This is one of many Letters to the Editor that were never published in Bradley County.
Tuesday, April 19th at the 530 pm Bradley County School Board
meeting a concerned, informed citizen with three children in the County
school system. I was denied my rights to address the board about a vote they
were about to cast that may affect my children and many children in the
community. The International Bacculaureate Program is about to be initiated
in our schools with little to no debate with the public, whom will be relied
upon to foot the bill. This program is set to be implemented in one of our
local schools initially, Walker Valley High School! No discussion as to the
facts of this program or where it originated nor the negative impact it may
have upon the minds and psyche of our children. This is another attempt to
indoctrinate my children and yours with moral, spiritual and social values
that I may,for the benefit of my children,not see it as a good fit and
could potentially unravel their existing spiritual structure, further
influencing their thought processes in an already influential social
environment of High School.
If I had been given the opportunity to voice my concerns in a public meeting
I would have told them this before a vote was cast. 1) Costs- In a school in
Wooster Ohio, (graduating an average of 5.5 students per annum) is costing
them annually around 1 million dollars for their IBP (International
Bacculaureate Program) just to maintain the program. IB training costs are a
tremendous burden on any school budget, 1) certification of teachers costs
about $ 1500.00 dollars per teacher to be trained 2) Application fees in the
neighborhood of $ 43,000 dollars, up $ 6,000 dollars from a year ago.3)
Teacher training varies from $20,000.00 to $ 60,000 annually.4) Salaries and
benefits for the “extra instructors”, 5) Reimbursements for IB evaluation
visits at $3,500 per visit, 6) Stipends for the CAS and EE Directors at $ 5
to 7,000.00 dollars, 7) Books and materials for the required courses, 8) IB
coordinators are reccomended at 25 per district.9) Postage to ship material
and recieve materials from all over the world at $ 5 to $ 7,000.00 annually,
10) Salaries for substitute teachers for missing teachers in training, 11)
Test fees per test taken, the national rate and it increases frequently at
96.00 per test as of September 2010, 12) IBDP student registration fees at
$141.00 dollars, 13) Annual authorization through world school, fees of
$10,000 dollars, 14) IB online courses through Pajoma.15) Rumored a 10 year
contract, although specifics of a contract are not widely known. The list
can go on and on!
In review of current data on the IB website and other sources I have seen
the percentage of schools that are publicly funded that have accepted the IB
program is around 93 percent. This is quite a difference in the data given
out at the board meeting by Dan Glasscock. This reflects a lot of tax dollars and the
funneling of alot of money out of our community and into a “Global
Community”. Many of the trends I have seen when IB is implemented in
schools, many students simply move away or are divided by an
over reaching school board attempting to manipulate the environments of our
children. Student buy in after implementation has been low based on the
demands on top of their current curriculum and the reality that their school
workload has just been increased tremendously, thus the 5.5 students
graduating from an IB program at substantial cost.
This program has a tendency, at least in my opinion and my review of the
system to take over a schools current curriculm and further burden it with
the heavy responsibility of accepting this program, because of demands and
time placed on teachers to fulfill the stringent, required oversight that
they are bound to contractually. Despite the stringent courses nationally
the graduation rate is around 60 percent. This is not a reflection of a good
program, this tells me the kids are becoming disinterested and are probably
dropping out or failing at a high rate. As one spokesperson of IB has said
about their program mission statement ” It must be made very clear that the
program does have a major role to play in the school and that intrinsic
values espoused by the IB program are relevant to the whole school”.
“Candidate schools must recognize from the start that this goes way beyond
holding the traditional “annual United Nations celebrations”.
Among the concerns besides cost and curriculum “take over issues”, you also
have the realization that this is a United Nations Program with subsequent
funding and oversight provided by UNESCO. I know this is tough to
swallow and the UNITED NATIONS has no business in our schools. The United
Nations is an international agency that advocates for social justice (what
is yours is theirs), does not follow or recognize or feel that they are in
anyway bound by the Constitution of our country, they practice
collectiveism, pluralism and believe the way of Karl Marx and Socialist
around the world. They also believe in collective human rights and do not
believe in presonal rights or inalienable rights as given us in our
Constitution. As a way of business, IB representatives participate regularly
in UNESCO meetings and allows UNESCO to be the “foot soldiers” for this
takeover of our school system. IB schools are positioning themselves to be
“social engineers” and our own Bradley County School Board is allowing our
children to be “experimental rats” in a Socialist, Facist, Marxist program
with the use of International, Federal, State and Local tax dollars to
indoctrinate our children with “Global views” with Socialist fibers running
all through this program.
To quote Peter Vardy speaking on “Values Education” at the IBO International
Conference in Hanoi, “The IBO needs to stand for a broader approach, in
particular it needs to engage with 1) religious beliefs, 2) ethics and
values, 3) issues of truth, helping people to become fully human” He went on
to say “we need to be helping our young people to be compassionate , caring,
ethical individulals. “This means we will be helping them to make a
distinction between what is right or wrong, just or unjust, true or false,
good or evil.” Dr Ian Hill wrote in a 1996 report to UNESCO of the
international Commission on Education said, “understanding and tolerance of
cultural differences and pluralism is obligating us to an environment of
protection and sustainable development. Dont know about you but I think
instilling values in my children is my job!
We are in trouble Bradley County! Our values, morals and spiritual beliefs
as we know them are in jeopardy! We have invited the “devil” into our
community and we are now going to pay the price for that joint venture. If
you have spiritual concerns, you better, if you feel our children will be
indoctrinated, they will, and with no american values instilled in their
education, free of personal liberty and inalienable rights. We are at a
crossroads! I ask where is the outcry? Where are the Patriots of years gone
by who have witnessed communism first hand and if we were in a different
time and place would be marching on the school board grounds denouncing this
Socialist United Nations invasion on our children and in our school system.
I am dumfounded at the lack of rage, perhaps I am overestimating the
American Spirit, but I love my country and I can no longer just sit back and
watch as she is brought to her knees by a leftist regime that is well intent
on destroying this country from the inside out. People of Bradley County,
this is no longer something you are reading in the papers happening in
another country or nation, this is happening in your back yard with your
children as the target. Will you make a choice to defend your sovereignty or
do we continue being sheep as if to slaughter.
My rights to speak out last night were taken away but your right remains intact.
Lets contact our schoolboard and ask them to not pursue a contract with this
socialist society. We can make a difference, but if you do not speak up, they
will win the battleand our children suffer. Ask the board why they would not
allow a concerned citizen to debate this issue that will take millions out of his
pocket and threaten his way of life. Ask them why they are allowing the United Nations
to come into our schools with this agenda. Stand up Bradley County! Lets be
true patriotic Americans and fight this plan for our schools. Ask them to
withdrawl support for this IB program and its many negative aspects that are
supported with over 60 percent of our Counties budget. Citizen input should
never be squelched by a few who think they know best, lets remind them that
they work for us and as elected officials they should listen to us or be
replaced at the next election.
My account of this is documented in the YOU TUBE video titled Agenda, Donny Harwood
it will pull right up!
Bradley County News Network 