GOP Hates Public Schools Loves Vouchers & Charters (Maybe Strong Effort Again)

After a Nice Meal, a Nice Dessert

(Pick the Public's Pocket for a Huge Profit)

This I am sure will be a big Trump-Pence all-GOP-Ryan, et al issue (again) ... thus I wanted to re-post it in advance.

Originally Updated on March 30, 2014 what follows (update was from here), in part:

March 28, 2014  |  Public education is becoming big business as bankers, hedge fund managers and private equity investors are entering what they consider to be an “emerging market.” As Rupert Murdoch put it after purchasing an education technology company, “When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone.” (As if we would trust Uncle Ruppy? - ha).

Education historian Diane Ravitch says the privatization of public education has to stop. As assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush, she was an advocate of school choice and charter schools; under George W. Bush, she supported the No Child Left Behind initiative. But after careful investigation, she changed her mind, and has become, according to Salon, “the nation’s highest profile opponent” of charter-based education.

Her interview was with Bill Moyers at the link, titled: “Diane Ravitch Tells Bill Moyers Why School Privatization Is Turning into a Disaster...”

One Word GOP Hooked on This Issue Can't Even Spell

In 2012, former Gov. Piyush "Bobby" (his Reel name) Jindal (R-LA) introduced legislation allowing parents to use public tax dollars (for a voucher) to send their children to a private or religious school of any kind.

Vouchers are supposed to work something like a scholarship where poor students may be taken out of what the GOP calls “failing public schools.” The money then flows to the private or religious school. 

Jindal in fact only placed about 8,000 poor students in the entire state into those private or religious schools. The from the LEAP testing done each year showed that those students in those schools scored drastically lower (40% at or slightly above grade level than the state average of 69%). Another success story at the tax payer's expense that the GOP peddles as a "solution" while fooling anyone who will listen. 

A lot more here.

Original post starts from here: Public money for voucher program – that is for private or religious-based schools is on the rise. Have you ever wondered why and what do they teach or what textbooks they use – like where are they produced – where do they come from and what do they contain? I have – take a look here at a few eye-brow raising facts:

The books and the “facts” that they supposedly contain come from at least one big time Christian publisher, named A Beka Book.  A Beka was founded in 1972 by Arlin and Rebekah Horton, thus the origin of their name: “A. Beka.”   

This company churns out a significant number of the textbooks used by voucher schools and a good many Christian-based schools, too. About 43% of the religious voucher schools that responded to a 2003 Palm Beach Post survey said their curricula for the classrooms were based on textbooks published by either A Beka or the Bob Jones University Publishing.

A Beka Book estimates that around 9,000 schools utilize their books. What follows here are some titled of the subjects taught ... a full explanation and more can be seen at the link.

I want to be perfectly clear – I have no problems with school choice, home-schooling, or religious or church-based schools – none whatsoever, but I do have a problem with tax dollars going to those schools. Since it does, the façade is “parents are taxpayers and they have a choice as to where their tax dollars are used” along those lines.

The link and list examples of what they teach from those textbooks can be seen here:

1. The Great Depression: Made Up to Spread Socialism

2. Nazis: Brought to you by Karl Marx and Charles Darwin

3. The Post-WWII Era: A Time of Crusades and Constant Praying

4. The '60s and '70s: Everything Goes to Shit, Mainly Because the State Stops Killing Born People and Starts Killing Pre-Born Babies and... Freud.

5.  Freedom of Speech: Gateway to Porn

6.  Justice Clarence Thomas: Greatest Example of Black American Achievement Yet

7.  The Clintons: Draft-Dodging, Economic-Crisis-Creating, Joint Presidents

8.  George W. Bush: Awesome President Invades Iraq and Saves Mid-Born Babies

9.  Barack Obama: Great for the Homosexuals

Sadly, many people ask and wonder if we have become so dumb that all public schools have failed and only A. Beka textbook supplied schools are the answer, or as George W. Bush once asked: “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”  — Florence, SC, January 11, 2000

I rest my case, but the case isn't going anywhere soon. Stay tuned.