A Nationwide effort?

Saying too much money is wasted on duplication, state lawmakers took the first steps earlier this month to force consolidation of the more than 200 school districts in the state – some of which are in the West Valley.

And the combinations could occur without voter approval.

The proposal by Rep. John Fillmore, R-Apache Junction (Arizona), would eliminate any separate elementary and high school districts that now exist. Instead, they automatically would become unified districts no later than July 1, 2024.

But HB 2139, approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on a 6-3 party-line vote, does not stop there. It would require every school board in the state to annually determine how much money could be saved by not just unification but also with consolidation with other adjacent districts. Continue reading →

~ Forewords ~
Who even remembers? After all, it happened in ancient times. November 9, 2016, to be exact, at newly elected president Donald Trump’s victory rally, when he so memorably said, “We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports. We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none.” During that campaign he had similarly sworn that he would deliver a trillion dollars in infrastructure spending over the decade to come. And when he finally unveiled his vaunted plan, in February 2018, for no less than $1.5 trillion dollars, it promptly disappeared without a trace in a Congress his party still controlled. In its wake, the only infrastructure left obsessively on the president’s mind or on anybody’s table was that “great, great wall” of his (which won’t get built either). Continue reading →

“I am convinced the devil lives in our phones.”

The people who are closest to a thing are often the most wary of it. Technologists know how phones really work, and many have decided they don’t want their own children anywhere near them.

Photo Illustration by Tracy Ma/The New York Times; Getty Images (woman and child)

A wariness that has been slowly brewing is turning into a regionwide consensus: The benefits of screens as a learning tool are overblown, and the risks for addiction and stunting development seem high. The debate in Silicon Valley now is about how much exposure to phones is O.K. Continue reading →

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

On March 30, 1973, the ‘Charlotte’s Web‘ author wrote a beautiful note to a dispirited man who had last all faith in humanity.

I’m a longtime fan of E.B. White. Intellectual Takeout readers likely know he wrote a lot more than just Charlotte’s Web. His short story The Door is one of my favorite short stories. (We’ll deconstruct that one another other day; as you can see, it’s quite mad.) Continue reading →

A few years ago, I thought it was time to retire George Orwell’s 1984 to the attic. My years of teaching literature convinced me that Huxley’s Brave New World was more likely to unfold: a world in which an elite might control the rest of us through the erasure of history and literature, but who might also pacify common citizens through the diversions of sex, drugs, and electronic entertainment.

I was dead wrong. Continue reading →

… especially when the student speaks of the nature of the current classrooms in America.

The letter below was published in The Washington Times on Monday, March 18, 2019 entitled, “The ‘cowboy way’ under fire” which chronicles the fate of one western tradition under identity politics and political correctness. It also reports on The University of Wyoming’s new slogan “The World Needs More Cowboys.” ~ Ed

If you are a coastal elite parent of progressive inclinations, there are a wide range of colleges and universities you can encourage your children to attend (“The ‘cowboy way’ under fire,” Web, March 17). If, however, you value a traditional liberal arts education and want your child to have one, you have a problem finding a non-ideological college or university that will provide it. Further, you need to think about whether you and your children want to incur substantial debt to turn out “social justice warriors.”

Political socialization used to be both the domain and responsibility of parents. Today, however, political socialization has been outsourced from the family to both lower and higher institutions of education. Continue reading →

NOTE: In 2018 a large number of teachers in the Arizona Public School system went on “strike” under the banner of “Red for Ed“. Initially and on the surface, I was in full agreement with the “apparent” reason for the movement. In time, I changed my mind. When I discovered those who were behind the (bowel) movement and their backgrounds – I knew that it was a set-up organized by a couple of ‘Dewey-ite” Socialists. The use of the term  ‘Red for Ed‘ has now spread nationwide – as has their real intentions. WAKE UP dear readers and smell the moldy coffee… ~ Editor

North Carolina’s most outspoken teachers’ association is organizing under a controversial banner ahead of its second march on Raleigh.

The N.C. Association of Educators has become well-known for loudly protesting the Republican majority in the General Assembly. Last year, the group organized a large-scale rally in downtown Raleigh, calling for better pay.

This year, the NCAE plans another rally. But as they begin organizing, the group has taken on a logo that has rattled some teachers — a Communist-associated clenched fist. Continue reading →