Sunday, February 28, 2010
Power Line has been doing a great job following the going's on out in their neck of the woods, where the Muslim American Society is basically running a public school and the ACLU(!) has stepped in on the right side (for once): Not Your Parents' PTA
We've written a number of times about Minnesota's Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA), a charter school that appears to be Muslim in all but name, and is closely affiliated with, if not an alter ego of, the radical Muslim American Society. The American Civil Liberties Union is engaged in litigation against TIZA, in which the ACLU alleges that the school unconstitutionally promotes religion at taxpayer expense. That litigation has gotten quite bitter.
Our friend Kathy Kersten has done more than anyone else to shed light on TIZA and its relationship with the Muslim American Society through her columns in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Now, relying on court records, she details allegations of threats made against those who have provided information about the school's operations...
Hit the link to get the story of the entirely predictable retribution that members of the Muslim community there who testify against the school are receiving. They follow with a good summary post here: The truth about TiZA
Relgiously based charter schools violate the First Amendment, and the ACLU is correct to oppose them. Some Jewish charter schools may raise similar church/state issues:
http://takingnote.tcf.org/2009/01/the-problem-with-ethnic-charter-schools.html
http://www.jewishjournal.com/world/article/jewishoriented_charter_school_in_florida_to_open_amid_controversy_20070810/
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/education/24charter.html
How do Catholic schools, for example, violate the First Amendment? I'm curious; I don't really understand how the existence of these schools violates my First Amendment rights?
Is it the issue of public funding? In that case possibly there might a case stating that it's inappropriate for the state, which represents all of us, supporting religious schools, but that would be a church/state issue wouldn't it?
Also how are you going to deal with this fact: public schools in major American cities have in some cases become so bad that parents carefully save to send their kids to, say, Catholic schools in order to ensure they'll get a good education and also there are security issues.
I know a lot of teachers and they despair because they're basically just trying to keep order. Schools have metal detectors these days, to catch the knives and guns at the door.
What's the solution? Our educational excellence is dropping to a critical point. It was bad enough when I went to school - graduates of elite schools as well as public schools sometimes needed remedial English as college freshmen, we had such a course and I went to an Ivy League equivalent with over 40% prep school graduates (I got a scholarship; at least I could read and write though thanks to an excellent public school system in my county.)
Here's a real problem: tax bases for excellent public schools are eroding in many cases, including formerly wealthy suburbs. In one suburb near my city they amount to over $1K/month per house and up, depending on the value of the house.
So the school system in that town is excellent. However within the same county are poorer towns whose schools are eroding, and the residents of the rich town don't want to share tax funds with the residents of the poor towns. Schools sponsored by religious groups and other private schools provide an alternative to lousy public schools.
I would prefer, personally, that we have universally excellent public schools but we don't. We have a situation where kids in poor suburbs and the inner city get bad educations and people who live in wealthy towns and pay high taxes don't want to share their money with poor communities.
What do you suggest?
Charter schools are public schools. A private school can be as religious as it wants, but public schools must conform to the First Amendment.
TiZA is a charter (public) school. That's the problem. If it were private there would be no issue (other than being run by the Muslim Brotherhood, but that's another matter).
The problem with public schools is NOT money alone. The Washington DC schools are some of the worst in the nation and simultaneously some of the highest funded.
Read this: http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=20302
Quite a story.
I hope that article was published in a national magazine/newspaper.
People need to read it and see what's going on. Blaming the teacher for academic failure, at Emory public school is ludicrous.
That article is from 2003. I wonder how things are in 2010.
In 2010 there should be video cameras, multiple cameras to cover every angle, in every classroom and hallway, to document what is going on. That would end false charges.
"Principal" savoy should be kicked out and exposed to the nation for the incompetent fraud she is.
OK, thanks Ron, that makes sense.
But the larger issue, that of our failing educational system, remains.
I think it's very serious.
In the case of counties and states with rich and poor regions, doesn't it make sense to pool resources?
Ron Newman, I ask you again, did Saddam Husseins Iraq ever have WMDs?
It should be easy for you to answer, unless you fear the answer.
Detroit is another failed school system with among the nation's highest per pupil expenditures.
It's true that inner-city schools have more problems with ESL students and special-needs kids, but that alone doesn't account for the colossal failure despite lots of spending.
Public schools aren't accountable to parents or students, something a voucher system would address. Public school education would continue to be free of tuition, but parents could opt to spend that cost of education at the school of their choice. Having public schools compete for students with private and parochial schools on a level playing field would do a lot to improve public education.
When cities cut back on education because of budget difficulties, it's the students and teachers who feel the pinch. Music, art, gym and foreign languages are the first things to be cut. Teachers are laid off. It's rare that someone in the central offices gets axed.
And the same union tactics that were a part of Detroit's demise are still par for the course. New York spends $50-million a year on a rubber room where incompetent teachers while away the six years or so it takes to fire them. No responsibilities or assignments, but full salary and benefits, including accrual toward the kind of defined benefit pension that the private sector no longer offers.
Nappy's no fan of BHO, but good on him for supporting the Central Falls, RI school system that fired all its teachers rather than kunckle under to union extortion.
But those are all side-issues here. Nappy's glad to see that TiZA is feeling some heat and very pleasantly surprised that ACLU has taken a stand against them.
The problem isnt religious schools. The problem is Islam.
Canada supports Catholic Schools as part of the public school system...with public funding.
School choice, privatization, and vouchers funded statewide the follow the child...is the way to go to improve schools.
Fighting Islam is a separate issue.
Here is one of the problems with today's education establishment...
Berkeley High may cut lab classes to fund programs for struggling students
Trying to address a major ethnic and racial achievement gap, the school could divert funds from before- and after-school science labs filled mostly with white students. The plan has sparked debate.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/24/local/la-me-berkeley-schools24-2010jan24
EV is a big fan of the San Fran school choice program....and also Oakland's American Indian Charter Schools...
Spitting in the eye of mainstream education
Three no-frills charter schools in Oakland mock liberal orthodoxy, teach strictly to the test -- and produce some of the state's top scores.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-charter31-2009may31,0,7064053.story
That isnt to say that this is the only way to go. The key is to empower consumer choice to drive quality and variety in the marketplace....via vouchers that follow the child and school autonomy.
The public school system is scelrotic and saddled with New Left social engineering agenda's as well as weird post 60s ideas about pedagogy and self esteem. It needs competition and market mechanisms as well as union busting...in order to partake in the information age explosition of creativity and competence.
EV
EV forgot to put a link to information on the San Francisco School Choice System...
The Agony of American Education
How per-student funding can revolutionize public schools.
http://reason.com/archives/2006/04/01/the-agony-of-american-educatio