American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten is known primarily for two things: screaming into microphones at political rallies and making the teacher’s union an extension of the Democratic Party. However, Weingarten had an unintended substantive moment when she changed her earlier position on the elimination of the Education Department. Weingarten previously shrugged off the elimination of the department as not a big deal for education. Recently, she returned to her irate default in denouncing the elimination. The reason, however, was telling.
After Trump was reelected in November, Weingarten said that the elimination was not a big deal and that teachers had originally opposed the creation of the department: “I mean, my members don’t really care about whether they have a bureaucracy of the Department of Education or not. In fact, Al Shanker and the [American Federation of Teachers] in the 1970s were opposed to its creation.”
Now, however, Weingarten has resumed her natural state of being “really angry.” In an interview with MSNBC, Weingarten explained:
“That is why so many people are so mad about it. Because they’re just taking opportunity away from kids that don’t have it. So billionaires – kids of billionaires, they have it, they go to private schools. Everyone else, 90% go to public schools. Don’t take away their opportunity.Sorry, I’m really angry about this … I’m really angry,”
However, it is the reason that is most interesting.
In a podcast, Weingarten explained that they have to avoid such “block grants” going to families. Host Molly Jong-Fast readily agreed, raising the danger that it might even support Catholic and religious schools. Weingarten stressed that “We know, for example, what Texas would do. They’ll use it for vouchers. So they won’t give [federal funding] to the kids who have it now, they’ll just give it for vouchers.”
There is reason for Weingarten and the teacher’s union being so concerned. Florida allows for school choice and has demanded greater performance from public schools. Despite attacks by Weingarten and other Democrats, Florida has been ranked as the number one state for both education and the economy.
We have previously discussed how schools have been dropping the use of standardized tests to achieve diversity goals in admissions. That trend continued this month with Cal State dropping standardized testing “to level the playing field” for minority students. I have long been a critic of this movement given the overwhelming evidence that these tests allow an objective measure of academic merit and have great predictive value on the performance of students.
Many colleges and universities are returning to standardized testing after the much-acclaimed abandonment of the tests for a more “holistic approach” to selection.
However, public educators have continued to lower proficiency requirements and cancel gifted programs to “even the playing field.” The result has been to further hide the dismal scores and educational standards of many public school districts.
I previously wrote about how public educators and teacher unions are killing public education in America. Many of us have advocated for public education for decades. I sent my children to public schools, and I still hope we can turn this around without wholesale voucher systems.
Teachers and boards are killing the institution of public education by treating children and parents more like captives than consumers. They are force-feeding social and political priorities, including passes for engaging in approved protests.
As public schools continue to produce abysmal scores, particularly for minority students, board and union officials have called for lowering or suspending proficiency standards or declared meritocracy to be a form of “white supremacy.” Gifted and talented programs are being eliminated in the name of “equity.”
Once parents have a choice, these teachers lose a virtual monopoly over many families. They are no longer a captive audience. If public unions want to maintain funding, they will have to actually improve educational results for these families.
You see, Weingarten knows that, like her, they are “really angry,” but not about the future of a union that increasingly sounds like an educational cartel.
take away the MONEY
that is ALL Democrats care about!
Cut Federal Aid to schools
Ban Public Unions, they just bribe democrats
Most 9th Grade teenagers know presidential executive orders can’t violate the U.S. Constitition. Why doesn’t Pam Bondi, Trump’s Solicitor General and government attorneys know that?
Most teenagers were taught this in American Civics class.
^ crybaby loser retard ^
Pam Bondi is not the solicitor general.
I highly doubt most 9th graders know that – Democrats constantly claim they are going to get arround the 2nd amendment by Executive order – so left wing nut adults CLEARLY do not know what you claim.
Your claim – not actually stated appears to be that some Trump EO violate the constitution.
Which ones ? You do not bother to say ?
So far I have not seen a single Trump EO struck down. You have gotten a few TRO;s But a TRO is NOT a win. They are not final judgement and probably 2/3 of the TRO’s have been dropped so far – strongly suggesting that even heavily shopped left wing nut judges are choking on these stupid claims.
So what part of what EO violates the constitution ?
I am not even aware of a constitutional claim in most of the challenges.
The whole country is one great big violation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Government was to be infinitesimal and severely limited and restricted.
Freedom was to be maximal and utmost.
Financial freedom isn’t just for a select few—it’s for anyone willing to try something different. I went from worrying about bills to earning $16,590 per month, and it all started with one decision. If you’re ready for a change, the opportunity is already here waiting for you..
𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄——-⫸≻ https://find2boost21.blogspot.com/
Speaking of Education, it looks like we are about to get better educated about the economy:
“It’s remarkable to think how long this one idea has germinated for it to become reality. And yet, the new Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said Sunday that government spending could be separated from gross domestic product reports in future releases.
Please indulge me in a moment of extreme economic nerdiness: THIS IS GLORIOUS MUSIC TO MY EARS!!!
