Back in 2007, the Heritage Foundation published a report on the cost of No Child Left Behind. Here is a synopsis of their findings:

In October of 2006 the Office of Management and Budget reported that No Child Left Behind increased state and local governments' annual paperwork burden by 6,680,334 hours, at an estimated cost of $141 million dollars. For some reason Washington didn’t seem upset about that.

A number of states have published reports estimating the cost of complying with No Child Left Behind. For example, the state of Connecticut found that the state government would spend more than $17 million in 2007 to comply with NCLB. Virginia estimated that state implementation costs totaled approximately 20 million per year. If we exclude those states with the courage to tell Washington to keep their money, the average cost per state of $15 million per year comes out to a whopping $675 million. So why was the report from OMB a miniscule $141 million? Was it because someone gave Bush Jr. the calculator? Or is the answer something far more Machiavellian? 

You’re right, it is.

In the summer of 2007 I attended a legislative conference in Philadelphia attended b y hundreds of state representatives from across the US. One of the speakers was President Bush. His speech contained mostly fluff, but buried within the rhetoric was an absolute conviction that NCLB was going to continue to be forced upon the unwilling states, regardless of the cost. Unfortunately it seems Obama agrees with that sentiment.

No Child Left Behind has created a culture of insipidness within our public school system. This culture stems from the school boards and filters on down through the administration. Even though the majority of teachers hate the program, they are forced to either go along or lose their job.

School Administrators only look at the dollars. I know, I’ve spoken with those in my state. Many claim that they do care what happens to the children, but when push comes to shove every decision comes out with dollar signs on it. I have yet to read about a single superintendent or principle willingly sacrificing a portion of their paycheck to improve the quality of education in their school. To be fair, most of them are not given a choice. They too are trapped within a system that has been carefully crafted by the left for the past sixty-plus years. Why else would programs that have proven themselves every time they’ve been used be scrapped in favor of what essentially boils down to babysitting?

Washington claims that every child not only deserves to go on to higher education, but that they all have a burning desire to do so. Yes, I’m sure if you ask the average 4^th grader what they want to be when they grow up the vast majority are going to list a profession that requires an advanced degree. Fireman, cowboy, soldier or movie star won’t even be in the mix. The real truth, backed by NEA’s own statistics, is that less than a third of high school graduates will apply and be accepted to a four-year college. Of those accepted, less than a third will finish that education, even if given an extra year. So, based on numbers they themselves are aware of, why is the federal bureaucracy so dead set on promoting a program that fails miserably? And why do they continuously buck against a program that excels every time it is tried? I’m talking about vocational education. Yes, I mean shop classes.

The cost of implementing NCLB has all but eliminated vocational education. In the Clark County School District, one of the largest in the US, you can still find classrooms fully equipped to teach auto shop, wood shop and home economics in the districts middle schools. Not one of them is being used for that purpose. Some are not even being used as classrooms, even though the schools are overcrowded. In many of the high schools, vocational education has been cut back drastically because of budget concerns. It seems the district, just like Washington, won’t pay attention to its own data.

Not too far from my home stands one of the first Career and Technical Academies in the nation. It used to be called VoTech High School. Now its called SECTA. Even with the name change, SECTA remains one of the highest performing schools in the nation with an average 98% functional graduation rate. The naysayers on the school board claim the numbers are because the school gets to pick and choose its pupils. But in reality it is because the staff and administration at that school work together as a team to make sure the education is made relevant to the students. They learn the core subjects such as science, english, history and math as they apply to a profession, not just boring, overworked theory. There is a young man who attended VoTech with an emphasis on plumbing. In middle school his teachers labeled him as unable to grasp concepts beyond addition and subtraction. After high school he went into the navy as a plumbers mate. When he revisited his alma mater he explained what he was doing in the navy to his old teachers using advanced calculus to illustrate concepts. Not bad for a labeled failure.

Using some more NEA stats; one of the most successful groups in college is that made up of mature returning students. Believe it or not, that group makes up a good percentage of teachers, especially those in the Career and Technical Academies. So why the push of NCLB?

Many of my fellow conservatives don’t like my derision of G.W. Bush. Too bad. Bush was a lousy President who did everything he could to destroy our country’s sovereignty. Consider the attempt to remove the border between the US and Mexico, the attempt to sell sovereign base authority to a terrorist nation, and the support of an educational bureaucracy that no one likes outside of the feds? There is more than enough evidence that NCLB is yet another avenue the left is using to reduce the strength of the United States as a country. If they can get us to graduate more illiterates than not, the socialist revolution will succeed without a shot being fired. So what can we do?

