More Proof Public Education Is A Disaster

HT CNS News

From WWJ TV (CBS Detroit) online:

According to a new report, 47 percent of Detroiters are ”functionally illiterate.” The alarming new statistics were released by the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund on Wednesday.
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Some of the Detroit suburbs also have high numbers of functionally illiterate: 34 percent in Pontiac and 24 percent in Southfield.

“For other major urban areas, we are a little bit on the high side… We compare, slightly higher, to Washington D.C.’s urban population, in certain ZIP codes in Washington D.C. and in Cleveland,” she said.

Detroit has been run by Liberals for at least the past 60 years and its population has gone from roughly 2 million in its heyday 1950s to barely over 700,000 today.

Detroit Public Schools, obviously run by Liberals on the board, also have to deal with the anti-free-choice Teachers’ Union who have fought every attempt to fix Detroit’s education problem. Not to mention that Detroit Public Schools are massively deficit-spending and are failures at the graduation rate thing.

This is why the Teachers’ Unions need to be bypassed en toto and tout de suite. This is also why the Liberals need defeated and competition for the opportunity to educate our children be put into place. The Liberal Agenda does not educate our children. The Teachers’ Union agenda does not educate our children. Time to put them out to pasture.

UPDATE: Jazz Shaw reports half Detroit’s illiterates have a high school-level education.

The report goes on to specify that roughly half of the illiterate population has either a high school degree or a GED, and yet they can’t read. Virtually all of them are recorded as having passed elementary school where one generally learns the basics of reading and writing.

Doug Mataconis notes that this is another case of a public school system simply melting down.

Per pupil spending in Detroit as of 2008 was $13,000, which is higher than some people pay for private schooling in other parts of the country. Clearly, the system has failed and the taxpayers aren’t getting their moneys worth. Unfortunately, at least half of them aren’t able to read the report (PDF) to figure that out.

Abort ‘Em, Kill ‘Em, Get Me A Beer

From that insightful (or is that inciteful?) Andrew Klavan.

Those Evil Democrats Need To Quit Using Their Families As Campaign Props

It’s really sickening watching all those evil Democrats trot out their families, their young kids even, just to use them as political props. They really need to stop that cynical behavior. They’re rich enough. Can’t they leave their kids at home with the nanny? I mean seriously, look at them!

Al Gore getting slobbery

There’s Al Gore getting freaky-deaky with his wife. Get a room! And quit using your wife as a campaign prop! I mean, seriously. That’s just heartless. And wierd. And conniving.

Barack Obama, Joe Biden and families

And here we have Barack Obama and Joe Biden using their families as props. And Barack Obama has the evil audacity to use his own very young daughters in such a sleazy way! And his wife Michelle, instead of protecting her children from being abused like this as any loving mother should, aids and abets this horrific child abuse! It’s disgusting.

There’s Bill and Hillary Clinton disgracefully using their young daughter as a political prop! How downright vile of them to debase their daughter Chelsea like that!

Al Gore and his family

Look, it’s Al Gore again! And this time he’s using his entire family, children and all, as political props! It’s so over the top it’s ridiculous! Think of the damage he’s done to his family by trotting them out there in such an obviously cynical and self-aggrandizing way!

All these Democrats should be shamed into hiding. Every last one of them. How dare they use their families as props like that. No loving family would ever dream of doing such a thing. It’s sickening, and they are all in desparate need of psychological counseling.

See what I did there?

Obama Waited Sixteen Hours (Good) Bush Waited Ten Minutes (Bad)

When Barack Obama learned Osama bin Laden’s location, he waited 16 hours before his team gave the order to go get Osama.  When George W Bush learned terrorists flew two planes into the Twin Towers on 9-11-2001, he waited for less than ten minutes before he left the second grade class at Emma E Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida.

