Do We Really Need More Money for Education?

This semester Oklahoma Educators gave themselves a two-week strike to protest low wages and the general lack of funds for public education in Oklahoma. Teachers in other states across America have already staged strikes or are in the process of planning one. Teachers and their labor union, the NEA, claim they need more money in order to hire and maintain good instructors as well as funds to enrich classroom instruction.

There are excellent instructors who do a great job and certainly deserve above average pay, but classroom problems are beyond the scope of what money can purchase. Our public schools are not servicing the children who come to their classroom, because the problem lies beyond what the schools can do. Will more money assure that our test scores improve? Why should we give more money to those who are unable to produce results that show our children are receiving a decent education? Is more money really the answer?

Recently a friend loaned me a volume of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. An article in the magazine piqued my interest: “Educating the Disadvantaged – Two Models” by Amy L. Wax. How do we best educate those who are marginal, which would include those students who sporadically attend class or who have no educational stimulus in their homes? Is the answer more money to pay the teachers who serve those students or more money to purchase materials to enhance classroom instruction? No, Ms. Wax gives the answer that educators have known for years: more money does not produce better education.

The answer is fundamental to our society and has been known for almost sixty years. The findings were first published in 1966, by educational researcher, Ms. Wax states, “…in light of James Coleman’s original findings in the 1960s, repeatedly confirmed in the decades since, that a child’s economic, social, and family background – and not school composition and quality – are the most important influences on students’ academic performance. As stated in the Coleman report, “the school appears unable to exert independent influences to make achievement levels less dependent on the child’s background – and this is true within each ethnic group…

It’s the family! The breakdown in American families is at the heart of the failure of our children to learn. We look for better teachers and tax the working public for more money in order to fund a system that is destined for failure because the root cause has not been address. The root of the problem is the breakdown in the American family structure!

It is extremely important that when we pray for education, we include prayer for the families in this country because the family unit is the bedrock of all the cultural mountains that make up our society. As the family goes, so goes our nation.

Prayer for the Mountain of Education During the Month of Sivan

When settlers came to America in the early 1700s, they established schools with Judeo-Christian instruction that instilled in their children a strong Christian foundation. These schools taught individualism and personal responsibility, traits that prepared their children for the rigors of frontier life in the new world. It wasn’t until 1884 that the first public school was established as the fulfillment of a campaign promise to the Unitarians by Horace Mann, known as the Father of Public Education. As the newly elected Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, Mann promised he would start schools totally funded by tax payer money without religious instruction. Beginning in 1884, America had two school systems. In the beginning, there wasn’t a lot of difference between the two because the teachers were from the local communities and were strong Christians, but over time the two systems have diverged with totally different objectives.

The month of Sivan is the month of twins. As a result of Horace Mann’s actions we now have twin educations streams – one secular and one religious. During this month, we choose to nurture America’s Godly educational inheritance with our declarations, prayers, proclamations and decrees. This is also the month of Firstfruits, cause, alignment, strength and clear vision.

• We decree and declare that the Godly stream of America’s education flourishes. We speak life into that Godly stream and command it to live, grow and mature so it will feed the minds of our youth with God’s Word.
• We decree that the Mountain of Education to come into alignment with the intents and purposes of God.
• We speak to schools, teachers and administrators who serve God in America’s schools and we decree that you go from strength to strength.
• In this month of Firstfruits, we decree that new revelation will be given to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. She will share her revelation with those in her team who are new wineskins and who will receive the Firstfruits of her revelation, and align themselves with God’s mindset.
• We decree and declare as this is a month of giving, our students will be given an education second to none in the world.
• We decree that Secretary DeVos and each member of her team will find his/her place of strength during this time, and they will move from strength to strength. That strength will open doors for them to share new battle plans.
• We declare that those in leadership will see clearly what needs to be done to reform education in America.

