I am honored and humbled to be a part of such and awesome event on June 1st in San Diego, California.
Now what Texas Mom would not jump on the chance to head to San Diego, California? Definitely not this one, I hope you can join us!! It is going to be a wonderful opportunity for all!!
I was curious to see how Lesley Stahl and 60 Minutes would deal with the Gulen Charter schools in their program last night.
The Gulen charters are the largest charter chain in the United States, with something like 135-140 charters. Few people realize that the Gulen charter chain is far larger than the KIPP chain.
They focus mainly on math and science. Some of the Gulen charters get high test scores.
That seems to seal the deal for 60 Minutes. Stahl was very impressed with the schools’ test scores and with the students’ interest in math and science.
Photo Courtesy of the New York Times
The show points out that the Gulen schools are tied, in some non-specific way, to a Turkish imam named Fethullah Gulen, who lives in seclusion in the Poconos in Pennyslvania. It notes that the Gulenists run a vast media, financial, and political empire inside Turkey, and that critics of the Gulen movement in Turkey are reluctant to appear on camera. Stahl made no reference to the page one story in the New York Times about the critics of Gulen in Turkey who are fearful and intimidated.
Stahl says that the Gulenists are moderate and devoted to education (they told her so), and it sounds as though we are lucky that the Gulenists have imported large numbers of Turkish teachers (some of whom can barely speak English) to teach math, science, and even English! She never gets a good answer to the question of why the Gulen movement has opened so many publicly-financed schools in the United States, and she does not reflect on whether this is a good idea.
Maybe one day we will also have a chain of Japanese charter schools, Korean charter schools, Singaporean charter schools, Finnish charter schools, etc., and we can raise our test scores by importing teachers from other nations to run charter schools; what’s odd about this is that Turkey is not, unlike Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Finland, a high-performing nation. Allowing foreign nationals to open and manage charter schools, run by boards composed of their fellow nationals, opens up a new world of possibilities, especially when they need not come from high-performing nations. We might have Iranian charters, Mexican charters, Malaysian charters, Argentinean charters, Haitian charters, Cuban charters, Portuguese charters, the possibilities are endless.
But back to 60 Minutes:
Stahl interviews the head of the Texas charter school association, who defends the Gulen schools strongly. The show quotes an ex-teacher at a Gulen school who claims that the schools get kickbacks from the Turkish teachers they import (she married one of them), but the Gulen spokesman says she is not creditable because she is a disgruntled employee. No other critic appears on camera, though there are many who wonder about the propriety of funneling taxpayer dollars to a foreign-run “public” school enterprise.
CBS News did not ask one very important question. What about the role of public schools in building our democracy? The reason that taxpayers pay for public schools is to develop citizens, people who are prepared to vote and to serve on juries and to sustain our democracy into the future. That does not mean that public schools should be agnostic or that their teachers must be true-blue patriots, but that the schools must take seriously their responsibility to prepare young people to assume the full responsibilities of citizenship: to think critically and independently; to understand our form of government; to understand other forms of government; to have a deep knowledge of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; to understand American culture and history; to know enough about world history to be able to form a thoughtful opinion of events and to look critically at how the mainstream media portrays ideas and events. In other words, we pay for public schools to develop our future citizens, and we want them to think for themselves. That is why we have historically taken a dim view of public money being used to subsidize any partisanship or special interests in education.
This is why schools have mock trials, conduct student elections, have a student council, and adopt a pedagogical style that involves questioning and challenge.
Are the Gulen schools preparing young people to assume their roles as citizens and to improve the practice of democracy in the United States?
As a reference to the battles we have been fighting in Texas!
SPREAD OF GULEN SCHOOLS IN TEXAS
One of the most disheartening reports has been the connections of former executive director of the Republican Party and trusted advisor to President George W. Bush, Karen Hughes and her close ties to the Gulen/Cosmos Foundation’s Harmony Schools here in Texas. As you can hear in this video Ms. Hughes is very interested in promoting Harmony Science Charter Schools and accessing Texas tax dollars to create competition for public schools by funding the Gulen/Harmony charter schools.
In a bold move, the Gulen/Cosmos Foundation/Harmony Charter Schools have now branched out from their usual “math and science” venues into a brand new school to open soon in Austin, Texas.
This new Gulen school will be called the Harmony School of Political Science. This means that at taxpayers’ expense, Turkish teachers (many of whom are here on H-1 visas and are Muslims) will be teaching our students “American” history. Can you imagine how these teachers who can hardly speak English and are fresh from Turkey will present such historically significant elements as the Holocaust, the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution?
