Conservative Wanderer

“A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality, and, above all, responsible liberty for every individual that we will become that shining city on a hill.” — Ronald Wilson Reagan

Category Archives: Education

Massachusetts School Removes “God” From “God Bless The USA”

Speaking of deep blue Massachusetts, one school has decided to edit Lee Greenwood’s hit song to fit their lefty perceptions of how things should be.

Parents at a Massachusetts elementary school are furious after educators first removed the word ‘God’ from the popular Lee Greenwood song, “God Bless the U.S.A.” and then pulled the song all together from an upcoming concert.

Fox 25 in Boston is reporting that children at Stall Brook Elementary School in Bellingham were told to sing, “We love the U.S.A.” instead of “God Bless the U.S.A.”

Continue reading →

Federal Court Upholds Affirmative Action Ban

Another defeat for those that want to divide Americans by color:

Affirmative action proponents took a hit Monday as California’s ban on using race, ethnicity and gender in admitting students to public colleges and universities was upheld by a federal appeals court panel.

The ruling marked the second time the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned back a challenge to the state’s landmark voter initiative, Proposition 209, which was passed in 1996.

Continue reading →

Wisconsin Teacher’s Union Lays Off Staff

Victory, or perhaps, a necessary weaning off the public trough:

On Monday, the Wisconsin Education Association Council announced it will lay off about 40% of its staff, a change executive director Dan Burkhalter blamed on Mr. Walker’s “union-busting legislation.” In December the union will face another reality check, as 51% of its members must vote to recertify it as their representative. With members no longer captive dues payers, the union has been forced to begin new outreach efforts, including home visits, to sell its relevance to workers.

Continue reading →

Tennessee Democrat Needs To Find A Sense Of Humor

Maybe he could take some of his legislator’s salary and buy one, because he sure doesn’t have one now.

KNOXVILLE – Breath mints packaged in a tin can poking fun at President Barack Obama have been pulled from the shelves at the University of Tennessee bookstore after local legislator Joe Armstrong told store officials he was offended by the mints.

Continue reading →

SCOTUS Says Tax Credits For School Vouchers Constitutional

Good news for school choice fans!

The decision, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy and joined by the court’s more conservative members, preserves Arizona’s school voucher program that is funded by tax credits offered to state taxpayers. Most of the students who use the voucher money attend parochial schools.

Opponents of the Arizona system filed a lawsuit claiming the $500 tax credit violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause that prohibits the government-backed endorsement of religion. The high court in 1968 said taxpayers could bypass the prohibition against lawsuits if they lodge an Establishment Clause claim.

But on Monday the court ruled that taxpayers could not sue based on a generalized First Amendment complaint but rather need to show specific individual harm to get into a courtroom. “The [Arizona] tax credit is not tantamount to a religious tax or to a tithe and does not visit the injury identified in [1968],” Kennedy wrote.

The distinction between a tax credit and an actual tax or appropriation from general income tax revenues was a key factor in the case, with Kennedy writing that “awarding some citizens a tax credit allows other citizens to retain control over their own funds in accordance with their own consciences.”

Cato has a good explanation:

As Andrew Coulson explained in detail earlier, the Court ruled that education tax credits are not government funds, and the plaintiffs therefore have no standing to bring suit in the first place. They were not harmed because none of their money was collected and then disburse by the state.

Sorry, public education unions, you lose again.

Here’s A Radical Idea: Restrict School Superintendents’ Salary To That Of The Governor

And yet that proposal is actually getting pushback:

Everything’s bigger in Texas – so the saying goes. It especially rings true for super-sized public school superintendent salaries in the Lone Star State. The Texas Association of School Boards and the Texas Association of School Administrators are sponsoring the rally on March 30 at the Capitol.

This week, hundreds of school board members and superintendents will rally in Austin opposing any cuts to education funding in Texas.

TASB has said that as many as 100,000 teaching jobs must be cut in order to make up for the $9 billion in proposed state education funding cuts.

We disagree. School districts have ample room to make cuts on spending outside of the classroom, without eliminating teaching positions or short-changing students.

In Texas, 214 superintendents take home an annual salary more than the Governor of Texas, whose salary is set at $150,000 a year. If superintendents in Texas were paid no more than the Governor, schools would save $20 million each biennium.

[...]

Beaumont ISD has less than 20,000 students enrolled in the district, yet is home to the highest-paid superintendent in the state. Dr. Carrol Thomas takes home an annual base salary of $347,834. That is two-and-a-half times more than what the governor of our state earns!

So why should a school superintendent make twice what the governor does? The responsibilities of the governor are far heavier than that of a school superintendent, and that’s not arguable.

But, of course, the usual defenders of pigs in the public trough are trying to keep this common-sense proposal from being enacted, because it would dry up their political warchest.

High Schools Not Clamoring For The President At Graduation

Speaking of Obama being abandoned:

An internal White House memo indicates that the White House is facing a shortage of applications less than a week before the deadline.

The competition was extended from the February 25 deadline until Friday, March 11 after few schools met the original application deadline. CBS News has learned a White House Communications Office internal memo dated February 22 noted “a major issue with the Commencement Challenge.”

“As of yesterday we had received 14 applications and the deadline is Friday,” the memo said. The memo also urged recipients to, “please keep the application number close hold.”

A follow-up memo on February 28 reported receipt of 68 applications. Noting the competition among more than 1,000 schools last year, the memo said, “Something isn’t working.” It called on staffers to ask “friendly congressional, gubernatorial and mayoral offices” to encourage schools to apply.

Seems the youth of America has discovered what hopenchange means to their future, since they’re gonna have to foot the bill for the Obamacrats’ spending spree the last few years.

The Heat Is On In WI

Well, the WI Senate offered their AWOL members one last chance to return by 4pm Wisconsin time today, or they’d be held in contempt. And, well, let’s let WTMJ tell the rest of the story:

The Republican leader of the Wisconsin Senate has signed orders finding 14 AWOL Democrats in contempt. The orders signed Thursday allow the sergeant at arms to detain the missing senators and use police force if necessary.

The Democrats say they are all in Illinois and won’t return.

And today we also learned exactly why the weasels packed up and ran from another local Wisconsin media outlet:

Before protesters stormed the capitol, the mayor of the city of Madison tried to pull a fast one. The governor’s budget repair bill was on the fast track, and Madison Mayor Dave Ciesliewicz was racing against the clock to pass new union contracts first.

E-mails obtained by the FOX6 Investigators show that the mayor enlisted the help of State Senator Mark Miller. They both tried to convince the Secretary of State to hold up the bill by taking the maximum 10 days allowed by law before publishing the bill.

They were trying to buy some time so they could ratify new contracts to protect workers from benefit cuts. Citizens for Responsible Government Rep. Chris Kliesmet says, “This suggests, and this is a harsh word, collusion. There is collusion between some politicians and public sector employee unions. Period.”

Ed Morrissey at HotAir explains why the order of the contract and the bill matter:

To make matters worse, if the state law goes into effect first, the amendments to the agreements will make them null and void under the provisions of the new law. If that happens, all our employees will be subject to the benefit cuts immediately, instead of at the end of the current contract.

In other words, in order to keep the Democrat-union gravy train rolling for at least the length of the current contract, they had to finalize the contract before the law got signed. So the Democrats ran away to keep the law from going into effect, and in the process, they thumbed their nose at the voters of Wisconsin.

Let’s hope the Wisconsin voters return the gesture the next time these Democrats are up for reelection.