is this the end of public schools in la

Why is it bad? Because it gives kids who are stuck in failing schools a chance at a better opportunity? Vouchers are not a panacea for our education challenges but it seems easy for people with money to sit back and say poor kids shouldn't have the opportunity to better their situation.
 
Yeah, just divide your educational program into pieces and duplicate effort. That will surely produce a great educational system! This is why the Balkans is the most powerful region in the entire world, all the different countries its been split into!
 
Watermark said:
Yeah, just divide your educational program into pieces and duplicate effort. That will surely produce a great educational system! This is why the Balkans is the most powerful region in the entire world, all the different countries its been split into!
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Well your union run public schools aren't getting the job done and we keep throwing money at it. So let's have CHOICE.

Why aren't you being progressive? Why don't you want to give inner city black kids a chance at a better life? Why do you hate inner city black kids so much?

Are you mad because their mothers didn't abort them and want to give them a better life?
 
There is no accountability for these schools...they could beat their students and claim religious liberty for instance. Why is public money being used to fund fundamentalist 'academy's'??

A review of some of these schools was done by Zack Kopplin, a college student spearheading an effort to repeal the misnamed Louisiana Science Education Act, which promotes creationism. Here’s some of what Kopplin found, from his Web site,

* The handbook of the Claiborne Christian School, in West Monroe, LA, says that students are taught to “discern and refute lies commonly found in [secular] textbooks, college classrooms, and in the media.” In the January 2010 school newsletter, the principal promotes young-earth creationist talking points from Answers in Genesis, saying, “Our position at CCS on the age of the Earth and other issues is that any theory that goes against God’s Word is in error.” She also claims that scientists are “sinful men” trying to explain the world “without God” so they don’t have to be “morally accountable to Him.” CCS has 28 voucher slots and can receive up to $238,000 in public money.

* The student handbook of Faith Academy, in Gonzalez, LA, says that as a Household of Faith school, students must “defend creationism through evidence presented by the Bible verses [sic] traditional scientific theory.” FA has 38 voucher slots and can receive up to $323,000 in public money.

*Northeast Baptist School, in West Monroe, uses ABeka and Bob Jones University science textbooks. Researcher and writer Rachel Tabachnick, who examined these textbooks, reports that it is “clear that no instruction is included in the text that would conflict with young earth creationism.” Using such books endangers the educational prospects of students in Christian schools. In 2010, the University of California won a federal lawsuit, ASCI [Association of Christian Schools International] v. Stearns, in which the judge ruled in favor of UC’s right to refuse to recognize high school credits for science classes taken in Christian schools that used such books. UC contended that such instruction is “inconsistent with the viewpoints and knowledge generally accepted in the scientific community.” NBS has 40 voucher slots and can receive up to $340,000 in public money.

*Northlake Christian Elementary School, in Covington, LA, teaches science using both ASCI’s “Purposeful Design Series” and ABeka materials. One Purposeful Design science notebook requires students to “discuss your thoughts about how the complexity of a cell shows that it must be purposefully designed.” NCES, which specifies that “all curricular content is filtered through and presented within a Christian worldview,” has 20 voucher slots and can receive up to $170,000 in public money.

*Northlake Christian High School in Covington uses a secular science textbook but also “integrate” material from “biblical-young-earth, Christian/Creationists,” according to Northlake’s high school biology teacher. He uses sources from Creation Ministries International, Answers in Genesis, and the Institute for Creation Research. This teacher also quotes a creationist book that says, “No coherent, cohesive theology has yet been offered that would allow Christians to embrace evolution with integrity.” Disturbingly, NCHS’s student handbook includes a discrimination policy against prospective students and staff who do not meet “Biblical standards.” NCHS has 30 voucher slots and can receive up to $255,000 in public money.

*The Upperroom Bible Church Academy, in New Orleans, says their “curriculum is dependent upon a biblical philosophy” and according to the National Center for Education Statistics they use the ACE curriculum. They also claim to blatantly attempt to convert their students, saying “we endeavor to win all unsaved students to Jesus Christ.” On top of this, the large numbers of bad reviews from parents seem to suggest the school cares about money much more than the students. The Upperroom Bible Church Academy has 167 voucher slots and can receive up to $1,419,500 in public money annually.

