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8A ♦ SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2007 Chambliss talks about Peach Care, water and war Sen. Saxby Chambliss called the other date to update me and you on a num ber of issues currently ricochet ing around Washington, including continued federal funding for the State Children’s Insurance Program, known in Georgia as Peach Care. The program autho rizes states to provide health care coverage to “targeted low-i n c o m e children” who are not eligible WlliK i- ' Dick Yarbrough Columnist yarb24op@bellsouth.net for Medicaid and who are unin sured. Chambliss calls Georgia’s Peach Care the “model” program among state efforts. Under Peach Care children receive health benefits including dental care and vision care with a maximum premium of S7O for two or more children over six years of age. With some 284,000 chil dren enrolled, Georgia ranks fifth nationally in size. Only California, New York, Florida and Texas all larger states have enrolled more chil- Public school follies: Forget math - lon go with Yoga Ed instead The surgeon general really needs to slap a health warning on The New York Times. My blood pressure increases a few points every time I read it. This week, - the newspa per of record pimped the Next Great American Education Fad: In school yoga class es. ISL Jgfil HHp Michelle Malkin Columnist malkin@comcast.net According to the piece, “Less Homework, More Yoga, From a Principal Who Hates Stress,” the head of Needham High School in the Boston suburbs is pushing “stress reduction” through better stretching and breathing. Principal Paul Richards, who last earned nationwide mockery when he ditched publishing the honor roll, is part-Oprah, part-Deepak Chopra, part- Richard Simmons and all edu-babble. “It’s not that I’m trying to turn the culture upside down,” he’s quoted telling the Times. “It’s very impor tant to protect the part of the culture that leads to all the achievement,” he said. “It’s more about bringing the culture to a healthier place.” And here I thought high school principals should t#i*f lallk; "Wrnme W<mWmfe Ist BLe.ai<a!jta'g *®» C*aassi*Bßi*®M« Run Your Employment Ad With Us, And You’ll Find Them! $2 so per line per day $ 13°° per column incli display JafWnw Ml 'ln our brief conversation, Chambliss sounded like a man who thoroughly enjoys his job as Georgia's senior senator. He didn't say so, but I suspect he wouldn't mind another six years at it if you give him the opportunity next year." dren. To qualify, a family of four must have a maximum income of $48,527, or 225 percent above the poverty level. The federal govern ment provides roughly 73 percent of the dollars, the state puts in the rest. Now comes the tug-of-war between the White House and Congress, Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conserva tives and special interest groups of all stripes using needy children as pawns. The White House recent ly vetoed a Democratic bill that would have expanded the program by $35 billion. Congress has so far failed to override the veto. Liberal media and the Democratic leadership accuse Republicans of being “against children.” “That’s absurd,” Chambliss says, “I’ve never voted not to cover children. make schooling, not “bring ing the culture to a health ier place,” their top priority. Silly me. Welcome to your new Nanny State night mare. Yoga classes are now a requirement for Needham high school seniors. To further ease the supposed burden on overworked stu dents, Richards has “asked teachers to schedule home work-free weekends and holidays.” Just what we need to turn around those one in 10 schools that are now considered “dropout factories,” huh? Can’t cut it in the classroom? Bend like a bridge, take five deep, slow breaths, and all will be dandy. Why stop at yoga? Tantric chanting, here we come. And, hey, Kabbalah has done wonders for Madonna. Let’s add hypnotism and acupunc ture classes while we’re at it. Hot stone massages? Bonsai tree-clipping? No Relaxation Technique Left Behind! Some point to a number of tragic student suicides to justify larding up the school day with Tree Poses and Sun Salutations. But the school officials themselves admit the deaths were not related to stress. No matter. Richards is using them to forge ahead with “a move ment to push back against an ethos of super-achievement at affluent suburban high schools amid the extreme competition over college admissions.” It appears Line Ads Deadline: 2 day* prior at 4pm Display Ads Deadline: 2 days prior at Noon Cot! UaAt 478-987-1823 or fox: 4 78-988-9 194 or email: nlco/«c(®erofoe>vit#>oper«.com What I am opposed to is the effort to expand the program to adults 1 and raise the eligibility to over 400 percent of the poverty level,” or an annual income of roughly SBO,OOO. With state officials hammering him on one side for money for Peach Care and liberal lawmakers on the other side blatantly trying to make political hay of the issue, does the senator feel caught in the middle? “I can’t worry about that,” he says. “I just want to be sure the program is not discontinued, and I don’t think it will be.” Chambliss says a continuing res olution can maintain the program for at least another 18 months until the differences can be worked out. “And they will be,” he pre dicts. Chambliss is not quite as opti mistic about the state’s water cri- there are now more than 40 other high schools and middle schools that embrace the “Stressed Out Students” agenda. There’s another yoga curriculum popular in California, Yoga Ed., that has trained 10,000 teachers in more than 100 schools nationwide. And