To be sure, not everyone thinks so. An economist writing for Yahoo Finance calls this fudging the numbers to make Trump look good. “Messing with the government’s official economic data is almost unthinkable. Yet Trump and his team are thinking about it.”
Why is it unthinkable? Because it’s been done the other way for 100 years. Yes, 100 years of wrong. This is how it came to be that the economy was said to be doing great during WWII and also, as it turns out, during the so-called Biden recovery that no one in their regular lives could tell was happening.
When the data comes to be revised—finally after a century of error—let’s hope we get also a methodology so that others can apply it backwards in time all the way back to the 1930s and before. It could be very revealing, particularly of the postwar period.
How much prosperity did we really experience since 2020? We have every reason to believe it is much less than we’ve been told. For that matter, what about the 1990s and the 1960s? We would like to know.
Economists have known for decades that something needed to be done to patch up these failed and anachronistic models that tell us if we are rich or poor, growing or shrinking, in recovery or recession. But it takes a bold and learned administration to bite the bullet and make it so. That is precisely what Trump is doing.
Are there political motives? Maybe, but it hardly matters. We have long needed this done regardless. We deserve the truth here as in all areas.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, every economics textbook predicted that the Soviet GDP would eventually outpace the U.S. one. How in the world could they have said this? Precisely because the Soviets included government spending as productivity. Never mind that the tanks didn’t work, the coats fell apart, the shoes were trash, and the grain harvest was never what the industry claimed. Economists trust numbers and that’s what they went with.
It’s fine to trust the numbers but we need to be more critically minded to examine their source too. Surely we learned that during the pandemic. This applies in public health, climate change, or economics too. The fibs favoring government have gone on too long. We need to know the fullness of the truth, even if it makes leaders look bad.
I’m thrilled about this change, and I hope the Trump administration follows through. They could keep existing GDP and simply add another statistic, GDP-G. It’s not complicated. There is nothing to fear from knowing.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/get-government-out-gdp
Floyd,
100 years of wrong. This is bringing more transparency.
There was a lot more info at the link. About time to start getting smart. I was a Controller in a previous existence, and one thing I did, was develop good measurement techniques, so that management might have some idea what was really going. It was often ignored.
“…from the 1950s to the 1980s, every economics textbook predicted that the Soviet GDP would eventually outpace the U.S.”
Utterly BS and a lie. Go read the work of Richard Pipes, the pre-eminent scholar of all things Soviet from the late 50s into the 1990s. Why do you Trumptards make shit up?
The means by which we calculate GDP are horribly corrupt.
This is not the only egregious error.
If Apple designes an iphone in the US, produces it in china,
pays the chinese $200 to produce it and then sells it in the US for $1400.
That is reported as $1400 in value produced in China. When the reality is that only $200 of the value was produced in China – and china only got $200 in US cash.
That is just one example.
I am not sure that Government shoudl be removed from GDP.
It just should be heavily discounted.
As economist Robert Barro found – for every $1 government takes in it produces $0.25 in value.
The Federal govenment should be reported as costing $6T and producing $1.5T in value
So is Randy Weingarten saying that minorities can’t measure up to non-minorities in grades, attendance, etc.? Sounds racist to me. I pay minorities the compliment of assuming they are just as intelligent, capable of studying and adhering to standards as non-minorities. In fact, that’s why many minorities are fleeing public schools to attend charter and private schools where they are challenged to the best of their abilities.
OT: I do sincerely want to know what the troll’s thoughts are on the Autopen reveal from Former POTUS Biden’s residency. If only 1 document had a different signature (that being his official announcement of dropping out the ’24 race), then who, exactly, was in charge of the Office of the White House? Fmr POTUS Biden has stated outright that he doesn’t remember signing certain big-change documents. Turns out, that was true. If he wasn’t signing any of those documents except one (maybe two: the first document that got that original signature), then who the hell was actually in charge from Jan 20, 2021 to Jan 19, 2025? Who had control of the Autopen?
Why not cite some actual FACTUAL SOURCE before jumping to conclusions? When did Biden “admit” he “doesn’t remember signing certain big-change documents.” Where’s the proof of use of the Autopen? You got this from some MAGA media –didn’t you?
I’m sure you’ve heard Mike Johnson’s story about confronting Biden on a particular executive order regarding natural gas and he denied signing it. If you believe Johnson (and I do) that is Joe Biden admitting That he doesn’t remember signing it.
No, I don’t listen to or beieve anything Mike Johnson says–cite some reliable source–your say-so isn’t valid. Johnson is an election denier.
Mike Johnson was a first hand witness and account.
The only “denial” of democrat election-fraud, is from those that willfully ignore the obvious.
NUTCHACHACHA,
No one listens to or believes anything that diffuses over even one synapse in your infinitesimal cranial vault, the exercise in futility that it is.
Gigi – you should not be challenging anyone’s credibility
Gigi – those on the left should not be talking about elections.
After everything you did to try to win the 2024 election AND FAILED – why would anyone beleive you about anything else ?
