Archive for the ‘education’ Category

Well my Tom Hagen Prediction is Coming True Faster than I thought

Posted: October 14, 2022 by datechguy in education, politics
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Tom Hagen: Right now we have the unions and we have the gambling and those are the best things to have. But narcotics is a thing of the future. If we don’t get a piece of that action we risk everything we have. Not now, but ten years from now.

The Godfather 1972

A few years back 2016 to be precise I wrote a piece called: The Ghastly Tom Hagen Math Behind the Democrat response to Orlando where I wrote the following:

Right now the left has the Gays and the Transgenders and the Hollywood elites & media in which they are overrepresented and they figure that’s the best things to have, but in America Islam is a thing of the future.  In 20 years the children of Muslims now being raised on the tenets of Sharia law in America will be old enough to vote and Democrats going to make sure they get those votes when the time come, not now but 10-20 years from now.

Well the first real manifesting of this turned out in the city of Dearborn Michigan when the Democrat woke LGBT agenda clashed with Muslim parents who don’t want that stuff pushed on their kids:

A school board meeting in Dearborn, Michigan, had to be shut down when a mostly Muslim crowd of parents (with some Christians as well) became outraged by what appeared to be resistance by the school board to their demand that various books advocating the queer agenda be removed from the public school libraries.

Twitchy notes how this has caused a bunch of confusion for the left:

Remember when Attorney General Merrick Garland, Biden’s Department of Justice and the FBI allegedly targeted parents as terrorists for showing up and speaking out at school board meetings? That era may be over, as a result of a breakdown in the left’s system of intersectionality. You see, for the left, it’s fine to call a bunch of mostly white and suburban parents racists and terrorists, but when Muslim parents start showing up and protesting the same issues, things get… difficult.

This tweet says it all:

This is a crisis for the left who has completely embraced the Groomer agenda but doesn’t want to risk alienating the growing Muslim population.

the chant “Vote them out!” that closed the meeting is not merely a chant, it is a clear prediction. When next this school board comes up for election expect the large Muslim community of Dearborn to run its own slate, and expect that slate to win handily. Expect that victory to force major changes in the curriculum at the city’s public schools, including if necessary the removal of many administrators and staff.

When the time to make a choice comes, do not doubt for one second that the Groomer LGBTQ agenda will go under the bus because the last thing the Democrats want is the growing Muslim population voting for the GOP due to the culture wars.

Five Assorted Thoughts Under the Fedora: Russia Unmasked, A Tough Call for Ukraine, Woke Winners, The coming tech pivot, and My Paypal Plans

Posted: October 12, 2022 by datechguy in culture, DaTechGuy's Quick Thoughts, education, politics, tech, under the fedora, war
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One of the things that has really been revealed by the war in Ukraine is just how weak and unready the Russian Army is. Moreover a lot of Russians were in favor of the war in Ukraine when it looked like it would be a cakewalk to retake the territory that until the breakup of the Soviet Union was part of Russia proper since the days of Napoleon, but once it became clear that it would involve actually fighting, actual causalities and a mobilization the whole pride thing went out the window.

It’s amazing how much harder war is when people are willing to shoot back rather than roll over. I would not be surprised if this lesions the fear of China’s untested military as well.

It’s a tough call for Ukraine when it comes to how the war ends.

They have a good point that they don’t want to reward Russia with any gains but the longer the war goes on the more likely Putin decides to play the tactical nuke game. Ukraine can likely get the best deal it could get right now but in the words of Lincoln if they consider this war for a purpose they see no reason to end it before that purpose is achieved.

Since it’s their blood that being spilled it’s their call, as long as I don’t have to keep paying for it.

This story via Gateway Pundit made me smile:

I predict that in the woke sweepstakes Muslims trump gays, drag queens and transsexuals’ for two reasons:

  1. The Muslim population of the US continues to grow
  2. There have been unfortunate and unhealthy consequences for those who defy those communities

One of the reasons why Sicilian American’s like myself don’t mind people associating us with the mob is it make people less likely to try to mess with us (also we don’t give a damn what others think). With the reputation of Islam backed up by 30 years of shall we call them “incidents” I suspect school committees are going to think twice before they mess with them.

Sometime in the next month we are likely going to see a pivot in tech companies.

Once they decide they can not stop the GOP from winning the House and perhaps the Senate they are going to be a lot more hesitant to oppress members of the GOP when there is a prospect of lawmakers striking back.

Now of course as long as they control the White House and the Justice Department they have a modicum of protection and I’m sure they’ll go all in no matter who the GOP nominee is but most companies don’t want grief and don’t want scrutiny and when it becomes clear who is going to win I suspect these firms will decide to be on the winning side.

Finally a lot of people I know have dropped Paypal like a hot potato. Being a person who is a tad more deliberate I’ve decided to wait till after the first of the year.

This will give me time to decide what I’m replacing it with, to contact donors to see if they wish to switch to whatever service I go over to and to evaluate my opitions.

Also in terms of taxes and their preparation it will be easier to have the account active through at least January.

This does involve some risk but if I’m right about the tech pivot that should give me enough leeway to move deliberately without a lot of worry. If I’m wrong, then it’s on me.

A breath of fresh air for higher education

Posted: September 27, 2022 by chrisharper in education
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By Christopher Harper

During nearly 30 years in higher education, I saw first-hand the growing problems at colleges and universities.

