10/26/2005

@ ontheborderline.net: We’re not radical …We’re fanatical.

Welcoming New Richmond borderline blog readers with open arms, the ontheborderline.net Admin made the following statement: "I want to thank J Nelson again, though a few things need clearing up. His method of operation has been to attack the messenger, slander, discredit at any cost. His discrediting would have to include anyone who does not believe in his ultra-left ideologies. He may appear to come to the middle on some issues, but really never does. Members of this blog are characterized as extremists, neocons, and out of the mainstream. Here is the Blog Mission Statement:@ OTBL. Radical? hardly!"

Not so fast Mr. Borderline Admin. Let’s take a look at one of the core values you “expouse." (Does "expousing" have something to do with leaving a marriage?). Let’s just take a little journey into radical extremist fantasyland. Ok, boys and girls, point your browser to honestedu.org. Enter a town, in the search engine, perhaps Hudson, WI. Low and behold we find two familiar ontheboarderline expousers, and surprise, surprise one just happens to be the bordliner admin who claims above to not be a radical.


I’m sure that the majority of moms and dads sending their kids to the Hudson Public Schools wake up with this thought in mind. “ Oh no, my child is in the hands of dangerous Socialist propagandists filling our impressionionable child’s little head with indoctrination from Stalinist, Soviet style, collectivist brain washing manual. We have to end public education as we’ve known it for the last 150 years and replace it with a competitive free market educational system that gives the greatest opportunity to the children of the country club/ yachting set and prepares the average child for a Wal-Mart greeting career.

(Oh and by the way Socialist, statist, collectivist teacher spouses, we expect to be receiving a check in the mail from the State of WI and the Hudson School District to send our kids to the freemarket school of our choice.) I better sign the proclaimation stating: 'I proclaim publicly that I favor ending government involvement in education.'

Well my friend, that’s what our blogging buddies over at ontheborderline.nut believe. When 75-80% of Hudsonites recently surveyed expressed a positive attitude toward the Hudson public schools, the point of view expressed in this proclamation certainly appears RADICAL to me.

Here’s a little more “moderate” commentary from our friends on the other side of the borderline. ‘Legislators of the Harsdorf and Rhoades types will do nothing until and unless there is a real crisis. So, the only rational thing to do is to simply say NO. No more additional taxes, no more pay increases, no more buildings. We will not budge until and unless the state of Wisconsin, or local school districts, institute universal education tax credits, local levy tax credits, or an intelligent voucher system. And that is simply the first, but primary, step that must be taken and is non-negotiable. We must demand capitalism and market forces free to work in education - not in 20 years, but now.”

Republican State legislators too liberal? Uncompromising ultimatums demanding the creation of a radically different educational structure? Your tax dollars redistributed into THEIR pockets via tax credits and vouchers? The destruction of public education as we currently know in WI? In short, the borderliners battle cry is “We want our way and we want it NOW!”

Sounds "moderate" to me. And they wonder why people perceive them as Anti-Education? If you agree with the “moderate” ideology of the ontheborderline.net philiosphers, administrators and the candidates they will inevitably support in the next Hudson School Board election, perhaps you should consider signing the petition.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't wait till I start getting my vouchers. I can educate my child so much
cheaper at the local Sylvan Learning Center. I checked them out. It only costs
$40/hr. That's only $280/ day and
$50,400/for a 180 day year. Now that's big savings. When can I expect my $50k check?

Anonymous said...

Dear Anon:

This is an excellent question. Although I am not an actual Dr. -- like everybody at www.ontheborderline.net -- I was a former participant on their blog. I believe I have listened to enough Dr. John The Night Tripper albums to qualify me as a voo-doo math shaman who can answer your question. Here goes...

You should not be expecting a check for $50K. Currently, according to OTBL math experts, the state is paying $11K per student. If you would choose to educate you student at a local private elementary school, tuition would cost you $3.5K annually. By having the government pay your entire $3.5K to educate you son or daughter privately -- even though you may have only paid $1,500 in local taxes -- You would be saving the government $11K - $3.5K = $7.5K. Remember, these are only wildass guestimates based entirely on the number of Blogger Lagers I've consumed and the time of day. Some rounding my be needed.

Stumbling on here, I want to say you shouldn't expect the $50K check. You should expect $50K - $11K = $39K. Expecting any more from your government to finance your child's education would be larceny. That of course is forbidden in the Constitution. Unless, of course, your are a high level executive who generously contributes to George Bush's campaign fund or Tom DeLay's defense fund or Karl Rove's new wardrobe -- mostly pinstripes.

I my answer to your question was to straight forward and easy to understand, I suggest you visit the other blog site. They are much more expert at spinning things to an utterly uncomprehensible degree of confusion.

Anonymous said...

Wow Pee Wee, this sounds great. No wonder
the boarderliners want to privitize education and take it back 100 years when most folks quit after the 8th grade to go work at the factory. Today, I could make $39K / child so if I had 10 kids I'd get
$390K/ year to educate them and I could open my own private school and hire 1 teacher for for $25K/year. That would leave me with $365K profit that I'd wouldn't pay taxes on. I just love this free market education stuff even if it is all voodoo from that Dr. John friend of yours. Did he get a degree in VOODology? To bad he's not with us anymore.
I may be getting a little confused since I had that 4th bottle of
Blogger Lager @ 11:00 this morning. Let me sleep it off and try to figure out how much money the government's gonna pay me tommorrow. In the mean time I'm gonna be talking to my wife about making some new kids (and some more profit).

Anonymous said...

Certainly you people are joking here. Just because education is free doesn't mean it's cheap. It's part of the cost (or is it price) of freedom. I'm not sure of the difference.

I get confused when I look at this web site. Things got in different directions. At that other borderline site, everything is a straight line and nobody bounces around. It's black and white, they way things really are.