Nancy Huff
HAPN Mountain of Education Leader

When You Pray – Remember David and Goliath

Abraham Lincoln said, “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” That has certainly been true in America as we see socialism and secularization of our educational system now as it is played out in our government and courts. To reform our schools by addressing the roots of our misdirection in prayer will also create a reformation of our nation.
Those of us who desire to restore God’s place in our education system are the Davids and the school system is the Goliath. The statement David made to Goliath in the valley of Elah applies to us in a very real way.
“You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the Name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’S and he will give all of you into our hands.” 1 Samuel 17:45–47
The anti-God forces in our educational system are overconfident, over secure, and under effective, making the timing of a spiritual battle of utmost importance. Just as Goliath, they dare people to try to change the system. Yet, everyone from the office of the President of the United States to the classroom teacher knows that our education is a dismal failure when 25 percent of our public school graduates are illiterate. It is time to seize the opportunity. Intercessors can take back education from the domination of Baal and consequently the children of our nation from his influence.
Actually, our chances of felling Goliath, even in the natural, get better the larger Goliath grows. Best-selling author and military historian Max Boot in his classic book, Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present, gives small insurgent groups a more than fighting chance of bringing down huge military operations. The smaller groups cost less money than larger armies to maintain. They can travel to a location undetected and make a strike, and quickly retreat.
A larger army relies on its reputation, technology, past victories, and often outdated styles to engage the enemy. Over the last one hundred years American education has promoted man-made doctrines and taunted Christians by daring them to attack their policies. With our band of prayer warriors, we can win, if we fight with nonconventional weapons, keep our ranks tightly knit around a common purpose, and engage the enemy on a level in which they are not accustomed.
The American educational system is huge with a budget of $591 billion annually. Its strength lies in the size of the institution. It cannot move quickly and is the epitome of the works of the flesh just as Goliath was. Daily the system promotes propaganda that is anti-God, anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-moral. But it has been ineffective. Too long they have taunted those who believe in God. It is time we took our place with full knowledge of who our God is and what He can do.
Os Hillman, a well-known author and speaker on faith at work, states in his book Change Agent, “It takes less than 3–5 percent of those operating at the tops of a cultural mountain to actually shift the values represented on that mountain.”
This small percentage is the sum total of the true decision makers in education. That means that we as believers let the top 5 percent of the over 3 million people involved in education in this country make all the decisions. The rest of us watch on the sidelines as decisions are made that take our country down a path of socialism and ultimately destruction to the way of life our forefathers intended.
The church has lost its vision for stewarding the territory God given us. We has have allowed the voice of God to be muffled as Goliath taunted us day after day. Christian teachers in the classroom have their hands tied because of the lack of prayer by apostolic prayer teams who know how to release the power of God in worship, intercession, authority of the Name of Jesus, and strategic warfare.
We have a purpose: to manifest God’s Kingdom on the earth today. In the past we have lost ground, but we can regain it if we fight. In her book, Don’t Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid, Mary Beth Hicks wrote:
“In 2007, while still a member of the United States Senate, Barack Obama said, ‘I am absolutely convinced that culture wars are just so ‘90s. Their days are growing dark.’ Obama was right. The culture wars are over: We lost. We are no longer fighting to uphold traditional social values. Now we’re fighting a battle over the very definition of what it means to be an American, and what America means to the world. A losing battle.”
I would say that Hicks is right—except that God is calling His people to come together to pray in a strategic way as never before in the history of the world. Kingdom-minded people are being called into place. We must follow the instructions the prophet Joel gave his warriors, “Do not break ranks.” (Joel 2:8.)
Until we are called by someone with an apostolic jurisdiction we do not know how to stand together and not break ranks. The apostle puts prayer warriors in position and gives the orders and teaches them how to stand together without breaking ranks. With such a dynamic prayer team, we can take back our educational system as well as the other cultural influences in our nation.

Teacher Protests: The Vehicle for Humanistic Take Over in Education

The scheduled teacher walk-out on April 2 in Oklahoma is not only about the very real need to increase teacher salaries. It reveals how the leaders behind a humanistic global agenda use these types of crises to further their control in the field of education.
Raising the bar in education is a need and concern across our nation. We watch as test results have declined and mo re and more students graduate without the reading skills or life skills needed to succeed after graduation. However, at the heart of this issue, there is a hidden agenda that many of us miss. It is a behind the scenes take-over of the education of our children to indoctrinate them with humanistic ideology.
Crisis is the Vehicle They Use to Implement Change
In Oklahoma, there is very real need for teacher pay raises. In 2016, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report that showed Oklahoma has the lowest average teacher wages in the nation. Those behind the push for a humanistic take over in education have used this crisis to push through their agenda. Here’s how it works.
On March 26, 2018, the Oklahoma Legislature voted to give public school teachers and support staff a raise. Beginning salaries would be increased by $6,000 per year. Yet, that wasn’t enough to avert a planned teacher “walk out” scheduled for April 2, 2018. Why? Because while the amount fell short of their unrealistic request of $10,000 over the next three years. The voices behind the humanistic agenda recognize that in order to completely implement their plan, they must use this imposed crisis to gain control. Their goal from the beginning of the teacher salary issue was not to achieve a raise for the teachers, but to create unrest, division and failure so that they could point blame which would position them for take-over in the mid-term elections.
Where is there a “crisis” in your state’s educational system? It is important to look at who continues to stoke the dissension to keep emotions running high and prevent reconciliation. In the case of the teacher salary issue, we only need to look at those behind the “walk out” —how it was handled and those who support it—which reveal the hidden impetuous behind the continued push for a teacher strike.
Ultimately, this is the battle for control over the sphere of education not only in Oklahoma, but we can see similar battles in almost every state. Crises are fertile ground to stir dissension and dissatisfaction to gain the upper hand. It is a Saul Alinsky tactic – never let a good crisis go to waste and if there is no crisis, create one. Once in position they can continue their goal to promote an ideology of humanism to the students in the classroom and curriculum. And they will do anything to achieve their goal.

