EPOCH TIMES; AMERICAN THOUGHT LEADERS: KT McFarland-How Communist China Is Exploiting Perceived U.S. Weakness and Becoming More Aggressive

In recent weeks, the Chinese Communist Party has skillfully exploited arguments about race to try to discredit the American system, says former Trump deputy national security adviser KT McFarland. Propaganda and disinformation campaigns are a critical part of the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy of unrestricted warfare against the United States. At the same time, the regime has brought its economic power to bear on those that dare cross the regime. After H&M took a stand against forced labor in Xinjiang, it vanished from Chinese e-commerce stores, ratings apps, and even Apple Maps in China. “China plans to remake the world in its own image,” McFarland says. What should the Biden administration do to protect the United States from CCP aggression? #china #antonyblinken #xinjiang

SEC targets video platform Odysee

SEC LAWSUIT SEES LBRY/ODYSEE BITCOIN CRYPTOCURRENCY AS A "SECURITY"? WHAT?

Iran rejects third U.S. offer to launch negotiations for new nuke deal in exchange for lifting of some sanctions

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/04/iran-rejects-third-us-offer-to-launch-negotiations-for-new-nuke-deal-in-exchange-for-lifting-of-some-sanctions;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

The mullahs know that if they stand firm, Biden’s handlers will come groveling with an ever-increasing number of concessions. They know they’re in command now.

“Iran rejects US offer to open nuclear talks amid offer to lift sanctions,” by Yonah Jeremy Bob, Jerusalem Post, March 30, 2021 (thanks to the Geller Report):

Iran rejected a third US offer on Tuesday to launch negotiations over a new nuclear deal in exchange for the lifting of some American sanctions.

The US offer was leaked to the Politico website late on Monday, but was rejected in a matter of hours.

Iran said that it will not stop its 20% uranium enrichment before the US lifts all sanctions, Iranian state TV quoted an unnamed official. The official’s comment came as a reaction to the US media report that Washington would offer a new proposal involving reducing 20% enrichment to jump-start talks.

“A senior Iranian official tells Press TV that Tehran will stop its 20% uranium enrichment only if the US lifts ALL its sanctions on Iran first,” state-run Press TV said on its website.

“The official said Tehran will further reduce its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal if the US does not lift all sanctions, warning that Washington is rapidly running out of time,” it added.

The Iranian rejection of new talks was the third time the Islamic Republic had turned down a US offer to open talks about a new nuclear deal and the continuation of international sanctions against the regime.

The Biden administration has been seeking to engage Iran in talks about both sides resuming compliance with the deal, under which economic sanctions on Tehran were removed in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program to make it harder to develop a nuclear weapon.

At the same time, Washington has wanted to ensure that Iran fully returns to the limits in a way that could give it leverage to negotiate new concessions that were not part of the 2015 nuclear deal from Iran.

Some of the issues emphasized by US President Joe Biden’s administration – extending nuclear limits beyond 2030, limits on ballistic missile testing and limits on Iran’s aggressive behavior in the Middle East – reflect Israeli positions, though there is doubt in Jerusalem about how committed the president is to achieving these concessions….

Man who rammed car into Capitol barricade and charged officers with a knife was follower of Nation of Islam

NOAH GREEN WAS A  BLACK MUSLIM

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/04/man-who-rammed-car-into-capitol-barricade-and-charged-officers-with-a-knife-was-follower-of-nation-of-islam;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

The Nation of Islam is Louis Farrakhan’s group. They don’t follow orthodox Sunni or Shi’ite Islam, but a strange syncretistic new religion based in part on Islam and in part on bizarre and paranoid racial hate fantasies. They share orthodox Islam’s antisemitism, which may indicate that they hold to other tenets of Islam as well, and are sympathetic to the global jihad.

So was this a jihad attack? There is no way to tell at this point, and authorities may never tell us, but there is no doubt that vehicular jihad is a common jihadi tactic, and often involves the attacker charging out of the car with a knife. Does the fact that Noah Green was a Black Muslim who followed a common jihadist modus operandi mean this was a jihad attack? No, but the possibility should be investigated. Will it be? Almost certainly not.

 

“Noah Green: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know,” by Jessica McBride, Heavy, April 2, 2021:

Noah Green was named as the knife-wielding, now-deceased suspect who tried to ram a car into a U.S. Capitol barricade, exiting with a knife, and killing a Capitol police officer and injuring another.

