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Here are some newspaper article links- they may only be up for a month or so, but they're good articles.

(posted May 15) http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/3844676.html

(this one is about Planned Parenthood's new leader, Cecile Richards, and PP's focus on women's healthcare)

Here's one about the new education bills just passed by "our" legislature and how the spending that is mandated is undercut by the tax cuts: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/legislature/05/14finance.html 

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As a musician, I know how much music has meant to me my whole life. When Austin Family published the following article, I contacted them about putting it on my website and they were nice enough to allow it. On a worldwide average, our kids are not doing so well in science and math, but some of our local schools are cutting music due to not having enough money. Is there any wonder that our kids don't do so well in math and science?

I have taken our daughter to (at least) weekly concerts ever since she came home to us at the age of 8 months old. It is something in which I strongly believe.

Kathi

The Kids are Alive with the sound of Music

 By Beth Strout

Published in Austin Family, January 2006

The evidence is overwhelming: music education contributes significantly to children's success. From boosting academic performance to correlations with lower percentages of risky adolescent behavior, statistics on this phenomenon abound.

• Secondary students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs). - Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse Report. Reported in Houston Chronicle, January 1998

• The very best engineers and technical designers in the Silicon Valley industry are, nearly without exception, practicing musicians. - Grant Venerable, "The Paradox of the Silicon Savior," as reported in "The Case for Sequential Music Education in the Core Curriculum of the Public Schools," The Center for the Arts in the Basic Curriculum, New York, 1989

• Students with coursework/experience in music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT: students in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on the math, than did students with no arts participation. - College-Bound Seniors National Report: Profile of SAT Program Test Takers. Princeton, NJ: The College Entrance Examination Board, 2001.

• A University of California (Irvine) study showed that after eight months of keyboard lessons, preschoolers showed a 46% boost in their spatial reasoning IQ. - Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Ky and Wright, "Music and Spatial Task Performance: A Causal Relationship," University of California, Irvine, 1994

• An Auburn University study found significant increases in overall self-concept of at-risk children participating in an arts program that included music, movement, dramatics and art, as measured by the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. - N.H. Barry, Project ARISE: Meeting the needs of disadvantaged students through the arts, Auburn University, 1992

Margaret Perry, Director of Education at Austin's Armstrong School of Music, is not surprised by these findings. She notes that for the students in their school ages ten through high school, "it is easy for us to observe that their studies are not only increasing their musical skills, but it is allowing them to express their ideas and feelings in a positive environment, improve their social interaction, expand their awareness of diverse cultures through world music, and polish their ability to listen and memorize."

Leah Lewis is a professional opera singer and founder of Leah's Music Class. She offers an explanation of why music improves learning potential: "Music is a fantastic platform for offering young children opportunities to cross their midline, which makes them smarter. The midline of our body runs between the nose and belly button. Doing activities that cross over it cause the hemispheres [of the brain] to work concurrently, building ridges of neural activity between them. By crossing over, a synchronization of eyes and ears takes place and whole body movement occurs. This makes the brain open to learning and allows children to retain new material and enjoy a more integrated use of their eyes, ears and body for improved reading, writing and spelling. There's no better way to accomplish this than hand clapping during songs!"

So, while the statistics are certainly persuasive, parents shouldn't panic if they have not enrolled their infants in the local conservatory. Exposure to music does not have to be strictly academic to produce benefits.

Carey Youngblood, owner and director of Austin's Heartsong Music, makes are convincing case for simply creating the opportunity for your child to make music. Heartsong Music teaches a music and movement program called Music Together to children newborn through age 5 and the grown-ups who love them.  It is a research-based program in which children participate in many playful activities at their own level and when they are ready.  Performance is not required.  The teacher acts as a guide and helps facilitate musical growth as opposed to instructing and setting goals to be attained as in formal music lessons.

Ms Youngblood's teaching philosophies are informed by her training as an AMI certified Montessori teacher.

"Maria Montessori used the scientific method to study children's natural learning processes," Youngblood explains.  "She found that the child absorbs the culture they are in effortlessly and without fatigue between the ages of 0 - 6.  Whatever the child is exposed to is internalized by the child and accepted into the child's own being, imprinted on his soul.  If a child is surrounded with music, the child will be a musical person.  If a child hears their parents singing, the child will sing."

So, while formal music lessons are a wonderful gift for a child, simply "bringing music making back into the home," as Youngblood describes it, creates the environing culture of music that children absorb. Parents and children of any level of musical competency can enjoy singing together in the car, clapping or dancing along with music, or making music with instruments.

You don't have to be a professional music educator to give your children the gift of music. Youngblood refers to Maria Montessori's comment, "Education is not something that the teacher does. It is a natural process which develops spontaneously." That kind of education sounds like fun.

