Should Schools Get back to our "Historic Judeo-Christian Principles?"
Update from USA Today:
No, no and no.
From the Washington Post, Influential conservative group: Trump, DeVos should dismantle Education Department and bring God into classrooms
The document proposes demoting the department to a presidential “Advisory Council on Public Education Reform,” a sub-Cabinet-level agency that would serve as a consultant to states. New employees should subscribe to the educational worldview of the Trump administration, it says, “from assistant secretaries to the mailroom.”
Really? Would there be an oath to work in that agency? A litmus test?
And DeVos said this at her confirmation hearing:
Two congressional lawmakers are asking the Trump administration to restore a missing U.S. government website that helps families navigate a complex federal law on students with disabilities. They also want U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ assurance that the site won’t be stripped down during her tenure.end of update
Education advocates late last month noticed that the site, idea.ed.gov, had been shut down. It has since reappeared, but in the past few days it has linked to a generic page offering information about the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
But the hearing unleashed concerns from special education groups — in a Jan. 26 letter to lawmakers, Denise Marshall, executive director of The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc., an advocacy group, said DeVos “manifested an appalling lack of knowledge of educational concepts, the difference between the federal and state statutes that govern education, and basic facts about public education. Specifically, her lack of knowledge of the IDEA is disturbing and offensive to us.”
Marshall said DeVos’ stance, whether due to confusion or ideological belief, “is unacceptable and clearly indicates that Ms. DeVos is unqualified to serve as Secretary of Education.”
No, no and no.
From the Washington Post, Influential conservative group: Trump, DeVos should dismantle Education Department and bring God into classrooms
A policy manifesto from an influential conservative group with ties to the Trump administration, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, urges dismantling the Education Department and bringing God into American classrooms.Further,
The five-page document produced by the Council for National Policy calls for a “restoration of education in America” that would minimize the federal role, promote religious schools and homeschooling and enshrine “historic Judeo-Christian principles” as a basis for instruction.
Names of the council’s members are closely held. But the Southern Poverty Law Center published a 2014 membership directory showing that Stephen K. Bannon — now chief White House strategist for President Trump — was a member and that Kellyanne Conway — now counselor to the president — served on the council’s executive committee.
It also says states should encourage K-12 public schools to post the Ten Commandments, teach Bible classes and recognize holidays such as Easter and Christmas; promote instruction “from a Judeo-Christian perspective”; and remove “secular-based sex education materials from school facilities.”And
It calls for the termination of the Common Core academic standards and an end to the government collection of student data, which has generated concerns among activists on the right and the left.
The goal, it says, is a “gradual, voluntary return at all levels to free-market private schools, church schools and home schools as the normative American practice.”
The document proposes demoting the department to a presidential “Advisory Council on Public Education Reform,” a sub-Cabinet-level agency that would serve as a consultant to states. New employees should subscribe to the educational worldview of the Trump administration, it says, “from assistant secretaries to the mailroom.”
Really? Would there be an oath to work in that agency? A litmus test?
And DeVos said this at her confirmation hearing:
“My faith is very important to me and informs my work. In education, it teaches me that every child is special and deserves the best we can offer them,” she wrote in response to Franken’s question. “That said, I do not believe in imposing my faith on others and, if confirmed, I will implement the laws as intended by Congress. That includes the provisions about the prohibition against religious instruction in schools.”Ah, but if Congress changed those laws on religious instruction in public schools, Ms. DeVos?
“I can’t tell you today what’s being done that’s unnecessary, but I can guarantee that there are things that the department has been doing that are probably not necessary or important for a federal agency to do,” she told Michael Patrick Shiels, a Michigan radio host, this week. “Really, when it comes down to it, education and the provision of education is really a state and local responsibility to a large extent.”She doesn't even KNOW anything about the department she wants to run/dismantle? Points for being honest, minus points for being ignorant.
Comments
That's why she was nominated for that role.
No DeVos
Think
OuttaSeattle
1) The Christian right has been saying essentially the same thing for 40 years. Is anything new?