One plan would be to allow states to opt out of the NCLB program. These states would be able to work out an alternate agreement with the federal government. Under this agreement, the states’ representatives would have broader authority to consolidate existing federal programs with state programs to work out their education funding. Of course, this assumes the states CAN work out school funding. That’s another column.

Another plan is to use what has already been proven to work, vocational education. Make the core classes relevant to the students. Allow them to use both their minds and their hands. Bring back real detention. Don’t allow those students who want to disrupt the classroom to do so. Put them somewhere away from the other students where they only get the three R’s, no sports, no recess, until they prove they are able to rejoin civilized society. Get rid of the diversity nonsense and teach real citizenship. Allow teachers to teach what they know. Don’t force them to pull double duty as secretaries for the administration. The average teacher day, believe it or not is about 10-12 hours, not 6. And there is no such thing as a 3-month vacation. Just because there are no bottoms in the classroom chairs doesn’t mean the job stops. It takes a minimum of 2 ½ months to set up lesson plans for the next year.

Of course, pulling off such a plan would also require dumping NCLB. How about that?

Have you ever wondered what would happen to our lives if all of a sudden people decided to stop being dishonest? The cynic would claim that such an event could be the beginning of mass violence, murder, suicide and economic collapse. They would claim that our society, nay, the entire world is deeply rooted in a culture of deception. People have been conditioned to not only accept the little lies we consistently tell each other, but have come to expect them to the point that, when confronted with actual truth, they cannot process it.

 

When Bill Clinton faced the news camera and shook his finger at America while lying about his affair with Monica Lewinski, it was apparent, even to his most fervent followers that he was not being honest. Later, it was revealed that very few of his published honors and accomplishments were based in actual fact. That revelation has done little, if any to harm his ongoing career after the White House.

 

George Bush the elder also lied to America in much the same way. The only difference was that his lie was economic rather than lurid, but being a Republican in a country controlled by liberal media and thought police, his punishment was swift and politically devastating…for about four years and then the previous-mentioned liar came in.

 

Al Gore has to be the champ when it comes to spinning falsehoods, though John Kerry and his imagined heroism comes in a close second. Global Warming is simply the greatest hoax pushed upon the world stage…period. Nothing else even comes close. The most recent guffaw is how Gore and his fellow Warmingites explain that the current cooling trend is nothing more than a prime example as how “warming” is affecting the earth. Yes and, Glen Beck said it best, “Exxon’s massive profits are simply an example of how little money they are making.” Try telling the people in Fargo they are in danger of dying from global warming. The last temp there was several degrees below zero.

 

I remember the Spotted Owl brouhaha. One of the last jobs I did as a sign shop owner involved a Circle K store with an occupied owl nest in its sign. Seems Spotted Owls can only survive in old growth Circle K forests.

 

Here in Nevada, I tried proposing an immigration reform bill. It wasn’t the Democrats who opposed it, it was the Republicans. They claimed I was trying to bankrupt the state. These legislators are also people who claim to love the constitution. They claim to be moral and to love the law. They lie. They are not concerned about business being able to make ends meet as much as they are concerned about the next campaign contribution and their ability to spend it in nonpolitical goodies.

 

The truth is expensive and it can be inconvenient, but it will never disappoint and it will never cheat. So we kick out all the liars. Will that ruin our country? What do you think would be the economic picture if every politician upheld the truth and went after those who cheated, lied and stole? So we wouldn’t have Bush, Cheney, Reid and Pelosi. So what? Is any one so naive to believe they are the best we can get?

It’s too late for McCain.

Real conservatism has taken a death blow and the one swinging the blade is the GOP. If you are a citizen who voted for Reagan then you should feel betrayed. John McCain has been around Washington for over a quarter of a century. He has styled himself as the maverick, the reformer, and the anti-politician. It may play well in Arizona, but that is also where McCain’s big campaign contributors own large farms and factories in need of really cheap labor. You know, those people who need labor that will do the jobs Americans won’t do.

McCain rose high enough in the senate ranks to be well aware of the shenanigans going on the cloakrooms in relation to the gestating Wall Street disaster. He saw who was paying off whom and for what. He didn’t say or do a thing then, and he hasn’t now. He has no plans to do or say anything about going after the real criminals in this enterprise. Wrongs have been done and where is McCain?

We know where Obama was and it is understandable why he’s silent on this issue...he was one of those who caused it. Obama is in this up to his big ears and he has made a fortune off of it; he’s loving this. McCain was actually catching Obama and it was beginning to look like he might pass him, and then the crash came. The numbers reset and McCain has stayed an average of 6 points behind.

Sarah Palin could have saved McCain’s bacon, but she made the fatal mistake of being so superior a candidate she embarrassed her boss, so she was silenced, except for the occasional inconsequential interview. Allowing Palin to do the talk show circuit and blanket the country with her message was too dangerous, she is far more charismatic than McCain could ever hope to be, and she identifies with a demographic he never will, Middle America.

I predicted a McCain/Palin victory, but that was when I still thought the GOP would allow Palin to do what she is so capable of doing, bringing in the independent voters. Obama will get over 90% of the black vote regardless of what he has or will do. That is a racist attitude no amount of charisma can break through. You should vote for someone because of how they will handle the issues, not the color of their skin. Oh, and “change” is not an issue, it’s a slogan.

We are  very likely going to see the first black, socialist American president. Obama is a dead cert unless something miraculous happens in the McCain camp. But since the GOP has little more than contempt for independent America, I see small chance of that happening.

How well off are you with the “experienced” running the country? Are you paying less for a gallon of gas than you were 8 years ago? How’s your saving account? Do you feel prepared for retirement? What about the kids? Can they read? Are they giving you a heart warming feeling as you see them stepping out to take over where you have left off?

I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking that we are in a world of trouble and the floor is just about ready to drop out from beneath us. George W. Bush spent this morning attempting to sell the idea that printing nearly a trillion greenbacks will help the economy and that allowing the government to become the majority shareholder in private business is good business. Yes, and the government’s takeover of the education system has done so well.

This message is coming from the same “conservative” that insisted that an open, unsecured border is only good business, that we have to allow millions of wetbacks across the Rio Grande because they are willing to “do those jobs that Americans won’t do”. He failed to add “at that price”. This is the same “conservative” that has continued to ignore T. Boone Pickens’ message about how to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. We do not need a government more attune to foreign voices than those of its citizenry. Unfortunately, since Ronald Reagan, that is all we’ve had.

Obama and McCain are both bad choices. The primary difference between the two is that McCain is slightly less bad. Neither one of them believes in a truly sovereign America. Both have a vision of a world government. McCain wants to further Bush’s plan to unite Mexico, Canada and the U.S. into one European-style union. Obama wants to hand the reins over to the UN. The only bright spot is Sarah Palin. I’m not sure what McCain was thinking, but in this one he struck gold. Any time the party heads go into cardiac arrest over a candidate’s choice of a running mate, you know they’ve chosen well. Palin is that rare combination of spirit, experience and faith. She not only understands what is needed to make America work, she has proven her ability to step on all the right toes to get it done.

Here in Nevada we have term limits. I think they still allow far too many trips to the trough. Each politician gets to serve 12 years in each office. That’s a lot of graft. In 2012, Nevada gets a clean slate. Every chairperson in the legislature will be kicked out that year. A couple of suits brought to the state Supreme Court challenging the limits have already failed. The people spoke, not just once, but twice according to the constitution. Being in the legislature, I was privy to what the politicos really think about the people. The opinions are not complimentary. They think the voters are at best, fools. Party leaders like Senator Bill Raggio and Assemblywoman Heidi Gansert have forced through legislation intended to remove the people’s ability to make fundamental decisions about their own future. Both are deeply invested into the culture of corruption and both believe term limits are somehow unconstitutional. Perhaps they also believe they are somehow better than you, just like those porkers in Washington.

I was asked yesterday by a member of the mortgage industry how we could get ourselves out of this mess. I told him that we needed to begin with a new governor. He agreed. As long as the voters stay away from the polls, the crooks will continue to win and we will continue to lose. Sarah Palin, for my money, is the only bright spot in this entire presidential race. How’s that savings account looking?

During the last day of the Nevada legislative session in June of 2007, two bills were brought forward. They consisted of all the special favors various Assemblymen and Senators had promised their friends, large donors, employers, and assorted puppet masters. I was one of the few Assemblymen who voted against it. My namesake in the Senate, State Senator Bob Beers, did not.

 

Senator Bob is not stupid. Actually he is one of the least stupid people I know. He was able to wrangle a multimillion dollar gift to Payroll Solutions, the company he served as vice president of sales. To cushion himself from conflict of interest charges he resigned that post. A further cushion from charges came when he got Senator Randal Townsend, the Reno clotheshorse/car salesman who represents his constituents from a penthouse condo in Las Vegas, to author the bill with another senator, Warren Hardy. With this bill, Payroll Solutions, a company deep into the accounts of the Nevada Casinos and developers, was handed the ability to run as a health insurance company without haveing to go through cumbersome licensing protocols, as well as its normal accounting business. Without the bill, it could have faced heavy fines and penalties for violating the law, which it was guilty of doing…until the after-the-fact legislation. Sound familiar?

