All these colleges and universities raise the cost of walking through the door every time the government has stuck their fingers in the pie. Yet, for some reason, walking out the door, the graduates are no smarter than they would be if the debt accrued was much lower. Actually, judging by some of the so called educated, they come out a whole lot dumber…unable to cope with the real world. Just an observation.

A Higher Education Revolution
The Foundry

Speaking on Friday at the University of Michigan, President Obama declared, “I want this to be a big, bold, generous country where everybody gets a fair shot, everybody is doing their fair share, everybody is playing by the same set of rules. That’s the America I know. That’s the American I want to keep. That’s the future within our reach.” How did the President propose to achieve his goal? The wrong kind of federal intervention into higher education with the goal of bringing down the cost of attending college.

The President is right to highlight the rising cost of higher education. Tuition and fees continue to shoot through the roof, now exceeding $17,000 per year, rising on average 8.3 percent at public universities this year. That means medium-income Americans are struggling to send their kids to college, and graduates are leaving school with monstrous debt. Last year in America, total student loan debt surpassed credit card debt. The total bill is expected to exceed $1 trillion this next year, and in 2009, 55 percent of graduating bachelor’s degree students at public colleges were in debt, with an average indebtedness of $19,800 ($26,100 for private college graduates, 65 percent of whom were in debt.)

One of the President’s solutions to the problem? Conditioning the amount of federal campus-based aid to colleges to slow down tuition. What the President ignores is that college costs have increased 439 percent since 1985, despite a 475 percent increase in federal subsidies such as Pell Grants. In other words, more federal funding hasn’t decreased the cost of attending college.

The Heritage Foundation’s Stuart Butler explains in National Affairs that the increasing cost of education — and the resulting debt — will make it increasingly difficult for low and moderate-income Americans to afford the cost of college and that this burden, combined with an emergence of new technologies that breed alternatives to the traditional university model, is laying the groundwork for a revolution in higher education:

Today, competitors are exploring markets that are ill-served by the traditional model, such as working Americans who want to enhance their skills and lower-income potential students looking for much cheaper degrees. Meanwhile, rapid change in information technology is giving creative new entrants a growing technological edge — an essential precondition for transformative change.

The most obvious technological threat to the comfortable world of higher education is online education. Online learning changes the entire relationship between student and teacher; it enables information to be transferred, and student performance to be monitored, at a fraction of conventional costs. Often called “distance learning,” online education has the potential to completely upend today’s established universities.

Butler writes that a fundamental restructuring of higher education with dramatically lower costs and increased flexibility for millions of students would be a great benefit to the United States. More Americans would have access to higher education, thereby increasing their mobility and value — and hence their earnings — in the work force. But that doesn’t mean that government’s heavy hand should be used to spur on this innovation, though it may have a role in ensuring quality where taxpayer dollars are at stake. Moreover, there are concerns that established institutions could use government rules to measure “quality” (as the government defines it) to block new entrants and competitors in the market, thereby actually decreasing choice and innovation.

When it comes to helping Americans save for college and improve the debt burden of graduates, and avoid incurring so much debt, there are steps Congress can and should take. One is to remove the double taxation of all savings, including savings for college. Another is to give “human capital” investments in college education similar tax benefits to investments in physical capital. Heritage’s Saving the American Dream plan does that. It would end the taxation of savings and it would allow all families to take a tax deduction for higher education costs, capped at the equivalent cost of four years in a state college. Doing so would encourage families to save for college, rather than taking on more debt.

America’s higher education system has reached a tipping point, and with its astronomical costs for students, the system is bound to crash as innovators enter the marketplace and offer alternatives for college-bound students. Rather than prop up a failing system, the federal government should help families save for their children’s futures while also stepping back to allow the higher education revolution to unfold.

The bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg is being criticized for saying Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini would love the country’s public school system because it teaches all children one set of beliefs.

Bishop Joseph P. McFadden made the remark while advocating for school vouchers during an interview last week with Dennis Owens, an anchor with WHTM-TV (ABC27).

