About Alice

Alice Linahan is a Politically-Active Texas Mom who has worked hard in the trenches of the Grassroots Movement. As an established leader in New Media with Voices Empower and as Vice President of Women on the Wall, Alice brings audiences a servant’s voice with a heartfelt, funny tone and when the truth needs to be told in a bold, fresh manner Alice can deliver. She brings alive the stories from the trenches of the movement of parents asking… #CANiSEE what you are teaching my child that is taking America by storm. Alice is a radio talk show host of the Women On the Wall Radio Show in addition to being the Author of the upcoming “A parents journey from #CANiSEE™© to I Can SEE” study on the Common Core. Alice Linahan is a winner of the 2014 UPTON SINCLAIR AWARD with EducationViews.org for her work as an Advocate for Securing the Best of Education Policies for the next generation of American children. Alice has been described as “Passionate in everything she does and she is proof that one person can make a difference.

The Age of Novus Capitis

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Situation
We are now in The Age of Novus Capitis. Novus (New) Capitis (Capital).

In this new age of Novus Capitis, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used to turn our children’s minds into a new form of capital, via predictive analytics technology. Predictive analytics uses mined education data to create software programs that have the ability to predict and modify the behaviors of ALL students. Students; the next generation, are now seen as an investment vehicle, a product, to be managed via Total Quality Management (TQM) for a globally controlled workforce, in a globally controlled economy.

Previously, in America, your past did not determine your future.

In America, we have a history of great prosperity and innovation, because, in America, we have valued an education of opportunity (Equal Opportunity), based on an individual’s freedom and their ability to achieve great things. When an individual has a solid foundation in reading, writing, math, and history, as an adult that individual is free to succeed, and, free to fail, and then learn from that failure, and still go on to do great things.

In the Age of Novus Capitis, every American citizen will be tracked, sorted and trained to be a global citizen, who happens to live in America.

Moms and Dads, it is time to step back and start asking “ourselves” some questions…

When we send our children into schools across America; all schools, public, private and charter; are they getting what they need academically?

1. If our children are badged and credential by 17 or 18, in this Novus Capitis system, but have attitudes, values, beliefs, behaviors and a worldview that we oppose and we know it is because the computer programs used to train them, have trained them to question and even oppose the traditional, foundational beliefs of our family, our country and our religious beliefs; is that really a solid academic education that will serve our children and their future well?

2. Is having our children exposed and immersed in other languages and cultures more important than passing on America’s history of liberty and freedom of the individual?

3. Now that your children’s education has shifted to a “learn to earn” workforce model, where they can get a paying job, but no longer respect, much less believe, they are worthy of a free and prosperous country, a strong marriage and that by the grace of God anything is possible; have we done our best to give our children a strong foundation for a happy, joy-filled life?

The Answer

An interactive 6-week study of “Novus Capitis”, led by Alice Linahan, that will take participants on a journey of understanding the world we are now living in. This study can be done as an individual or taken by a local community group.
5 personal study segments with homework to complete between 6 weeks of group sessions included in the workbook

Fact-based, documented content
6 Interactive teaching videos (approximately 30 min. per session)
Leader material available with guides to questions and discussion with small groups
A toolbox for participants to leave with allowing them to protect their loved ones and themselves locally, in The Age of Novus Capitis.

The Journey To Get There

Actions to get there.

  1. Donate to WomenOnTheWall.org here We are raising money for the production costs of this project. For every $50 donated, the Work-study materials and program will be sent, when published.
  2. Work to create a Communication Team in your local area.Build a Communication Team: Lead the Local Conversation

The goal of the communication team: Become the experts in the local area for education news and information.

Women On the Wall Wants to Know…

Aside

Issue Preference

Women On the Wall would like to know the issues our supporters are passionate about so we can keep you informed about relevant information and upcoming events.
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Request to Texas Elected Leaders

Medicalization of Texas Education

Join parents across America saying… #NotMyChild

Read below: A Request to Texas Elected State Senators and Representatives

If you are a Texas Parent, Grandparent or Taxpayer and you want your VOICE HEARD~TAKE ACTION and SIGN the form below.

Request to Texas Elected Leaders- Medicalization of Education

Please join us in requesting a seat at the table with Elected Texas Leaders, as they work to provide a safe and secure education environment in Texas Schools.
  • If you are a leader of an organization, please include your name and position.

March 6, 2019

Texas Elected Officials
The Texas Capitol
1100 Congress Ave
Austin, TX 78701

Dear Elected Leader,

We believe you, our Elected Representative want to provide a safe and secure
education opportunity to all Texas students. We are requesting an appointment for you to meet with the parents and researchers who do not have a seat at the table at this time but are requesting to begin this discussion which is the process of the implementation of the “Medicalization of Our Schools” through Medicaid.

We are witnessing today what could be described as the grandest expansion of the Nanny State in the history of America. We believe this expansion to be one of the most diabolical, intricate, and subversive schemes to plague the landscape of American public policy toward Socialism.

This atrocity is “The Medicalization of Our Schools.”

A view from the classroom of today would astound onlookers that mental health and social, emotional, and behavioral interventions have replaced academics. With these wrap-around mental health services and interventions into personalities, values, beliefs, and dispositions at school, teachers are expected and forced to monitor and collect personal behavioral data on our children that has nothing to do with education. Data is collected, logged into state longitudinal data systems, shared, and ultimately, exposes our children to ‘surveillance capitalism.’ This personal data is freely given and used by outside contractors, foundations, and businesses to create software, curricula, activities, and programs that delve into changing the personal qualities of children and their families according to a government set of objectives.

Schools represent a “captive audience” and as such, prime targets for social policy change.
From a purely educational viewpoint, this could be termed “The Destruction of the American Educational System.”

From a health care perspective, this could be viewed as “The Subversion of the
World’s Finest System of Health Care.”

From a societal vantage point, this could be described as “The Subduing of the
American Family.”

However, because of the integration of business and labor, this could also just as accurately be dubbed, “The Collectivization of American Capitalism.”

Analyzed from a public policy perspective, it could be called “The Demise of
Representative Government.”

All of these titles would be accurate because each of them describes different appendages of the same program. What is involved in the “Medicalization of Our Schools?” At issue is Medicaid with screenings and interventions that take place under the cloak of prevention and “health.”

Once the government-sponsored health insurance program for the poor, Medicaid has now moved mainstream into our schools. It is paying salaries, funding multiple programs that boldly intrude into the sanctity of the home, and is the cause of escalating federal and state budgets. If this weren’t objectionable enough, the Medicaid component is but one spoke on the wheel of the larger societal restructuring movement that clearly orchestrates a number of large federal entitlement programs to produce what the Obama administration called a ‘safety net and prevention.’ In reality, if left unrestrained, it will become a “seamless web” through which no one will fall and ultimately no one escapes. The merging of federal data in HR 4174 escalates this agenda.

The universal screening of every normal child for social, emotional, and behavioral mental health problems has become the policy to identify as many children as possible for free federal Medicaid money. Our schools are milking the system through bureaucratic maneuvering. This future impetus combines Education and Welfare programs into a common thrust that appears to have bypassed our state legislatures. The fiscal impact of the merging of education and healthcare has not been thoroughly researched as the Medicaid program spans birth to age 20. Yes, American children are in danger of pure behavioral conditioning as a lucrative business. Our children are victimized by the intruding arm of government moving toward a controlled monopoly.

The larger wheel of implementation includes FERPA, Family Education Rights In Privacy Act, and ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, and both are to blame for the forward movement of these destructive combinations that include data-mining of our children, the identification and labeling of normal children as mentally disabled but not special education, psycho-behavioral interventions to change American children toward this collectivist state, and Medicaid that will pay for this abomination with its tentacles into the family with eventual case management in an Individual Family Service Plan. This plan assures that every American child will be identified with a unique national ID and a recycling system of behavioral interventions laid out in ESSA. The impact of a child having a DSM code (Diagnostic Statistical Manual For Mental Disorders) on their permanent record because of a mental health Medicaid reimbursement would have many future consequences including access to higher education, getting a job, or never owning a gun which would erase the Second Amendment in several years. American children are at risk of losing America in their future.

In Texas, some questionable behaviors have happened over the last couple of years in
regards to the lack of privacy with student information, which has gotten parents from all over the state’s attention.

First, during the summer of 2017, the TEA entered into a no-bid contract with a company named SPEDX. They handed over hundreds of thousands of student Individual Educational Plans (IEP) to SPEDx without proper parent notification or consent. IEPs include student diagnoses, medications, behavioral intervention plans, school accommodations, health data, and more. The SPEDx mission was to data-mine the information from the student’s IEPs and come up with a “plan” to fix special education in Texas. TEA terminated the contract when concerned parents spoke out against it. The owner and founder of SPEDx, Dr. Richard Nyankori, has since started a new company that sells special education software. To this date, the state of Texas has not received notification from SPEDx that the student IEP data was ever destroyed.

Secondly, in 2018 a lawsuit was filed against ACT claiming that ACT illegally sold detailed student disability data to colleges, scholarship programs, and other third parties who use the information for college recruitment and marketing. Colleges must practice “disability-blind” admissions under federal civil rights laws, however, they have gotten around this by buying student information from ACT, which is a direct violation of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), among other laws.

We truly believe that as our Elected Official, you would be able to slow down and stop this “Child Abuse in the Classroom” that is being thrust on our Texas children today. Former President Obama had issued an Executive Order that unlocked the doors of privacy which now allows our children to be data-mined of their personal information which includes social, emotional, and behavioral information. FERPA must be changed.

We are requesting the truth be told to parents about the conditioning techniques codified in ESSA and performed without informed written parental consent that must be stopped. We believe that you would want Texas to continue to be the guiding light of our nation, to educate our children with the best education in the world, and prove to the non-believers that our children can compete with anyone in the world. We pray that you are listening.

Violations In Pursuit of the “Medicalization of Our Schools” Through Medicaid

Data Tracking: Collection of PII (Personally Identifiable Information) on babies, children, and teachers identified with a unique national ID, contracted by Institute for Educational Sciences, NCES/IES, in compliance with Obama’s Executive Order 12866 expanding state longitudinal data systems to collect and share personally identifiable data on our children.

Data Trafficking: States Release Personally Identifiable Information, PII, to 3rd Party Contractors: State Departments of Education are able to enter into written agreements with businesses, foundations, higher education, and other Departments, releasing PII because of the loopholes in FERPA, (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act) that redefine school officials. Personally Identifiable Information, “womb to workforce” data, is freely given to 3rd party contractors through written agreements contracted by each state DOE.

Treatment, Interventions, Psychological Abuse: ESSA, Every Student Succeeds
Act mandates PII collected on attitudes, values, beliefs, and dispositions (grit) carried out by IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). All students, birth through college-aged students are identified under Title I for social, emotional, and behavioral change, Child Find. Techniques defined in ESSA include behavioral interventions: Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports, Response To Intervention, Multi-Tiered System Of Supports, Universal Design For Learning. The NCES/IES monitors and evaluates compliance, and experimental research through a unique national ID of children and teachers alike.

