These are NOT Your Parents’ Public Schools

Public schools today are not the same places American children attended in the 1940s or 50s.  They are alien environments to those that went through school in the 1960s and 70s.  While vaguely familiar, they are still quite mutated from the educational environment of even the 1980s. …And not for the better!

A Conservative Teacher offers an insider’s view of public education with a pair of excellent, in-depth articles on how public schools work today, and how public education policy is created in Michigan. With our recent election battle over school funding in Washtenaw County, this Designated Conservative thought that A Conservative Teacher’s comments were right on point.  Here are some excerpts (click here or on the headlines to read the entire articles):

Send a Message: Vote “No!” on the proposed Washtenaw County Intermediate School District’s “Enhancement” Millage

VICTORY UPDATE: Washtenaw County’s Taxation without Representation

To our liberal, teachers union friends who spouted gloom and doom if this WISD millage failed:

24,114 residents of Washtenaw County voted for the WISD millage for public schools yesterday.  Now, this designated conservative suspects that they were voting for a tax hike on the assumption that other “rich people” would pay the bill, but in the hope that they were willing to put up their share I offer the following suggestion:

If all 24,114 “yes” voters each donated just the $200 per year that they said the tax would cost the average county homeowner, they alone would provide over 80% of the $30,000,000 that this new tax was projected to provide to the schools.  Considering that this voluntary method would minimize collection/administration costs associated with the tax process, I suspect that their voluntary contributions would actually provide MORE funds to the schools than any tax.  Come on “yes” voters – it’s time to get your checkbooks out and support the schools!

THANK YOU!

To all our designated conservative friends in Washtenaw County, thank you for coming out yesterday in overwhelming numbers to say “NO!” to the flawed WISD “enhancement millage!  Thank you to all those that spearheaded the “Vote No” campaign!  Great job.

Now comes the hard part:  It’s time for designated conservatives to step in and lead our local public schools away out of the slow-death spiral the Michigan Education Association (MEA)-sponsored “leaders” have created for our children and grandchildren.

This Designated Conservative encourages like-minded folks to write to your school board members, district superintendents, and elected state representatives and tell them the unaccountable tax-and-spend, “this is the way we’ve always done things” mentality is no longer acceptable if we are to have a strong and vibrant public school system in Michigan:

WND Tax-Dungeon Humor – New IRS ‘Short Form’

WorldNetDaily posted this bit of tax-dungeon humor on their website this week (excerpt below):

Paperwork reduction provision

New short form for Americans to file their tax documents

This is a new short form IRS document designed to simplify tax filing for anyone making up to $200,000 a year. 

DIRECTIONS:

Fill out Section A completely by truthfully answering the questions.  Fill out Section B completely by filling in the spaces.

SECTION A:

1. How much money do you have?________________

2. When can we come and pick it up? ______________

(click here to read the rest of the form)

HOMELAND SECURITY UPDATE – Mail Order Tea Party

RESPONSE UPDATE:  

So far, this Designated Conservative, like all of the Tea Party protesters across the U.S., has received no response from President Obama to my April Fool’s Day Tea Party letter… …at least until now.   Click here for more….  

HOMELAND SECURITY UPDATE:

Suspicious Envelope Sent To Shea-Porter’s Office

Police Determine Substance Inside Envelope Was Green Tea

POSTED: 4:30 pm EDT April 1, 2009

UPDATED: 9:31 am EDT April 2, 2009

MANCHESTER, N.H. – An envelope with a suspicious substance in it was sent to U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter’s Manchester office on Wednesday. 

Shea-Porter’s staff notified Manchester police when they received the suspicious envelope. Officials were able to determine that the substance was green tea and had been sent as a protest.

There was a return address on the envelope, and police spoke to the sender. Police said the sender showed a lack of judgment but didn’t mean to cause alarm. 

The sender apparently included a note on the inside explaining the contents.  This is another cautionary tale reminding us why it’s important to include a label (“ENCLOSED:  ONE (1) TEABAG.  Harmless!) on the OUTSIDE of your TeaParty protest teabag mailing envelopes….  :)

Click here to view the local news video from WMUR Channel 9 New Hampshire.

 

ORIGINAL POST:

APRIL 1 TEA PARTY EVENT

Organized By: SavantNoir (hat tip to Atlas Shrugs)

Event Description: On April 1, 2009, all Americans are asked to send a tea bag to Washinton , D.C. to protest the massive growth in the federal government through the bailout, borrow, spend, and tax policies of President Obama and the Democrat Congressional leadership.  This Designated Conservative is planning to send one to Prsident Obama, as well as to Michigan Democrat representatives in Congress.  

You do not have to enclose a note or any other information unless you so desire, but I would recommend that a note be included on the outside like this one:

ENCLOSED:  ONE (1) TEA BAG

Otherwise, our little protest may freak out the Homeland Security folks, and we wouldn’t want that now would we?

A copy of my note to our honorable POTUS is below:

 

UPDATE: Cold Turkey (quitting the income tax habit)

UPDATE: The intent of this idea of going “cold turkey” on the federal income tax is really all about restoring the constitutional balance between the federal government, state governments, and the people.  The founding fathers viewed the potential of the federal government to accumulate power and trample on freedom and liberty with trepidation.  In response, the authors of the constitution and Bill of Rights included as many checks, balances, and fences around federal authority as possible.

One of the natural limitations on federal power was the ability to tax.  Limited federal revenues naturally limited federal power.  This began to change with the passage of the 16th Amendment.  The federal-state-people relationship turned virtually upside-down in the wake of the New Deal, World War II, and especially with the Great Society social-welfare explosion of the 1960s and 70s.

The only way to begin the process of restoring the proper federal/states constitutional balance is to…