Sunday • August 3 • 2025
Vol.XVII • No.XXXI
Manchester, N.H.
There is an excellent read at Palladium by Harold Robertson about the competence crisis. Put simply, it’s a lot like the recent push to get kids into the local Uni instead of trade schools. There’s a dearth of qualified trade workers. Now, apply that to every occupation becasue of the culture shift.
The core issue is that changing political mores have established the systematic promotion of the unqualified and sidelining of the competent. This has continually weakened our society’s ability to manage modern systems. At its inception, it represented a break from the trend of the 1920s to the 1960s, when the direct meritocratic evaluation of competence became the norm across vast swaths of American society. …
The resulting norms have steadily eroded institutional competency, causing America’s complex systems to fail with increasing regularity. In the language of a systems theorist, by decreasing the competency of the actors within the system, formerly stable systems have begun to experience normal accidents at a rate that is faster than the system can adapt. The prognosis is harsh but clear: either selection for competence will return or America will experience devolution to more primitive forms of civilization and loss of geopolitical power.
America has become obsessed with putting appearance above skill. From Meritocracy to Diversity, to quote the author. A journey he outlines beginning in the ’60s and through today from College faculty and admissions to Corporate board rooms. The picture he paints is not a still life. The cascade of failures that follow are very real. From his opening,
In a span of fewer than six months in 2017, three U.S. Naval warships experienced three separate collisions resulting in 17 deaths. A year later, powerlines owned by PG&E started a wildfire that killed 85 people. The pipeline carrying almost half of the East Coast’s gasoline shut down due to a ransomware attack. Almost half a million intermodal containers sat on cargo ships unable to dock at Los Angeles ports. A train carrying thousands of tons of hazardous and flammable chemicals derailed near East Palestine, Ohio. Air Traffic Control cleared a FedEx plane to land on a runway occupied by a Southwest plane preparing to take off. Eye drops contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria killed four and blinded fourteen.
While disasters like these are often front-page news, the broader connection between the disasters barely elicits any mention. America must be understood as a system of interwoven systems; the healthcare system sends a bill to a patient using the postal system, and that patient uses the mobile phone system to pay the bill with a credit card issued by the banking system. All these systems must be assumed to work for anyone to make even simple decisions. But the failure of one system has cascading consequences for all of the adjacent systems. As a consequence of escalating rates of failure, America’s complex systems are slowly collapsing.
Appeasing the social justice gods requires sacrifice and it comes not just in the rejection of qualified applicants but in the lives of regular Americans. And it is an altar upon which more than just bodies will pile. The decline in skill at every level leads to a loss of institutional knowledge and a reduction in the number of qualified or capable persons to teach their replacements.
It is the making a copy of a copy of a copy. Each iteration is less legible until you can’t tell what it was to begin with.
Think about the consequences for air travel (manufacturing, pilots, and air traffic controllers) to the military (from contractors to soldiers), to the very heart of every company.
Promoting diversity over competency does not simply affect new hires and promotion decisions. It also affects the people already working inside of America’s systems. Morale and competency inside U.S. organizations are declining. Those who understand that the new system makes it hard or impossible for them to advance are demoralized, affecting their performance. Even individuals poised to benefit from diversity preferences notice that better people are being passed over and the average quality of their team is declining. High performers want to be on a high-performing team. When the priorities of their organizations shift away from performance, high performers respond negatively.
What are the long-term consequences of this cultural shift?
[C]atastrophic normal accidents will happen with increasing regularity. While each failure is officially seen as a separate issue to be fixed with small patches, the reality is that the whole system is seeing failures at an accelerating rate, which will lead in turn to the failure of other systems. In the case of the Camp Fire that killed 85 people, PG&E fired its CEO, filed Chapter 11, and restructured. The system’s response has been to turn off the electricity and raise wildfire insurance premiums. This has resulted in very little reflection. The more recent coronavirus pandemic was another teachable moment. What started just three years ago with a novel respiratory virus has caused a financial crisis, a bubble, soaring inflation, and now a banking crisis in rapid succession.
It cannot be lost on anyone with a modicum of common sense that absent an abrupt change in culture and priorities, America will collapse on its own in a few generations, if not sooner. And our enemies, if not complicit in the decline, are certainly watching and could take advantage before we implode on our own.
HT | Palladium
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Throughout his tenure as the leading “expert” on the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci had a bad tendency to engage in doublespeak when the topic of wearing face masks was thrust into the public spotlight.
For example, in the early days of the pandemic, Fauci appeared on CBS’ 60 Minutes, in which he said, “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”
“While masks may block some droplets, they do not provide the level of protection people think they do,” he continued. “Wearing a mask may also have unintended consequences: People who wear masks tend to touch their face more often to adjust them, which can spread germs from their hands.”
A few days later, Fauci changed his tune, imploring Americans to wear face masks at all times, in all situations, including when they went outside. Later, he went even further, recommending that Americans wear multiple masks, calling it “commonsense” to do so.
However, we also know, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, that Fauci sent an email on Feb. 5, 2020 to a colleague stating, “Masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection. The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through material. It might, however, provide some slight benefit in keep out gross droplets if someone coughs or sneezes on you. I do not recommend that you wear a mask, particularly since you are going to a very low risk location.”
Fast forward to Labor Day weekend of 2023, which brings us to Fauci’s latest face mask faux paus. During an appearance on CNN, the disgraced former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases stated unequivocally, “there is no doubt that masks work.”
Fortunately, the CNN host, Michael Smerconish, pushed back, citing a study that found wearing medical grade face masks “makes little or no difference.” Smerconish also quoted the study’s author, who told The New York Times, “There is just no evidence that they make any difference.”
This is where things got interesting.
Fauci responded that “there’s no doubt that there are many studies that show that there is an advantage” to wearing face masks at the individual level. Then, in the same breath, he dropped this bombshell, “when you’re talking about the effect on the epidemic or the pandemic as a whole, the data are less strong.”
Wait, what? Based on Fauci’s ludicrous statement, face masks somehow work on the individual level at preventing transmission of the virus but also have little effect on the spread of the virus at a macro level?
How can that be? It defies logic, reason, and commonsense.
Think about it. If face masks actually do thwart the spread of COVID-19 from person to person, as Fauci has claimed countless times, doesn’t that automatically translate to fewer overall cases of COVID-19, which would absolutely have an effect on the pandemic in totality?
Aside from the study mentioned by Smerconish about the lack of efficacy regarding face masks, numerous other studies have corroborated the fact that face masks are basically useless in preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Moreover, several health care professionals, including former Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams and Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have reiterated that face masks are not effective in stopping transmission of COVID-19.
Yet, despite the overwhelming evidence, face mask mandates are making a comeback, as COVID-19 cases are on an upward trend again.
When asked by Smerconish about the return of mask mandates, Fauci answered coyly, “I would hope that if we get to the point that the volume of cases is such and organizations like the CDC recommends…that people wear masks, I would hope that people abide by that recommendation and take into account the risks to themselves and their families.”
Surely, Fauci knows that the American people are not inclined to go through another round of mask mandates, lockdowns, and school closures. But, based on recent events, it sure seems like the so-called experts and imbecilic politicians are on the cusp of pushing for a renewed urgency to return to the panic and hysteria that sowed the seeds for these devastating policies in the first place.
I simply hope that the vast majority of Americans see through this charade. In the early days of the pandemic, most Americans, including yours truly, went along with the mass hysteria because COVID-19 was a novel virus that we simply did not know all that much about.
But, this time is very different. We now know much more about it, including the fact that it does not pose a threat to children. We also know that it poses little threat to healthy adults, school shutdowns did much more harm than good, unnecessary lockdowns inflicted havoc throughout our economy, and the isolation produced by these measures has wrought substantial emotional pain and spiritual suffering. And, despite Dr. Fauci’s attempts to rewrite history and his weird predilection that he “represents science,” we are fully aware that he is a demented liar who cannot be trusted.
Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.
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The leading cause of wildfires is arson, which means they are man-made and even (technically) a result of man-made “warming,” but not in the way the Climate Cult would have you believe. An Arsonist can still drive his EV past the wind farm to set the woods aflame.
The evidence is abundant and growing, and we’ve got another incident to add to the pile.
State officials announced yesterday that the devastating wildfire that ravaged over 33,000 acres in Louisiana — the largest in the state’s history — was caused by arson.
Louisiana has been facing an unprecedented wildfire crisis, with a record-breaking number of 441 fires burning from August 1 to August 24, according to the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF).