If as you claim – 2020 was clean and won fair and square – why in 2024 when you spent more than two years criminally prosecuting your political opponent – did you lose ? Why did democrats lose almost 10M ballots – between 2020 and 2024 ?
What was different between 2020 and 2024 ?
YOU claim that Biden saved the country – if the majority of the country beleived that – we would have elected Biden in a landslide.
YOU say Trump won by lying – if that was the case – how did Biden win in 2020 ?
The major differences between the 2020 election cycle and 2024 are:
In 2024 – Republicans deployed 250K poll watchers – mostly to 6 specific swing cities that flipped to the 2020 election,
In 2024 they deployed almost 10,000 lawyers to the same locations.
There was ZERO possibility that Democrats could do what Republicans beleive they did in 2020 without getting caught.
Either Democrats stuffed ballots in 2020 and did not because they were being watched like hawks in 2024,
Or they did nothing wrong in both elections – and there is no explanation for the differences.
YOU constantly Rant that in 2024 Trump was indicted something like 96 times.
You managed your garbage conviction in the summer of 2024 when it should have done the most damage.
YOU continue to rant that Trump is a convicted felon – Fine then WHY couldnt you beat a convicted felon ?
In 2020 you were MOSLTY not accusing Trump of being a fascist Nazi, dictator, and the end of democracy.
In 2020 the riots and crimes and violence through the year were committed by Democrats.
Based on YOUR own claims and arguments there are MORE reasons for Trump to have won in 2020 than in 2024 ?
So why did you with the great economy, all the great things Joe Biden allegedly did, with inflation allegedly under control running against someone you were now routinely calling a fascit Nazi Dictator and the end of democracy as we know it.
When you were running against someone YOU beleive you proved was a criminal multiple times over – why did you lose and why did the vote swing almost 10M ballots between 2020 and 2024 ?
And Sorry – Trump lied about this or that is NOT an argument. Are you honestly Trying to argue that Trump magically became a better liar in 2024 than in 2016 or 2020 ?
You are also constantly telling us that Trump is NOW demented and that it is obvious.
There are many many differences between 2020 and 2024 .
But nearly all of them beg the question of Why did Trump win in 2024 and not in 2020 ?
And YOU do not have any believable explanation.
Further you claim you did NOT cheat in 2020.
Fine – but you worked FAR harder to beat Trump in 2024 than in 2020 and it did not work.
Sorry – you do not get to accuse others because they are dubious about 2020.
It is no longer close to necescary to prove HOW exactly you cheated in 2020.
It is self evident that you got away with SOMETHING.
And that you were NOT able to pull the same stunt in 2024.
If you had been able to – you would have won.
It is not that Biden did not remember signing the order. He did not even remember the order at all, he denied having issued it.
Why don’t you look it up? There are endless articles – Newsweek, Washington Times, The Economist, The Independent, MSN, The Hill etc. Autopen has been around since Truman (he used it for checks and mail) and several other presidents used it occasionally. The difference with Biden is that he used it on most of the documents he signed.
Biden was the third Obama term.
Obama conducted U.S. affairs by proxy and a hands-on coup d’état against President Donald J. Trump.
Obama’s criminal acts failed on all counts.
He awaits imprisonment.
No Experience Needed, No Boss Over il Your FD Shoulder… Say Goodbye To Your Old Job! Limited Number Of Spots Open…… https://find2boost21.blogspot.com/
Susan Rice.
“We know, for example, what Texas would do. They’ll use it for vouchers. So they won’t give [federal funding] to the kids who have it now, they’ll just give it for vouchers.”
– American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten
_____________________________________________________________________
The Department of Education, in concert with teachers unions, carries out communist redistribution of wealth.
Funds are unconstitutionally confiscated from taxpayers and redistributed “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
The principles of the Communist Manifesto are illicit in the United States.
Communism is unconstitutional.
The Department of Education is unconstitutional.
Congress has the power to tax for and fund ONLY debt, defense, and “general Welfare,” per Article 1, Section 8.
Congress enjoys no enumerated power to regulate education, per Article 1, Section 8.
Education is irrefutably not debt, defense, or “general” welfare”—education is not “general,” as only ~16% of Americans attended school in 2024 – education is local.
Government exists, under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to provide maximal freedom to individuals while government itself is severely limited and restricted to facilitating that maximal freedom of individuals through the provision of security and infrastructure only.
The Necessary and Proper Clause is nothing more than a perfunctory redundancy for the purposes of clarification—a reinforcement of that which was previously codified—and may not be wielded to amend and impose separate acts that do not represent but alter the letter and spirit of the Founders and Framers.
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
“[IT WOULD REDUCE THE CONSTITUTION TO ONE PHRASE: DO WHATEVER EVIL YOU PLEASE.]”
– THOMAS JEFFERSON
“They are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please,” “they are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare….”
“[G]iving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please” “would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless.”
“Taxation”
“To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States, that is to say, “to lay taxes for the purpose of providing for the general welfare.” For the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union. In like manner, they are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase, not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please, which might be for the good of the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless.
