Moscow Education (Idaho)

"When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children."
—Albert Shanker, the AFT's longtime president, famously remarked in 1985

From EIA:

NEA Is the Largest Political Spender in America.

 

And it's not even close.

 

Since the rise of the Internet, we have been able to more easily track political spending. The Center for Responsive Politics has led the way in documenting and accounting for all the different ways money is spent on federal campaigns. Alas, tracking similar spending at the state level has been more of a hit-or-miss proposition. Disclosure laws vary from state to state, and electronic reporting of results has been sporadic.

 

Until now. CRP joined forces with the National Institute on Money in State Politics to produce the first comprehensive report of political spending at both the state and national levels. The organizations combined spending on candidates, parties and ballot initiatives to come up with a total for each of the nation's special interest groups. The results should give pause to those who think the biggest political spenders must be Big Oil, Wal-Mart and the pharmaceutical, banking and tobacco industries.

 

By far the largest political spender for the 2007-08 election cycle was the National Education Association, with more than $56.3 million in contributions. The teachers' union outdistanced the second-place group by more than $12 million.

 

Believe it or not, the report understates NEA's spending, since it places political expenditures made in concert with the American Federation of Teachers in a separate category. "NEA AFT' ranked 123rd in the nation, contributing more than $3.3 million to campaigns in Colorado, Florida and Oregon. (AFT ranked 25th with almost $13.8 million in contributions.)

 

Just to put this in perspective, America's two teachers' unions outspent AT&T, Goldman Sachs, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, General Electric, Chevron, Pfizer, Morgan Stanley, Lockheed Martin, FedEx, Boeing, Merrill Lynch, Exxon Mobil, Lehman Brothers, and the Walt Disney Corporation, combined.

 

The report is groundbreaking. The media coverage was less so. It's well past time for coverage of the teachers' unions to be freed from its current position as an afterthought in the education beat ghetto, and assume its place alongside national economic and political reporting. It's mind-blowing that one organization can spend more than $56.3 million in an election cycle and still fly under the radar.

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

Not great news from the Baltimore Sun.

Fifteen states, including Maryland, joined together in 2005 to take part in the American Diploma Project, an effort to raise academic standards and graduation requirements for high schools around the country.

The Algebra II test was given to 100,000 students across the nation, including 1,295 in Maryland, and showed that nationwide, 15 percent are prepared for their first college course. The Maryland pass rate was equivalent to the national pass rate.

…

The Algebra II test was not expected to be used as an end-of-course test that would be required for graduation - as the Algebra I test is - so the states could make it as rigorous as experts in the field thought it should be. Boyd said that after writing the test, they brought in math professors and teachers to advise them on what students would need to know to enter college and be able to move directly into credit-bearing math courses.

But there is no incentive for the government schools to do well. The worse they are, the more money they get. And the worse the students are that are sent on the college, the more money the colleges get.

It’s perverse economic incentives that make up America’s educational-industrial complex.

From The New American:

"The most important institution in a socialist state is a government owned and controlled school system wherein children can be indoctrinated to accept a socialist way of life. And the best way to prevent this from occurring is to return to the concept of educational freedom in which the federal government has no role in education.

"Local public schools can easily become private institutions governed by local trustees and supported by tuition fees. This would greatly reduce the tax burden on home owners and provide more than enough resources to pay for the tuitions of poor families. The costs of education would decrease dramatically since education would once more become reality based wherein the fundamental academic subjects would be taught without the added costs of educational malpractice. Individual intelligence would be enhanced, while collectivist group-think would be discarded.

"Can this be done? Only if America’s conservative leaders demand that it should be done. The home-school movement has already proven that parents can actually teach better than our high-priced educational bureaucracy, that children progress better academically when taught at home, and that the cost of educating a child at home is less than $1,000 a year.

"If Americans want to once more experience what it means to be free, they must burst out of the high-priced straitjacket imposed on them by the socialist education tyrants. If they want better education at lower cost, then the prescription for success is simple: get the government out of education."