Privacy Violations: Exchange and Re-Disclosure of PII continues, including data collected on attitudes, values, beliefs, and dispositions, without the knowledge or consent of parents. Directory information is cross-referenced with behavioral data collected on the local level. Privacy protections have been removed. Data, the new currency uses children as a commodity. These blatant data mining violations are child abuse.

Violations of the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, PPRA: Violations under Title I school-wide through the use of psychiatric, psychological examination, assessment, evaluation, or testing; Psychiatric or psychological treatment/ interventions deceptively used in classrooms without the knowledge, disclosure, or written permission of parents.

Civil Rights Violations: Interventions, treatment, and re-education of attitudes, values, dispositions, and beliefs of children are profound violations of 1st Amendment protections of our God-given right to “right of conscience” and the 4th Amendment protection of our God-given right “to be secure in their persons.”

Public Law 103-33, General Education Provisions Act, Sec 438: Federal Government is supervising and directing curriculum creating a “model national curriculum” and a national test. NCES/IES evaluates and monitors students, teachers, funding, principals, schools, districts, and states for mental health data.

Malpractice and Maltreatment of Children and Babies by Teachers and Preschool Caregivers: Teachers/preschool caregivers, (exceeding their professional certifications), are required to screen, evaluate, perform anecdotal behavioral assessments, conditioning, and implement psychological remediation of the child’s attitudes, values, beliefs, and dispositions called social, emotional learning to comply with global initiatives under ESSA. These interventions are screened by teachers as mental health disabilities through fidelity (Do it right-techniques.) are now called “implementation science.” Standards defined by Department of Labor SCANS Report, create the process of “supply-chain management to humans.” This Social and Emotional Learning system sets up schools to begin coding mental health interventions in the classrooms of America for Medicaid reimbursements.

In Liberty,
Alice Linahan, Vice President Women on the Wall
Anita Hoge, Co-Founder of Child Abuse in the Classroom
Karen Bracken, Co-Founder of Child Abuse in the Classroom

Need Proof this is happening; just watch this…


Link for all appendices: http://womenonthewall.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Appendices-ForMedicalization-Of-Schools-1.pdf

Appendices For The Medicalization Of Our Schools Proof Points

Appendix A Texas

Appendix B Montana

Appendix C Tennessee

Appendix D Pennsylvania

 

The Medicalization of Education

Join parents across America saying… #NotMyChild

 

Click below to read: A Letter to President Donald Trump

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President Trump know OUR VOICE MATTERS! 

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The Medicalization of Education

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Texas Legislature – Public Education Bills in Committee

“There is money to be made on new education products when education shifts from Reading, Writing and Arithmetic to Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships- Just sayin’……..”- Alice Linahan 
I CAN SEE WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO MY CHILD
Texas Legislature
Public Education
84th Legislature Regular Session
Report Date: 3/9/2015

Number of Bills: 164Bills In Committee (164):