“It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and, as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please.”
– Thomas Jefferson, 1791
Jonathan: Guess who said this?: “Stock markets are crashing, jobs numbers are terrible, we are heading to WWIII, and we have two of the most incompetent ‘leaders’ in history. This is not good!!” If you guessed Bernie Sanders you would be wrong. The correct answer is–DJT who said this on 8/5/24 during the campaign. And he was talking about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Except at that time the economy was doing just fine. Looks like DJT’s words are coming back to haunt him.
The stock market has lost over $4 trillion in less than a month. Investors are switching to the bond market, to utilities and other safer forms of investment. DJT inherited a pretty good economy but now through his tariffs, deporting large segments of the labor force and other policies he is sabotaging the economy. Does he care? Apparently not. He thinks a trade war will improve the economy. That’s not the opinion of the stock market and economists who are predicting a depression by the second quarter.
And while DJT is crashing the economy Elon Musk is busy going after Social Security. He falsely claims SS is a “ponzi scheme”. Musk claims there is $500 to $700 billion in waste and abuse in the benefits program. The SS IG said there was $71.8 billion in improper payments from fiscal years 2015 through 2022. That’s less than 1% of benefits paid out during the same period. So what does DJT/Musk do with about that report? They fire 17 of the IGs whose job is to root and and prevent waste and abuse in various government agencies. Make a lot of sense?
“TARIFF-FREE TRADE”
Canada, the European Union, China et al. impose substantially higher tariffs than President Trump and the U.S.
President Trump is quite simply leveling the playing field of tariffs.
President Trump intends to repatriate corporations, eliminate tariffs, and implement TARIFF-FREE TRADE.
Ronald Reagan and all rational U.S. presidents have endeavored to put their recessions in the first two years of their terms.
Until we get rid of government subsidies (like agriculture), you cannot “level the playing field” by matching tariffs (which, by the way is also inaccurate because that is not what Trump is doing either).
For example, we subsidize about $50B each year to our farmers, which distorts prices. Is it fair to criticize protectionist policies in other countries when the federal government makes everything cheaper for our producers?
$10 says DOGE doesn’t go after that chunk of change any time soon.
NOW YOU GET IT!
There is a God!
The whole nation has been unconstitutional for a very, very long time and the whole nation must be placed squarely back on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Congress has no power to tax for or fund the Department of Agriculture. Congress has no power to regulate agriculture. Very few people know it but Americans were intended by the Founders to be free; freedom, private property, free enterprise, free industries, and free markets. Government has no power to operate or fund an enterprise. Only the owner of private property may “claim and exercise” dominion. Competition is the mechanism for the best product at the lowest price. Supply and demand informs wages and prices.
The entire communist American welfare state is unconstitutional including, but not limited to, admissions affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, CRT, DEI, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, NPR, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
Article 1, Section 8, provides Congress the power to tax for ONLY debt, defense, and “general Welfare” – ALL or THE WHOLE WELL PROCEED through governmental provision of security and basic infrastructure – omitting and, thereby, excluding any power to tax for individual Welfare, specific Welfare, particular Welfare, favor or charity. The same Article enumerates and provides Congress the power to regulate ONLY the Value of money, Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian Tribes, and land and naval Forces.
Further, the 5th Amendment right to private property was initially qualified by the Framers and is, therefore, absolute, allowing no further qualification, and allowing ONLY the owner the power to “claim and exercise” dominion over private property.
Government exists, under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to provide maximal freedom to individuals while government is severely limited and restricted to facilitating that maximal freedom of individuals through the provision of security and infrastructure only.
The Necessary and Proper Clause is nothing more than a perfunctory redundancy for the purposes of clarification—a reinforcement of that which was previously codified—and may not be wielded to amend and impose separate acts that do not represent but alter the letter and spirit of the Founders and Framers.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“…courts…must…declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.”
“…men…do…what their powers do not authorize, [and] what they forbid.”
“[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”
– Alexander Hamilton
_________________________
“[Private property is] that dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in exclusion of every other individual.”
– James Madison
#74. It’s a ruse trying to identify importers.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/03/fact-check-president-trump-will-always-protect-social-security-medicare/
Eventually, the addict will need to be weaned off of the heroin.
Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are unconstitutional. Congress has no power to tax for or fund these programs. Article 1, Section 8, allows taxation for only debt, defense, and “general Welfare. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid redistribute wealth to less than 18.7% of the population, which does not constitute “general Welfare” much less debt or defense. Article 1, Section 8, does not enumerate any power to regulate financial industry retirement plans or healthcare insurance products.
Last night, Rachel Maddow played a collage of MAGA media lies about the economy Trump inherited—each and every one of the clips from MAGA media claimed that Trump inherited a bad economy–all to set the stage for mitigating the economic disaster Trump has created in less than 2 months’ time. Excerpted from “Maddow Blog”:
“A New York Times report published late last week summarized the Biden-era economy in a tidy paragraph. “President Trump inherited an economy that was, by most conventional measures, firing on all cylinders. Wages, consumer spending and corporate profits were rising. Unemployment was low. The inflation rate, though higher than normal, was falling.”