The Tiger Island Fire in Louisiana is the largest wildfire in the state’s history. It has burned over 33,000 acres, which is more than the state usually has in an entire year.
So, what’s the government going to do to address the arsonist case rate hockey stick? Take away your affordable, fossil-fueled lifestyle. I’d be surprised if the Pfeds were not in on it.
The more radical Leftists in every progressive movement (as in fecal) are happy to beat people up, kill them, derail trains, shout about racism and hate speech, or burn forests. Their ideology demands it.
When the thing they whine about the most fails to happen as fast or as often as they like, the solution is to fake rape, oppression, crime, or climate catastrophe.
We’ve numerous examples of them all, but this year, as the private funding for reporting on climate has skyrocketed, so has the number of “wildfires ” set by arsonists and activists (if they are not both). How convenient. And they are excited to advance their false agenda based on other lies while ignoring the real-world consequences.
Multiple towns in southwestern Louisiana were placed under mandatory evacuation orders due to the fire, and state officials have implemented a burn ban to control the situation.
People had to uproot and upend their lives, but I suppose they should get used to that. It is, after all, what the Climate Cult is all about.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a suggestion for advancing President Joe Biden’s awkward three-way deal between the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. “Significant concessions,” he said, from Israel to Palestinian Authority (PA) strongman Mahmoud Abbas. Blinken, according to news source Axios, said Saudi Arabia would be needed to show the Arab/Muslim world that it got “significant deliverables from Israel for the Palestinians in return for a normalization agreement.”
The Biden administration insists on movement toward Palestinian statehood before “rewarding” Israel and Saudi Arabia with US support. But American insistence on adding extraneous Palestinian demands is more likely to delay progress on a deal than advance it.
The genius of the Abraham Accords is that it allows countries of the region to engage on the basis of their national interests, not beholden to the recalcitrant and terror-sponsoring PA. Palestinians were offered a seat at the table, which the PA declined to take, so the Trump administration and its regional allies simply moved forward. The Biden administration, however, returned the Palestinian statehood issue to center stage and now “deputizing” Saudi Arabia to bring Israeli concessions to Abbas. (RELATED: BRYAN LEIB: Biden Should Stay Out Of Israel’s Business)
That is unlikely to happen.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) is not a cheerleader for Palestinian statehood. The Wall Street Journal notes, “Saudi officials have dwindling patience for uncompromising and divided Palestinian leaders with limited popular support.” By the time the Abraham Accords were signed in 2020, Arab funds for the PA decreased by 81.6%. Saudi support declined by 77.2% according to the PA Ministry of Finance.
Furthermore, the Saudis had previously made their “deliverables” clear: a strong defense pact with the US and a civilian nuclear program. And the Kingdom has been in various forms of private and profitable communication and cooperation with Israel for some time. Affinity Partners, owned by Jared Kushner, backed by $2 billion from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, is investing $150 million to acquire a stake in the automotive and credit operations of an Israeli company, the Shlomo Group.
MbS has flipped the script. He does appear to be working the Palestinian issue, but from the other end and in pursuit of Saudi interests.
Far from presenting Israel with demands, according to Palestinian sources, when Abbas visited Saudi Arabia, MbS told him that the Kingdom was willing to extend “considerable support,” as long as the PA maintains effective security throughout its territories.
That is a problem. Abbas is not just waging war against Israel, he is deep in the throes of a Palestinian civil war in which his Western-and-sometimes-Sunni-Arab-supported PA is fighting against Iranian armed and trained Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) militias. It is a battle for the Abbas succession.
In 2007, Hamas threw the PA out of Gaza and the Palestinian liberation movement was geographically split. In 2012, Israel found the first Iranian Fajr-5 rockets in Gaza. Hamas was operating in Jerusalem before 2020 and well before the Hamas rocket war of 2021. Now, owing in part to PA corruption and brutality toward its own people, Hamas and PIJ have worked their way into West Bank cities. Weapons have also been smuggled into the West Bank through Jordan – an increasingly shaky Western ally under pressure from Iran. Iran’s proxy Hezbollah has been smuggling arms to Israeli Arab gangs from Lebanon as well.
Abbas has no answers. He is 88 years old, ill, and has lost control. He can only hope that Israel will protect his rule on the principle that the PA is better than Iran – Scylla over Charybdis. Israel agrees. The Israeli incursions in the West Bank, including in Jenin and the IDF destruction of the Lion’s Den militia in Nablus were fought for the security of the Israeli people, and that includes not allowing Iran a foothold in Judea and Samaria. (SHOSHANA BRYEN: Can The US Turn These Historic Rivals Into Partners?)
This is what has the attention of MbS.
Israel is not the enemy of Saudi Arabia; the mullah regime in Tehran threatens the Kingdom as it hopes to a) destroy Sunni governments in the region and b) end up in possession of the holy places in Mecca and Medina – now under Saudi control and protection – and, eventually, Jerusalem.
The demand that Abbas control security in the West Bank is a demand that he oust Iran. This accounts as well for the suggestion that MbS has designs on a formal role in the Jerusalem Waqf that controls the Muslim holy sites under Israel’s security control.
Is there a workable deal here? If it relies on Abbas to regain security control of the West Bank territories, probably not. But if it is an opening for Israel and Saudi Arabia to combine political and economic forces (military forces would be a step way too far) in preventing an Iranian takeover of the territories and Jordan – well … leaving the US aside, which would be a good idea, there could be something to talk about.
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly.
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A new study published in the scientific peer-reviewed journal Climate by 37 researchers from 18 countries suggests that current estimates of global warming are contaminated by urban warming biases.
(Our good friend and Camp Constitution Professor Wille Soon asked us to repost this important news release)
The study also suggests that the solar activity estimates considered in the most recent reports by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) likely underestimated the role of the Sun in global warming since the 19th century.
It is well-known that cities are warmer than the surrounding countryside. While urban areas only account for less than 4% of the global land surface, many of the weather stations used for calculating global temperatures are located in urban areas. For this reason, some scientists have been concerned that the current global warming estimates may have been contaminated by urban heat island effects. In their latest report, the IPCC estimated that urban warming accounted for less than 10% of global warming. However, this new study suggests that urban warming might account for up to 40% of the warming since 1850.
Source: Maps taken from NOAA Climate.gov.
The study also found that the IPCC’s chosen estimate of solar activity appeared to have prematurely ruled out a substantial role for the Sun in the observed warming.
When the authors analyzed the temperature data only using the IPCC’s solar dataset, they could not explain any of the warming since the mid-20th century. That is, they replicated the IPCC’s iconic finding that global warming is mostly human caused. However, when the authors repeated the analysis using a different estimate of solar activity – one that is often used by the scientific community – they found that most of the warming and cooling trends of the rural data could actually be explained in terms of changing solar activity.
The lead author of the study, Dr. Willie Soon, of the Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences (CERES-Science.com) described the implications of their findings,
“For many years, the general public has been assuming that the science on climate change is settled. This new study shows that this is not the case.”
Another author of the study, Prof. Ana Elias, the Director of the Laboratorio de Ionosfera, Atmósfera Neutra y Magnetosfera (LIANM) at the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina, explained:
“This analysis opens the door to a proper scientific investigation into the causes of climate change.”
This study finds similar conclusions to another study that was recently published in a separate scientific peer-reviewed journal, Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics. This other study involved many of the same co-authors (led by Dr. Ronan Connolly, also at the Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences). It took a different approach to analysing the causes of climate change – using an additional 25 estimates of solar activity and three extra temperature estimates.
For media inquiries, please contact Dr. Ronan Connolly (Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences) at ronan@ceres-science.com.
Links to both studies mentioned:
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Maybe I was raised differently than Joe Biden. He is not much older than me, but I am definitely not as jaded and untouched as Joe Biden is about particular days of remembrance or the sad sight of a flag-draped coffin.
I was taught from a young age to love our flag and country and respect and hold reverence for those who died to allow us the fruits of our great land. I am as touched by the sight of the American flag on the grave of my girlfriend’s brother as I was when I saw the never-ending fields of white stones at Arlington National Cemetery. I was a young boy, but I still recall the feelings I had watching the slow, steady march of the sentry as he passed the tomb of the unknown soldier. I was young, but I was taught to understand. I still look at the flag given to me at my Dad’s memorial service. I am proud that my Dad was a member of the Greatest Generation. Sadly, our Commander in Chief was never exposed to these lessons.
