Posted by
johnfw on Thursday, May 01, 2008 11:02:22 AM
There are two key points to this article I want to point out.
First, throwing more taxpayer money at problems doesn't solve the problem:
"The federal government has spent about $6 billion on Reading First, which was created as part of the 2002 No Child Left Behind law and brings extra reading instruction, based on recommended practices, into low-income elementary schools. The report out Thursday from the Institute of Education Sciences, an independent arm of the Education Department, finds no difference in reading comprehension scores among students who participated in Reading First and those who did not."
SIX BILLION DOLLARS OF OUR MONEY FOR NOTHING!
Second, corruption at all levels of government needs to be rooted out, severely punished, and stopped:
"Investigations by Congress and Education Department Inspector General John Higgins previously found that federal officials and contractors didn't guard against conflicts of interest in the program. For example, officials that gave states advice on which teaching materials to buy had financial ties to publishers of such materials ... The new study examining Reading First's impact has itself been the subject of conflict-of-interest questions because a contractor that worked on it was also among those that helped implement the Reading First program. RMC Research Corp. was the contractor hired by the federal government to help with Reading First ... "
We have such corruption because "money is the root of all evil." And we have "evil" because of moral "relativism," moral decline and decay, secularism, and a rejection of our Judeo-Christian morals, values, and traditions on which this country was founded and which the Founding Fathers intended to be constant, immutable, and ever-lasting. Amending the Constitution, writing new laws, changing old laws according to the needs of the age are acceptable but it is not acceptable to change, re-write or eliminate what was intended to be their foundational principles and moral guidance. The undergirding Judeo-Christian principles in support of the Constitution, laws, and governance are rapidly being eliminated, much to the detriment of this nation, the chagrine of the Founders, and the consternation of the citizen patriots who still value those principles and the vision of the Founders.