This is how it works and what you need to look for:
The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States with a branch organization in each state. For Oklahoma it is the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA). But if you believe the welfare and education of our students in the pursuit of “reading, writing and arithmetic” through these organizations is their primary goal, think again.
At the 72nd Annual Meeting of the NEA, held in Washington, D.C., in a report titled “Education for the New America,” Willard Givens (who went on to become executive secretary of the NEA in 1935 and served for 17 years) said:
“The major function of the school is the social orientation of the individual. It must seek to give him under-standing of the transition to a new social order.”

This is the mentality and ultimate goal behind the NEA and any of its state related offices in the United States.

Track What is Happening in your State
Always look deeper than your local organizations at who is assisting to promote your state’s educational agenda. Scrutinize mentioned associations like separate non-profits, law firms, and businesses. In Oklahoma, the OEA recently hired a Colorado consulting firm, Harstad Strategic Research, Inc., to work with them to achieve their goals. A closer look at Harstad reveals that their specialty is to get liberals elected to leadership positions as governors, senators, and congressmen as well as to get liberal state campaigns passed. They are a partisan group with a socialist globalist agenda. The OEA also uses the non-profit, Oklahoma Professional Educators, to make public statements that mirror OEA’s views. Often nonprofits are created to “help” by being the political mouthpiece or shield in order for an organization to distance itself from criticism when speaking out on an unpopular issue

What do they really want?
While the goals may sound good by title, after all – who doesn’t want their teachers to be well paid – those goals will be used to gain political support in order to continue to promote a humanistic, globalist, agenda.
In the late 1800s, John Dewey, known as the Father of Modern Education and a prolific writer on the theory of education, began proposing changes that would promote socialism and thereby produce a globalist child prepared for the 21st Century. In 1932, the National Education Association made John Dewey their honorary president adopting his progressive educational reform agenda. Since that time, the NEA has been successful in implementing their plan, but it is not complete. In order for the NEA to achieve a complete takeover of America’s educational system, they must continue to promote socialism. In order to do so, they must obtain control of governing bodies and insert leaders who will be favorable to their agenda. In Oklahoma, where the issue of teacher’s salary is not new, they have pushed hard for it to hit crisis level—a teacher strike—just before the upcoming mid-term elections. By fueling dissension and the argument that current leadership is “out of touch,” the teacher pay raise issue is a perfect vehicle to achieve their goals. The teachers are simply pawns in their playbook.
The goal is for children to be taught social curricula at the expense of their learning basic skills. Samuel Blumenfeld, one of America’s more prolific voices in defense of traditional education referred to Dewey as the man responsible for “dumbing down” America’s children and promoting socialism in our schools – mainly using the NEA. The process of socialism undermined the role of the parents in a child’s education. The perfect example of a program that bypassed parental and local voices is the Common Core curriculum, birthed and initiated as a federal curriculum, voted on by the governors of the states and implemented on the local level with no local or parental choice.

Not a Democrat vs. Republican Issue
This is not about Republicans vs. Democrats. There are both Republicans and Democrats, who are party to this one-world government agenda. There has been much contention in our government on a national level as well as within each state especially in this past year. With confusion and selfish ambition, the enemy has gained ground.
What Can be Done?
It is important to remember that our battle is not with flesh and blood. Our first response must always be in prayer. It is time that we speak up in prayer and speak forth what we want to see accomplished this year in the Mountain of Education. Here are some prayer points nationally. Look into the issues in your state and add them to this list:

• That teachers will not be used as political pawns in a humanistic battle for the minds of our children.
• That teachers will receive fair, just and equitable salaries. That our teachers will cry out to God and that He will deliver them from their oppression. Our teachers will not be a slave to Pharaoh.
• All ungodliness in our state legislatures will be revealed and those who need to go will be replaced by godly men and women who will judge righteously.
• Thank and praise God for the unmasking/revealing of all those who have ungodly agendas for our children and our state.
• That the restrictions that have been placed on our teachers to remove Christian values will revert back to the original intent of our forefathers in which the Bible and biblical principles were part of a child’s educational process not prohibited from their process.

