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News Release
For Immediate Release: September 8, 2009
Contact: Diane Gramley 1.814.271.9078 or 1.814.437.5355

Traditional Values Group Commends Schools Which Chose Not to Air President’s Speech

(Harrisburg) – Today’s speech to America’s school children by President Barack Obama created controversy. Many schools refused to air the speech or taped it for review by the school board and superintendents before seeking parental permission to show it to their children. The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), a statewide traditional values group, commends the schools that chose not to air the President’s speech.

“Many schools throughout Pennsylvania have chosen not to air the President’s speech. In some cases, the schools made this decision after parents’ complaints, but in other cases the schools took the initiative after realizing the public relations nightmare the US Department of Education and the President had placed them in and they opted out. The AFA of PA commends those schools which have chosen to do what is best for their students and keep academics in the forefront of their mission,” commented Diane Gramley, president of the AFA of PA.

Many parents have become aware of the social engineering that takes place in their children’s schools and are becoming increasing wary of President Obama and his association with questionable characters. President Obama and Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayes worked together on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge education initiative. This work included overseeing grants to Michael Klonsky, an avowed communist and a member of the militant Students for a Democratic Society.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, a CEO with no formal training in the education field, and President Obama chose to undermine local control through bypassing school boards. August 25^th e-mails were sent directly to principals of the nation’s schools. These contained information about classroom activities which encouraged students to support the President and think of ways they could help him achieve his goals. Last week, when news first broke of the planned speech, parents immediately became defensive of their children. As a result, the White House and Department of Education were forced to change their plans.

“To fully understand the danger our nation’s children are in, one need only remember that Barack Obama and Arne Duncan are responsible for choosing homosexual activist Kevin Jennings as the new Assistant Deputy Secretary, Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools. Yes, parents, school boards and administrators have every reason to be very wary of anything that comes out of the federal Department of Education and the White House,” further noted Gramley.

In October 1991 when President George H.W. Bush addressed the nation’s children, the Democrats called for an investigation and held public hearings. The Democratic-controlled Congress and the National Education Association called it a mismanagement of taxpayer dollars to spend $26,000 on the staged event at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C. However, nothing was heard from either the Congress or the NEA about the President’s speech today. How much did today’s Virginia event cost taxpayers? Where is the outrage?

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