Tampon Tim forcing teachers to abide by "horribly disgusting" "crazy" race standard says lawmaker

Minnesota state Sen. Mark Koran (R), is speaking out against a teacher requirement that he says amounts to forcing educators to take an oppressor "vow."

Public school teachers in Gov. Tim Walz’s Minnesota are required to abide by a "horribly disgusting" and "crazy" race standard that forces them to assess how their "biases, perceptions and academic training" perpetuate oppression, a state lawmaker said.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Republican state Sen. Mark Koran pointed to the requirement as further evidence of how education in Minnesota has "eroded."

According to Minnesota’s guidebook on "Standards of Effective Practice," public school teachers hoping to be licensed by the state must demonstrate that they have assessed "how their biases, perceptions and academic training may affect their teaching practice and perpetuate oppressive systems."

The requirement, which Minnesota classifies as one of its "professional responsibilities," further demands teachers use "tools to mitigate their own behavior to disrupt oppressive systems."

Koran said this requirement effectively amounts to forcing teachers to take a "vow of being an oppressor," which he called "just crazy" and "horribly detrimental."

He ripped into Walz over the changes, saying, "He's tied to the radicals, he's tied to the teachers’ unions, all the public unions of a really wild, radical agenda."

According to Koran, Minnesota has recently redone all of its teaching licensing standards "under the guise of racism."Under the new standards, he explained, teachers "have to embed in their curriculum, in their pedagogy, the understanding of the ‘oppressed’ and the ‘oppressor’ environment and overtly include that in their curricula."

"It's horribly disgusting," he said. "It is racism. It is instilling the systemic racism that doesn't exist today."Another professional responsibility required by Minnesota is that teachers understand "how prejudice, discrimination, and racism operate at the interpersonal, intergroup and institutional levels."

Teachers are required to demonstrate an understanding of "the historical foundations of education in Minnesota, including law, policies, and practices, that have and continue to create inequitable opportunities, experiences, and outcomes for learners."

The guidebook continues that teachers must highlight how the education system has created inequitable opportunities for "Indigenous students and students historically denied access, underserved, or underrepresented on the basis of race, class, disability, religion, gender, sexual orientation, language, socioeconomic status, or country of origin." In other words, it tells us to acknowledge that the white man sucks.

Further, under the section on student learning, the guidebook requires teachers to demonstrate their understanding of "the diverse impacts of individual and systemic trauma" on learning, including "racism, and micro and macro aggressions."Teachers are required to know how to support students using "culturally responsive strategies and resources to address these impacts."

Koran asserted that this "wild political ideology" is going to drive out more and more teachers from teaching in public schools.

"It's an offensive statement to assume that somebody's an oppressor based on who's the disfavored race of the week," he said. "We just can't have that."

Koran said that these race-based changes have been made as academic outcomes in Minnesota have simultaneously been plummeting.

"They've lowered the standards under the guise of equity," he said. "Today in Minnesota, half of our children can't read or write or do math at grade level, 50 percent, and they have high school diplomas."

"Minnesota is bragging about the graduation rates; we hit the highest ever, but fewer people have an education and are set up with a foundation to be successful," he lamented.

This comes as Walz and the state of Minnesota are facing increased national scrutiny over one of the largest fraud scandals in U.S. history. Koran said that if there is one message he could communicate to Minnesotans, it is that "the governor matters."

"We’ve got to get Minnesota back on the right track," he said. "The governor sets the tone, sets the direction, and sets the goals for which we need to work to achieve."

Look, only in Tim Walz's fever-dream version of Minnesota do they decide the best way to fix education is to make teachers swear allegiance to the Church of Oppressor Guilt. This isn't teacher training. It's a re-education camp with lesson plans. Koran is out here dropping truth bombs while the radicals turn classrooms into struggle sessions where "bias" is whatever the latest DEI commissar says it is.

They've got educators confessing their sins against the "oppressed" and "disrupting systems" like they're in some cult initiation. Meanwhile, half the kids can't read or do basic math but hey, at least the graduation rates look good on paper. Classic Minnesota: fake the numbers, push the ideology, and watch the whole thing collapse in slow motion. Walz and his union buddies own this mess, and voters are starting to notice.

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High School testing sets bar at lowest level for 'essential skill' in Oregon

High school kids in Oregon don't need to know how to read, write or do math anymore. Their standardized testing scores began to fall continued to plummet in 2017 and fewer than 50 percent of students who took the math portion of the test passed. Only 53 percent passed the reading exam. So the solution for school officials wasn't to teach better, it was to lower expectations. Well, expectations have been lowered so much, they basically don't exist anymore.

