Census Bureau to Kids: Tell Your Parents We Won’t Tell INS
While illegal immigrants send families back to Mexico as the heralded stimulus fails to stimulate the economy, and while tea party participants make their voices heard through elections of Republicans, fat and happy government workers continue in their missions of padding electoral rolls for Democrats. Among these are Census Bureau officials, who are scheduled to spend $133 million between January and May to get people to fill out their forms arriving in March.
Among the outreach efforts is the Census in Schools program, aimed at getting students to serve as go-betweens for the Census Bureau and parents (with educational materials as a bonus). One of these events included Bancroft Elementary School in Wilmington, Delaware, where students last month donned Census 2010 t-shirts and were visited by Sesame Street characters; Democrat Senator Tom Carper; Governor Jack Markell; Anthony W. Miller, deputy secretary of the Department of Education; and Robert M. Groves, director of the U.S. Census Bureau. Earlier this month, Florida Governor Charlie Crist launched the Census in Schools program in North Miami.
I tried to visit such program activities in Georgia. When I first talked to Pamela Page-Bellis of the Atlanta Regional Census Center, she enthused over the phone that some schools hold “full-fledged large events,” while others just take advantage of Census Bureau curricula. She would get me some information about activities at Atlanta-area schools, she promised. Then she asked me which publication I wrote for. She did not return subsequent phone calls.
The Census Bureau offers school principals with curriculum materials in social studies and math. But principals are also enjoined to “use social studies, English language arts, math, and mapping skills to educate students about the census.” The Census Bureau openly states that its curriculum “seeks to enlist students as advocates for participation in the 2010 census, in their homes and communities, especially in communities that might otherwise be undercounted or overlooked and, as a result may lose out on a wide range of benefits” (emphases retained). Read: federal aid, especially for illegal immigrants.
In November, the Census Bureau sent representatives to the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) conference in Atlanta, one of the many efforts of political and ideological groups there. Census Bureau representatives also visited the meetings of the National Alliance of Black School Educators and the National Council of Teachers of English.
Assembled social studies teachers earning graduate or continuing education credit heard from the Census Bureau’s Linda Bennett that it’s a matter of money from the feds: schools that want money for programs for non-English-speaking students need an accurate count of such students — confidentiality guaranteed. Bennett went to great pains to describe the measures taken at every level of the bureaucratic chain to ensure that Census Bureau officials do not obtain identification of respondents, much less pass it on to immigration officials. Such assurances about confidentiality are repeated in the letter sent home with students. (But while the feds have put their efforts into educating students about keeping parents safe from immigration officials, they seem not to have done such a good job in ensuring that census canvassers do not have criminal records.)
The leftist Scholastic magazine, which had a ubiquitous presence at the conference, prepared the Census Bureau curriculum materials. The materials for high school students emphasize the need for an accurate count in order to ensure compliance with the Fair Housing Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. They also mention redistricting.
Perhaps that is the motivation for Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who barely squeaked past his white and more business-friendly opponent Mary Norwood in the November election. He requested $100,000 from a city council that is dealing with a severe budget crisis, crumbling infrastructure, and rampant crime. This is in addition to the $3,500 allocated by the Census Bureau for additional “census outreach” aimed at hard-to-count groups, according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Dan Chapman, who attended a media brunch hosted by Jerry Gonzalez’s Georgia Latino Complete Count Committee. (The Georgia Latino Complete Count Committee seemingly supplements the official Georgia Complete Count Committee.) Since that December luncheon with advocacy journalists, Chapman has been beating the drums for an accurate count, editorializing in a news article that “some members of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s statewide census committee aren’t considered welcoming toward undocumented immigrants who are as legally entitled to be counted as Perdue himself.” Chapman’s favorite source, Jerry Gonzalez, is also president of GALEO, an organization that promotes the Dream Act, which grants legal status to certain children of illegal aliens, namely those who are good students. (The Dream Act was promoted at the NCSS conference as well.)
But what the flagging economy can’t do, the Census Bureau seems to be trying to do: to make illegal aliens feel welcome and comfortable enough to report their numbers. They’re using children to reach parents, particularly those who don’t speak English and whose legal status is questionable. That legal status is not a concern of the Census Bureau, as evidenced also by their video of a boot maker who says in Spanish that he came here to work. How did he get here? Does he have a green card? Those questions are not addressed.
What I saw at the NCSS conference indicates that teachers and government entities collude without reservation in indoctrinating children, when they think they are speaking amongst themselves. It is difficult to get answers from the Census Bureau when they know you do not share their and teachers’ views. Phone calls went unreturned and Page-Bellis, whose cell phone voicemail tells reporters to leave a message with deadlines, did not return my call.
All this suggests that many things are going on behind school doors with government officials that they don’t want you to know.
For a full description of how the Census Bureau and other government and ideological groups use the classroom, see my report, “Indoctrination without Apology: Social Studies Teachers Share Strategies on How to Mold Students” (published by America’s Survival, Inc.).
Reason #68352448678990 why the “acedemic-media” complex should be broken up.
Reason #73624869725 why you should not send your kids to the government indoctrination centers.
