A Resolution for Enhancement of Quality Education for Nebraska's Youth

Whereas an educated population being necessary to informed voting, economic growth and tranquility in daily discourse, and whereas since the federal government of the United States and many funding bodies not directly linked to Nebraska schools, have become involved in local public schools and the education of our Nebraska children to an invasive extent, scores have dropped, a large percentage of graduates must take remedial classes in Math before attending Nebraska’s Universities, and division between segments of our population have grown, be it resolved that the State of Nebraska breaks all ties with federal control of education within our borders.  Any and all remuneration for education can be accepted from any source by any school of the parent’s choice including private schools, but funding may not be accepted by any Nebraska school when tied to changes in curriculum or added burdens for the school.

All public school boards are to be dissolved, administrative offices used in the future as classrooms, and each public school principal is required to accept nominations for a board made up only of parents or custodians of his/her school’s students and organize an election (one parental vote per pupil in attendance at that school) within two weeks of the start of the school term. The principal and the subsequently elected board write the budget and determine materials and resources required for the year.  Once in place, this election can be held closer to the end of their school term for the following year. All principals are required to teach one or more classes during the school day to keep in touch with students. California Achievement tests are administered at the end of each school term (annually) to determine the quality of the individual teacher and determine their individual bonus by the actual growth and performance of those so trustingly placed in their care.  New students or transfers can be administered the tests at the principal's discretion.
Staff members tasked to individually assist the disabled, in accordance with ADA law, are funded by that federal agency and barring classroom disruption, the child and their assistant may mainstream in public schools.  Impact aid from the federal government for areas close to Offutt reduce the amount allocated per pupil.

All private schools also administer California Achievement tests and results are published in the local newspapers annually next to the public school scores.  If a parent changes jobs and their employer maintains a school on the premises, there should be no barriers for their child changing to that school.  The school day, materials, hours, business involvement, is at the discretion of the each school as long as their overall achievement remains acceptable which is the only Unicameral function, setting the lower end of achievement which may cause a vote to determine if the school is to be closed or a principal replaced. 

I recommend a return to the Spalding Method of teaching reading which involves saying, hearing, writing (penmanship) and seeing words and phonic patterns to build a list of spelling words that are understood by the child including how to form those words on paper, read them, spell them, listen and say them.  As their book of sounds and words grow, "reader texts" may not be required as children may select topics of interest from their classroom's library of books. The board of parents and the principal make decisions on "texts" for young readers, however. Students are better able to think independently and contribute to current community ideas when they've been taught to read effectively.  

Could this work in Nebraska?

Maurice P. McTigue is a distinguished visiting scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he directs the government accountability project. Previously, he was a member of the New Zealand Parliament and New Zealand’s ambassador to Canada, and was closely involved in New Zealand’s deregulation of labor markets, deregulation of the transportation industry, and restructuring of the fishing industry through the creation of conservation incentives. He also served as Minister of Employment, Minister of State Owned Enterprises, Minister of Railways, Minister of Works and Development, Minister of Labour and Minister of Immigration. Among his many honors, Mr. McTigue is a recipient of the Queen’s Service Order, bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. In the U.S., he was recently appointed to the Office of Personnel Management Senior Review Committee, formed to make recommendations for human resources systems at the Department of Homeland Security. He also sits on the Performance Management Advisory Committee for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The following is [an excerpt] adapted from a lecture delivered on February 11, 2004, on the Hillsdale campus, during a five-day seminar on “The Conditions of Free-Market Capitalism,” co-sponsored by the Center for Constructive Alternatives and the Ludwig von Mises Lecture Series.

New Zealand had an education system that was failing as well. It was failing about 30 percent of its children—especially those in lower socio-economic areas. We had put more and more money into education for 20 years, and achieved worse and worse results.

It cost us twice as much to get a poorer result than we did 20 years previously with much less money. So we decided to rethink what we were doing here as well. The first thing we did was to identify where the dollars were going that we were pouring into education. We hired international consultants (because we didn’t trust our own departments to do it), and they reported that for every dollar we were spending on education, 70 cents was being swallowed up by administration. Once we heard this, we immediately eliminated all of the Boards of Education in the country. Every single school came under the control of a board of trustees elected by the parents of the children at that school, and by nobody else. We gave schools a block of money based on the number of students that went to them, with no strings attached. At the same time, we told the parents that they had an absolute right to choose where their children would go to school. It is absolutely obnoxious to me that anybody would tell parents that they must send their children to a bad school. We converted 4,500 schools to this new system all on the same day.

