Articles
Joel Turtel's current articles about education and public schools
Public School Menace: I Am Not My Brother's Keeper -- And Neither Are You
Public School Menace: Democrat Jellyfish, Republican Lemmings
Public School Menace: Wow! — 54 Unique Benefits of Homeschooling
Public School Menace: Parents — Do You Want Dumb, Non-Reading Children? Keep Them In Public School
Public School Menace: test title
Public School Menace: Discrimination: The Politically Incorrect Guide
Choose the car you like, the woman you marry, or the supermarket you shop at, and you “discriminate.†We all discriminate every minute of our lives—to discriminate means to choose between endless options that suit your needs, values, or preferences. Personal discrimination means having the right to choose what you do with your body, values, and the money or property you own .
Public School Menace: The Death Lists --- Why Baby Boomers Should Be Terrified of the Democrats
Franklin Bremmer stared at the death lists, and saw his mother’s name. His face turned white. He moaned, “Oh, God, mother! Oh, No. Oh, God, no!â€
Public School Menace: Land of the Free? –- Not Any More
In our daily lives, most of us believe we are free Americans. The average person can still go about his business, travel where he wants to go, and freely choose his goals, friends, and career. We still have freedom of speech, the press, trial by jury, and many other liberties our Founding Fathers wrote into the Bill of Rights and Constitution. We are still freer than any other people on Earth.
Public School Menace: Public Schools — Our Education Garbage Dump
Suppose a contractor was building a house for you, and for some strange reason he convinced you to build your house on a garbage dump. The house was supposed to cost $150,000 to build, but the contractor is having problems. Every time he tries to lay his foundations, the foundations sink in the earth that has been rotted out by garbage.
Public School Menace: Public Schools — Pagan Religion Indoctrination Centers
Many public schools have become pagan religion indoctrination centers. These schools now teach children anti-Judeo-Christian beliefs and pagan religions, and try to mold children's minds through the latest techniques in behavioral psychology. Here are two examples of how schools now use spirit religions as brainwashing techniques in classrooms across America , from Berit Kjos’s book, “Brave New Schoolsâ€:
Public School Menace: “We†--- The Democrats’ Most Vicious Word
Last night I listened to the Democratic candidates’ Presidential debate and I got almost physically sick. They kept repeating their most vicious word, “weâ€.
Public School Menace
Democrat Jellyfish and Republican Lemmings
Public School Menace: The Rotten Apples -- Why Public Schools Can Not Be Trusted
Here’s another argument that public-school bureaucrats use to “justify†their monopoly control over our children’s minds and lives. They claim that we cannot trust the free-market to educate our children because too many free-market (private) schools are greedy for profits, cheat parents and students, take their money, make wild promises, or go out of business.
Public School Menace: The Eco-Radicals’ Real Motives
The driving force behind the eco-radicals’ fierce efforts to strangle the free market with environmental regulations is their virulent hatred for a free, prosperous economy. Yet behind this hatred is an even deeper one. To understand why they try to wreck our economy, you have to grasp the shocking fact that many eco-radicals hate the human race and Western civilization. They hate the fact that you, your family, your friends, and millions of other human beings live and prosper on this planet.
Public School Menace: “I Don’t Care What the Judge Said!†--- How Jury Nullification Can End the Sick War on Drugs
“The fact are clear as day, aren’t they?†Dillard ranted. “You even admitted that to us. The guy was found with marijuana in his car. That’s against the law. And the guy admitted the marijuana was his. What more do you need?†said Raymond Dillard, the jury foreman. Raymond Dillard was tall, beefy, in his 30’s, and he was getting mad, so mad he wanted to beat John Straun’s head in.
Public School Menace: Pistol-packing Florida Girls
“Mayor, we’ve got a big problem on our hands,†said Police Chief Bud Anderson to Mike Branden, mayor of Palm City , Florida , a small city of 200,000 old-fashioned Americans, sitting in the middle of the Florida panhandle. It was a beautiful spring day in April.
Public School Menace: Captain Downey’s Dilemma --- Why Rapists and Robbers Love Australia’s Gun-Control Laws
SCENE: Melbourne , Australia :
Public School Menace: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is --- A Challenge To Teachers, Teacher Unions, and Mayors Across the Country
By Joel Turtel, March,2007
Public School Menace: The Looting Liberals Are Back --- Look Over Your Shoulder
By Joel Turtel , author of "Public Schools, Public Menace" and "The Welfare State: No Mercy For The Middle Class."