The title of this article is laughable. Why should citizen children of “illegals” fear that their parents would be reported? Can you tell me of any other governmental agency and/or school district that reports illegals to INS and INS follows through with an arrest and deportation? Like Deep Throat said, “follow the money”. Illegals are nothing more than widgets in a liberal government system to create more jobs. Government jobs. Hello Socialism………
Why continue to fight this corrupt system we now live in?
I find myself involved so deeply that I cannot think of anything else.
The time is getting close to where words won’t matter any longer.
I’m in my 60′s now……… this country lost me in the last 10 yrs when the governmment encouraged illegal immigrants to come and stay. A law of course had to be broken to do this and continue to allow it. So some laws we follow and some we don’t? who decides? at the point this became evident I am no longer a supporter of this corrupt system, dem/repub/socialist/ I don’t care…… and now, taxation without representation describes where I am….. a pox on all leeches.
How is the census a liberal tool? The Census in Schools program was conducted the entire 8 years of the Bush Administration and would have continued if McCain were elected. Federal agencies cannot access personal census files, and that law has been on the books for many years. By law, everyone must respond to the census, so why not tell students to encourage their parents to fill out the forms?
Since the census is required in the Constitution, originally for apportionment and taxation (federal taxes were levied on the States, not the citizens) the issue of legality was left to the States. The only federal rule was the one on slaves being counted as 3/5ths of a citizen.
Since we are now all federal, the feds should set the rules. If they want to include felons, incarcerated criminals, and others of this kind, we should not be surprised that mere law breakers, like illegal aliens will and should be counted. Of course this implies that this type of person is a constituent, but considering the number of elected officials that are (or will be) convicted criminals, it seems fair.
I do think that the data should be collected, if for no other reason that at some point it will be obvious that non native born residents should be able to become president. It would also be useful to find out where these type of people are from, not to persecute but to annex their home as an additional state.
For example, here in my home in Chicago we have the largest population of Poles outside of Warsaw. I figure if we can increase that number we can make Poland the 51st state. If we can do that with Poland, just think of the other places we would find the task easier.
We are a representative form of government. But I will admit that in my dotage I have been unable to figure out of what.
Michele Bachmann has been warning people about the census for almost a year now.
She has stated that the census is unconstitutional and she urges people in her district not to fill out the forms.
In this case conservatives should stand up and NOT be counted.
Posters are stating that the census is Law……… reference my previous post, why should we elect to follow this law, since our gov picks and chooses which laws they will follow? the Gov. refuses to send people from our country that enter it illegally, and they (gov) illegally/immorally give these people welfare, foodstamps etc…. why should I follow any law unless I choose to? this law stuff is a two way street….
Michele Bachmann’s stance isn’t too smart. Minnesota is close to losing a House seat, and a poor count will eliminate her job.
Yeah!!! Don’t respond to the census so you can lose your representation!!!
Great idea!!!
This is a distinctly different program. I am not quite sure what a previous poster thinks was in the schools and what is being pushed now. My wife is a teacher at a local elementary school. The material she received is new, it is nothing like material received in previous years and it is not merely informational in terms of posters or outlines for assemblies. It is a complete, slick program designed to supplant existing teaching material so as to incorporate propaganda about the census into every part of the curriculum. It will decrease the time spent on teaching the locally approved curriculum and use of the limited instructional time dedicated to reading, writing, math and core subjects. It is aimed at enlisting the students to badger their parents and is premised on some notion that not filling out all sorts of census questions will result in missing out on goodies to be provided by Uncle Sam. It basically says, if you don’t grab yours, someone else is going to get it.
Actually, Michele Bachmann is showing good conservative priciples by pushing a boycott of the census.
A good conservative believes in limited government. Bachmann is just trying to eliminate a seat.
Considering that the choice of which seat to eliminate is with the DFL, she is sacrificing her own seat for her principles.
As an added bonus. Minnesota will also lose a seat in the Electoral College. Minnesota has voted for Democrats for president since 1976. Losing Bachmann’s seat will help the GOP in the long run.
Good work Michele!
Which of these quotes is not American?
“That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity;”
Virginia Bill of Rights
” That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people, in assembly, ought to be free; and that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for publick uses without their own consent, or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented, for the publick good.”
Virginia Bill of Rights
“That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.”
Virginia Bill of Rights
“Bad principles in a Govt. tho slow are sure in their operation, and will gradually destroy it.”
A. Hamilton
“Equal laws, protecting equal rights, are found, as they ought to be presumed, the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country;…”
J. Madison
“[T]he right of electing the members of the government constitutes more particularly the essence of a free and responsible government.”
J. Madison
“[M]en cannot be justly bound by laws, in making which they have no share.”
J. Madison
” Extreme cases of oppression justify… a resort to the original right of resistance, a right belonging to every community, under every form of Government…”
J. Madison
As teachers, we have to educate every child that walks into our classroom, regardless of the fact of whether they are legal or not. This is why more $ for our school is needed, and an accurate census count be collected. Your issue is with immigration, so take it up with them instead of atacking the schools.