All of this was true. It was also a summary of recent history that Republicans are desperate to rewrite.
In his national address last week, for example, the president told a joint session of Congress, “We inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe.” Soon after, House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed the line, declaring soon after that the United States is “transitioning from Bidenomics and the terrible economy that was delivered by the last administration.”
Two days later, Republican Sen. Rick Scott told CNN that Trump entered the White House “with a crappy economy.”
It’s possible, if not likely, that there’s polling data to suggest GOP rhetoric reflects many Americans’ beliefs. But reality should have at least some bearing on the conversation.
In the last full month of his presidency, Joe Biden took a bow of sorts in a published piece for The American Prospect. “It is worth reviewing the facts on the U.S. economy that I am handing off to my successor,” the retiring Democrat wrote. “Unemployment has been at the lowest average rate of any administration in 50 years. We have created over 16 million new jobs, and more than 1.5 million of those are in manufacturing and construction. Inflation has been brought down close to 2 percent, the same level as right before the pandemic.
“Incomes are up by nearly $4,000 adjusted for inflation, and unions have won wage increases from 25 percent to 60 percent in industries like autos, ports, aerospace, and trucking. We’ve seen 20 million applications to start small businesses. Our economy has grown 3 percent per year on average the last four years — faster than any other advanced economy. Domestic energy production is at a record high, and gas prices are around $3 per gallon.”
As regular readers know, there was no shortage of related headlines in closing weeks of 2024. A Wall Street Journal analysis described the state of the Biden-era economy as “remarkable,” which coincided with a Bloomberg analysis that said, “The nation is experiencing a dream combination of strong growth and low inflation.”
There was more where that came from. A month before Election Day 2024, The New York Times reported that the U.S. job market was “as healthy as it has ever been” — as in, in the history of the United States — and described economic growth as “robust.” A few days later, The Washington Post’s Heather Long explained in a column, “We are living through one of the best economic years of many people’s lifetimes.” The same day, Politico described the status quo as “a dream economy.””
rabble rabble rabble rabble rabble!
It’s not a bad economy if communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) keep fiendishly pumping trillions and trillions of dollars into it, right Gigenius?
$37 trillion in debt – $1 trillion in interest payments.
_________________________________________________________
“A [trillion] here, a [trillion] there, pretty soon, you’re talking real money.”
– Senator Everett Dirksen
And of course you believed all those lies MSM told you. And despite all the lies we know MSM has spread over the years, you keep believing them.
The Times, the Post and Politico.
All USAID recipients.
Ergo,untrustworthy.
I think it is vital that school choice be framed as all about education and raising the level of achievement in the US. The opposition will frame it as an attempt too have the state support religion. Sure there are parochial schools but if in the end the students meet or exceed established objective educational goals, then state money will have been well spent. The ability for parents to direct their children’s education will have profound effects on public education as we know it today. The arguments about notifying parents of their child’s gender dysphoria will be gone, the toleration of poorly performing teachers because of seniority will be gone, the teaching of socially noxious ideologies will be allowed to wither on the vine, the drive to honor excellence in teaching and scholarship will thrive, the unchecked administration bloat will be curbed, and on and on, The through competition for the vouchers the distributed power of the parents will overwhelm the concentrated power of the teacher’s union and the state bureaucracy. School choice vouchers will be utterly transformative in the same way that airline deregulation in the late 1970s was for so much of airline travel today (safer, cheaper, more choices, and lousy on-flight meals if at all but there are plenty of alternatives).
Arnold,
Great comment. I mention below, we are seeing some states pass parent rights or parents choice laws and we are seeing those that do not. In a few years we will see which ones will see improvements and which do not. If we take blue cities or blue states that are pro-teachers union, against parents choice or charter schools as examples, we can expect them to fall behind.
@Upstate
Again I say: If the teachers at those ‘choice’ schools were trained in the same system as the ones we don’t like, what difference does it make? My wife has been in education for some time, and my family has several educators in it spanning decades and states from the lower grades to academia, and it isn’t that simple, unfortunately. We are getting very tired of conservatives touting ‘school choice’ as some kind of panacea, it isn’t, this all goes deeper, and yes, that includes parochial schools.
That said, i will not be sad if the department of ed goes the way of the dodo. The unions have been fully captured and are a pox.
That is why so many people are
so madthrilledabout it. Because they’re just taking opportunity away fromkids that don’t have itDemocrats grift. So billionaires – kids of billionaires, like the Obamas, Clintons, Bidens, George Soros they have it, they go to private schools. Everyone else, 90% go to public schools but wants their taxes to go to school choice. Don’t take awaytheir opportunityour DNC grift. Sorry, I’m reallyangry about this … I’m really angry,”a DNC payroll supported lesbian drama queen though I wish I were a gay male drama queen like George / Gigi / Dennis / Wally …..if only Randi had a soul. She would look in the mirror and be ashamed. instead she just sees an ugly, angry, bitter, lesbian who knows her tenure has come to and end. Maybe ActBlue will hire her? Oh wait
💅💁♀️
#74. The Unions are supporting the factions filing lawsuits. It’s really defensive . Let’s recall one of Professor Turley’s earlier posts about little BB and BLM. She was expressing inclusivity in her baby drawing?