Public School Menace: Education “Equityâ€â€” A Disaster For Our Children
One of their favorite arguments: “Why, we can’t trust the free market to educate our children — the very idea! The free market excels at many things, they say, but it does not guarantee education “equity†for our kids.
Public School Menace: Public School Bonanza ---Ten Great Reasons To Keep Your Child In Public School
Here are ten reasons why parents should keep their kids in public schools (if you don't care about your child's future) :
Public School Menace: “Get Out of My Building!â€â€” A Child’s Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste
About two years ago, I became a volunteer reading instructor in a local public school. I wanted to teach kids to read for a few reasons. First, I think reading is a magic door that opens children’s eyes to the world. Second, I was completing my second book, “Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children.†I thought I needed some hands-on experience in the trenches.
Public School Menace: How the “Right†To an Education Destroys Our Children’s Education
One of the most common arguments that school authorities use to justify public schools is that all children have a “right†to an education. Public-school apologists claim that all children have a right to an education, and that only the existence of a massive, compulsory, government-controlled public-school system can “guarantee†that right.
Public School Menace: Hitler's Thank You Dinner
"Comrades, fellow-Germans, fellow members of our glorious SS, we are here today to honor, yes, I say honor these former representatives of the Weimar Republic, the government who our great leader, Adolf Hitler, just defeated in the 1933 elections. Seated besides us on this dais are the former party leaders of the now-defunct Reichstadt German assembly of the Weimar Republic," said Herman Grundig, head of Hitler's newly formed Internal Security office for the Third Reich.
Parents --- We Can Help You Find A Quality, Low-Cost Private School For Your Child
Do you have children who do poorly in school, or are bored or frustrated with their classes or teachers? In contrast to what most public-school officials will tell you, in most cases the problem lies with the schools, not with your children. It turns out that millions of children, including yours, have good reasons to hate public school, reasons that you as a parent should not ignore.
Public School Menace: Why Do We Need You?
"You must pay Social Security," said the government man. "Why?" I replied. "I can walk to the bank and save my own money or get an annuity with an insurance company. I don't need you to steal money from my pay check every week, then hope I live to 67 to get some of my hard-earned money back."
Public School Menace: Have Public Schools Become A Criminal Enterprise?
There is no doubt that American educators are engaged in a criminal conspiracy to dumb-down the American people. Charlotte Iserbyt, in her definitive book, The "Deliberate Dumbing Down of America," has documented the process so thoroughly that there can be no doubt about the intentions of our educators and the fact that the conspiracy is being financed by the richest liberal foundations and the federal government. John Taylor Gatto, in his book, "The Underground History of American Education," describes how the conspiracy operates in the schools. He spent 30 years teaching in public schools and knows intimately how the system works.
Public School Menace: NOT HOMESCHOOLING? WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE?
My favorite excuse is “but the schools here are so wonderful!†The parent will go on and on about how little Johnny or JoEllen is learning the clarinet or Chinese or times tables in their local public kindergarten, something that Johnny or JoEllen’s mommy and daddy claim not to be smart enough to teach. If you think that I’m being demeaning to the mommy or daddy, I am merely repeating what he or she has told me.
Public School Menace: Google and Yahoo Is A Lot Better Than Public Schools
I love Google and Yahoo. With Google and Yahoo I can search the Internet on any subject that interests me, at any time day or night, in the comfort of my home. I was thinking how much fun it is to learn new things with Google or Yahoo, compared to the boredom or learning torture that public schools put millions of kids through every day.
Public School Menace: Brainwashed Public-School Graduates --- How The Democrat's Love Them
One reason public schools get away with wrecking our children’s education, year after year, is because they are run by liberal politicians and school officials who passionately believe that government should control your children’s mind, values, and future. As C. S. Lewis wrote, "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
Public School Menace: Homeschooling — Can I Do It?
Many parents would like to homeschool their children but are afraid they don’t have the training or ability to be their children’s teacher. This is certainly understandable, because most parents never had any formal training to be a teacher. However, most parents don’t have to worry about this issue.
Public School Menace: Why Public Schools Hate Homeschooling Parents
Home-schooling is a great success. That’s why some public-school authorities hate home-schooling parents.
Public School Menace: Why Don't Bad Public Schools Go Out of Business?
If a store sells inferior products or a business gives bad service, most customers will not come back and that store or business will eventually go bankrupt. If public schools sell bad education, year after year, why don’t they go bankrupt? Why don't they go out of business?
Public School Menace: Public-School Excuse #1 -- Give Us More Money!
