Some politicians keep their promises

When Obama was running in 2008 he promised to fundamentally transform America. He's certainly kept that promise. There are times I don't recognize America. In Ohio we have legalization of marijuana on the ballot. Before you say, “Great, it didn't hurt me I still have half my brain after losing all those cells”, you must understand the money lobby is going for revising the state constitution and allowing only about 10 mega investors in the trade to grow, process and sell it. Sweet crony capitalism if I've ever seen it. Could beat Al Gore investing in cap and trade. Criminal elements in Ohio could match DC. We got casino gambling the same way—locally citizens voted it down several times until they weaseled in and made it state wide.

As he chases the wind and solar dream, Obama puts coal mining industry in 9 states at risk with new EPA regulations and is destroying the small businesses and non-profits set up in the 1970s to fight the oil interests of the middle east since coal is one of our biggest assets. Only fracking is keeping our energy costs low (while Obama takes credit for lower gasoline prices). Meanwhile we’ll be supporting the out of work miners and all the supporting businesses with our higher taxes for unemployed and 123 wealth transfer programs.

Obergefell (same sex marriage decision by SCOTUS): John Azumah, an ordained Presbyterian minister from Ghana taught a class at Columbia Theological Seminary (Decatur, GA), “Introduction to Islam” to seminary students, the future leaders of Christianity in America. An invited iman asserted to the class that Jesus is not the Son of God, denied the crucifixion and resurrection, and maintained the Bible had been falsified. The students all listened passively with respect and responded only with very timid and politically correct questions. Until. . . a question on homosexuality. When the guest instructor answered that it was un-Islamic, not of God and unnatural, the respectful, timid class which had heard him deny all the basic tenets of the Christian faith turned on him with shock and rage. Some wanted to cancel a planned visit to a mosque. In our culture it’s acceptable for Christians to deny Jesus, but not their own sexual desires. (from First Things, Oct. 2015, “Through African Eyes” pp. 41-46)

Washington Post has a compelling article by a special ed teacher with a PhD who is leaving the profession because of required standardized testing. Read it, it will make you weep for our educators and children. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/10/25/special-ed-teacher-quits-i-just-cannot-justify-making-students-cry-anymore/

Standardized testing is not a left/right issue, but is bi-partisan disaster. They had it when I was a kid, but not as awful as today. Common Core and Race to the Top are the Obama versions, but Bush had No Child Left Behind. I’ve never heard a single teacher or administrator praise those programs.

NCLB and RTTT—a comparison

Confused about how the Department of Education spreads around your tax dollar? Here's a comparison of No Child Left Behind (Bush, 2001, regular budget funding, Title I) and Race to the Top (Obama, 2009, ARRA money through grants, on top of NCLB). Bush's is a mandate; Obama's is more money for improvement—competition. Sort of a flip flop of how the right and left say they do things.

Until Obama came on the scene, Bush was the biggest all time spender on social programs; but that didn't get him any points with Democrats.

http://www.cga.ct.gov/2010/rpt/2010-R-0235.htm

Was it NCLB?

Depending on your politics, education statistics are fodder for your cause. While in office President Bush was roundly criticized by both conservatives and liberals for throwing money at education, particularly NCLB. Although if you look at the grant money available from HHS, USDA, and other agencies, the money for children extended far beyond the DOE and NCLB. No president in the history of the nation has better reason to be called “the education president” than George W. Bush, based on the money spent, (or wasted, depending on your viewpoint). However, today I came across some interesting statistics.

In 1998 Georgia had the lowest overall graduation rate in the nation with 54% of students graduating, followed by Nevada, Florida, and Washington, D.C. The national rate was 71%, according to the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. (Its figures differ from some government statistics which include GEDs in graduation rates). Nine years later, Georgia's graduation rate rose to an all-time high of 72.3 percent in 2006-2007, according to data released by State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox and Governor Sonny Perdue.

Manhattan Institute for Policy Research tends to be conservative/libertarian. I don’t know about the state superintendent of schools in Georgia, but I’m sure she would want to make it as positive as possible, regardless of her party. But it looks like NCLB helped some of the worst school districts in the country, which I believe was its intent. The NEA and teachers in general complained bitterly about it, and I'm sure anything good about the program will go the way of all digital information agencies of the federal government don't want you to see. As I've said many times, the archives belong to the victor, and the public libraries to the Democrats.

However, here’s another statistic I found. In 1993 Georgia began to invest more (many millions) in pre-K education which included a component for working with the mothers of the children so they could get their GED and job training. This was under Governor Zell Miller, and was funded by the state lottery. Press release 1993. If even some of the poorest children were helped by that program, it should have shown up in the 2007 graduation rates, 14 years later.

During the last three weeks, we've seen the previous administration dissed at every possibile turn by current officials, from Obama on down, and it is in very bad taste. It will be interesting to see if he is criticized for not caring about children.