I will never forget the sight of Joe Biden checking his watch as the remains of the thirteen fallen heroes killed during the botched Afghanistan withdrawal were removed from the plane and returned to the land they loved and swore to die for. I thought that was as low as our President could fall, but I was wrong. On this anniversary day in 2023, Joe Biden is the first President not to visit one of the sites attacked by terrorists on 9/11. On the day that all Americans vowed never to forget, Joe Biden has forgotten.
I never imagined witnessing a President with so little respect for our country and all Americans. Joe Biden continues to lower the bar. When asked in Hanoi on Sunday why he was not going to pay his respects to those we lost on 9/11, he responded that Presidents do not go to Hawaii on December 7, so he sees no need to take a day out of his busy schedule to remember lost American lives.
I watched the coverage of the ceremonies of 9/11. I watch these ceremonies every year. As the names are read, and people are tracing the engraved names of loved ones on the stone memorial, I am reminded that each of these names was a person. It only takes seconds to read each name, but their memory will last forever.
They were innocent people who got up and went about their normal routine on that beautiful fall day not realizing they would become a name on a list or memorialized on a memorial shrine. I am angry and saddened that for our President, that is what he has reduced them to. I capitalize the P in President out of respect for the office. I cannot muster any respect for the shallow man who holds that position today. May God give us the power and wisdom to ensure he does not on January 20, 2025.
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Dear Representative Luneau,
After listening to your testimony opposing the State Board of Education from adopting Prager U Financial Literacy for Learn Everywhere, I hope that you will now become an advocate for addressing and removing the political bias students in New Hampshire are faced with when they enter our public schools. Your passionate testimony before Commissioner Edelblut, Chairman Cline, and members of the State Board of Education leaves the public believing that you support an atmosphere free of political biases pushed on students in our schools.
I am asking you to join efforts with others in your party to support revising the Science Standards in New Hampshire. This should be a bipartisan effort, and with your leadership, maybe we can do something good for the students attending our public schools.
Since the Next Generation Science Standards are inferior academic standards, we should all join together to support improving the quality of the academic standards and tests. I’m sure you would agree that we should all support science standards that are free from political biases.
For examples of the political biases in the NGSS, and a list of academic problems with the standards, please see my testimony presented to the NH State Board of Education in 2017. (BELOW) It would be wonderful if a Democrat serving on the House Education Committee joined with a Republican to get this effort moving forward.
It’s time to put partisanship aside and work on behalf of the students and public schools in New Hampshire. Can we all count on you to lead this effort?
Sincerely,
Ann Marie Banfield
Parental Rights Advocate Focused on Excellence in Education
From: Ann Marie Banfield
Date: Thursday, May 11, 2017
RE: Concerns regarding NH Next Generation Science Standards
I come here today to address the Next Generation Science Standards that were adopted in November 2016.
In 2010, the State Board of Education adopted the Common Core Standards in Math and English. From that day, parents and teachers across New Hampshire have been discovering that the Common Core Standards are problematic and need either serious revisions or need to be replaced.
Not only were the Common Core Standards inferior to academic standards that were being used in some states like California and Massachusetts, but the process used to adopt them in New Hampshire was rushed through with little or no critical analysis.
Since 2010 , there have been legislative attempts to remove Common Core from the New Hampshire schools. Parents filled hearings before the House and Senate Education Committees to testify to the numerous problems they were finding with the Common Core Standards. Governor Sununu was elected campaigning to “scrap” Common Core.
The Next Generation Science Standards are another attempt to nationalize Science standards in this country . Even supporters of Common Core, like the Fordham Foundation, exposed serious errors and inadequacies with the NGSS. They ranked the NGSS with a grade of “C” and a numeric score of 5 out of 10. That is a clear indication that the NGSS is another set of mediocre academic standards for New Hampshire’s public school students.
Common Core Math and the NGSS will not help students prepare for STEM careers. Why are we settling for mediocrity again and not equipping New Hampshire schools with the best science standards?
Curriculum is left to the individual schools , but that’s misleading when ninety-two percent of the NGSS include a “clarification statement.” Within the clarification statements, you will find errors in facts, errors in concepts, and overt political indoctrination.
I sent an e-mail to the former Chairman, Tom Raffio, expressing concerns that the decision to adopt the NGSS was made prior to any vote by the Board. For instance, prior to the vote to adopt the NGSS, Bill Duncan indicated the NGSS were going to be adopted and the DoE was indicating the same thing on the No Child Left Behind waiver application. Teachers began using the NGSS in their schools, and I can only wonder if they figured the NGSS were on their way whether they approved or not. I think at that point, everyone felt the fix was in, the NGSS would be adopted.
How often have we heard the importance of teaching students to think critically? This was one of the most important decisions on science standards , and there was no critical analysis by those who were testifying in support of their adoption. How can we expect students to critically think when education experts were failing to conduct their own critical analysis?
No college – level content experts offered any critical analysis comparing NGSS, NH Science Standards, and state standards that were considered the best in the country. No college – level content experts offered any suggestions on what could be added, deleted or changed to the NGSS if they were adopted. No one on the Board asked these important questions during the hearing, either.
I heard no discussion on whether the NGSS could be improved by adding/deleting/changing the standards to improve upon them. The hearing to adopt the NGSS appeared more of a formality than a thoughtful analysis of whether the NGSS would be the best science standards for our public schools.
The NGSS have distinctly different priorities from previously published K-12 science standards. An example would be the prominent role in NGSS of evolution and climate change.
While the NGSS claims that the focus will now be on deeper understanding and application of knowledge, that focus comes at a big price because there is a great deal of content missing.
What are some of the more glaring omissions in the NGSS?
1) Not enough chemistry for a stand-alone high school chemistry class
2) No high school physics
3) The life science standards lack a considerable amount of biology, including whole body systems, cell and tissue types, cellular feedback mechanisms, protein structure and function, cell division (mitosis and meiosis), bacteria and virus.
4) Physical Science omissions include: Newton’s first law, energy, thermodynamics, Ohm’s law, simple electrical circuits, and lab safety.
5) The scientific method is absent .
Stan Metzenberg, Ph.D. , Professor of Biology at California State University Northridge, prepared an analysis of the NGSS when they were under consideration in Massachusetts:
1) Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 8 and introductory high school courses have significant, unacceptable gaps in science content, as well as some notable errors and inaccuracies.
2) The standards are stunningly devoid of Mendelian genetics and large parts of cellular biology. This is an astonishing oversight for a state that has notable institutions of higher education and a thriving biotechnology industry.
3) The principles of evolutionary biology are incomplete and sometimes incorrectly stated.
4) The standards are largely unintelligible because of abuses of the language, and
they are sometimes grammatically incorrect.
5) NGSS does not support the stated purpose of standards, to indicate what students should know and be able to do.
6) These draft standards do not include any high school exposure to the nucleus, mitochondria, or chloroplasts.
7) There is a complete absence of Mendelian genetics at the high school level, despite the promising language on p.51 (titled p. 49) of the draft .
Dr. Metzenberg concluded, “I recommend that the draft be withdrawn from further consideration.”
Dr. Metzenburg has 20 years’ experience in university teaching in biological science. He was a Senior Science Consultant for the Academic Standards Commission in California (1998) and was a State Board of Education appointee to the California Science Project (1999-2003), the California Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission (4 year term, 2003- 2006), and a content review panelist for development of the California Standards Tests (1999-2010). He has recently assisted the ministries of education of Saudi Arabia (2010) and Qatar (2015) in training teacher leaders to use newly adopted science instructional materials.
Modeling, versus actual science facts, is a key component of the NGSS. This will guarantee a dumbing down of science education and reflect the political bias behind it.
These new science standards rely on models at every grade level including kindergarten. In the early grades, they are mostly pictorial. They increase in complexity as the student gets older. By the time the students reach high school, critics warn that the large amount of math, using complex models, goes beyond the cognitive ability of most high school students. Because the Common Core math standards are inferior, this puts the high school student at a disadvantage compared to students well – educated in mathematics.
Models can help students understand complex relationships. The pictorial models in the lower grades make sense , since the younger students’ cognitive skills have not been fully developed. The problem arises when the models become the complex mathematical constructs required in the NGSS.
While the NGSS will be sold as a way to get kids to think in these complex terms, expertswarn that will not happen.
In the Weather and Climate section of the High School Standards, students are supposed to:
Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.
There is an assumption that the climate models will accurately show what is happening in the real world. Students will not be able to verify that.