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Our pastor preached the following sermon at church this past January. It firmed up my determination to win this race. Until we've got more people who are willing to fight for the most powerless in the Capitol, we'll continue to get what I believe are truly immoral budgets that hurt the most vulnerable- children, the poor and the elderly. I'm a Democrat in part because the Democratic Party supports my views on doing what is right in terms of children and other vulnerable populations, I don't hve to fight my party to support what I believe are moral and just positions.

Kathi

A Demon in our Midst

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon by Greg McDonell, pastor of Central Presbyterian Church, Jan. 2006

I want to say up front this morning that I had a sermon ready to deliver to you but put it away for another day.  The reason being is that I heard a remarkable woman speak this week about a demon in our midst. But before I name that demon: a reading from the Gospel of Mark.

Read Mark 1:21-28

Jesus spoke, we are told, as one having authority.  They must have seen in his face and heard in his voice something that touched them deeply.deeper than what they had been hearing from the scribes.  They were astonished.  Something touched their very souls like never before.

I had such an experience this week when I visited the Carver Cultural Center here in Austin and heard the voice of Marian Wright Edleman, founder and current President of the Children's Defense Fund in Washington, DC.  I have read some of her work but had never heard her speak.

Most of you know how the children of this church light up my life. You look at them and you wonder if what I am about to say today could possibly be true.  But rest assured it is. You see, the demon in our midst today is the neglect of our precious children.  The present condition was not created over night but has grown worse in recent years.  We can point the finger of responsibility in almost any direction, at any political party, at institutional structures, and most disturbingly at ourselves.

But finger pointing will never dismiss the demon.  First and foremost we must name and claim that such a demon truly exists and then commit our wills to its exit.

So this morning I am going, with the help of the Children's Defense Fund to draw an image of this demon and then suggest a few ways we might become part of the solution rather than the problem

I will confess that you will be fed a diet of statistics that won't taste very good.  You will want to spit them out, but before you do let the bitterness linger just a little while.

The United States, the most powerful and materially rich nation in the world, is so spiritually poor it chooses to let children be the poorest age group and to suffer multiple preventable deprivations. Millions of children lack health care when they are sick, lack enough food to stave off hunger, are homeless when their parents cannot find affordable housing, and lack safe, quality childcare and after school programs when parents have to work.  Millions of poor children are denied early Head Start and quality preschool experience to help them get ready for school.  Millions more children in our schools cannot read or write and are dropping out of school into a "cradle to prison" pipeline of hopelessness and despair that routes them to juvenile detention and adult jail rather than to jobs or college.  And millions of children are struggling to grow up in working poor families who are playing by America's rules but still cannot earn fair wages from their employers or get enough support from their government to escape poverty or better themselves.

I'm talking about the children.

Here is a look at ONE DAY in the life of America's Children.

1                          mother dies in childbirth

4                          children are killed by abuse and neglect

5                          children or teens commit suicide

8                          children or teens are killed by firearms

77                      babies die before their first birthday

177                  children are arrested for violent crimes

375                  children are arrested for drug abuse

390                  babies are born to mothers who received late or no prenatal care.

860                  babies are born at low birth weight.

1,186      babies are born to teen mothers

1,900      public school students are corporally punished

2,076      babies are born without health care

2,341      babies are born to mothers who are not HS graduates

2,385      babies are born into poverty

4, 262      children are arrested

16,964     public school children are suspended

EVERY DAY OF EVERY WEEK IN THE MOST POWERFUL AND MATERIALLY RICH COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!!

Is something wrong with that picture?  This is about the children!

Ok, you are probably saying.that doesn't look very good, but how about the less powerful and rich nations how do we compare?

     Among the industrialized nations, the United States ranks:

1^st in military technology

1^st in military exports

1^st in Gross Domestic Products

1^st in the number of millionaires and billionaires

1^st in health technology

1^st in defense expenditures

1^st in the number of people in prison

12^th in living standards among our poorest one-fifth of children

13^th in the gap between the rich and poor children

14^th in efforts to lift children out of poverty

18^th in the percent of children in poverty

22^nd in low birth weight rates

25^th in infant mortality

Next to last among donors in the proportion of GDP devoted to international aid to impoverished peoples.

Next to last among 16 industrial countries in the proportion of GDP devoted to income support for non-elderly families.

Last among industrialized countries in the proportion of children living in poverty after all income sources are counted.

Last in protecting our children against gun violence

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. children under the age of 15 are:

9                          times as likely to die in a firearms accident

11          times as likely to commit suicide with a gun

16                      times as likely to be murdered with a gun

as children in 25 other industrialized countries COMBINED.    

Of the 191 members of the United Nations, the United States of America and Somalia (which has no legally constituted government) are the only two nations that have failed to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Children.

The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not provide guaranteed prenatal care for every pregnant woman.

Have you had enough? Have I left a bitter taste in your mouth or are you just bitter toward your pastor today? It's about the children!  It's about the children!