It’s amazing anyone can read as educators traverse the minefields daily . Kevlar vests and helmets, go-pro and armed. Right, the problem is teachers unions.
I’ll grant it’s an anti-trust issue but to expect equality is absurd. I really won’t be collecting Winslow Homer drawings as a childhood hobby nor sailing off the shore anytime soon nor will I take up space in Professor Susskind’s class at Stanford. I’m a realist. May I add I’m not interested in tearing up any opportunity.
Bravo.
Dear Professor T, Dennis’ argument is a silly repetition of a democratic talking point. The idea for vouchers was to give the Nation’s poor children a fighting chance at a better education. I am sure Dennis knows the Nation’s public schools are failing. Why would he and his fellow Democrats want to keep a poor child in a failing school? Why can’t they be given a chance at a private education? They would rather keep the poor uneducated, dependent on Government programs so the democrats can depend on their vote in the future. Sad!!
There is no edge the Department of Education can give to these young Children. Jobs for Kindergartners through Senior High students, HAVE NOT BEEN INVENTED YET.
The distribution of financial funds only suffices to pay for the housing of Children during business hours (in Schools 8am-5pm), pay Teacher and Admin salaries to ‘Babyset’ the Children and provide direction that the Parents don’t have time for during those hours or do not provide at home. Most Children today in the U.S. have access to a Smart Cell Phone and Internet Computer access. These devices are in more contact with the Children (in some cases constant contact – Girly talk-talk-talk) than the Teachers and Parents combined. Artificial Intelligence will School their minds more than the Schools can provide.
Google – How many of You Adults right now depend on ‘Googling It’ to gain knowledge (Confess!). So the matter of modernizing the Scholastic System to keep in step with the current technological abilities and advancements is imperative. Hence the Department of Education is obsolete in its current state. Reinventing it into a modern curriculum system (e.g.: Cellular Internet Schools) with A.I. Teaching proctors will advance society in a much broader manner. Fact is, the Technology is already doing this (just Google it).
Proof the system is antiquated
:
She graduated from high school with honors but can’t read or write. Now she’s suing
Aleysha Ortiz is 19 years old and dreams of one day writing stories and maybe even a book. That may sound like a reasonable aspiration for a teenager recently out of high school, but for Aleysha it will be much harder.
Despite graduating last June from Hartford Public High School in Hartford, Connecticut, and earning a scholarship to college, Aleysha is illiterate. She says she cannot read or write.
Many high school seniors feel proud and excited in the days before graduation. But Aleysha tells CNN she felt scared.
She graduated with honors, which usually means a student has demonstrated academic excellence. But after 12 years of attending public schools in Hartford, Aleysha testified at a May 2024 city council meeting that she could not read or write. Suddenly, she says, school officials seemed concerned about awarding her a diploma.
By: Sabrina Clay and Danny Freeman – CNN ~ February 27, 2025
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/02/27/us/connecticut-aleysha-ortiz-illiterate-lawsuit-cec
Concerning question: Who will be writing/teaching the AI – the same Leftists failing our kids now? They (the kids) won’t ever have the chance to ‘advance society’, if that’s the case.
Yes, but that’s the way it is (right now).
You can’t change the future, in fact that’s the problem, Adults deciding they know what’s best for the future of the Kids.
So you get what we have now, a mish-mash of F’d ideologies.
We will have to surrender and ‘Believe in Them’, that they find away to ‘advance society’ with what they have to work with.
Your Parents did at some point with You, now it’s Their time.
(Have Faith)
Jonathan: For some time you have said you support public education: “I have sent my children to public schools, and I still hope we can turn this around without wholesale voucher programs”. But your columns belie that claim. You continue to attack public education and teachers for “force-feeding social and political priorities”. Presumably, you mean any instruction dealing with so-called “Woke” subjects like racism or the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. In FL under MAGA Gov. DeSantis those subjects have been outlawed and under his regime hundreds of books have been banned from public school libraries. Banning books is an existential threat to “free speech”, one of your favorite subjects. Yet you have yet to write a column critical of DeSantis’s policies. Why is that?
You could have devoted your column to the agenda of DJT/Musk which is to abolish the Dept. of Education. Apparently you have no problem with getting rid of the principle agency devoted to public education. DJT wants to use taxpayer money for block grants to the states to allow them to decide where education money is spent. In red states, like Texas and Florida, we know where that money will go–public schools will be starved so parents can have vouchers to send their kids to private and religious schools–where there will be an “anti-woke’ agenda or religious indoctrination.