HT: Dr. A

From Inside College:

According to CollegeHumor, these are the "power rankings" for schools "having the maximum amount of fun while putting forth the least amount of effort.

1. Pennsylvania State University -- University Park (University Park, PA)
2. University of Florida (Gainesville, FL)
3. Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA)
4. University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK)
5. Auburn University (Auburn, AL)
6. University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, AL)
7. Louisiana State University -- Baton Rouge (Baton Rouge, LA)
8. University of Tennessee (Knoxville, TN)
9. Clemson University (Clemson, SC)
10. Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI)

Most are better known for the size of their football stadiums than their academics.

1. University of Michigan -- Ann Arbor: Michigan Stadium
   107,501 seats (Ann Arbor, MI)
2. Pennsylvania State University -- University Park: Beaver Stadium
   107,282 seats (University Park, PA)
3. University of Tennessee: Neyland Stadium
   104,079 seats (Knoxville, TN)
4. Ohio State University -- Columbus: "Horseshoe" Stadium
   101,568 seats (Columbus, OH)
5. University of Georgia: Sanford Stadium
   92,746 seats (Athens, GA)
6. University of Southern California: LA Memorial Coliseum
   92,516 seats (Los Angeles, CA)
7. Louisiana State University -- Baton Rouge: Tiger Stadium
   92,400 seats (Baton Rouge, LA)
8. University of Alabama: Bryant-Denny Stadium
   92,158 seats (Tuscaloosa, AL)
9. University of California -- Los Angeles: The Rose Bowl
   91,500 seats (Los Angeles, CA)
10. University of Florida: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field 88,548 seats (Gainesville, FL)

Any correlation here?

HT: Dr. A

Edu In Review reviewed the 5 Youngest and the 5 Oldest Universities in the USA:

Youngest:

1.    Ave Maria University – 2007
2.    University of California-Merced – 2005
3.    Soka University of America – 2001
4.    Patrick Henry College – 2000
5.    New St. Andrews College – 1994

Oldest:

1.    University of Harvard- 1636
2.   College of William and Mary - 1693
3.   Yale University -1701
4.   Princeton University - 1746
5.   Columbia University -1754

Below is a national report on education from the turn of the last century.

The report discusses the importance of Sunday Schools for education.

Pasted below are pages dealing specifically with college admission requirements. Of the 432 colleges and universities nationwide (today we have about 4,000+) offering the B.A. (then the A.B.), 402 required Latin and 318 required Greek.

How the mighty have fallen.

Via: Dr. A

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

A group of University of Idaho retirees is hoping a recent class-action lawsuit decided in the university's favor will be reconsidered in court.

Ron Landeck, the Moscow attorney for the 268 former UI employees, filed the motion for reconsideration in Latah County District Court on Monday.

The retirees are seeking a hearing to present oral arguments in favor of the motion.

Judge John Stegner granted summary judgment to the UI and its Board of Regents on Nov. 2, ruling that the university had the right to modify the health and life insurance benefits of its employees.

 

Congratulations to New St. Andrews College for winning this prestigious award.

TRACS LEADERSHIP AWARD

 

The TRACS Leadership Award was established in 2006 to honor an outstanding leader for their dedicated and faithful service to quality Christian education as evidenced in the Leadership Award Criteria.

 

The Award is approved by the Executive Committee of the Accreditation Commission and is presented at the TRACS Conference which is held every year around the first part of November.

 

LEADERSHIP AWARD CRITERIA

 

The purpose of the award is to promote Christian Leadership in TRACS Accredited Institutions.  The following criteria are to be the basis for the selection.  Although it is understood that any one person will not likely have all of the criteria listed; the criteria selected are considered to be essential for leadership in Christian Higher Education.

