars to GM and Chrysler.

 

60. Bailing out the United Auto Workers by giving it a majority ownership stake in Chrysler. Yes, the union will own the company.

 

61. Bailing out Big Labor by issuing an executive order mandating that infrastructure projects paid for with “stimulus” funds must use union labor, guaranteeing higher costs for the taxpayer.

 

62. Bailing out Big Labor again by repealing regulations requiring the disclosure of how union dues are spent. So much for “transparency.”

 

63. Saying, “The United States government has no interest in running GM,” then vowing that the government will back auto warranties.

 

64. Saying, “The United States government has no interest in running GM,” then firing the CEO of General Motors.

 

65. Allowing states to set their own fuel efficiency and emissions standards, making it harder for struggling auto makers to compete.

 

Personnel Is Policy

 

66. Nominating Timothy “The Turbo Tax Evader” Geithner as Treasury Secretary to oversee the IRS.

 

67. Nominating as attorney general Eric Holder, who urged Bill Clinton to pardon tax evader Marc Rich and 8 FALN terrorists.

 

68. Nominating David Ogden, a prominent attorney for the pornography industry, to be Deputy Attorney General.

 

69. Nominating Tom Daschle, who owed more than $140,000 in back taxes, as Health and Human Services Secretary.

 

70. Nominating Kathleen Sebelius, who is ardently pro-abortion and owed $8,000 in back taxes, to be HHS Secretary.

 

71. Nominating Janet Napolitano, who said, “crossing the border is not a crime per se,” as Homeland Security Secretary.

 

72. Nominating Steven Chu as Energy Secretary. Last September, Chu said, “Somehow, we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” which at that time were roughly $8.00 a gallon.

 

73. Nominating Ron Kirk, who owed more than $6,000 in back taxes, as Trade Representative.

 

74. Nominating Bill Richardson, who was embroiled in an ethics scandal, as Secretary of Commerce.

 

75. Nominating Nancy Killefer, who also owed back taxes, to be the government’s “Efficiency Czar.”

 

76. Nominating Rosa Brooks, a leftwing acolyte of George Soros, as an advisor to the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.

 

77. Nominating Harold Koh, an ardent supporter of using international law in the interpretation of our Constitution, to be the top legal advisor to the State Department.

 

78. Nominating Carol Browner, who was a member of the Socialist International, to be “Climate and Energy Czar.”

 

79. Nominating John Holdren, an environmental extremist and advocate of population control, as the White House Science Advisor.

 

80. Nominating Dawn Johnsen, who is so pro-abortion she once compared pregnancy to slavery, to direct the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department.

 

81. Nominating Charles Freeman, an anti-Israel, pro-Arab apologist, to be head of the National Intelligence Council.

 

82. Nominating Tony West, who represented American Taliban John Walker Lindh and exposed the Bush Administration’s terrorist surveillance program, to the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

 

83. Nominating Annette Nazareth to be Deputy Treasury Secretary, who withdrew after a month-long probe into her taxes.

 

84. Trying to nominate pro-abortion Catholics to be ambassador to the Vatican, a move even John Kerry opposed.

 

85. Appointing Ellen Moran of the pro-abortion group Emily’s List as his White House communications director.

 

86. Appointing Melody Barnes, a board member of Emily’s List and Planned Parenthood, as his director of the Domestic Policy Council.

 

87. Appointing Harry Knox of the Human Rights Campaign (the largest homosexual rights lobbying group) to the White House’s Faith Based Advisory Council.

 

88. Appointing Adolfo Carrion as Director of White House Office of Urban Affairs, even though he is under investigation for kickbacks in a scandal nearly identical to one that cost GOP Senator Ted Stevens his election.

 

89. Nominating David Hamilton as his first appointment to a federal appeals court. Judge Hamilton has issued a number of controversial rulings, including prohibiting the Indiana House of Representatives from opening sessions with prayers in the name of Jesus.

 

Other Obama Outrages

 

90. Telling congressional Republicans to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh.

 

91. Coordinating attacks on Rush Limbaugh, Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer out of the White House.

 

92. Hosting weekly parties at the White House, serving up $100-a-pound Waygu beef during what Obama called, “the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.”

 

93. Laughing it up on 60 Minutes as the country is mired in a recession.

 

94. Allowing Air Force One to buzz the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan, creating panic in New York City.

 

95. Disparaging Special Olympians on the Tonight Show.

 

96. Allowing his Department of Homeland Security to issue a report accusing pro-life, smaller government conservatives and returning Iraq/Afghanistan veterans of being “rightwing extremists.”