If more money meant better education for our kids, our public schools should have vastly improved over the last 75 years. Yet the reverse is true. In dollars adjusted for inflation, public schools spent about $876 per year for elementary and secondary school students in 1930, when student literacy rates were close to 90 percent. In contrast, in 2003 public schools spent about $7500 per student, while literacy rates fell to the 50-70 percent level in many public schools.
Public School Menace: Public School Menace
Vouchers --- Parents, Don't Depend On Them
Vouchers, which give tax money to parents to pay for tuition in private schools, sound good in theory. The problem is that voucher programs are few and very far between. The Supreme Court declared vouchers constitutional in 2002, but currently only thirteen cities or states have created voucher or education tax credit programs.
The Charter School Wars --- Why Public Schools Hate Charter Schools
How public school authorities try to strangle the charter school movement
Pagan Religions Taught In Public Schools
In classrooms throughout the country, Judeo-Christian beliefs are often cast aside or ridiculed. Multiculturalism studies, environmental propaganda, and Save-the-Earth classes now indoctrinate children with New-Age religious beliefs, often without parents' knowledge.
How Public Schools Assault Christian Values
Is there anything wrong with lying, cheating, stealing, shop-lifting, taking drugs, premarital sex, insulting your parents, pornography, irresponsibility, or getting pregnant in junior high school? Not according to the values taught to children in many public schools today.
Socialist Public Schools In America
Many parents might think it a bit farfetched to compare our public schools to schools in socialist or communist countries. However, if we look closer, we will see striking similarities between the two systems.
Public Schools Are Un-American
Compulsory-attendance laws force parents to send their children to public schools. These laws presume that the politicians we vote into office, our agents, have the right to take away parents' liberty and inalienable rights.
America's Public School System --- Brutal and Spartan
The public school system in America has become a dismal failure. But education in many other times and cultures has been quite successful. The ancient Greeks, whose civilization was at its height around 500 B.C., founded Western civilization as we know it.
The Welfare State: No Mercy For the Middle Class
Read Excerpts from The Welfare State: No Mercy For the Middle Class
Public-School True Believers with a Mission
One reason public schools get away with educational failure, year after year, is because they are run by school officials who passionately believe in what they are doing.
Teacher Licensing --- Benefits Teachers, Not Our Children
If teacher licensing produced competent teachers, why would public-school authorities fight so hard against merit pay? The answer seems obvious-is it possible that the public-school system produces teachers, principals, or administrators who might not 'merit' their pay, and might lose their jobs under merit-pay rules?
The Absurdity of the Public School Monopoly
The notion that local governments should have almost total monopoly control over our children's education is not only unjust and tyrannical, it is also absurd. Children need education, to be sure, but they also need food, clothing, and shelter.
Parents --- Your Children's Report Card May Be Rigged
Under the 'No Child Left Behind Act,' public schools whose students consistently fail standardized tests can be shut down. To protect their jobs, teachers and principals are now under intense pressure to cheat.
Parents Rights Violated By Public School Compulsory Attendence Laws
Compulsory attendance laws are school authorities' first assault on parental rights. These laws force almost forty-five million children to sit in often boring classes six to eight hours a day for twelve years.
Most Parents Are Not Idiots or Negligent-So Why Do We Need Compulsory-Attendance Laws?
Why do we need compulsory-attendance laws? Why compel parents to send their children to public schools? Wouldn't parents naturally educate their children without compulsion? Human nature and history prove this to be the case.
Parents' Complaints --- Arrogant Public Schools Turn a Deaf Ear
School authorities continually claim that they want more parent cooperation and participation in their children's education. They complain when parents don't show up for parent-teacher conferences or push their children to do their homework. Yet this constant cry for parent cooperation is often a smoke screen pretense to make parents think they have some control over their children's education.
Are Public Schools Anti-Parent?
Some public schools try to turn children against their parents with scary classroom stories or lessons about child abuse. Public school authorities have increasingly decided that they are children's first line of defense against alleged child abuse.
Parents - The No Child Left Behind Law Won't Do Much For Your Child
Past experience with federal education programs predicts that the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act will also fail parents whose children are doing poorly in school. The federal government has spent over $120 billion on Title 1 programs for low-income students since 1965.
Parents Demand Dumbed-down Tests --- An Unintended Bad Consequence of the 'No Child Left Behind Act'
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is making the problem of cheating, low academic standards, and public schools lying to parents, even worse. Under this Act, the Department of Education now requires students to pass standardized tests.