 

1.     He/She has demonstrated a strong Christian faith consistent with foundational standards.

2.     He/She has established a vision for the Institution and the goals to achieve it.

3.     He/She has demonstrated the ability to communicate the vision to the Board, Faculty, Staff and publics outside the Institution.

4.     He/She has been successful in attracting monetary support.

5.     He/She has encouraged the faculty to continually improve their teaching to include student learning outcomes.

6.     He/She has encouraged staff to provide the support necessary to maximize efficiency.

7.     He/She has developed a loyal base support among the students and alumni.

8.     He/She has community support.

9.     The Institution enjoys financial stability under his/her leadership.

10.   He/She has established an active Board.

 

 

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Marcus McAleer said delaying the requirement for Washington high school students to pass a state math and science test to graduate is a good idea given the new academic standards that are being implemented.

"It will help. It will give us time to get on the same page," the Pullman High School math teacher said. "That's beneficial."

The Pullman School District implemented the new statewide math standards last fall and is implementing the new statewide science standards this fall.
…
Under the current state requirements, beginning with the class of 2013, students will be required to pass a two end-of-course tests, one in include Algebra I/Integrated Math I and one in Geometry/Integrated Math II.  

In private schools, that level of math is completed by 9^th grade.

You have to wonder why government schools cannot pass the same level of math by 12th grade…

HT: Dave M

Over at the Washington Post, Michael Alison Chandler takes a look a portfolio assessments in VA. 

Can’t pass a test? Just put together a portfolio and get an automatic “A”. Voila! Problems fixed.

Lynbrook Elementary School, which serves one of the poorest communities in Fairfax County, seems to be a model for reform. Three years ago, the Springfield school failed to meet state testing goals in English. Since then, it has charted double-digit gains in passing rates for every one of its closely monitored racial and ethnic groups of students.

But the success at Lynbrook and other schools throughout the state is not only due to better teaching. More and more, students who have struggled to pass Virginia's Standards of Learning exams are taking different tests.

The trend dates to 2007, when federal officials approved an alternative assessment after the Fairfax School Board threatened to defy a mandate to give multiple-choice reading tests to students who were destined to fail -- students who, like many at Lynbrook, were just beginning to learn English.

The Virginia Grade Level Alternative, like the multiple-choice test, assesses students' understanding of the state academic standards. Teachers document learning throughout the year in a binder of class work, including worksheets, quizzes and writing samples. Some special education students and non-native speakers in early stages of learning English are eligible for the portfolio, but final decisions are made by committees of educators and often parents.

OK, call me skeptical, but the dramatic rise in usage should make everyone throw the flag:

At Weyanoke Elementary School near Annandale, a third of students were tested with reading portfolios last year, up from none three years ago. Passing rates jumped from 41 to 100 percent for students with disabilities, from 69 to 97 percent for English learners, and from 66 to 91 percent for black students (more than a quarter of whom were tested with portfolios).

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

 An 18-year-old man injured during a fall from a Washington State University fraternity house told police he drank eight to 10 beers prior to the accident. Police were called to the Phi Delta Theta fraternity after the victim was discovered on the pavement outside the fraternity by a female visitor, Pullman police reported.

Sound familiar?

What happens when the largest union in the US sees dwindling customers?

From EIA:

It was a long wait, but I knew this day would come. Back on November 25, 2002 (Item #6), EIA reported on NEA and U.S. Department of Education statistics and finished with:

"The U.S. Department of Education, in its publication Projections of Education Statistics to 2011, predicts what will happen if current trends continue. In 2011, K-8 public school enrollment nationwide will be one percent lower than it is today. However, the same report tells us that at current hiring levels we will have 10 percent more teachers in 2011 than we do today. In raw numbers, it's even more ridiculous. By 2011, the U.S. government says we will have 309,000 fewer children in public elementary schools, but we will have 184,000 more public elementary school teachers.

"EIA plans to conduct a betting pool: Name the month and year we see the first story on a 'teacher glut.'"

