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Christian Schools Vastly Outperforming Public Schools Amid Pandemic

At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Christian education shined.

While only 8% of public school parents could say their children’s schools never closed, 26% of parents with kids in Christian schools did, according to a newly released survey by the Herzog Foundation.

“Parents of children in Christian schools are far more satisfied with their child’s education during COVID than the parents of children in public schools,” reported the study’s authors, Todd Graves and Jacob Hawkins.

Eighty percent of Christian school parents are satisfied with their children’s experiences, while 55% of parents with kids in public schools are satisfied. The study also revelealed, though, that 41% of public school parents are “unsatisfied with their child’s education during COVID.”

“The survey found that, during the pandemic, Christian school parents found it easier to manage their child’s time, communicate with teachers, manage their child’s assignments, and were better able to keep up their child’s morale than the parents of children in public schools,” Graves wrote in a column for RealClear Education.

In addition to COVID-induced restrictions, parents are worried about the public school systems infusing critical race theory into their curricula.

Seventy percent of respondents said they do not believe their children’s schools should be teaching that “white people are inherently privileged and black people and others are oppressed.”

The new data about the success Christian schools are experiencing comes as more and more parents are transitioning to full-time homeschooling.

For example, Yvonne Bunn, director of homeschool support and government affairs with Home Educators Association of Virginia, told CBN News in July that there has been “over a 48% increase in homeschoolers for the last year” in Virginia alone.

“I do think a lot of parents are going to continue homeschool,” she said. “They’re not happy with what’s going on. Parents are wanting to move in the direction of doing something else, even the parents who work. We’ve been amazed by the number who want to continue to work from home so they can continue to teach their children.”

Masking Children Doesn’t Stop COVID Transmission: CDC Report

CDC says “required mask use among students was not statistically significant compared with schools where mask use was optional.”

QUICK FACTS:
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a report on May 28 explaining that schools that required mask-wearing had no benefit compared to schools that did not require their students to wear masks.
  • The CDC speculated that the fact that masks do not help to lower incidence of Covid-19 infection “might also result from differences in mask-wearing behavior among students in schools with optional requirements.”
  • The report also showed that schools that improved ventilation saw a 35–48% lessening of Covid-19 incidence, suggesting that “there are opportunities for many schools to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission through improved ventilation.”
  • While the CDC report does recommend “universal and correct mask use among teachers and staff members” as well as “improved ventilation” in schools, it does not recommend masking children as an effective strategy for mitigating the spread of coronavirus.
BACKGROUND:
  • The CDC’s findings come as U.S. school districts consider reimposing (here, here) mask mandates among children.
  • Doctors from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Tufts Children’s Hospital have explained that masking children can be “abusive,” saying the “theory that masks can’t do any harm” simply “isn’t true.” These doctors emphasize the fact that “there’s no science behind mask mandates for children.” On the contrary, they go on to point out how masking children can cause “severe acne and other skin problems,” “distracts some children from learning,” can “lead to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood,” “may exacerbate anxiety or breathing difficulties for some students,” “can alter facial development,” and even cause “psychological harm.”
  • The Telegraph recently reported that Sweden’s decision to imposed “no lockdowns” during the Covid-19 phenomenon actually “led to better mental health, a healthier economy and happier schoolchildren.”
  • Comparing countries differing in their requirements to mask students, New York magazine recently noted that to date there is “no evidence of more outbreaks in schools in those countries [that “exempted students from mask mandates”] relative to schools in the U.S., where the solid majority of kids wore masks for an entire academic year and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”

Jon Fleetwood is Managing Editor for American Faith and author of “An American Revival: Why American Christianity Is Failing & How to Fix It.

CA Gov. Newsom Praises News Outlet Owned by Chinese Communist Party

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D., Calif.) earlier this month spoke at the annual gala for a pro-Beijing newspaper that has registered as a foreign agent of China due to its influence activities in the United States.

Newsom lauded Sing Tao for its “journalistic integrity” and for providing “balanced news stories” to its readers. He also said the newspaper, which publishes daily in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City, has helped Chinese Americans acclimate to California.

Sing Tao is considered a pro-Beijing news outlet. Its owners are members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a government advisory group controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. One of the owners, Charles Ho, last year defended a national security law that has been used to arrest pro-democracy journalists in Hong Kong. The Department of Justice required Sing Tao to register this month under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law aimed at tracking foreign influence in the United States. Chinese state-controlled news outlets like CGTN, China Daily, and Xinhua have also registered with the Justice Department as foreign agents.

Newsom’s praise for the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece comes as he is campaigning to remain in office. Newsom’s opponents cited California’s high tax rates, homelessness problem, and lax enforcement of immigration laws as reasons to recall the Democrat.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) has also praised Sing Tao. The “Squad” leader thanked the newspaper in June 2020 for covering a roundtable discussion she held for foreign-language media outlets. Her campaign paid $728 to Sing Tao in April 2021 for ads touting the coronavirus vaccine and $2,755 for ads in June 2020, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Rep. Grace Meng (N.Y.), another progressive Democrat, has paid $12,364 to Sing Tao through her campaign since 2012, the most of any lawmaker.

Former Rep. Ed Royce (R., Calif.) paid for $6,600 worth of ads in 2016. Royce, who was chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee until his retirement in 2019, is currently a registered lobbyist for Chinese tech giant Tencent.

The Democratic National Committee said in May that it would place ads with Sing Tao and other newspapers to raise awareness about hate crimes against the Asian-American community. The Republican National Committee paid $2,855 to the newspaper in November 2020.

Sing Tao has had most of its success cozying up to policymakers in California.

