- School districts reported to the U.S. Census of Governments that they spent $58.5 billion for capital outlay on construction and land and building acquisition in 2008, excluding equipment and interest.
- T otal school construction fell in 2010 for the third consecutive year, to $14.5 billion dollars of construction put in place.
NCEF further states, "there is no question that the school construction boom has quieted. During the first years of this century, school construc -tion totaled at least $20 billion annually. Then, as the nation's economy slowed, school construction spending slowed, too, falling to $19.5 billion in 2008, then dropping almost 16 percent in 2009 to just $16.4 billion. It was down another 12 percent last year and, if pro -jections prove correct, could fall again in 2011"
With all these expenditures on non-domestic spending and the desire by many to further enhance related funding by cutting domestic programs like education, one has to wonder why it is that these people would want to deprive our children and by proxy, our Nation of the benefits of this money domestically. The answer may lie in the idea of creating a Caste system where thinkers are not wanted. Those who are trying to control the population want only production from the masses and what better place to begin than in our schools, training our youth to accept this dark future.
- A thing makes sense and is worth pursuing only if it can be measured, quantified, and scientifically demonstrated
- Psychology, accordingly, should concern itself exclusively with human behavior--not with non-demonstrable entities such as "mind," "soul," "thought," etc.
- Public education must limit itself to training working class students to carry out whatever task they are given to do and to accept the commands of their superiors
This ruler-imposed system, enhanced by anti-intellectual activities such as minority-group studies and multiculturalism, produces uneducated and programmed students who understand almost nothing of what occurs beyond the propaganda and mythology of the political-financial leaders."
In the past, the America Educational system has been largely based around the idea of the Liberal Arts. This approach denotes a curriculum that imparts general knowledge and develops the student's rational thought and intellectual capabilities. In classical antiquity, the liberal arts denoted the education worthy of a free person. By limiting this educational track, the "Free" person is no longer taught how to think but rather, how to perform. The FCAT and other testing systems like it are at the center of the scholastic target. Schools have been asked to teach our children to perform well on these tests else face defunding and the teachers have begun to be compensated based on this performance.
Tests programs such as the FCAT and the increasing cuts in spending on art and music are depriving our children of curiosity, intellect and invention. The in-place testing regiments teach only how to conform to a rank and file population. Liberal Arts invites free thinking and that is definitely not what they powers that be want from our future generations. They want workers, soldiers and the mindless minions of a caste system in two parts: those who have and those who provide them more.
In the steps toward fascism, three very familiar steps to us all are currently unfolding in America today are described as follows:
- Labor Power is Suppressed -- Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
- Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts -- Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
- A controlled mass media - Under some of the regimes, the mass media were under strict direct control and could be relied upon never to stray from the party line. Other regimes exercised more subtle power to ensure media orthodoxy. Methods included the control of licensing and access to resources, economic pressure, appeals to patriotism, and implied threats. The leaders of the mass media were often politically compatible with the power elite. The result was usually success in keeping the general public unaware of the regimes' excesses.
Sound familiar? All one has to do to legitimize the claims of this list is to watch Madison, Wisconsin or in New York, New York where Mayor Bloomberg is cutting $200 Million from education. The Christian Science Monitor has listed many other examples of these cuts.
Schools in the private section however, aren't facing these problems. The funding comes from the community which they serve; largely the wealthier area of America. With the poorer class finds its school turned into factories, the upper class still receives the benefits. College grants like the Pell Grant are being cut to help the poor achieve either education where again, the wealthy achieve. There is a caste system developing and this is the mechanism making it happen.
We need to spend our resources to better this country, not Afghanistan. Our money needs to fund our education system, not Iraq's. Our income and hard work needs to fuel our economic engine, not Chinas'. The time is now to wake up to the reality that this country is being sold piece by piece to the factions of fascism and take our country back. Our children are being trained for the future but not for individual greatness but rather, mass performance and are being taught to do so with limited money. At the very least, it is time to wake up to the reality that we have enemies within our own borders.
We need to return to a time where American invention, intellect and innovation leads the world but if we continue upon the path we are currently on, we will be a Nation of debtors and mindless workers akin to the same system of our greatest competitor and now, part owner, China possesses. This drive toward the fascist states of America needs to stop and those responsible for its initiation, brought to justice.
Yes; this is a Liberal approach to politics and National spending. Yes; it is the same approach so vehemently attacked by some in the political realm of mass media but it is a view that is enveloped in the Dream that once was so vibrant in America when it cared and supported its people's futures. It is the embodiment of the words etched upon the base of the Statue of Liberty, the dream that seems to be dying so very quickly along with the voice of a Nation being drowned out by corporate interests supported by politicians whose bank accounts grow larger each time they propagate the policies of deception and degradation rotting the very heart of our once great Nation. The time has come to reclaim our Liberty if not for ourselves then for our children.
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