But we went even further: We made it possible for privately owned schools to be funded in exactly the same way as publicly owned schools, giving parents the ability to spend their education dollars wherever they chose. Again, everybody predicted that there would be a major exodus of students from the public to the private schools, because the private schools showed an academic advantage of 14 to 15 percent. It didn’t happen, however, because the differential between schools disappeared in about 18-24 months. Why? Because all of a sudden teachers realized that if they lost their students, they would lose their funding; and if they lost their funding, they would lose their jobs. Eighty-five percent of our students went to public schools at the beginning of this process. That fell to only about 84 percent over the first year or so of our reforms. But three years later, 87 percent of the students were going to public schools. More importantly, we moved from being about 14 or 15 percent below our international peers to being about 14 or 15 percent above our international peers in terms of educational attainment.

Grand Tour to California

First 1/2 Google map for Grand tour to California
Second 1/2 Google map for Grand tour to California


Useful links:
http://www.sfcityguides.org/ San Francisco Walking Tours
http://www.cityofgolden.net/play/recreation-attractions/clear-creek-rv-park/ Golden's RV park
http://www.bikeslc.com/WheretoRide/CycletheCity.html Bike tour and rental in Salt Lake

Calendar (chalked in only):

Firm Date-Drive from Omaha on May 24^th

Stay at Golden Clear Creek RV Park, 547 mi / 7h 40 min 

Drive from Golden on May 25^th stopping on route overnight. 

Reach Verde National Park for 2:00 tour on May 26th and spend night, 440 mi / 7 h 40 min

Morning of 27th, Drive to Grand Canyon National Park, 571 mi /4 h 3 min,

Drive toward San Diego, 571 mi/8 hr 16 min, stopping on route for overnight on May 27th.

May 28th-29th Tour SeaWorld Balboa Park, La Jolla Seals, etc.

May 30^th Day at Disneyland, 1 hr 29 min

May 31^th Day at Big Sur, Limekiln State Park 202 mi/3h 44 min + 93.2mi/ 1h 41 min (thru Ventura)

June 1st Golden Gate Park 173 mi / 3 h 39 min.

Best Western Plus Airport Inn & Suites

170 Hegenberger Loop, Oakland, CA, 94621

Property Information: +1 510 633-0500

1 Room:Standard Room, 2 Queen Beds

3 Guests:2 Adults 1 Child

2 Nights:Sun Jun/1/2014 to Tue Jun/3/201

2^nd and 3rd in San Fran area driving up to Armstrong woods, ride trolleys, see wharf, Chinatown, etc. and head home through Sacramento with possible stops at Lake Tahoe, on 4rd, stop on 5th, day at Salt Lake, 6th on way home. 

This builds in 1 day for repairs.  Wish us luck! 

The Radical Individualism of Paul Goodman

Richard Wall’s, “The Radical Individualism of Paul Goodman,” is a beautiful essay that captures the central core spirit of Paul Goodman. Newer LRC readers must be made aware of this inspirational prophetic voice who still speaks to us today in his powerful words and noble sentiments of humane resistance and courage:

How profoundly alien our present establishment is…[…] The term “establishment” itself is borrowed from the British – for snobbish and literary reasons, and usually with an edge of satire. But we have had no sovereign to establish such a thing, and there is no public psychology to accept it as legitimate. It operates like an establishment: it is the consensus of politics, the universities and science, big business, organized labor, public schooling, the media of communications, the official language; it determines the right style and accredits its own members; it hires and excludes, subsidizes and neglects. But it has no warrant of legitimacy, it has no tradition, it cannot talk straight English, it neither has produced nor could produce any art, it does not lead by moral means but by a kind of social engineering, and it is held in contempt and detestation by the young.

