Still Scamming Americans: Decades of Progressive Assault on Writing Skills – Dumping Cursive Via Common Core State Standards

With 41 states adopting the Common Core curriculum standards*, the self-described Education Progressives are busy nailing the coffin shut on cursive writing in the United States, condemning the next generation to illiteracy. Centuries of empowering the masses by breaking the monopoly of court scribes by teaching the average man or woman and child to read and write efficiently and it’s “progressive” to dump all that achievement on the ash heap of history?

“…an Indiana clinical psychologist, said the time children spend labouring over script could be better used …”1

“… an education official in Lawrence Township, Indiana, said there were many more important things for students to be learning at school… “I think it’s progressive of our state to be ahead on this,” 2

Oh, better used on … what, precisely? Schools stopped students laboring over math calculations and now graduates cannot even add or subtract without the crutch of a calculator. Schools stopped laboring over teaching students how to spell – let the computer do that – so with a computer, a student’s term paper looks like a Hollywood multimedia production, but without a computer a student’s term paper looks like … well nothing… because the students of today cannot actually write, spell or form grammatically correct sentences with punctuation to produce a term paper without the computer doing all the fixing.

Schools stopped the labor of teaching reading so we see reports like this week’s “Half of Florida’s high school students fail reading test.” 3

Now the very same Education Progressives, firmly on a multiple decades losing streak of FAIL, firmly proving every single time they …  is there any adequate way to say it otherwise – don’t know what the hell they are talking about – are aggressively pushing cursive handwriting out of student education. On the very same grounds: ‘progressive’ and then ‘modern’ and ‘intuitive’ and then what should be the dead giveaway: ‘we don’t have time.’

Well how about making the time? They’ve got kids in school most of the day, most of the week, most of the year and they just don’t have time to teach cursive handwriting? Really? What are they doing all day long? They don’t seem to have time to teach math, either or reading or science … judging by our atrocious international rankings. They send three hours of homework home at night, so what’s going on all those hours in the classroom?

The current ‘education’ culture is driving our nation’s younger generation into the abyss, and instead of reforming is doubling down on failure with the Common Core Standards. And the word ‘aggressively’ is accurate. Parents who don’t agree are insulted, objections are sneered at, and plain historical evidence is dismissed.  The most effective mastery of academics is 3-fold:  audio/listening to lecture, visual/reading/writing and practice/practice/practice.   Photocopied hand-outs are no substitutes for  students writing out the notes themselves.

The truth is, the education progressives have been decades chewing at the hull planks in schools forming the narrative to justify jettisoning cursive off the sinking ship of American education.  Yet cursive writing is the key life skill for fast, efficient accurate note-taking -  useful in school, at home and at work.  So goes cursive so goes effective note-taking … actions have consequences.

In harmony with other countries, American education once upon a time (up until the mid-1960s) expected all students to master cursive early on, but the Official Progressive Idea introduced that it was ‘too demanding for young children’ so they bumped cursive aside for manuscript – that is to say ‘printing,’ starting cursive instruction later rather than earlier, in most cases not before grade three.

The oversized, simple printing we associate with ‘childish’ is literally an American Progressive Education Artificial Construct dating from the 1960s that from first grade severely handicaps American students compared to their age-mates in other countries.

An unsuspecting American parent looking at a European second-grader’s handwriting thinks it’s the work of an adult. Not only an adult, but a ‘smart’ adult!  The scale below has not been exaggerated: a standard piece of French composition page simply laid on top of a US composition page.  The first three lines of the French cursive are literally kindergarten-level,  quickly shrunk to the required scale below it in first grade.  The blue grid-lines are the standard format of French composition notebooks and lined notebook paper, providing superior page guidance than American lined composition paper.  The American composition paper used here was COLLEGE-lined, considered too small for U.S. Elementary and Middle School composition paper.

Source: Cahier d’ecriture GRAPHILETTRE CP-CE1 6 to 8 years old MAGNARD, Paris

While European students just ‘do it,’ Americans have been fed a false narrative that children don’t have the ‘development’  to learn cursive in first grade. Progressives heavily employ pseudo-psychological ‘clinicalisms’ on the public to promote what can’t be ‘education’ but ‘agenda’  to obliterating education expectations. They took away precise pencils and pushed clumsy and blunt crayons into little hands – coloring implements which are so awkward that even adults can’t use them with any degree of control, much less a child.  Now from the same rotted root source of ‘Progressive Education Theory’ Americans are being coached to abandon cursive altogether. Give it up, can’t be bothered, too hard.

Other countries every day prove the lie of the American Education Progressives with fewer hours, and no oppressive drudgery of after school homework in elementary grades, other countries’ schools continue to successfully teach useful handwriting skills, top math skills, top reading and rhetoric skills which empower students to achieve in higher academics and in advanced work opportunities in every field of endeavor in this modern world. Point this inconvenient truth out and the Education Progressives show their bankruptcy by a thousand and one excuses and a lot of aggressive and insulting remarks to denigrate the messengers.

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3. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/half-florida-high-school-students-fail-reading-test-232516894.html
1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14121541
2. http://www.gpb.org/news/2011/01/18/teachers-debate-keeping-cursive-in-curriculum
http://abcnews.go.com/US/end-cursive/story?id=12749517 Forty-one states have so far adopted the new Common Core State Standards for English, which does not require cursive. Set by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA), the standards provide a general framework for what students are expected to learn before college.

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Reality Check: Was Your High Schooler Taught Skills to Compete in the ‘Global Economy?’ Sit Down … Take a Deep Breath or a Shot of Whiskey… a Peek at the French National Brevet Exam for ALL Ninth Graders

In a few weeks, at the end of the U.S. school equivalent of ninth grade, in June, all students enrolled in the French National education system worldwide are required to sit for the National Brevet Diploma Exam to demonstrate academic competencies in order to continue to the next grade, which would be ‘Seconde’ – the equivalent to the U.S. tenth grade level.