Chesa Boudin, the progressive San Francisco district attorney, spoke at the Sing Tao gala. Boudin, who once worked as a translator for the government of Hugo Chavez, the late Venezuelan communist dictator, touted an endorsement from Sing Tao during his campaign in 2019.

Like Newsom, Boudin faces a recall in San Francisco. His critics say his criminal justice reform efforts have caused a dramatic spike in crime. Chinese-American activists have criticized Boudin amid a spike in attacks against elderly people of Asian descent in San Francisco. Many of the activists blame Boudin’s soft-on-crime policies and support his recall, according to the New York Times.

San Francisco mayor London Breed (D.) and state senator Scott Wiener (D.) also spoke at the Sing Tao gala.

Newsom, Ocasio-Cortez, and the Democratic National Committee did not respond to requests for comment.

China takes aim at private funds

China’s increased scrutiny of capital markets isn’t restricted to tech IPOs. It’s also taking a harder look at private funds.

Driving the news: China’s top securities regulator, Yi Huiman, today said in a speech that VC and buyout fund managers must better align their interests with those of limited partners, adding that the government is dedicated to rooting out embezzlement and public equities masquerading as private equities.

  • Huiman also decried public solicitation for private funds, which he said are at “in a critical period of transformation and development.”

By the numbers: Chinese private equity and VC funds manage an estimated $2 trillion, more than tripling over the past four years. A lot of that growth was actively encouraged, and sometimes even directly enabled, by a government that believed its private sector was too reliant on bank lending.

The bottom line: This was a shot across the bow; a “clean your room or else” sort of message. If it’s not heeded, Chinese regulators might be much more prescriptive, or even punitive, the next time around.

Video: Does the Virus Exist? Has SARS-CoV-2 Been Isolated? Interview with Christine Massey

(Global Research) The Chinese authorities announced on January 7, 2020 that they had isolated and identified “a new type of virus”.  Then on the 28th of January 2020, the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that the novela corona virus had been isolated.  

Christine Massey, M.Sc conducted an extensive report over a period of more than a year. The central question raised in her study is the following: “is there reliable evidence that SARS-CoV-2  has been isolated  from an “unadulterated sample taken from a diseased patient”?

Christine Massey submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to some 90 Health /Science institutions.

Does the Virus Exist? The responses to these requests confirm that there is no record of isolation / purification of SARS-CoV-2 “having been performed by anyone, anywhere, ever.” 

Video: Christine Massey and Michel Chossudovsky. Does the Virus Exist. Has SARS-CoV-2 Been Isolated

The U.S. Drone Strike in Kabul Took Out More Than ISIS-K

On Sunday morning the Pentagon announced it had successfully launched a drone strike against what officials said was an explosive packed vehicle occupied by two suicide bombers. The names of the terrorists targeted haven’t been released. 

But according to reporting from the ground, the strike ended up killing a family with small children. 

Hours after a U.S. military drone strike in Kabul on Sunday, Defense Department officials said that it had blown up a vehicle laden with explosives, eliminating a threat to Kabul’s airport from the Islamic State Khorasan group.

But at a family home in Kabul on Monday, survivors and neighbors said the strike had killed 10 people, including seven children, an aid worker for an American charity organization and a contractor with the U.S. military.

Zemari Ahmadi, who worked for the charity organization Nutrition and Education International, was on his way home from work after dropping off colleagues on Sunday evening, according to relatives and colleagues interviewed in Kabul.

As he pulled into the narrow street where he lived with his three brothers and their families, the children, seeing his white Toyota Corolla, ran outside to greet him. Some clambered aboard in the street, others gathered around as he pulled the car into the courtyard of their home.

It was then that they say the drone struck.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby was asked about the strike during Monday’s press briefing and said the situation is under investigation. 

Colorado Election Fraud: Soros-Backed Secretary of State Permanently Blocks Arizona-Style Audits

Whether Colorado election fraud is a real problem or not will remain unknown, as the state’s George Soros-backed SecState will permanently ban Arizona-style third-party audits.

Colorado Politics reported on Friday that Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold “is permanently adopting the emergency rules rolled out earlier this summer to block future efforts at an Arizona-style ‘forensic audit’ conducted by a third party.”

How’s that for restoring people’s faith in election integrity?

Left unsaid: Exactly how a third-party audit is either a sham or would put the state’s “election security” at risk.

While Griswold’s rules would prevent potentially shady people who haven’t passed a background check from accessing voting machines, they would also block trusted “third parties, such as the Cyber Ninjas firm brought in by Republicans in the Arizona state Senate,” according to Colorado Politics.

Griswold, a former Barack Obama activist, is one of many Democrats throughout the state receiving generous financial backing from the George Soros family.

Colorado switched to all-mail-in voting in 2014, making it easier for groups like those affiliated with Soros to drive up turnout, but raising questions about Colorado election fraud.

A recent poll showed that the overwhelming majority of American voters — 63% — actually “reject the Democrat narrative regarding a number of election integrity issues, over three-quarters indicating they support basic election integrity safeguards such as voter ID and signature verification.”

Griswold’s refusal to even entertain notions of a third-party audit won’t do anything to set those questions aside.

The fact is that Americans from both parties no longer trust our elections.

Democrats still howl that 2016 was stolen somehow by Donald Trump, and Republicans are on firmer ground with questions about the integrity of the 2020 election. As I’m sure you’ll recall, that race was tainted with last-minute rules changes by unelected judges, mail-in balloting in states with no experience with them, questionable voting machines, Big Tech money, and more.

Third-party audits — and lots of them — might go a long way toward restoring faith.

But not here in Colorado. Not under Jena Griswold.