“In totalitarian governments, they would love our system,” McFadden said to during the interview. “This is what Hitler and Mussolini and all those tried to establish a monolith so all the children would be educated in one set of beliefs and one way of doing things.”

McFadden’s words sparked outrage from the area chapter of the Anti-Defamation League and a rebuke from the legislative director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

Why would there be ‘outrage’ when someone speaks the truth?  Hitler would love our public school system.  The statement has nothing to do with the Holocaust, but with a man who believed himself to be some sort of god, and made sure the school kids were taught lies and distortion to promote his agenda.  Isn’t that what our public school system does?  Only teaches the THEORY of evolution, when intelligent design should be included.  It teaches kids that ‘global warming, aka climate change’ is a FACT and all the polar bears are drowning.  (My 13 granddaughter told me this, and believe me, we had quite a discussion after that little tidbit.)

Hitler made sure students were taught the Jewish people were inferior,  and not to be trusted.  The Nazi schools totally distorted German history, to make the war against their own citizens some glorious quest.  Aren’t U.S. schools teaching that those who fought and died to create this great country were bad people?  So tell me…..where is the untruth in the Bishop’s statement!  You can’t, because it happens to be TRUE!  The ACLU and the Anti-Defamation League need to get their collective heads out of their collective hinders and see our public school system for what it truly is…..government/union indoctrination!  Same as what Hitler and Mussolini pushed.

Saudi-funded textbooks being used in America’s K-12 classrooms.

Teaching, among other things, that Jesus was a “Palestinian,” the state of Israel never existed, and that the Muslims discovered America before Columbus. At this rate, perhaps even Saudi grade-school textbooks, complete with jihadi and dhimmi declarations, will come to instruct American school-children.

My first question would have to be…why the hell are foreigners funding American text books? Whose bright idea was that?

Islam shares a characteristic of Marxism: Conquer from within. And isn’t that what has been happening. Our schools are run by Marxists, and our text books are being written, and bought, by a foreign country… an ISLAMIC country! Sorry, neither have the values our Founders set forth for us, and should NOT be taught in our schools. How about teaching the truth….warts and all!

If sadly, you were the recipient of such a false education… the Muzzies did NOT discover America..the Vikings were here before Amerigo Vespucci and Christopher Columbus. Jesus was NOT a ‘Palestinian’. There has never been a country called Palestine, except in the Romans minds, as an insult to the resident Jews of ISRAEL! The Old Testament, even if you don’t believe, is a great source of history!

What singular cause could bring together the likes of Democratic campaign strategist James Carville, Republican Governor Bobby Jindal (LA), actor Sacha Baron Cohen, and 2,000 families, all under one roof? The answer: school choice — empowering parents with the ability to save their children from failing schools, thereby giving them a shot at a brighter future.

Those big names came together to kick off National School Choice Week in New Orleans over the weekend, a celebration that is being echoed in some 400 events across the country in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, with half the nation’s governors declaring “School Choice Week” in their states. Actor, comedian, and education advocate Bill Cosby offered his support for school choice, as well:

I strongly support National School Choice Week because all children in America should be able to access the best schools possible. We have a moral and societal obligation to give our children the opportunity to succeed in school, at work, and in life. We cannot meet that obligation unless parents are empowered to select the best schools of their children. I encourage everyone who wants to see a transformation of American education to get involved in National School Choice Week.

The groundswell of support comes after a year of significant strides in the school choice movement. A total of 12 states and the District of Columbia either enacted or expanded school choice options in 2011. Heritage education expert Lindsey Burke explains that last year, “more families than ever before gained access to school choice options, freeing them from assignment-by-zip code policies that often relegate families to the public school closest to their home, regardless of whether it meet their child’s needs.” As a result, more families have access to school choice options — including vouchers, tax credits, homeschooling, online learning, and even education savings accounts.

That expansion of school choice came after what appeared to be ominous news for some of America’s schoolchildren in 2009 and 2010. In Washington, D.C., home to some of the country’s most dangerous and under-performing schools, families of low-income children received vouchers through the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, giving them a chance to choose a brighter educational future. That light of hope, though, was about to be extinguished when Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) inserted a provision in a 2009 spending bill that would have ended the program. That changed, though, when the Tea Party revolution came to Congress, bringing with it a new movement toward school choice. In early 2011, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) successfully fought for the reauthorization of the D.C. scholarship program, ensuring that those families continued to have a choice in education.