Students have two chances to pass, a fail generally requires repeating the ninth grade for another attempt. Students who pass continue study for three more years towards the Baccalaureate which is given at the end of the U.S. equivalent of 12th grade and is meant for entry to university.

A number of students pass the Brevet and simply graduate at age 15-16 with the Brevet Diploma, leaving school for work or trade schools, better equipped in math, reading and writing required for quality trade skills than their American counterparts who graduate  with a high school diploma two-three years later at age 18.

The Brevet is a required end of ninth grade exam, but exceeds most American high school senior requirements. Most countries in Europe have a very similar structure and expectations by grade for their students, so even though the French Brevet is used as an example, it reflects what is typical across Europe. French-speaking students, enrolled in certified French education systems in Africa and Asia all sit for the Brevet. It is administered in a manner similar to the SAT, everyone takes it on the same days, at designated testing venues, but unlike the SAT it is not optional and it’s not a computerized exam. Teams of teachers grade the Brevet exams of other schools; they are not permitted to grade their own students.

Students worldwide have just completed a practice exam, called the ‘white Brevet’ or ‘Brevet blanc,’ and have a few more weeks before the actual 2012 Brevet. It’s a two day exam, covering rhetoric (writing, reading, essay and grammar), history and math. There are no multiple choice or true/false questions, all answers are written out.  That’s written, as in cursive, which is being dropped out of many US public schools as the excuse goes … ‘irrelevent’ to modern life.  Calculators are allowed for the math section, but they are no substitutes for compasses, which most American students have never even held in their hands in 12 years of schooling, much less learned how to use to reproduce a complex geometric figure or simply demonstrate how to perfectly bisect an angle, something that the typical student outside the USA learns before 5th grade.

Above, the graphic shows a typical pair of geometry problems at the Brevet level. The English translation was added. The French have one standard for students, no ‘low’ ‘middle’ or ‘advanced’ separations as American schools have done. French and European students are competitive in math with Chinese and Japanese students, yet without the stressed, unbalanced, over-studying cram lifestyle that is such a problem in Asia.

Typical history/geo/social-studies questions of the Brevet (choose one):

1) What were the political entities which formed the Popular Front? What were the principal measures announced by Leon Blum? What types of obstacles did the Popular Front encounter?  Using the information in the documents provided and the information you know, write an argumentative paragraph of at least twenty lines discussing the successes and also the political fragility of the Popular Front.

2) What were the two great changes made by Mikhail Gorbachev to reform the Russian society? Define these in a precise manner. In what manner did these changes affect the political situation in Czechoslovakia? What were the changes going on in the Soviet block at the end of the 1980s? Which were the consequences of this revolution for the political career of Mikhail Gorbechev and for the USSR?
Drawing from the information in these documents and what you know, write an argumentative paragraph of twenty lines describing the end of the Soviet block from 1985 to 1991.

Language/Rhetoric composition: Brevet Level

Jules was great friends with a soldier in the French army. His nephew decides to write about his uncle including how these two people met. Write, in the point of view of the nephew, a narrative of the encounter of these two characters.” Grading criteria: Complexity of ideas, the paragraphs are well organized, use the proper verb tenses (employ the correct usages of the verb tenses: imperfect, composite past or simple past), spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Source: Hachette 3eme Livre 2007

Regarding Math instruction:
The teacher, who has a demonstrated competency certificate in math, introduces a new concept to the class. He/she then explains and demonstrates the problem on the board, followed by a short lecture so the students write the lecture points into their notebooks, which are tightly supervised to be extremely structured and thus serve as excellent study guides. The remainder of the class is spent by students practicing working the problems at the board or in their notebooks under the supervision of the teacher. The teacher may assign a couple of extra problems for homework, requiring only a few minutes at home. No computers in the classroom, no teaching assistants, no ‘smart boards.’ The teacher grades all exams and checks all notebooks for neatness and completeness. Exams are not multiple-choice and require the frequent use of compasses, rulers, right angles, protractors … and erasers. The typical class size in better schools locally is 25-30 students, all handled by the teacher, no assistants.

Answers to the geometry problems in the graphic above:
#4: requires usage of the Pythagorean Theorem and the Theorem of Thales.
The Section A’B’C’D’ is thus a square with the length of a side x = (25√94) ÷ 47  cm

#5. Circumference C corresponds to the length of the circle 2(pi)R.  C = 2(pi) x 6370 = 12,740(pi) or about 40,024 km  … then  x =( 40 024 x 33) ÷360  thus length of the arc AB is 3669 km.

If your freshman, sophomore, junior or senior high school graduate cannot solve these problems or is not able to answer or write out responses appropriate to the history or rhetoric questions, then he or she, despite enormous amounts of financing to our schools,  did not receive training in a level of math, history and rhetoric required as national standards in most other developed countries at ninth grade … delivered at less cost, shorter school days, and far less homework.  The proposed national CORE standards double down on worthless, seemingly constructed by political ideologues who prefer to perpetuate ignorance in the classroom and ignorance of the reality outside our borders.  Our schools love to talk ‘globally competitive’ but don’t actually teach the nuts and bolts skills required for it: readin’, ritin’ and ‘rithmetic.  We haven’t even touched on foreign language requirements outside the Brevet … the students taking the Brevet are also required in 9th grade to study English plus another language such as Spanish or German.

And when was the last time our own school history textbooks put on their covers our victorious, liberatin’ American G.I Joe soldiers with guns getting hugged by appreciative, pretty French babes?  Our young teenage American male was quite surprised to see his textbook for 2011-2012.  History suddenly was a bit more interesting.

Source: Hachette Education 3eme, Source: Plan Brevet Maths 3eme Editions Magnard

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May 4 is Education Savings Account Application Deadline

By Jonathan Butcher

Friday, May 4th is the deadline for parents of students with special needs to apply for an education savings account for next school year.

