A Chat with Friend of Obama — and Unrepentant Terrorist — Bill Ayers (Part 2 of 2)

Continued from part one…

In New Jersey, this holds especially true, because of what are termed “Abbott districts.” These districts have been in existence since 1985, and are named after the first ruling of the Abbott v. Burke court case. As a result of some exceedingly harmful judicial rulings, in New Jersey, taxpayers are forced to fund not only their local government schools, but also 31 inner-city urban school districts. (This is one key reason that New Jersey suffers under the highest – or depending on how one measures, second-highest – taxes of all 50 states: taxpayers are forced to fund over 30 school districts, not merely their own local school district.)

Also as a result, on average, Abbott districts spend more money per pupil than even those New Jersey-based school districts classified by the state as being affluent. For example, in 2005, New Jersey noted that “Last year [2004], the average spending per pupil in the Abbott districts ($13,258) was higher than the average spending in the most affluent (I and J) districts.”

As of May 2011, New Jersey’s state government notes that “… total spending per pupil in the 31… Abbott districts averages $20,859 compared to average total spending per pupil of $17,051 in the other 500-plus school districts in New Jersey.” More information can be obtained through the following link:

Link: Taxpayers’ Guide to Education Spending May 2011

And unsurprisingly, even though meaningfully more money per pupil is spent on average in the Abbott districts than in the non-Abbott districts, the Abbott districts’ schools are generally terrible. We see this in numerous ways. One way is in the rankings of all government high schools in the state, published every two years, by left-leaning New Jersey Monthly magazine. Unsuprisingly, Abbott-district high schools dominate the bottom of the list of 322 government high schools:

* rank #322 of 322: Camden (Abbott district)
* rank #321 of 322: Camden Woodrow Wilson (Abbott district)
* rank #320 of 322: Jersey City James J. Ferris (Abbott district)
* rank #319 of 322: Newark West Side (Abbott district)
* rank #318 of 322: Perth Amboy (Abbott district)
* rank #317 of 322: Trenton Central (Abbott district)
* rank #316 of 322: Lakewood
* rank #315 of 322: Orange (Abbott district)
* rank #314 of 322: Newark Malcolm X Shabazz (Abbott district)
* rank #313 of 322: Passaic (Abbott district)
* rank #312 of 322: Jersey City Henry Snyder (Abbott district)
* rank #311 of 322: Newark Barringer (Abbott district)
* rank #310 of 322: Newark Weequahic (Abbott district)
* rank #309 of 322: Winslow Township
* rank #308 of 322: Jersey City William L. Dickenson (Abbott district)
* rank #307 of 322: Plainfield (Abbott district)
* rank #306 of 322: Millville (Abbott district)
* rank #305 of 322: Jersey City Lincoln (Abbott district)
* rank #304 of 322: Newark Vocational (Abbott district)
* rank #303 of 322: Bridgeton (Abbott district)

In other words, according to the methodology employed by left-leaning New Jersey Monthly magazine, 17 of the 20 worst government high schools in the state of New Jersey are in Abbott districts.

So the schools and districts with the most government involvement, and with meaningfully more government-provided funds than the average school/district, provide the worst performance. Ayers was told this multiple times by folks in the audience; for example: “In the state of New Jersey, the highest amount of money spent per student are the inner-city schools, and they have the lowest achievement rates.” Ayers – who isn’t a New Jersey resident, but who is a retired “Distringuished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar” from a government-run university in the midwest — didn’t seem aware of this fact prior to being told it (and probably still refuses to acknowledge this fact even after being told it).

But of course, Ayers didn’t call for less (or – dare I say it? – no) government involvement in education, he called for much more government involvement. And he did this in many ways:

* The oh-so-predictable appeal to the so-called “public good”: “And I think there are certain things – maybe some of the tea party folks in the room disagree – I but think certain things are a public good, and ought to be paid for by public money.” 

* The oh-so-predictable (and false) claim that education is a moral right: “But since education is not a product – but rather it’s a process, and a human right – then it seems to me that the whole notion of education as a product is backwards and destructive.”

* The oh-so-predictable call to pay for all this by confiscating wealth from those who have peacefully earned it: “You may style yourself against Big Government. So I hope you agree with me. We ought to cut the Pentagon down to zero. That’s a trillion dollars right there… Who do you want to tax, and what do you want to spend on? I want to tax the rich, and spend on the public good.”

* The oh-so-predictable call for vastly more government spending: “We ought to invest in more teaching. We ought to invest in smaller classes – exactly as the Obama kids have, that should be the standard for what all kids should have – 15 kids in a classroom, and so on.”

In other words, Ayers’ viewpoint is that the enormous problems caused by our government-run educational system would be solved through – you guessed it – enormously more government involvement.

Ayers takes this view even though he admits that he doesn’t trust the federal government, and doesn’t trust state governments: “I don’t trust the states, and I don’t trust the federal government. So, we can go over the fine points as how to spend it, but what I do believe, is that as a community, as a community in this wildly diverse, weird democracy [sic] of ours, we have a responsibility to educate all of our children up to the standard of what the privileged and, you know, the most powerful have.”

So the government has screwed up education for tens of millions of Americans. And government is untrustworthy. What’s the solution, according to Ayers? More government!

Such unbridled idiocy should never be taken seriously.

But Ayers was far from the only idiot in the room – his talk took place at a government university campus, after all.

Ayers was asked by some of the tea partiers present about his self-admitted communist beliefs. Ayers was at first reluctant to address this issue, but was prodded “You didn’t answer the communist question.” Ayers then responded, “Oh, the communist question. Yep. You know, I mean, these labels are all suspect. But I’ll say this. On the First Amendment I’m a fundamentalist, on the [unintelligible] I’m an abolitionist, on the economy I’m a socialist, and on the government I’m an anarchist.”

It’s bad enough that Ayers describes himself as a socialist and an anarchist. But what was worse – I was thoroughly appalled – was that dozens of the teachers in training (and some of their professors who also attended) cheered these remarks. And these are the people who want to have my children in their classrooms?!? You have to be kidding me!!!

And this wasn’t the only time these teachers in training revealed their classlessness (and worse). In the wake of the education reforms being enacted into law in Wisconsin, numerous government-sector union members have whined that “teachers don’t get any respect” and the like (apparently not understanding that nobody is criticizing teachers for teaching, but rather, plenty of pro-liberty folks are rightfully standing up against legalized extortion engaged in by government-sector unions and their cronies in government). And during the evening of March 24th, Ayers and several of the teachers in training did indeed complain about alleged “teacher bashing.”

But what happened when one of the tea partiers present stated “I’m a product of the Catholic schools.”? Ayers cracked, “My sympathies.” This was followed by gales of laughter from the teachers in training and their professors. I guess they are actually for teacher bashing, when the teachers in question aren’t government-sector union members.

To sum, Ayers may be a well-known leftist, but he is at core just as predictable as any garden-variety leftist is. No doubt some of the teachers in training will follow that same path, and become just as predictable. Predictable or not, though, these are the folks who will attempt to poison my children’s minds – and your children’s minds. We must not let that happen.

Mark Kalinowski
North New Jersey Tea Party Group
Liberty, Free Markets, and Individual Rights

By the way, I encourage ALL liberty-minded folks — no matter where you live — to to join the official Facebook page for the North Jersey Tea Party Group.