posted 01-21-2004 11:47 PM            

Go ahead, George, and lie to me. Lie to my dog. Lie to my sister. But don't you ever lie to my kids.

Deep into your State of the Siege lecture tonight, long after sensible adults had turned off the tube or kicked in the screen, you came after our children. "By passing the No Child Left Behind Act," you said, "We are regularly testing every child ... and making sure they have better options when schools are not performing."

You said it ... and then that little tongue came out; that weird way you stick your tongue out between your lips like the little kid who knows he's fibbing. Like a snake licking a rat. I saw that snakey tongue dart out and I thought, "He knows."

And what you know, Mr. Bush, is this you've ordered this testing to hunt down, identify and target for destruction the hopes of millions of children you find too expensive, too heavy a burden, to educate.

Here's how No Child Left Behind and your tests work in the classrooms of Houston and Chicago. Millions of 8 year olds are given lists of words and phrases. They are graded, like USDA beef some prime, some OK, many failed.

Once the kids are stamped and sorted, the parents of the marked children ask for you to fill your tantalizing promise, to "make sure they have better options when schools are not performing."

But there is no "better option," is there, Mr. Bush? Where's the money for the better schools to take in the kids getting crushed in cash-poor districts? Where's the open door to the suburban campuses with the big green lawns for the dark kids with the test-score mark of Cain.

And if I bring up the race of the kids with the low score, don't get all snippy with me, telling me your program is color blind. We know the color of the kids left behind; and it's not the color of the kids you went to school with at Philips Andover Academy.

You know and I know that the testing is a con. There is no "better option" at the other end. The cash went to the end the inheritance tax, that special program to give every millionaire's son another million.

But you'll tell me, you took tests as a youth. I know you did. And you scored on the Air Guard flight test 25 out of 100, one point above too dumb to fly. But you zoomed past the other would-be flyboys. They were stamped, "Ready for 'Nam." And you took a test to get into Yale. And though your pet rock scored a wee bit higher than you, your grandpa on the Yale board provided the "better option" which got you in.

Here in New York City, your educational Taliban, led by Republican Mayor Bloomberg, had issued an edict to test the third-graders. Winnow out the chaff and throw them back, exactly where they started, to repeat the same failed program another year. In other words, the core edict of No Child Left Behind is that failing children will be left behind another year. And another year and another year.

You know and I know that this is not an educational opportunity program - because you offer no opportunities, no hope, no plan, no funding. Rather, it is the new Republican social Darwinism, educational eugenics Identify the nation's loser-class early on. Trap them, then train them cheap. The system will provide the new worker drones that will clean the toilets at the Yale alumni club, to punch the McDonald's cash registers color-coded for illiterates, to pamper the winner-class on the higher floors of the new service economy order.

posted 01-22-2004 12:46 PM            

Thanks for the truth!

posted 01-22-2004 01:23 PM            

Probably.

However:

"Many fine decent people are Republicans." -President Clinton @ a 1996 televised town Hall Meeting.

These neo-cons are composed IMHO of the far rightwing extremists of both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Let us never tar those many fine decent Republicans with the same brush as the neo-con leadership of that party.

Bush (Jeb) in Florida is doing the same thing.
Weeding out the poor minority children and instead of Head Start,
force them back into the same grade with the same teachers, with inadequate resources.

to repeat the same failure to learn and become convinced they are doomed to fail.

Where is the money going that Bush could put into Head Start programs and textbooks, or to hire more teachers?

Is it all destined to voucher middleclass students into religious schools where they become indoctrinated to support any neo-con?

For those vouchers somehow never pay full tuition for the children of the poor to attend private schools;
Nor do the vouchers require private schools to accept all sdudents who apply.

where does the money go from Florida's lottery?
It was supposed to fund Florida schools.
15% or so does go to Florida schools.
(Fox 10 as source for figure)
How about the rest Governor Bush?

It goes mainly to:

Build more prisons.

Put more non violent drug offenders behind bars.
Spend more tax money on imprisioning people who could be out working and paying taxes.
and to perpetuate 'that' criminal underclass by keeping another generation from becoming literate.

Are neo-cons stupid?

NO!
Never accuse neo-cons of being stupid.

Just like the 'illegal alien work registration' scheme;
this will serve to help create a permanent underclass.

the (neo-cons') "Conservative Vision":

An upper class- composed of the privileged few.
A middle class- of those who serve the upper class.
And an underclass- to provide cheap labor and cannon fodder for innumerable bushwars.

posted 01-22-2004 01:51 PM            

BUSH TALKS JOB TRAINING IN ADDRESS, BUT CUTS FUNDS

President Bush is visiting Ohio today to trumpet a $500 million job
training/education proposal announced in his State of the Union address. But
the president has recently proposed to cut almost $700 million out of the
same job training and education programs he is now touting.

As part of his new proposal, Bush said last night "I propose increasing our
support for America's fine community colleges." Last year, however, the
president sought to cut $230 million out of vocational/community college
education, along with "eliminating funding for technical education." When
lawmakers tried to restore the cuts in April, Bush was adamant that the cuts
be preserved, and his allies in the Senate voted down the funding. The
president also recently eliminated all $225 million in funding for youth job
training grants.

The other key piece of Bush's proposal involves college funding. The
president said last night, "I propose larger Pell grants for students." But
he did not mention his recent decision to "cut the Pell Grant program by
$270 million" - a move his own Education Department admits will cut off
84,000 students, and reduce grants for "an additional one million students."

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It reminds me of those store sales where they jack up the price first and then put it on sale, with no real savings!

An obvious ploy for votes! What creeps!

And yes, shatoga, I realize we can't paint all of the Repubs. with the same brush as I highly respect Ron Paul, for one!

But you have to admit, the majority of them vote the way of the present administration. And even last night, there was a secret administration conference meeting with Repubs. on the Omnibus bill! All pandaring to the special interests -- politically motivated and immorally flouting the workers of our great nation.

I say the agenda is a two class system:

rich elite

and

poor

"It's a grim bleak time for American workers." Senator Byrd

bc