The opportunities those children enjoy provide an example for the rest of the country. Heritage president Ed Feulner explains why school choice — and improving education in America — is such a central issue for our country’s future:

There are many good public schools across this country with dedicated teachers who deserve praise. Unfortunately, there also are many bad schools, especially in urban areas. When you consider the damage those institutions inflict, making it nearly impossible for students to learn and fulfill their potential, you realize it’s nothing short of a national crime. That’s why it’s so heartening to see the school-choice movement gaining ground.

This year, leaders at the state level should hear the cries of the families they represent and continue moving toward more school choice in 2012 by expanding options such as school vouchers, tax credits, education savings accounts, and online learning. It’s not a conservative issue or a liberal issue, Republican or Democrat. Ensuring that our children have the best education possible is an American issue, and it’s one that the country should get behind.

There was no lack of education news in 2011. From an explosion in school choice options to the Obama Administration’s executive overreach, the top stories included the high and low lights when it came to issues affecting America’s schools.

10. Obama Administration orchestrates for-profit university witch hunt. On June 2, the Department of Education issued restrictive new regulations targeting “for-profit” higher education institutions. The new “gainful employment” regulation restricts access to student loans for students attending for-profit institutions (like Capella University or the University of Phoenix, for instance) if the school’s average debt-to-earnings ratio exceeds 12 percent of a graduate’s income. The net result? De-facto government price controls on a sector meeting the needs of students historically underserved by traditional universities.

9. Obama forgives student loans. In November, President Obama traveled to the University of Colorado-Boulder to announce his plan to forgive federal student loans — a demand made, notably, by the Occupy Wall Street crowd. Students cannot be required to pay more than 10 percent of their discretionary income on loan payments, all of which will be forgiven after 20 years. Sadly, this executive overreach shifts the burden of paying for college from the students who are directly benefiting from having attended college, to the nearly three-quarters of Americans who did not graduate from college.

8. Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) sees action. Federal education policy watchers were surprised to see the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee pass a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), today known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). As bureaucratic and heavy-handed as NCLB is currently, the Senate HELP Committee’s proposal was 1,000 pages of even more Washington-style education “reform.“ Instead of taking a cue from conservatives in Congress who have put forward proposals to allow states to completely opt-out of the bureaucratic law, the HELP committee put a stamp of approval on a proposal to reinforce the status-quo. Hopefully the Senate committee’s solo action will remain a 2011 relic, and approaches to allow states to opt-out completely will be considered in the new year.

7. House Education and the Workforce Committee moves to reduce federal role in education. This year, the House Education and the Workforce Committee put forward some major proposals to begin the important work of reducing the federal role in education. Two important proposals were introduced: one, by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), would trim the number of programs under NCLB from around 80 down to 43. Another by Chairman John Kline (R-MN), would allow states more flexibility to spend federal education dollars in a way that best meets the needs of local students. Both are good first steps to returning more power to state and local leaders, and reducing Washington’s bloated role in education.

6. Online learning growth accelerates. In 2011, a growing number of families decided to take advantage of the online learning options now available for K-12 students across the country. According to Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning, there are now 30 states with full-time online learning schools, open to students from districts across the state. Forty states offer state-run virtual schools, online charter schools are proliferating, and many more families are taking advantage of private online learning providers. Across the country, students are taking millions of courses online, customizing their educational experiences.

5. Administration continues national standards push. One of the more concerning education developments in 2011 was the Obama Administration’s continued push for states to adopt national standards and tests. The Common Core national standards, created by the National Governor’s Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, have been backed by the Obama administration with $4.35 billion in Race to the Top money (grants were conditioned on states adopting common standards), through the forthcoming No Child Left Behind waivers, and in the Department of Education’s “blueprint” for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. National standards are a significant Washington overreach into what is taught in local schools, and would further remove parents for the educational decision-making process.