The Standards go on to require the student to construct models by building on k-8 experiences and progresses to use, synthesize, and develop models to predict and show relationships among variables between systems and their components in the natural and designed worlds, using models to provide mechanistic accounts of phenomena.
The student is then required to analyze the data and move on to more detailed statistical analysis, comparing data sets for consistency and using models to generate and analyze data. Students must then analyze data using computational models in order to make valid and reliable scientific claims.
Students are supposed to meet these science standards on climate change, yet experts in this field have failed to predict future temperatures. Experts warn that climate-change models should be used sparingly, and never used as final proof of man-made global warming.
The NGSS call for empirical evidence, which is good. Empirical evidence means real, observable relationships and data . Models are not empirical evidence. There is a conflict between science and overuse of models, based on empirical evidence. When there is a reinforcement of possible errors, there is a real potential to create incorrect conclusions. When errors are reinforced year after year through the NGSS, those errors will be hard to correct when the students become adults. This is especially concerning to those looking at the bias in the Disciplinary Core Ideas of the Human Sustainability: Weather and Climate.
Current models predict that, although future regional climate changes will be complex and varied, average global temperatures will continue to rise. The outcomes predicted by global climate models strongly depend on the amounts of human-generated greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere each year and by the ways in which these gases are absorbed by the ocean and biosphere.
Temperature data shows the opposite of the Disciplinary Core Idea
1) Is there global warming? This answer rests in unsettled science.
2) Can global warming be modeled with routine success? No, and those who were skeptical of the models are proving to be wiser than the elitists who once ridiculed them.
Judith Curry, who is a climatologist and former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has pointed out the uncertainties and deficiencies of climate modeling. (http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/2011BAMS3139.1)
Dr. John Christy, has researched climate issues for 27 years, and was a lead author — in essence, an editor — of a section of the 2001 report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the definitive assessment of the state of global warming. With a colleague at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Dr. Roy Spencer received NASA’s medal for exceptional scientific achievement in 1991 for building a global temperature database. Dr. Christy says the climate models are worthless (https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/16/us/skeptic-of-climate-change-john-christy-finds-himself-a-target-of-suspicion.html?_r=0) .
My point is not to debate the causes of global warming, but to bring forth information that should have been discussed prior to adopting the NGSS. Why wasn’t this information presented at the New Hampshire hearing on NGSS ? Why wasn’t this information discussed in an effort to determine if NGSS is the best way to teach science in our public schools?
The NGSS at each grade level includes standards on sustainability. “Sustainability” is a political term, not a scientific one and it requires the student to believe there is a need to live sustainably. Two decades ago, no one used the term “sustainability,” Critics argue that instead of learning real science, the standards show a bias towards a political outcome.
Under NGSS, kindergarten students will be taught to “communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air and/or other living things in the local environment.”
This political theme goes on throughout the NGSS by requiring middle school students to understand how to:
“Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment. ”
“Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.”
Since the focus is on the negative impacts of human beings, the standards can be compared to dogma. This is a worldview on sustainability, and it calls for human activity to be regulated in order to stop the damage.
Most of us understand the need to be good stewards of the earth,but the NGSS are riddled with political overtones. The NGSS thus are used more as indoctrination than as valid science standards used to elevate science literacy.
Property Rights
Even property rights are under attack in the NGSS. If human beings are the problem, property rights must also be restricted and possibly eliminated.
“Urban planning”
( HS-ESS3-3 ) is included in the standards as a way to reduce human impact on the environment . Urban planning is a way of controlling property rights through growth boundaries, high-density housing, fewer cars, and more public transportation. This puts the government in control of development and land use. If New Hampshire is going to use political dogma as science standards, there should be an emphasis on the importance of private property rights , too.
With the emphasis on carbon dioxide emissions and how emissions relate to the economy, the NGSS makes carbon dioxide reduction and urban planning into tools to prevent global warming. That is a social and political goal, but not a scientific one. By having students focus on social issues, the NGSS indoctrinates students into a political ideology that fosters giving the federal and state governments control over the economy and our lives.
Public schools will graduate students with a new world view, but those students will not be prepared for a career or college in the science field. As one science educator of 24 years says, “The Next Generation approach is designed to develop ‘global citizen’ awareness , and ignores the needs of high achieving and most average students at the secondary level who already have clear career goals in mind.”
The Common Core Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards are low-level standards that will teach children some academic content, but will not give them the quality they need, if they have higher aspirations. Several states had superior science standards prior to Common Core. New Hampshire students are being shortchanged when our Commissioner is denied authority to review higher quality science standards for our children.
The older, superior California Science Standards were developed with assistance from Glenn Theodore Seaborg, one of the foremost scientific minds of the twentieth century. If we really want our kids to be able to compete in the world or for admissions to our top colleges, we need to stop settling for mediocrity.
When the Board voted to shut down Commissioner Edelblut’s attempt to revisit the NGSS, Board member Helen Honorow asked what’s missing from the Science Standards. Why wasn’t all of this part of the review when the Board voted for the NGSS? The adoption appeared to be a formality that lacked any substantive critical analysis on the NGSS. Had this information been discussed by the board, we’d have a better understanding as to why the board members wouldn’t consider making improvements to the NGSS.
It causes me a great deal of concern that there was a vote by this board to deny Commissioner Edelblut the ability to revisit the NGSS in an effort to analyze the standards and possibly make improvements to them. I’ve mentioned just a small number of problems that science content experts have identified with the NGSS. While the process to adopt the NGSS appeared to be more thoughtful than that for the Common Core Standards, the inability to fully analyze and debate whether these standards are the best for New Hampshire students leaves people like me disappointed by this important decision made by the Board of Education.
My hope is that board members will reconsider that decision, start to look honestly at the criticisms of NGSS, and reverse their harmful vote. As Jennifer Helms, PhD RN , described the NGSS, ”This “overarching goal” makes it clear that the NGSS are intended to be a set of science appreciation standards rather than rigorous educational standards. “
Our kids deserve better in New Hampshire. They need to be prepared to enter a scientific field in college if they choose that path. NGSS will not prepare children in our public schools, and that will fall on your shoulders if you refuse to make the improvements that are needed.
The post A Call for Democrat Rep. Luneau To Support Quality and Politically Unbiased Science Standards appeared first on Granite Grok.
It’s beauty pageant season again, folks, and Banana’s Events Inc. is excited to announce the First Annual Miss Upper Valley Contest to be held October 30th at the Elk’s Lodge on Main Street in downtown White River Junction! We are certain this will be the most diverse and inclusive pageant in all of New England.
All comers from both Vermont and New Hampshire sides of the Upper Valley are welcome to enter this ground-breaking festival of pageantry and femininity, which has been re-imagined to esteem our modern view of what it means to be Miss Upper Valley.
After receiving nearly four-hundred headshots and fact-checking all of the contestant’s social media posts, we have whittled the final field down to twenty lovely hopefuls to compete for the highly coveted title of “Miss Upper Valley.” The contestants will be introduced wearing their finest flannel robe, which will be followed by a series of competitions we believe will be groundbreaking in the world of pageantry. Who’s ready to SLAY?!
First up will be the guided talent portion, where these lovely ladies will get to display their unique gifting and the chance to set themselves apart from the pack. Here are just a few of the stunning abilities we were able to witness during dress rehearsal:
Following that, contestants will be pitted in a series of one-on-one and team events, which will include:
Individual
Team
After a short intermission, our dancing queens will be asked to give their most thought-provoking and insightful answer to one of the most important questions of our day: “What is a woman, and how can she/her/it/they/them/xe/xer/fe/fi/fo/fum stop climate change?”
One final sashay around the dance floor will give our judges the opportunity to appraise the beauties for qualities yet to be appreciated in other pageants, such as:
We are committed to a free and fair competition, which is why we have taken seriously testing each entrant for banned substances which may give an unfair advantage. (See Table 1.1 for the list of what is banned and unbanned.)
| Un-banned | Banned |
| · Fentanyl
· Marijuana (i.e. weed, dank, sticky-icky, the chronic) · Meth · Prescription drugs · Androstenedione/Androstenediol · Bath salts · Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories · Caffeine · Puberty blockers |
· Estrogen* |
(*Over two hundred potential contestants were disqualified after testing positive for high estrogen levels – so unladylike!)
We would like to thank our sponsors for this event: Partridge Family Moving and Towing, Darn Tough Socks and Boxer Briefs, Nordic Waste Management, Billybob’s Service Center, Four Aces and a Queen Diner and Little Larry’s ‘Roid Cushions.
