Thursday, April 23, 2015



Vicious antisemitism is roaring back

The real victims of violent bigotry in our country are Jews.

Jews account for just over 2% of our population, but they are the victims, according to FBI statistics, of over 60% of all hate crimes committed in the U.S.

And where is this hatred most virulent? Among less educated and poorer Americans? No.

This hatred is spewed most flagrantly by our intellectual elite on the college campuses of this country where university administrators allow Islamist brown shirts who support Hamas and Hezbollah to wage unending hate campaigns against Israel and the Jewish students who support it.

University administrators turn a blind eye to daily anti Semitic activities—ranging from intimidation and harassment to outbreaks of overt physical violence -- against Jewish and pro-Israel students they would not tolerate if they were committed against students from any other ethnic group.

Jew Hatred has become the dirty little secret of American higher education.

Worst of all, no one was doing anything about this cancer on our campuses until the Freedom Center stepped up to launch a “Jew Hatred on Campus” campaign a few weeks ago.

Since then, we’ve been telling it like it is about the campus organization most responsible for this anti Semitic jihad—the Hamas-supporting Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP.) And although the fight is far from over, we’ve already succeeded in turning up the volume on the conversation about anti Semitism in our universities and colleges, supporting embattled Jewish students and putting the radical SJP on the defensive.

Just days after its official launch, the Jew Hatred on Campus campaign struck its first blow by placing posters at 50 campuses across the nation. Each poster features images portraying all sorts of brutality supported by SJP and their extremist allies. One such image portrays a Palestinian about to be executed by AK-47 wielding Hamas terrorists; another portrays a Palestinian civilian being dragged through the streets of Gaza from the back of a motorcycle driven by Hamas operatives.

But these “guerrilla” campaign tactics weren’t enough for us. We wanted to take our efforts a step further… …My colleague Ben Shapiro and I then ventured into the lion’s den at University of North Carolina, Boston College, Brandeis, Ohio State and other campuses to speak about the hatred of Jews that is not only tolerated by encouraged in our universities.

The Jew Hatred on campus campaign helped change the dialogue about anti Semitism on campus from “does it exist” to “who is responsible.”

Our campaign on Campus campaign has been covered in dozens of prestigious publications around the globe including the Washington Times, the American Thinker, the Jewish Journal, and the Breitbart News Network, reaching a cumulative audience of 100 million.

And just a few days ago I wrote an oped titled “Islamic Jihad Comes to Campus” for the Washington Times that was reprinted by several U.S. publications and by newspapers as far away as Israel and the Philippines.

Our next step will be to stage teach-ins on campus anti Semitism at UCLA, the University of Minnesota, SUNY Stonybrook and other schools later this spring and to keep the pressure on Students for Justice in Palestine, a group hat supports Hamas as passionately as it hates Israel.

We won’t stop until the SJP’s spewing of hate against Jews is seen in the same ugly light as the KKK’s spewing of hate against blacks.

We won’t stop until university administrations enforce their own codes of behavior and provide protection for Jewish students similar to the protections provided to other ethnic and religious groups on their campuses.

We won’t stop until this rebirth of anti Semitism is defeated and made into a history that is not allowed to repeat itself.

Via email from David Horowitz







How Schools Use Medicaid Money to Pay for Truancy Officers, Deans and Healthy-Eating Magnets

At a school board meeting in Henrico County, Va., two months ago, a panel of school district officials and board members had been left speechless.

School district officials were in the midst of crafting the district’s budget for 2016, and the five-member board had just heard a presentation from Assistant Superintendent for Finance Terry Stone, who outlined a $1.1 million plan to fund more than a dozen positions at various schools.

The proposal shocked the board members, who expressed their gratitude toward Stone and her team for crafting the plan.

“That’s incredible,” board member Lisa Marshall said. “Thank you. Did you pull that one out of your hat?”  “I find that remarkable and exciting,” John Montgomery Jr., the board’s chair, said.

The additional $1.1 million came from coffers unknown to the school board, but tapped by school districts across Virginia and the country: Medicaid reimbursements.

Stone proposed using the money to hire three psychologists, three social workers, five part-time truancy workers, five part-time deans of students and reimbursements for mileage.

“To the extent that they’re used for [the Medicaid] population, it allows you to bill for additional services and increase your revenue,” Stone said at the February board meeting.

Schools provide many health and social services to students, including those who are Medicaid-eligible. Some districts shoulder the costs of these services, but can actually use Medicaid funding to pay for these services and request reimbursements.

Henrico County, located in southeastern Virginia, first began accepting Medicaid reimbursements in fiscal year 2012. That year, the district received roughly $98,000 in reimbursements. This year, officials estimate reimbursements from the federal program will total more than $1.1 million.

Guidelines for Funding

Medicaid is jointly funded by the federal and state governments, but states are in charge of administering the program. States adhere to Medicaid plans—an agreement between the state and federal government.

Schools can obtain Medicaid reimbursements through three different types of claiming, the most popular being administrative claiming. The administrative claiming program allows states to submit reimbursement claims for administrative activities that “directly support the Medicaid program.”

In order for activities to be reimbursable, they must be “found necessary by the secretary for the proper and efficient administration” of a state Medicaid plan.

Dennis Smith, former director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during President George W. Bush’s administration, told The Daily Signal that states are supposed to provide guidance to schools as to how they can use Medicaid reimbursements.

In Colorado, for example, schools must submit a plan for how they want to use the reimbursement funds. That blueprint must then be approved by the state.

However, Smith said it’s unknown whether they’re requiring school districts to adhere to guidelines governing how reimbursements are used.

