Classical Curriculum coming to Brighton??

Look for links and more details soon.



Those who are concerned about public education need to know the TEA PARTY is attempting to open a franchise of CLASSICAL EDUCATION schools around Michigan. One right here in Brighton.

The Brighton School Board has TWO TEA PARTY supporters who are willing to sign off on a school building for this STEP-FORD form of education. No one should ever forget that one of the leaders in the profits before kids charter school movement is Hillsdale College. Their brand of for-profit charter schools which they call, “Classical Education”, is a nice way of saying Christian conservative education that bears little relevance to what students actually need to be prepared in a modern workforce and world. Hillsdale College last year took some much needed criticism university president Larry Arnn commented that the state had come to investigate whether Hillsdale College had enough “dark ones” enrolled.

Larry Arnn’s racist comment is nothing compared to the scandal his predecessor left behind, but personal conduct or horrendous bigotry has nothing to do with running a Christian conservative college, or authorizing charter schools around the country.

Or does it?

Downstate near Holly, Michigan, lives a man named Pasquale “Pat” Battaglia. Self-labeled as a Christian husband father grandfather, he wants to open Hillsdale College-style charter schools in Southeast Michigan. Currently, he is working on securing a building to open a school in Brighton and another is projected to open in Warren in 2015. These schools according to him are based on the Hillsdale Academy model, which the college publishes reference manuals for $100 a pop so you too can run a for-profit charter school cleverly disguised as a Christian private school that fleeces public tax dollars.

He’s written impassioned letters on nearby local tea party websites asking people to help him open up new charter schools so he can bring back real education to American children based on what the founding fathers would have wanted. The letter begins with an obvious dog whistle:

I guarantee to you folks that the kids that we see who are in the process of completely soiling the tenants of our Western Civilization are a products of the government run school systems, kindergarten thru grad school. What do we do?

Apparently write letters with glaring spelling and grammatical errors. That will show people you’re the guy who’s qualified to operate a school. We can get a clear picture of what kind of person Pat is from looking at his online presence. Remember that bit about kids soiling the tenants of our western civilization attending public schools? What kids could he be talking about?