Yes, all teachers in Texas (including those in the Gulen schools) are to follow the state-approved curriculum requirements; but nothing constrains teachers from teaching those requirements with a particular political spin. Since almost all of the terrorists who have declared jihad against Americans are Muslims, then it should make us very skeptical about having Muslim teachers teach our Texas students to love, respect, and appreciate America.
In case you did not see CBS News’ “60 Minutes”, I recommend that you watch the video
Photo courtesy of Stop Lance Gooden click photo for more info!
“Keep in mind while reading this that our representative in the Texas House, Lance Gooden, won’t tell us where he lives, where he works, or what he does for a living, but he will proudly proclaim his unwavering support for Joe Straus.
Some of you might say, “But Lance says he lives in Terrell.” Wrong. He owns a vacant house in Terrell. “But Lance says he works in District 4.” No, he hasn’t told us where he works. “But he says he’s an insurance consultant for energy and energy related companies.” Then why does he not have a state issued insurance license? And if he does , where is it? District 4 voters have a right and responsibility to ask these questions, and Gooden has a duty to answer. If he wants to live a private life, he shouldn’t run for public office.
BTW, someone is spreading rumors that Empower Texans supports the state monkeying with police and firefighter pensions, specifically to convert them to 401Ks, and that’s why ET has endorsed Stuart Spitzer. I will leave it to my readers to determine where these rumors are coming from, but I will tell you that this charge is absolutely, 100% FALSE.”
Earlier today I got news of a fundraiser that will take place next Wednesday, May 12th, in Driftwood, Texas. At first I thought it was a joke, or just a crazy rumor, but after researching, I discovered that the Republican Speaker of the Texas House, Joe Straus, will be headlining the fundraiser for Democratic State Representative Patrick Rose!
One of the most frustrating things about this is that the Speaker of our House is failing to follow our state platform! On September 20, 2008, the Republican Party of Texas adopted this resolution:
“. . . that the Republican Party of Texas requests that every Republican public and party candidate and office holder re-frain from using his or her office, title, or name to endorse, sup-port, or campaign for a candidate of another party, or against the candidate of the Republican Party”
This obviously applies to Speaker Straus, whose weak justification has been that his predecessor, Tom Craddick (R – HD82), had done the same. Yes, Speaker Craddick had supported “Craddick Democrats”, or as they are now known — the mythical and ever elusive conservative Democrat.
Just kidding–there are a few Democrats who are fiscally conservative and cooperative with the Republican Party of Texas, but Patrick Rose is not one of these. In fact, Representative Rose received an F on the 2009 Fiscal Responsibility Index!
So it stands to reason that Mr. Rose’s Republican challenger would be a more suitable candidate for this office, and you think the Republican Speaker of the House would naturally support Mr. Rose’s challenger; after all, Speaker Straus’ job depends on a Republican majority.
Jason Isaac is the Republican who will be challenging Patrick Rose in November, and upon doing my own research I discovered that all three counties in HD45 went for John McCain in 2008. Obviously this district does not lean far to the left, and we should support a good conservative candidate like Jason Isaac who can reclaim this seat for the GOP. What is Joe Straus thinking?
I would have no problem with this event at all if Patrick Rose was running unopposed or if he was facing a leftist challenge from within his own party, but as we can see, that is clearly not the case.
Seeing as the Democratic Party has their eyes, and highest hopes, on winning in Texas, I hope that Speaker Straus will cancel this event and throw his support behind our party’s conservative candidate! With redistricting and potential budget shortfalls coming up, it is vitally important to our great state that we make sure that liberals from the national party do not have a chance to influence a potential Democratic majority in the Texas House of Representatives.
Bundling the Grassroots™ Meets Boots On The Ground Driving the Narrative/Social Media Training in Phoenix AZ!
You may be asking why head to Phoenix, AZ to organize and train Conservative Information Pushers?
Watch this video and you will understand why….
The other reason is there are key state and local races that need some help organizing the grassroots and the benefit of our training is that by organizing at the ground level we can take out Obama and State and Local progressives as well.
If you are a grassroots activist and you would like to join our training we would love to have your there. Below is the information.
FREE to Arizona Legislators
$25.00 for grassroots campaign social media activists/volunteers/staff
Learn from:
Alice Linahan, Voices Empower who was inside the Santorum social media network. She can provide the strategy of energizing the base and FLIPPING THE FUNNEL while driving the narrative. She will also be presenting her Generation Mentor Program~Bringing generations of Americans together to save our great country during the 2012 election. Lisa Bensonwill be presenting BUNDLING THE GRASSROOTS FUNDRAISING PLAN -a trademarked platform. We will be formatting Twitter, Facebook and the integration of the systems on smart phones, lap tops and IPADS. Raise $$$$ and mobilize like it is 2012 and not 1973.