These accounts give parents their children’s share of school funds to use on textbooks, virtual school classes, private school tuition, or even college savings plans. Approximately 150 families participated this year.

The only program of its kind in the U.S., education savings accounts allow parents to customize their child’s education. Parents can select a variety of educational services for their child in order to create a specialized learning experience that will challenge their child and prepare them for life in the real world.

Here are a few commonly asked questions and answers about education savings accounts.

  • What is an education savings account (or “Empowerment Scholarship Account”)? Education savings accounts are private accounts under parents’ control. Parents of students with special needs complete an application with the Arizona Department of Education and receive their share of school funds. Families can use the funds for many educational expenses, including online courses, textbooks, and private school tuition. A complete list of approved expenses is available here.
  • Who is eligible? All students with an IEP or 504 plan who attended a public school for the first 100 days of this school year are eligible to apply. Students who received a scholarship from a school tuition organization (STO) under “Lexie’s Law” are also eligible. Families that used a savings account this school year will receive a renewal contract from the Arizona Department of Education (more information for participating families is available from the Department of Education here).
  • How do you apply? Applications are available on the Arizona Department of Education’s Web site. Friday, May 4 is the deadline for next school year.
  • Where can I learn more? To learn more, visit the Goldwater Institute’s “Education Savings Accounts: Questions and Answers” or the Arizona Department of Education’s information page.

These savings accounts are changing the lives of children with special needs. If you know a family who would qualify for an account, I hope you’ll share this information and encourage them to apply today.

Jonathan Butcher is education director for the Goldwater Institute.

Learn more:

Arizona Department of Education: Empowerment Scholarship Accounts 

Arizona Department of Education: ESA Application Guidelines

Goldwater Institute: Education Savings Accounts: Questions and Answers

Goldwater Institute: Education Savings Accounts Extend Hope, Opportunities

If 2011 Was the ‘Year Of School Choice,’ What Does That Make 2012?

By Jonathan Butcher

The Wall Street Journal called 2011 the “Year of School Choice,” and with good reason. Thirteen states, including Arizona, passed or expanded choice-based reforms. Some two dozen other states considered similar legislation.

There is still time for Arizona lawmakers to make 2012 an encore performance.

What is most striking about the 2011 reforms enacted around the country is the programs’ inclusive designs. That is, for the past 20 years, programs that allow students to choose a public or private school of choice have been small in scope. When school voucher programs became law, often student eligibility would be limited to children with special needs (such as Florida’s McKay Scholarships) or low-income students in individual cities or districts (like Milwaukee, Wisconsin).

Private school-choice reforms were seen as policy solutions for specific student groups, not a way to change how all students access education.

Yet in 2011, lawmakers in several states (including Indiana and Wisconsin) passed new reforms or expanded existing programs with broad eligibility provisions.

In 2012, there have not been as many bills signed into law (yet), but in Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal just signed a reform package that is designed to reach more than just isolated student groups. Lawmakers in the Bayou passed a set of bills that allow parents of students in failing schools to petition to close their school or convert it to a charter (a similar bill passed the Arizona Senate this year) and allow low and middle-income students in schools rated “C” or below access to school vouchers.

Arizona lawmakers still have time to follow suit and expand the state’s unique education savings account program to students in the state’s lowest-performing schools and military families. Offering parents and students choices of education services is no longer a reform for a minority of students.

Around the country, education reform is finally moving from “choices for some” to “choices for all.”

Jonathan Butcher is education director for the Goldwater Institute.

Learn more:

Wall Street Journal: School Vouchers Gain Ground

Wall Street Journal: The Year of School Choice

PR Newswire: Louisiana Governor’s School Voucher Plan Clears Legislature

Progressive Democrats set example of Enlightened Civility and Tolerance

The following is a re-print from the Arizona Daily Star and is posted here as a sterling example of the civility and respect with which the Progressive Democrats view anyone who thinks differently from them.  Here we can see such Leftist virtues as *Tolerance* of *Diversity* and *Respect* for Others.    In other words, the Progressive Democrats want everyone to DO as they SAY but NOT as they DO.   These are the folks who want you to elect them to steer the ship of state.

By the way, what is the fetish the Progressive Left has with college and university education?  They seem to think it magically bestows some kind of smartness on those who endured four or more years of higher education.  They seem to look down their collective noses on those who are graduates of the School of Hard Knocks, in other words, those who may possess good old common sense.  Liberals seem to believe that once you leave high school your ability to continue learning ends unless you sit for endless hours listening to a college professor who’s never practiced anything remotely like what he teaches.  But I digress.  Read this example of *civility* that hails from the enlightened troglodytes in Baja Arizona.

Fitz: Kelly wins

Dave Fitzsimmons The Arizona Daily Star | Tuesday, April 17, 2012

     High school graduate Jesse Kelly defeated a Harvard educated Air Force pilot, a nice American named Dave Sitton and Frank “Spank me, I’m bad” Antenori. Now that the fat lady has sung and the primary is over it’s time for Act II of “The Barber of Civility”: A contest between the guy who looks like the Jurassic Park professor without the pith helmet and a carpet bagging gun-toting Bible thumping gosh and shucks Gomer Pyle who can channel Sean Hannity.

Jesse will do great among the unwashed, the rural, the illiterate, the scared goobers willing to cheerfully vote against their own interests, whipping up the groundlings and the believers with rhetorical red meat so rotten with the stench of untruths that honorable flies will choose to lay their eggs elsewhere. And he’ll smile like a man surprised he said something resembling a coherent thought. And the crowds who hate elitists and grammar and syntax and critical thinking will slap their knees and hoot. Scan the online comment section for repugnant speech and unfiltered anonymous hatred of all who differ with the strict conservative  view and and you have found your archetypal “here come the black helicopters from Kenya” Kelly supporters.