The American tradition- I think the abiding American tradition – is pluralist, populist and libertarian, while the Establishment is interlocked, mandarin, and managed. And the evidence is that its own claim, that it is efficient, is false. It is fantastically wasteful of brains, money, the environment, and people. It is channeling our energy and enterprise to its own aggrandizement and power, and it will exhaust us.

I would almost say that our country is like a conquered province with foreign rulers, except that they are not foreigners and we are responsible for what they do.”

~ Like a Conquered Province, chapter 6: “Is American Democracy Viable?

Anti-War

They shot JFK, and LBJ escalated the war in Vietnam. When Martin Luther King, Jr, came out with his anti-war feelings, they shot him, too. His family has publicly said the man in jail didn't do it. 

Anti-war feelings grew and Eugene McCarthy [D] won a primary against LBJ funded by deep pocket democrat donors who would be punished by the party if their names were revealed. After McCarthy won, anti-war RFK jumped in and won in California. They shot him, too. Then they passed the FEC which 'Clean Gene' McCarthy [D] said was to silence [by defunding] dissidents.  

An owner of a major truck stop once said that donating to a third party candidate could cause road construction to close his exit off the Interstate for months. Now we know that's never done to punish ... no one would ever close lanes on a bridge to cause traffic jams, right? A woman whose family owned a grocery found their street closed with a 2 block detour for access until their store went broke and her husband died of a heart attack. He had openly opposed the current Mayor as being corrupt and he won reelection.

FEC Campaign records are scoured by people like you and me to find out who funds our favored candidate, right? Wrong; they are scoured by political party hacks. 

Along came the Internet and money bombs, and even before money bombs, Dr. Dean collected funds from the Internet. Those populous candidates are crushed by the main stream media who can take one 'scream' from Dr. Dean or a political dirty trick from Christie and turn it into an anchor.  They miscaracterize Dr. Ron Paul as an isolationist rather than a Jeffersonian 'Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations...entangling alliances with none!'

While Dr. Ron Paul was speaking at the University in New Hampshire, outside on the steps in the falling snow because the room was too small, John McCain was in the State visiting a munitions plant. McCain kept his powerful seat in the Senate signing those contracts over to suppliers of war and won the New Hampshire primary.  

Now, will the GOP do the right thing and let the next Ronald Reagan be nominated. Reagan was not the presumptive nominee, Gerald Ford was, and Reagan won only after several ballots. Ford was a good man but would have either lost or compromised so it would be the same as a loss for the anti-war majority. 

Hillary voted for the Iraq war and helped stage Libya for the chaos and bombing they've faced. We saw not one injured Libyan child after dropping 1000s of bombs a day. What? Hillary directed our ambassador in Syria to assist rebels in an attempt to overthrow Assad. Stop a moment and think: What if the Syrian ambassador to the USA assisted rebels in attempt to overthrow OUR leader? Look at the refugees and the carnage in Syria yet Kerry sent rebels funds February, 2013, and then later sent them HUGE military weaponry. The Benghazi visit may have been about shuffling some of the Libyan weapons to Syrian rebels.  

We invaded and occupied two of Iran's neighbors, deposed Iranians' elected leader and installed the Shah and shot down a domestic airliner by accident. We tell them they can participate in UN talks about another neighbor, Syria, only if they agree to the verdict first; trial later. Assad must go??? what? 

I'm beginning to believe our foreign policy isn't about peace but is about funding the military industrial complex so they don't shoot our elected leaders. And I'm beginning to think NSA data may be more about coercing votes from any elected leaders and/or justices of the USSC than security. 

How can we possibly know the truth anymore?

• 
  

  Reagan’s greatest achievement is hawks worst fear

  rare.us
  

  Republicans who want war with Iran shouldn’t be invoking Reagan.

Community Chest

How can we, as Americans, recover from the current spiral in newly created federal reserve notes, low interest rates that encourage debt, not saving, and the military industrial complex putting our troops into situations to breed hatred, local strife, and as on 9/11, result in harm?

How can we recover from the boomers' loss of social security retirement to inflation even as they've been lied to about a trust fund?  How can Medicare, after Boomers have added 40% to the number of seniors by 2015, stay solvent paying for $50,000 knee replacements twice per patient?