4. Obama Administration issues No Child Left Behind waivers. Despite Congressional deliberations over NCLB’s future and thoughtful alternatives to the law put forward by the House Education and the Workforce Committee and others, the Obama Administration decided in the fall of 2011 that time was up and began an end-run around Congress. The Administration began the process of issuing waivers to states for NCLB, conditioning access to the waivers on whether a state was willing to adopt the Administration’s preferred education policies — basically re-writing policy from the White House. The waivers are another executive overreach from the Obama Administration, and state leaders should reject them in 2012 and demand genuine relief from NCLB.

3. States limit collective bargaining. Education unions have long been a roadblock to reform. But in a bold move in early 2011, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker limited the power of public sector collective bargaining in his state. Most importantly, Gov. Walker gave teachers a choice: Public school teachers can now choose whether or not to join a union. Other states like Idaho followed suit and successfully curtailed the excessive power of education unions this year. But the fight isn’t over. Gov. Walker faces a potential recall, which will move forward if 540,000 signatures are collected by January 17, 2012.

2. Congress reauthorizes the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. In 2009 and 2010, families of low-income children receiving vouchers through the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program were reeling with uncertainty. The program was on its way to extinction due to language inserted in a 2009 spending bill by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). But in early 2011, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) made it his personal mission to see that the voucher program was restored and expanded, and he successfully fought for the reauthorization of the D.C. OSP. It was a welcome and well-deserved victory for D.C. families, who had fought so hard to ensure educational opportunity for their children.

1.  Year of School Choice. The most exciting educational development of the last year was captured by a Wall Street Journal editorial headline crowning 2011 “The Year of School Choice.” In 2011, more families than ever before gained access to school choice options, freeing them from assignment-by-zip code policies that often relegate families to the public school closest to their home, regardless of whether it meet their child’s needs. Now, more families have access to school choice options such as vouchers, tax credits, homeschooling, online learning, and even education savings accounts, restoring their control over their child’s education. In all, 12 states and the District of Columbia either enacted or expanded school choice options in 2011.

Gov. Bill Haslam is calling for more study of Tennessee’s new process for evaluating teachers, in a bid to head off legislative action spurred by complaints over the system’s fairness and practicality.

Haslam said Wednesday that he has appointed SCORE, a Nashville advocacy group that pushed for reforms to teacher evaluations, to conduct a formal review of how well the state’s new system is working. The review will coincide with an internal analysis by the Tennessee Department of Education.

The study comes after state lawmakers, including some fellow Republicans, questioned whether efforts to grade teacher performance are being rolled out haphazardly. Haslam defended the new system and urged lawmakers not to take action until after the state and SCORE reports have been delivered.

All teachers need to be evaluated.  If they are unionistas, they need to be examined even more closely!  I’d also like to exactly what they are teaching, how much common knowledge is being taught, so while they are examining the teachers, they also might want to take a real good look at the teacher’s curriculum.

I have no idea what exactly is entailed in this plan, but I’d suggest that looking back over the years on how well each teacher’s students have done in their classroom would be a real good start.  If the large majority of students are learning, then I’d say that teacher is doing fairly well.  If not, then odds are, that particular teacher sucks, and should find a different line of work.

If the system that Gov Haslam came up with needs tweaking, then, by all means, have at it, as long as students are learning what they need to know to survive when they hit the REAL world.  It would also be nice if they were learning the TRUE history of the country, civics, and a bit of ethics.  These seem to be sorely lacking in today’s education.  Teaching the to recycle is all well and fine, but without some knowledge of our past, the kids will undoubtedly continue on the path of what we are seeing today with the likes of OWS and Obamabots.  Ignorance is NOT bliss!  It’s dangerous!

The Pledge of Allegiance is creating a controversy in Lamont. Not the pledge itself, but the language it is recited in.

Elementary students in the Lamont School District recite the pledge in both English and Spanish. Some teachers aren’t happy about it.

It is a pledge of loyalty and allegiance to the United States of America. But, in Lamont, some take offense that the Pledge of Allegiance is recited in a language other than English.