And he will be petted and stroked and groomed and cooed to by right-wing think tanks and he’ll be showered, nay, flooded with bags of cash from big oil and all the right PACs looking for a manly mannequin with a pull string. And he’s a pretty one. He’s tall and he’s handsome and he’s tall and he’s handsome. Elderly church ladies who can’t tell you who the Vice-President is gaze adoringly up at Kelly, yearning to vote for him and to adopt him and to feed him apple pie. Goodbye Mo Udall, hello empty plastic Ken doll.

And he will be angry at those who question his ascendency and his indignant finger will raise up to poke the sky and he’ll thunder incoherent talk radio babble about freedom and liberty and liberty from freedom and FOX news and the right-wing machine will give him their cameras and their spotlights every chance they can.

He won’t represent you. He will represent the Tea Party fanatics, talk radio freaks, the hand-wringing evangelicals, the gun fondlers and the paranoid. The rest of you are just not Americans, you Marxists and Communists and baby killers and you can go to Hell for all he cares. He’ll terrify crowds with his tales of the liberal straw man, the wretched progressive sasquatch, the abominable secularists and he’ll shake the scarecrow and he’ll offer himself up as the great peasant’s torch just waiting to be pressed into battle against the fictitious kindling. Swaddled in the flag and clutching his sacred Constitution he’ll weep for America and prophesy a plague of socialism sweeping across the land that will rival the fire-in-the-sky visions of St. John. Evolution is a head-shaker and abortion is for harlots and those who are not with him are devils. The Word is Limbaugh and he is the word made flesh. Hearken to Jesse all ye Limbaugh Christians, the end times are upon us and the Messiah has a high school diploma. Reject him not, oh ye dittoheads. The Republicans have their man, their folksy Baron of bromides, their King of jingos, raised in the womb of the right-wing echo chamber. And their darling will have an army of fanatical feverish shock jocks who’ll trumpet at the Walls of Jericho for He who is Him everyday until Medicare, Social Security, Big Government, Taxes, the department of Education, our rotting public education system, and those diabolical regulators and the United Nations all come tumbling down.

At the final debate with Giffords in 2010 he was figuratively hoisted on the shoulders of believers with pitchforks and torches who cheered their Messiah with yahoos and slogans in lieu of palm fronds. How can one be civil when you’re debating an opponent who lies and smirks and makes George Bush sound look Stephen Hawking? His adherents cannot be moved by facts, they have found faith.

Sinclair Lewis had his Main Street Babbitt, we have Kelly. This Barber v. Kelly election will truly be an American spectacle rivaling the Scopes Monkey trial because its outcome will define us for years. Are we an easily frightened America aching for the shallow comfort of the primitive and the superstitious or are we the fearless America that questions, that embraces the future, that is modern and smart? Mark Twain and H.L.Mencken savaged their respective times as the gilded ages of carnival hawkers and tent evangelists and smiling shoeshine salesmen and gullible rubes willing to say yes to any smiling carpet-bagger. They are gazing up from Hell longing to see this show unfold. This summer the oldest American story shall repeat itself.

 

Teacher John Ward Needs Our Support In His Stand Against La Raza!

John Ward was right! Now you have an opportunity to help him!

John Ward is the teacher who alerted us to the Raza studies program (now suspended!) at the Tucson Unified School District. The District and its Raza program are now retaliating against him.

Special Guests

AZ Attorney General Tom Horne
State Representative Steve Montenegro, LD12

Please join us on Tuesday, April 17, 2012

5:30 to 7 p.m. at Dillon’s Top of Central

8525 N. Central Avenue
Phoenix, 85020

Donations of $50 or more will be collected that evening at door

OR

may be mailed to

John Ward Litigation Trust
c/o Law Offices of Armand Salese
184 S. Stratford Drive
Tucson AZ 85716

Assorted Hot & Cold Hors d’oeuvres and dessert to be served

Please RSVP to DefeatRazaStudies@gmail.com by April 16, 2012.

Read John Ward’s guest opinion - Guest opinion: “Raza studies gives rise to racial hostility

Seminar on the “Arab Spring” and Sharia Law: Learn the Truth about the Rise to Power of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Threat of Sharia Law!

ARIZONA MAINSTREAM PROJECT

INVITES YOU TO ATTEND

Seminar on the Arab Spring and Sharia Law

Date: Saturday, April 14, 2012
Time: 1:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Location: Burton Barr Central Library on the 4th Floor
Address: 1221 North Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ

(Doors open at 1:00 pm)

Presented by

Patrick Poole and Al Fadi

What Arab Spring? Learn what is really happening in the Middle East with the rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood and the spread of Sharia Law in the East and in our country!

Patrick Poole has just returned from Washington D.C. where he briefed White House Intelligence and Homeland Security on the level of infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood under the Obama Administration. Patrick will give us the latest details of this recent visit from the Muslim Brotherhood to the White House.

Patrick Poole is a counter-terrorism consultant and intelligence analyst with previous experience in both the business and public policy arenas. Mr. Poole’s area of expertise is the ideology and history of the international Muslim Brotherhood and its operations in the West, and the domestic terror threat from Islamic radicalism. His work in this field resulted in his appoint-ment to Team B II, a panel of distinguished experts, including former CIA Director Jim Woolsey and former DIA Director Lt. Gen. Ed Soyster, on counterterrorism, intelligence and national security issues. His white paper, “10 Failures of the U.S. Government on the Domestic Islamist Threat” was published by the Center for Security Policy in November 2010. In March 2011, Mr. Poole was part of an expert panel that testified before the Arizona House Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee and the Arizona Senate Border Security, Federalism and States’ Sovereignty Committee on the topic of “Cross Border Terror Threats and Islamic Terror Support Networks in Arizona.”