When I started in the academy in 1994, my colleagues already had a decidedly leftist bent. But other trends took hold. Money flowed out of the classroom into administrative coiffeurs, mainly because the federal government insisted on the changes to fight “racism” and other leftist aims. As a result, the cost of tuition soared.

But U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has developed a solid solution for many of higher education’s ills.

Here are a few salient facts that Cotton points out in his argument for the Student Loan Reform Act of 2022:

–Almost one-third of college students drop out before graduation. Nearly two in five college graduates regret their major, over 40% of recent graduates are underemployed, and more than half work in fields they didn’t study. Yet, in the past 20 years, tuition prices have risen over 180%, and total student loan debt is now nearing $2 trillion.

–College endowments have grown to over $800 billion in value—with Harvard and Yale sitting on over $70 billion of untaxed wealth. Colleges use their massive fortunes not to serve their students but to pay for bloated bureaucracies. Between 1976 and 2018, total student enrollment increased by just 78%, while the number of college administrators ballooned by 616%.

The federal government’s guarantee of virtually unlimited student loans is the primary cause of this disconnect. In return for issuing trillions of dollars worth of loans and protecting these loans from bankruptcy, the government demands almost nothing from the colleges.

Here’s how Cotton’s proposal would fix some of these issues:

–It would penalize colleges that leave students in debt from undesirable and unmarketable programs, causing graduates to default years later. The proposal would require that colleges become guarantors of up to 50% of future federal student loans and would fine colleges 25% of the value of future defaulted loans.

–It pressures colleges to reduce the cost of tuition and to stop hoarding large amounts of endowment money. Any university charging over $20,000 a year for undergraduate tuition must gradually eliminate 50% of its administrative staff to qualify for future student loans. 

–The legislation also places a 20% luxury tax on undergraduate tuition above $40,000 and a 1% tax on the wealthiest private college endowments. The revenue raised from these taxes would go toward workforce education to help the majority of Americans who don’t have a college degree.

The legislation also requires universities to implement policies protecting campus diversity of thought. It would protect free speech and ban all forms of racial discrimination as a condition of participation in the federal student loan program.

As Cotton puts it: “This will lessen the grip left-wing ideologues have on college campuses and ensures their academic environments no longer impedes the intellectual growth of all students.”

If Cotton’s proposal becomes law, I might be convinced to come out of retirement!

Education during Covid: A failing grade

Posted: September 6, 2022 by chrisharper in education
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By Christopher Harper

The catastrophe of closing schools during Covid became even more apparent as data provided information about the impact of those decisions.

The average scores for 9-year-olds declined the most on record in math (seven points) and in reading since 1990 (five points, according to the National Center for Educational Progress. See https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2022/

The 2020 tests were administered shortly before pandemic lockdowns and school closures, so this year’s results show how students have weathered those two years.

NAEP, a congressionally mandated program overseen by the U.S. Department of Education, administered the assessments from January to March 2020 and 2022, respectively. The group tested about 7,400 9-year-old students from 410 schools in 2022, and 92% of the schools assessed this year were also tested in 2020. 

Results were even worse for lower-income and minority students. Math scores fell by 13 points for black students and eight points for Hispanics compared to five points for whites. Reading scores for low-income students fell twice as much as for others.

Simply put, school closures cost American kids a lot, and it is unlikely that the next few years will close the gap significantly.

Peggy Carr, the commissioner of the U.S. Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics, expressed concerns about the findings in a statement announcing the results.

“There’s been much speculation about how shuttered schools and interrupted learning may have affected students’ opportunities to learn,” Carr wrote. 

“Our own data reveal the pandemic’s toll on education in other ways, including increases in students seeking mental health services, absenteeism, school violence and disruption, cyberbullying, and nationwide teacher and staff shortages.”

While the Biden administration praised its efforts to reopen schools and toss money at the problem, it’s worth noting that states that voted for Donald Trump did much better in reopening schools. 

Schools in Trump states reopened 75% of the time, while those that voted for Biden reopened 37% during the 2020-2021 academic year, according to the education nonprofit The 74. 

Also, Democrats widely condemned Trump and Republican governors like Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., for aggressively pushing school reopenings in the fall of 2020. 

“Floridians deserve science-based action from Gov. Ron DeSantis,” Biden said prior to the 2020 election. “While other large states continue to take strong, urgent, and sweeping action to stop the spread of COVID-19, Florida has not.”

The recent results do not include a breakdown by state, but it will be interesting to see how much better Florida did than the national results.

American Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten, who pushed shutdowns, tried to forget this ever happened with her statement on Twitter: “Thankfully after two years of disruption from a pandemic that killed more than 1 mil Americans, schools are already working on helping kids recover and thrive. This is a year to accelerate learning by rebuilding relationships, focusing on the basics.” 

She and her union had to back down from extending closures even more after parents went ballistic in many locales. See https://www.the74million.org/article/analysis-amid-growing-parent-backlash-teachers-unions-keep-trying-to-rewrite-school-reopening-history/

Just for the record, I taught online classes for nearly two decades. The problem wasn’t online vs. the classroom. The problem was that most of my colleagues had no training and no understanding of how to teach online. If teachers are properly prepared to teach online, surveys show that students do slightly better online than in the classroom.

Nevertheless, as this school year begins, it’s readily apparent that things won’t return to normal any time soon. Students must make up two years of declining knowledge over the next eight years through 12th grade. That’s going to be tough!

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