And last Thursday, almost seven years later, Heather Hollingsworth of the Associated Press gave us "Teacher shortage gives way to teacher glut."

Couple this with the debate over the economic stimulus package's focus on saving educator jobs, and for the first time in a long time you have people examining education labor as a specific and worthy issue. So much so, that we already have our first donnybrook.

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

I have a lot of friends who are completely rethinking the validity of the current higher education world.

Most college degrees are nothing more than VoTech degrees (do you know that you can get a bachelors in welding?).

Now comes the argument that a college degree isn’t even a good economic decision. You are better off (financially) to take all that money that college would cost you and invest it in a modest fund.

My question is: how many kids (or their parents) would actually do that for them?

From Rep-Am:

It's no secret higher-education costs have risen three times faster than inflation in the last 30 years. For perspective, President Obama proposes to nationalize one-sixth of the economy to address "skyrocketing health-care costs," which have gone up only twice as fast as inflation in 30 years.

But even as more middle-class American families are priced out every year, ivory-tower school officials maintain a bachelor's degree is still a good investment — a bargain, they say — based on the gap between the average lifetime earnings of high school and college graduates. U.S. Department of Education data show the difference is considerable: $800,000, minus the current average of $104,000 cost of tuition, fees, room and board, books, travel and incidentals. But writing in The New York Post not long ago, James Altucher, president and founder of Stockpickr LLC, says colleges' rosiest-scenario calculation is incomplete. He makes a good case that higher education, at today's outrageous costs, is a bad investment.

First, 46 percent of college students never graduate, which causes financial hardship for themselves and indirectly for the classmates they leave behind. Just by applying to college, they exacerbate the extreme supply-and-demand imbalance for admissions, which allows schools to charge sky-high, take-it-or-leave-it prices. Before quitting or flunking out, they run up good-sized debts and consume large sums of public and private financial aid. Their money fuels higher-education inflation and further insulates colleges from the real-world financial pain they inflict on students and families.

As for the 54 percent who graduate, the $104,000 average assumes they finish in four years, but many take five or six years to get their diplomas, so their costs are $130,000 or $156,000. These averages, however, don't account for 15 years of interest payments on college-related debt, and going forward, all the numbers must be adjusted to account for rampant higher-ed inflation.

Even with these adjustments, the total cost still doesn't approach $800,000. But if students entering college this fall and their families had saved $104,000 — easier said than done, we know, but $10 a day saved and invested at a modest 5 percent a year compounded monthly yields $105,500 in 18 years — Mr. Altucher calculates they would be better off forgetting college, investing their nest eggs in an annuity and going into business. "You don't need to be an entrepreneur to get valuable experience selling a service, or buying some set of goods cheap and selling them expensive. A year or two of that will be a substantial education in salesmanship, finance, and how to deal with the ups and downs of any business."

Meanwhile, a $104,000 annuity yielding 5 percent would grow to $1.4 million in 50 years, or $600,000 more than the difference in incomes between high school and college grads. No, this formula won't work for everyone, but presuming young people don't condemn themselves to lives as tax pinatas by opening their businesses in Connecticut, they'd have a good chance of earning more money than the average college grad while amassing a $1.4 million nest egg.

HT: Dave G.

This is a great article on math instruction. 

If anyone is interested in how math and sciences have devolved in the government schools, look no further.

This is what happens when academics who have never taught in a given field try to set the standards for everyone else.

From City Journal.

The statistics on U.S. math performance are grim. American eighth-graders ranked 25th out of 30 countries in mathematics achievement on the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which claims to assess application of the mathematical knowledge and skills needed in adult life through problem-solving test items. We do better on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), whose test items are related to the content of school mathematics curricula. (Differences in participating countries aren’t significant.) But according to Mark Schneider, a former commissioner of education statistics at the Department of Education, the United States lags behind too many countries in “overall mathematics performance and in the performance of our best students.” And achievement gaps between different student groups within the United States, Schneider says, are “about the same size or even bigger than the gap between the United States and the top-performing countries in TIMSS.”