So come on out of your lockdown closets and show some support!
The post Banana’s Events Presents: First Annual Miss Upper Valley Contest appeared first on Granite Grok.
Cat 5 Hurricane Lee had a lot of potential. Large, powerful, headed directly toward the Southeast Seaboard. The Climate Cult was dropping in their kale soup. But something’s gone wrong. As hinted here, this hurricane has changed direction, and the American Southeast can breathe a sigh of relief.
Current projections show the storm hanging a hard right and drifting north, losing strength as it does. The track as of this morning shows Lee reaming away from the coast and out to sea while shifting toward the Northeast.
The outer edges of the then-estimated Cat 1 hurricane could brush the cape and islands by Friday Morning unless Lee takes another turn.
Here’s another view with Margot, still a tropical storm projected to continue north across the Atlantic.
There is more activity off the Coast of Africa, but nothing yet worth naming, which seems odd, given that they name everything, so they can say we had this many named “storms.” OMG, more named storms, global warming!
As for Lee, it is (again) still too early to tell how it will track as it gets closer to my corner of the world, or what if it will still be a Cat 1, but we’ll check back in a few days. Forecasters can’t predict much (except for the temperature 100 years from now /sarc), but one thing the weather does do is change, especially around these parts.
It’s New England. If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.
[Update] New projections show the ‘Eye’ of (by then) Tropical Storm Lee making landfall on Sunday, Sept. 17th, in New Brunswick, Canada, with its area of effect covering much of Maine.
Lee has yet to make the official turn, so nothing is fixed until it happens, but such is the way of the weather (except as noted above).
The post Hurricane Lee Projected to Skip Southern US Coast and Head Toward … New England! [Update] appeared first on Granite Grok.
I think this is an excellent take by Sean Davis of the Federalist. Was 9/11 the catalyst of the Police State of America? I think he makes a compelling case that it was. 9/11 allowed the Bushies to dupe us into Forever War (Iraq) and give sweeping, unprecedented powers to the “intelligence community” to spy on Americans … of course, those powers are now being used to stifle political dissent.
The debacle in Iraq led to the Obama Regime, a “Manchurian candidate” who filled the federal government with America-hating Socialists like himself.
Equally vital as a catalyst, in my opinion, was 2016. Powerful people IN BOTH PARTIES refused to accept Donald Trump as President. They conducted an ongoing soft coup until 2020 when they obviously RIGGED the election … which de facto gave Obama a third term. The federal judiciary and the federal agencies are, once again, being filled with America-hating Socialists.
In hindsight, 9/11 looks like it might have been the beginning of the end of the American empire.
It spawned the worst and most destructive foreign policy in the country’s history. The government response to 9/11 birthed the constitutional abomination that is the modern…
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 11, 2023
The post 9/11 … The Catalyst Of The Police State Of America appeared first on Granite Grok.
They’re flying so thick and fast it is amazing.
Take heart – there will be both a Wednesday and Friday Edition. Last week’s Friday Edition.
Remember, ridicule and mockery are effective weapons:
Now, let the mockery and mayhem begin.
*** Warning, a few possibly off-color ones, in case tender eyes are about ***
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Do I have increasing doubts about the “official” story of 9-11? Yes. See Thought Splinters II, above. But this still make my office dusty:
I Miss You Daddy
https://youtu.be/pJtxMAzBuV0
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https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/kamala-is-ready.mp4
Everyone with three brain cells that work together can see how frail The Potato is. My supposition is this is a provided-talking-point to start laying the groundwork for the “unfortunate passing” of The Potato from the strain of the position and campaign. Such an Arkancide tragic and untimely death would result in Kamala becoming the first female, and non-white female at that, President.
But of course she won’t be the actual President. He will. And is today:
Barack Obama: A shadowy, cryptic figure who was quietly groomed to become the president… – Revolver News
Good questions. Good insights. And while I find this a little too-convenient after-the-fact prediction, assuming it’s true it would explain a lot.
Global Elite Picked Obama 171 (americanfreepress.net)
An incredible amount of predictive detail… the problem is – as above – it’s after the fact. Had he written it down and sealed it and had a lawyer notarize the seal, I’d give it more weight. Still, something to consider. This, too, is interesting, especially enlightening as to how he’d be known to the Russian communists specifically, and ties in with him apparently not being known to anyone who attended Columbia:
The Feral Irishman: Obama being gay is the least of it.
I’ve always said the key to understanding Obama was his time at Columbia University.
First, there is the “Ghost of Columbia” mystery. I was a Pre Law, Political Science major. So was Obama. He had to be in all the same classes as me. But he was never in one class. I never met Obama, never saw him, never heard of him, never met anyone at Columbia who has.
Obama got in, so why didn’t anyone ever see him? My educated guess is Obama was in the Soviet Union studying communism. Columbia had a “sister school” in Moscow. That would be the only real answer as to why Obama was rarely if ever seen at Columbia. He was being groomed way back then by the enemies of America.
Secondly, at Columbia we learned a plan to destroy America called “Cloward Piven.” I’ll bet Obama spent two years in the Soviet Union at our “sister school” becoming the world’s expert. Look around. Everything happening in America today is Cloward Piven…
On Cloward-Piven:
Discover the Networks
Excellent site in general for material on the Left. Lastly, remember too that the apple usually doesn’t fall far from the tree:
THE ENIGMA, PART 1: STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
FYI, no part 2 that I can find. I’ve asked Bill Whittle‘s people and if they get back to me with another part / episode I’ll post it.
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PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA – PSA
OK, Granite Staters… what happens when TPTB decide to make us into a “smart state”? Because I’m seeing a number of posts pointing out this pattern:
https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/fires-and-smart-cities.mp4
Should we be stocking up?
I suppose the things we need to watch for are things like happened in Maui – like sudden code changes allowing cities / counties / the state to snap up ruined property, rising insurance rates pricing people out of homes, etc.
In parallel, do you really think that an ideology that murdered over 100 million civilians in attempts to create its earthly paradise would hesitate to do so to smaller numbers?
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Covid and Medicine Related:
Natural immunity wins
The absolute and relentless dismissal of natural immunity – when natural immunity is known to be the “Gold Standard” of immunity and has been so known for decades – was one of the key things that started my red-pilling on this.
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If they ever do this again, THIS should go viral and IMHO EVERYONE should start doing it. Just a thought.
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“Whenever the government claims to have the people’s interests at heart, you need to think again. In the entire history of mankind there has never been a political elite sincerely concerned about the well being of regular people.” Christine Anderson MEP—
More than HALF of CDC staff leave to work for Big Pharma and ‘revolving door’ of workers at public agency makes it vulnerable to corruption, report warns | Daily Mail Online
But… but… but we’ve been assured by our intellectual and moral superiors there’s no possibility of corruption here.
—
Are Lockdowns Coming Back? Get Prepped NOW, Just in Case – The Organic Prepper
OOH, fight. OTOH, understand what panic will do – and did do last time.
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The Truth About 15 min Cities & Electronic Prisons
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Neil Oliver: ‘…fixing the mess we’re in, is going to hurt!’
More about cliiiiiiimaaaaaate doooooooooom:
This is an hour-long video. Great graphics showing an incredible tie-in / correlation between the sun and the earth’s temperature:
The Great Global Warming Swindle (2007) (rumble.com)
Also, even if the US went to zero, it’d be meaningless compared to China:
https://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/china-emissions.mp4
One last thing about CO2:
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Accuser Admits He and Seven Bush Allied Cohorts Secretly Went to FBI to Report Ken Paxton Without Any Evidence of Wrongdoing – The Last Refuge (theconservativetreehouse.com)
The people at the top of the GOP are, IMHO, just part of the uniparty. No wonder more and more people I speak with and listen to are discussing the need to get out of the GOP entirely.
Now, that leads to other problems and some have said that we just need to “retake” the GOP. But that presumes that The GOP System will let that happen… and that elections, in general, will be valid. Remember: No System will allow changes that jeopardize The System.
MI police memos confirm 2020 nationwide voter fraud; info was even given to FBI | Sara A. Carter (saraacarter.com)
And nothing will actually happen to anyone, of course.
Judge Finds Trump Liable BEFORE Trial in E. Jean Carroll Defamation Case, Jury Will Only Decide Damages (informationliberation.com)
Paging the Red Queen. Sentence first, trial after.
Understand that I am not thrilled with this. But the cold light of reality is there. The System – the uniparty – will never permit Trump’s election. Nor the election of enough America First Senators and Congressmen to matter. Find your steel – I very much fear you’re going to need it. Understand though – I’m not advocating violence specifically nor recommending any course of action along those lines. But place not your hopes on 2024 to fix things. Just sayin’.
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California Dems Could Remove Visitation Rights for ‘Non-Affirming’ Parents (freebeacon.com)
Work to starve the beast:
Let’s Kill Hollywood | Frontpage Mag
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Pick of the post:
So much mockery, um, wrapped in this meme I had to make it the pick.
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Collected links with commentary, lightly organized:
Bayou Renaissance Man: The growing crime wave, and how to counter it
I live an hour from a “blue hive” by car; not far enough out IMHO. Related:
Crime Solutions Worth Considering | Frontpage Mag
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Good News: Biden Regime Cancels Drilling Leases In Alaska – Pirate’s Cove » Pirate’s Cove (thepiratescove.us)
Biden’s Incoherent Energy Policy Continues | The Heritage Foundation
At war with America.
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The Hosea 8:7 Files – Gun Free Zone
So you wanted to defund the police, and now you have consequences. BWAAAA HA HA HA HA HA HA.
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New York City is F****ed – Gun Free Zone
Feeling the diversity good and hard yet, NYFC? More:
New York Runs Out of Magic Dirt – Vox Popoli (voxday.net)
Coming To FUSA Over The Next Twenty Years – Western Rifle Shooters Association
So you want the good feels from helping migrants. And now there are consequences – and worse coming.
When Men were Men: Today in History, Europeans Pulverize Jihadists – American Thinker
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Biden’s Digital Dollar Rockets U.S. Toward Social Credit Dystopia (thefederalist.com)
And most of the sheep will cheer and applaud “the convenience”… until they exceed their carbon limit or somehow otherwise cross the fence lines. Then watch out.
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US to give Ukraine depleted uranium rounds: Pentagon – Insider Paper
Apparently the UK has already given such rounds for their tanks they gave Ukraine. Related:
US transfer of Russian assets to Ukraine ‘illegal’: Kremlin – Insider Paper
Provoke provoke provoke. No wonder people in Russia are talking like this:
There Is Talk In Russia About Hitting Targets In The US Because War Has Become “Inevitable” » Sons of Liberty Media
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Monday Music:
The Call-Let The Day Begin
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Palate Cleansers:
Did the owners not search? Good for that dog!
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Come back Wednesday for another edition. Same Meme Time. Same Meme channel.
The post Memestream News: Monday Edition appeared first on Granite Grok.
Can you be at Granite State College this Thursday by 10 AM because your help is needed? The State Board of Education will vote on whether to approve an optional financial literacy course for New Hampshire students, and the opposition is expected to be fierce.
Why, you might ask, would anyone oppose such a thing? Do they want your kids to be financially illiterate? Schools are allowed to pretend to be mental health experts, but helping students understand loans, banking, investing, credit cards, insurance, and even doing their taxes is bad.
Prager U. created the course, but it’s non-partisan. There’s nothing in it about right or left, but, but, but…it’s Prager U. That would be why certain ‘someones’ may show up and degrade, demean, and misrepresent the course.
If you’d like a few examples of the videos created by Prager U on financial literacy for kids, you can go here. Credit cards (simple vs. compound Interest). Good vs. bad Credit. Budgeting. Evil right-wing propaganda this is not, although the progs who hate Prager might take issue with this one on taxes.
The idea is to make some of the most uninteresting stuff imaginable (accounting) appealing to kids and young adults who may be blindsided by it when a world they can’t escape comes knocking on their door.
If you can attend the meeting and offer testimony (3 minutes) to support this optional program, that would be great. If attendance is not an option, you can send written testimony to Angela.adams@doe.nh.gov.
Please keep public comments and emails on topic, polite, and brief.
Meetings are held at the NH Department of Education (Granite State College Building) located at 25 Hall St., Concord, NH (unless posted otherwise). The meetings are scheduled 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM; however, meetings can end earlier or later than 3:00 PM depending on agenda items.
The post Help New Hampshire Support Its Student’s Financial Literacy appeared first on Granite Grok.
I wrote this as a Letter to the Editor in 2006, and now, 17 years later, its meaning still holds true. Our lives since 9/11 have yet to return to normal as some of our liberties have not been restored. There is not a student in K-16 that was alive on that beautiful September morning, so it is imperative to keep the story alive.
Five years ago today, we were a unified country in a way never seen since we came together to free the world from Germany and Japan. As the Twin Towers came crashing down, and the hole was cut into the Pentagon wall. As those brave, innocent travelers brought down Flight 93 in a field in Pennsylvania instead of its supposed destination, the White House. As people in the Middle East celebrated the death of nearly three thousand folks just like us who had done nothing that beautiful fall day but go about their normal lives, we Americans came together with a bond that not many could explain but that we all felt. We were sad. We were shocked, angry, and confused, but we were united in our resolve to let the world know, to let the terrorists that wanted us all dead to know that we Americans still stood together in our need to live as the most powerful and free country in the world.
During the time following September 11, 2001, the American Flag could be seen everywhere. It flew from homes and offices. It flew from factories and apartments. It flew from car windows and the backs of motorcycles. Red, White, and Blue was a symbol of our unity, and it could be seen everywhere you traveled across this incredible nation we all love so much. We raised the flag proudly to show the world that we could be bruised and knocked to our knees, but we would never stay down. That we could take their best shot, even on our own soil, but we would never give up the fight. We were all united in our pride to be Americans, and displaying the flag was our way of showing that pride.
Five long years have passed. The flags have disappeared from the homes. They are not seen as often flapping in the wind from a car antenna. They are not seen in the storefront window. The pride is not so obvious as it was just five years ago. We need to remember what made us angry that crystal clear September morn. We need to remember what the terrorists from another land tried to take from us. We need to remind our children why it is so important to be proud of our American life and to simply be an American. Bring out the flags and raise them once again. Show the world that we are still united in our fight. Bring out the flags, and let us never forget.
The post Where Have All The Flags Gone appeared first on Granite Grok.
At the June 6 meeting of the Croydon School Board, Associate Principal Nicole Lackie presented the results of Croydon Village School’s (CVS) end-of-year diagnostic assessment.
Of its 30 students, 25 (83%) performed below grade level, with 22 (88%) of them at the lowest level.
When asked about this result by a member of the school board, Ms. Lackie made two remarkable statements. First, she said COVID was responsible. Next, she stated that people don’t really know how to teach kids how to read.
In this series, we’ll address these two statements in detail as we explore state-level results and showcase some elementary schools in New Hampshire and Vermont.
Nicole Lackie has been the associate principal for two years. She refused to be interviewed for this story.
This past year, CVS had two multi-grade classes: K-1 and 2-4. In addition to being a part-time principal, Ms. Lackie also teaches grades 2-4. In addition, the school has a full-time K-1 teacher, who also serves as the special education case manager; two paraprofessionals; a reading specialist; and part-time teachers for music, art, and physical education.
As with many school districts, Croydon uses formative diagnostic assessments to help figure out how students are performing and where they need help. They use the STAR Test for reading and math and the Fountas & Pinnell system to test reading comprehension.
Ms. Lackie’s full response to the board member’s question started with this: “There’s a couple of things going on here and some, I just can’t tell you. One of the things is that the data includes all nine kindergarten students. There are a significant amount of students that are starting below where they should be.”
This raises some questions: Isn’t kindergarten the starting point for teaching kids to read? If that’s not the case, and if kindergarten students are not meeting initial expectations, could it be because parents aren’t aware of what those expectations are?
Even without the kindergarten students, however, there are 13 students (62%) in grades 1-4 performing at the lowest level. That’s still a lot.
Ms. Lackie also said that the effects of COVID were nothing like she would have imagined. The news is full of articles saying that the pandemic has affected student performance. The US Department of Education has declared it so. However, Croydon’s scores don’t paint that picture.
In 2022, the last year for which data is available for the New Hampshire Statewide Assessment System (NHSAS), 54% of Croydon’s students were considered proficient or above in reading. This was actually an improvement over their scores in 2019.
Objectively, the pandemic did not noticeably affect student reading performance at CVS. The larger issue, however, is that only about half the students at CVS are reading at grade level or above. This has been the case for quite a while.