HB 4 Author: Huberty | Deshotel | King, Ken | Giddings | Ashby
Last Action: 03/10/2015 H Scheduled for public hearing on . . .
Caption: Relating to a high quality prekindergarten program provided by public school districts.
HB 18 Author: Aycock
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 3 2015 1:59PM
Caption: Relating to college and career readiness training for certain public school counselors.
HB 43 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 9 2015 2:57PM
Caption: Relating to the creation of a task force to evaluate state assessment instruments administered to public school students with significant cognitive disabilities.
HB 47 Author: Martinez, “Mando”
Last Action: 02/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 9 2015 2:57PM
Caption: Relating to the salary paid to certain professional employees of public schools.
HB 49 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 9 2015 2:57PM
Caption: Relating to a requirement for school districts to report class size to the Texas Education Agency.
HB 51 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 9 2015 2:57PM
Caption: Relating to limits on the size of certain classes in public schools.
HB 54 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 9 2015 2:57PM
Caption: Relating to termination or suspension without pay of certain school district employees.
HB 56 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 9 2015 2:57PM
Caption: Relating to the creation of a task force to evaluate the English language proficiency standards used in public schools.
HB 57 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 9 2015 2:57PM
Caption: Relating to the review by a school district board of trustees of a hearing examiner’s determination regarding good cause to suspend a teacher without pay or terminate the teacher’s contract.
HB 66 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Reported favorably as substituted
Caption: Relating to the consideration of the performance of certain students of limited English proficiency on state assessment instruments.
HB 70 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 9 2015 2:57PM
Caption: Relating to prevention of discrimination and harassment in public schools.
HB 73 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 9 2015 2:57PM
Caption: Relating to academic assessment of public school students with significant disabilities.
HB 78 Author: González, Mary | Howard | Farrar
Last Action: 02/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 9 2015 2:57PM
Caption: Relating to human sexuality education in public schools.
HB 124 Author: Martinez Fischer
Last Action: 02/11/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 11 2015 11:25AM
Caption: Relating to the availability of free prekindergarten programs in public schools.
HB 125 Author: Martinez Fischer
Last Action: 02/11/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 11 2015 11:25AM
Caption: Relating to studying the cost of education index.
HB 135 Author: Flynn
Last Action: 02/11/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 11 2015 11:25AM
Caption: Relating to inclusion of a course on the United States Constitution in the curriculum requirements for public high school students.
HB 138 Author: Flynn
Last Action: 02/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 9 2015 2:57PM
Caption: Relating to the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.
HB 171 Author: Alvarado
Last Action: 02/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 9 2015 2:57PM
Caption: Relating to limits on the size of fifth grade classes in public schools.
HB 173 Author: Alvarado
Last Action: 03/10/2015 H Scheduled for public hearing on . . .
Caption: Relating to information reported by a public school district regarding prekindergarten classes.
HB 181 Author: Bell | Krause
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Reported favorably w/o amendment(s)
Caption: Relating to information printed by school districts on high school diplomas.
HB 182 Author: Dale
Last Action: 02/11/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 11 2015 11:25AM
Caption: Relating to censure of a member of a school district board of trustees.
HB 186 Author: Thompson, Senfronia
Last Action: 02/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 9 2015 2:57PM
Caption: Relating to the availability of free prekindergarten programs in public schools.
HB 198 Author: Huberty
Last Action: 02/12/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 12 2015 11:31AM
Caption: Relating to the carrying of concealed handguns by certain persons attending a school board meeting.
HB 204 Author: Leach | Villalba | Howard
Last Action: 02/10/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 10 2015 11:34AM
Caption: Relating to the first day of instruction at a public school.
HB 205 Author: Leach | Huberty | Bohac
Last Action: 02/10/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 10 2015 11:34AM
Caption: Relating to the provision of human sexuality and family planning instruction in public schools.
HB 218 Author: Márquez
Last Action: 02/10/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 10 2015 11:34AM
Caption: Relating to certification requirements for teachers in bilingual education.
HB 223 Author: Guillen
Last Action: 02/10/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 10 2015 11:34AM
Caption: Relating to acceptable conduct of students in kindergarten through grade five.
HB 228 Author: Guillen
Last Action: 02/10/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 10 2015 11:34AM
Caption: Relating to the optional flexible school day program provided by school districts.
HB 233 Author: Farrar
Last Action: 02/11/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 11 2015 11:25AM
Caption: Relating to school social work services in public schools.
HB 238 Author: Springer | Burrows
Last Action: 02/10/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 10 2015 11:34AM
Caption: Relating to the first day of instruction in certain school districts.
HB 243 Author: Longoria
Last Action: 02/11/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 11 2015 11:25AM
Caption: Relating to the route a school bus takes when transporting a public school student.
HB 256 Author: Howard
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Reported favorably as substituted
Caption: Relating to use of compensatory education allotment funding to provide assistance with child care to students at risk of dropping out of school.
HB 279 Author: Simmons
Last Action: 02/11/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 11 2015 11:25AM
Caption: Relating to eligibility for a public education grant of certain students receiving special education services.
HB 289 Author: Thompson, Senfronia
Last Action: 02/11/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 11 2015 11:25AM
Caption: Relating to the composition of the board of trustees of certain independent school districts.
HB 296 Author: Wu
Last Action: 03/10/2015 H Scheduled for public hearing on . . .
Caption: Relating to certain prekindergarten programs offered by a school district.
HB 313 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/11/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 11 2015 11:25AM
Caption: Relating to employment of certified school counselors by school districts.
HB 338 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/12/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 12 2015 11:31AM
Caption: Relating to the evaluation of an internal auditor employed by a school district.
HB 340 Author: Dutton
Last Action: 02/12/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 12 2015 11:31AM
Caption: Relating to the receipt of an exemption or waiver for a school district or campus that is academically unacceptable.
HB 345 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/12/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 12 2015 11:31AM
Caption: Relating to the creation of a task force to study the standards of the Bilingual Target Language Proficiency Test administered to bilingual educators in public schools.
HB 347 Author: Dutton | Frank | Leach | Villalba | Huberty
Last Action: 02/12/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 12 2015 11:31AM
Caption: Relating to equal opportunity for access by home-schooled students to University Interscholastic League sponsored activities; authorizing a fee.
HB 355 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/12/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 12 2015 11:31AM
Caption: Relating to the creation of a task force to evaluate class size limits in public schools.
HB 356 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/12/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 12 2015 11:31AM
Caption: Relating to a federal waiver to exempt public school students with significant cognitive disabilities from annual assessment requirements imposed by federal law.
HB 357 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/12/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 12 2015 11:31AM
Caption: Relating to the responsibilities of public school counselors.
HB 370 Author: Villalba
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Reported favorably w/o amendment(s)
Caption: Relating to notifying a parent or guardian whether an employee of a school is appointed school marshal and the confidentiality of information submitted to or collected by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement in connection with a certification for appointment as school marshal.
HB 374 Author: Simmons
Last Action: 02/12/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 12 2015 11:31AM
Caption: Relating to requiring State Board of Education approval to offer advanced placement and international baccalaureate courses in public high schools.
HB 379 Author: White, James
Last Action: 02/12/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 12 2015 11:31AM
Caption: Relating to the failure to attend school for part of a day.
HB 391 Author: Muñoz, Jr.
Last Action: 02/16/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 16 2015 2:50PM
Caption: Relating to providing free full-day prekindergarten for certain children.
HB 405 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/16/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 16 2015 2:50PM
Caption: Relating to the creation of a task force to evaluate training provided to members of a school district board of trustees.
HB 406 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/16/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 16 2015 2:50PM
Caption: Relating to the creation of a task force to determine alternative methods of assessing the performance of public school students and school districts.
HB 407 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/16/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 16 2015 2:50PM
Caption: Relating to school district selection of an alternative assessment method in place of state-administered assessment instruments.
HB 424 Author: Dutton
Last Action: 03/10/2015 H Scheduled for public hearing on . . .
Caption: Relating to providing free full-day prekindergarten for certain children.
HB 435 Author: Raymond
Last Action: 02/16/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 16 2015 2:50PM
Caption: Relating to the instruction of American Sign Language in public high schools.
HB 440 Author: Gonzales, Larry
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Reported favorably as substituted
Caption: Relating to adapting the public school physical education curriculum to accommodate the needs of students with mental disabilities.
HB 456 Author: Gutierrez
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Reported favorably as substituted
Caption: Relating to a prohibition on the use and possession of vapor products on school property.
HB 462 Author: Goldman
Last Action: 02/11/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 11 2015 11:25AM
Caption: Relating to successful completion of dual credit courses as an alternative to compliance with end-of-course assessment requirements.
HB 505 Author: Rodriguez, Eddie | Workman
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Reported favorably w/o amendment(s)
Caption: Relating to a prohibition of limitations on the number of dual credit courses or hours in which a public high school student may enroll.
HB 506 Author: Rodriguez, Eddie
Last Action: 02/16/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 16 2015 2:50PM
Caption: Relating to the issuance of tax-supported bonds by certain school districts and increasing the tax rate limitation on the issuance of those bonds.
HB 513 Author: Moody
Last Action: 02/16/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 16 2015 2:50PM
Caption: Relating to educator financial incentives and salary contingencies based on student performance on certain assessment instruments.
HB 514 Author: Moody
Last Action: 02/16/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 16 2015 2:50PM
Caption: Relating to the creation of an advisory council to research and make recommendations on the use of assessment instruments in public schools.
HB 515 Author: Moody
Last Action: 02/16/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 16 2015 2:50PM
Caption: Relating to the notice to the parent or other person having lawful control of a public school student concerning the student’s class performance.
HB 522 Author: Raymond
Last Action: 02/16/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 16 2015 2:50PM
Caption: Relating to establishing a pilot program in designated public high schools in certain municipalities for placement of students in Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs as an alternative to placement in disciplinary or juvenile justice alternative education programs.
HB 544 Author: Dutton
Last Action: 02/18/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 18 2015 12:06PM
Caption: Relating to payment by a school district of the costs of developmental coursework provided by an institution of higher education under the success initiative.
HB 566 Author: Herrero | White, James
Last Action: 02/18/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 18 2015 12:06PM
Caption: Relating to the use of epinephrine auto-injectors on public and open-enrollment charter school campuses and at off-campus school-sanctioned events.
HB 567 Author: Allen
Last Action: 02/18/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 18 2015 12:06PM
Caption: Relating to corporal punishment in public schools.
HB 568 Author: Allen
Last Action: 02/18/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 18 2015 12:06PM
Caption: Relating to a review by the commissioner of education of state law regarding student suspension, expulsion, or other disciplinary action and the implementation of that law by school districts.
HB 588 Author: Hernandez
Last Action: 02/18/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 18 2015 12:06PM
Caption: Relating to restricting certain state and school district assessments of public school students in prekindergarten and kindergarten.
HB 596 Author: Goldman
Last Action: 02/19/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 19 2015 11:53AM
Caption: Relating to the scheduling of the last day of school for students by public school districts.
HB 645 Author: Ashby | Cook | Guillen | Farney | VanDeaver
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to the small-sized district adjustment under the Foundation School Program.
HB 654 Author: Aycock
Last Action: 02/19/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 19 2015 11:53AM
Caption: Relating to public school finance and the formation of school finance districts.
HB 657 Author: Aycock
Last Action: 02/19/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 19 2015 11:53AM
Caption: Relating to the training requirements for a member of the board of trustees of a public school district.
HB 662 Author: Dutton
Last Action: 02/19/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 19 2015 11:53AM
Caption: Relating to public school students evaluated for purposes of accountability ratings.
HB 664 Author: King, Ken | Farney | VanDeaver
Last Action: 02/19/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 19 2015 11:53AM
Caption: Relating to funding for career and technology programs in public schools.
HB 666 Author: King, Ken
Last Action: 02/19/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 19 2015 11:53AM
Caption: Relating to the small and mid-sized district adjustments under the Foundation School Program.
HB 667 Author: King, Ken
Last Action: 02/19/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 19 2015 11:53AM
Caption: Relating to permissible uses of the bilingual education allotment provided under the foundation school program.
HB 676 Author: Longoria
Last Action: 02/19/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 19 2015 11:53AM
Caption: Relating to School Bus Safety Week in public schools.
HB 677 Author: Turner, Sylvester
Last Action: 02/19/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 19 2015 11:53AM
Caption: Relating to cardiac assessments of participants in extracurricular athletic activities sponsored or sanctioned by the University Interscholastic League.
HB 680 Author: Gutierrez
Last Action: 02/19/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 19 2015 11:53AM
Caption: Relating to the rulemaking authority of the State Board for Educator Certification.
HB 717 Author: Reynolds
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to the election of trustees of certain school districts from single-member trustee districts.
HB 718 Author: Keough
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to the number of charters the State Board of Education may grant for open-enrollment charter schools.
HB 719 Author: King, Ken
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to the small and mid-sized district adjustments under the Foundation School Program.
HB 720 Author: Frank | Springer
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to the small-sized district adjustment under the Foundation School Program.
HB 724 Author: Galindo
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 3 2015 1:59PM
Caption: Relating to operation of public schools on certain election days.
HB 726 Author: Hernandez
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to outreach materials to foster awareness of recent public school curriculum changes.
HB 729 Author: Lucio III
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to the employment of certified school counselors by school districts.
HB 730 Author: Lucio III
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to the use of public school counselors’ work time.
HB 731 Author: Lucio III
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to participation of certain school districts in the three-year high school diploma plan pilot program.
HB 741 Author: Huberty
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to the administration to public school students in certain grades of state-administered assessment instruments.
HB 742 Author: Huberty | Galindo | Metcalf
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to eliminating certain state-required assessment instruments and certain end-of-course assessment instruments administered to public school students in certain grades.
HB 743 Author: Huberty
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to the essential knowledge and skills of the required public school curriculum and to certain state-adopted or state-developed assessment instruments for public school students.
HB 744 Author: Huberty
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to the purchase of certain insurance by public school districts.
HB 767 Author: Smith | Turner, Sylvester
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to cardiac assessments of participants in extracurricular athletic activities sponsored or sanctioned by the University Interscholastic League.
HB 771 Author: Deshotel
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to funding for the Texas Academy of Leadership in the Humanities.
HB 774 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to eliminating certain state-required assessment instruments administered to public school students in certain grades.
HB 775 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to removing the requirement of satisfactory performance on state assessment instruments for public school grade-level promotion and providing alternative compliance for the requirement of satisfactory performance on state assessment instruments for graduation.
HB 779 Author: Huberty
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to cardiac assessments of participants in extracurricular athletic activities sponsored or sanctioned by the University Interscholastic League.
HB 802 Author: King, Ken | Harless | Springer
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to the provision of a transportation allotment under the foundation school program based on the price of gasoline.
HB 810 Author: White, James | Springer | Isaac
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to employment of persons with professional qualifications as public school teachers.
HB 811 Author: González, Mary
Last Action: 02/23/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 23 2015 3:22PM
Caption: Relating to administering certain assessment instruments to public school students in certain grades for diagnostic purposes only.
HB 829 Author: Zedler
Last Action: 02/26/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 26 2015 4:54PM
Caption: Relating to inclusion of a civics test in the graduation requirements for public high school students.
HB 842 Author: Naishtat
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to review of public school instructional materials for compliance with accessibility standards.
HB 868 Author: Flynn
Last Action: 03/04/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 4 2015 5:45PM
Caption: Relating to a defense to prosecution for and civil liability of an educator who uses force or deadly force to protect the educator’s person, students of the school, or property of the school, and suspension of a student who assaults an employee of a school.
HB 874 Author: Sanford
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to employment of persons with advanced degrees as public school teachers.
HB 879 Author: Farney
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to evaluating the performance of dropout recovery schools.
HB 917 Author: Villalba
Last Action: 02/25/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 25 2015 11:46AM
Caption: Relating to school marshals for private schools, notifying a parent or guardian whether an employee of a public or private school is appointed school marshal, and the confidentiality of information submitted to or collected by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement in connection with a certification for appointment as school marshal.
HB 919 Author: Flynn
Last Action: 02/25/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 25 2015 11:46AM
Caption: Relating to provisional special education funding for certain students in public schools.
HB 925 Author: Guillen
Last Action: 02/25/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 25 2015 11:46AM
Caption: Relating to the balance maintained in a school district’s general fund and associated requirements regarding the general fund.
HB 929 Author: Huberty
Last Action: 02/25/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Feb 25 2015 11:46AM
Caption: Relating to exclusion of certain public school student disciplinary actions from reports required by state or federal law.
HB 945 Author: Rinaldi | Keough
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to the repeal of provisions requiring school districts to reduce their wealth per student to the equalized wealth level.
HB 948 Author: Rinaldi | Villalba | Krause | Fallon
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to the Texas High Performance Schools Consortium.
HB 959 Author: Menéndez
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to limiting certain state-required assessment instruments administered to public school students in certain grades to assessments required by federal law.
HB 980 Author: Hernandez
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to a personal financial literacy component in a statistics course offered for public high school graduation.
HB 985 Author: Villalba
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to mental health screening for public school students who may be a danger to self or others and to suspension or educational placement of those students; creating an offense.
HB 1013 Author: Canales
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to requirements regarding electronic access to instructional materials provided in printed book format purchased for public schools.
HB 1023 Author: Stickland
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to public school class size limits.
HB 1033 Author: Leach
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to the placement of video cameras in self-contained classrooms providing special education services.
HB 1060 Author: Rodriguez, Justin
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to reporting of teacher turnover information by public schools.
HB 1067 Author: Koop
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to the first day of the school year for public schools.
HB 1070 Author: Smith
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to a reduction in the cost of attendance credits for certain school districts that purchase windstorm and hail insurance.
HB 1100 Author: Johnson | Farney | Thompson, Senfronia | Zerwas | González, Mary
Last Action: 03/10/2015 H Scheduled for public hearing on . . .
Caption: Relating to a gold standard full-day prekindergarten program provided by public school districts.
HB 1135 Author: Muñoz, Jr.
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to a transportation allotment for a school district transporting students to dual credit courses.
HB 1139 Author: Fallon
Last Action: 03/02/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 2 2015 3:50PM
Caption: Relating to inclusion of a civics test in the graduation requirements for public high school students.
HB 1142 Author: Dukes
Last Action: 03/04/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 4 2015 5:45PM
Caption: Relating to the establishment of a workgroup to examine the implementation of dating violence awareness and education programs in public schools.
HB 1157 Author: Alvarado
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 3 2015 1:59PM
Caption: Relating to funding for public school career and technology education programs.
HB 1162 Author: VanDeaver
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 3 2015 1:59PM
Caption: Relating to eliminating satisfactory performance requirements for public school end-of-course assessment instruments as a criterion for promotion or graduation.
HB 1163 Author: VanDeaver
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 3 2015 1:59PM
Caption: Relating to the percentage of the annual distribution from the permanent school fund set aside for the state instructional materials fund.
HB 1164 Author: VanDeaver
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 3 2015 1:59PM
Caption: Relating to the assessment of public school students in writing and English language arts.
HB 1170 Author: Farney
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 3 2015 1:59PM
Caption: Relating to the applicability to open-enrollment charter schools of certain laws regarding local governments and political subdivisions.
HB 1171 Author: Farney
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 3 2015 1:59PM
Caption: Relating to the applicability of certain immunity and liability laws to open-enrollment charter schools.
HB 1172 Author: Alvarado
Last Action: 03/04/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 4 2015 5:45PM
Caption: Relating to creating a program to recognize before-school and after-school programs that promote healthy eating and physical activity.
HB 1188 Author: Deshotel
Last Action: 03/10/2015 H Scheduled for public hearing on . . .
Caption: Relating to the creation of a joint interim committee to study and make recommendations regarding early childhood education.
HB 1197 Author: Bohac
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 3 2015 1:59PM
Caption: Relating to allowing certain extracurricular activities required by public school classes for agriculture, food, and natural resources.
HB 1218 Author: Capriglione
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 3 2015 1:59PM
Caption: Relating to course content requirements for human sexuality instruction provided by a public school.
HB 1227 Author: Anderson, Rodney
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 3 2015 1:59PM
Caption: Relating to eliminating the requirement that a school district assess the physical fitness of students.
HB 1231 Author: Fletcher
Last Action: 03/03/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 3 2015 1:59PM
Caption: Relating to the membership of school district and open-enrollment charter school concussion oversight teams.
HB 1300 Author: Capriglione
Last Action: 03/05/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 5 2015 2:59PM
Caption: Relating to the required qualifications of persons admitted to educator preparation programs.
HB 1304 Author: Guillen
Last Action: 03/05/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 5 2015 2:59PM
Caption: Relating to the use of school committees to make determinations regarding graduation for certain public high school students who fail to perform satisfactorily on end-of-course assessment instruments.
HB 1305 Author: Bonnen, Greg | Paul
Last Action: 03/05/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 5 2015 5:44PM
Caption: Relating to a program to provide a free or reduced-price breakfast to eligible students attending a public school and the method of determining the number of educationally disadvantaged students.
HB 1341 Author: Aycock
Last Action: 03/05/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 5 2015 5:44PM
Caption: Relating to review and modification of the essential knowledge and skills of the required public school curriculum.
HB 1347 Author: Howard
Last Action: 03/05/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 5 2015 5:44PM
Caption: Relating to a study on the performance and operations of public schools that operate on a year-round system.
HB 1351 Author: Turner, Chris
Last Action: 03/05/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 5 2015 5:44PM
Caption: Relating to health education curriculum and instruction in public schools.
HB 1366 Author: Herrero
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to student eligibility for Foundation School Program benefits.
HB 1373 Author: Giddings
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to the assignment of a public school student to an inexperienced or uncertified teacher.
HB 1383 Author: Allen
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to the salary paid to classroom teachers employed by public schools.
HB 1451 Author: Fallon
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to the availability of certain school district financial information on certain districts’ Internet websites.
HB 1461 Author: Lucio III
Last Action: 03/04/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 4 2015 5:45PM
Caption: Relating to the bilingual education allotment provided under the public school finance system.
HB 1468 Author: Huberty
Last Action: 03/05/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 5 2015 2:59PM
Caption: Relating to the assessment of fourth and seventh grade public school students in writing and English language arts.
HB 1469 Author: Huberty
Last Action: 03/05/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 5 2015 2:59PM
Caption: Relating to the assessment of public school students in writing and English language arts.
HB 1474 Author: VanDeaver
Last Action: 03/05/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 5 2015 2:59PM
Caption: Relating to the placement of money in the state instructional materials fund for public schools to use to purchase instructional materials.
HB 1477 Author: Meyer
Last Action: 03/05/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 5 2015 2:59PM
Caption: Relating to the cost of an attendance credit under the public school finance system.
HB 1478 Author: Meyer
Last Action: 03/05/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 5 2015 2:59PM
Caption: Relating to a limitation on the amount of school property tax revenue that is subject to recapture under the public school finance system.
HB 1479 Author: Meyer
Last Action: 03/05/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 5 2015 2:59PM
Caption: Relating to the equalized wealth level and the guaranteed yield under the school finance system.
HB 1486 Author: Galindo
Last Action: 03/05/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 5 2015 2:59PM
Caption: Relating to a prohibition on vendor contact with a member of the board of trustees of an independent school district during the procurement process.
HB 1559 Author: Parker
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to public school Internet website information concerning local programs and services available to assist homeless students.
HB 1593 Author: Blanco
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to notification of parents regarding the immunization status of students enrolled at a public school.
HB 1597 Author: Blanco
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to state assistance for school employees uniform group health coverage.
HB 1599 Author: King, Ken
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to grants for school districts and campuses providing blended and individualized learning staff development activities.
HB 1600 Author: King, Ken
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to the establishment of a grant program to assist school districts in developing or implementing innovative blended learning initiatives.
HB 1601 Author: Raymond
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to eligibility of certain school district employees for certification as a principal.
HB 1614 Author: Guillen
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to reporting of teacher turnover information by public schools.
HB 1664 Author: Leach
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to the authority of a school district to excuse from school attendance a student who is exempt from a final examination.
HB 1673 Author: VanDeaver
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to eliminating certain state-required assessment instruments and certain end-of-course assessment instruments not required by federal law.
HB 1676 Author: Aycock
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to authority of public and open-enrollment charter school campuses to maintain a supply of and administer anaphylaxis medicine.
HB 1677 Author: Aycock
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to the public school finance system.
HB 1682 Author: Bohac
Last Action: 03/09/2015 H Referred to Public Education: Mar 9 2015 3:35PM
Caption: Relating to the salary paid to certain professional employees of public schools.