Al Fadi is a former Wahabbi Muslim from Saudi Arabia. He is the researcher, editor, writer, and translator for numerous ministries, including “Answering Islam” and runs an outreach center called; the Center for Islamic Research & Awareness. Al is the editor, co-author and contributor of “The Qur’an Dilemma,” a critical analysis book of the Qur’an. He is also the director of TheQuran.com Group (www.theQuran.com) which desires to assist both Muslims and non-Muslims who seek to learn more about the main source of Islamic teachings, the Qur’an, to research it, to critically analyze it, and to better comprehend its contents without the traditional religious and cultural barriers designed to indoctrinate and encapsulate the minds of many truth seekers. He is an invited teacher/lecturer on Islam and related Islamic study topics. As a former devout Muslim, he is an expert on the teaching and challenges of Islam. In addition, Al is an invited guest/expert on numerous Arabic evangelical Satellite TV and Radio shows on the topics of Islam and the Middle East.

There will be books and DVDs for sale at this event, so bring extra cash with you!!!

Cost: $10 per person

Refreshments will be served

Payment can be made at the door, from our website, or by mail

Arizona Mainstream Project
15029 N. Thompson Peak Pkwy
Suite B-111 Box 589
Scottsdale, AZ 85260

To RSVP and for more information email honey@arizonamainstreamproject.org or call 602-425-7267

Gov. Brewer Is Keeping Arizona at the Head of the Pack in Education Reform

By Jonathan Butcher

Gov. Jan Brewer is poised to expand one of the most liberty-enhancing education reforms in U.S. history, the latest step in her growing legacy of meaningful education reform.

Last year, Gov. Brewer’s signature created the nation’s first education savings account program for K-12 students, which allows parents to use state funds to customize their child’s education. With these savings accounts, the state deposits 90 percent of a student’s per pupil funding in a private account managed by her parents. Parents can use the funds for private school tuition, tutoring services, online classes, and textbooks, as well as several other educational services. Families can also save the funds for college tuition.

Under current law, students with special needs are eligible for the accounts. The proposed expansion now on the governor’s desk would extend eligibility to 94,000 students in chronically failing public schools, as well as academically gifted students and students in military families.

This will more than triple the number of students eligible to participate, to more than 300,000. And each participating student costs taxpayers less than the cost to send a student to a regular public school.

Gov. Brewer enacted the savings accounts last year, enhancing Arizona’s reputation as the nation’s leader in education reform. She continued to lead bold reforms this year, doubling the amount individuals can contribute to private school scholarship organizations under the state’s scholarship tax credit law.

Gov. Brewer has proved she is committed to school choice and will make it one of the cornerstones of her agenda. The following is from her school-choice website:

It remains my priority to expand school choice and enhance the role of parents in their children’s education. I am proud to say that Arizona leads the nation when it comes to school choice and the empowerment of parents to decide which avenues are most conducive to their children’s educational success.

By signing the bill on her desk now, she’ll cement her place in Arizona education reform history.

Jonathan Butcher is Education Director of the Goldwater Institute.

Learn more:

AZ.gov: Arizona School Choice website

Goldwater Institute: Education Savings Accounts: Questions and Answers

Goldwater Institute: Education Savings Accounts Extend Hope, Opportunities

Time Is Running Out to Improve Arizona’s Digital Learning Options This Session

By Jonathan Butcher

Arizona students are at risk of having fewer digital learning options if lawmakers do not reconsider SB 1259, which provides more options for students to pursue digital learning outside of their school district’s boundaries.

We cannot expect all sides to agree with every detail of such a large piece of legislation, but current Arizona law lacks guidance when it comes to online learning.

As a result, some districts have adopted policies that limit student options for online coursework. Additionally, the state’s virtual school funding system pays schools based on enrollment, not student course completion and subject mastery. Until we find virtual truancy officers that won’t trample First Amendment rights, the state should adopt policies that fund schools based, in part, on course completion and evidence of student proficiency.

“Essentially, virtual education is moving into that intersection where rising popularity meets calls for greater accountability,” writes Kevin C. Bushweller in Education Week. “How the virtual education movement responds to those calls will have a significant impact on how it evolves in K-12 over the next five to 10 years.”

Education researchers and state lawmakers around the country are exploring ways to provide quality educational options online. Simply allowing students to enroll in any online class and use those credits for graduation is risky; students are bound to stumble across a class that demands little from them and, consequently, is not valuable to them.

Likewise, limiting student options to what local districts provide is akin to letting beachgoers swim only in tide pools.

This bill also creates a feedback system for parents and students. The result will be a guide to course selection similar to Consumer Reports. Parents and students will rate courses and offer comments on their experiences, and these ratings will be made available to help other students as they consider their options.

SB 1259 gives students more options and should give parents a consumer guide to online courses. Updates such as these help create an effective digital education environment for all students.

Jonathan Butcher is Education Director for the Goldwater Institute.

Learn more:

Goldwater Institute: Cane Toads, Virtual Schools, and Unintended Consequences

Goldwater Institute: Keeping Up with the Speed of Virtual Education

Goldwater Institute: School Choice and the Future of Online Education

Education WeekSpotlight Turns Toward Virtual Ed. Accountability

Please join us for a Seminar on Child Sex Trafficking

INVITES YOU TO ATTEND

Seminar on Child Sex Trafficking

Join Bill Montgomery, Maricopa D.A. and Starbright Foundation Directors Lori Regnier and
Michael Chalberg, in a discussion of what legislators and law enforcement is doing to crack
down on child sex trafficking; and what you as a community can do in the prevention, intercession
and recovery for these young victims of these crimes who cannot speak for themselves.

Bill Montgomery was elected Maricopa County Attorney in 2010 on a pledge to fight crime,
honor victims’ rights, and protect and strengthen our community. Recognizing that violent
child sexual predators cannot be rehabilitated, Bill has been an outspoken advocate for life
sentences for these offenders. He also supports GPS monitoring for other convicted child
molesters, and Internet sting operations to capture child predators before they get the chance
to victimize our children. His goal is to let would-be child predators know they will find no
safe haven in Arizona.

