Our children are not for sale

Federal bureaucrats bribe states to promote LGBT

Christopher Sullivan, who calls himself gay not queer, drew some attention for tweeting the above picture.

He said, “The Chicago Teachers Union of Brain-Damaged Socialists would like to remind you that despite spending an insane $30K per student, its teachers still cannot spell discriminate.

“God bless them for thinking they deserve another penny.”

Typos happen, but it is the thought that counts. The thought here is that the federal government can control states through the power of the purse. The Founding Fathers would have grabbed their muskets and long rifles and staged another revolution over this because this is exactly the Super Power Central Government that the Founding Fathers believed they prevented by ratifying the Constitution.

Hah!

200-plus years later, Washington bureaucrats treat it like a suggestion box they never open. They are using the money we give via Congress to local schools as a means to promote LGBT. The sudden rise in young people who believe they are queer, tranny or otherwise perverted is funded by chump taxpayers like you.

In Tennessee, Republicans are daring to question authority.

AP paused long enough from shielding Hamas to weigh in — siding with Democrats, of course.

It sputtered, “Tennessee Republican leaders are escalating their calls to reject millions of federal dollars rather than comply with requirements over LGBTQ+ rights, abortion access and other hot-button issues.

“Already this year, the Volunteer State has rebuffed federal funding designed to prevent and treat HIV and money that would help clinics serving low-income women. Now, GOP lawmakers are talking about cutting off nearly $1.8 billion in federal education dollars — much of it targeted to serve low-income students, English learners and students with disabilities.

“‘I think this trend in declining federal funds really is alarming,’ said state Sen. Raumesh Akbari, a Democrat from Memphis. ‘A big portion of our government and our budget . . . rely on federal funds. They are there to level the playing field with other states.’”

Instead of presenting the Republican case first like real journalists would do, AP presented the Democrat case and the LGBT case. The story failed to get the Republican side of the story.

But AP spiked objectivity long ago, opting to simply promote lefty causes. Its credibility disappeared when it helped Democrats gain access to Sarah Palin’s emails as governor in 2010.

AP has sued no other governor for emails, not even from West Virginia Governor Bob Wise, whose emails revealed he had an affair with a government employee in 2003. He did not seek re-election and dropped out of politics completely.

The story in Tennessee is that lawmakers may — and I emphasize may because Tennessee Republicans have a history of wimpdom — tell the feds to take this money and shove it.

Liberals are all a-twitter.

John Klyce of the Memphis Commercial Appeal published, “TN may reject $1.8B in federal education funds. What would it mean for Memphis schools?” without comment from those pushing the idea. Only later did the newspaper add the governor’s comments.

But the Gannett paper gave plenty of space to the school board and school bureaucracy to give the schools system more money.

Mauricio Calvo, a member of the Memphis-Shelby County School Board, and executive director of Latino Memphis, said, “This is money for vulnerable populations. Many Tennesseans are in very dire conditions. So, how fiscally responsible is it to turn this down?”

Amber Huett-Garcia, another MSCS board member, said, “I'd like to see Memphis-Shelby County Schools and our municipalities of Shelby County get together and have a united response. Because it would be devastating to our students.”

MSCS Chief Communication Officer Cathryn Stout said, “As the study from the Sycamore Institute found, children with disabilities, children from low-income homes, and children in rural communities would be the most negatively affected. Memphis-Shelby County Schools strongly advocates for ensuring that all children, but especially our most vulnerable children, have the funding and services they need to thrive.”

Just how not taking the money would devastate the students was unclear.

What is clear is that board members Calvo and Huett-Garcia are failing their jobs because Memphis-Shelby schools are a wasteland where student test scores are well below the state and national averages.

Samantha West reported, “Memphis-Shelby County Schools showed some of the country’s sharpest declines in math and reading scores on the test known as the nation’s report card.

“Results from the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, illustrate the pandemic’s devastating effect on learning in Tennessee’s largest school district, where most students are Black and come from low-income families who were hit hardest by the pandemic, and where waves of COVID infections led to prolonged stretches of remote learning.

“While district school buildings reopened in the spring of 2021, most students did not return to classrooms until last school year — only to be hit by new disruptions and safety protocols as the delta and omicron variants struck.”

Among the 26 largest school systems, only Cleveland had as large a decline in test scores.

But school success is measured by money spent and not on student achievement. This shows what the real priorities are for the nation’s 16,800 school districts.

The next Republican president should make states ban LGBT education, ban boys in skirts from women’s sports and bathrooms, ban CRT and ban everything else Don Surber doesn’t like. That would show Democrats that two can play the game.

And then we should end the game permanently.

The issue is larger than forcing schools to promote LGBT and stock school libraries with child porn books such as Gender Queer. The issue is self-governance. States should not have to comply with the federal government; the federal government should comply with the states. The servants have become our masters.

Tennessee may lead the way toward ending that.