In this Tuscaloosa News Article, they were speaking of Dropout Rates and the Consequences.  The following were my comments:

"Quote from this article:

"Among the solutions recommended by the guidebook are smaller schools, school choice, and more flexibility in curriculum based more on real-world themes. Greater community and parental involvement in schools is important. So too is stronger discipline in student attendance, behavior and effort."  Right On, this would be a Great First Start.

These are the solutions that need to be addressed.  For about 200 years, public schools were under the domain and control of the communities in which the schools were located, and up until this state and local control was subverted by the U.S. government, the U.S. public education system was in the top 2 or 3 in the world for academic outcomes.

Beginning in the 1960's, the federal government began to intervene in Locally Controlled Schools and it has all been downhill ever since.

Children were ripped from their local communities and transported here and yond in an effort to Create Sameness and supposedly, equality. All suffered from these failed policies and decisions.

By the mid-1970's, after only about 10 years of Federal Intervention (Socialistic Policies), academic outcomes were declining at a rapid pace as the Social Engineers continued to Experiment with our children and the school system that had served this nation so well for over 200 years.  In the 1976 presidential election, the National and State Teacher Unions got out a great deal of support for Jimmy Carter, who in return, started the U.S. Department of Education as a Gift and Payback to the Teacher Unions, and the Decline in Educational Outcomes that was already in rapid decline, thanks to Federal Interventions, declined at an even more rapid pace.  There is a direct correlation between federal interventions and declines in outcomes.

Today, after 40 plus years of Federal Intervention Into State and Local Authority over public education, we have gone from #3 in the world for educational outcomes in public school to #28 in the world, trailing many third world countries, while spending more per capita than any other nation. The spending is not the problem. What the money is being spent on is the problem: too much bureaucracy and bureucrats, standardized tests, regulations, technologies, etc. and not enough spent on smaller schools and more competent teachers.  In some areas, over 60 percent of school employees are non-teachers. Duh????

The current problem in Tuscaloosa Schools is not confined to Tuscaloosa. This is a national problem and it is the most serious National Security Issue we have, and threatens the very existence of this nation. What has occurred in Tuscaloosa is not confined to Tuscaloosa.

The current public school system is the Best Definition that I can find for Failed Socialism and Failed Social Engineering.

Not only are the schools being hampered from teaching basic academic subjects, citizenship, responsibility and respect, and community standards, they are also being mandated to Brainwash our children with National Socialistic Agendas, and many of these National Agendas and Teachings go against Local Community Standards and Beliefs of the Citizens in the communities. The Social Engineering, Brainwashing, and Dumbing Down of America is a Direct Result of Federal Intervention and Socialism gone awry.

It is time that parents, teachers, and community leaders Just Say No to Federal Rules, Laws, and Mandates when these Rules, Laws, and Mandates are clearly Destroying Our Children, Communities and Nation.

So, of course, smaller community schools located in the communities where the children live is one step that should be implemented as soon as is possible.  No elementary or middle school should be any larger than 300 to 400 students with teacher-pupil ratios of 1 to 20, and that school should be required to teach basic academic subjects the old fashioned way by Having Children Do Academic Work with paper and pencils, and get computers and other gadgets out of the classrooms until about grade 8 competencies are achieved. After they achieve 8th grade competencies, then introduce computers and other Tools. Computers and Calculators are Tools, and should not be substituted as Teachers. These Tools Do Not Help The Child's Mind Develop, and in fact, do much more harm than good. Children already are exposed to too much TV, Computers, and Other Electronic Gadgets away from school.  We have so many computers and other gadgets in the schools now, that incompetent and illiterate teachers are able to mask their own incompetencies, because they let the children teach or babysit themselves on computers.  This kind of teaching and learning does not develop the mind, especially the part of the brain that deals with Reason and Logic. This part of the brain is developed by Doing, with Paper and Pencil operations such as Arithmetic, and also our children are losing or not learning basic skills such as writing, especially, cursive writing.  And, with Spell Check, and other Computer Tools, these same children are becoming Poor Spellers, and Also are not learning proper English and appropriate grammer, etc.

In short, we need to return to basics, and we also need to get All Standardized Testing Out of Our Schools. The only tests that need to be used are basic screening devices such as the Brigance Readiness screens to see what the student needs are. Standardized Testing always Lowers Standards, and we have been so busy Standardized Testing for the past 40 years, that now the Standard is so low that some High School Graduation Tests are based on 6th grade skills.  So many students were failing the tests that started out with only 8th grade skills (In Georgia, one of the first states to start Basic Skills Testing for High School Graduation in the 1990's, the test started out at 8th grade level, and so many students in high school were failing, that they re-wrote the test to 7th grade level, with almost as bad results, and finally, they lowered the Standard to 6th grade level as a way of making it look like schools were improving in graduation rates and student learning.) This has been a trend all over the country, and what Tuscaloosa faces today is being faced all over the country, and it is all a Direct Result of the Social Engineering and Directives from the U.S. Department of Education, which is the Enforcement Arm for National Teacher Unions and the government's Socialist Agenda.