Lori Regnier is a volunteer for Shepherds Care Ministries where she helps survivors of
sexual abuse. Lori has 2 years of experience in security/protection. Also, as the President of
Child Enrichment Programs, Inc., Lori strived to help underprivileged youth in our valley
and their families in need. She has expanded her interest in the wellbeing of children to the
Starbright Foundation where she pledges to be a positive role model and will assist in
rescuing endangered children from abusive situations. Recently in 2011, Lori was chosen as
one of Arizona’s “Top 30 Women of Courage” for making a positive change in the lives of
children and families in Arizona.

Michael E. Chalberg is pastor and cofounder of Shepherds Care Ministries and has served in
Christian ministries for the last 30 years. These last 17 years in Pastoral Counseling have
revealed the need for a more focused ministry to help the children trapped in ongoing sexual
abuse through human trafficking across our nation. He founded Starbright Foundation with
fellow volunteers to fight against this rising problem. He hopes to increase public awareness
of child sexual abuse and trafficking through education to generate community involvement
in the prevention of this growing social problem.

Date: Thursday, March 29, 2012
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Location: Scottsdale Bible Church Room E210 (Main Campus)
Address: 7601 E. Shea Blvd.,  Scottsdale, AZ

Doors open at 6:00 pm (meet and greet)

Refreshments served

Cost: $10 per person

Payment can be made at the door.  Our online paypal service is temporarily down.

Please RSVP to honey@arizonamainstreamproject.org or 602-425-7267 if attending.

For additional information or questions, email Honey Marques, Executive Director at honey@arizonamainstreamproject.org or call 602-425-7267

Keeping up with the speed of virtual education

By Jonathan Butcher

In 1947, military experts were trying to build an aircraft that wouldn’t lose control at high speeds so a pilot could fly faster than the speed of sound. Pilots were afraid to accelerate beyond the sound barrier for fear they would never recover control of their plane.

Chuck Yeager, then a 24-year-old test pilot, took the challenge in an experimental aircraft and broke the sound barrier on October 14. “There was no buffet, no jolt, no shock. Above all, no brick wall to smash into,” Yeager told Popular Mechanics 40 years later.

Arizona legislators have the opportunity to cross another invisible boundary. SB 1259, sponsored by Sen. Rich Crandall, helps students move as fast as the speed of virtual education. While there is much we do not know about virtual education and we can’t anticipate all possible consequences, online education is a part of the 21st century’s educational landscape. The question is not whether students will take courses online but how they can access classes and how many they can take.

SB 1259 creates a system for Arizona to approve courses, direct funding, and test student mastery.

The bill considers several elements necessary for a sound system of quality online options and parental choice:

  1. Choice: The program allows students in grades 7-12 to take up to 2 courses online in core subjects required for graduation.
  2. Funding: The bill funds schools partly based on student performance. Virtual providers will need to prepare students for end-of-course assessments in order to receive full funding for each student.
  3. Quality: Parents will review their child’s experience, and the reviews will be made public in order to help others consider their options.

Online learning holds the potential to provide new opportunities to all students. SB 1259 begins to create a structure for digital learning, and not a moment too soon.

Jonathan Butcher is Education Director for the Goldwater Institute. 

Learn more:

Goldwater Institute: Cane Toads, Virtual Schools, and Unintended Consequences

Arizona State Legislature: SB 1259

Popular Mechanics: Gen. Chuck Yeager Describes How He Broke the Sound Barrier

Education Savings Account Expansion Will Help Hispanic Students

By Jonathan Butcher

Every student in a failing school should have better options. In Arizona, the largest failing schools enroll a high concentration of Hispanic students— students that, nationally, are at a high risk of dropping out and have low college attendance rates. Among the 20 largest public schools that received a “D” on their state report card, 71 percent of the students are Hispanic. (see chart here)

HB 2626 expands Arizona’s education savings account program to students in failing schools (along with children in military families and academically gifted students). This measure will offer options to many parents, especially in Hispanic communities.

State Sen. Steve Gallardo was quoted in the Arizona Republic last week saying the savings account program is “not aimed toward Hispanic kids” and that “White Republicans” have done “nothing” to help “Hispanic kids go to college.” These data on Arizona’s failing schools coupled with the proposed expansion of education savings accounts to students in “D” schools suggest the opposite.

Christina Martinez, representing the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (HCREO) and the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute, testified in support of HB 2626 last week. “We know that only about 50 percent of Latinos finish high school on time and only 13 percent of Latinos will go on to college,” she said. “We believe many of these instances are due to an educational environment that is not conducive to the needs of the student.”

“And because of this, we feel that if the system is failing, a student’s parents should have the option to enroll their child in a setting that is conducive. Furthermore, they should be able to use any and all resources available to them,” Martinez said.

Expanding education savings accounts to students in failing schools will help those students most in need of more options.

Jonathan Butcher is the education director for the Goldwater Institute.

Learn more:

Arizona State Legislature: Arizona Senate Finance Committee video, March 8, 2012

Arizona Republic: Democratic lawmaker opposes use of cute Latino kids

The Bully Agenda

Many have personal experiences with bullies. For some, these experiences can be truly terrible, even life-threatening. Bullying in any form is wrong and unacceptable.

In recent years, concerns about bullying have garnered national attention. But when you look behind the curtain at what is driving this nationwide dialogue, you find out that the groups that are pushing the “anti-bullying” campaigns are the same organizations working to redefine marriage and to force cultural acceptance and affirmation of homosexual lifestyles.

Take the recent bill proposed in the Arizona legislature – SB 1462. On the surface, the bill seems well-intentioned. It prohibits bullying in schools, and requires teachers, school administrators, students, and parents to undergo annual training to prevent bullying.

