As a contributor for Caffeinated Thoughts for some time, many of you know my passion for Christ-centered education and free-market solutions to our educational and cultural problems. As the lobbyist for the Iowa Association of Christian Schools and ardent advocate for Iowa’s children and Iowa’s private schools, I’ve become increasingly passionate about what is going on in our state’s and our nation’s public schools as well.
The trends in education are troubling:
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We spend more money every year to educate a shrinking demographic with chronically diminishing results.
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The Obama administration placed Kevin Jennings in the position of "Safe Schools Czar." Jennings has long supported the use of "anti-bullying" programs to introduce sexual liberationist sex education to children as young as five.
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The Obama Administration and family planning activists are championing the cause of school-based health clinics (included as part of recent health care reform efforts) that will lead Planned Parenthood and other groups that consistently disrespect the sovereignty of the family directly into our schools with confidential access to our children.
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We have state governments acquiescing authority to the Federal government in every area including education and creating statewide and now nationwide standards and curricula that tear control and influence away from parents, school boards, and local governments.
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We pass legislation at the state and federal levels that increasingly strips away religious liberty from private charities, churches, and religious schools.
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We continue to perpetuate an "escape-if-you’re-rich" model of education that doesn’t allow the average American family the ability to choose the school that best meets their child’s needs because bureaucrats at every level of government conspire to pay only for that child’s assigned government school based on his/her zip code.
How do you change the direction of our nation and return to the American Principles that produced the most free and productive country in human history? How do we educate our neighbors about the direction we are going and the steps they can take to move us in the right direction?
The American Principles Project has been beginning this process nationwide and recently opened up a "Preserve Innocence Iowa" office in Des Moines. As state director of Preserve Innocence Iowa, I’ll be working with our national, state, and local partner organizations to share information, lobby the legislature and engage Congress cooperatively, and develop a grassroots network of Iowans that are concerned about our children’s future. We’ll be engaged at the Legislature each year to protect religious liberty and safeguard our children and we’ll be traveling the state educating Iowans about the latest trends and threats along with opportunities to engage our culture in relevant and effective ways.
If you are interested in staying off the sidelines, engaging our culture, and working with us to take back our American Principles, please join us as we begin to organize in Iowa. We could use your help. Visit us at www.preserveinnocence.org/Iowa and contact us. We’d love to keep you in the loop and hear your thoughts.