Senate Bill 744 orders a review of state graduation requirements and does not require Oregon students in the classes of 2022, 2023 and 2024 to show proficiency in Essential Learning Skills in order to graduate. So rather than providing graduates with a mortarboard and diploma, students will get a dunce cap with a selfie of themselves standing next to the principal. 

The recent law passed the Oregon Legislature in June with a little testimony both for and against the bill.

However, about a month after its signing, newspaper articles and editorials started highlighting the bill, saying Oregon students don’t have to prove they can read, write, or do math to graduate. A Wall Street Journal editorial writes the bill is “Dumbing Oregon Down”.

It started in Oregon before blowing up to national and international coverage. Oregon House Minority leader Christine Drazen appeared on Fox News to talk about it. 

Conservative critics called the bill a misguided effort to support underserved students, [aka the soft bigotry of low expectation].

“Politicians and school officials in Oregon are embarrassed that too many minority children fail tests designed to confirm they’ve mastered the ‘essential skills’ that high school is meant to teach,” said WSJ in its editorial. “So in the name of racial equity, they’ve now done the progressive thing.”

The real problem is that their virtue signaling policy of "everyone gets a trophy" is failing to arm graduates with the requisites they need in order to succeed in the real world.

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NYC Mayor proposes 'mindful breathing' mandate while student academic scores are underwater

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) was bashed for his pet project requiring schools to mandate "mindful breathing" exercises in the hope that it will help them feel better about their failing grades and illiteracy.

Instead of focusing on math, reading, and other academics, the city will be forced to waste between two and five-minute breathing exercises every day for children in Kindergarten through 12th grade, as a way of coping with the stress caused by crime, violence, poverty, high cost of living, deteriorating services, failed education in their schools, and forced gender confusion.

"Two to five minutes. Think about that," Adams said during a press conference. "We're not talking about hours. Two to five minutes is a game changer."

Adams obviously sees education as a game. As a non-educator, he is obviously the best person to mandate a school activity, says nobody.

Some intelligent observers have criticized the hair-brained idea, as they point out the dire lack of academic progress students have demonstrated after the two-year deprivation of decent education caused by the forced lockout of students from schools during the pandemic.

Even the Tucker Carlson-less Fox News saw Adams' idea as stupid.

Kayleigh McEnany, co-host of Fox's "Outnumbered" on Wednesday said, "I just can't get on board. I somehow made it through many academic institutions without learning about breathing. I just think this is ridiculous. I think it comes from Mayor Adams having a pet project. Apparently he showed up for the debate, and he was doing his breathing and he was calm, and his opponents looked at him, according to the New York Post and said, 'We can't beat that guy. He's too calm.'" [After which he may have let go of his bowels and bladder, but I may have him confused with some other Democrat in Washington.]

"It may work for some. Absolutely. I'm not dismissing that," McEnany continued. "I just don't think it belongs in schools where we're talking about reading and math."

It clearly doesn't belong as a mandate, especially at a time after a national report card was issued showing the reading and math scores for 13-year-olds has crashed to their lowest rate in decades after the forced lockout of students due to Covid mandates. 

Math scores hit their lowest rate since 1990, and reading scores dipped to their lowest since 2004, and continue to spiral down since the 2020 Covid lockout.

Thankfully, however, important people such as Nancy Pelosi, Gretchen Whitmer, AOC and Gavin Newsom were not affected by the rules that were imposed during the Covid lockdowns.

Data indicated the students tested scored an average of 256 out of 500 in reading and a 271 out of 500 in math, compared to 260 in reading and 280 in math from just three years prior.

But at least Adams is focusing on having the children breathe and contemplate their navels. 

"Look at sunset. Get water in eyes. Become enlightened."

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AL Gov. Forces Childhood Ed. Sec. Out After Discovering What Was Being Taught to 4-Year-Olds

Republican Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama removed the "woke" teacher resource manifesto book from its pre-K programs and Barbara Cooper, the Marxist bureaucrat who supported it too. Cooper, who was secretary of the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education resigned over the book, according to the Alabama Political Reporter.

“The education of Alabama’s children is my top priority as governor, and there is absolutely no room to distract or take away from this mission. Let me be crystal clear: Woke concepts that have zero to do with a proper education and that are divisive at the core have no place in Alabama classrooms at any age level, let alone with our youngest learners,” Ivey said in a statement.

Ivey’s statement said the book had content “that is simply not in line with what the Ivey Administration or the people of Alabama stand for or believe,” noting that it “invokes ideas for teachers that there are ‘larger systemic forces that perpetuate systems of white privilege.’” By that she was referring to the anti-white Marxist propaganda that divides us as a nation and makes room for indoctrination of their dogma.