John Hill, executive director of the National Alliance for Medicaid in Education, said schools are given a good deal of flexibility in how they use Medicaid reimbursements.

“The bottom line is if they wanted to put new bleachers at the football stadium, they can do that. I wouldn’t like to see that happen, but there’s nothing that could prevent it from happening,” said John Hill.

“They can be used for whatever they want to use it for,” Hill told The Daily Signal. “The bottom line is if they wanted to put new bleachers at the football stadium, they can do that. I wouldn’t like to see that happen, but there’s nothing that could prevent it from happening.”

In Henrico County, Stone told school board members that legally, there is nothing binding the funds to a specific purpose. However, the district’s school board agreed the dollars should be used for health and social services.

Smith contends that in specific instances, use of Medicaid reimbursements can be beneficial to students and within the spectrum of what Medicaid should be used for. For example, a school may be a good place for a student with developmental disabilities to receive physical therapy. Smith said it would be reasonable for a large district like Henrico to use reimbursements to hire a physical therapist.

However, administrative claiming opens the door for more abuses of Medicaid dollars. Smith said it would be questionable for a school to use reimbursements to hire deans and truancy officers.

“Medicaid should be paying for treatments and therapies,” he said. “There are bright lines that should be drawn for these things—what clearly Medicaid should and shouldn’t be paying for.”

Controls Put in Place

Despite a claiming guide released in 2003 and guidance provided by states, Smith noted that abuse of Medicaid reimbursements is often found through independent audits conducted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and state agencies.

As a result of such audits, school districts have been forced to return money.

In November 2013, an audit conducted by CMS of California’s administrative claiming program examined three educational entities.

The audit found that two of those three—Turlock Unified School District and Turlare County Office of Education—received improper reimbursements from 2010 to 2011.

In one instance, at Turlock Unified School District, two preschool teachers billed Medicaid and indicated that they spent every hour of their workday conducting Medicaid outreach. However, the government found they spent 50 percent of their time on school-related activities and the remaining time on Medicaid administrative activities.

The district alone had filed claims totaling $3.4 million.

According to EdSource, a website that tracks education in California, reimbursements also served to fill budget shortfalls.

Following the audit, CMS requested the state return more than $4 million in “unsupported school-based administrative costs.”

Similarly, a 2000 report from the Government Accountability Office found that “poor controls over what constitutes an allowable administrative activity cost claim have resulted in improper Medicaid reimbursements.”

In Colorado, some districts are using the reimbursements to fund wellness efforts.

Adams 12 Five Star, which serves students in the northeastern part of the state, received $1.2 million in reimbursements in 2013. The money paid for things like suicide prevention training, nursing hours and outreach to students who were uninsured.

Academy District 20, which serves Colorado Springs, used the Medicaid dollars to pay for magnets stamped with healthy snack suggestions.

“It’s been a very consistent and growing source of revenue for districts,” Bridget Beatty, coordinator for health strategies for Denver Public Schools, told Chalkbeat Colorado in 2013. “It is one of the only sources that has been increasing in the last few years.”

Hill of the National Alliance for Medicaid in Education said schools filing claims for Medicaid reimbursements “ebbs and flows” depending on a variety of different factors. However, he noted that the number of schools requesting the funds has held steady over the last four to five years.

When districts find themselves strapped for cash, Hill said, they begin exploring Medicaid reimbursements more deeply.

To rein in Medicaid reimbursements for things outside the program’s realm, Smith, the former CMS administrator, said the lines of what is and what isn’t Medicaid’s responsibility need to be brightened.  “It’s not Medicaid’s job to fund the schools,” he said.

SOURCE





British parents and schools MUST make sure children are active: Two-thirds of 5 to 11 year olds are failing to reach healthy fitness levels, experts warn

Maybe kids should be allowed to run around the playground again

Two-thirds of primary school-age children are failing to reach the recommended levels of fitness for their age group, experts have warned. 

A new study of 10,000 five to 11-year-olds found that 67 per cent were unable to reach targets in running, jumping and throwing.

Meanwhile, a quarter - 24 per cent - fell 'significantly below' the recommended levels, indicating that fitness is a cause for concern.

Fit For Sport, which conducted the tests, said the results show that parents and schools must do more to increase children's activity levels to ensure they stay healthy.

The children were assessed as they were asked to carry out the Activity Challenge.

It involved a series of tests created to check various aspects of fitness, including stamina, agility, co-ordination and cardiovascular endurance.

The aim was to establish a good idea of the children's fitness and physical literacy.

It found that just over a third (36 per cent) of five to seven-year-olds were at an adequate level of fitness.

That number fell to 32 per cent and 33 per cent for eight to nine and 10 to 11-year-olds respectively.

The guidelines set out by the chief medical officer recommend that children spend 60 minutes a day being physically active - yet only 21 per cent of boys and 16 per cent of girls achieve this.

The lowest results were recorded in running challenges that test cardiovascular endurance, indicating that not only are many children getting too little physical activity, they are also failing to spend enough time doing vigorous intensity activity where they are out of breath and their heart rate increases.

Fit For Sport founder Dean Horridge, said: 'Parents know how well their children perform academically, but they often have no idea how fit their kids are.

'Two-thirds of the 10,000 children we tested were unable to meet achievable levels of fitness, like completing 60 star jumps in one minute.  'This is a clear call to action.

'Physical inactivity is a ticking time bomb for the UK's health and both parents and schools must make sure children are spending enough time being active to improve their fitness and health levels now, and set them off on a journey to an active life.'

SOURCE

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