In perhaps the most glaring example to date of our government’s descent into socialist madness, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction is attempting to remove all American history prior to 1877 from its textbooks, replacing it with a “global studies” curriculum.

No history before 1877?! What is going on in our schools today? This is another reason why the chances for success in public schools are dwindling…

Read the full story over at the GetLiberty.org blog.

Funding for gifted students summer program cut in 2010 state budget — baltimoresun.com

Senator Chuck Grassley has asked the U.S. Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, to revisit a departmental proposal that would direct designated funding for gifted and talented kids to other areas that are not part of the intended purpose of the Javits Act. The Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program is the only federal program dedicated to increasing educators’ knowledge about, and ability to meet the unique learning needs of gifted and talented students.

 

I hope more members of congress listen to their constituents and follow Sen. Grassley’s lead in supporting funding for Gifted and Talented students.

STLtoday – News – Missouri State News: “Rural school districts find it hard to maintain programs for gifted students”

Two years after the state changed how it pays for public school education, rural schools across Missouri have had to scale back or eliminate their programs aimed at gifted students.

Missouri, a state which has had well-documented education issues in the past (the loss of accreditation for the KCMO school district is probably its biggest issue), is failing its Gifted students, especially in rural areas. Instead of doing what they were elected to do, Missouri legislators passed the buck on education funding to local districts.

This is another sad example of how America’s best and brightest students are affected by our broken educational system.

As with any changes to education policy (or just about any public policy, for that matter), one segment of the population will always be upset with those changes. As the famous saying goes:

“You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”
– Attributed to the poet John Lydgate

The president of the Borough of Manhattan in New York City voted against the changes. He outlined his reasons for voting against the policy changes in a letter to his constituents. He cites lack of preparednes, testing requirements, and general lack of public input into these changes. While I think all of these things are important, it’s better to have some progress with a few issues, than to have no progress and maintain the status quo. The current system is broken, and needs to be fixed. Some progress is better than nothing, and New York City won’t know what issues may arise from these changes, without actually implementing those changes.

I don’t live in New York, so I don’t have any input, but I’d encourage all parties involved to be patient and understand that progress takes time.