Let Congress Know – Vote No on HR5 the ESEA/NCLB Reauthorization

HR5 Petition to Congress.001

– Student Success Act-

Join the Women On The Wall​ team and sign the petition to let Texas U.S. Representatives know – Vote NO on HR5. The battle against HR5 starts up again Monday March 2nd in Washington.

Time is of the essence to let our Texas US House of Representatives know we want them to represent us.

Sign the petition and then call their office and let them know you signed.

[emailpetition id=”7″]
[signaturelist id=”7″]

Bill Information

U.S. House of Representatives
List of Texas U.S. House of Representative Contact numbers. Gohmert, Louie -202-225-3035
Poe, Ted – 202-225-6565
Johnson, Sam – 202-225-4201
Ratcliffe, John – 202-225-6673
Hensarling, Jeb – 202-225-3484
Barton, Joe – 202-225-2002
Culberson, John – 202-225-2571
Brady, Kevin – 202-225-4901
Green, Al – 202-225-7508
McCaul, Michael T. – 202-225-2401
Conaway, K. Michael – 202-225-3605
Granger, Kay – 202-225-5071
Thornberry, Mac – 202-225-3706
Weber, Randy – 202-225-2831
Hinojosa, Rubén – 202-225-2531
O’Rourke, Beto – 202-225-4831
Flores, Bill – 202-225-6105
Jackson Lee, Sheila – 202-225-3816
Neugebauer, Randy – 202-225-4005
Castro, Joaquin – 202-225-3236
Smith, Lamar – 202-225-4236
Olson, Pete – 202-225-5951
Hurd, Will – 202-225-4511
Marchant, Kenny – 202-225-6605
Williams, Roger – 202-225-9896
Burgess, Michael -202-225-7772
Farenthold, Blake – 202-225-7742
Cuellar, Henry -202-225-1640
Green, Gene -202-225-1688
Johnson, Eddie Bernice – 202-225-8885
Carter, John – 202-225-3864
Sessions, Pete – 202-225-2231
Veasey, Marc – 202-225-9897
Vela, Filemon – 202-225-9901
Doggett, Lloyd – 202-225-4865
Babin, Brian – 202-225-1555

A Labyrinth of Corporate Interests in Common Core

This is a companion document connected to the video Morna McDermont made entitled Walking the Labyrinth of the Corporate Owned Common Core 

 

A SPECIAL THANKS TO KAREN BRACKEN FOR THE SERIOUS TIME AND ENERGY SHE PUT INTO (RE) CREATING THE COMMON CORE CHART AS A POWER POINT


jpeglabyrinth-slide-21

 

The following is the transcript of the narrative from the video above. (Note: Morna has added additional items she forgot to mention in the video in italics, and has inserted NOTES with extended information on certain items, and provided a list of references at the end).

Transcript begins:

Hi.  I’m Morna McDermott.  It’s July 23rd 2013 and this is my overview of corporate involvement in the Common Core.  Let’s start with U.S. Department of Education which funded, through grants and other funding, the Common Core via Race to the Top and handed it over to three major organizations: the National Governors Association, the CCSSO, otherwise known as the Chief Counsel State School Officers, and Achieve … who have partnered to disseminate, organize, manage or otherwise outsource the Common Core and the assessments that go with it.

INSERTED NOTE: I failed to mention that Achieve is funded in large part by ALEC-associated corporations including Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Boeing, GE Foundation, Lumina, Nationwide, and State Farm.

(Transcript continued): So let’s start over here. The Director of Race to the Top is Joanne Weiss who worked with the Broad Foundation which also has as one of its acting members Chester Finn with the Fordham Institute. Broad Foundation is also a member of ALEC which sponsored the bill called the Parent Trigger Act. I’ll come back to that.

INSERTED NOTE: A little more background on the Eli Broad Foundation.  This foundation advertises its commitment to education in the following way (according to their website): “Broad Superintendents Academy graduates are raising student achievement faster than their peers after three years in their positions. And Broad Residents are freeing up millions of dollars for the classroom by introducing central office efficiencies … ”

Sounds nice. But there’s more… According to one author: “The network involves outspoken individuals with elitist credentials, long time neo-liberals, right-wing think tank pundits and their conservative foundation sponsors, other foundations such as Wallace and the Broad Foundations, and quasi-government agencies … Broad money is sloshed behind the scenes to elect or select candidates who buy the Broad corporate agenda in education (see Emery and Ohanian, 2004, pp.89-94). Broad’s enemies are teacher unions, school boards, and schools of education. What all three have in common is that they eschew corporate, top-down control required in the Broad business model.

(Transcript continued): The National Governors Association partners with Achieve for the Common Core. The National Governors Association also partners with the College Board. The CCSSO partners with Pearson for the Common Core (to create) the materials. The CCSSO also partners with ACT which is funded by State Farm which is a member of ALEC. Pearson, among other things, there is not enough time to cover everything in Pearson, so this is a broad sketch…acquired Connections Academy which is a member of ALEC. Connections Academy (via Mickey Revenaugh, Senior Vice President of State Relations for Connections Academy as of 2011) was actually the co-chair of the subcommittee for education in ALEC.  Pearson also acquired America’s Choice which sponsored a program called the NCEE which also partners with the CCSSO.

INSERTED NOTE: America’s Choice began as a program of the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. In the autumn of 2004, America’s Choice was reorganized as a for-profit subsidiary of NCEE.

Since its founding in 1988, NCEE has been a leader of the educational standards movement in the U.S., and the America’s Choice program has become a premier provider of comprehensive school and instructional design services, technical assistance and teacher professional development. 

According to Jay Greene: “NCEE’s scheme was originally financed by a $1,500,000 pilot grant from the Gates Foundation.  It will now benefit from a sweetheart deal of $30,000,000–all taxpayers’ money. Having Gates pay for both NCEE’s start-up and the development of Common Core standards certainly helped America’s Choice to put its key people on Common Core’s ELA and mathematics standards development and draft-writing committees to ensure that they came up with the readiness standards Gates had paid for and wanted NCEE to use. NCEE has a completely free hand to ‘align’ its ‘Board’ exams exactly how it pleases with Common Core’s ‘college-readiness’ level and to set passing scores exactly where it wants, since the passing score must be consistent across piloting states.”