guess what else I dis covered after trying to find out whether yoga was com ing to a school near me? We are paying for this nonsense. The Yoga Ed. program, cre ated by Hollywood spouse/ socialite Tara Guber, was funded with taxpayer grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the fed eral Carol M. White Physical Education Program. Bit by bit, the dumbed down cult of mediocrity, secu lar extremism and multicul tural madness has infected American public education. Instead of concentrating on the basics and then teaching children to manage and con quer their “stress” through internal discipline, we’re removing every last source of possible damage to their egos. Math test scores have plummeted. Solution: Remove the U.S. from inter national competitions. Students are failing. Solution: Hide the honor rolls so the under-achievers don’t feel bad. Elementary pupils don’t like drills and spelling tests. Solution: Fuzzy math and inventive spelling. OPINION Families can’t manage their time. Solution: Less homework, more yoga. “A lot of these kids,” lec tures Richards, “are being held hostage to the culture.” No kidding. When The New York Times invited one of Richards’ students to recom mend stress-reduction tech niques, he ended with this suggestion: “Watch a short clip on You Tube (as long as you are not addicted). The amazing and often funny feats on the site are inspiring and often leave you feeling, ‘Hey I want to do that!’ This is a great attitude to have towards your work.” Watch feats of stupidity on You Tube. Yeah, that’ll do wonders for American stu PA Cbvfetvnift P^iniSS^ |Mj\ It is that time of year again! We are so excited about this 'm&k year’s Christmas Parade, which will be held Saturday, SMr December Ist at 2:00 p.m., with the line-up starting at 1:00 ■ p.m. Perry has always had a wonderful Christmas spirit, and with your help, we hope to make this parade a huge success. Please take a few moments to fill out this application for the parade. Fax back to one of the numbers listed below. NO ENTRY FEE W Name of Group/Business/Unit: W Responsible/Contact: 'W Address: Daytime Phone: Fax: Email: I Type (Float, Queen, Dance Team, VIP, etc.): I Description of Float (if know): ■|| | If Float, what type of vehicle will be used to pull it? How many units (floats, vehicles, etc.) will you have? | Ml Est. number of people in group (including driver): V TJkWiU your entry include music? Yes No flWr —: Please return this form to Melanie Lewis, Houston Springs Resort, 105 Fairway Oaks Dr.. Perry, Georgia 31069 or via fax number (478) 988-8093 no later than November 19th. The rules and requirements will be sent back to you as soon as the application is received. If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to Melanie. . Thank you. Houston Springs An Active Aduet Resort Community 478-988-8100 ext.llo4 Fax: 478-988-8093 150606 sis. After our conversation, he was headed to the White House to hand deliver a note from the Georgia con gressional delegation expressing its unanimous view that the Corps of Engineers must stop releasing billions of gallons of water from Georgia’s lakes for the mussels in Florida. He had high praise for Gov. Sonny Perdue’s efforts to curb water usage, in the state and to pressure the Corps of Engineers to release less water but also recog nized the strong opposition from the governors of Alabama and Florida to Perdue’s efforts. “Somehow we are going to have to get the governors together here in Washington to work things out, including how much water is available and how much everyone needs,” he says. That effort is now underway. Chambliss says a good short term solution would be to get the corps to rewrite its outdated water control manuals, which provide guidelines and usage allocations. He feels rewritten guidelines could mean more water for Georgia without harming the ecosystem downstream. The long-term solu dent achievement. The only ones who need stress reduction right now are parents fed up with this runaway idiocy. If you think educrats are going to recover their senses any time soon, Middle Georgia’s Largest Selection Of Lighting Fixtures P| southern] A kii LIGHTING 7| i HOME LIQHTINQ CENTER iQyliyOl Est. 1987 Fans, Framed Prints y Lamps & Framed Mirrors 929-0624 Hours: Mon-Frt 8:30-5:30 _ _ . _ . mm sat 10 -2 Pm 2508 Moody Road 55717 HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL tion, he says, is the construction of more reservoirs. But that’s years away and will cost billions of dol lars. I asked him about the war in Iraq. Chambliss says the rhetoric in Washington is more subdued these days because “we are win ning. The tide has shifted in Iraq. Things are improving and the Democrats know it.” As a result, he predicts that you should see “significant” troop withdrawals by the end of 2008, as Iraqis take more control over the governance of their country. There were a number of other issues I wanted to ask him about, but the White House was wait ing. In our brief conversation, Chambliss sounded like a man who thoroughly enjoys his job as Georgia’s senior senator. He didn’t say so, but I suspect he wouldn’t mind another six years at it if you give him the opportunity next year. After listening to what he has to put up with in Washington, he can have it. You can reach Dick Yarbrough at yarb24oo@bellsouth.net, P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139, or Web site: www.dickyarbrough.com. well, you know, don’t hold your breath. Michelle Malkin is author of Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild. Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com. 478-988-9193 55414