*New Orleans Adventist Academy teaches a creationist curriculum, according to the New Orleans newspaper, Gambit. A science curriculum guide from the Southwest Region Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, to which NOAA belongs, shows that Adventist schools teach children that “God, in six literal days, made the heavens and the earth.” The guide contains references both to young-earth and intelligent design creationist sources. NOAA has 100 voucher slots and can receive up to $850,000 in public money.

You can see more on these schools here.

By Valerie Strauss | 06:00 AM ET, 07/31/2012
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...tability-plan/2012/07/31/gJQAIaG2LX_blog.html
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This is just a little bit of what's wrong with this program.
 
Haiku said:
There is no accountability for these schools...they could beat their students and claim religious liberty for instance. Why is public money being used to fund fundamentalist 'academy's'??



This is just a little bit of what's wrong with this program.
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I think the parents would hold tem accountable don't you? Or do you think that a parent who would go to the trouble of putting their blessed child would then turn their back?

Hell kids get beaten and raped by union run public school teachers.

I believe in vouchers because I believe poor kids should have the same opportunity mine have. I avoid public schools. But, I can afford it.

If your racism and allegiance to special interest groups keeps you from Doin what is right for black kids then all the better for my children.
 
SmarterthanYou said:
i'm failing to see an issue here.
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And I'm not surprised.

FactsRStubborn said:
Well your union run public schools aren't getting the job done and we keep throwing money at it. So let's have CHOICE.
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Take the politicians out of the schools and let the teachers run them. Pay the teachers a living wage. Our teachers are among the worst paid in the world. Use that money to recruit the best teachers there are from the private sector. Improve the economy and infrastructure by building new schools and installing new technology. Get loser parents posting conservative dribble on online forums involved with the schools and their lazy kid's lifes. Quit grading the teachers and support them. Those are all some problems with today's schools.



Haiku said:
There is no accountability for these schools...they could beat their students and claim religious liberty for instance. Why is public money being used to fund fundamentalist 'academy's'??



This is just a little bit of what's wrong with this program.
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Correct. The problem with Louisiana is massively stupid and hypocritical.

IT sounds like a plot dreamed up by the creators of Southpark, but it's all true: schoolchildren in Louisiana are to be taught that the Loch Ness monster is real in a bid by religious educators to disprove Darwin's theory of evolution.

Thousands of children in the southern state will receive publicly-funded vouchers for the next school year to attend private schools where Scotland's most famous mythological beast will be taught as a real living creature.

These private schools follow a fundamentalist curriculum including the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) programme to teach controversial religious beliefs aimed at disproving evolution and proving creationism.

One tenet has it that if it can be proved that dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time as man then Darwinism is fatally flawed.

Critics have damned the content of the course books, calling them "bizarre" and accusing them of promoting radical religious and political ideologies.

The textbooks in the series are alleged to teach young earth creationism; are hostile towards other religions and other sectors of Christianity, including Roman Catholicism; and present a biased version of history that is often factually incorrect.

One ACE textbook – Biology 1099, Accelerated Christian Education Inc – reads: "Are dinosaurs alive today? Scientists are becoming more convinced of their existence. Have you heard of the 'Loch Ness Monster' in Scotland? 'Nessie' for short has been recorded on sonar from a small submarine, described by eyewitnesses, and photographed by others. Nessie appears to be a plesiosaur."

Another claim taught is that a Japanese whaling boat once caught a dinosaur. It's unclear if the movie Godzilla was the inspiration for this lesson.

Jonny Scaramanga, 27, who went through the ACE programme as a child, but now campaigns against Christian fundamentalism, said the Nessie claim was presented as "evidence that evolution couldn't have happened. The reason for that is they're saying if Noah's flood only happened 4000 years ago, which they believe literally happened, then possibly a sea monster survived.

"If it was millions of years ago then that would be ridiculous. That's their logic. It's a common thing among creationists to believe in sea monsters."

Private religious schools, including the Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake, Louisiana, which follows the ACE curriculum, have already been cleared to receive the state voucher money transferred from public school funding, thanks to a bill pushed through by state Governor Bobby Jindal.

Boston-based researcher and writer Bruce Wilson, who specialises in the American political religious right, compares the curriculum to Islamic fundamentalist teaching.

"They are being brought up to believe that they're at war with secular society. The only valid government would be a Christian fundamentalist government. Obviously some comparisons could be made to Islamic Fundamentalists in schools.

