Illinois Tea Party Education Task Team Purpose & Goals
Our purpose is primarily to ensure the academic education of our children. For many reasons this is not currently, nor has it been for some time, the focus of education systems throughout Illinois, or Countrywide.
One goal is to expose how the United Nations, individual nations, NGO’s, state governments and unions are working together to indoctrinate our children into a One World society by teaching the ‘evils of capitalism,’ merits of ‘social justice,’ and training our children to project “proper” attitudes and core values that serve the collective best interest and worldwide ‘common good’ while teaching the need to abolish (by choice or mandate) individual Constitutionally protected individual rights.
Just one example is English as a Second Language which is a huge waste of time and monetary resources. Immersion has been proven to be the best path toward achieving learning. There are many more, and many parents seem to sense that their children are being taught more about other than American cultures and social interaction than reading, math, history and science but aren’t sure why. In fact, children today are more concerned with the environment and bullying than they are about learning the basics. They are being taught to be advocates instead of how to study, how to write, and of American exceptionalism. Too often students are ‘socially promoted’ resulting in an uneducated population which is unfair to our children and permits ‘lifetime monitoring’ – this is not education.
Interestingly, many teachers, principals and superintendents aren’t aware of the process in which they are involved. They simply follow Department of Education, and state education standards that derive from UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).
Another important goal concerns the extreme compensation and pension abuse within the education system. Promises made via union negotiation, and without the knowledge of taxpayers have put this state and others into deep debt, is unsustainable and hasn’t improved the education results for our children during the entire time since the inception of the federal Board of Education. Abolishment of this Agency is a priority which would save $100 plus billion dollars annually and would return curriculum and responsibility to locales.
We will focus on benefit protection greater than private sector bankruptcy protection; collective bargaining for pension and benefits; pensions greater than private sector equivalent; health care benefits greater than private sector equivalent; cost of living adjustments (COLA) greater than social security; retirement age lower than that of social security recipients; mandatory pay raises irrespective of performance or the economy, and tenure which too often provides that bad teachers cannot be replaced in the classroom.
We will research proven measures to improve teaching quality and present findings to the Illinois Department of Education with the adamant request that these be implemented.
Finally, essential to less profligate spending and improved education is encouraging intelligent, responsible dedicated citizens to run for, or be appointed to, school board positions. Boards are responsible for curriculum but generally approve the recommendations of teachers and administration. This cannot stand. Board members, too, approve all school district spending and need to better think through these decisions.
We are identifying specific problems, seeking to learn viable solutions and working toward appropriate opportunities for scholastic achievement for our children; they are our future.
Our team members now are: Cherie Hamilton, Krys Crouch, Jeff Tucek (who also heads the IL Tea Party Pension Abuse Team) and Gary Finley. We all reside in and around Chicago but would very much welcome the additional participation of Tea Party members throughout the state. For those wishing to join us we can plan statewide conference calls for team member along with e-mails, and perhaps planning in person meetings biannually. If you’ve an interest please contact: Judith McConnell at judithpettijohn@yahoo.com or 630.945.3537. We’ve much to accomplish and it’s critical that we do so.
Copyright (C) 2010 Illinois Tea Party Inc. ™ All rights reserved.