2) The Post has been writing exactly the same response for 40 years. I wonder if there is such a person as Emma Brown, or if the story was actually written by computer. If Ms. Brown actually exists, she ought to be nervous, because Amazon definitely has AI which could have written the story in about 15 seconds, and software doesn't demand free contraceptives or family leave.
Ignore the reportobot (whether it's live or software, hardly matters) and consider whether anything is actually new. Well, maybe a couple of things:
1) One wonders how Betsy planned to give vouchers for religious schools without letting Muslims use them to attend madrassas. "Taxpayer funded madrassa" has an odd ring to it in Republican ears. Ironic how the alt-right called Obama a closet Muslim for eight years, but it was Betsy DeVos who introduced taxpayer-funded madrassas.
2) Maybe the Christian right, after a very long losing streak, sees a chance finally to bounce back as white people fully embrace identity politics, by positioning old-school Christianity as part of white identity. In which case the computer-generated response by the Bezos Post plays into their hands.
3) That old rag called the constitution has fallen into such low esteem on both the right and left, deep state and shallow state, that maybe it won't make a difference much longer. Like really, it mentions slavery so what moral authority could it have?
I find your words on Ms Brown (who I have actually talked to) to be distasteful. Don't get personal in your remarks.
And yes, if DeVos wanted to give vouchers to religious schools, it would be problematic for Muslim schools. Except, by then, Trump will have made all Muslim activities some kind of "radical Islam" and they would unable to access those funds.
I'm sorry you don't believe in the Constitution; I still do.
Radical Islamic beliefs are held by an estimated 27% of all Muslims or 432,000,000 of the 1.9 billion Muslims worldwide and growing. That's 890,000 of the 3,300,000 living in the US. I suggest you think hard about those numbers and what they represent for the future of all non-Muslims here in the US. There are many similarities between the Nazis and those Muslims that follow Sharia law.
The 624 years of Ottoman rule was not peaceful or tolerant and the idea the Islam is peaceful is just plain ignorant.Now with Turkey once again under Islamic control it's only a matter of time before Islam makes a push for Europe and beyond. In the past we were protected by large oceans on our west and east boarders keeping invaders far away. Foolishly our government gleefully imports these enemies across those protective oceans and those enemies will patently wait for generations before acting. Who will be our Russians?
Don't repeat
Part of what makes me proud to be an American is that at our best, we are not intimidated by nonsense, nor are we motivated by fear. It is when we are that our worst instincts, and not our best, emerge. Turkey has as much chance of making a "push for Europe" as I have of flapping my arms and flying to the moon.
-- Ivan Weiss
Honey, don't stop with just the moose and lambs. Don't forget the Grizzlies. I know they are endangered, but with De Vos, she's bringing them back. Bigly back.
Which of course with such facts in tow, this brings us to your stupendous, calculated logic. Roughly 70% of Americans identify as "Christians". So by your logic, 70% of 322 million Americans gives us about 225 mil Christians and 25% of that goes to the Nazis = 5.6 million Nazis here in good old US. Better add that to your 890,000 number. There's probably a small number of Wiccans and Budddhists to add as well. In fact, better blow the Trumpet and get this fact to the Daily Caller and Breitbart pronto. ....Or the Russian's?! 'Cause that's a lot of 'bad hombres'.
Everyday math
Everyday math
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/after-school-satan-satanic-temple-portland-approved/
The Portland chapter of The Satanic Temple has succeeded in its efforts to bring an after-school program called “After School Satan” to a Portland elementary school.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the organization has been approved to begin a program on Oct. 19 at Sacramento Elementary School.
Finn Rezz, one of the group’s leaders, says their program focuses “on science and rational thinking,” and it will promote “benevolence and empathy for everybody.”
The group says it hopes to counter the influence of Christian after-school programs, such as Good News Clubs, that have popped up at schools in the wake of a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for religious organizations to establish after-school activities at public school facilities. (more)
-McClureWatcher
Could you site the source for that figure and how many live in the U.S.?
