No Loyalty, No Citizenship

            With the moratorium on building in West Bank settlements terminated, Israel has taken an even greater, though primarily symbolic, step forward by requiring non-Jewish citizens to pledge an oath of loyalty to Israel.

            The measure has come under fire from Arab advocacy groups, like Adalah. The bill affects an Arab minority, which is already considered as “second-rate” by many. One Arab lawmaker said that the bill is intended “to solidify the inferior status of Arabs by law”. Another advocacy group stated that the legislation is just one factor contributing to a “terrifying” atmosphere for Arabs. I find this to be ironic, as the Arabs in Israel have been known to support Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist organizations operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It appears that they can dish it out, but can’t take it.

            I feel that the measure was a great idea, as loyalty to the Jewish state is not very strong among Israel’s Arab minority. Many members of Israel’s Arab minority comfort Israel’s enemies, encouraging their actions. For instance, some Arab groups continue to mourn the Nakba, which is in support of a Palestinian state instead of a Jewish state. Fortunately, there are efforts in the Israeli parliament to punish those participate in this treasonous act.

The loyalty bill was backed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who belongs to the nationalist party Yisrael Beitenu. Yisrael Beitenu has questioned the loyalty of Israel’s Arab minority in the past; the party has received a great deal of support for their position on these maters. Lieberman proposed revoking the citizenship of anyone who refused to swear loyalty to Israel as a Jewish state. With more politicians like Lieberman, Israel may have a chance to actually expel members of the Arab minority who present themselves as anti-Jewish. I give my full support to Yisrael Beitenu, because slowly but surely they can solve the Arab problem in Israel and provide the foundation for a strong Jewish state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Peace talks with the Palestinians have been strained by the passage of this bill. The refusal to extend the moratorium on building in the West Bank has contributed to this strain, as well. Both of these measures are baby steps in the overall attempt to secure Israel, along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as a Jewish state, which Arab minorities must be forced to respect. I believe that under the leadership of Avigdor Lieberman and Yisrael Beitenu, Israel can eradicate traitorous, spying, Palestinian-supporting Arabs. We can only hope that Yisrael Beitenu receives more support in the coming years.

By: Adam Ondo

Bloomberg, Obama, and Teacher Unions! Oh, My!

Education reform in the United States is facing many obstacles, coming from many different directions. Arne Duncan and his precious Department of Education are interfering with school reform via the Race To The Top program. Michael Bloomberg is exacerbating an already dismal situation in New York City. All the while, teacher unions are making it more difficult to reform schools, creating an even worse situation for the country to deal with, and especially New York City.

            The Obama Administration’s federal accountability and standardized testing policies, which have not proven to be effective, have been adopted by the mayor of this country’s largest city – Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg, and his school chancellor Joel Klein, are after Race To The Top funds, which reward schools based on their students’ performance and teacher’s effectiveness. This accountability issue is a major concern. Teachers “fired” under the accountability policy continue to receive pay during their time in “The Rubber Room” – a place where they sit and do nothing for years on end as they await their hearing. This is because teachers are never truly fired due to clauses in union contracts. Teachers have been caught being racist, sexually inappropriate, drunk, and purely incompetent and still receive pay until a verdict is issued in their hearing, which can take years to complete.

The combination of Bloomberg’s accountability policies and the teacher union’s due process policies, which nearly give teachers complete immunity, have led to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars. This money could be used improving schools, but instead it is wasted on bureaucratic policies, paying teachers to not work because they were found to be too dangerous or unfit, to work around children. Because of the lack of funds, Bloomberg has decided to shut down dozens of “underperforming” schools in New York City.

Bloomberg has stumbled across one good idea, though. That idea is the establishment of charter schools – public schools that do not have to follow the same guidelines as normal public schools. However, the creation of these schools has cost money, which he had to shut down other public schools to obtain. If the funds mentioned above were not wasted on teachers that should have been fired months earlier, then there would not be a need to close any schools. David Hursh, a professor at the Warner School, stated in my interview with him that, “Instead of closing schools, we should focus on developing structures and systems to improve the schools.” This is true, but as I have already stated, unions have caused many obstacles in the realm of education reform.

Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, is one of the main union culprits behind these problems America’s education system is facing. Besides giving terrible teachers amnesty and costing the government valuable money, she also promotes the airing of misleading commercials. The commercials her union puts out claim public schools are improving, while they are clearly not (largely due to union involvement).

            However, there are two solutions to this education reform problem. The formation of more charter schools is one solution. The second is the use of state funds to provide vouchers to every child in the state, instead of allocating the money to the schools specifically.

The benefits of charter schools are as follows. The can fire underperforming teachers, while rewarding better ones with bonuses; this provides incentives for teachers, which they do not usually get while working for a union. In addition to that, they must be innovative in order to attract students if they wish to stay open. The overall education at charter schools is better than at normal public schools.

My favorite solution to the problem of poorly performing public schools is the assignment of state funds directly to students, so they, or more likely their parents, may spend the vouchers on whatever education they see fit. Public schools, charter schools, and private schools – religious and secular – will all have to compete in order to stay open. This will cause the teachers and school administrators to operate more efficiently in order to attract the students, and their money. This idea has been successfully implemented in Belgium already.

The current system of schooling in the U.S. gives public schools monopoly status over low income families and monopolies have no incentive to improve; the DMV is a good example of this. Charter schools and public schools, however, must continue to offer something better in order to remain open; schools that do not perform well fail because they do not receive any money. This competition is healthy for the education system, so giving students vouchers is the most logical, and may I add capitalist, option for the states to consider.