by James Dreyer

Created on: July 27, 2007

There is excitement in Mrs. Johnson's elementary classroom. It's Little Johnny's birthday tomorrow and he is telling all of his classmates that his mom is going to bring cupcakes and cookies and punch. Wow...a party.

Mrs. Johnson overheard the children and reluctantly approached the excited group.
"Johnny", she said, "We can acknowledge your birthday tomorrow, but we can't have a party. You see, the government thinks we have too many parties and that you children are exposed to too many FMNVs (Foods of Minimal Nutritional Value) and they have mandated that we can't have cake and cookies and punch."

The look on Little Johnny's face was one of shock, horror, and sadness all combined into one.

Mrs. Johnson added, "But we can have your name announced during morning announcements and I have a really cute Happy Birthday pencil that you can have. You can even use it during our spelling test tomorrow. How about that?"

Yeah, how about that. The government is regulating parties and what parents can provide for their children to eat at our schools at all levels. Parties are forbidden and celebrations of special occasions are quite limited.

We all realize that our public schools are funded with public monies; you know, tax dollars. Our Legislatures at the Federal and State levels has taken this to mean that they are in total control of what occurs in ALL public schools. They seem to think that all regions of our country are alike and that what is good for one is good for another.

Lawmakers have taken the majority of the control from the Local Education Agency. They are mandating what needs to be taught and how it needs to be taught. They have enacted mandates that they expect local districts to implement and do not supply the funding necessary to implement those mandates. The burden then falls upon the local taxpayers.

Most of what the Legislature enacts is outrageously out of place. Laws are enacted that ensure that our schools teach sex education, but they expect abstinence to be taught. Most of our kids today have been exposed to sex in some form or fashion by the age of ten. It behooves us to teach them to practice safe sex if they are going to practice sex at all. Yes, we should emphasize abstinence, but common sense tells us that we need to be sure and tell our children how to prevent the spread of disease and decrease the possibility of unwanted pregnancy as well.

Laws are on the books that say it is illegal to carry a look alike weapon onto a school campus. There is nothing

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