Other funders of NCEE who are also members of ALEC include Eastman Kodak Company, Lumina Foundation, and Ford Motor Company Fund, Boeing, Xerox, and Broad Foundation.

(Transcript cont.): The NCEE is funded by Walton- come over here-The Walton Foundation which is a member of ALEC and is basically associated with Walmart, directly funds the Common Core State Standards. And again, too many too many connections to mention- this is just brought sketch. I’m gonna come back up over here to the CCSSO (whose director is Tom Luna- correction, current Director is Chris Minnich former employee of Pearson) to look at their connections with McKinsey and Co. which is a global consulting firm. Their  big thing is called “Big Data”… they believe that the data is the answer to all things right now, (and) as you can see they’ve got their fingerprints all over everything in the Common Core. For one thing, David Coleman was one of the architects of the Common Core … he created the Student Achievement Partners which helped develop a standards, (and he) was a former consultant for McKinsey. Lou Gerstner, who is the co-founder of Achieve, was the former director at McKinsey & Co. and Sir Michael Barber was a former consultant McKinsey, is now one of the CEO’s at Pearson.  Pearson partners with the PARCC Consortium for the assessments. And I said they already partner with Achieve and ACT. The PARCC, following the screen line (in red) all the way over here, has their data collection (in) a partnership with inBloom. Now inBloom is a part Wireless Generation and is contracting with several states to collect the data for all their testing. The two key players in inBloom are Joel Klein (and) Rupert Murdoch. And in addition, members of the Board of inBloom include Margaret Spellings, Gene Wilhoit (former Executive Director) of the CCSSO, and also on the board is Bob Wise.  Bob (Wise) was the chair for the Alliance for Excellent Education which is the brainchild Jeb Bush. It’s funded by State Farm.  The Alliance for Excellent Education partners with, or supports, the Common Core. I’m gonna… follow me down here…. to the Council for Foreign Relations which supports a national curriculum and has been a big promoter at the Common Core Standards and has had direct influence on it. They created a paper in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense and with America’s Promise Alliance to craft paper call the Education Reform and National Security Report and its authors supported the Common Core State Standards initiative. So, on the Council for Foreign Relations you have Lou Gertsner, who you know is the co-founder of Achieve, as I already mentioned, and who is a former director at McKinsey & Co. Also on the Board of Directors (of America’s Promise Alliance) is general Colin Powell – one of the things that this paper mentioned was the importance of the U.S. Department of Defense in overseeing and managing the Common Core. Other signers of this paper include Condoleeza Rice – and one of the cosponsors of this paper was America’s Promise Alliance which supports the Common Core .

INSERT: Visible but not mentioned is endorsement on this paper by a representative of the American Enterprise Institute,Rick Hess, who ironically vocalizes public skepticism of the Common Core. See the actual document for a full list of signatories.

(Transcript continued): The chair of America’s Promise Alliance is Alma Powell. The co-chair is Greg Petersmeyer, who is a McKinsey and Co. consultant and (he) helped develop something called Fuse Corporation which, among other things, supported Teach for America. So Fuse Corp is one of the partners of America Promise Alliance which is funded by Pearson Foundation, the Walmart Foundation which isin ALEC, the Gates Foundation, Lumina which is in ALEC, Boeing which is in ALEC, and Lockheed Martin which is the world’s largest weapons manufacturer and is a member of ALEC, (and) The Ford Foundation. Bill Gates…um this is a board sketch because there are way too many things to mention about Bill Gates, but among other things… on of the Board of Directors for Wireless Generation is an employee at the Gates Foundation.

INSERT: Clarification of an error. The former Gates employee works for inBloom, not Wireless. Her name is Sharren Bates and she is the Chief Product Officer. https://www.inbloom.org/leadership. Also, on the Board of Director sits Deputy Director of the Next Generation Models Team for Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Stacey Childress.

(Transcript continued): The Gates Foundation directly funded the inBloom network. Gates also funds the College Board, which is now run by David Coleman–remember from Student Achievement Partners that made the standards for Common Core, and (who) was a former consultant at McKinsey & Co–um where’d they go… Gates Foundation also directly funds the Common Core State Standards. The National Governors Association partners with the College Board and also partners with the Achieve.  The CCSSO also partners with McKinsey & Co. to manage the PARCC after 2014. This initiative is also partnered by Lumina which is a member ALEC …So after 2014, McKinsey and Co. may be managing our children data. Specifically, the state of Florida has potentially considered a contract with McKinsey and Co. to manage the PARCC as of 2015. Again, this is a broad sketch-and there’s always more than meets the eye. But if every line was on here that needed to be on here, it would be even more unreadable than it already is. I forgot to mention U.S. Department of Education… the key advisers for the 2009 U.S. Department of Education “Blueprint” included largely members at McKinsey and Co. and the Broad Foundation. So it’s curious how much ALEC contends that it opposes the Common Core yet so many organizations that are members of ALEC have funded its inception and continue to promote its perpetuation from state to state.

Makes you wonder….

LABYRINTH OF CORPORATE COMMON CORE

LIST OF (MOST) REFERENCES

inBloom:

https://www.inbloom.org/board-of-directors

http://www.americaspromise.org/About-the-Alliance/Leadership/Board-of-Directors/C-Gregg-Petersmeyer.aspx

 

Lumina and CCSSO:

http://www.luminafoundation.org/luminagrants/council_of_chief_state_school_officers_washington_dc_/

State Farm and ALEC: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/State_Farm

Lockheed Martin: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Lockheed_Martin

Chester Finn: http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/147681

ACT and Pearson: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/02/idUS192506+02-Jul-2012+HUG20120702

David Coleman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Coleman_(educator)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Board

Boeing: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Boeing

America’s Promise Alliance:

http://www.americaspromise.org/About-the-Alliance/Our-Donors.aspx

http://www.americaspromise.org/gradnation

Council on Foreign Relations:

http://educationalchemy.com/2012/05/11/this-is-not-a-test/

http://images.bimedia.net/documents/national+security+and+education.pdf

McKinsey and Co:

http://educationalchemy.com/2013/03/23/vampires-mckinsey-co-and-the-future-of-public-education-its-all-connected/

http://educationalchemy.com/2013/06/09/manifest-destiny-2-0-meet-the-new-colonizers/

http://educationalchemy.com/2012/06/18/the-hand-that-holds-the-data-rules-the-world/

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/big_data_the_next_frontier_for_innovation

Lou Gerstner:

http://educationalchemy.com/2013/07/17/pay-no-attention-to-that-man-behind-the-curtain/

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=179272&ticker=IBM

http://speakerpedia.com/speakers/louis-v-gerstner-jr

Alliance for Excellent Education: http://www.all4ed.org/

Grad Nation: http://www.all4ed.org/files/EducationDaily20111117.pdf

Connections Academy: http://www.connectionsacademy.com/about/management-team.aspx

Pearson:

http://www.examiner.com/article/pearson-250-million-kids-teachers-zero

http://www.thedeal.com/content/private-equity/apollo-exits-connections-education-via-400m-sale-to-pearson.php#ixzz1sSFSzLK0

American Legislative Exchange Commission (ALEC):

http://www.alecexposed.org

http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/rww-in-focus-alec.pdf

Tom Luna: http://sites.google.com/site/commonsensedemocracyfoundation/recent-articles/tomlunaseducationreformplanwasalongtimeinthemaking

Schools Report: Failing to Prepare Students Hurts National Security, Prosperity:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/19/schools-report-condoleezza-rice-joel-klein_n_1365144.html?ref=education

Joel Klein: http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1248

NCEE (Natl Center for Education and the Economy): http://truthinamericaneducation.com/common-core-state-standards/gates-ncee-influence/

Other General References:

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2011/10/ending-99-control-of-schools-by-1.html?spref=fb

http://cnx.org/content/m34684/latest/  (Ten Most Wanted Enemies of American Public Education’s School Leadership)

http://www.missourieducationwatchdog.com/2011/02/we-know-what-commmon-core-standards.html

http://washingtonindependent.com/110525/alec-model-legislation-echoes-tppf-perry-backed-higher-ed-reforms-in-texas

http://www.artofteachingscience.org/2011/09/24/common-corporate-science-standards/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/27/gates-education-games_n_854431.html

 

RED ALERT! URGE NO VOTES ON NCLB REPLACEMENT (HR 5) & DATA MINING BILL (S 227) IN US HOUSE ON 2-25!

Data Collection
Hat Tip to the Florida Coalition Against Common Core~ Who put out this RED ALERT not only on HR 5 but on S 227 as well. 

Besides urging a no vote on HR 5, the Student Success Act that replaces No Child Left Behind, please contact your US representatives to vote NO on S 227, the Senate version of the federal data mining bill.  Having already passed the Senate last year and about to be passed again, it is scheduled for a vote on Wednesday February 25th in the US House.  S 227, the Strengthening Education through Research Act (SETRA) reauthorizes the 2002 Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) that has been very problematic, because it started the concept of state longitudinal databases, stepped around the prohibition on a national database by creating “national cooperative education statistics systems,”  allowed personally identifiable information to go to international agencies, and removed the  previous penalties of fines and imprisonment for misusing individual student data. SETRA continues or worsens all of that. Here are four major problems with SETRA (A detailed analysis of these points is available at http://bit.ly/1CYg31N):

1.  SETRA seeks to expand federal psychological profiling of our children
Section 132 of the bill (page 28, line 16-21) inserts the following:
”and which may include research on social and emotional learning, and the acquisition of competencies and skills, including the ability to think critically, solve complex problems, evaluate evidence, and communicate effectively…” (Emphasis added).

The US Department of Education (USED) is already a flagrant violation of the Tenth Amendment.  The amount of data collected on individual children, families, and teachers via USED through this law and the weakening and loopholes of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) that provided individual data to the federal government is appalling and a complete violation of the Fourth Amendment as well.  To then give the federal government the right to research the thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors of free American citizens, especially innocent children, is completely unacceptable and without justification. 
2.  SETRA only appears to prohibit a national database.
Section 157 of the bill takes out the word “national” and still only by words, prohibits a national database. While this appears to be an improvement, it unfortunately doesn’t do anything to stop the egregious loss of privacy that has happened since ESRA established the national cooperative statistics systems and state longitudinal databases in 2002.  These databases have been enhanced by The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, Stimulus), Race to the Top, and the America COMPETES Act.  In addition they are relying on outdated and weak student privacy laws (FERPA and PPRA), there is no enforcement mechanism, and we have seen how the federal government repeatedly and flagrantly violates its promises not to extend its authority, as with Race to the Top, Common Core and the national tests. 
 