The suspect was first named by MSBNC’s Pete Williams and other NBC journalists, who said he was 25 years old and from Indiana. Authorities have not yet confirmed the name.

“BREAKING / NBC News: Multiple senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation say Noah Green, 25 year old male, from Indiana is the person who attacked the Capitol today,” wrote NBC journalist Tom Winter.

The Capitol police chief Yogananda Pittman said in a news conference, “It is with heavy heart that I come here this afternoon to shed some light on the incident that occurred at the U.S. Capitol.” The suspect entered the “north barricade” of the Capitol.

“The suspect rammed his car into two of our officers and then hit the north barricade barrier… the suspect exited the vehicle with a knife in hand. Our officers then engaged that suspect. He did not respond to verbal commands. The suspect did start lunging toward U.S. capitol police officers at which time U.S Capitol police officers fired upon the suspect. The suspect has been pronounced deceased.

Two officers were taken to the hospital. “It is with a very heavy heart that I announce that one of our officers has succumbed to his injured.” His name was not released.

“This has been an extremely difficult time for U.S. capitol police after the events of Jan. 6, said Pittman.

Chief Robert Contee of Washington Metropolitan Police said the homicide unit is taking over the investigation in connection with the “shooting death that occurred as well as the officer’s death.” He said there was not an “ongoing threat.”

He said it doesn’t appear the suspect was known to the Capitol police. He said it doesn’t appear to be terrorism-related but police will continue to investigate.

The incident came just three months after the January 6 Capitol riots left multiple officers injured, but the suspect’s motive is not yet clear.

CNN reported that Capitol police shot the suspect after he brandished a knife. Williams reported that the suspect is dead.

The latest incident broke out on the afternoon of April 2, 2021, and led to a lockdown of the Capitol as debate continues to swirl in Congress about security measures and fencing at the historic building….

Journalist Jonathan Dienst wrote on Twitter that, according to a senior law enforcement source, preliminary information is that the “suspect jumped out of vehicle with a knife.”…

ISIS Incites Laughter, Claims Pope Trying to Start Crusade

THE "WOKE" POPE FRANCIS STILL MISUNDERSTANDS ISLAM

ISIS Branches Out Into Comedy, Accuses Pope Woke I of Trying to Start New Crusade

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2021/03/31/isis-branches-out-into-comedy-accuses-pope-woke-i-of-trying-to-start-new-crusade-n1436446;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

What’s the absolute last thing in the world that Pope Woke, aka Francis, would want to do? What would cause him to recoil in the most spine-tingling horror imaginable? That’s right: the prospect of following in the footsteps of his long-gone predecessor, Pope Urban II, and calling for a new Crusade. Yet that’s exactly what the Islamic State (ISIS), which is apparently not aware of just how woke and accommodating to their various demands the pope is, has just accused him of wanting to do.

ChurchMilitant.com reported the improbable news on Tuesday: in an article in its weekly publication Al-Naba, ISIS claimed that Pope Francis’ recent trip to Iraq heralded a new “Crusade” to “remove the shariah of Allah from this land and to establish polytheistic religion in its place,” and that the pope marked the beginning of this “Crusade” by “lifting his profane cross over the ruins of Mosul.” The woke pope, with his fond daydreams about Islam being a religion of peace and tolerance, has once again run into the law of unintended consequences, and caused more trouble than he solved.

Jihad attacks will follow in Iraq, ISIS declared, warning Iraqi churches that the jihadis “will remove their crosses very soon” as they did “the first time, with Allah’s permission.” This came in an editorial entitled “Messages of the Christian Idolator-Tyrant [Taghut al-Nasara al-Baba] on His Visit to Iraq.” As I explained to Church Militant, taghut refers to idols or idolaters, particularly as rulers; nasara is the Qur’an’s word for Christians; and al-baba is the pope. So taghut al-nasara al-baba is the Christian idolater or idolator-tyrant, the pope.

ISIS claimed that Francis went to Iraq bent on “propagating new crusader ideas towards Muslim countries, especially Iraq, which has been the site of a grinding war for the last two decades between the Muslims and the mushrikeen,” that is, the idolators or polytheists. The pope’s interfaith event in Iraq amounted to “unleashing an invitation to a new religion of unbelief and atheism” adhered to by Christians, Jews and “the idolator-tyrants [taghut] of Muslim countries.”

Decrying the pope’s cherished idea that Christianity and Islam can come to a mutual accord and understanding based on their supposed “common father” Abraham, ISIS continued: “The so-called ‘Abrahamic religions’ — whether true or false — are said to belong to Ibrahim, the prophet of Allah, and based on the claim that the city of Ur, which the Christian idolator-tyrant visited and from where he launched his campaign for this new religion is the birthplace of Ibrahim, the prophet of Allah.”

The idea of “Abrahamic religions,” according to ISIS, is “Satanic,” basing this idea upon the Qur’an: “Abraham was not a Jew, nor was he a Christian, but he was a Muslim hanif, and he was not one of the idolaters” (3:67). It may seem strange to Westerners to claim that Abraham was a Muslim in light of the fact that Islam didn’t come to the world until 600 years after Jesus. But in the Islamic scheme of things, Islam was the original religion of all the prophets of the Bible. Their followers corrupted their teachings to create Judaism and Christianity, which are both false religions. That idea is mainstream Islam, not just the province of “extremists.”

The author of this document also refers to the pope profaning Mosul by lifting his cross over it. This is because in Islam, Jesus was not crucified (cf. Qur’an 4:157), and to affirm otherwise is to suggest that Allah is not strong enough to protect his prophets.

The pope would most likely be shocked to find that his very attempts at conciliation and peace are being viewed as provocations, but this is yet another example of his getting involved in affairs that he only dimly understands at best, and creating more problems than he is solving. He almost certainly doesn’t know that the Qur’an says that “the Jews and the Christians will never be satisfied with you until you follow their religion,” (2:120). So even his outreach is viewed as a sinister attempt to seduce Muslims away from Islam, and that this group is likely to strike at Christians to protect themselves against this perceived attack on Islam.

Pope Francis’ peace outreach may consequently end up getting even more Christians killed than would have been if he had left well enough alone and stuck to preaching the Gospel, which it is supposedly his mission to propagate and defend. But that has never seemed to be very high on his priority list.

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 21 books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.

China Is Stepping Up Pressure on Western Brands for Speaking Up Against Forced Uyghur Labor & GENOCIDE

China Is Stepping Up Pressure on Western Brands for Speaking Up Against Forced Uyghur Labor

BY

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/china-is-stepping-up-pressure-on-western-brands-for-speaking-up-against-forced-uyghur-labor/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

For years China has sought to draw moral equivalence with the West over human rights, insisting that other countries have no standing to criticize its policies. Now Beijing is making Western companies pay for raising ethical concerns.

As hard as many multinational businesses strive to avoid getting pulled into whimsical twists of foreign policy, the reports that China runs forced-labor camps out of Xinjiang — an area that produces about 20 percent of the world’s cotton — made it much harder for corporations to avoid political involvement. With increased fervor on social media demanding businesses take stances on hot-button political issues, China’s monstrous abuse of Uyghur people didn’t go unnoticed.

This week, China fought back. It stepped up pressure on foreign shoe and clothing brands to reject or deny reports of abuses and forced Uyghur labor in Xinjang. State media called for a boycott of Swedish brand H&M and America’s Nike and others for saying they would no longer use cotton from Xinjiang. China also criticized other brands (Adidas, New Balance, Burberry, Massimo Dutti, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Uniqlo) for expressing concern about reports of forced labor. Under pressure from Beijing and their threatened bottom lines, some retailers have retracted their condemnations, and either quietly deleted them from their websites or actually bowed to Beijing and apologized for the criticism. Some others took a stand.

H&M was among the latter, so Chinese platforms not only scrubbed H&M’s clothing listings, but also the company’s addresses and geolocations (the ability of tech products to locate a store). On Weibo, a Chinese social media site, more than 32 million people used the hashtag “I support Xinjiang cotton.” Millions of comments read “Die, H&M, die” and “Any b—- who still dares to work at this place should also jump off a building.” In a YouTube video published by the China Global Television Network, a network owned by the Communist Party of China, Chinese bystanders across all demographics condemned H&M for its “nonsense” accusations. Dozens of Chinese celebrities openly cut ties with “blacklisted” brands out of national solidarity.