While it is good that the Islamic Terrorist Osama bin Laden was killed, and President Barack Obama deserves some of the credit, the fact remains that Obama waited 16 hours before giving the go-ahead for Special Forces to do their jobs and take Osama down.  During Obama’s dithering time, Osama could have easily just up and drove away.  Then what?  Nobody except for a very few in-the-know would have known Obama had a chance and dithered it away.  And since that was Top Secret information, the chances of that information getting leaked would have been exceedingly small.  As Hilary Clinton said during the 2008 Presidential Primary campaign, Obama is still not ready for the 3AM phone call.  It’ll take him 16 hours before he (or someone else) makes a decision.  And in that time, the target could get away or the situation could become unmanageable or far more expensive in terms of dollars, lives, duration.  But Liberals that I’ve read don’t want to look at that — at all.  Or they give Obama credit for “being deliberative and not a Cowboy.”  And we all know what that sentiment is.  It’s partisanship, plain and simple.

But when George W Bush heard that terrorists (nobody knew they were Islamic Terrorists yet) had struck the World Trade Center while a Florida second grade class was reading to him, the Liberals wanted Bush to get up and leave right then and there.  As if Bush could have done something in those ten minutes to change anything.  What was it Bush could have done in those ten minutes that would have changed anything?

There are already plans in place in the event the US is attacked.  Since the attack was by civilian planes, President Bush was in no immediate danger in a Florida grade school.  There was nothing that needed done right that minute that couldn’t be handled at a command level below the Commander in Chief.  In short, President Bush’s seven to ten minute delay was in no way going to make matters worse or prevent matters from becoming better.  So the Liberals’ demand that Bush was wrong or indecisive, or whatever other Liberal attack meme, is pure partisanship or pure ignorance or a combination of the two.  But don’t take my word for it. Take the words of those who were at Emma E Booker Elementary School — in the second grade class with President Bush — for it. From Time magazine, no right-wing media outlet that, come the words of the then-second grade students who witnessed President Bush being told terrorists had flown planes into the World Trade Center. And they say President Bush did the right thing.

Lazaro Dubrocq’s heart started racing because he assumed they were all in trouble — with no less than the Commander in Chief — but he wasn’t sure why. “In a heartbeat, he leaned back and he looked flabbergasted, shocked, horrified,” recalls Dubrocq, now 17. “I was baffled. I mean, did we read something wrong? Was he mad or disappointed in us?”

Similar fears started running through Mariah Williams’ head. “I don’t remember the story we were reading — was it about pigs?” says Williams, 16. “But I’ll always remember watching his face turn red. He got really serious all of a sudden. But I was clueless. I was just 7. I’m just glad he didn’t get up and leave, because then I would have been more scared and confused.” Chantal Guerrero, 16, agrees. Even today, she’s grateful that Bush regained his composure and stayed with the students until The Pet Goat was finished. “I think the President was trying to keep us from finding out,” says Guerrero, “so we all wouldn’t freak out.”
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Williams, also a junior at the military academy, says those moments spent with Bush conferred on the kids a sort of historical authority as they grew up. “Today, when we talk about 9/11 in class and you hear kids make mistakes about what happened with the President that day, I can tell them they’re wrong,” she says, “because I was there.”

Clearly, the two situations are completely uncomparable. For George W Bush, there was nothing he could do at the time and staying for the next few minutes served a purpose — keeping a bunch of 7-year-olds calm. President Bush made the right decision. For Barack Obama, there was something he could do and he chose to wait 16 hours and possibly miss the window of opportunity. Obama’s waiting provided no benefit and introduced a lot of risk.

Yes, Obama gets some credit for Osama being taken out. But so does Bush get some credit. And the overwhelming majority of the credit goes to the Intelligence community and the US Armed Forces.

But it’s pure partisanship for Liberals to claim these two events prove Obama is a successful military leader while Bush is a failure. Pure partisanship with zero grounding in truth.
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Cross-Posted on Common Sense Political Thought and Caffeinated Thoughts