3. The bill continues to rely on a severely outdated and weakened FERPA to protect student privacy.
Both ESRA and SETRA refer to FERPA (20 USC 1232g) in Section 182 and requires data privacy to be handled according to that law.  However, FERPA passed in 1974 long before the presence of interoperable databases and cloud computing.  It also only discusses sanctions on entities that mishandle the data and those, which used to include fines and imprisonment, were severely weakened when ESRA was passed in 2002.  Students, families, and teachers whose sensitive personal and family data about everything from “social and emotional” issues to genetic data in newborn screening data, have no redress.  According to an investigation by Politico, education technology companies are “scooping up as many as 10 million unique data points on each child, each day.” (Emphasis added) Finally, FERPA has been severely weakened via regulatory fiat to gut consent requirements and broaden access to data by federal agencies and private entities.
 
4. SETRA continues the large loophole that renders PPRA ineffective in protecting student privacy.
PPRA, cited in section 182 as 20 USC 1232h, prohibits the collection of psychological, political, religious, and other sensitive data in surveys, but not in curriculum and assessments such as in Common Core.

 

 

Help WomenOnTheWall.org carry out our mission. We are the grandmothers, mothers, daughters, sisters of American women of all political persuasions, age and race and are the stewards of the home and hearth. We will stop at nothing to defend and protect our families. Your financial support is critical to ensuring that we can carry out our mission of protecting our nation for future generations and to fight for the safety and security of our children and grandchildren. Help us in our efforts by making a contribution of $19,81, $50, or $100 so we can keep fighting for future generations.

If you have not gotten Credential to Destroy: How and Why Education Became a Weapon, by Robin Eubanks, now is the time. She is also the author of the blog, Invisible Serfs Collar.com

Action Alert:

Vote NO are H.R. 5

ACTION ALERT: STOP THE STUDENT “SUCCESS” ACT (HR 5)

Congressional Leadership Is Bull-Rushing Through HR5, the 600 Page Reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (rebranded the “Student Success Act”)

The House votes on it this week.  Call your Representative and call the Speaker of the House and tell them to vote “no” on HR 5!

Click photo for the Contact info on the U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. House of Representatives

Below are just a few of the problems with the Student Success Act H.R.5.

1. HR5 Denigrates Parental Rights and Seizes State Sovereignty

  • No program shall “operate within a State, unless the legislature of that State shall have . . . waived the State’s rights and authorities to act inconsistently with any requirement that might be imposed by the Secretary as a condition of receiving that assistance.” (Sec. 6561) (emphasis added).
  • Federal requirements will trump the rights “reserved to the States and individual Americans by the United States Constitution” to lead in the education of their child. (Sec. 6564)
  • Requires states to change laws and regulations to “conform” to HR5. (Sec. 1403)
  • Alters the governance structures of states by requiring them to form “Committees of Practitioners” to whom the state must submit rules and regulations. (Sec. 1403)

2. HR5 Does Nothing to Relieve Children From No Child Left Behind’s (NCLB’s) Oppressive Testing Requirements.

3. Feds Will Effectively Direct State Education Policy through Enhanced Continuation of Heavy-Handed NCLB Policies

  • Requires states to demonstrate to the federal government that their standards, assessments, and state accountability systems meet the goal of “prepar[ing] all students to graduate high school for postsecondary education or the workforce.” (Sec. 1001)
  • Requires states to submit comprehensive state plans, which the Secretary can disapprove. (Sec. 1111)
  • States had to make the same showing and meet the same definitional goal to receive NCLB waivers and Race to the Top grants.. HR5 allows for a Common Core “rebrand.”  (Sec. 1001) and (Sec. 1111(3)(A))
  • Prohibitions against the Secretary forcing states into adopting Common Core are meaningless.

4. Increases Federal Data Collection To Control Curriculum

  • Empowers the Department of Education to request individual student and teacher data from State and Local Education Agencies.
  • Authorizes substantial new funding to use this data to evaluate whether schools are using “effective” instructional methods.  (Sec. 2111(b)(1)(A)) and (Sec. 2132)

___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Women On the Wall is Proud to stand with Pennsylvanians Restoring Education

Anita Hoge

After having Anita Hoge on the Women on the Wall Conference Call we are proud to stand with her and the team at

Pennsylvanians Restoring Education – Pennsylvanians Against Common Core.


Anita and her team have just sent out the press release below.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 20, 2015, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, PA.

Citizens of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvanians Restoring Education, Pennsylvania Against Common Core, parents and students are asking Representative John Kline to stop the REAUTHORIZATION of ESEA, HR 5, the Student Success Act of 2015 which will amend No Child Left Behind.

HR 5 denies parents their rights over their children. Reference page 488. Reference page 522-555.

HR 5 legislation creates the radical transformation of tax collection through the assigned destruction and hostile takeover of our local neighborhood schools.

HR 5 violates states’ rights under the United States Constitution.

HR 5 is designed to destroy local, public neighborhood schools through usurpation of elected school boards’ authorities and responsibilities.

HR 5 will destroy all private education in America, as well, legislating Title I “choice” vouchers that will “follow the child,” enforcing HR 5 compliance in EVERY PRIVATE AND RELIGIOUS SCHOOL.

HR 5 would legislate services to these Title I “choice” children called DIRECT STUDENT SERVICES AS A VOUCHER that must be equitable and comparable to any public school, which is needed to satisfy Common Core.

HR 5 will destroy representative government, all non-governmental schools, and standardize education across this nation. This overreach of the federal government is in direct violation of our United States Constitution which dictates separation of federal jurisdiction vs. State jurisdiction.

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, you state in the Student Success Act HR 5, Press Release, February 3, 2015:

“…..This proposal provides an opportunity to chart a new course….”

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, this “new course” that you are forcing on the states will end in Constitutional chaos.

HR 5 removes Constitutional states’ rights sovereignty.

HR 5 redefines parent and removes parental rights over the upbringing of their children.

HR 5 subjugates state legislatures under blatantly false pretenses about state and local control.

HR 5 presents choice vouchers defined as “direct student services,” as a means to control private and religious schools and phase out public schools.

HR 5 would transform ALL SCHOOLS into government schools. Has every state ceded the land that these schools occupy, turning them into federal lands? If the states have not ceded the land to the federal government, the federal government’s jurisdiction is determined to be severely limited, unless altered drastically by the state legislature. Questions of jurisdiction would still remain. At the least, HR 5 obfuscates state and federal jurisdictions as specified in the Constitution and affirmed in numerous Supreme Court decisions.

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE Who “Grubered” your HR 5 and consigned the states to federal takeover?

HR 5 forces private and religious schools to provide services through an APPROVED state list of providers eliminating the freedom for private and religious schools to teach students to their own standards and select their own curriculum.

HR 5 forces private and religious schools to provide non-cognitive mental health areas of personality development and interventions whereby proficiency levels in the social, emotional, and behavioral domain are scored to a criterion resulting in violations of privacy under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, federal law, state law, and civil rights laws.

HR 5 uses choice vouchers to dissolve the public school system through the exodus of (departure of) Choice, Title I, at-risk students who disengage from the public school and enter a private or religious school. Public schools are presently represented by locally elected school board members in the United States. The destruction of our neighborhood public school system undermines the power and authority of property tax provisions and elected school board representation on the local level, representation which financially supports local education agencies.

HR 5 provides for the expansion of charter schools as the sanctioned alternative for

schooling. As you, Representative Kline, must know, charter schools are a system of schooling without elected boards. They use public tax monies regulated by federal government mandates, standards, assessment and teacher remediation with data tracking and trafficking and re-education toward Common Core standards.

HR 5 by design eliminates local and state representative government by removing the states’ rights and local control of education and surrenders our children’s education and future to the dictates of the federal government.

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, HR 5 is a Constitutional Crisis in the Making.

HR 5 requires that states legislatively surrender their rights over education in order to receive Title I funds.

HR 5 removes the parents as the final arbiters in the upbringing of their children, and wrestles control of private and religious education through federal encroachment as explained below.

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, quoting from your HR 5 legislation, on page 552, you stipulate the criteria for removing the state legislature’s constitutional power, rights, and responsibilities as follows:

Subpart 4—Restoration of State Sovereignty Over Public Education and Parental Rights Over the Education of Their Children

‘‘SEC. 6561. STATES TO RETAIN RIGHTS AND AUTHORITIES
THEY DO NOT EXPRESSLY WAIVE.
‘‘(a) RETENTION OF RIGHTS AND AUTHORITIES.— No officer, employee, or other authority of the Secretary shall enforce against an authority of a State, nor shall any authority of a State have any obligation to obey, any requirement imposed as a condition of receiving assistance under a grant program established under this Act, nor shall such program operate within a State, unless the legislature of that State shall have by law expressly approved that

program and, in doing so, HAVE waived the State’s rights and authorities to act

inconsistently with any requirement that might be imposed by the Secretary as a condition of receiving that assistance.” (Emphasis added)

“(b) AMENDMENT OF TERMS OF RECEIPT OF FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
An officer, employee, or other authority of the Secretary may release assistance under a grant program established under this Act to a State only after the legislature of the State has by law expressly approved the program (as described in sub- section (a)). This approval may be accomplished by a vote to affirm a State budget that includes the use of such Federal funds and any such State budget must expressly include any requirement imposed as a condition of receiving assistance under a grant program established under this Act so that by approving the budget, the State legislature is expressly approving the grant program and, in doing so, waiving the State’s rights and authorities to act inconsistently with any

requirement that might be imposed by the Secretary as a condition of receiving that assistance.” (Emphasis added)

The passage of your bill out of committee to be voted on by the entire House of Representatives by February 24 must be stopped. The HR 5 Reauthorization of ESEA, amending No Child Left Behind, must be stopped because the provisions inherent in this legislation are egregious and lack Constitutional authority. Passage of H.R. 5 will bring about the destruction of the United States system of public education as well as the radical transformation of representative government both at the state and local level.

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, these states’ rights issues have not been discussed at your hearings. Is each state legislature aware of the fact that these measures, hidden in federal and state statute, will remove their state’s guaranteed rights under the Constitution? Will each state, including your own state of Minnesota, have to amend its own state constitution to comply with HR 5?

Several states have recently added language in their state statutes that in effect cedes jurisdiction to the federal government.

REPRESENTATIVE KILNE, have you advised the following states of the impact of the HR 5 legislation:

Pennsylvania has currently proposed legislation, HB 168, Sec. 121(a) (Representative Tobash), that states it will comply to federal ESEA legislation and future ESEA legislation:

“The Department of Education shall develop and implement Keystone Exams in [the following subjects:]……..as required by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425) or any successor statute.”

(lines 17, 18, 19 ) (Emphasis added)

Oklahoma, in an effort to stop Common Core, the Oklahoma legislature’s passage of House Bill 3399, Sec. 11-103.6a 4 (page 18) with the purpose to remove Common Core Standards, defined in their bill that they would succumb to ESEA federal law:

“Upon the effective date of this act, the State Board of Education shall seek certification from the State Regents for Higher Education that the subject matter standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics which were in place prior to the revisions adopted by the Board in June 2010 are college-and career-ready as defined in the Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Flexibility document issued by the United States Department of Education.” (emphasis added)

The Oklahoma legislature codified Common Core through ESEA and gave up its state’s rights authority by surrendering education and students to federal control.

Indiana’s supposed departure from Common Core in HB 1427, (Sec. 14.5(a) C, page 9) also surrenders its state’s rights in order to comply with federal standards.