As part of his education-reform plan, President Obama wants to “make math and science education a top priority” and ensure that children have access to strong math and science curricula “at all grade levels.” But the president’s worthy aims won’t be reached so long as assessment experts, technology salesmen, and math educators—the professors, usually with education degrees, who teach prospective teachers of math from K–12—dominate the development of the content of school curricula and determine the pedagogy used, into which they’ve brought theories lacking any evidence of success and that emphasize political and social ends, not mastery of mathematics. 

Which is why I think it very helpful to use the methodologies, techniques, and approaches to education that have worked for the previous 2,000+ years. Throw Dewey’s methods out.

The math educators’ rising influence over the last few decades is reflected in the content of, or response to, two influential national reports. In 1989, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), the chief professional organization for mathematics educators and education faculty, issued Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics. The document presented standards for grades K–12, including algebra. The underlying goals of the standards—never made clear to the general public—were social, not academic. Some of the report’s authors, for example, sought to make mathematics “accessible” to low-achieving students, yet meant by this not, say, recruiting more talented undergraduates into teaching but instead the employment of trendy, though empirically unsupported, pedagogical and organizational methods that essentially dumb down math content. Math educators proclaimed a brand-new objective—conveniently indefinable and immeasurable—called “deep conceptual understanding.”

At first, the NCTM’s document drew some public applause for urging K–12 textbook publishers to present math in ways that might better engage student interest. But concerns quickly arose among mathematicians, who found the high school standards inadequate, including their de-emphasis of computation in algebra and proofs in Euclidean geometry. They also noted that none of their academic brethren had participated in the standards’ development. Mathematically literate parents, too, were troubled, as they began to see the holes in the wholesale changes being made to state curriculum frameworks, math textbooks, and classroom practices. The ensuing controversy came to be called the “math wars.”

This has Dewey’s handwriting all over it.

Disgusting. Our tax dollars at work. All this for $10,000 per year per kid.

HT: Dave G.

Here’s an interesting concept: college textbook publishers renting their textbooks directly to students. This is from Course Technology:

I also wanted to let you know about a new Textbook Rental Program that Cengage Learning is rolling out on December 1st.   Students are looking to save money wherever they can and we are the only publisher that can offer a DIRECT RENTAL option where students can rent brand new textbooks.   

o   Our textbooks will be available for students to rent at 40-70% off the list price! Students receive a brand new book and can also choose the length of their rental period – 60, 90, or 130 days with the option to extend the length of the rental afterwards or purchase the book outright.  I attached a flyer in this email with more information on the Rental Program.

o   Students are all about options and www.cengagebrain.com (going live on December 1st) allows them to get the course materials in a variety of ways:

·         rent brand new books
·         purchase e-books (typically about 50% off the list price of texts )
·         e-chapters (as low as $3.99 a chapter!)
·         purchase the print textbook
·         If you want to check out the site now, it is www.ichapters.com (all options except Rental are on the site currently) but it will be moving to www.cengagebrain.com on December 1st.

Here we go again. This time at WSU.

The following is from the online edition of the Lewiston Tribune.

A 20-year-old male Washington State University student was transported Pullman Regional Hospital after he fell from the Alpha Kappa Lambda Fraternity building at 2:40 a.m.

Pullman Police Sgt. Dan Dornes said though the man fell three stories and landed on a parked Ford Explorer, his injuries did not appear to be life threatening.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The lessons of classic literature transcend generations, making them an ideal basis for stage adaptations.

"The appeal of classic pieces is they're timeless and include essential elements throughout time," said Caleb Courtney, a senior at Logos School in Moscow.