How can we use community efforts, de-funding the bulk of the federal government, to help those left behind?  Can we create Community Chests close to the needy and avoid the strings of federal government involvement?

------------------------

A couple decades ago when I was quite naive, I wrote a proposal for the Omaha Housing Authority.  My suggestion would eliminated offices, duplication of overhead and clerical workers around the city that administer the goals of the multitude of federal programs.

I'm sure it quickly hit the trash.

I suggested to OHA that they consolidate their grants and programs and buy a modest home near K-6 schools.  Those in need of assistance would be required to bring their children and spend 40 hours a week in the home.  Their school age children would attend the nearby school.  Rather than chasing down recipients, the Visiting Nurses drug test, give inoculations, and provide child health care advice at the community owned home.  A visiting nutritionist from the University designs healthy menus to be prepared.  A neighbor donates time to help prepare meals, another teaches sewing or knitting and later rocks the babies while the [mostly] single moms, looked for work or worked at the community home or school.

In other words, for at least 40 hours a week, the children are fed and cared for in a safe environment away from the streets, crime and danger.

Reading skill tests would assess kids and parents alike and the Spalding method used to start at the beginning to teach reading comprehension for those who have fallen behind.

Work at the Community home depends on actions.  If a parent brought their children on time and was dressed appropriately, their job assignment may be learning to search for dead-beat-dads on the Internet.  They learn computer and office skills which would help in a job search.  If they came late, slovenly or inappropriately dressed, they might instead rake the playground at the school or clean the bathrooms. Children would never face the embarrassment of being dirty or inappropriately dressed at school, as those conditions would be corrected before they left for school.

Moms would be encouraged to select a roommate and work shifts to pay rent helping them become more independent.  Every step toward independence would be encouraged.  Food would be prepared for recipients to take home for the weekend. No funds would change hands.  In order to marry or live with another, they would have to prove financial responsibility for themselves and for the family.  Too many today move in with a mom on welfare and contribute little or nothing to the household expenses.

A volunteer can take parents to garage sales shopping for kids clothes.  On the weekend, a kids movie might be rented, shown at the community house with popcorn.  No one is allowed inside the home without an appropriate ID.

Those who found a job might use the home for daycare, contributing some of their income, until they are on their feet.  Social workers and early childhood educators work at the home, too, charging for daycare, including overnight for shift workers, to buy food and essentials for those without jobs.

Sending checks for disability or unemployment from government should end.  Private disability insurance is available and unemployment in the States is paid for by the employers, not the government.  For all who fall through the cracks, the community chest becomes their benefactor.

Merkel isn't buying excuses

Merkel isn't buying excuse that recording her phone was unintentional. She is one smart COOKIE!
Remember years ago, the G12 demanded she 'stimulate' the economy to help save Greece! She declined and which nation in Europe again has seen an improving economic outlook? Answer: Germany
She said it all in a PBS interview, (paraphrasing:)
Since Luther, Germans have known how to succeed. We work hard, we save and we live thriftily.
Considering that Germany has recovered from the loss of two World Wars and reunification, I'd say she is onto something. With interest rates at under 1%, way below inflation, we turned our backs on savings years ago. We replaced bank loan officers paid by the bank to protect our assets with brokers paid by percentage and had no interest in whether the loan could or would be repaid. Bush thought the poor would grow the economy if he cut their taxes. He raised child credits and EITC until almost 50% paid no federal income taxes by 2008. They didn't save, invest or start businesses, though, they could barely pay the cable bill. And Bernanke just kept manufacturing new money which of course mainly benefits the 1%. Now Bernanke is replaced by a woman, and I have to say this, sorry, she may be left to 'clean up' in the end.
The Brits lost the world currency, their pound sterling; so it can happen. We are not immune. Its the middle class and poor who are paying the piper, sadly.
The money and power, the lobbyists, and the shakers and movers mostly live in ‘This Town,’ by Mark Leibovich. I recommend it.

"The Lakota have an even stronger concept than tribal sovereignty, namely personal sovereignty. I have been told by the author of “Atlantis“, Robert Klassen, that “tawamiciya” is a word in the Sioux language, meaning to belong to oneself, free of other men." Michael S. Rozeff