Literacy and Your Child -- Your Child's Life Can Be Ruined If They Can't Read Well
It may seem obvious to many people why literacy is so important in our technologically advanced society. However, many parents may not fully realize the emotional pain and life-long damage illiteracy can cause their children. Literacy, the ability to read well, is the foundation of children's education.
Invented Spelling --- Another Alice-in-Wonderland Public-School Theory
As part of the whole-language (or 'balanced') reading-instruction philosophy, many public schools now teach what they call 'invented' or 'creative' spelling. In classrooms across America, many public-school teachers now encourage children to spell words any way they like.
Public Schools Can Cripple Your Children's Ability To Read
For most adults, reading a book or a newspaper seems equally effortless. Yet reading effortlessly comes from constant use of basic skills learned at an early age. Once children learn these basic skills, they can eventually read complex books like War and Peace.
Busy, Working Parents --- 22 Ways To Homeschool Your Kids
If you're a single parent or a married couple on a tight budget so that both parents have to work, you may worry about finding the time and energy to homeschool your children, but it can be done.
Homeschooling Takes Your Child Out of Public School --- A Unique Benefit
Home-schooling removes children from public school. That alone makes home-schooling worthwhile. Unlike public-school children, home-schooled kids are not prisoners of a system that can wreck their self-esteem, ability to read, and love of learning.
Parents --- Homeschooling Can Take a Lot Less Time Than You Think
The time you will need to teach your children the essentials - reading, writing, and arithmetic - is much less than you think.
Homeschooling --- A Superior Education For Your Child
Home-schooling provides children with a superior education. Parents can quickly teach most kids the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic using excellent, creative, learn-to-read, or learn-math books, programs, or computer learning software.
Why Public Schools Hate Home-schooling Parents
Home-schooling is a great success. That's why many public-school authorities hate home-schooling parents. Home-schoolers are a direct challenge to the public-school monopoly.
Homeschooling --- Is It Worth It?
Suppose that you rearrange your life to homeschool your child and the experiment fails? You may feel that you've disrupted your life and wasted a year of your child's time.
Grandparents --- Homeschool Your Grandchildren and Feel Younger
Grandparents, what better way to stay close to your grown children than to advise them about important issues like the dangers of public schools for your grandchildren? What better way to feel younger if you offer to help homeschool your grandchildren?
Homeschooling --- Can I Do It?
Many parents would like to homeschool their children but are afraid they don't have the training or ability to be their children's teacher. This is certainly understandable, because most parents never had any formal training to be a teacher. However, most parents don't have to worry about this issue.
Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson Never Went To Public School
Most of our Founding Fathers, including Ben Franklin, Sam Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, like most average colonial Americans, spent few years, if any, in formal grammar schools of the day, yet they knew how to read and write well.
American Public Schools --- Deteriorating Like They Did In Ancient Rome
The citizens of the early Roman Republic enjoyed an education system similar to ancient Athens. It was voluntary and parents paid tutors or schools directly.
Ancient Greece Did Not Need Licensed Teachers
Contrary to popular notions, teacher licensing in public schools does not insure teacher quality. A license also does not even insure that a public-school teacher is an expert in the subject she teaches.
Public Schools Can Waste 12 Years of Your Child's Life
For over fifty years, public-school officials and politicians have tried one education fad after another. They have all failed. Children should not be turned into victims and educational guinea pigs by public-school authorities. Here's why public schools can waste 12 years of your children's lives and destroy their love of learning:
The Free Ride In Public Schools
To protect children's self-esteem or deflect complaints by parents, many public schools today automatically advance failing students to the next grade level. In other schools, some students are left back a maximum of one year, then promoted again regardless of their academic skills.
Public School Sex-Education Classes --- Bad News For Parents and Children
One of parents' most important duties is to protect their children from harmful sexual values and behaviors. Yet many public schools force potentially harmful, sometimes shockingly explicit sex education on their students.
Public-School Prisons --- What Crimes Have Our Children Committed?
Why have we put our children into educational prisons called public schools? What crimes have they committed? Why do we condemn almost 45 million innocent children to this punishment?
Drugs and Violence In Public Schools
Public schools not only fail to educate our children, they can also be dangerous places. These schools are a natural breeding ground for drugs and violence.
Children At Risk --- 15 Ways Public Schools Can Harm Your Children
Unfortunately, public schools, even in the best neighborhoods, can harm our kids in many ways. Here's a list of 15 ways public schools can hurt children (and parents).
How Public Schools Lie to Parents and Betray Our Children
Under the 'No Child Left Behind Act,' public schools whose students consistently fail standardized tests can be shut down. To protect their jobs, teachers and principals are now under intense pressure to cheat - to fudge test scores and report cards to fool parents and school administrators.
Public Schools - Bad Education, Year After Year?
If a store sells inferior products or a business gives bad service, most customers will not come back and that store or business will eventually go bankrupt. If public schools sell bad education, year after year, why don't they go bankrupt? Why aren't they shut down?
Are Public Schools a Menace To Your Kids? -- 11 Danger Signals
Here are eleven danger signals from your children that parents should watch out for. If your child exhibits any of these danger signals, it may be time to seriously consider taking your child out of public school and looking for better education alternatives.
Public-School Excuse #1-Give Us More Money!
If more money meant better education for our kids, our public schools should have vastly improved over the last 75 years. Yet the reverse is true.
Surprise --- Public School Class Size Doesn't Matter Very Much
School authorities often complain that classes are too large. They claim that teachers can't be expected to give their students the individual attention they need if there are too many students in the class. On the surface, this excuse seems to have some merit.
Public Schools --- Why On Earth Do We Need Them?
Here's a brief history of literacy in America that proves that we did far better teaching our kids to read before we ever had public schools in this country.
Public-school Teachers Know Best --- They Send Their Kids To Private Schools
Actions speak louder than words. If so many public-school teachers send their children to private schools, something must be very wrong with the public schools.
Success In School
Odds are sharply against the average student achieving success in school in a public school compared with a private school. The most successful form of schooling is one-on-one home schooling. If you don't have the time to home school your child yourself, internet private schooling with supplemental efforts from parents is the next best option. Public Schools, Public Menace will help you make successful schooling a reality for your child.
School Choices
Many parents who are disappointed in or frightened by the public schools their children attend don't see themselves as having any other viable school choices. They don't like the teacher, the school, the curriculum, or the neighborhood, but they also don't think they can take their child out of that school.
School Choice Will Destroy the Public Schools? --- Maybe That's A Good Thing
Public-school defenders often argue that school choice would destroy the public schools. Almost 90 percent of children in this country attend public schools. If we had vouchers, no compulsory attendance laws, and an unregulated education free market, millions of parents might transfer their children to private schools.
Quality Education
The key to achieving quality education is the structure of incentives for private schools in the free market.
Private School List
How does a parent find the best private schools or the right private school for a child?
Private School Costs
The reasons to send your children to private schools are obvious--what stops you are private school tuition costs that are (or seem to be) beyond your means.
To the Rescue --- Private Schools For Your Children For Less Than $850 a Year Tuition
K-12th grade Internet schools are low-cost, quality private schools that make life easier for parents.
Let's Google and Yahoo Our Kids' Education
Let's compare how much fun it is to learn new things with Google or Yahoo, compared to the boredom or learning torture that public schools put millions of kids through every day.
Free Market Reading Center Puts Public Schools To Shame
Illiteracy rates in many public schools can range from 30 percent to over 70 percent, especially in low-income minority areas. Public schools have twelve years to teach children to read even at a basic level, yet can't seem to manage this simple task. The reason?
Punishing the Victim --- Why Public Schools Pressure Parents To Give Their Kids Mind-Altering Drugs
Public-school teaching is structured in such a way that it inevitably bores millions of normal, active children who are forced to sit in classrooms six to eight hours a day with about twenty other immature children. The teacher has to cover the curriculum, so she is pressured to teach all the kids the same material in the same way. Few teachers have the time or patience to know each child's unique personality, interests, strengths, or weaknesses, or give different instruction to each student.
How Public Schools Benefit From ADHD
Public schools actually benefit in many ways from the alleged new disease, ADHD. The No Child Left Behind Act has put increasing pressure on schools and teachers to make sure their students pass standardized math and reading tests.
How Public Schools Coerce Parents Into Giving Mind-Altering Drugs To Their Children
Despite the potentially dangerous side-effects of Ritalin, public school authorities now pressure parents to give Ritalin to their children so these kids won't 'act up' in school. Public schools across America are giving out powerful, mind-altering drugs to children as if these drugs were candy.
Is ADHD a Real Disease?
The vast majority of Ritalin and Adderall is given to school children to treat an alleged disease called ADHD. Children who suffer from ADHD are said to be inattentive, impulsive, and hyperactive.
Public School Menace: The “Fair Share†Cannibals
Public School Menace: Homeschooling Takes Less Time Than You Think
Public School Menace: School Vouchers -- A False Hope for Angry Parents
* Arizona Tax Credit program — a married couple can claim a maximum of $625 tax credit for contributions they make to a private organization that gives voucher scholarships to students.