“Provides that the state board shall implement educational standards that use the common core standards as the base model for academic standards to the extent necessary to comply with federal standards to receive a Flexibility Waiver.”

(emphasis added)

South Carolina’s bill, H3893, (Sec 3, section 59-18-325, (C)(1) passed to stop Common Core and the Smarter Balanced Test is yet another example of a state surrendering its state’s rights over education and students to the federal government. In fact this law restores Common Core:

“The summative assessment must assess students in English/language arts and mathematics, including those students as required by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and by Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. [For purposes of this subsection, ‘English/language arts’ includes English,

reading, and writing skills as required by existing state standards.”]

NOTE: The existing State standards are Common Core. (Emphasis added)

The state of Washington is yet another example. Reference Senate Bill 6030, (Sec 6, (4)(a) page 16, lines 17-20):

“..and shall not conflict with requirements contained in
Title I of the federal elementary and secondary education act of 1965, or the requirements of the Carl D. Perkins vocational education 20 act of 1998, each as amended.” (Emphasis added)

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, have these states been apprised of the devious design in HR 5 to take away states’ rights granted under the 10th Amendment to the Constitution?

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, why have your hearings not discussed the aspect of the “direct student services” that is defined as PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE FOR ALL PRIVATE AND RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS? Why have these services not been discussed…services that each private and religious school MUST “provide on an equitable basis” to meet the individual needs of each child who receives a SUPER VOUCHER? Why does the state require that private or religious schools MUST use “approved academic tutoring services as determined by a provider on a State approved list”? Schools will be subjected to discrimination charges if they deny matriculation of a Title I child even if they cannot financially support the OPEN- ENDED direct services mandated in HR 5, as explained below — even if it bankrupts them.

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, why is “meaningful choice” defined as complying to state standards (Common Core) and interventions identified for each “at-risk” child receiving the following services: Special Education, instructional support services, counseling, mentoring, one-to-one tutoring, and other benefits for the Title I child? Why is there wording that mandates that a private or religious school MUST comply with the Civil Rights Act, (the school cannot deny admittance to a Title I choice child) 504 Rehabilitation Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, (MUST administer services for mental health disabilities), IDEA (MUST administer behavioral screening, response to interventions, positive behavioral interventions and supports, mental health wrap-around, BILLABLE MEDICAID SERVICES, mental health services or specialized student support services), General Education Provisions Act (GEPA).

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, you know full well that HR 5 will codify the Family Education Rights in Privacy Act (FERPA). This important Act, as it stands now, has been totally gutted due to President Obama’s Executive Order, EO 12866, January, 2012. FERPA now allows personally identifiable information on the student to be released without informed written parental consent. This personally identifiable information on the students includes anecdotal, psychological observations, analysis, and reeducation interventions in the affective domain by teachers, all tracked and trafficked.

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, why must private and religious schools provide the following specialized Instructional support on an equitable basis with public school students?

Services defined as school counsellors, social workers, school psychologists, or other qualified professional personnel providing assessment, diagnosis, counseling education, therapeutic and other necessary services defined in Sec. 602 IDEA, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,

when in fact Common Core has been expanded into the mental health personal trait standards defined as social, emotional, and behavioral weaknesses now coded as a disability?

The State Education Agency names an ombudsman, “an official appointed to investigate individuals’ complaints against maladministration, especially that of public authorities,” for the following equitable services in each private and religious school: monitoring and enforcement requirements of private and religious schools, including reeducation in the affective domain. Obviously, under HR 5 the SEA will operate independently with no accountability to the state legislature which has surrendered its authority and responsibility over education and the students.

Referring to the concept of Title I funds that will “follow the child” and the super voucher called “direct student services”: the Title I fund that “follows the child” is going directly to every child, bypassing state government. No one at the public hearings explained that CHOICE, TITLE I FUNDS “FOLLOWING THE ‘at-risk’ CHILD” would be used to destroy the financial base of public schools which have elected school boards and are funded by local tax dollars. HR 5 is purposely designed to destroy the traditional public school system.

Furthermore, REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, there are scores of pages in your ESEA legislation that would expand CHARTER SCHOOLS OPERATING WITHOUT BOARDS ELECTED BY THE TAXPAYERS AS THEIR REPRESENTATIVES. THIS IS A SET UP FOR CHARTER SCHOOL TAKEOVER OF ALL EDUCATION with charter school authorizers to control private and religious schools. Yet, no one explained HOW these Title I funds “following” a CHOICE, TITLE I “at risk” CHILD will impact the intrusion into private and religious schools, which will be forced into all of the mandates that come with Common Core implementation and EVERY CHILD identified and funded through Title I and thereby subverting the mission of the private and religious school.

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, you have crafted HR 5 behind closed doors and put it on the fast track to correspond to the “spitball” known as the ESEA Reauthorization.

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, your HR 5 merged with the Senate version of ESEA REAUTHORIZATION will NATIONALIZE EDUCATION BYPASSING LOCAL CONTROL AND STATE CONTROL, ELIMINATING LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT, THE HALLMARK OF A FREE SOCIETY.

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, your “super vouchers” cannot buy our children. No government can deny parents their God-given rights over their children. (Pierce vs Sisters, 1925) Are you really requiring parents to waive their rights?

Similar to the waivers HR 5 requires of the states? If so, we demand that you immediately produce the waiver by which parents would sign their children over to the federal government! Explain that one to God…and your own grandchildren.

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, “The family is the primary society. It does not exist by sufferance of the state.” Dr. Charles E. Rice, correspondence February 5, 1996

REPRESENTATIVE KLINE, if you care about a free America, you must stop HR 5.

Our children are not “mere creatures of the state.”

(Pierce vs. Sisters, 1925)

 

#####

Sexualization of our Country’s Youth – “Follow-Up: Not Dr. Klussmann for Tex. Comm. of Education”

Greg Abbott

“Follow-Up: Not Dr. Klussmann for Tex. Comm. of Education”

By Donna Garner 11.28.15

Screen Shot 2015-01-28 at 5.55.02 PMACTION STEP: Please contact Tex. Gov. Greg Abbott and ask him not to appoint Dr. Duncan Klussmann, Spring Branch ISD Superintendent, as the next Texas Commissioner of Education for the following reasons mentioned below.  

 

 

 

 

 

Also, please ask all Texas Senators not to approve Gov. Abbott’s appointment of Sarah Screen Shot 2015-01-28 at 6.06.15 PMMartinez Tucker to the U. T. Board of Regents because she is a major supporter of the Common Core Standards Initiative:  1.27.15 — “Gov. Abbott, Please Listen to Our Concerns: 2 for 2 in the Wrong Direction” — by Donna Garner — http://www.educationviews.org/gov-abbott-listen-concerns-2-2-wrong-direction/

 

I have posted Gov. Abbott’s contact information at the bottom of this page.

 

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After I sent out my original article (1.17.15 – “I Hope This Is a Rumor: Klussmann As Texas Ed. Comm.” – by Donna Garner — http://www.educationviews.org/hope-rumor-klussmann-texas-ed-comm/ ), I began receiving responses from people who live in the Spring Branch ISD area and who have real concerns with Dr. Klussmann ever being appointed by Gov. Abbott as the  Texas Commissioner of Education.

 

One Texas, high-profile, elected education official said that she had real concerns with Dr. Klussmann because of his decision to ignore parental concerns over a sex education program called “It’s Your Game, Keep It Real.”  After viewing six hours of the videos from this program [They have since been taken down from the Internet because of parental pushback.], the elected official told me, “I was sick.  It tries to ‘guilt’ kids into being sexually responsible (fear of disease and pregnancy) but does not mention anything at all about the most important motivator and that is a sense of morals and strong character that parents, teachers, Sunday school leaders, etc. can help instill in our children.”

 

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Another parent wrote to tell me that back in December 2012, she had personally contacted SPISD Superintendent Klussmann, the SPISD school board members, and many in the public about her concerns over the teaching of “It’s Your Game, Keep It Real” to middle-school students in SBISD.  The parent and a Texas Representative met with SBISD administrators and made Dr. Klussman aware of the pornographic, perverted, and predatory content in the program in which the students role play scripts filled with filth.“Dr. Klussmann still chose to expose students to ‘It’s Your Game.’  This is evidence of his character.  I would not support him in any position in which he is charged with the welfare and best interest of students.”

           

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10.9.12 — “Graphic Middle School Sex Class Outrages Parents” – by Todd Starnes —http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/middle-school-sex-class-shows-kids-how-to-use-condoms.html

 

Excerpts from this article:

 

Hundreds of Houston-area parents are outraged over a new sex education program that teaches 12-year-old children about oral, anal and vaginal sex – and uses graphic curriculum to instruct students on how to use condoms.

The new curriculum is called, “It’s Your Game, Keep It Real” – a program that includes real-life scenarios about condoms…

Several parents told Fox News that the information booklets provided by the school district did not indicate the graphic nature of the classroom instruction nor did it mention the level of detail.

“I started looking at the curriculum and I got this sense of dread,” she said. “I thought, ‘oh my gosh, what is it that they are putting in front of our kids?’”

Kalmbach said the videos include cursing and slang. The actors are dressed provocatively.

“It has heavy petting and making out – and this is the seventh grade curriculum,” she said.

“This has not been vetted,” he told Fox News. “Now that parents are taking a truly active role, you have hundreds of parents expressing outrage over it.”

Some of the video was so graphic that a Houston television station was unable to air footage from the curriculum…

“I think it’s soft porn when they have a girl on the couch and she says, ‘Let me help you put the condom on,’” parent Mayte Weitzman told television station KTRK. “They’re teaching them oral, anal and vaginal sex,” she said. “They’re teaching them all kinds of sex. They’re not focusing on abstinence.”

“Our kids see enough trash on TV,” she said. “We don’t need our school district showing this type of inappropriate behavior in a school district setting.”

 

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COMMENTS FROM DONNA GARNER:

 

One of the reasons that I wrote “Adults Must Protect Our Nation’s Children” on 10.3.12

( http://educationviews.org/adults-must-protect-our-countrys-children/ ) was to inform parents and the public about the dangerous contraceptive/condom sex education that the U. T. Prevention Research Center and David C. Wiley are foisting on school districts all over Texas.

Keep it real
“It’s Your Game, Keep It Real”
is coming from the U. T. Prevention Research Center and David C. Wiley. Wiley is not a medical doctor, and this sex education program is not based upon the medical literature.

If people will take the time to read my article, they will be armed with the facts to counter the U. T. Prevention Research Center’s inaccurate program that puts students’ lives in danger.