"One of these texts from Bob Jones University Press claims that dinosaurs were fire-breathing dragons. It has little to do with science as we currently understand. It's more like medieval scholasticism."

Wilson believes that such teaching is going on in at least 13 American states.

"There's a lot of public funding going to private schools, probably around 200,000 pupils are receiving this education," he And the majority of parents now home schooling their kids are Christian fundamentalists too. I don't believe they should be publicly funded, I don't believe the schools who use these texts should be publicly funded."

Daniel Govender, managing director of Christian Education Europe, which is part of ACE, said the organisation would not comment to the press on what is contained in the texts.

Of course, the Scottish tourist industry might well reap a dividend from the craziness of the American education system. Nessie expert Tony Drummond, who leads tours as part of Cruise Loch Ness, has a few words of advice to the US schools in question: come to the loch and try to find the monster.

"They need to come and investigate the loch for themselves," says the 47-year-old. "We've got some hi-tech equipment. They could come out on the boat and do a whole chunk of the loch.

"We do get regular sonar contacts which are pretty much unexplainable. More research has to be done, but it's not way along the realms of possibility."

But he's not convinced that the legend of the Loch Ness Monster is being taught the right way. "That's Christian propaganda," he says. "And ridiculous."

Textbooks of some state-funded Christian schools praise the Ku Klux Klan.

The violent, racist organisation, which still exists in the US, advocates white supremacy, white nationalism and anti-immigration.

One excerpt from Bob Jones University Press American history textbook has been reported as saying: "the [Ku Klux] Klan in some areas of the country tried to be a means of reform, fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross ... In some communities it achieved a certain respectability as it worked with politicians."

Other views taught include claims that being gay is a learned behaviour.
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Here's more from the link I had:

This 2012-2013 school year, thanks to a bill pushed through by governor Bobby Jindal, thousands of students in Louisiana will receive state voucher money, transferred from public school funding, to attend private religious schools, some of which teach from a Christian curriculum that suggests the Loch Ness Monster disproves evolution and states that the alleged creature, which has never been demonstrated to even exist, has been tracked by submarine and is probably a plesiosaur...

Among the other claims taught in ACE science curriculum, according to Scaramanga, are the following (the last three ACE curriculum claims are detailed in a subsequent post by Scaramanga titled, 5 Even Worse Lies from Accelerated Christian Education),

- Science Proves Homosexuality is a Learned Behavior
- The Second Law of Thermodynamics Disproves Evolution
- No Transitional Fossils Exist
- Humans and Dinosaurs Co-Existed
- Evolution Has Been Disproved
- A Japanese Whaling Boat Found a Dinosaur
- Solar Fusion is a Myth
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It goes on...:

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/6/27/151131/081

Taxes of all types owed by businesses to the state, are diverted to "scholarships" for private schools. In Florida, the largest of these programs, over 80% of the students subsidized by tax credits are attending religious schools, many of them using fundamentalist curricula.

The national pro-voucher movement is spearheaded by the Betsy DeVos-led American Federation for Children, which has absorbed Advocates for School Choice and includes Alliance for School Choice, and funds many of the state "school choice" non-profits. A major partner in states across the nation, and an organizer of local support for the pending Pennsylvania voucher bill SB-1, is the Association for Christian Schools International (ACSI).
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So why was I holding on to this for two days? yeah...I've been busy dealing with a personal matter, but here's why.

Because none other than Mittens Romney wants to do the same fucking thing.
Governor Romney has been an advocate of so-called "school choice" since his first run for the White House. In 2007, Romney suggested American parents should not only be encouraged to abandon the public schools; they should be rewarded for it with a tax break for home schooling their kids:

"I also believe parents who are teaching their kids at home, homeschoolers, deserve a break, and I've asked for a tax credit to help parents in their homes with the cost of being an at-home teacher."

Now, as the Republican nominee outlined in a recent speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Romney wants to redirect $25 billion from two federal programs into a new voucher scheme. As the New York Times explained:

As president, Mr. Romney would seek to overhaul the federal government's largest programs for kindergarten through 12th grade into a voucherlike system. Students would be free to use $25 billion in federal money to attend any school they choose -- public, charter, online or private -- a system, he said, that would introduce marketplace dynamics into education to drive academic gains.