Even though companies have been speaking out against slave labor in China for a while, it is only now that China has aggressively countered the message. The sudden backlash appears to be in retaliation to a recent statement from high-level government officials from around the world. The United States, Canada, the U.K., and the European Union teamed up to condemn China’s human-rights violations toward Xinjiang’s Uyghur minority. And the countries levied sanctions on top Chinese officials, including Wang Junzheng, the secretary of the Party Committee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), and Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau (XPSB). According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the XPCC is a paramilitary organization that “enhances internal control over the region by advancing China’s vision of economic development in [Xinjiang] that emphasizes subordination to central planning and resource extraction.” Treasury also notes that “since at least late 2016, repressive tactics have been used by the XPSB against the Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minorities in the region, including mass detentions and surveillance.”

Beijing hit back with a money stick. “When the stick of sanctions is brandished on Xinjiang, it will also hit your own head,” a spokesman for the Xinjiang regional government, Xu Guixiang, said at a news conference in Beijing. According to Bloomberg, shares of H&M, Nike Inc., and others plummeted as Chinese government officials endorsed the boycotts and Chinese celebrities dropped contracts with the brands.

The tensions between the United States and China have increasingly intensified over Beijing’s human-rights record and allegations Xi Jinping’s government is committing genocide against the Uyghur people. The State Department formalized its accusations that China has engaged in “genocide and crimes against humanity” on March 30. The document cites Beijing’s “mass detention” of the Uyghurs, as well as evidence of forced sterilization, rape, torture, and forced labor.

Previously, on January 13, 2021, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced a ban on all imports of tomato and cotton products “made by slave labor” in Xinjiang. At his first solo news conference, even though President Joe Biden vowed to be “unrelenting” in calling attention to China’s human-rights abuses, his statement followed a confused and eyebrow-raising assertion about the “different cultural norms” that shaped Beijing’s policies, indicating he really didn’t mean it: “And so the idea I’m not going to speak out against what he [Xi Jinping] is doing in Hong Kong, what he’s doing with the Uyghurs in the western mountains of China and Taiwan, trying to end the One China policy by making it forceful — I said — and by the — he said he — he gets it. Culturally, there are different norms that each country and they — their leaders — are expected to follow,” and reminded that China had been victimized by the West in the past.

Beijing officials vehemently deny accusations of human rights abuses and initiated a campaign spearheaded by state-owned media outlets on Western social media platforms, claiming it has not forced Uyghur Muslims to pick cotton and that it has mechanical harvesters.

Among others claims, the Chinese Foreign Ministry tweeted, “Allegations of ‘genocide’ and ‘forced labor’ in Xinjiang are lies of the century. Xinjiang’s Uyghur population more than doubled in the past 40 years. Have you ever seen this kind of genocide?” and it accused the U.S. government of being responsible for native Indians being “expelled” and “slaughtered” 100 years ago.

According to an independent report released on March 8, compiled by more than 50 global experts specializing in international law, genocide, and the China region, the Chinese government’s actions in Xinjiang have violated every single provision in the UN’s Genocide Convention.

New Data Shows Homeschooling Explosion!

New Data Shows Homeschooling Explosion!

BY GARY BENOIT

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/new-data-shows-homeschooling-explosion/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau confirm earlier polling results showing an unprecedented explosion in the number of families choosing to educate their children at home, free from government indoctrination, sexualization, forced masking, and dangerous dumbing down. Homeschooling rates grew fastest among black Americans.

The shift has been enormous. By the fall of 2020, the overall number of homeschooling families doubled, Census data show. In the Spring of 2020, just over 5 percent of families were educating children at home. By the fall, homeschoolers grew to represent over 11 percent of all American households with school-age children.

According to Census.gov, the number of homeschooling families grew rapidly from 1999 to 2012 but remained relatively steady at around 3.3 percent for years. “However, the global COVID-19 pandemic has sparked new interest in homeschooling and the appeal of alternative school arrangements has suddenly exploded,” wrote the bureaucracy, which tracks population data and more.

Using a nationally representative sample of American households, the Census Bureau’s “Household Pulse Survey” compared data from the spring of the 2019-2020 school year with results from the fall of 2020-2021. In late April and early May, about 5.4 percent of U.S. households with school-aged children reported homeschooling. By late September and early October, that number surged to 11.1 percent.

That enormous growth was an increase of 5.6 percentage points and a doubling in the number of U.S. households that were homeschooling compared with the previous school year. Because homeschool families are often larger on average than government-schooled families, the percent of school-age children being educated at home is estimated to now be well over 11.1 percent — potentially 5 million children or more.

Just to be sure that families doing government school at home did not misreport, the Census included a clarification making clear that virtual learning through a public or private school was not to be considered “true homeschooling.” Experts said that means the surge in homeschooling may have been even larger than reported. Unfortunately, no data from the bureau was available from before the pandemic.

In some states the population of homeschoolers became almost 10 times larger. Massachusetts, for instance, went from having just 1.5 percent of children being homeschooled to more than 12 percent in that short period. In Alaska, the number went from 10 percent to almost 28 percent. And in Oklahoma, the numbers went from about 8 percent to over 20 percent. Florida’s numbers also grew to almost 20 percent of families choosing to educate at home.

Self-described black Americans were far more likely to pull their children from government schools than any other group measured in the data. “In households where respondents identified as Black or African American, the proportion homeschooling increased by five times, from 3.3% (April 23-May 5) to 16.1% in the fall (Sept. 30-Oct. 12),” the Census Bureau revealed. Lower-income Americans were also more likely to pull their children out.

Analysts said more research would be helpful to understand the changes. “Future research will likely reveal what portion of those families who began homeschooling during the past year will continue on with it into the future,” wrote Dr. Brian Ray, who leads the National Home Education Research Institute. “If a significant portion stays with homeschooling, more noticeable changes lie ahead regarding public favor toward homeschooling and parent-led home-based education’s impact on individual children, families, and society.”

The news is not new. In fact, The Newman Report noted in September of 2020 that survey data from Gallup revealed a doubling in homeschool numbers. At the same time, this blog also reported in December that government-school districts across America were seeing catastrophic declines in the number of victims enrolled in their indoctrination centers, with some districts losing over 10 percent or more in one year.

Of course, government and government-school proponents want Americans to believe that the surge in home education is solely due to COVID-19. The reality is far more complex. One of the many things COVID did was expose for parents the madness and child abuse taking place in government schools, while at the same time showing parents the benefits and possibilities of homeschooling.

________________________________________________________

In a Rebuke to Unions, School Choice Going Gangbusters in the States

BY LINDSEY BURKE

SEE: https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/03/30/in-a-rebuke-to-teachers-unions-school-choice-is-going-gangbusters-in-the-states

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

School districts are slowly beginning to reopen in-person instruction after being closed for nearly a year—or, in many places, for over a year. While this is a wonderful development, it will never erase what parents experienced last year: uncertainty, inconsistency, and, in some cases, ineptitude from public schools.

The events of the last year have demonstrated to many families that public schools are not always the reliable institutions many thought they were. It also opened their eyes to just how powerful the teachers' unions are, and revealed what many already suspected: that their modus operandi is not to support teachers who want to teach but to score political wins.

Thankfully, in response to these disappointments, multiple state legislatures are undertaking one of the biggest expansions of school choice in history. Here are some states to watch:

West Virginia. On March 29, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed into law the most expansive school choice program in the country, a nearly universal option for education savings accounts.

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This is monumental. It is the nation’s first universal education savings account program open to all children in the state. Students who choose to participate in the education savings account option will receive 100% of what the state would have spent on their education in their prior public school—or approximately $4,600 per year—which they can then use to pay for private school tuition, online learning, private tutoring, and a variety of other education services, products, and providers.

All incoming kindergarteners will be eligible for an education savings account, as will all first through 12th graders, with the condition that they have previously been enrolled in a West Virginia public school for 45 days.

Kentucky. Kentucky followed suit this week with the Legislature overriding Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill to create the Bluegrass State’s first school choice program—a tax credit-funded education savings account.

Known as Education Opportunity Accounts, students from families with incomes below 175% of the federal poverty line will have access to education savings accounts. The program is available to students living in counties with more than 90,000 residents and will initially be capped at $25 million.

South Dakota. On March 18, Gov. Kristi Noem signed into law an expansion of South Dakota’s tax credit scholarship program, which provides tax credits to insurance companies that provide donations to scholarship-granting organizations, which in turn provide scholarships to eligible students to offset the cost of private school tuition.

Students from families whose income does not exceed 150% of the qualifying amount for free and reduced-price lunch eligibility (approximately $73,000 for a family of four) are eligible. The Legislature expanded the program to now include students who already attend private school.

Georgia. Gov. Brian Kemp will soon have on his desk a bill that expands eligibility for the state’s existing voucher program for students with special needs. The proposal would expand eligibility to students in public schools with 504 plans (meaning they may need additional help in school due to learning impediments).

Approximately 58,000 Georgia students currently have 504 plans and would be eligible for the expanded voucher program.

Florida. The Florida Legislature is considering a proposal to consolidate the state’s five existing school choice programs into two streamlined education savings account options. One of the education savings account programs would be geared toward students with special needs, and the other would be available to the broader student population.

This proposal would fold the McKay Scholarship Program, a voucher program for children with special needs; the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships to income-eligible students; the Hope Scholarship, which allows individuals to redirect their car sales tax to private school scholarships; and the Family Empowerment Scholarship, which provides scholarships to students to attend a private school of choice who were on the waitlist for the state’s popular tax credit scholarship program, into the existing education savings account structure.

The proposal would bring the flexibility and customization of education savings accounts to the existing voucher and tax credit scholarship programs, updating the current school choice programs.

The proposal also grows program eligibility by eliminating the prior public school attendance requirements and opening the education savings account program to low-income homeschooled students in the state.

Arizona. In Arizona, the Legislature is considering an expansion of the state’s existing (first-in-the-nation) education savings account program to include students who attend a low-income school.

It would also make students who live in the attendance zone boundary of a Title I school eligible for the accounts. An estimated 65% of school districts in Arizona are home to Title I schools.

Missouri. Missouri lawmakers have introduced a bill to create a tax credit-funded education savings account program with broad eligibility. The program would be open to all students who previously attended public school in Missouri, or are entering kindergarteners, or who have an active-duty military parent. The program would initially be capped at $50 million.

New Hampshire. New Hampshire officials are likewise considering an education savings account program that would provide eligible families with $4,500 per year. The education savings accounts would be available to students from families earning less than $77,000 per year for a family of four.

Indiana. In Indiana, policymakers have introduced a measure that would expand eligibility for the state’s existing school voucher program and would create education savings accounts.

Children with special needs, from military families, or from foster families would be eligible for an education savings account worth 90% of what the state would have spent on that child in their public school.

In addition to these nine states, dozens of others are considering measures to expand education freedom and opportunity to students. An unprecedented 29 states have already introduced similar measures this year that will create or expand vouchers, tax-credit scholarships, and education savings accounts, according to the Educational Freedom Institute.

According to EdChoice, more than 20 of those states have introduced education savings account options specifically. For families, these proposals represent lifelines to opportunities previously unavailable to them in their public school.

These measures are a swift rebuke to the teachers' unions, who have not only stood in the way of education access during the pandemic but have been the primary obstacles to education choice for decades.

Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email letters@DailySignal.com and we will consider publishing your remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature.  

Young America’s Foundation: AZ Elementary School Proposes Race-Based Hiring Quotas, Parents and One Board Member Fight Back in Fiery Meeting

BY KARA ZUPKUS

SEE: https://www.yaf.org/news/video-az-elementary-school-proposes-race-based-hiring-quotas-parents-and-one-board-member-fight-back-in-fiery-meeting/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Litchfield Elementary School District in Litchfield, Arizona has proposed enacting elements of critical race theory in a new “equity plan,” causing controversy and uproar among parents.

Things got heated at a recent school board meeting, where parents against the proposal dominated the public comment portion of the evening slamming the board members who support CRT–with some going as far as threatening to recall them from the board.

“My children are taught at home the value of people–that you treat people the way their character and integrity define them in your view. That is not a place for the district or the board to impose a leftist rhetoric that has no place in our schools,” one parent lamented.

The sole school board member opposed to CRT, Jeremy Hoenack, slammed his fellow board members for their lack of transparency in the truth behind the training.

“How do you increase the diversity of applicants by race? That’s illegal–the diversity of hiring should be based on the applicants’ ability to excel at their job, regardless of their skin color,” Hoenack remarked on the proposal for proposed racial hiring quotas for teachers.

The full proposal, obtained exclusively through Young America’s Foundation’s Campus Bias Tip Line, suggests minimizing punishment for black students and re-examining library book selections and class curriculum to become more inclusive. The proposal centers around Ibram X. Kendi’s definition of “anti-racism.”

The district, composed of 10 elementary schools and 5 middle schools, boasts only a 57 percent proficiency rate in math, and 56 percent proficiency in reading–yet these school board members have taken it upon themselves to instead focus on dividing students with hateful rhetoric and false narratives regarding racial discrimination.

Jeremy Hoenack and these brave parents refusing to bow to the woke mob set an example for the rest of America––we must not be afraid to stand up against what is fundamentally wrong, especially when it comes to the education of our children.