 

What happens in Las Vegas does not stay in Las Vegas. The same goes for Nevada. On a far grander scale are the machinations that led to the current financial meltdown. Barack Obama and Acorn had a willing accomplice in Bill Clinton to begin this process. It makes Obama’s mention of McCain’s ties to the Keating five look like small potatoes.

 

Just how much pork can you handle? It seems the folks in Washington can’t get enough. We are finding out that those who couldn’t have their votes to pass the bail out bill bought were threatened. The Bush Administration even threatened some members of Congress with martial law if they refused to back the bill. Several accounting experts have tallied the actual liability to a mere 200 billion, rounded up. So where is the two trillion we’re hearing about coming from? Why did Bush have to twist Congress’ arm to write off nearly a trillion?

 

Well, it takes a lot of money to buy a vote. That’s why the Senate bill is so loaded with pork that it is dripping all over the taxpayer. I’m not sure what kids’ wooden arrows or Puerto Rican rum have to do with the US housing market, but I am sure we’ll hear about it. If you can get through the legalistic doubletalk in the inches-thick bill, you’ll find that nearly every U.S. senator added an earmark to it. They used the opportunity to pay off campaign favors and to cement future donations. Now Washington is the biggest mortgage holder in the country. Karl Marx actually wrote about that scenario as one of the needed actions to cement a socialist government. Early on, when I warned about this, a commenter said my assertion was absurd. No, I wasn’t being absurd; I was understating the potential danger.

 

Wall Street CEOs have committed crimes that would put ordinary citizens into federal prison for life. Most of congress has gone right along with them. The president of our country has now used threats of martial law to help protect his buddies in the penthouses and “conflict of interest” is obviously a natural condition in the senate. Senior citizens who were children in the early 30’s must be experiencing deja vu right now.

Yesterday the congress wisely decided not to go along with King George and his exchequer "Shifty" Paulson on the bailout scam. Republican and Democrat both, they shocked several of us in the blogsphere by listening to the people outside of the beltway elite. The President was not at all pleased and could not understand the concern Congress had over his plan. What is so wrong with giving CEO’s millions of dollars in treasury funds for their personal use? Who needs oversight anyway?

Special rights and privileges, in a country where everyone regardless of race, creed, or income is supposed to be equal, leave a bad taste in the average person’s mouth. Unfortunately Americans, through their lack of concern, have shifted the responsibility to insuring that state to those who feel different; the media and the elite. These groups wanted the bailout bill to pass. The media, because they believe in Corporate Socialism. The elite, because they believe it isn't your money, it is theirs. Special interests, corporatism, shifting of responsibility...all these are a priority.

If a congressman wrote a bill mandating that no special consideration in hiring was to be extended to any citizen of this country, that only their qualifications to do the job mattered...that congressman would be branded as a racist, homophobe, fascist, etc... You see, to some groups on the left, being treated as equal is an insult to them. They have been told so often that they are special, or that somewhere in the past their ancestors were oppressed, that they have an ingrained need to redress that imagined wrong. One way to redress that was to take out loans they had no intention of being able to repay.

On the elite side(both right and left mingle here), they believe that they are above the law. They believe that their income or their inherited wealth places them into a strata where they have rights and privileges superior to those of the unclean masses. How many times has an individual of this group uttered this phrase, “Do you know who I am?” Often it is said to the cop arresting them for drunken driving. For them, the ability to steal from the masses is a given. That house your grandfather built on land he tilled by hand? It's not yours, it's theirs.

Obama, though the offices of ACORN and as a radical community organizer, had a large hand in the credit meltdown. The government he lobbied helped to start this mess, and the government he worked with as a Senator lit the fuse for the blow-up. Since I wrote my blog about how racism had a hand in creating the crisis, several writers of far more public stature have chimed in on the same note. All the evidence is there. On the sub prime side you have pressure being levered against lenders to give loans to people with no history of being able to repay. On the elite side, you have speculators dipping into those loans because they have been granted an oversight-free status. One side is being forced to violate every established economic principle and the other side is gleefully violating the law; resulting in a perfect storm.

Now King George and Shifty Paulson want to bail out their criminal buddies with our money, place massive tracts of American property into the government’s hands, give obscene monetary golden parachutes to CEO’s guilty of running their corporations into the ground, and do so with no watchdog. Thankfully congress couldn’t stomach this bitter pill. Given an honest chance, the free market (not the one the neocons like), will reestablish itself. Just like the 1920’s a false balloon was created and it popped. Now all those people who were profiting through graft and greed have lost. Many of them are Bush’s buddies. The financial security he mentions is not that of the average blue-collar worker, but the puce-collar CEO. Any wonder he pushed this bill so fervently?