The questions arise when one considers which organizations would provide the training and which organizations are behind the legislation. As a leading homosexual magazine in Arizona wrote, Equality Arizona, one n ten, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) were all in attendance at the bill’s committee hearing to support and see the legislation pass.

You see, groups like Equality Arizona and GLSEN have used the bullying issue in order to gain access to our public schools. These are the groups that supporters of the bill will bring into schools to teach the anti-bullying training to our students.

What concerns me is that this is already happening. I received an email from a parent whose 11-year-old daughter was forced to watch a documentary called Bullied during class time without any parental notification or consent. Taken directly off the tolerance.org website, “Bullied is a documentary film that chronicles one student’s ordeal at the hands of anti-gay bullies and offers an inspiring message of hope to those fighting harassment today. It can become a cornerstone of anti-bullying efforts in middle and high schools.” As this dad wrote:

Upon questioning my daughter I was able to determine the video presented was the documentary Bullied. My wife and I spent the next several minutes apologizing to her that she was forced by her school to view the material … I should note the school was diligent in requiring written parental approval for my daughter to view a specific rendition of Star Wars, but the Administration need not trouble the parents over [these] materials. The material was not all that timely for our child either since we had to define for her the terms “homo” and ”fag” at our dinner table.

There is no doubt about it; the “bullying” theme is agenda-driven propaganda. The irony is that groups like Equality Arizona and GLSEN have chosen this issue to bully you and me into allowing them access into our schools and to our children. To express concerns about anti-bullying bills is portrayed in the most unfavorable light.

These bullying bills are not sound public policy. Not only are they a thinly veiled attempt to allow political groups into our schools, they also divert the focus of our school system off the fundamentals. Class time should be for reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Parents—pay attention to what anti-bullying programs are being presented in your public schools. Check out the Arizona Senate vote in favor of SB 1462. Rest assured, CAP will be closely monitoring SB 1462, and will let you know if we need your help to ensure this bit of bad legislation never becomes law.

Legislative Line Up CAP-supported bills continue to move through the legislative process:

  • SB 1359 – Prohibits so-called “wrongful life” lawsuits against medical professionals for misdiagnosing or not diagnosing a birth defect of a preborn child, which, if known, would have led to the child being aborted. This bill will be heard in House Judiciary next Thursday.
  • HB 2800 – Bans federal dollars that pass through the state to go to organizations that provide abortions. This bill passed House and will be heard in Senate Health next Wednesday.
  • HB 2712 – Enhances public library policies to protect minors from being exposed to pornography. This bill passed the House and will be heard in Senate Education next Monday.

An Evening You Won’t Want to Miss  
The CAP Family Dinner with Gov. Mike Huckabee is quickly approaching. There is still time for you to get your ticket or table sponsorship. These dinners are always a memorable occasion, and this year promises to be extraordinary as we look ahead to the November Elections.

“Precious” Guns

By Tyler Montague

In April of 2007, Seung-Hui Cho walked onto Virginia Tech’s campus and killed 32 people, and wounded another 25. In this “gun-free” zone, none of the students and faculty were armed, and thus all were subjected to the killer’s lack of mercy.

Senator Gould would like to prevent that scenario via SB1474, which would allow concealed weapon permit holders to carry on state college campuses.

In response, Senator Gallardo (D) posted this photo of Seung-Hui Cho, with the following comment:

“Coming soon to a university or community college near you….. Or someone like him. (No to guns on campus.)”

So…allow good citizens to carry a weapon, and suddenly we’ll have gun violence? I’ve decided that some liberals subscribe to what I call the “Lord of the Rings” gun theory. It’s when an otherwise good person spends too much time around his “precious” weapon, he is overtaken by the scary, evil, aura emitted from all guns, until finally he spontaneously combusts into a violent outburst and shoots up a nursing home. A good gun-free zone can prevent this from happening, of course…at least until all guns are melted down and all violence is thereby eliminated from society.

Sigh. Let’s take it from the top: Virginia Tech was a gun-free zone at the time of the massacre, folks. Yet somehow that crazed murderer had the gall to disregard their campus rules. Imagine that.

Over and over again, gun restrictionists fail to acknowledge a simple truth: That anyone who would murder another human isn’t someone who worries about obeying gun laws. They’ve already blown through trivial inhibitions like honoring gun-free zones and coming to a full and complete stop at intersections. They’re up to the “murder” level of badness. Everything below killing on the hierarchy of wrongdoing is fair game for them. Why isn’t this obvious by now? Libs, please, please try to comprehend this. Unless you enforce your “no-weapons zone” with armed guards and a metal-detector, like they do at the courthouse, your law merely disarms law-abiding people.

At least ASU President Michael Crow brings up other concerns about the proposed law that are logical: He worries that armed-but-untrained individuals could make poor decisions under stress, leading to errant gunfire that could hit innocent bystanders. In his view, these risks outweigh whatever benefits may come from armed students or staff. This is a reasonable concern, although there is plenty of data to suggest Crow’s concerns are contradicted by evidence.

I think the biggest threat to our right to keep and bear arms is an uninformed public and activist judiciary, panicked by highly publicized crimes with guns. (The media rarely seems to publicize all the cases where people defend themselves with guns. I should confess that, “Criminal fled after gun-owner pulled out a weapon,” isn’t as dramatic of a headline as a multiple homicide.) The anti-gun crowd would love to exploit an incident on campus involving a mistake by a weapons permit holder. To address President Crow’s concerns, they ought to add a little more practical training to the CCW permit process. I took a 2-day CCW course at Gunsite, where students fired nearly 500 rounds and received more initial weapons training than many new police officers. This should become the standard.