But as the experience in Indiana and Louisiana suggests, that system would instead introduce large quantities of public cash into the coffers of religious schools and academies whose educational credentials may be suspect at best...

That's certainly not the case in Bobby Jindal's Louisiana, where voucher-receiving institutions must be blessed by the state. As the Daily Kingfish noted, over 90 percent of the 115 schools qualifying for Jindal's $8.500 voucher are religious institutions. And as Reuters documented, many of the 7,450 slots reserved for voucher students are at some pretty suspect schools:

The school willing to accept the most voucher students -- 314 -- is New Living Word in Ruston, which has a top-ranked basketball team but no library. Students spend most of the day watching TVs in bare-bones classrooms. Each lesson consists of an instructional DVD that intersperses Biblical verses with subjects such chemistry or composition.

The Upperroom Bible Church Academy in New Orleans, a bunker-like building with no windows or playground, also has plenty of slots open. It seeks to bring in 214 voucher students, worth up to $1.8 million in state funding.

At Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake, pastor-turned-principal Marie Carrier hopes to secure extra space to enroll 135 voucher students, though she now has room for just a few dozen. Her first- through eighth-grade students sit in cubicles for much of the day and move at their own pace through Christian workbooks, such as a beginning science text that explains "what God made" on each of the six days of creation. They are not exposed to the theory of evolution.

"We try to stay away from all those things that might confuse our children," Carrier said.
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Oy...what if Mittens was elected President and the Mormon Church got all the vouchers for their schools? Implausible? Read...

A conservative think tank is distributing a lengthy essay on the history of education in Utah that implies that if Mormons don't vote in favor of the state's school voucher law that they could face cultural extinction.

The Mormon-oriented Sutherland Institute bought advertisements in Utah's two largest newspapers to publish its essay, which says public schools were introduced in Utah by federal officials who wanted to end The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' control of the state...
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I guarantee you...if Romney's elected President, there will be Mormon (and other) grade, middle and high schools popping up everywhere, paid for with government vouchers, and replacing our public schools, filling kids heads with nonsense.
 
FactsRStubborn said:
I think the parents would hold tem accountable don't you? Or do you think that a parent who would go to the trouble of putting their blessed child would then turn their back?

Hell kids get beaten and raped by union run public school teachers.

I believe in vouchers because I believe poor kids should have the same opportunity mine have. I avoid public schools. But, I can afford it.

If your racism and allegiance to special interest groups keeps you from Doin what is right for black kids then all the better for my children.
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This isnt giving poor kids better opportunities and as far as parents holding the schools responsible we're talking about fundamentalists that don't have any respect for anything but their own understanding and interpretation of the bible. That is NOT an education. If you think vouchers are superior show something to back it up. So far vouchers have not provided good outcomes for students and they take money out of the public schools that are already struggling due to budget cuts. America needs an educated populous not brainwashed nitwits like you.
 
Howey said:
And I'm not surprised.



Take the politicians out of the schools and let the teachers run them. Pay the teachers a living wage. Our teachers are among the worst paid in the world. Use that money to recruit the best teachers there are from the private sector. Improve the economy and infrastructure by building new schools and installing new technology. Get loser parents posting conservative dribble on online forums involved with the schools and their lazy kid's lifes. Quit grading the teachers and support them. Those are all some problems with today's schools.





Correct. The problem with Louisiana is massively stupid and hypocritical.



Here's more from the link I had:



It goes on...:

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/6/27/151131/081



So why was I holding on to this for two days? yeah...I've been busy dealing with a personal matter, but here's why.

Because none other than Mittens Romney wants to do the same fucking thing.


Oy...what if Mittens was elected President and the Mormon Church got all the vouchers for their schools? Implausible? Read...



I guarantee you...if Romney's elected President, there will be Mormon (and other) grade, middle and high schools popping up everywhere, paid for with government vouchers, and replacing our public schools, filling kids heads with nonsense.
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Excellent post backed by facts. I love talktoaction it's a great resource. Usually I'm the only one I know who reads there.
 
Howey said:
And I'm not surprised.