"Foolishly our government gleefully imports these enemies across those protective oceans and those enemies will patently wait for generations before acting."
Generations? Seems like a long time to wait to overthrow a country.
Google it
PEACHES
-IThoughtSo
-IThoughtSo
The reportobot can't even be bothered to ask, is anything new here? Presumably her bosses don't care either. The stuff about ten commandments etc. in public schools is so hopeless in the current legal environment, why would this all-powerful cabal even bother? Because: they want to bang their heads on that rock one more time because suffering gets them heaven points? Or they plan to launch a constitutional amendment? Or they don't think the constitution will matter much longer? Or they are just playing the reportobot? Doesn't it strike you as odd that the reportobot is not even curious about this? The fact that she is not curious reveals what her job really is and why AI could easily take it over.
The strangest part of the story is perhaps the guy at the end, speaking only for himself (??), who advocates "repeal and replace" for the public schools. Does that idea have wide support in right wing circles? Is it advancing at the local level (where presumably it would need to happen)? You won't find out in the Amazon Post.
"The great thing about Judeo-Christian principals is that there are so many from which to choose! Should we give our teenage daughters to any visiting strangers to do what they want with?"
Principles... I think...
-McClureWatcher
Muslims are the original Nazis.
Rally time
http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/islam-in-america/
When the first Muslims came to the land that would become the United States is unclear. Many historians claim that the earliest Muslims came from the Senegambian region of Africa in the early 14th century. It is believed they were Moors, expelled from Spain, who made their way to the Caribbean and possibly to the Gulf of Mexico.
When Columbus made his journey to the United States, it is said he took with him a book written by Portuguese Muslims who had navigated their way to the New World in the 12th century.
What is clear is the make up of the first real wave of Muslims in the United States: African slaves of whom 10 to 15 percent were said to be Muslims….
Between 1878 and 1924, Muslim immigrants from the Middle East, particularly from Syria and Lebanon, arrived in large numbers, with many settling in Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and even the Dakotas. Like most other migrants they were seeking greater economic opportunity than in their homeland and often worked as manual laborers. One of the first big employers of Muslims and blacks was the Ford Company—these were often the only people willing to work in the hot, difficult conditions of the factories.
At the same time, the Great Migration of blacks to the North helped encourage the African-American Islam revival …(more)…
-McClureWatcher
Watch whatever helps you justify your hatred and remember this, you are free to leave this country at anytime.
Jesus saves
Learn religion in church and at home, or not, but in any case, not in any government institution.
And Think, I'm accepting your 27% number as true only for the sake of argument. Because of the different branches of Islam, that number is not likely to be spread equally among all Muslims. The number in the US could be a tiny fraction of that. Any ability to think critically would have told you that, unless you NEED to believe that the US Muslims are out to get you, to justify your hatred. If you really want to be afraid, your likelihood of being killed by an angry white guy with a gun is dramatically higher than the likelihood of being killed by a "radical Islamic terrorist". That's statistics. Your Republican friends in Congress just made it easier for mentally ill people to own guns. Because, the Constitution. But screw the Constitution and equal protection when it comes to those you hate.
Despicable You
Jesus Saves
Thank God we have a president that disagrees with you.
Jesus Saves
Professor Ruud Koopmans of the Netherlands warned the EU on Monday to block the entry of any refugees whose identity cannot be categorically confirmed.
Koopmans said that of the 1 billion adult Muslims in the world, ‘half of them are attached to an arch-conservative Islam which places little worth on the rights of women, homosexuals, and people of other faiths’.
In an interview with a German news website he claimed that of these 500million conservative Muslims, at least – and probably more – than 50 million are willing to sanction violence.
He says he considers his own estimate of 50 million ‘an understatement’, citing studies that show eight per cent of German Muslims agreed to the use of violence against ‘Infidels,’ while in his own country 11 per cent of Muslims agreed with the statement: ‘There are situations in which it is acceptable for me from the perspective of my religion, that I use violence.’
It only took 19 Muslims to destroy the twin towers, damage the Pentagon and kill 2,977 people.
Never forget