Ivey spokesperson Gina Maiola said the book was a teacher resource called the National Association for the Education of Young Children Developmentally Appropriate Practice Book, according to Politico. It would have had a longer title but the geniuses who developed the Marxist content couldn't agree on what to add in order to sound "importanter." 

The governor’s office said Ivey pushed for Cooper to “send a memo to disavow this book and to immediately discontinue its use.” Although Cooper’s reply was not shared, Ivey’s office said the decision was made to replace her and accept her resignation.

Good!! Gov. Kay Ivey denounces ‘woke’ preschool training book, ousts state official – https://t.co/sob6c4mJv0 https://t.co/Uw80Zh0B6c

— Margaret Auburn Grad 1776 (@MargaretAUGrad)

The radical book claims that “systemic and structural racism … has permeated every institution and system through policies and practices that position people of color in oppressive, repressive, and menial positions. The early education system is not immune to these forces.” 

The book also said that children from LGBTQ families “need to hear and see messages that promote equality, dignity, and worth" [over and over again].

On Friday, Ivey said kids in pre-K should “be focused on the fundamentals, such as reading and math,” according to the Reporter. Duh.

“Alabama’s First Class Pre-K is the best in the country, and those children are at too critical of a juncture in their educational journeys and development to get it wrong,” Ivey said, as reported by Fox News.

“I remain confident in the wonderful teachers we have in pre-K classrooms around our state and in the necessity of our children receiving a strong start to their educational journeys in our First Class Pre-K program,” she said.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has forced out the state’s education director over a teacher training book she called “woke.” More Governors need to do this! Agree? https://t.co/2cGOnfND1R

— DavidCD ⭐️🇺🇸⭐️ (@davidcd0418) April 22, 2023

She said she believed “it is best we continue this historically strong program on its forward trajectory under new leadership.”

The comrades at NAEYC defended the book in a statement.

“While not a curriculum, it is a responsive, educator-developed, educator-informed, and research-based resource that has been honed over multiple generations to support teachers in helping all children thrive and reach their full potential,” the statement said.

By 'educator' they were referring to the lowest scoring professionals on the SATs.

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NY lowers math and reading standards helping to make illiteracy the new normal

If you want to make the crime stats reflect a reduction in crime, the easiest way to do that is to decriminalize crime, at least the kinds of crime you can get away with saying is not a felony, but merely a misdemeanor. If you want to make it seem as if teachers are doing their job of teaching math and reading skills, just lower the bar and everybody passes.

Basically, it's the New York state of mind to think that their failing schools will look as if the children are being educated once proficiency is measured by showing some effort rather than ability. 

The state has decided to permanently lower the math and reading proficiency standards because there has been a dramatic fall in test scores since the COVID lockdowns as a result from the needless and useless way the school system in the state handled the situation. 

So the state tried a tactic designed to assuage the concerns of honest educators. A committee has reported that student performance has been permanently damaged and that lower competence has become “the new normal.” Instead of trying to improve on the losses incurred by the lockdowns, the so called educators just lowered the standards.

New York will make it easier for students to reach “proficiency” on state math and English language arts tests, calling last year’s lower scores the “new normal.”

Imagine if the state lowered the standard requirements of the motor vehicle driving test scores. If you can start the car and remember to check your mirrors before pulling out, you pass. Then why not get rid of speed limits too?

A scoring committee that reports to the Board of Regents said Monday that they must take into account the results of last year’s tests for students in grades three through eight. Some schools posted shocking results — in Schenectady, no eighth grader who took the math test scored as proficient. And the scores for the third through eighth grade tests throughout the state were much lower in 2022 than in 2019, a result no doubt of the absence of in-person learning during the first year and beyond of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rather than trying to get their scores higher, just lower the passing grade to 'mildly retarded.' This is not doing the children any favors, although I'm sure they would disagree.

First the kids were betrayed by the pandemic, now they're betrayed by the state's refusal to help them regain the education they lost.

But that's okay--with the gay porn books found in many school libraries, they don't need to know how to read at a higher level. 

It's cultural Marxism at its finest.

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PINO Biden says kids don't belong to their parents "when they're in the classroom"

When G_d gave out brains, alleged President Joe Biden thought He said "trains" and answered, "I don't need any, I already have Amtrak.

So PINO Biden mumbled at the 2022 Teacher of the Year ceremony hosted by the White House on Wednesday. He said that "when they're in the classroom," school children do not belong to their parents.

It's amazing just how stupid the Democrats are to have created a new interest group that opposes their leftist ideology--mothers and fathers. Biden began his barely coherent speech with, “They’re all our children.  And the reason you’re the teachers of the year is because you recognize that. They’re not somebody else’s children. They’re like yours when they’re in the classroom.” 

No they aren't. Teachers don't feed, cloth or provide a home for their pupils. They don't care for them when they're sick, and don't clean up their vomit and worse. Most teachers wouldn't take a bullet for their pupils, but most parents would.

Children are in school to learn academics and teachers are there to, you know, teach it to them; not be their parents. They cannot have the same love for their pupils as parents have for their children, their offspring. Sure, there are good teachers out there, but there are also some teachers who have a personal agenda and it has nothing to do with the welfare of their pupils. Sadly, there are also parents who have agendas that are also personal and not necessarily in the interest of their child as much as it's in the interests they have and wish to promote it through their child--but this is the exception, not the rule.

Later in the mumbled speech, our house plant targeted Republicans and parents' movements in local school districts that have fought to remove from libraries and curricula books that promote radical gender and racial ideologies. Except this liar of a house plant used the term "ban," which is bull crap. 

“There are too many politicians trying to score political points trying to ban books, even math books. Did you ever think when you’d be teaching you’re going to be worried about book burnings and banning books all because it doesn’t fit somebody’s political agenda?” Biden hyperbolically said, promulgating the lie. 

Terry McAuliffe, a former Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate made a similarly repugnant statement about parents when he idiotically said that  parents should not be involved in K–12 public education. His words:  “I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions. I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

Of course the jerk lost to his opponent, Glenn Youngkin who countered:  “You believe school systems should tell children what to do. I believe parents should be in charge of their kids’ education.”

Youngkin kicked McAuliffe's left butt cheek across the state and won in a landslide. Following his win, other Republicans took up the torch and made parental rights a key policy issue and made legislation along those lines.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) recently signed the Parental Rights in Education law, which the left intentionally mislabeled the "Don't Say Gay" bill. In truth, the bill never even uses the word 'gay,' and merely prohibits teaching gender identity and sexual education in kindergarten through third grade. It allows parents to decide how and when to teach these sensitive topics to their own children. 

It's too bad the bill only covers up to the third grade when it should cover up through high school.

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Progressives hate the fact that parents want oversight into the garbage the left is trying to feed their kids. Nicolle Wallace of MSNBC categorized parental-rights to Russian "war tactics" that  “get their soldiers to rape children by dehumanizing them.” 

Hyperbole much?

Most Americans and Florida residents, regardless of political affiliation, support the Parental Rights in Education law, a recent survey found, proving that America has not completely lost its collective mind.

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Virginia Ed Dept. tells teachers to avoid teaching about the Islamic extremism of 9/11

The Virginia Department of Education has become an oxymoron because it refuses to educate students on a particular topic that is relevant to understanding the motivation behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The department hosted a speaker who instructed teachers to avoid talking about the role Islamic extremism played in the suicide attacks that took the lives of nearly 3,000 individuals. 

The person who delivered the PowerPoint presentation by "Education Leadership scholar" Amaarah DeCuir, instructed to teachers to avoid using language that could [accurately] blame the events of 9/11 on Muslim extremists, people willing to die for Islam in order to forward this geopolitical religion. DeCuir pointed to the heightened anti-Muslim sentiment that allegedly increases around the anniversary of the Islamic terrorist attacks.

“School and classroom 9/11 commemorations are sites for increased anti-Muslim racism,” her presentation reads. “This year’s 20th anniversary commemorations will likely result in heightened risks of racist discourse, threats, and violence targeting Muslim students in schools and society. Educators are well-positioned to disrupt these risks by centering the socio-emotional needs of Muslims in their commemoration plans.”

DeCuir created a list of teaching standards that are “in” and “out,” according to her radical, anti-American viewpoints. 

Teaching standards that are “in” include “acknowledgment of anti-Muslim racism.” Teaching standards that are “out” include the “false assumption of Muslim responsibility for 9/11” and “American exceptionalism.” 

Of course, the truth is extremism and hatred for the West was and is the catalyst for terrorism, but DeCuir, with her twisted logic, would have us believe that the Muslims responsible for the attack were the victims of the event and the dead Americans were somehow responsible for their own fates. This is reminiscent of critical race theory which is both anti-American and racist.

The presentation gave examples of “harmful teaching” about 9/11. She gave examples that included “creating a tense classroom environment,” “reducing 9/11 instruction to death counts and fear mongering,” “assumptions of emotional distance,” “teaching about Islam and/or Muslims,” “amplifying the extremists and extremist acts of 9/11,” “demanding the condemnation of 9/11,” “failing to respond to anti-Muslim racism,” and “reproducing a single, American narrative that marginalizes other students.”

What happened twenty years ago this Saturday was tense and while the death counts in the three terrorist scenes was almost 3,000, it was only a fraction of what is known about that day. People trapped above the floors where the two planes hit had no chance of escape and many died jumping from the upper floors to escape the horrific heat--some held hands as they jumped together.