 

97. Promising to push for comprehensive immigration reform, i.e., amnesty.

 

98. Killing the school voucher program in the District of Columbia, while sending his two daughters to an elite private school, rather than D.C.’s public schools.

 

99. Moving the Census out of the Department of Commerce and into the White House.

 

100. Relying too much on his teleprompter.

I know you can not judge the direction of a Presidency by the first 100 days of its administration. But by the actions taken in the first 100 days, you can tell what principals it will apply through out the remainder of its adminstration.  And right now, I don’t like what I see.

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Candidate Barack Hussein Obama seems to find his future policies in the past. Unfortunately, the policies he advocates have already been proven to be failures. He recently advocated that the National Defense Education Act of 1958, where Eisenhower doubled the federal funding for education, should be the model used to address our current problems in education. The NDEA was meant to improve achievement in the field of math and science, in order to compete with the Soviet Union. But as the chart below shows, the NDEA was an absolute failure in improving math scores.

Math Scores, National Norm PSAT Studies
(11th graders), 1955 to 1983

  national norm studies '55 to '83

I would not consider it an improvement if the results never reach pre-NDEA levels. And here are the long term effects of the program according to tests given by the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

NAEP Long-Term Trends Results
(17-year-olds), 1969–70 to 2003–04

NAEP long term trends

Why focus on the facts? As long as it sounds good, it should be good. Right?

CATO: http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2008/09/09/obama-touts-failed-federal-program/

~ Chuck

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So the liberals are calling for Universal Pre-K. But recent studies have shown that there is no benefit in sending children to Pre-K. In actuality, it may be a hindrance to a child’s development. Here are some facts that were collected:

  • In the last half-century, U.S. preschool attendance has gone up to nearly 70 percent from 16 percent.
  • But fourth-grade reading, science, and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) — the nation’s report card — have remained virtually stagnant since the early 1970s.
  • Oklahoma, in fact, lost ground after it embraced universal preschool; in 1992 its fourth and eighth graders tested one point above the national average in math. Now they are several points below (ditto for reading).
  • A 2005 analysis by researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, found that kindergartners with 15 or more hours of preschool every week were less motivated and more aggressive in class.
  • The liberals also want Universal Health Care. I am beginning to think that “universal” is code for bad.

    Wall Street Journal Article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121936615766562189.html 

    NCPA: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_Category=27

    ~ Chuck

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    Next time you hear how education can be improved simply by providing more funding, which is code for more taxes, remember this little fact:

    • Washinton D.C. spends $13,400 per student — third-highest in the nation.
    • Yet in 2007, D.C. public schools ranked last in math scores and second-to-last in reading scores for all urban public school systems in the United States, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

    Investor’s Business Daily: http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=303347424914951

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    Candidate Barack H. Obama has stated he firm commitment to oppose school vouchers. He believes that it will benefit only the children on the top and leave the rest behind. But as it is shown in a WSJ Article, inner city schools that were managed by private entities out performed those managed by the government.  With those kind of results, how can he be fervently opposed to school vouchers and charter schools? Could it be that he is beholden to the demands of the teachers’ unions, who are more interested in the benefits of their members that their students?

    Oh, and in case you are interested. His daughters attend the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where annual tuition ranges from $15,528 for kindergarten to $20,445 for high school.

    WSJ Article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121720068489088381.html

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    “A Nation at Risk” released in 1983 said, “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves.”  

    As the election cycle progresses, we will hear of the various external threats to our democracy that must be addressed. Our dependence on foreign oil, terrorist’s access to WMDs, mass immigrations undermining our infrastructure. But one of the greatest threats to our democracy lies within our borders, and remains unaddressed by our government. Our education system’s inability to produce scientists and engineers from our natural citizens and our inefficient immigration policies undermine the needs and capabilities of America as the “world’s hyper power.” Thankfully, private enterprise has taken the reigns in an effort to steer this country away inevitable mediocrity. Looking at some of the numbers from Tapping America’s Potential Report, I hope they are not too late.

    • The number of engineering degrees awarded in the United States is down 20 percent from the peak year of 1985.
    • Although U.S. fourth graders score well against international competition, they fall near the bottom or dead last by 12th grade in mathematics and science, respectively.
    • By 2010, if current trends continue, more than 90 percent of all scientists and engineers in the world will be living in Asia.
    • More than 50 percent of all engineering doctoral degrees awarded by U.S. engineering colleges are to foreign nationals.
    • However, security concerns are reducing the number of foreign students available to study and work in the United States, while these students have increasing opportunities to study and work in their home countries.

    Report: http://www.tap2015.org/about/TAP_report2.pdf

    Tapping America’s Potential Website: http://www.tap2015.org/index.php

    ~ Chuck

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