“I think you offer a great way for students to feel included, and it’s the Pledge of Allegiance, no greater honor than to be able to say the Pledge of Allegiance in a second language,” said Fred Molina, Principal, Alicante School.

Honor?  I don’t see anything honorable about having kids pledging allegiance in a language that is NOT the primary language of the country, unless, of course, they have moved an American city to a foreign country, and no one informed the rest of the country.

Since 2002, all students in the district’s three elementary schools have recited the Pledge in English and Spanish. It is a tradition for a city that is 97% Hispanic.

“We haven’t had any complaints from anyone about this issue. We feel it’s a very positive thing for our district,” said Ricardo Robles, Assistant Superintendent.

Are they Hispanic, or are they Americans, citizens of the United States? If those 97% are legal residents, why the need for pledging allegiance in a foreign language? Evidently, assimilating to the country you are living in is no longer expected. Perpetuating a division in the country really isn’t such a great idea. Since there haven’t been any complaints, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that there is no loyalty to the U.S. and therefore, said residents are not to be trusted. Hey…just a wild stab.

Since 2002, 35% of students have been part of a bilingual program where instruction is 50% in English and 50% in Spanish. But, the Pledge is recited by all students, including those who only speak English.

“One of the issues with it being in Spanish is that not everyone got a chance to voice their opinion doing it that way. Every time it was brought up for discussion, it was set aside and we never got a chance to vote for it or even discuss it any further,” said Barry Champagne, teacher.

Most people who choose to come to this country, legally, have always worked hard to assimilate, and learn the language of their new country. That doesn’t seem to be the case with a large number of those who come from Spanish speaking countries. Instead of adapting, the rest of us are expected to accommodate them. Does anyone else find this offensive? Not only does this cause an added expense in education, it also does not help the student to learn the language he or she will be expected to know when it comes time to go out into the world and make a living. 

Earlier this week, the Blaze reported on 9-year-old Emanyea Lockett’s suspension story. As you’ll recall, the child was forced to stay home from school for three days after he called his female teacher “cute.” Now, the principal who qualified these comments as “sexual harassment” has been forced to retire over the incident.

Following the suspension, school officials investigated and determined that Lockett hadn’t done anything wrong (though officials had previously said that Lockett had also been guilty of calling other students inappropriate names — something the boy has denied).

As a result, the principal of Brookside Elementary School, Jerry Bostic, was given an hour to either quit or face termination. Following his forced retirement after a long, 44-year career, the former principal is speaking out.

“I didn’t show a history of making problems like that. I’ve had the best of evaluations my entire career and because of some syndicated columnist in New York or California, I don’t have a job,” he said. ”I admit I made some errors in what I did, but to fire me or to demote me with 44 years in it, it just doesn’t make sense.”

“I made a mistake,” he continued. “I offered to apologize for my mistake, but I wasn’t given that opportunity.”

I honestly can’t feel any sorrow for this principal.  What he did was pure D ignorant!  Perhaps other schools will thing twice before accusing little children of sexual harassment, like when a 4 year kisses another 4 year old on the cheek, or an 8 year old holds the hand of another 8 year old. They have turned innocence into a crime, and it must be stopped!  The power trip that so many in the education system needs to be cut off at the knees!  They are NOT omniscient!

The guy dressed in the suit and tie, smiling and shaking a bevy of hands, caught Grayson Thomas’ eye.

Grayson wasn’t alone. Teachers and other students at Stevenson Ranch Elementary School couldn’t take their eyes off the lunchtime visitor, either.

Grayson, a fifth-grader at the campus near Santa Clarita, Ca., noticed the gentleman’s outward characteristics: Tall and lean. Good looking. Charismatic. Charming. Energetic.

Then he made a fatal error: Grayson, 11, pulled a little “made you look” joke on a schoolmate seated next to him, saying something along the lines of “Obama’s visiting our school today,” referring to the magnetic figure holding court nearby.

If ya look close, there is a startling resemblance.  So?  What’s the problem?