The U.S. Department of Education should be abolished. Then that departments 200 billion dollar annual budget this year alone, could be put back where it belongs in the hands of Local Communities to Build Small Community Schools, and More Teachers, and Less Standardized Tests, Fewer Computers for elementary and middle schoolers, and Fewer Administrators and other Educational Bureaucrats.  The U.S. Department of Education is nothing more than an example of another Federal Agency or Department That was instituted ostensibly to Deal with a "perceived" social problem, and like all Agencies or Departments started to deal with "perceived" social problems, the Problems Grew worse in a direct correlation with Size, Expenditures, and Power of the Department.  This has also happened with the other so-called "Great Society" programs that started in the 1960's by Lyndon B. Johnson.  These So Called Great Society Programs have now squandered tens of trillions of dollars on The War on Poverty, and like all other problems that Federal Agencies and Departments are started to deal with, the problem grew much worse. And, besides the fact that the War On Poverty did not Decrease or End Poverty, it also destroyed family values, work ethics, and dignity and self respect, respect for others and respect for resources in those who became dependent of government and thus lost their own independence and ability to take care of one's self. This is a travesty and a great example ow how socialism works. This is what happens when you create a Government Agency or Department to deal with a "perceived" social problem, the problem not only does not improve or go away, the problem always grows worse, as the agency or department becomes it's own Empire, and like all Empires, these agencies and departments seek growth in size, expenditures and power, and in order to justify their Growth, Power, and Expenditures, They Have to Have More "perceived" victims to Serve, to justify their own existence. The U.S. Department of Education and their Mandates are the very reason that Tuscaloosa and every other community in America have the dismal public schools that they now have. And, what do their "experts" suggest?  "Doing More of The Same Things that Do Not Work, For Longer Periods of Time??  They suggest Longer School days, Longer School Weeks, Longer School Years. This is all complete nonsense.  Children already spend too much time away from home in public schools. It is not the time spent in schools that is causing the problems. It is the Agenda and Curriculum that they are being exposed to that is the problem.  More time needs to be spent in Actual Academic Instruction By Teachers who Also Have the Requisite Skills themselves to teach what it is that they should be teaching. Things like Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, Civic Responsibility and Respect for self, others and resources.  We now have public School Teachers who cannot teach elementary arithmetic because, they themselves, cannot do elementary arithmetic. This shows you how far down that We have Been Standardized By Socialism.

To take this country back on the road to prosperity, we have to take our children and schools back, and it needs to Start Now. Tell the Local, State, and Federal Bureaucrats NO, and tell them that You, the Community Are Taking Your children, your schools and your communities back. And, teachers who refuse to Teach according to Community Standards and refuse to teach Old Fashioned Academics, let them go. If their unions threaten law suits, tell them to SUE On Their Own Time, but in the meantime, hire Competent Teachers Who Can Actually Perform the Tasks that they are supposedly teaching. Get all the Political Correctness and other nonsense out of the schools completely. Teachers should be teaching Civic Responsibility and Not Their Own Political Leanings. Children's minds are impressionable, and they should not be brainwashed and propagandized to by Teachers promoting their Own Social or Political Agendas, which is what a vast majority of teachers are doing today. When teachers chastise children because of their parents political beliefs or moral beliefs, they are abusing your children. Emotional, intellectual and psycholgical abuse takes place in schools all over the country everyday by teachers who have an agenda and by teachers promoting the Social Agenda of the U.S. Department of Education and Teacher Unions.  This abuse is worse than physical abuse, because it is creating a nation of dumbed down and brainwashed citizens who grow up without the emotional, psychological and intellectual ability to compete, and these, my friends are the hopeless students who drop out, and even for the ones who do not drop out, they are not getting their educational, academic, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual needs met by these Federally Run and Mandated Schools.

Even if many students graduate, that does not mean that they have learned very much, it only means that they suffered through 12 plus years of psychological, emotional, and intellectual neglect and abuse. And, what is the new plan coming out of the U.S. Department of Education that has now eliminated every vestige of local and state control in public education? The Obama Dept. of Education is in the process of Mandating Pre-Schools down to age 4 and eventually down to age 2.  Do you really want the Federal Government to Yank your toddlers away from home and send them to Government Run Dumbing Down and Brainwashing Institutions in the guise of early childhood education.  No, the real aim is that the Federal Government does not want to Leave Even One Child Behind that is Not Brainwashed and Dumbed Down to grow up to be a good little Socialist Citizen.

This has been the Aim of Socialists for decades, and it all started in earnest with Lydon B. Johnson in the 1960', and has been expanding since.  Jimmy Carter and the U.S. Department of Education? And, now with Obama, this socialist plan to Completely Eradicate All Local and State Control is complete. And the next step in that is the Pre-School Movement to Force Parents to put their toddlers into the arms of the Nanny State.

If you love your children, your community, your liberty, freedom, rights and country, you need to Tell The Government NO, and Take Your Children, Schools, Communities, and Country Back.  It all starts in your own Home Town. All politics is local, and if you cannot take charge of your own town, how in the world do you think that you can influence the Federal Politicians and Bureaucrats who are being Bought and Paid for By Professional Lobbyists, and other Special Interest Groups who could care less what is happening to you, your community and your children?

m. jerome ennis, MAed

Tuscaloosa, Alabama