Oh, I could go on and on and tell you how we spend two times as much per prisoner than we do per public school student.  Or, that we have 9.1 million uninsured children in the United States.  More than half of them live in six states.Texas being one of them.

I'm talking about children!

"And they went to Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.  And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority.  And immediately there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.."

There is an unclean spirit in our midst - a demon that is being ignored at the very peril of our existence.  I suppose you can tell that Marian Wright Edelman has re-raised a deep moral issue that we are all facing.   I could even have thoughts of our Mission Team revisiting our missions and restructuring our mission with a new a more narrow focus:  Focus on THE CHILDREN!!!!

"And Jesus rebuked him saying, 'Be silent, and come out of him.'" And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.

         The Good News is that Jesus has the authority to enlist us in this noble and moral cause to defeat this demon in our midst.  The Good News is that the resources are available.  We only lack the will to make it happen.  One obvious example is that a mere portion of the recent tax breaks given to the 1% of the richest people in America would fund health care insurance for every child in our land.

This is, for me, a major moral issue.  Here are a few suggestions offered by the Children's Defense Fund:

1.      Wake up, Stand up and speak up to change leaders, policies, practices and systems that hurt children

2.      Insist on just tax and budget choices that protect rather than assault children

3.      Struggle to build a nation for all children regardless of the political and economic climate.

4.      Set some goals and action plans for achieving them, and keep moving until we reach them

5.      Never give up or lose hope - You see we all should be working at something simply because it is good to do so.

6.      Be a faithful and informed witness for children in prayer and action

You see, I'm talking about the children..It's about the children!

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Here's an interesting poll, from March, 2006

EDUCATION POLL FINDINGS

Highlights of the new poll on Texas education:

47% say public schools should be the top priority for state government ( 23% said health care, the second choice)

69% say the state should spend more on education

59% want to put more money into state education initiatives (33% would instead focus funding on schools and teachers based on standardized test scores)

58% want a pay raise for all teachers (34% want a merit-pay system for teachers)

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Most say school testing overemphasized

Bipartisan poll finds fewer stress tax cuts; Perry dismisses results

08:45 AM CST on Wednesday, February 22, 2006

By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN -- As millions of students take the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills this week, a new poll indicates that a majority of Texans believe that the state's public schools put too much emphasis on such tests.

The statewide survey, conducted jointly by leading Democratic and Republican pollsters, also indicated that lower school property taxes may not be as important to the average Texan as they are to the state's GOP leaders.

Asked to cite the state's most important priority, 47 percent of respondents said it was public education.

Sixteen percent said cutting property taxes should be the top concern of the Legislature and the state.

That finding comes as Gov. Rick Perry prepares to call a special session on school finance this spring, with a massive property tax cut at the top of the agenda. Mr. Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick all support a tax swap that would cut school property taxes and raise taxes on businesses and consumers.

"For over three years, state leaders have stuck their heads in the sand and ignored the majority of Texans who want the state to make a real commitment to supporting and improving our children's schools," said Donna New Haschke, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, which paid for the poll.

Noting that state leaders want a "revenue-neutral" plan that provides little new money for schools, Ms. Haschke said: "The public disagrees. This bipartisan survey ... shows the leadership's greatest failure has been on insisting on doing too little instead of trying to do too much for our schools."

Mr. Perry dismissed the numbers, saying, "I don't pay a lot of attention to special-interest polls. We make our decisions based on what is in the best interest of the schoolchildren of Texas."

Mr. Perry also said lower property taxes will be a high priority in an upcoming special legislative session, regardless of the poll.

In ruling the current school finance system unconstitutional in November, the Supreme Court gave the Legislature until June 1 to come up with a new funding plan.

On student testing, always one of the hottest topics in public education, 56 percent of those polled said there is too much emphasis on testing. About 27 percent said the state has the right amount of testing, and 13 percent said there is not enough emphasis on exams.

The survey of 803 Texas voters was conducted from Jan. 22-26 by Republican pollster Ed Goeas of the Tarrance Group and Democratic pollster Paul Harstad of Harstad Strategic Research. It has an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percent, meaning the results can vary that much in either direction. Among those polled, 47 percent identified themselves as Republicans and 30 percent as Democrats.

Also in the poll, most respondents gave their local schools good grades for performance, with 59 percent saying they deserved either an A or B. Ten percent gave either a D or F.

When asked about all public schools in Texas, however, the evaluations dropped. Twelve percent said schools are in good shape; 23 percent said schools are in bad shape and not getting better. Nearly 63 percent said schools were improving.

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Here's the sermon that Dr. Roger Paynter, First Baptist Church, Austin, preached on Good Friday.

I thought it was very good and wanted to share it.

I'm not trying to convert anyone, but just liked that this sermon met, head on, the abuses that are going on, perpetuated by our governement, most of whom claim be the Christians.

Kathi