I’m not against private or religious schools. If parents want to use their own money to pay for that type of education that’s fine. But the Q is whether taxpayers should be forced to pay for that type education without having any say? I don’t think so. It’s called the “separation of church and state”.
In this column and others you have actually tried to make the case AGAINST public education. Your silence in the face of Gov. DeSantis’s attacks on “free speech” and DJT’s agenda to abolish the Dept. of Education, an agency created and funded by Congress, speaks volumes about where you actually stand on public education!
“Florida allows for school choice and has demanded greater performance from public schools. Despite attacks by Weingarten and other Democrats, Florida has been ranked as the number one state for both education and the economy.”
“In red states, like Texas and Florida, we know where that money will go–public schools will be starved so parents can have vouchers to send their kids to private and religious schools–where there will be an “anti-woke’ agenda or religious indoctrination.”
Sounds like a good plan.
It’s called the “separation of church and state”.
There is no such thing.
Why should people who pay school taxes have to pay for an empty public school seat and pay again for private school of their choice? NY spends about 23K/student a year. That money should available to parents to apply to the school of their choice. It’s about the children, right?
“hundreds of books have been banned from public school libraries.” So? I think alcohol is banned also.
Dennis suffers from separation from reality and authentic living. The porn sites he visits featuring kids being groomed by his kind has been xis/xer/dem brain
Taxpayer money is my money. So yes we should use taxpayer money to pay for schools where this is demand for that type of school.
And banning from public schools woke books, which are divisive leftist propaganda or sexual instruction manuals, is common sense.
If Florida has the best public schools in the USA then our country is truly screwed. I taught two years in Lake County FL public schools during 2022-23 and 2023-24, the first year in a high school and the second year a middle school. I taught Pre-AP (Advanced Placement) English Language Arts in high school and was a ‘Push-in’ teacher in Middle School English Language Arts and Mathematics (both 6th grade). Half the graduating high school class of 2022-23 was NOT proficient in Florida State Reading, Writing and Mathematics standards, but they get pushed through anyway. HALF of the 2022-23 graduating classes at East Ridge High School and Lake Minneola High School – touted as the best public schools in Lake County, Florida – were functional illiterates. It is official policy at both of these schools that NO ONE FAILS, EVER. Department heads bump up grades to make sure everyone ‘graduates.’ Teachers are forbidden from zeroing out any students even if the students rarely attend class and never complete any assignments during the entire4 academic year. The students I worked with directly in Pre-AP English (10th grade) could not write cursive, could not spell even simple words nor could they do even simple addition and subtraction, much less fractions. A 10th-grade level pre-AP ‘essay’ was never more than 300 words, which doesn’t even amount to a 30-seconds sound bite, if even that much. Students do not read, but when they are obligated to read they cannot pronounce the words correctly and do not understand what they read. There are some good teachers, but broadly speaking many English and Math teachers I encountered directly cannot spell or do math. Creative, imaginative teaching is non-existent. Everyone must teach to the state test standard. It’s always ALL about the DATA, the test ‘scores’ because the higher the state rating for a given school, the more resources that school’s administrators secure for their annual budgets, but more financial resources do not trickle down to the classrooms in terms of better equipment and teaching tools. Administrators discourage teachers from encouraging their students to think outside the box and read texts that are not previously approved by the Administrators. The truth is that Administrators couldn’t care less about the students nor the teachers. Their biggest concern, as stated to me directly by Assistant Principal Raymond Munoz at East Ridge High School in 2022-23, is to avoid all liability risks involving parents possibly suing the schools and the administrators. During the year I taught at East Ridge High School a 12th grade English teacher was drunk EVERY DAY until he was finally suspended, and later I learned he had been drinking and drugging in class for at least three years and Administrators knew it but did nothing until it was too obvious to ignore. The Pre-AP English teacher I replaced had been terribly ill for several years but was never replaced because she was gaming the system, working just enough at the start of each year to retain her job while she was out of work for at least 6-7 months each year, leaving her students int he hands of substitutes who are not allowed to teach, only babysit. Another English teacher was caught having sex in her class with a married Administration mental health guy, got pregnant and was suspended but was back the following year (2023-24) shortly before I transferred to the middle school. DEI standards are a priority that no one speaks about openly but being a POC or gay/lesbian guarantees placement even if teaching skills are terrible. Administrators routinely throw good teachers under the bus if a parent calls with even a minuscule complaint. Substitute teachers are treated like s**t by the administrators and many teachers, even if the substitutes have impressive resumes in terms of language skills, educational levels and lifetime professional backgrounds. The students know they can get away with anything they do. NO discipline for disrespect, cheating, drugs, smoking and even having sex between students on campus. Restrooms are trashed and vandalized every day. During my year in middle school I had a 6th grade male student who applied makeup every day in the cafeteria in the morning before going to class. School administrators do NOT inform parents that their children may have symptoms of gender dysphoria but instead insist that teachers must address students by their preferred pronouns and by their chosen gender identification, and if teachers decline to do so then those teachers are punished. Students who defend themselves against bullying get suspended for up to 10 days. NO ONE gets expelled because too many disciplinary incidents at the schools where I taught are seen by school district authorities as a black mark that can cost administrators their jobs. One of the few teachers, with over 25 years of experience, who actually tried to mentor me at East Ridge High School (while the English Department head routinely ignored me) shared her opinion that teaching nowadays is “15% teaching and 85% administrative and cover-your-a** BS.” She was hanging on to get in her 30 years and retire, but she was earning far more income doing other things in her spare time than teaching. Gov Ron DeSantis boasts about making Florida teachers more accountable, but that is total BS. School administrators and teacher union officials do what they please. DeSantis’ much-vaunted ‘program’ launched several years ago to give veterans a fast-track into teaching is also a big steaming pile of BS. Where are the Florida Education data showing how many veterans have actually been hired in the past 4-5 years? Good luck finding the data. It’s not readily available because it has been an abject failure. Anyone wishing to learn more about the Ponzi scheme that public education is can reach me at JBLenoir@posteo.net.