May we be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves” as this battle ensues. We can no longer afford to allow our educational system to be hijacked. We must look at who and what are behind the “solutions” offered. We can no longer sacrifice the well-being of our children and the educational process to those whose agenda is not to train up our children, but to dumb them down and turn them into “better global citizens.”

To Repair or Replace the Foundation?


America has had two educational systems in our past. One foundation can be restored, the second foundation is beyond repair. The one on which we put our emphasis will determine the future of our nation.

The foundation of our original schools—Our country began with schools that included religious instruction. As settlers came to America, one of their first community endeavors, after constructing a church, was to start a school. They often utilized church facilities and local teachers who held the religious beliefs of the community.

The foundation of public schools—Because some of our founding fathers were Unitarian and considered themselves more “enlightened” than their religious counterparts and wanted schools that embraced the new humanistic thoughts of the day that were being discussed in the public squares of Europe and Prussia. They wanted these schools funded with tax payer money. Eventually, they found a willing elected official to help them—Horace Mann, who later became known as the Father of Modern Education.

Horace Mann ran for Secretary of the Board of Education in Massachusetts and in 1837 fulfilled a campaign promise to the Unitarians to build the first public school funded with tax payer money and without religious instruction. At first, the schools didn’t appear to be any different from the religious schools of the day, as most of the teachers in the 1800s and 1900s held strong religious beliefs. But as time progressed, humanistic teaching trickled down through the generations until we are at the point that it is unlawful to have any religious instruction in public schools.

It has taken decades, but the second foundation has eroded to the point where we as a nation can no longer ignore the broken condition of our public schools. Students who fail, cause our nation to be at risk as our citizens become less educated and less moral. Humanists tell us, if they just had more money, public schools could be repaired, but there is never any mention of utilizing that money to repair the cracked foundation by putting God back in our classrooms.

The spiritual battle is evident—If you want to see a violent reaction to the suggestion of reorganizing public schools, just mention, Charter Schools, Vouchers, or even our Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. These reactions are indications of a spiritual battle that is waging in the heavens. Public school defenders emphatically state that tax payer money should go exclusively to support public schools with no tax payer money used to educate the children in any institution that has religious instruction. We must reframe our argument and say, “Tax money should be used to educate the children of this nation in any manner the parents see fit.”

Let us pray that those who embrace Jesus will walk in the truth of Isaiah 58:12, “Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age old foundations…” It is not the time to despair because of resistance, it is the time to press forward in prayer. If we pray, in the not too distant future, we will shout in victory as foundations are restored!

Prayer for the Mountain of Education During the Month of Iyar

Nancy's Picture of Magnolia Blossom

Prayer for the Mountain of Education During the month of Iyar In 1985, Then President Ronald Reagan appointed William Bennett as the Secretary of Education. While in office, Secretary Bennett actively sought to reform American education. He supported classical education, school vouchers and curriculum reform. He openly criticized schools for their low standards, once referring to the Chicago public school system as “the worst in the nation.” His time at the Department of Education was a window of opportunity to truly reform education. Since Secretary Bennett left office in 1988 we have not had another open window – until now.

Thirty years later we have another opportunity to transform American education with President Trumps’ appointment of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. She is a strong supporter of public school reform, charter schools, school vouchers, and curriculum reform. In order to succeed, Secretary DeVos and her team of educators at the Department of Education need a dynamic prayer force behind them. If they succeed, we succeed, our nation will produce better educated children with Godly character and have a knowledge of God.

The month of Iyar (April 16 – May 16) is the second month of the Jewish calendar and is the month of light, healing, transition, and revelation. This is the appropriate time for us to combine our faith decrees with our prayers to see change in the whole culture of the Mountain of Education.

• We decree God’s light will shine on the Department of Education and every school in America. All that is good will be recognized and will grow. Evil will be exposed and extracted.
• Iyar is the month of transition. Our schools in this nation will be transitioned to a new level of increased performance. Ideas that were once impossible will transition to the possible.
• We decree that all people with the intent to advance an agenda separate from God’s education agenda will transition out at every level from the Department of Education in Washington, DC to the local school.
• We decree this is a time for love, forgiving and healing of relationships. Love and forgiving will flow at every level as teachers and administrators work together for the good of America’s children.
• We decree that Secretary DeVos and each member of her team will find his/her place of strength during this time. That strength will silence her enemies.
• We decree healing to America’s children who have suffered for lack of educational opportunities.
• We decree there will be increased revelation in America’s schools and especially at the Department of Education. Secretary DeVos and her team will see clearly how to proceed to make America the best place in the world to educate a child.