The Results of Government Education…

All you need to do is look at the results of the Detroit Public School system to see the future of healthcare; a disaster. It is a sin, it is criminal, but it is typical of government programs. Good intention, pitiful reality. So why do we expect anything different?

Story after story can be found supporting the argument that government controlled services that are the people’s responsibility will end up in failure. That is why the founders designed the U.S. Constitution the way they did. It was a limitation on government to allow a free people to prosper in a free market. Government was only useful in a few key areas. The founders didn’t intend government to be in education, healthcare, or social services.

Sixty nine percent of 4th graders and seventy nine percent of 8th graders scored below basic levels of the math skills expected at that grade level. And the real sadness is that the basic level is so low that we are stealing the hope and dreams of every one of these children. It is outrageous and criminal. This is America and it seems our cities are becoming third world. And the common denominator; government dependence. Here is an excerpt from the article: “The state appointed emergency financial manager Robert Bobb said no school district in the 40 year history of the test has ever registered such low number. “

“Bobb made it a point to say the horrible test scores are not the fault of the students, management was to blame.”

“Management” is the government.

If we allow the government to take over our healthcare you can expect the same results; failure and misery. The government is a heartless bureaucracy that could care less about your health or well being. Their role will be to push papers, stamp denial on your request for service form, and complain they don’t make enough money for doing a task that is unnecessary.

We are Americans and we must re-emphasize the American spirit again. We must celebrate the individual and local churches and communities. We must work with our neighbors and build the greatness back into the American fabric one student and individuals at a time. Government has been given a long enough chance to prove themselves.

And like the Math tests in Detroit, the scores are all you need as evidence that the government control of education and healthcare needs to be stopped…

The Tenth Amendment continues to “get legs”…

The movement has been long seeded and is finally becoming the clear rallying point for concerned Americans. The brilliance of the constitution and in particular the Tenth Amendment is its clarity of purpose.

The Tenth Amendment clearly states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

The beauty of clarity! There are basically 17 enumerated powers given to the federal government, which are defined but relatively broad as to not completely hamstring the government. They were made broad by the Founders because they believed there were other areas of the constitution that would reign in any abuse of power like the Tenth Amendment.

The states were extremely reluctant to sign the constitution and although it took over 200 years to play out, we can now understand the basis for their reluctance to get involved with a centralized authority. They were right to be concerned about man’s propensity to control and dominate others. But the states considered the Tenth Amendment the “ace in the hole”. It was clear that if this centralized government became too big they could control it by insisting the government cease activity based on the amendment.

The states were the true power at our founding and through Chief Justice Marshall, Hamilton, Lincoln, FDR and others, we have allowed a government to completely ignore the constitutional limitations with arguments based on emotion and faulty logic. To be fair the people have allowed this to happen based on circumstances of the times but that is water under the bridge.

Just because we have allowed these intrusions of federal authority to happen does not mean they can’t be challenge and changed. The Tenth Amendment is still the Tenth Amendment, it has not changed Its meaning has not changed, and it has only become more apparent that it is the amendment that must be resurrected to stop this massive federal takeover of our freedoms.

Every day new articles and movements are cropping up about governors and state legislators adopting resolutions to confirm the Tenth Amendment. Go to the Tenth Amendment Center to see all of the activity.

It has been a long time coming but the time has arrived. The American people have finally seen the massive failure of centralization and want to take back control from this faceless behemoth of a government. States are not perfect either but they are easier to get involved with.

It is time to support candidates at the state level that support enforcement of the Tenth Amendment. Recognizing the amendment exists was the first step but now it is time to take real action. We must recognize that the power of the federal government is in its individual taxing authority and this must be challenged on the grounds that taking money from one state to give to private companies in another (car bailouts) is unconstitutional. Where in the constitution does the federal government derive that right?

That is money that is stolen from a state to give to private business in another. There are many angles to cut off the funding of the central government and they all derive from the Tenth Amendment. People are starting to understand our future is now at risk but there is an answer.

We must cut off the funding and bring back control where it belongs; to the states. The movement is getting legs; it needs your legs to keep marching on. Join the fight and join with others like the Tenth Amendment Center to get informed and involved. We are in exciting political times and every citizen that loves the greatness of this country must get armed with the knowledge of the Tenth Amendment. It is the most powerful “weapon” in our arsenal…

The Institute for Education in America

A new think tank with the mission to change the way we educate our children in America. I will be creating a non-profit organization that will look at our current system of public and private educational institutions with the goal of changing the way we update curriculum, the way we hire our teachers, the amount of government involvement in the process and its negative impact, the way education is funded, and much more.

The main goal will not be criticism, it will be change. We have changed the current system little since its inception even in light of the Internet revolution. We continue to use text books that contain marginal recordings of history. The amount of information and the way we aggregate it is completely different than it was when I was a kid. But why do we still teach the way we do? It certainly isn't because of success; just look at our children in the inner cities or rural communities in America.

We will always need the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic but how we teach most subjects have not kept up with the way our kids learn. We need to add "performance based learning"; involving kids through interactive projects focused on historic and significant subjects.

We also need to allow our educational "industry" to operate in a free market framework. We don't need federal bureaucrats determining what we teach. It is not their role, it is we the parent that must be accountable for our children's education.

The hiring of teachers must be based on experience, passion, and competence. Hiring teachers right out of college puts our kids at a disadvantage. I don't know about you but it has taken me 25 years in the workforce to understand what is important to know. We should be hiring teachers as a second career so that they can teach through experience, story telling, and a first hand knowledge of how that knowledge applies in the world.

Lastly; I am writing a new book to support this institute called "The Teenager's Guide to Navigating Life Successfully; What you really need to learn in High School But Won't". It is my way of sharing my experience with my two teens. I am going to educate them on the subjects they will truly need and use in the "real" world. I hope to finish it by my 50th birthday this November.

I hope you will help me change the world. If you have kids and care about educating them properly, care about the future survival of America as we know it, are a frustrated educator, or just want to get involved I hope you will join me. We will need a lot of volunteers. I am currently developing a new web site and will keep you informed of its status here at this Blog.

Let's change the world for our kids!! We can you know; one student at a time!

Yours in Changing Education,

Rich Hand