While it's said repeatedly, most Muslims are not terrorists, but all of the terrorists on 9/11 were Muslims, and all were performing Islamic jihad and were willing to die in order to practice this part of the religion of Islam. How can we not amplify the extremist acts of 9/11 when this ideology is still being practiced today, as it has been since Mohammad married a 6-year-old girl named Aisha?

And anti-Muslim "racism" isn't a thing because Islam isn't a race. But putting that aside, the larger problem isn't "islamophobia" [a term originally capitalized on by Muslim think tanks in order to shut the mouths of those people opposing the geopolitical side of Islam and its global jihad] the larger problem in the United States is anti-Semitism. In fact, it's on top of the hate crime list.

Even Democrats refuse to address the anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic rhetoric on Capitol Hill by such congresspeople as Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Cori Bush (D-MO), and Ayanna Pressley (D-OH). 

Below is the FBI's 2019 listing of religious hate crimes in the United States:

60.2 percent were victims of crimes motivated by offenders’ anti-Jewish bias.
13.2 percent were victims of anti-Islamic (Muslim) bias.
3.8 percent were victims of anti-Catholic bias.
3.8 percent were victims of anti-Other Christian bias.
3.5 percent were victims of anti-Sikh bias.
2.9 percent were victims of anti-Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Other) bias.
2.6 percent were victims of bias against groups of individuals of varying religions (anti-multiple religions, group).
1.4 percent were victims of anti-Protestant bias.
0.9 percent (15 individuals) were victims of anti-Mormon bias.
0.4 percent (7 individuals) were victims of anti-Jehovah’s Witness bias.
0.4 percent (7 individuals) were victims of anti-Hindu bias.
0.3 percent (6 individuals) were victims of anti-Atheist/Agnostic bias.
0.3 percent (5 individuals) were victims of anti-Buddhist bias.
6.3 percent were victims of bias against other religions (anti-other religion).

So while DeCuir tries to depict Muslims as the largest victim group of hate crimes, the numbers don't lie.

According to her biography from American University, DeCuir is an education scholar who “focuses on the intersections of leadership, gender, and diverse cultural contexts to advance social justice.” In a tweet about the event, she called on “antiracist” educators to join and “disrupt” the current education of 9/11.

The term 'antiracist' means 'racist.' The term 'disrupt' the current education of 9/11, means to 'withhold information in order to foster a false narrative. This again is perfectly aligned with critical race theory and is a danger to the country as it is designed to undermine our basic principles and freedoms.

DeCuir had previously thanked the Michigan-based Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), a Muslim interest group endorsed by Rashida Tlaib, an anti-Semite and a Hamas supporter. DeCuir once tweeted:

“My work would not be possible without the amazing research from [ISPU]! Thank you for your support,”

Tlaib also endorses the organization for its "profound" work.

Virginia State Senator Steve Newman (R) condemned the bullcrap presentation and called on educators state-wide to teach “the facts.” What a concept. 

“I lived through 9/11… This one event was due to Muslim extremists and their actions, the desire of these individuals to kill as many Americans as possible at one time. Why do we need to change history, again? Just tell the facts,” Newman said. “We have a responsibility to our children today to ensure they know the awful truth about the events of that day, and the evil intent behind the terrorists … We must teach the next generation the truth about our history.”

And lest we forget, it was Ilhan Omar who once dubbed the terrorism of 9/11 as “some people [that] did something.”

Hopefully your September 11, 2021 will be a day of reflection and a peaceful day overall. 

I still remember the burnt office papers that ended up on my Brooklyn roof on that sunny Tuesday twenty years ago. And I learned a lot about the so-called 'religion of peace' afterward.

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Confucius Institute hides its identity to avoid scrutiny

"Secrecy is the freedom tyrants dream of" --Bill Moyers

The China-backed Confucius Institute is changing its name to avoid public scrutiny as it fills the head of American children and young adults with  Communist propaganda. [H/T Washington Free Beacon]

Where there used to be 103 college branches of the Confucius Institute, there are now only 51 as the US government oversight and faculty pushback has diminished the institute's influence over the malleable minds of our young. But these programs are not so easily vanishing without a strong effort on the part of the Chinese Communists as some programs just changed their names and are still being taught.

This name changing allows the Beijing-backed influence program to continue to shape the education of students from kindergartners to college students with the hope that they will one day carry on in the footsteps of Antifa and other "hate America" organizations.

According to a new report by the American Security Institute, more than 100 "Confucius classrooms" that cater to the K-12 system are now rebranded as the Asia Society Chinese Language Partner Network.

"Confucius Institutes are trying to repackage themselves—same old wine, brand new bottle," Will Coggin, managing director of the American Security Institute, told the Washington Free Beacon.

It's clear that the American education system is not easily convinced to cut ties with Chinese in our schools. 

 Hanban is the Chinese Ministry of Education-backed group that runs the Confucius Institute. It has spent over $100 million to support the institutes in U.S. universities, many who fear that funding cuts will create program cuts and money shortfalls. 

There is a similarity in the goals of the China-funded programs as there are with the Islamic-funded programs that also exist in universities, especially the prestigious ones like Harvard, for example. Their goals are to infiltrate the minds of our youth and indoctrinate them to their ways of thinking.

And if we continue to allow it, organizations like Antifa and Black Lives Matter will be child's play in comparison what the propaganda that these organizations will bring.

Chinese money isn't worth the strings attached to it. 

A bipartisan Senate report found that the Confucius Institute curtails academic freedom because the Chinese government controls "nearly every aspect" of the program in the United States. Instructors must follow Chinese laws and will not allow them to discuss anything that counters the CCP. 

Once Congress pursued legislation to rein in the Confucius Institute—including a bill that won unanimous support in the Senate—host institutions started to rebrand their China partnerships because the money was more important to them than academic freedom and morality.

Asia Society, a U.S.-based nonprofit with ties to Communist China, helped the regime establish more than 100 Confucius classrooms in elementary, middle, and high schools across the country. 

Until late 2020, the nonprofit touted its collaboration with the China-backed program on its website, according to the American Security Institute report.

Asia Society's website no longer mentions the propaganda program. It has replaced all mention of the Confucius Institute with its new name, the Chinese Language Partner Network. 

It's the same crap but now it's served as an ice cream cone.

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AOC opposes school choice but got her goddaughter into charter school

AOC wearing her "See, I'm not stupid" eyeglasses

Don't you just hate it when someone says to you: "Do as I say, not as I do"? It's infuriating.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos verbally obliterated socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) over AOC's [aka "I Can Cook, Cha-Cha-Cha;" aka Alexandria Occasionally-Comatose] obvious hypocrisy. The socialist from the Bronx is a staunch critic of school choice but it was uncovered that she got her goddaughter into a charter school.

“This area’s like a lot of where my family is from,” the socialist said in a Facebook Live video in 2017, before she became a public figure. “My goddaughter, I got her into a charter school, like, maybe a block or two down.”

Like maybe, yah, what.

“Embracing charters would be a big no-no for Ocasio-Cortez’s Democratic socialist base, which calls for the total abolition of charters, arguing that their existence hurts traditional public schools,” The New York Post reported. “Though Ocasio-Cortez has frequently talked about how her own family fled the Bronx to avoid the borough’s failing public schools, she has also publicly stood in total lockstep with anti-charter advocates.”

Her philosophy is: "if that's like where they live, they should go to school there and, like, forget about it." Her definition of "they" is everyone not in her family or friends circle.

DeVos responded to The Post’s report by exposing AOC's hypocrisy, tweeting:

 How nice that @AOC claims to have helped her goddaughter get into a public charter school. It’s a shame she works to deny that opportunity to every other disadvantaged family in America. “Good for me, but not for thee,” indeed. #EducationFreedomhttps://t.co/a2RhOEeU0o
— Secretary Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVosED)

Ray Domanico, director of education policy at the Manhattan Institute, blasted the lipsticked loonbag for her hypocrisy.

“I am not surprised by the hypocrisy,” Domanico told The Post. “Charter schools are incredibly popular with the communities and populations that a lot of these Democratic politicians claim to be representing … People in the Bronx can find a good school for their young ones now as the congresswoman apparently did for her goddaughter.”

I once worked at a charter school in New York City's Spanish Harlem, so I speak with a little experience.

These schools are often better than public schools because teachers are held accountable for their performance and can be terminated from employment if they are not performing well. Public schools are unionized and it's practically impossible for them to be terminated short of committing a serious criminal act.

What's really troubling is how the left-leaning media refuses to expose the hypocrisy of their fell leftists.


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Self-loathing mayor adds soda tax "to tackle white privilege"

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray is white and because he's white he believes that he's privileged over people who aren't white. People who believe they have better opportunities in life because they're white believe that blacks and other minorities don't have the same opportunities because of their skin color.

Those self-loathing white people, particularly white men who believe in the existence of 'white privilege,' apparently see minorities as incapable of succeeding unless they're given assistance by white folks.

That's a form of racism deeply embedded in the psyches of white people like Seattle's mayor.

Murray, a flaming leftist, has changed the rules of his proposed soda tax, which was intended to fund education for minorities. He now wants to include diet drinks because rich white folks tend to drink them more.

Under Murray's initial plan, sugary beverage distributers would have to pay 2 cents per ounce and would cover sodas such as Pepsi, Coke and energy drinks like Red Bull, fruit drinks, bottled coffees like those sold at Starbucks, and sweetened teas.

According to the Mayor, the tax would bring $16 million in revenue that would be spent on education programs, creating equality in education between the city's white students and those of color.


As if money is the cause of the disparity.

The United States spends more money ($11,825.89 per student) than most countries. We are only outspent by Luxembourg ($19, 49.81 per student); Switzerland ($13,510.48 per student); and Norway ($13,066.64 per student) as per the website The Richest.

The Mayor's original plan, to tax sugary drinks, would disproportionally be a hardship on the poor. So he lowered the tax to 1.75 cents per ounce and now included diet drinks.

Thus, his plan still causes a hardship on the poor but is slightly reduced, and now includes the diet drinks even though they basically have no calories and don't contribute to obesity.

As Reason.com explains, taxing diet drinks has become "an issue of equality" to Murray because they are more likely to be consumed by "upper middle class white people" and thus, must be taxed as a way to fight "white privileged institutionalized racism."

Meanwhile, Murray has his hands full from the accusations from four men that he paid for sex and sexually abused them in the 1980s when they were teen boys.

In an article by The Seattle Times one of the men filed a claim last month that Murray "raped and molested him" over the course of several years, starting in 1986 when he was a 15-year-old school dropout.

Murray cracked open a Diet Coke and denied the accusations.

It sounds like 'smoke and mirrors' to me.

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Illegal immigrant influx calls for more border agents

Edinburg, Texas -- It was predictable now that the elections are over. Illegal immigrants coming across the border from Mexico.

Federal officials say that 150 Border Patrol agents will be sent to South Texas from Arizona, California and other locals to help process a dramatic increase in immigrants who've been apprehended after illegally crossing the border.

Agents from Tucson, Arizona and San Diego will be temporarily reassigned to the Rio Grande Valley, according to a Saturday U.S. Customs and Border Protection statement. They will have the support of additional agents working another part of the Texas border and these agents will assist with screening and processing immigrants taken into custody along the border, many of whom are unaccompanied children and families.

A church support center saw October as their busiest month since 2014 and had offered assistance to more than 5,600 illegal immigrants who hedged their bets and came to America hoping to find jobs, free healthcare, welfare, maybe an Obamaphone, food stamps, a MoveOn.org protest group, and free schools before Donald Trump got elected.

I don't know if Trump is really going to build that wall, but if he takes care of the illegal immigration problem, that would be a positive thing.


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Democratic cities want non-citizens to vote for Hillary

While Donald Trump talks about a 'rigged election,' voter fraud, and casts doubt on the integrity of the presidential election, some cities are trying to expand voting rights to include illegal voters, better known as 'noncitizens.'

San Francisco is one such city where the November 8th ballot will include a measure that would allow the parents or legal guardians of any student in public school to vote in school board elections. That right would be extended to non-citizens with green cards, visas, and illegal aliens with no documentation, as long as they take an oath that they will vote Democratic if the city can expand their voting rights to the federal level.

"One out of three kids in the San Francisco unified school system has a parent who is an immigrant, who is disenfranchised and doesn't have a voice," says San Francisco Assemblyman David Chiu. His parents are Taiwanese immgrants. Chiu believes that just because someone is not a US citizen, does not give the US government the right to suppress them from deciding government policy.

"We've had legal immigrants who've had children go through the entire K-12 system without having a say," Chiu said, implying that sending your kids to a free and better American school is an accomplishment that should result in a non-American having decision-making power in the American school system.

Chiu added that non-citizen immigrants should also have the right to bypass the "broken immigration system in this country."

There is nothing "broken" about the immigration system other than the fact that our laws are disregarded by Chiu's liberal progressives. Those non-citizens are benefitting from our schools and I commend them for "doing it right" insofar as applying for their green card. But they are not entitled to make policies and laws for American citizens.

We need to hold onto our sovereignty. It's what made us great and the melting pot that immigrants wanted to join. And Obama is wrong to think we are not anymore exceptional than other nations.

Perhaps that will change, but Trump needs to get elected first.

But the whole progressive immigration issue is all about the liberal votes the left hopes to get.


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Some teachers want to ban homework

A growing number of elementary schools and individual teachers throughout the country have a solution to America's downward academic spiral: give the kids more free time by taking away their homework. When the school bell rings to end the day, it's time to play, have more family time, and get more sleep.

A report by Education by the Numbers ranks the United States below the top 25 countries in math and below the top 15 in reading. Some on the left may blame the rankings on our diverse population in poverty, but these numbers took that into account.