Even as it exists, the concealed weapons permit process has done an adequate job at vetting and training people. Upon introduction of the laws enabling concealed firearm carry, and many other laws favoring 2nd Amendment freedoms, we’ve heard predictions of apocalyptic violence. None of it has occurred. There is no data to support the claims of anti-carry arguments. In fact, violent crime has dropped significantly, and there is a lot of data to suggest that criminals’ fear of armed citizens has something to do with it.

And all arguments aside, there’s the Constitution. While many begrudgingly concede the right to “keep” arms, they often forget the words “and bear.”

So, should the legislature vote for S.B. 1474? Not so fast.

At ASU, for example, according to S.B. 1474, President Crow gets to determine whether or not to allow guns into campus buildings. If he decides not to, as he already indicated, then ASU has to provide lockers outside each building for weapons. An armed student would carry her gun from her car to her first class, lock it in a locker, retrieve it and be armed on the sidewalk for a few minutes while she walks to her next class, where she has to then deposit the weapon in another locker, and so on. Completely impractical.

The initial estimate from the schools is approximately $13 million dollars to build the lockers, and then an ongoing $3 million annual cost to hire campus police to babysit them. That’s a lot of money to waste in order to keep students and staff just as unprotected as they were before.

The bill also makes lawmakers look out of touch by working on a problem that few voters rank as a priority, while unemployment is high, the housing bubble still stings, and our K-12 education ranks near the bottom.

So, either pass a bill that lets people protect themselves, while addressing legitimate safety concerns, or don’t pass a bill at all. We don’t have money and political capital to waste on a bill that doesn’t actually achieve anything. Vote no on S.B. 1474.

Tyler Montague is a gun-owning, SUV-driving, meat-eating Republican from Mesa, who loves this state and wants good policy.

BREAKING NEWS: Help is on the Way for Children on Waiting Lists

Governor Jan Brewer has signed SB 1047 to expand Arizona’s Tuition Tax Credit program. This law creates a new tax credit specifically designed to help the thousands of Arizona students currently on waiting lists to attend the private school of their parents’ choice.

Under this new law, individuals can receive an additional $500 dollar-for-dollar tax credit, and married couples $1,000 – that doubles the amount you can already receive in tax credits to help children attend the school of their family’s choice!

What’s more – the scholarship tax credit program actually saves the state money! The average cost to taxpayers per student in a public school is over $8,500 while the average tax credit scholarship is around $2,000, providing much-needed cost savings to the state.

Despite the efforts of some in the Legislature to derail the bill, SB 1047 got overwhelming support in both the state House and Senate, thanks in part to the efforts of the bill’s sponsor, Senator Rick Murphy.

Click to see how your representatives and senator voted.

Please take time today to send Governor Brewer a note on her website, thanking her for signing this bill, and for her ongoing commitment to improving education in Arizona by expanding school choice.

Cane Toads, Virtual Schools, and Unintended Consequences

By Jonathan Butcher

In 1935, Australia had a problem with beetles. The bugs were destroying the nation’s sugar cane crop, so, to combat the pests, lawmakers introduced over 100 Cane Toads to the continent.

While the toads took care of the beetles, Australia now has 200 million Cane Toads and an ongoing problem controlling these amphibians. Cane Toads are poisonous and threaten many native species, including snakes and freshwater crocodiles.

“You cannot always predict the results of purposeful action,” writes Steven M. Gillon in That’s Not What We Meant to Do, a book describing the unintended consequences from many 20th century policies (he cites Australia’s toad problem as an illustration of how we need to be saved from our own solutions sometimes).

In Arizona, SB 1259 attempts to remedy a problem with the state’s virtual school funding system. Currently, virtual schools receive funding for each student that enrolls, even if the student does not master the material at the end of the course. SB 1259 creates a system similar to Florida’s Virtual School, wherein the school receives a sizable percentage of its funding only after a student completes a course and can demonstrate what they have learned.

However, SB 1259 creates an incentive for virtual schools to give all students at least a C-, the mark at which a student has to score in order for the school to receive 85 percent of student funding. Grade inflation could become an unintended consequence of the measure.

SB 1259 addresses important parts of the virtual school law and shows the state’s policies are maturing. But lawmakers will have to watch for unintended consequences and be prepared to revise the measure so that it appropriately fits the world of online education.

Jonathan Butcher is the Education Director for the Goldwater Institute.

Learn more:

Education Next: Florida’s Online Option

Arizona State Legislature: SB 1259

Australian Government: Policy on Cane Toads (PDF)

Urgent! Help Save Arizona State Senate Bills 1202, 1203 and 1205!

State Senator Lori Klein presented Senate Bills 1202 (prohibiting partisan instruction in schools), 1203 (accountability and transparency in curriculum and materials) and 1205 (teaching language compliance with FCC standards). Seven Republican state senators have rejected the bills, but there is still hope: YOU!

By contacting the State Senators listed below and respectfully asking them to change their vote by 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 29, there is still a chance to save these bills! When calling, also ask that members reconsider all three bills. It is important to do so! 

Sen. Linda Gray -      Phone Number: (602) 926-3376; Fax Number: (602) 417-3253; Email: lgray@azleg.gov
Sen. Adam Driggs  -  Phone Number: (602) 926-3016; Fax Number: (602) 417-3007; Email: adriggs@azleg.gov
Sen. John McComish  -   Phone Number: (602) 926-5898; Fax Number: (602) 417-3020; Email: jmccomish@azleg.gov
Sen. Paula Aboud  -  Phone Number: (602) 926-5262; Fax Number: (602) 926-3429; Email: paboud@azleg.gov
Sen. Olivia Cajero Bedford  - Phone Number: (602) 926-5835; Fax Number: (602) 417-3027; Email: ocajerobedford@azleg.gov

Here is info on the bills:

SB1202: http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/50leg/2r/proposed/s.1202lk2.pdf
SB1203: http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/50leg/2r/proposed/s.1203lk.pdf
SB1205:   http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/50leg/2r/proposed/s.1205500.pdf