Sunday, December 05, 2021



Parents Sue After School Changed Their 12-Year-Old'S Gender Without Their Permission

The audacity of the liberal ideology is often astounding. Most heard the disparaging words of a candidate for Virginia Governor. Terry McAuliffe said that parents needed to step aside when it came to decisions and choices about their children’s education.

McAuliffe’s insane notion inspired voters to overwhelming rebuke this insane insinuation. Well, it appears another school administration took things a step farther. In the Kettle Moraine School District in Wales, Wisconsin, school officials changed a child’s gender.

There was no consultation with the 12-year-old’s parents. Evidently, the young girl was having confusing thoughts about her gender. That isn’t surprising, since the woke mob has ignited transgender into some sort of status symbol.

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Young children can be confused about a multitude of things. It’s a time in their lives when they are growing rapidly, maturing, and everything around them is changing. For certain, it’s even scarier when crazy societal pressures are heaped on top of peer pressure.

Thankfully, the parents of this young girl are standing up against the insolence of these school officials. One foundation of their lawsuit insists that the school was determined to change the sex of this girl without even counseling or otherwise consulting her parents.

The lawsuit alleges the therapist actually tried to persuade the girl to identify as a boy. This girl explained how a therapist at the center said once she confirmed she was a boy, everything would be easier. The girl was told it’s easier to make such choices when you’re young.

Like many students being coerced into changing their gender identity, the girl was cautioned not to tell her parents. This is the most egregious aspect of these disturbing stories. The senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, Kate Anderson, put it succinctly.

Anderson assailed these school policies as disdainful. “These policies are so dangerous because they’re allowing schools to encourage students to begin transitioning into a gender identity that isn’t in accord with their biological sex, and then not inform their parents,” she said.

The prevalence of these alarming trends, situations where schools overstep parental boundaries, is shocking. It is being spurred by the wave of woke indoctrination to steal the minds of our children. Thankfully, parents are standing up to these radical ideas.

As much as political ideology will play a role in the future of our nation, it will be the parents who take back our country. Tyrants like Joe Biden, and the rest of his leftist liberals, can push legislation and try to impose Draconian mandates. However, when they enrage America’s mom’s and dad’s, they will be in for a fight they won’t win.

*********************************************

University of Florida: From Football School to Academic Powerhouse

In the first decade of in this century, three of the nation’s colllege football powerhouses came from Florida: the University of Florida, Florida State University (FSU), and the private University of Miami. By contrast, the 2021 football superstars are far less Floridan—these three schools have all lost at least five games and are not even near being ranked in the top 30 schools. In the year 2000, however, all three schools were in the nation’s top 10 in the final AP rankings.

Revenge of the nerds? Florida has developed an academic reputation for having a couple of truly top-flight state universities, the University of Florida and Florida State (FSU). The latest U.S. News rankings has Florida (UF) tied for fifth among public universities, just below longtime leaders Cal Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, and Virginia, and tied with the University of North Carolina. And FSU has risen impressively too. Looking at all (not just public) universities, it rose a dramatic 41 ranks from 96 to 55 in just six years. and is the top 20 among public schools. Similarly, in the methodologically rather different Forbes rankings, UF also ranks sixth among public universities and breaks into the top 25 if private institutions are included, and FSU has also moved up impressively (although less in the Wall Street Journal rankings with a different methodology).

As population and state wealth grow rapidly, states see their flagship schools grow in reputation, but Florida is now far outdistancing its major Sun Belt rival, even larger and richer Texas, which is getting huge in-migration of high tech companies. The University of Texas at Austin tied for 10th in the US News public national university rankings, the only Lone Star State public school in the top 25, and was only the 15th highest ranking public school according to Forbes. And unlike Florida, Texas has a huge oil-based endowment.

Long-time UF president Bernie Machen, now retired, tells how his governing board directed him a decade or so ago to rise from 19th in the US News national university rankings to the top 10. He accepted that as a challenge, and acknowledges that then Governor Rick Scott was a big supporter by advocating giving extra money to schools achieving academic excellence (and higher rankings). Under Machen’s 2015 successor, W. Kent Fuchs, the top 10 goal was not only reached but meaningfully exceeded. Similarly, Scott’s gubernatorial successor, Ron DeSantis, seems, rhetorically at least, to support the performance-based funding model that helps finance the Florida Gators and FSU Seminoles success in the classrooms and laboratories but not on the playing field.

Universities face trade-offs, and have to manage competing and often contradictory goals. The aspiration of providing a college education to all high school graduates can conflict with the goal of having renowned public universities. In the two decades between 1998 and 2018, both the UF and FSU added about 10,000 students, showing steady but very conservative growth—less than the overall population increase. Meanwhile, however, Central Florida University (CFU) added over 38,000 (!!) students and Florida International University (FIU) expanded by over 27,000. UF and FSU became much more selective in the students they admitted, while CFU and FIU promoted high levels of access, necessarily adopting lower academic standards. Some schools promoted accessibility and enrollment growth, while other hyped higher standards and improved reputation. The Floridian high school graduate has all sorts of choices (including several schools not mentioned above).

Reputational improvement at UF and FSU has brought gains to students as well. The salaries of graduates of UF and FSU are typically 15% or more higher, for example, than at CFU or FIU. Employers wanting the best and brightest of Florida’s public university students will pay a premium to get UF or FSU graduates.

Looking nationally, the birth dearth and other factors suggest national enrollment growth in the coming decade may be somewhere between non-existent and modest. Not every school can succeed in becoming “the best.” The Florida experience of recent decades may not be replicated nationally when many states are starting to actually lose population. But the quality vs. quantity trade-off still exists and will be a factor in higher education in the coming decade and beyond

**********************************************

Huge changes to school start and finish times could come to Australia

Radical changes could be made to the average school day in New South Wales as part of an effort from the state government to support working parents and reduce traffic congestion.

The overhaul would mean principals can offer options to parents other than the standard 9am-3pm school day.

During a speech at the annual Bradfield Oration, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet suggested school times should be changed to better suit the lives of working families.

'Despite the progress we have made, so many public services are still designed around government, not around the people we are here to serve,' he said on Thursday.

'Education should be designed around our children, not simply around the schools themselves.'

He used the speech to declare his plans to bring NSW into the '21st Century' by leading a modern government that 'doesn't accept the status quo'.

At one point the Premier directly challenged Education Minister Sarah Mitchell, asking if the existing school day was fit for working parents. 'Why does the school day run from 9am to 3pm — and does it still suit the lives of busy working families?' asked Mr Perrottet.

His speech has reignited debate over whether the traditional 9am-3pm school day should be overhauled to provide flexibility for families.

In June, the government staggered the start and finish times of public schools as part of a push to modernise the traditional school day and reduce traffic congestion.

The bold plan allowed schools to participate in trials where principals could offer parents options that differed from the standard 9am to 3pm school day.

Alternatives include a 7am to 1pm day, or extended after-school care.

NSW Teachers Federation President Angelo Gavrielatos previously claimed most schools across the state already offered varied school hours.

'The majority of schools do not operate between nine and three [o'clock], there's all sorts of variations,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

'There are schools with nine-day fortnights, or four-day weeks. But these matters are not straightforward and require significant consultation to achieve a consensus across a broad parent body and staff body, all of whom are impacted.'

Merrylands East Public in the city's west already operates an 8am to 1.15pm school day.

The scheme could also see an ease of pressure on Sydney's heavily-congested roads by staggering when students are picked up and dropped off from school.

The cost of Sydney's traffic congestion to the state economy is estimated to reach $13.1billion by 2031, according to the NSW Productivity Commission.

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

*******************************

No comments: