Kirk thinks support for education is to filter out websites in schools and libraries and forget about students education in every other way, spending the money instead on death and destruction abroad. Thinking members of Congress, teachers and librarians have said that website filtering in the schools and libraries won't protect kids because they aren't finding predators in schools and libraries, but from their home computers that they surf alone in their rooms because they have nothing to do after school as many after school activities have been cut.
Kirk proves that he cares little for real education and only wants to use our kids to scare us into measures do nothing, but chill internet grassroots political organizing that ultimately only benefits the republican fail strategy. No education, only more fear coming out of the assistant majority whip's office. Fear is all Mark Kirk has to offer the children of the Illinois Tenth.
Then, there are the special needs kids that Kirk really wants us to leave behind:
Autismom wrote:
I would like to point out that Mark Kirk is introducing HR 5717, The Educational Assessment Technical Corrections Act. It will give schools more time to comply with requirements for hiring adequate staff, and lower standards of achievement for special needs kids. One in six kids has some form of learning disability. This number comes from the CDC. ONE IN SIX. How did that come to be? When I was in grammar school in the early 70's, there were no kids on my block with ADD, autism, ODD, Behavior Disorder, sensory dysfunction, developmental delay, (or asthma, eczema, diabetes, obesity, etc.) Some will say "it's just better diagnosing." No way. It's hard to overlook a kid with autism or ADHD. Could this be an attempt to skew those stats? I think it might be. The truth is that the educators are at their wits end trying to give an appropriate education to a generation of special needs kids. So maybe Kirk's answer is to lower the standards and take the heat off the schools and staff, at the expense of the kids.
We have a serious problem here, folks. Did anyone see the articles in TIME or Business Week about how boys in America are falling behind academically?
http://tinyurl.com/bz35
We have an entire generation of kids who are failing to make the grade, and Mark Kirk and the current administration don't seem to notice. Or rather, they don't seem to care.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Mark Kirk thinks schools are high security warehouses, but we need real education for all kids
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10 comments:
You know, your comments are quite funny. First, I find it hard to understand why you find legislation to keep children from accessing dangerous or inappropriate material online objectionable. Your comment about how this is REALLY to chill "internet grassroots campaigning" is laughable. Last I checked 5th graders did not contribute significant amounts of money to political campaign. Not to mention political websites are generally not targeted by webfilters.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion on Congressman Kirk's Education Assessment Technical Corrections Act. But do you know what organization doesn't share your opinion? The NEA.
http://www.nea.org/lac/letters/806kirk.html
But hey, I'm sure you know what the public schools need better than the people who actually work in them. Right?
Kirk's law doesn't protect children. That is the point. It's another republican red herring just like your post. Real protection for children would be to provide the real education and supervised programs Kirk's budgets got rid of to keept the kids from surfing the web all afternoon on their own. The NEA letter to which you refer is not about the Delete Online Predator's bill or the bill to which Autismom refers. It's just modest changes to no child left behind (which Kirk voted for and NEA calls fundamentally flawed--but you did not point that out). NCLB has been such a catastrophe NEA would welcome any change.
Here is an article explaining Kirk's Delete Online Predators Act and why it won't work to protect students, but will chill free speech and online political organizing: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/ramasastry/20060807.html
Libraries forced to filter out web sites are not just for 5th graders and would have a chilling influence on political organizing and you fail to mention the 16-18 year olds affected who might want to become politically active.
Laugh all you want, anonymous, but you left out lots of facts and don't even stand behind your arguments with your name, so your argument is...well...not worth a whole lot.
Why should Kirk care, he does not have any kids. He is just using this along with Jews for personal gain in order to win an election.
There is nothing positive out of the Kirk camp except defensive positions. The do nothing congressman. The issue of Mercury in the water was blown out of the water by Ellen. Let's face it his local issues rot. This election is all about IRAQ and the lack of support he has for the defense of this country!
Libraries of the North Shore have fought actively against filtering. Maybe the writer should get involved with his/her community. The flow is against filtering in the Library.It is up to the deadbeat parents to babysit their kids.Winnetka, Wilmette, Northbrook and Glenview are actively against this The library is not a babysitter. Perhaps Kirk should get on the same page as his constituents.
The problem with alot of these kids is the parents. They want everyone to police their kids except them because they do not want to be the bad guy. Public school teachers on the north shore have a cake walk and a mighty nice pension (sometimes 6 figures) to begin with so don't even go there!!
If you work in a public school in the North Suburbs consider yourself lucky, it's like a country club against Chicago Public Schools who cannot even get books. It is up to the parent to teach their child right from wrong not society or a teacher/librarian. That is why our prisons are so overcrowded.
"Libraries forced to filter out web sites are not just for 5th graders and would have a chilling influence on political organizing and you fail to mention the 16-18 year olds affected who might want to become politically active."
Show me the library that filters out political websites. Go ahead, I'll wait. But I'm going to be waiting a long time for your answer because library webfilters are there to keep people from accessing pornography at the library, not to keep them from reading your deluded rants.
You brought up a point, but probably don't even know it. Librarians have been in the lead of defending us from the censorship of the Bush/Kirk administration. They fought the hard won battles against some provisions of the Patriot act. However, all the censorship you think is just dandy is simply the ground work for future complete censorship of the internet. Kirk is just getting the kids used to it. You can make any further smarmy comments you want, but time we just called it what it is, creeping facism and Kirk is very much the loyal follower in it.
Kirk the Communist. Kirk the Communist. Parent's need to babysit their own children and are ultimately by law responsible for everything they do. It is what it is. Those who do not get involved or teach their children are deadbeats.
If a child is accessing pornography at a public place, it is the parent's fault. Don't look to shrug off the obligations of a parent. It is up to a parent to teach that child right from wrong. That is a big problem today. Just like when GBN student's parents supplied them with liquor for their party in a forest preserve. Same concept. They blamed the school. It's the parents.
In 2001, Mark Kirk voted for a No Child Left Behind program, but when it came to appropriating money, Congressman Mark Kirk voted NO.
So There, Mark Kirk does not care. The proof is in his voting record.
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