According to Grayson’s dad, Darren Thomas (who provided the previous details), what happened next was scary: Word of his son’s Obama-Schauble comparison spread to Schauble’s daughter, Shelbi, who was sharing lunch with her newsman father. And Shelbi was uncomfortable with Grayson’s statement, saying it felt racist.

“It felt racist”?  What the blazes does THAT mean???? Is it the kid’s fault that people are ignorant? An elementary school kid evidently has been ‘taught’ that anything another kid has said ‘feels’ racist, and I will blame the Obama look alike and his spouse. Does she resemble Michelle? Do I care? Obviously not!

Then a teacher was summoned, then the principal, Candace Fleece, then the Newhall School District superintendent, Marc Winger. And that very afternoon, Nov. 4, Grayson was kicked out of Stevenson Ranch for good, his father says, for implying that all black men look alike.

  Unless someone left something out of this story, I do not see anything that implies that is what the kids meant.  The two men DO look very much alike, and a 10 or 11 year old kid would notice that, without any implications.

Winger apparently revealed a bit more to a local radio news site, which quoted him as saying, “It’s not what [Grayson] said, it’s how he said it…I can tell you that there was history and that the student had been counseled and we met with the parents.”

It’s besides the point, says Darren Thomas, that neither Winger, Fleece, nor Solomon—not even Schauble or his daughter—were within earshot to evaluate “how” his son originally stated his Obama-lookalike comment. The kicker, Darren says, is that school officials had no basis for determining that Grayson’s comparison implied that all black men look alike. And then they punished him.

You know what they say about assuming, right?  Assume…makes as ass out of u and me!  And this bunch has certainly shown themselves to be total asses!  As do ALL the ‘politically correct’ morons!

The Truth About Public School Teacher Pay
The Foundry

Last winter, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) traveled his state, holding a series of townhalls in which he touted a significant but politically unpopular plan: asking public school teachers to accept a pay freeze and begin contributing 1.5 percent of their salaries toward their health care plans, whereas before they paid nothing. It’s a battle that pitted Christie against powerful teachers unions, and it’s a fight that has brought the issue of teacher pay to the center of the public square.

That battle has played itself out across the country. Earlier this year in Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker (R) faced a $3 billion structural deficit and the fourth-highest tax burden in the country. Among the reforms he enacted were limits to collective bargaining power and reform of public employee benefit plans, which included asking public-sector employees (including teachers) to make a 5.8 percent contribution into their pension plans and pick up the tab for 12 percent of their health care benefits, whereas before they paid nothing. Walker’s actions led to unionized education employees leaving schools in protest and Democratic lawmakers fleeing the state in order to prevent the plan from passing the legislature.

Today, Governor John Kasich of Ohio (R) faces a similar fight. Earlier this year, the state legislature enacted reforms of public sector union benefits, but now the issue is up for repeal in a statewide ballot initiative.

In New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Ohio, teachers unions have led the effort to beat back the reforms, arguing that teachers are overworked and underpaid and taking issue with even modest reforms to pension benefits as states grapple with budget deficits. But a new paper by Jason Richwine, Ph.D. and Andrew Biggs addresses the question of teacher pay head on and asks whether teachers today receive the right level of pay. They find that when benefits such as tenure, health care, and pensions are considered, the typical public-school teacher is well-paid: “We conclude that public-school-teacher salaries are comparable to those paid to similarly skilled private-sector workers, but that more generous fringe benefits for public-school teachers, including greater job security, make total compensation 52 percent greater than fair market levels, equivalent to more than $120 billion overcharged to taxpayers each year.”

Richwine and Biggs also find that when it comes to pay, some of the best teachers are being left behind:

While union contracts help secure overcompensation for the average teacher, they may still leave the most valuable teachers underpaid. School administrators need to be able to hire and fire teachers as needed, basing personnel decisions on rigorous value-added evaluations and setting pay based on prevailing market rates.

