Decatur, Ala. | Thursday, May 23, 2013
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Across the state

The Cullman Times on Washington politics:

Whether you are concerned or not by the failure of federal government leaders to avoid $85 billion in funding cuts, the long-term worry is the relationship between the ruling political parties.

President Barack Obama played a lot of cards in public to push the Republican Party leadership to compromise and avoid the cuts. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and the president couldn’t reach a deal.

While the cuts get ready to settle in and impact various areas of government and employment, the situation will not be permanent where the financial picture is concerned. But that may be another story in the relationship between Democrats and Republicans.

The age of polarization seems to have no end in sight in Washington. The inability of lawmakers to reach compromises is hurting the confidence of the American public and business and industry leaders. No wonder the economy can’t get out of the ditch.

While those who inhabit the halls of government inside the Beltway continue to stand by party principles, which most people see as unimportant, the public sees an increasingly chilling scene. Where is leadership? Where is concern for the plight of a job-starved nation?

The failures in Washington in recent years have been plentiful, and both Democrats and Republicans are to blame. The extremist views that have taken over the parties do not allow compromise. ...

Americans are feeling insecure. The politicians should remember that their parties are only a vehicle to gain election, not a mandate to impose fanatical views on a diverse nation.

Alabama Media Group Editorial Board on pending education control legislation:

Would anyone in their right mind want the Alabama Legislature to have control over our children’s education?

A bill now before both the House and Senate would wrest control of curriculum standards from our State Board of Education, giving the Legislature final say over any statewide school standards.

This boneheaded bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Barton, R- Mobile, and Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Pike Road, was inspired by fear that the Common Core State Standards for curriculum will somehow give President Barack Obama dominion over our children’s souls. But the standards were developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, and they’ve been adopted by 45 states.

An effort to make America’s students more competitive with students abroad, the standards were embraced by Alabama a few years ago, after rigorous vetting by our State Board of Education. They are strongly supported by our state superintendent of education, Tommy Bice.

These are the people entrusted with the education of our children. By the way, the chambers of commerce in Montgomery, Huntsville, Mobile and Birmingham fear this legislation will derail the recruitment of industry to Alabama. Let our educators educate our children, and let Barton and Brewbaker find other bogeymen to chase.

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The A.E.A. and the Democrat Party have been entirely responsible for public schools for the last 40 and 139 years and have never once met with any measure of success, maintaining abysmal rankings throughout the century, hence the old saying, "Thank God for Mississippi!" "More funding, more programs, more teachers and tutors...." has for decades been their rallying cry. Public school teachers argue, of course, that the reason for Alabama's ever poor performance is that adequate funding has never been fully acquired, but, in doing so, unwittingly expose an embarrassing dilemma. If the A.E.A. and public school teachers could not for four decades avail themselves of the Democrat Party, is it not reasonable to assume that a change of leadership might be in order? These partners in perpetual plunder, charged with the forty year failure, and, with infusing into the curriculum the abhorrent Democrat Party social agenda, offer no answers, yet, astoundingly, are the harshest critics of reform, no doubt, for the children. The voters witnessed the removal of the Pledge of Allegiance and prayer, both crucial elements in the development of patriotism, and, their replacement by undesirable sexual education, abortion, homosexual tolerance, and the distribution of birth control pills and condoms despite massive public opposition. The A.E.A. curriculum imbued children with enthusiastic drone-like ambition for all manner of sexual and environmental causes, but, left them unable to name the state's lieutenant governor, and, not surprisingly, alarmed the citizenry. Revision in the realms of history, literature, and social studies, to deliberately marginalize the role of religion, rendered these subjects wholly unrecognizable and remarkably inaccurate, as western civilization was born into, and matured for two millennia, under the aegis of Christianity, and remains at the forefront of human endeavor. Where once children celebrated western achievement, they now study its failure, under the careful tutelage of public school teachers. Public disapproval of this nightmarish A.E.A. curriculum, and disastrous Democrat Party economic mismanagement, has yet to register with public school teachers, and, to them, defies comprehension. Long a cherished and respected part of the community, public school teachers increasingly find themselves separate and apart. Torn between the malevolent agenda and a beckoning community, most public school teachers seek merely to retain their pay and benefits with no concern for declining academic and cultural standards, and, attempt neutrality through silence on immensely controversial issues, content to allow the educational arsonists free reign in the media as long as furthers union objectives and results in no loss of taxpayer remuneration. Too late, public school teachers have realized the inherent doom in unspoken neutrality, and, with fear born of economic uncertainty, have adopted anew tactics that breathe life into old hatreds. For them, there remains nothing else. The citizenry must stand firm against the coming onslaught ........for our children.

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