Photo courtesy of Townhall.com
Also joining Lisa and I will be Attorney Rachael Alexander who writes for Intellectual Conservative and Townhall.com, along with Brian Symes. Rachel and Brian will be teaching social media activism tips.
It is going to be an amazing day. Don’t miss the opportunity to join us!!
Vote Early Started Yesterday! State Board of Ed Races’ Recommendations PLUS Links to Excellent Voter Guides Below
(check with your county clerk for details)
By Frank Mayo
Recently TBSE wrote about our research on voting records of the RINOs on the State Board of Education (SBOE) who voted with the Democrats up to 100% of the time. Readers are now clear that we need to take action to make sure we are voting for conservatives and not RINO imposters. Our list of solid conservative candidates is given below, and below the table are some great links for statewide and local race voter guides from organizations that we know and trust.
Due to redistricting some are still confused about the new districts. District boundaries have changed much so you cannot just assume that you are in the same district as before. For example SBOE representative Barbara Cargill’s new district boundaries now include the far west and the far east parts of Harris County as well as a group of counties north of Houston. (The new map has her district, previously not even including Harris county, with “earmuffs” on the sides of Harris county.) Things like that are definitely confusing! Similar situations exist near all major cities. So it is important to look up your district from your street address, districts by address here.
By the way, Mrs. Cargill is the current Chair of the SBOE and she has done an excellent job guiding the SBOE towards a consensus that results in action by the Board and not the gridlock that we have often seen in the US Congress. If only Congressional leaders would take lessons from Barbara Cargill! People in Harris County need to take careful notice to see which new district, 4, 6, or 8 now includes their address.
Special note to those of you in San Antonio: The most important people in the legislature are the lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of the House because they choose who is assigned to the committees and appoints their chairs. Unfortunately current Speaker Joe Straus’ last YCT rating was a paltry 67%–he is not a pro-life conservative, (his wife was on the Board of Planned Parenthood and he was even given an award by them for his “tireless efforts”), and he has been supported by pro-gambling interests. He even won the speaker’s race by joining with the left, not conservatives, and actively thwarted many conservative issues at the last session. Last, the redistricting he sent to the Governor rewarded his cronies and penalized conservative critics harshly. That is why it was hard for conservatives to get much done in the 82ndlegislature even with a large majority. If that happens again all conservative efforts in the legislature are in trouble. Fortunately, in District 121 conservatives have an able challenger in Matt Beebe, website, who would be a much more distinctly conservative choice that the unreliable Straus. Make no mistake about it. This primary election in district 121 is the chance that Tea Party and other conservatives have for stopping this speaker. If he wins the primary he will win the general election in November and will be too powerful to not get the speakership again. Please actively encourage your friends, family and church family to campaign for and vote for Matt Beebe!
True conservative candidates for State Board of Education
Liberty Institute: http://www.freevotersguide.com (Statewide Voter guide PLUS State Board of Education (SBOE) races. VG)
Additionally, note that many counties have local review groups, such as the ones listed below for Harris and Montgomery counties, that often include local judge and other local races. If your county has a similar conservative group, please let us know about it!
Conservative Coalition of Harris County: ”Candidate Interview” vetting, with panelists vote on endorsements, and candidate responses to questions. http://www.conservativecoalitionhc.org/ (Harris county down ballot voters guide with panelists vote on endorsements – Very good!)
Special note: There is a real “David and Goliath” battle for the US Congress district 8 seat. The incumbent Goliath is thought be many to have become too entrenched and too “big government”, though he remains conservative on some issues. The solid conservative “David” challenger is Larry Youngblood, running on a lower taxes, smaller government, socially conservative platform. Please seriously consider voting for new blood in Congress, Larry Youngblood, even if you do not personally know him well. http://www.larryyoungblood4congress.com/
PS: Importantly, also note that due to the abysmally low turnout typical of primary elections, your one vote in the primary is as strong as 50 or more votes in the general election! Please exercise it!
Copyright 2012 Voices Empower LLC.~ All Rights Reserved. Site by A3K Advertising, Inc.
I am honored and humbled to be a part of such and awesome event on June 1st in San Diego, California.
Now what Texas Mom would not jump on the chance to head to San Diego, California? Definitely not this one, I hope you can join us!! It is going to be a wonderful opportunity for all!!
Please attribute to Alice Linahan with Voices Empower
The Leaders in Fire, Water and Mold Remediation
Learn from:
