Tea Party Leaders to Florida Voters: Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul Should Continue Past Florida

CONTACT:
Michael Patrick Leahy
michaelpatrickleahy@gmail.com
615-243-6869

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tea Party Leaders to Florida Voters: Santorum, Gingrich,
and Paul Should Continue Past Florida

January 30, 2012 - Local tea party leaders from around the country who have organized the ElectionDayTeaParty.com project today released a statement of support for Florida voters participating in Tuesday's Presidential preference election.

Billie Tucker, of Jacksonville’s First Coast Tea Party declined supporting any single candidate, stating, "I am endorsing We the People because I believe they will make the right decision this Tuesday based on facts, data, research and truth.

"I am endorsing the People because they have become wise and know that what we are seeing on the airwaves and hearing from the mouths of some of these candidates is not truth.

"I am endorsing the People because I trust them more than I trust any consultant, media personality or 'has-been political operatives.' I trust the people to show the Establishment that times have changed."

Michael Patrick Leahy, co-organizer of Election Day Tea Party, agreed, and added, “None of the four candidates seeking the Republican Presidential nomination have yet earned the full support of the Tea Party movement.  For us, this election is about determining which of these candidates will best align their policies with the three core values of the Tea Party movement: constitutionally limited government, fiscal responsibility, and free markets.”

Michelle Moore, co-founder of the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition, stated, "Sarah Palin recently suggested we should '… keep this vetting process going,' and many tea partiers agree with that sentiment.  It’s time to elevate the discussions in this campaign process beyond petty personal attacks over insignificant issues.  By keeping the debate going, we will see exactly which candidate understands that it is only with limited government that we have unlimited opportunity to pursue happiness and prosperity in America."

Mark West of the Chattanooga Tea Party said, "At this point, it’s quite clear to most in the Tea Party movement that Governor Romney has made a strategic decision not to engage with the movement, or make a serious attempt to understand our message.  Personally, I want to encourage Floridians to vote for a candidate other than Governor Romney in order to continue this critical conversation."

Carol Knighton, co-founder of Florida’s Leesburg Regional Tea Party said, "So far, none of the top three candidates have given us any confidence they will demand any more fiscal responsibility than the current Republican-led House and Democratic-led Senate - which INCREASED federal spending in 2011 by 5% over 2010 - after the Tea Party movement's historic role to elect 63 new Republican members of Congress in 2010."

Zan Green, founder of the RainyDayPatriots.org Tea Party in Birmingham, Alabama, added, "The modern Tea Party movement started because Washington and the two primary parties had lost all moorings to our Constitution. We the people demanded a return of the Government of the people, and only ‘We The People’ can pick the leader by the vetting process and by having that candidate answer to us."

Lorie Medina, founder of the Frisco, Texas Tea Party and creator of the Victory-in-a-Box get-out-the-vote program added, “The Tea Party is back for the 2012 elections and stronger than ever.  We’ve been flooded with volunteers at ElectionDayTeaParty.com who want to help get-out-the vote this November.

"I encourage everyone who supports the idea of constitutionally limited government, fiscal responsibility, and free markets to sign up at our website today.  We’ll help you use your talents and energies in our campaign to restore this country.”

The first national event of Election Day Tea Party 2012 will be a celebration of the Tea Party movement's 3rd anniversary on February 25th, 26th, and 27th.  On February 27, 2009, the Tea Party movement was launched with simultaneous tea parties in fifty cities which were attended by more than 30,000 tea partiers.  This was immediately followed by Tax Day Tea Party on April 15, 2009, when over 1 million tea partiers participated in rallies held in more than 900 cities.

Additional tea parties who joined the Election Day Tea Party 2012 project and the third anniversary celebration in February come from Tennessee, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Mississippi, New Jersey, Texas, Delaware, Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin, New Mexico, California, Florida, and Connecticut.  Election Day Tea Party 2012 anticipates that tea parties from every state will participate.

About Election Day Tea Party 2012: Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, an informal federation of thirty local tea parties from around the country who work collaboratively on national projects.

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School Choice Weeek-Missouri Townhall Sponsored by AFP

 
AFP Missouri put on an event in St. Louis last night for School Choice Week.The panel consisted of Dick Morris, Dana Loesch, Mike Podgursky and Robbyn Wahby. The panel discussion surrounded the choices available, especially in the inner city school systems and ways we can improve not only those choices, but the entire school system. There was much talk surrounding the influence teachers unions have. They influence not only the quality of the learning environment, but also the money in education and how its spent. They also covered the importance of parental and even student involvement in the education process. The consensus seemed to be that while the choice to go to a better performing school or an educational program better tailored to the student needs is important, there was no amount of choice that supplants the parents influence on the child's desire to learn and the effect that has on things like quality of education, graduation rate and even having better choices in available schools.

There was much discussion surrounding inner city schools, the current state of education, and the lack of good choices for families. Dick Morris brought up Detroit city schools. Families looking for good schools and more choices are leaving that city in droves. That reduces the student body and tax base. This often results in teacher lay-offs and larger class sizes-often more than 60 kids. Then because of the ridiculous teachers union rules, what may be a good teacher must be laid-off to keep a vested teacher in his position. At that point teachers unions demand pay raises for the teachers that remain due to increased class size-which the city cannot then afford to give because of the reduced tax base-which results in even more teacher lay-offs. This leaves inner city families with no choice. They end up with a few bad schools that are over-crowed and filled with many teachers who retired years ago but didn't bother to tell anyone.

In many ways we are facing some of these same choices in our own city schools here in St. Louis. Robbyn Wahby points out that in St. Louis City lost about 22,000 children (and their tax paying families) since the last census. Those families are leaving the city for the suburbs where they have true choice and better public schools. Interestingly, the population of young adults without kids has increased in St. Louis. This would indicate our city does have culture and other qualities that can be used to attract families-we just have to make it top priority to find and retain quality teachers and run quality schools. Dana Loesch says that part of that reform must involve reforming the teachers unions and the way they work. She related a personal story about a young energetic teacher who was very popular in her high school. This teacher used lots of applied learning (hands on) and was a great teacher. The union came in and told her to "tone it down" because she was angering the older, less energetic teachers who had already established the "proper" way to teach. Putting the kibosh in new ways to teach and maligning fresh young teachers has long been practiced in teachers unions across the country. For those teachers, all the talk of "the children" is just that, talk. They care nothing about the children, they care only for their cushy jobs and sweet pension.

So, what are some of the solutions? Parental and student involvement is a huge factor in the success of students. Alternative schools, such as Loyola Academy where this event was held, involve the kids and the parents fully in the education of the student. Kids who could otherwise never afford a college prep school are given the chance to beat the odds. Before students are admitted they are interviewed and told the expectation of the school. Parents get a similar treatment. Parents are expected to volunteer many hours throughout the school year and less than 100% from either the parent or child is not good enough. Loyola has it right. They are a private school-they have the ability to set standards and expectations, then hold parents and students accountable. Their way is working for at-risk kids in the inner city. When a program works, parents spread the word and enrollment increases. If we had good choices in schools, those schools would survive because families would not move out of the area to get the programs they need for their kids.

The President of Loyola Academy says they are not saving students, they are empowering them to be successful. All of our schools need this attitude. We need schools that don't simply act as holding cells between the hours of 7:30 and 2:30 Monday thru Friday. We need schools that empower children and involve parents. We need schools that hire quality teachers and have a mechanism to rid themselves of ineffective or even down-right abusive teachers.  We need metrics that measure results and then the guts to close schools and re-engineer school districts to fix actual problems. Failing teachers and failing schools must go. There must be an effective, results oriented way to deal with these issues.

At the end of the panel discussion, they wrapped up with a few final thoughts. Robbyn Wahby reminds us that any good idea is twice as likely to succeed with good support systems. If we have ideas we want implemented or we feel the mayors office is promoting good choices in education, we can support that effort by making it known we support it and doing things that promote the choice. Dana Loesch thinks good choices in schools are extremely important, but that getting the unelected federal bureaucracy out of our local schools is also imperative. We have standards decided and implemented at the federal level-things like Common Core Standards and Longitudinal Data Systems-that influence the meat of what our children are being taught, yet we have no say so in what is included in those standards. Finally, Dick Morris says we are in the middle of an education revolution. In 2010 through 2014 we will see a time of great change to our educational system, at this time Missouri is not leading the charge on this, but we could be. It is time to grab the reins and lead the charge for the future of our children's education.

Thanks to Americans for Prosperity for bringing this event to St. Louis. Thanks to Loyola Academy for hosting this event. (They survive on 100% donations, please consider donating) And big thanks to all the guests for their excellent and informative panel on what St. Louis can do to improve the choices for our students.

Google begins massive data aggrigation

Yesterday Google released information on their new privacy policy, or lack thereof, set to take effect on March 1st. In the announcement was the consolidation of over 70 different privacy policies into one. Thier new policy states Google will track useage across multiple products, such as email and search, and customize your browsing experience based off that.

The main change, says Google, is that if you are signed into your Google account, Google will combine user info across its products to better serve account holders. As Google says, "In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience"

 The announcement has many users concerned. Google has been accused of privacy breeches before and is currently under investigation by a couple of different agencies for various possible business practice violations. When a search giant like Google wants to pilfer your email and searches in order to deliver ads it begins to feel a little creepy. There is little doubt this new "No More Privacy, Policy" will come under the microscope as well.