Case in point: the Farmington, Michigan, school district. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports that in that district, the average gym teacher’s salary is $75,035, whereas science teachers make $68,483 on average. Likewise, in Harrison, Michigan, “science teachers earned $49,000 on average while gym teachers averaged $62,000.” Tom Gantert writes, “This is not unusual, because school districts don’t differentiate what a teacher does when considering compensation, regardless of the district’s educational needs. Teachers are paid on a single salary schedule based on seniority and education level.” And that single salary schedule is negotiated in the union contract.

More than ever, high-quality teachers and ensuring that our children have the best education possible is central to America’s future. The best teachers should be rewarded, and schools should have the freedom to make the right decisions to get the job done.

A board of county commissioners in North Carolina is asking the Supreme Court for help: Its members don’t believe they should have to forbid volunteers from mentioning the name of Jesus in prayers offered before their meetings.

But the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State are standing by their victory in a U.S. circuit court decision that states even “a solitary reference to Jesus Christ” in invocations before the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners’ meetings could do “violence to the pluralistic and inclusive values that are a defining feature of American public life.”

Furthermore, wrote Judge James Harvie Wilkinson III in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals majority opinion, legislative invocations offered in Jesus’ name are inherently “sectarian” and thus should be censored lest they make some attendees feel “uncomfortable, unwelcome and unwilling to participate in … public affairs.”

I’m quite confused. I looked up Judge Wilkinson, and from what I read, this sort of ruling seems quite out of character for him. As a Reagan appointee, he has, or at least had, made common sense, constitutional rulings, as best I can tell. So, why the change? I’m sure he’s quite aware of the 1st Amendment, and the history.  The Constitution puts limits on the government, NOT the people.  Judges are sworn to uphold the Constitution, not deny the people their God given rights.

Organizations like the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Freedom From Religion have twisted the Constitution, with the aid of unscrupulous judges with an agenda. What is that agenda? Well, apparently, it’s the same as the Communists.

Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions, by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all form of artistic expression. An American communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings,” substituting shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.

Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”

Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.

Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and television.

Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural and healthy.”

Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”

Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”

Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of “the big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the communists took over. Obliterating the American past, with its antecedents in principles of freedom, liberty and private ownership is a major goal of the communists then and now.

Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture – education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

Sound familiar? Many of these same things have been happening during my lifetime. I’ve watched the changes, and the results. Not an attractive scenario. This isn’t the country that was envisioned when the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1787.  The Freedom From Religion Foundation apparently is completely unfamiliar with the history of this nation.  Thanks to them, and groups like them, it’s no longer being taught in our tax payer funded public schools.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Where do blessings come from? Surely, these organizations can’t believe blessings come from the government, do they? If so, then, I’m afraid there is no hope for them, or our nation. Using a phrase written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association has been taken so out of context, it has turned a God fearing nation into a nation full of destructive perversions.

In England, you belonged to the established church.  Otherwise, you caught hell.  Henry VIII pulled a few verses out of the Bible and asked the Pope to dissolve the marriage. The Pope said no, which of course, pissed off the king. He broke with the Roman Catholic Church, declaring himself the head of the Church of England, so he could divorce Catherine of Aragon, a very Catholic lady.  Their daughter, Mary, would be declared a bastard, because in Henry’s twisted logic, the marriage wasn’t legitimate because Catherine was his brother’s widow.  Henry married Anne Boleyn, had a daughter, Elizabeth. He then whacked off Anne’s head so he could marry Jane Seymour, and it continued till the dude died. Mary, the first daughter, took the crown, brought back the Roman Catholic church, and burned about 300 people at the stake, which earned her the name “Bloody Mary”. When she didn’t produce an heir, she was basically forced to name her half sister Elizabeth, an Anglican protestant, as her heir. She brought back the Church of England. So, what we had were people escaping from the oppression of forced religion by the state. In the colonies, they established their own rules for the practice of faith. When Independence was declared from England, it was the intent of the Founders to allow communities to establish their own rules and regulations concerning religion. And they did.

The United States was NOT founded as a secular nation, contrary to what these modern day organizations may want you to believe. It is ONLY Congress who is prohibited from establishing a state religion, not the communities. Saying the name of Jesus is NOT unconstitutional. The actions of the ACLU, Freedom From Religion, and Judge Wilkinson are unconstitutional.