IF YOU GO

• WHAT: Logos School drama students present Charles Dickens' "Nicholas Nickleby"
• WHERE: Logos School Knights Court (gymnasium), 110 Baker St., Moscow
• WHEN: 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday.
• COST: $8 for adults, $5 for students (any school), $22 for a family of four

Courtney and 44 of his fifth- through 12th-grade classmates in Logos' extracurricular drama group have been preparing since August for their presentation of Charles Dickens' "Nicholas Nickleby," which opens to the public tonight at 7:30 in the Logos Knights Court.

"Nicholas Nickleby" was originally a novel that spanned hundreds of pages, but director and Logos School Superintendent Tom Garfield chose an adaptation by Tim Kelly that condenses the story into a two-hour feature.

Garfield has been directing student plays at Logos most years since 1983 and was involved with the Moscow Community Theatre for 20 years before that.

He said he's found that students benefit more from performing classic plays instead of modern high school-themed stories because the classics give students an opportunity to emulate feelings and experiences they haven't yet encountered in life.

"They communicate serious love, serious sorrow," he said. "Laughter and fun are easy (in modern plays)."

Sierra Struble plays an old woman, Peg, in "Nicholas Nickleby." The sophomore said performing a classic could bring older audiences to the school.

"Doing the classics is kind of interesting," she said. "Parents might have read it more. It's good literature."

Her brother, junior Caleb Struble, a junior, said he's been in drama several times before but was having a hard time getting into his character, Charles Cheeryble.

Meryn Flack, left, and other students from Logos School put on stage makeup before performing “Nicholas Nickleby” in Moscow on Tuesday.

"(In last year's play), I was the arch-nemesis bad guy," he said, while Cheeryble is the opposite.

He said he has spent about two hours a day, four times a week in the past month or so practicing for this week's performance.

Courtney and freshman Devan Howell are crew members, working behind the scenes to make sure props and the set are functioning smoothly.

Howell calls herself the "prop mistress," wrangling a large number of items in a small space.

She said the toughest part about her job is keeping everything organized so the actors get the right prop at the right time.

She said the crew had to work around budget limitations when it came to props and costumes, but she was able to detect when an item didn't fit the play's time period, the 1800s.

"You just kind of see something (anachronistic), and you know," she said.

Garfield said the drama program is a learning experience for the students, especially in the rhetoric area of Logos' classical Christian curriculum.

He said performing on stage teaches children how to present themselves to others, and it builds confidence and character.

"It's a bit more of a challenge," he said. "The audience expects more, and they should get it."

Students prepare props before a performance of "Nicholas Nickleby" at Logos School in Moscow on Tuesday.

HT: Chris O.

From Idaho Falls News8:

Boise State University's blue and orange colors soar to new heights.

It's the newest addition to Horizon Airlines fleet.

For the first time Monday afternoon, the Bronco plane flew into the Idaho Falls Airport.

The blue and orange turbo-prop isn't just for the team but for all of horizon's passengers.

They're putting it into their regular service route and it takes about 40 minutes to fly from IF to Boise.

Inside, members of the Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce welcomed the aircraft and celebrated with a ribbon cutting and a BSU cake.

The captain of the inaugural flight says it's an honor to take the company's college fleet to the skies.

"It's the first airplane that has a WAC, Western Athletic Conference, logo on it. The rest of our logo airplanes are PAC 10 airplanes," explained Eric Penwell, Horizon Airlines Captain.

Horizon's Boise State plane will fly over this Saturday’s game against rival University of Idaho.

How did BSU manage to get Horizon to logo a plane for them but not for the University of Idaho?

Ben Chavis is the principal of the 4^th highest-performing government school in California. And it’s in Oakland.

Chavis discusses his help-wanted ads for teachers.

“We don’t want multi-cultural parasites, we don’t want self-esteem experts, we want smart people. If you’re smart, and you believe all kids can do well in school with a great teacher, please apply. But if you believe in affirmative action, multiculturalism, we’re not interested in you.”

His point: can he advertise for the opposite kind of people that the governments school are recruiting? What the government schools are doing doesn’t work, so he does the opposite.