COVID wasn’t the only perceived problem. Ms. Lackie continued, “There’s a lot of conversation out there about the best way to teach reading. Should we use basal readers, or is it more teacher-created, teacher-leading or something very scripted or not? There are a lot of question marks. We just don’t know.”
The Fountas & Pinnell (F&P) program, widely used around the United States, has been around since the 1980s. Because the authors are professors at the renowned Columbia University Teacher’s College, the program is assumed by many educators to be good.
F&P uses a “cueing” approach to teach reading. The idea behind Cueing Theory is that it’s easier for children to learn to read if they start with whole stories and whole sentences and do not try to read individual words. In practice, teachers cover up words in a story, then tell students to look at the picture, look at the first letter, and think of a word that makes sense. Cueing Theory says that, by practicing this approach, children can figure out on their own how to read.
This approach is at odds with reading research. The “science of reading” is based on decades of research about how students become proficient in reading and writing and why some of them have difficulty. Using brain scans and eye-tracking technology, researchers have found that good readers process virtually every letter in every word as they read. Some children catch on quickly. Some need to be taught directly how to sound out words. Learning to read is not as natural as learning to talk.
In addition, studies show that the F&P assessment scoring is unreliable. The scores change from day to day, which does not help teachers know what to focus on.
The science of reading research is summarized in an engaging podcast series called “Sold a Story,” produced by Emily Hanford, an investigative education journalist at American Public Media.
The New Hampshire Department of Education offers intensive LETRS training — Language Essentials for Teaching Reading and Spelling — to address the problems with reading. LETRS helps teachers understand the science of reading in order to help them teach better.
Croydon teachers have not taken this training, while teachers in other schools around the area have. Those schools have already started to see progress.
Observing this exchange at the Croydon School Board meeting inspired this effort to find out how the pandemic shutdowns affected elementary schools in our area and learn how they teach reading. Installments in this series will include reading scores in the U.S., New Hampshire, and Vermont and profile a few area elementary schools.
In the next article, we’ll look at New Hampshire student performance on state tests and on the National Assessment of Educational Progress to assess what impact, if any, the pandemic shutdown had on student achievement.
This article was originally published in the Eagle Times on September 9, 2023. It has been slightly edited.
The post Did the Pandemic Shutdown Affect Student Performance? Part 1 of 8 appeared first on Granite Grok.
Fresh off yesterday’s edition of “Sununu Said,” where he asked candidates not to make it personal with Trump, we’ve got another example. Governor Sununu and a dozen legislative energy apostles signed a letter to Robert Ludlow, the CFO at ISO New England.
ISO New England manages the electric grid for the region, and the letter’s signatories believe it has made a decision that will have consequences for ratepayers.
We write with concern related to the request made by five New England states to create an executive-level environmental justice position at ISO New England. Although New Hampshire believes that ISO New England should be well-staffed to fulfill its functions, such a position would represent a wasteful expense to accommodate policy goals that fall outside of ISO New England’s mandate.’
New England must strive to achieve a reliable and affordable energy economy. We cannot lose our focus in order to accommodate policy choices designed to compel progressive societal change.
This makes for interesting reading coming from the desk of Chris Sununu. Therapists in New Hampshire can’t counsel gender-confused kids (or anyone, for that matter) who want to be their biological sex. It would violate a law that prohibits conversion therapy. Not to put too fine a point on it, but isn’t all therapy in some form about conversion? From a state of mind, you find troubling to one at which you feel at peace?
Not when gender confusion is involved. That would violate state law, but putting a gag on therapists and denying them the right to treat patients in a manner that is best for them doesn’t classify as a policy choice designed to compel progressive societal change.
That’s precisely what that is.
Related: Breaking: Gov. Chris Sununu signs HB1319 – the newest Bathroom Bill
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with the thrust of the letter to ISO New England, and I appreciate why everyone signed on. Increased salary burden aside, the presence of social justice clowns in any organization will increase costs across the board, which will be piled onto ratepayers, many of whom are already suffering under the abuse of the Biden economy. My issue is with our Woke governor’s hypocrisy.
Unfortunately, we are afraid that we are heading down a path of only paying lip service to electric reliability and affordability while aggressively pursuing cost-raising environmental justice policies and carbon taxes.
Any emphasis on Social Justice interventionism will have a negative impact, but that truth applies to everything, everywhere, all the time. If you oppose its negative fiscal impact at ISO New England, you’d best start dismantling them in your state government. And while you’re at it, if energy prices and ratepayers are a priority, stop saying you’d support rate-price-hiking boondoggles like offshore wind.
The post It’s Time for Another Episode of, Sununu Said … appeared first on Granite Grok.
NeverTrump-fanatic Mikey Graham thinks the GOP can make political-hay out of New Mexico’s Governor’s suspension of the Second Amendment because of an “emergency” (see tweet below). Yet Mikey was one of the biggest cheerleaders for Sun-King Chris Sununu’s suspension of the New Hampshire constitution to fight the COVID “emergency,” which it is now undeniable was hardly an “emergency” … unless you want to go along with Debbie Birx’s creative bookkeeping where every death, no matter how obviously NOT from COVID, was nonetheless classified as a COVID death.
Mikey, as you may recall, was gushing about Sun-King’s poll numbers over his “handling” of COVID … which shows how the majority of New Hampshire do NOT believe in liberty … and calling anyone who dared criticize the Sun-King’s assertion of dictatorial powers, “deniers” etc.. So what’s the standard, Mikey? It’s okay when a GOP Governor assumes powers not his under the Constitution on account of an “emergency,” but really, really, rally bad when a Democrat Governor does the same thing?
There’s a straight-line from COVID “emergencies” to gun “emergencies,” climate “emergencies,” diversity “emergencies,” etc., Mikey. Maybe you should sit this one out.
The post The Straight-Line From COVID “Emergencies” To New Mexico’s Gun “Emergency” appeared first on Granite Grok.
Join us on September 17th to Celebrate our Constitution!
This is a family event so please bring your kids with you. Invite friends too!
Please Submit Group communications or Press Releases to editor@granitegrok.com.
Submission is not a guarantee of publication – Publication is not an endorsement.
We hope you will join us for a fun and educational day! There will be vendor tables set up so you can see what citizens around NH are doing to protect our Rghts and uphold our Constitution!
We will also have some light refreshments and end our celebration with cake!
(H/T: NHPatriotHub.org & Diane)
The post 2023 Constitution Day Celebration – Sunday, September 17th appeared first on Granite Grok.
The latest rationale from the UniParty for its proxy-war against Russia … fighting a proxy-war against Russia gets us ready to fight a hot war against China. Of course, if we really wanted to slow the Chinese military build up, we could stop American companies from investing in China. But Mitch and his ilk have gotten rich from investment in China, so that’s not happening.
This tweet from McConnell (actually, obviously from the people pulling the strings on this figurehead/puppet Senator) is as disgusting as it is inane. The War in Ukraine … and all its death and devastation … is, according to Team-Mitch, just sound industrial policy. Sick. These people are sick.
Standing with our allies against Russian aggression isn't charity. In fact – it's a direct investment in replenishing America’s arsenal with American weapons built by American workers. Expanding our defense industrial base puts America in a stronger position to out-compete China.
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) September 7, 2023
The post Mitch McConnell Says It Out Loud … Proxy-War With Russia Is To Enrich Military-Industrial Complex appeared first on Granite Grok.
This is my first dance with the current Chicago Teacher’s Union president. Stacy Davis Gates sent her son to a private Catholic School. When challenged on that choice, she blamed the lack of school choice, which is racist. School choice is racist, not the lack of it.
And what a fine example of Liberal privilege this is.
“School choice was actually the choice of racists. It was created to avoid integrating schools with Black children. Now it’s the civil rights struggle of our generation?” she wrote on X last year.
Does that make Stacy Davis Gates a racist? No, she is a victim. Of what?
Davis Gates criticized school choice, blaming such policies for the lack of resources at Chicago’s public schools.
“It was a very difficult decision for us because there is not a lot to offer black youth who are entering high school” in Chicago, Davis Gates told WBEZ.
“In many of our schools on the South Side and the West Side, the course offerings are very marginal and limited,” she said. “Then the other thing, and it was a very strong priority, was his ability to participate in co-curricular and extracurricular activities, which quite frankly, don’t exist in many of the schools, high schools in particular.”
I can only guess at her proposed solution. More money for public schools?
The 2022 Chicago city school budget was 9.5 Billion dollars. Thirty-three countries on the planet have GDPs less than the proposed Chicago city school budget. A sum that has grown consistently while test scores (racist), grades (racist), and overall performance and activities have declined.