Our top students, those in the 90th percentile score an average of 600 in math. In Shanghai, the average student scores an average of 613.

Asia now dominates the top 10 spots in math, reading and science. Asian students get lots of homework. They are also taught to treat their teachers with the utmost respect. Politics doesn't enter the classroom.

Steven Geis, president of the National Elementary School Principals' Association said that parents say their kids' time is monopolized by homework. 

Teachers all over the US are revising their policies to be as effective as possible. At Orchard School in South Burlington, VT Geis has seen a serious spike in anxiety among students recently. They opted to ban homework this school year partially based on the book "The Homework Myth," by Alfie Kohn. He says that homework is all pain and no gain.

Kohn said that "homework might be the greatest extinguisher of curiosity ever invented."

I believe Asian parents and teachers would disagree. Harris Cooper, a professor at Duke University, who has studied the effects of homework for 30 years disagrees. 

Cooper believes all kids should do homework but the type of homework can differ depending upon their developmental level. 

It's kind of like giving your child a 'time out'-- you give him or her one minute for every year of their age, not a half-hour, unless it's your spouse. Homework needs to take age and development into consideration.

Cooper's research found that homework is a lot more effective for middle and high school students than the little urchins. "Homework is like medicine--if you take too little, it does nothing; if you take too much, it can kill you," Cooper told the AP.

He explained that homework teaches kids to learn outside the classroom, which then turns them into lifelong learners while improving independence and time management.

One problem, according to Cooper, is that the resistance to homework comes from the fact that teachers often assign too much and they need to strike a balance between encouraging students to learn outside of school and allow them to pursue other activities.

But in Asia, particularly India, there is an inordinate number of suicides over academic achievement. In 2013 alone, 2471 suicides were attributed to "failure in examination," mostly among people ages 16 - 18. 

So while Asian students may do great academically, they may be doing it at the expense of their mental health, at least to some degree. They may be pushed too hard by teachers and parents who may have exaggerated expectations.

Thus, homework and play needs to be balanced--because play is a young child's work and homework can teach an older child habits that will help them in later life.

Kohn make a decent point, but he's only partially correct.


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Liberal Attacks Man in Wheelchair

At the Democratic Convention in Dallas, Trey Martinez Fischer

(D- San Antonio) operated his campaign booth and promoting "Loteria" cards, or Mexican lottery cards. The cards contained political figures and featured people with captions. 

For fellow Democrats, he assigned names that were generally neutral or even complimentary, as he did with Wendy Davis, who he referred to as a "courageous lady." But for Greg Abbott, the current Attorney General of Texas who is running against Davis, he had a photo of him with devil's horns and the caption "Diablito," or little devil.

Rotten to the Common Core

"It isn't a coincidence that governments everywhere want to educate children. Government education, in turn, is supposed to be evidence of the state's goodness and its concern for our well-being. The real explanation is less flattering. If the government's propaganda can take root as children grow up, those kids will be no threat to the state apparatus. They'll fasten the chains to their own ankles." Lew Rockwell. 

There are now 46 states that have agreed to be part of the Common Core State Standards initiative for all public schools and those others that follow the charter school program, such as the Catholic schools. 

So now the federal government is working diligently to screw up American education.

Common Core are guidelines for schools that ostensibly were designed by the federal government that used "experts" in program design, as witnessed by other programs (see Obamacare or Affordable Care Act), while assiduously avoiding the use of actual teachers in the design process. I mean, like, why bother? The areas that Common Core "focuses" on are math and English language arts.

Common Core goals dictate what students "need to know in grades K-12 in order to be ready for college or career after they graduate," said Michael Casserly, Executive Director for the Council of Great City Schools (which may or may not be an oxymoron). 

The new standards were seen for the first time by students and teachers as the program was forced upon them this year. Many who have seen it, students and teachers alike, think it stinks and are joining together to voice support against it.

Now in terms of the math portion of Common Core; it might have been wise to include actual math teachers as part of the program equation, pun intended. But in the wisdom we have come to know with the federal government, the teachers were not included to give their input. Heck, that was just as smart as using a community organizer to back solar panel companies with millions of dollars as we watched them fail.

There is no doubt that this is an abusive federal overreach and it "dumbs down" the education process of our children. Worse than that is the fact that the federal government is getting too big and taking control away from the states and the local communities in the education of their kids.

Zed Nill, a New York reporter, is captured by Islamist terrorists. They demand the release of three Gitmo prisoners and if the president refuses, they will behead Nill and videotape it for the Internet. But the United States doesn’t give in to terrorist’s demands and Zed has 24 hours before he is to be executed. The clock is ticking . . .              

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