And he’s got the 4^th highest-performing public school California — in the heart of Oakland.

This is worth listening to.

Update on HINI Vaccinations to be provided by the Public Health Department:

The Public Health Department contacted Moscow School District this week to inform us that enough nasal spray vaccine has been received to provide free vaccinations for students younger than age 10.  That population will need two doses of the nasal spray vaccination.

Moscow School District will cooperate with the Public Health Department so that parents who elect to do so may get their children vaccinated.  On Monday, all K-5 students will bring home an informational packet from the Public Health Department.  Included with be the Public Health Department's Parental Consent Form.

We are requesting that parents bring their school children younger than 10 along with the Parental Consent Form to the clinics as outlined below.  DO NOT send consent forms to your child's teacher or school.  Bring them directly to the clinic.

After school clinics will be as follows:

1. Nasal Spray HINI Vaccination for MSD school children in Grades K-5 who are under 10 years of age.  Children in MSD's Developmental Preschool are also invited to participate:
   
   Thursday, November 12, 3:30-6:30 PM, Moscow Junior High School Multi-Purpose Room
   
2. Nasal Spray HINI vaccination, second dose, for MSD school children under 10 years of age who received the first dose of the nasal spray vaccination on November 12.  At this time, public health officials anticipate that the enough vaccine will be in Moscow to enable the health department to administer the HINI flu shot version of the vaccination to MSD's K-12 school-aged population who have parental consent forms.

This second, dual purpose clinic will be on:

Thursday, December 10, 3:30-6:30 PM, Moscow Junior High School Multi-Purpose Room

If you have questions about the vaccines or the vaccination clinics, please call Public Health at: 1-866-736-6632.  The health department also suggests that parents visit the following websites:  www.idahopublichealth.com or www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/ or the link on MSD's website.  Also, your child's health care provider may be able to give your child the 2009 H1N1 vaccine.

As reported in today’s online edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Latah County Second District Court Judge John Stegner has granted summary judgment in favor of the University of Idaho in a class-action lawsuit filed against it by a group of former UI employees.

Stegners written decision was filed Monday. He wrote the UI reserved the right to modify or cancel the benefits of any and all retirees, including the two classes of retirees in the lawsuit. 

The Progressives’ plan to socialize America required the most thorough and radical reform of American education. To this they applied their extensive knowledge of behavioral psychology. That the goal was socialism was clearly known and understood throughout the educational establishment. That it meant downgrading academics in favor of socialization was also understood, for in a socialist society an elite rules at the top, and the masses below are relegated to the subservient, mindless tasks of an industrial system...

Why did these men believe in socialism? Because, as atheists, they were convinced that socialism offered the only salvation from evil. To them the causes of evil were societal: ignorance, poverty, and social injustice. As evolutionists they rejected such concepts as sin, innate depravity, or the fall of man. They thus attributed the causes of social injustice to capitalism, individualism, and religion. By substituting socialism, collectivism and atheism in their place, they had no doubt that heaven on earth was quite attainable...

The Progressives did their job exceedingly well, and their disciples today, in the highest positions of power in the educational establishment, still press that globalist vision while centralizing all education under state monopoly control. Their political power is enormous, thanks to the NEA, which is convincing more and more legislators to pour more and more tax money down the educational rathole.

Meanwhile, public education has become a moral and academic disaster. But Americans have grown to live with it. They know something is wrong, but they have no idea what to do about it.

Fortunately, there is a growing number of parents who know what is going on and have removed their children from the government schools. This trend will continue to grow despite the determination of the “educators” to crush it...

Americans are now in a position to see quite clearly where the educators want to take us. The goal is a world socialist government in which individual freedom and national independence will be lost forever. Clearly this is not what the American people want. And so, the conflict between the educators and the people will persist indefinitely.

 

—Samuel Blumenfeld, Revolution via Education, pg. 55ff