In other words, money is not the solution, as proven by Ms. Davis Gates. If you want your child to have access to the best, you need more school choice, not less.
But Stacy Davis Gates is president of the Chicago Teachers Union, executive vice president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, Vice President of the American Federation for Teachers, … And a hypocrite. When it comes to her kids, it is important to have options. When it comes to yours, especially those financially disadvantages by decades of Democrat rule and lousy public schools, not so much.
The post Teacher’s Union President Blames Public Schools … appeared first on Granite Grok.
More attempts to remove parental consent need to be given serious thought! This is an email sent to the Superintendent in SAU21 and the School Board Members.
Dear Superintendent Nadeau,
After reviewing the published September Student Services update to the North Hampton School Board on Medicaid reimbursement to schools, information that was not included is misleading to the School Board. The Update oversimplifies the proposed changes to Medicaid and understates the changes needed in the SAU to qualify for additional funding.
The most important points omitted include:Changes to Federal policy are only in the Proposal stage and must be adopted by States;
Existing SAU21 policies for services spend more than Medicaid reimburses because many providers do not accept Medicaid patients because of the fees paid;
Any description of SAU21 policies for this school year and specific planned changes, including how many additional students will be “covered” and increased cost;
Schools that are “Full Service Community Schools” will be designated as medical providers. Seabrook School was awarded a grant to do planning for this, but is not complete and does not include other schools;
Statement that additional screening, including medical evaluations, of children will take place; additional mandatory reporting is required; personal (medical) information for children will be retained and shared with third parties;
Parental consent for evaluations and screening is still required. (The update refers only to consent to access Medicaid insurance.)
There may be advantages for a school from Medicaid reimbursements, but it’s important to note and understand problems that could arise. As a board member, I would want to have all the information presented to me so that I could make the best decisions going forward.
Background for 2023 ChangesThe Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published an administrative guide dated 2023 for schools to become medical providers (emphasis added) and begin to bill Medicaid for reimbursement by setting up schools with a hospitalization license (emphasis added): Delivering Services in School-Based Settings: A Comprehensive Guide to Medicaid Services and Administrative Claiming.
This 2023 change was preceded in 2019: A Joint Information Bulletin was released on July 1, 2019, explaining the system of techniques that will be used to identify behavioral/mental health disorders as a disability that, in turn, create interventions at school that now can be used for billing Medicaid reimbursement. (Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Bulletin: pg. 3)
SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) points to PBIS, RTI, and MTSS as techniques approved for intervention services. They ARE INCLUDED in arriving at a disability/disorder for approved Medicaid billing and reimbursement. In addition, SAU21 spends a significant amount of its budget addressing the social-emotional learning and behavioral health needs of students, with trauma-informed, family-engaged implementation of the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior and Wellness (MTSS-B).
MTSS models include screening and targeting support for students exhibiting signs of mental health conditions. PBIS, MTSS, and RTI use techniques to identify children, collect data on a child’s behavioral disabilities, use interventions, and then bill Medicaid for mental health disorders. This expansion into the area of attitudes, values, beliefs, and dispositions creates a smorgasbord of disabilities, shifting education into mental health, not academics.
The information presented in the Update (attached) indicates that parents will consent to assessments for these and additional kinds of services. “Parent consent to access a child’s Medicaid insurance is still required.”
The Proposed Rule ChangeEarlier this year the Federal administration announced a proposed rule change to Medicaid billing, modifying the current rule for obtaining parental consent. The rule change would remove the requirement for parental consent. They called the rule to obtain parental consent for Medicaid billing “an unnecessary, time-consuming and emotionally fraught process for districts and parents.”
Schools would be allowed to skip over parental informed consent so that mental and medical health treatment of children at school (or by “partner” third parties chosen by the school) and billing Medicaid could move forward. This very significant proposal is omitted from your Update to the School Board and Community.
In addition, The U.S. Department of Education said it is also proposing to remove a requirement under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that schools receive parental consent before billing public programs such as Medicaid for the first time for services they provide to students at school.
So-called Community Schools were authorized in the 2022 Federal budget. The new Community Schools (WSCC) could offer children Medicaid-funded health and mental health services. If Medicaid funds are insufficient to pay for the services offered, local taxpayers will bear the additional burden as they do now. As a result, parents may never know what services are provided to their children or by whom. We also know that personally identifiable mental health data on students are being shared by some New Hampshire schools without informed consent by the student or parents.
Personally identifiable mental health data on students has been shared with Keene State BHII without the knowledge or consent of either the students or their parents. School counselors, etc., are violating their Code of Ethics by sharing this sensitive data with the analysts at Keene State BHII. This also appears to be a violation of student privacy per the NH Constitution.
The WSCC Model is being rolled out nationwide in each state (in phases) to establish Community Schools or as they call them, Healthy Schools. WSCC stands for Whole School, Whole Community, Whole-Child.
California committed $4 Billion dollars to community schools, but would this be a wise use of NH taxpayer dollars? School board members and taxpayers should have much more factual information before the SAU changes policies unilaterally, and without full disclosure to residents. In fact, we should proceed with caution before committing the taxpayers in SAU21 to this experiment. Anything that reduces the power of our elected school board members should be scrutinized by those serving the community, and the ones who pay the taxes.
California has committed $4 billion to turning one in three public schools into a Community school. The state education board’s “Community Schools Framework” has endorsed “shared decision-making” in school governance. That means more power for teachers’ unions and less for elected school boards, and even less for parents. More significantly, the extensive testing, assessments and evaluations of students throughout their school years will remain a part of their academic record for life, which may affect schooling and career options.
Schools in SAU21 reflect declining academic results across the District. Proposals to add social service personnel do not reference any effort to address academic decline, while parents remove their children from schools to place them in independent schools. There’s little evidence to support claims that providing social services improves academic achievement, writes Williamson “Bill” Evers, among many other researchers. When Harvard researchers analyzed Harlem Children’s Zone middle schools, they concluded that high-quality schools can “significantly increase academic achievement” for low-income students, but “community programs appear neither necessary nor sufficient.”
A RAND study found “nearly zero improvement in English across three years and nearly zero gains in math during the first two years . . . but an uptick during the last year,” Evers wrote.
Denver Health provides these services. As of July 2022, their plastic surgeons offered chest reconstruction (mastectomy) to youth ages 16 and older.
It seems like now is a good time to revisit school policies to ensure parental consent is required on all mental and medical services Medicaid reimbursements and that no personally identifiable mental or medical health information is shared with anyone or any organization without informed consent by parents.
What can go wrong?Sex ed and reproductive health in schools meant that 6th-grade girls received surprise gynecological exams without parental notification or consent in Pennsylvania. This year two young children in New Hampshire were given vaccines after their parents sent a notification to their district administrators in Nashua and Rochester telling them not to vaccinate their children.
Children who receive mental health counseling while in school can be denied an opportunity to join the military. DSM codes will identify ALL students with “mental health” disabilities that are billable to Medicaid. Codes on student records will determine what a student can or cannot do in the future.
These are serious consequences that need to be considered by all involved.
When parents are not present, mistakes happen. A better approach would be to offer these services after school hours with parents present.
Years ago, federal investigators uncovered improper billing for school-based Medicaid services, and cases of waste and fraud in several states. Money directed for medical care was used for transportation or school officials’ salaries or benefits.
In Texas, they found close to 300 incorrectly coded claims, resulting in almost $19 million of federal payments for costs not allowed under Medicaid’s in-school services program.
School administrations are supposed to be providing an education to our children— they are not in the business of providing medical services.
Oversity by parents is needed.
Conclusions:The Update published as part of the Agenda for the North Hampton School Board meeting dated 7 September should be revised and made more complete. The School Board and taxpayers must have complete and accurate information for additional costs anticipated and additional staffing planned in the 2024 budget. Parents must have accurate information about proposals for the treatment of their children.
School Board policies must be updated to include informed consent on all mental and medical services, assessments, treatment, and release of PII.
When teachers and school counselors are identifying our children through screening, subjective judgment observations and interventions, and psychological treatment of the social, emotional, and behavioral personality traits, who will be liable for inaccurate diagnosis? What type of data tracking is done at school for mental health? How are our children protected?
SEPTEMBER 2023 NH Student Services Board Report (1)The post Medicaid Reimbursement to Schools and the Removal of Parental Consent appeared first on Granite Grok.