“Public schools will be starved”[.] Government schools will lose funds only if parents choose non-government schools for their children. It is THEIR money. Why they not choose how it is spent?
edwardmahl,
They like to tell parents they know what is best for their children.
Article 1, Section 8—Congress has no power to tax for or regulate education.
All education is local.
Only municipal or county authorities have the power to hire, fire, pay, and direct teachers.
Teachers, as do all Americans, have the freedom to establish an enterprise or accept or reject employment.
Unions are illegal and unconstitutional criminal organizations whose only leverage, or points of negotiation, are criminal trespass, vandalism, property damage, assault and battery, bodily injury, stalking, threats, intimidation, and various and sundry disturbances of the peace.
Also of note:
The home-educated typically score 15 to 25 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests (Ray, 2010, 2015, 2017; Ray & Hoelzle, 2024). (The public school average is roughly the 50th percentile; scores range from 1 to 99.)
A 2015 study found Black homeschool students to be scoring 23 to 42 percentile points above Black public school students (Ray, 2015).
78% of peer-reviewed studies on academic achievement show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in institutional schools (Ray, 2017)
Homeschool students score above average on achievement tests regardless of their parents’ level of formal education or their family’s household income. (Ray, 2013, 2010)
Whether homeschool parents were ever certified teachers is not notably related to their children’s academic achievement.
Degree of state control and regulation of homeschooling is not related to academic achievement. (Ray, 2013, 2010)
Home-educated students typically score above average on the SAT and ACT tests that colleges consider for admissions. (Read more here.)
Homeschool students are increasingly being actively recruited by colleges.
https://nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/
Floyd,
Another reason why so many blue states get rid of standardized testing. It proves home schooled students preform better than public educated peers.
Yes, they are trying to cover their own a$$e$. I don’t put all the blame on the teachers, by a long shot. They are being sent little budding monsters by parent(s) who have not been doing their job. Some of these kids are already criminals by 4th or 5th grade. The question is, what to do about it? Vouchers will help those who want to do better for their child, but some parents are not at all interested in that. Yet, those children are still people we will have to live with.
If there could be one good thing about the COVID lockdowns was the remote learning showed parents, many to their shock and dismay, of the woke leftist indoctrination going on in their schools. Parents had questions. They tried to ask those questions about the woke leftist indoctrination going on at public board meetings, and the Biden admin, at the behest of the teachers union, turned the FBI on the parents, labeling them as “domestic terrorists.”
As more and more states pass parents choice laws, we will see how they fare in comparison to states that vote against parents choice. It is already telling how badly Blue cities and states have such high failure rates in reading and math. It is tragic to the degree they fail these students with their failed policies.
Comared to what? There is no requirement for private schools to post their performance data. So how are you able to say that blue states or cities are performing worse than those who enact school choice? That’s the problem. In some states where school choice and charter schools do publish data there is no discernable difference. They equally fail to perform as expected.
“discernible,” dear pseudo-educated georgie.
Rather than bein an “educational cartel,” the teacher’s union has metastasized into an “indoctrination cabal.”
Dear Mr. Turley, someone in the comments section complained that the Republicans have been complaining about public education for years….. and rightly so. I am a product of the late 60’s public school system, and it was terrible!! The teachers had become radicalized and rude. I felt so lost and alone even with the friends I had. The reason for this was the “Adult” in the room could have cared less if I learned anything or not. They were more interested in the pretty and popular students, which I was not. The teachers’ union has gotten away with way too much these last 50 plus years and it is time to yank control away from them and give it to the parents. I watched my children in school and watched their teachers and if anyone of those self-righteous teachers even hinted at a wrong move, I was on their case. I didn’t care, those were MY children they had in the classroom and they were being paid by ME!
#74. Jacket and tie required. We reserve the right to refuse service.
It’s not paid by you. It’s paid by Walmart, DJT, Sam Altman, Elon Musk…the real tax payers. 😂