#462 (3/12) "Obama's Misguided Education Policy"

"Afghan ’Insider Attack’ Kills Two U.S. Troops,"  March 11; http://www.presidentialprayerteam.com/Prayerwatch?pw=1235
"Two US soldiers in Afghanistan have been shot dead in a so-called insider attack, US and Afghan sources say. A number of Afghan troops also died in the shooting at a remote military base in Wardak province, not far from Kabul..." (Sources: BBC News, NBC News)
As the Lord leads, please pray: *For protection of American and NATO forces serving in Afghanistan. * That the tensions developing between President Karzai and the U.S. will not become a broken relationship due to lack of mutual trust.

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  CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR PASTOR SAEED - (who just started an 8 year sentence for helping the underground churches in Iran) - "As Iran continues to abuse imprisoned American Pastor Saeed Abedini, its goal is now clear -- force Pastor Saeed to deny Christ.We've obtained a new letter from Pastor Saeed detailing his continued mistreatment in the deadly Evin Prison, including Iran's efforts to force him to convert from Christianity back to Islam. Pastor Saeed writes: "[A]fter all of these pressures, after all of the nails they have pressed against my hands and 'feet, they are only waiting for one thing…for me to deny Christ.' Yet he is standing strong, declaring '"they will never get this from me.' UPDATE of 3/11 - 1) Those in support of Pastor Saeed have been at the UN meetings in Geneva the past week testifying to the Human Rights Commission. 2) The American Center for Law and Justice will be testifying before a committee of the House of Rep. on Friday about Pastor Saeed and other persecuted Christians in the Middle East  Please PRAY for both of these hearings. If you have not already, please join over 300,000 (was recently130,000) who have signed the petition  for Pastor Saeed's release and tell your friends about it.  http://aclj.org/iran/save-american-pastor-from-iranian-prison-sentence 

 PLEASE Continue to PRAY: "Libya Arrests Suspected Christian Missionaries ," February 16, 2013; "Four foreigners were arrested in Libya on suspicion of distributing books about Christianity and proselytizing, a Libyan police spokesman said on Saturday. Spreading Christianity is a crime in the predominantly Muslim North African county. The four were arrested in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday and are under investigation for printing and distributing books that proselytize Christianity. Police said they found 45,000 books in their possession and that another 25,000 have already been distributed. The suspects are from South Africa, Egypt, South Korea, and one holds both Swedish and U.S. Nationality. The U.S. Embassy in Libya has declined comment. "(Sources: CBS News, USA Today, Associated Press) [So much for the so-called "Arab Spring." - Stan]As the Lord leads, PLEASE PRAY:  ·   For the timely release of the arrested missionaries. ·   For all who share God’s loving salvation in Muslim countries.  

DECLARE YOUR SUPPORT FOR TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE. Please SIGN THE PETITION BELOW to declare your support for the traditional definition of marriage and in support of an amicus brief to go to the Supreme Court as it considers the redefinition of marriage on March 27th. Their decision on whether to uphold the Definition of Marriage Act passed by Congress in 1996 could be as piviotal to marriage in America as Roe v. Wade was to the definition of the sancity of human life in America. MOST IMPORTANTLY, please keep the upcoming Supreme Court review of this case and their final decision in your PRAYERS. https://www.truthinaction.org/index.php/the-affirmation-of-marriage/?utm_source=Truth+In+Action+News+List&utm_campaign=9d8fb2dcc6-DOMA+%231+AB+TEST+Length&utm_medium=email

 NOTE: As yesterday's post  talked about attacks on home-schoolers, I want to share the following to keep on the theme of education in the U.S.]

"Obama's Misguided Education Policy," March 5, 2013  http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=22910&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD

 Virtually everyone agrees that education is vitally important to the future of America. President Obama has promised to use an evidence-based approach to education that implements only the policies that are proven to work. Despite his word, however, President Obama is pushing policies that are proven not to work, says Shikha Dalmia, a senior analyst, and Lisa Snell, director of education policy, at Reason Magazine.

• In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama promised more high-quality preschool based on "study after study," which shows the success of early childhood learning.
• Unfortunately, study after study shows the exact opposite -- publicly funded programs, like Head Start, make little difference in the long run.

Head Start is almost 50 years old and received an annual budget of more than $7 billion in 2011 to enroll about one million kids in preschool education. A majority of studies have found that the initial cognitive gains these children exhibit disappear by the time they enter regular school. Critics of this opinion argue that these studies fail to pass methodological muster by using non-random assignment and neglecting to track the kids long enough.

• An ambitious new Health and Human Services study addresses these methodological concerns.
• The study samples randomly for its control and test groups, and tracks all students until the third grade to assess any impacts of the federal program.
• The study found very little evidence of any beneficial impact on cognitive, socioemotional, health and parenting practices among students who attended Head Start.

The record on preschool is equally as dismal at the state level.

• Fourteen years after Oklahoma implemented universal preschool, its fourth grade reading score is down 10 points on the National Assessment Education Progress report card.
• Twenty-one years after implementing universal preschool, Georgia ranks 48th in terms of graduation rates.
• In each state, minority children fell to the national average once universal preschool was implemented.

If Obama were truly interested in evidence-based policies, he would extend funding to vouchers programs, which most studies suggest lead to higher graduation rates and improved reading and math outcomes. Instead, he has tried to cut the District of Columbia's very successful voucher program on the basis that its drains resources from public schools. In reality, the vouchers have been found to foster competition and improve education outcomes in public schools.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

Source: Shikha Dalmia and Lisa Snell, "Obama's Lopsided Education Policy," Reason Magazine, February 28, 2013. http://reason.com/archives/2013/02/28/president-obamas-anti-empirical-educatio