Take the politicians out of the schools and let the teachers run them. Pay the teachers a living wage. Our teachers are among the worst paid in the world. Use that money to recruit the best teachers there are from the private sector. Improve the economy and infrastructure by building new schools and installing new technology. Get loser parents posting conservative dribble on online forums involved with the schools and their lazy kid's lifes. Quit grading the teachers and support them. Those are all some problems with today's schools.
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maybe this is why you leftists are all jacked up. you don't know how to fix shit in america. These are PUBLIC schools, not union schools and not government schools. These school district board members are ELECTED by the people, and should be held accountable by the people. not politicians and not the unions. the more of these public schools that fail, the better. that should get all your lazy assed parents off their asses and fix shit the right way.
 
Howey said:
A hell of a lot more kids get beaten and raped by Catholic priests and Christian preachers too. Better close down those churches!
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Prove it with facts.

For the record, 100% of the child molestation in the catholic church was man in boy. So we can conclude that it must be queer priests an therefore must conclude tht there is some faulty wiring in queer brains that lead them to assault little boys. Maybe the problem is with the MOs and not the church.
 
SmarterthanYou said:
These are PUBLIC schools, not union schools and not government schools.
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There is no accountability. The schools will be allowed to teach whatever they want, including religious teachings. That is not allowed in our public schools. Incidentally, one of the best school systems out there is a government school system taught fully by union teachers. I know, because I attended it.

One of the most successful school systems in the U.S. is not in an exclusive suburb in a wealthy state. Instead, it is scattered across the country and the world on U.S. military bases. Strategic planning, a conviction that all children can learn, and community support are among the reasons for the systems success. Included: Tips for improving school systems from the Department of Defense Education Activity.

A school system with a 35 percent annual student mobility rate, with half of its students living at the poverty line, with most of their parents having only a high school education -- with National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores among the highest in the U.S.? It sounds more like an ambitious goal than an actual district profile.

But such a system does exist; only it exists where few people think to look for it -- in the United States military.
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As I stated before, this is what matters:

The high student mobility rate forced DoDEA administrators to institute within the system a uniform curriculum and standards-based instruction, so teachers know what material students have covered when they arrive.
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and the teachers...

Teachers also were happy working in the DoDEA schools, citing high pay, ample instructional supplies, plentiful professional development, and few student behavior problems, Owens said.

In talking to teachers, they are very encouraged and appreciative of the high-level of training they receive and continue to receive, she said. There are many, many opportunities for professional growth, and they have all the [classroom] resources they need. They are treated like professionals by administrators, parents, and the military.
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That last sentence is important in today's day of demonizing our educators.


Harvey Specter said:
It's hilarious to see liberals standing up for rich kids on this one.
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Please explain.
 
Howey said:
There is no accountability. The schools will be allowed to teach whatever they want, including religious teachings. That is not allowed in our public schools. Incidentally, one of the best school systems out there is a government school system taught fully by union teachers. I know, because I attended it.
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are you really that naive that you can't tell the difference between a public educational facility that has to take in students of all intellect and a federal institution that tests all of it's incoming students? I attended a DoD school as well, with some of the more brilliant minds of high school graduates anywhere. and a private school can have all the prayer and religious teachings in it. If a parent doesn't want their kid to deal with that, don't pay to send your kid there.

Howey said:
As I stated before, this is what matters:
The high student mobility rate forced DoDEA administrators to institute within the system a uniform curriculum and standards-based instruction, so teachers know what material students have covered when they arrive.



and the teachers...

Teachers also were happy working in the DoDEA schools, citing high pay, ample instructional supplies, plentiful professional development, and few student behavior problems, Owens said.

In talking to teachers, they are very encouraged and appreciative of the high-level of training they receive and continue to receive, she said. There are many, many opportunities for professional growth, and they have all the [classroom] resources they need. They are treated like professionals by administrators, parents, and the military.

That last sentence is important in today's day of demonizing our educators.
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have you ever had the terms juvenile and adult explained to you? or what professionalism is? to pretend that all public schools have to do is treat them like military education centers is beyond the realm of fantasy.
 
SmarterthanYou said:
are you really that naive that you can't tell the difference between a public educational facility that has to take in students of all intellect and a federal institution that tests all of it's incoming students?
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False. DoD schools have to accept all the children of military and civilian employees overseas, regardless of intellect.

SmarterthanYou said:
I attended a DoD school as well, with some of the more brilliant minds of high school graduates anywhere.
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Thank you for agreeing that I truly am smarter than you. As far as your claim that you attended DoD schools, my preceding statement proves you are a liar.
 
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