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FURTHER COMMENTS FROM DONNA GARNER — It’s Your Game, Keep It Real” is definitely a product of Planned Parenthood which promotes teenage sexual activity. (Please see article by Danette Clark posted further on down the page.)  Planned Parenthood definitely does not want students to know the painful health consequences ofsexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) that increased sexual activity promotes. PP talks only about pregnancy and says nothing about the fact that STD’s are rampant and have lifetime consequences, including terribly painful conditions, blindness to unborn babies, HIV/AIDS spread through anal and oral intercourse (particularly among the LGBTQ community), and/or early death to the mother. Contraceptives do not stop the spread of STD’s and also do not prevent pregnancies unless used carefully and consistently — both of which are difficult for adults to do, much less teenagers in the midst of a hormone surge. 
2.25.13 – ““Explicit Video from Obama Funded Sex Education Program Now  Scrubbed From the Internet” – by Danette Clark — https://danetteclark.wordpress.com/tag/its-your-game/

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1.27.15 – HOW TO CONTACT TEXAS GOV. GREG ABBOTT

Please contact Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office and voice your concerns using the information contained in this article:  1.27.15 —  “Gov. Abbott, Please Listen to Our Concerns: 2 for 2 in the Wrong Direction” — http://www.educationviews.org/gov-abbott-listen-concerns-2-2-wrong-direction/

OPTION #1:  E-MAIL COMMENTS

Web address:  https://gov.texas.gov/contact/assistance.aspx

Check the box beside “I need assistance.”

Click on “Select.”

Fill out the contact form.

Select “Other” in the Issue box.

Post your message in the “Comments” box.

Hit “Send Message.” 

Watch for an e-mail confirmation in five minutes. If you do not receive it, then input your message again.  

OPTION #2 – CALL GOV. ABBOTT’S OFFICE

I also entered my verbal comments by calling Gov. Abbott’s Constituent Services, (512-463-1800).  I could have delivered my comments as a recorded message, but I chose to give my comments verbally to the staffer.  She wrote down my comments and was very friendly as was I.  

Global Jihad, Global Education- Attitudes, Values and Beliefs

Women On The Wall - Avoidable

 

By: Alice Linahan 1.15.2015 

Movements on the ground show the “Fundamental Transformation” of education is having impact. This is what Capitalist vs Socialist Chart happens when you move from a classical academic curriculum based on an education of opportunity – Reading, Writing, Math and History to a collectivist based education of equity – Attitudes, Values and Beliefs.  

When you gut our public education of academics and it becomes completely about attitudes, values, and beliefs the question becomes- Whose values, attitudes and beliefs will prevail?

 The Philosophy behind the Common Core Math Wars

“We first need to determine the moral, social, and political order we believe to be desirable, then set out our educational purposes, and in light of those purposes choose curriculum content and objectives”.  “What Constructivism Might Be in Mathematics Education”  Jeremy Kilpatrick (1987, Proceedings of PME (Psychology of Mathematics Education ) XI-Montreal)

A Texas Public School District, Garland ISD to host “Stand with the Prophet” conference, which is designed to help “lead the effort against Islamophobia”

Listen below to the Women On the Wall Communication Team conference call with Frank Gaffney, Center for Security Policy. It is a must to listen to this podcast in preparation for the protests of the “Stand With The Prophet Rally” at Garland ISD, Garland, Texas, this Saturday, 1.17.15.  Gaffney shared the very startling information about four of the speakers who have close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and other very dangerous Islamist organizations.

 After listening to Frank Gaffney’s explanations about the backgrounds of the four speakers scheduled to speak at the “Stand with the Prophet Rally,” concerned citizens are encouraged to call the Garland ISD administration office  (http://www.garlandisd.net/contact/administrative.asp)  and ask to speak to Chris Moore, Executive Director, Division of Communications and Public Relations – 972-487-3256 or to some other GISD administrator.    

WomenOnTheWall’s message to America: Events like the murders in Paris are AVOIDABLE – if we will but act and hold our elected officials accountable! Their primary duty is to secure our borders and keep us safe.

WOW produced non-interactive video can be seen below OR view the personalized INTERACTIVE version through FB at: www.seeksharestand.com 



On the Conference Call linked above Frank Gaffney mentioned the Center For Security Policy’s plan to combat “Global Jihad.”  Below is a press release just out. 1.16.2015

‘TIGER TEAM’ TO UNVEIL STRATEGY FOR DEFEATING GLOBAL JIHAD MOVEMENT

HOW TO DEFEAT THE GLOBAL JIHAD MOVEMENT:       
        CENTER TIGER TEAM UNVEILS ‘SECURE FREEDOM STRATEGY’         
 
Former USMC Commandant Al Gray Applauds Plan for Countering Totalitarian Ideology of Shariah
 
     Washington, D.C.: Nine members of an informal public policy “Tiger Team” presented the “Secure Freedom Strategy” – a comprehensive plan for countering and defeating an enemy that has yet to be officially and accurately named, let alone successfully dispatched, in over 36 years of war: the Global Jihad Movement and the ideology that animates it, the supremacist Islamic doctrine of shariah.
 
     The Tiger Team and the Strategy it developed with the sponsorship and support of the Center for Security Policy drew for a model on the approach successfully practiced by President Ronald Reagan for the purpose of thwarting the last totalitarian ideology that sought the West’s destruction: Soviet communism.  The Reagan strategy was formalized in National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) 75, which was signed by the President 32 years ago tomorrow.
     Among the aspects of the Strategy that were briefed at this launch event by members of the Tiger Team (in bold) were:
  • The nature and centrality of shariah to the War for the Free World and the differentiator between it represents between Muslims who are not a threat and those who are due to their embrace of shariah’s political, totalitarian program (not to be confused with the personal, pietistic practice of many non-jihadist, but devout, Muslims) – David Yerushalmi, Esq., co-founder of the American Freedom Law Center and expert on shariah;
  • The unifying effect shariah has on a diverse and often fractious Muslim umma, especially as it relates to their shared commitment to forcing the submission of infidels – Clare Lopez, former Operations Officer in the CIA’s Clandestine Service;
  • The necessity to know the enemy if it is to be vanquished, something that is currently impermissible in the U.S. military and other national security organizations –Maj. Tommy Waller, USMC (Res.), combat Force Reconnaissance officer (speaking in a personal capacity);
  • The emphasis on a counter-ideological component in this strategy and the need for a reconstitution of capabilities for information warfare comparable to those brought to bear during President Reagan’s era – Dr. J. Michael Waller, expert in political, psychological and information warfare;
  • The requirement to operate strategically against the jihadist enemy, not simply with tactical expedients like drone strikes, which will necessitate rebuilding America’s military so as to be able to practice once again “peace through strength” – Technical Weapons Sergeant Jim Hanson, US Army (Ret.);
  • The important role of defensive and offensive economic warfare against the Global Jihad Movement and its enablers – Kevin Freeman, Chartered Financial Analyst and bestselling author of Secret Weapon and Gameplan;
  • The need for reality-based intelligence analysis and the rebuilding of the capacity to conduct intelligence operations aimed at, as in the Reagan NSDD, undermining the legitimacy and power of the enemy – Fred Fleitz, former CIA analyst, State Department official and House Intelligence Committee professional staff member;
  • The imperative of American leadership, both domestically and of the Free World, in mobilizing the people and assets doomed to more death, destruction and enslavement if the Global Jihad Movement does not meet the same terminal fate as previous totalitarian ideologies, notably Naziism, fascism and Soviet communism – Admiral James A. “Ace” Lyons, U.S. Navy (Ret.), former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet.
 
     An unexpected highpoint of the program was an appearance at its end by one of the nation’s most revered military leaders: General Alfred M. Gray, Jr., U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.), the 29th Commandant of Marines.  Gen. Gray applauded the Secure Freedom Strategy, commended its authors and urged its swift adoption by national policy-makers.
 
     A link to the hour-and-a-half-long program is available, courtesy of C-SPAN, at http://www.c-span.org/video/?323839-1/discussion-countering-terrorism. The full 94-page Secure Freedom Strategy can be found online here: http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Secure_Freedom_Strategy_01-16-15.pdf
 
     A particularly poignant part of the program was Major Waller’s account of some of his personal experiences with the jihadists’ information dominance and the danger posed here at home, not just by violent ones, but by those – like the Muslim Brotherhood – who are engaged in stealthy, subversive “civilization jihad” towards the same ends: imposing shariah worldwide and establishing a global Islamic government to rule according to it.  Excerpts of the Major’s remarks can be found here:

     Other members of the Secure Freedom Strategy Tiger Team are: Lieutenant General William G. “Jerry” Boykin (U.S. Army, Ret.), former senior Special Operator and Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence; Ambassador Henry F. Cooper, former Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization and former Chief Negotiator at the Geneva Defense and Space Talks, expert on military technology and weapons proliferation; Dan Goure, Vice President, Lexington Institute and former director of the Office of Strategic Competitiveness in the Office of the Secretary of Defense; John Guandolo, combat Force Reconnaissance Marine, former Commander, FBI SWAT Team, former counter-terrorism special agent and expert on the Muslim Brotherhood’s civilization jihad in America; Brian Kennedy, President of the Claremont Institute; Joseph E. Schmitz, Esq., former Inspector General, Department of Defense, and naval officer; and Tom Trento, Director of the United West, an expert in international terrorism research and information operations.
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About the Center for Security Policy
The Center for Security Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan national security organization that specializes in identifying policies, actions, and resource needs that are vital to American security and then ensures that such issues are the subject of both focused, principled examination and effective action by recognized policy experts, appropriate officials, opinion leaders, and the general public. For more information visit www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org
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Rally to protest the Islamic conference in Garland, Texas on 1.17.15

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1.14.15 – “AFDI To Hold Stand with Free Speech Demo Outside Stand with the Prophet Conference” – by Pamela Geller — Breitbart — 

 1.7.15 – “Letter to Garland Independent School Officials” – by Lt. Col. (ret.) Roy White – Truth in Texas Textbooks —

1.14.15 — “No Coincidence: Stand with the Prophet Rally To Be Held in Texas” — by Donna Garner –

Rally to protest Islamic conference in Houston, Texas – 1.18.15

 

“Tortured language” Used To Promote Common Core in Texas

shut down learners

By Niki Hayes

12.6.14    

“Tortured language” has been an important government tool for years. (Just ask Jonathan Gruber, chief architect of ObamaCare, who bragged about the use of tortured language in writing that controversial piece of legislation.)  Such “tortured writing” uses euphemisms and flimflam when taking falsehoods and twisting them so that people will misconstrue them as truth.

 

A new example in Texas is the Education Service Center 11 (ESC 11), a governmental agency, with its chart comparing Common Core math standards with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards.  (To see the ESC 11 chart, please go to:  http://womenonthewall.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/TEKS-OldStandard-CommonCore.pdf.)

 

ESC 11’s chart claims that Common Core and TEKS are equal in content and scope. Therefore, they say schools can buy Common Core-aligned materials and feel safe that the materials support our TEKS. This is pure flimflam – “tortured language.”

 

I was a member of the Texas math curriculum standards writing team when we wrote the new 2012 Math TEKS.  I can state unequivocally that the new Math TEKS that we wrote and the Texas State Board of Education adopted are not the same as the federally-driven Common Core math standards. 

 

First, our TEKS document is a brand name product that was developed by 80 citizens who put in 12-hour days during three separate meetings over four months. We were charged with developing quality standards that would benefit our children and Texas citizens. We built our TEKS starting with a draft first created by a panel of mathematics experts that was commissioned by the Texas Education Agency (TEA); then we researched specific states with outstanding math standards at the time (such as Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Indiana). Most importantly, we brought to the table professional knowledge and experiences as educators in Texas classrooms. We knew our state’s children and their needs. The TEKS were personal to us.

 

In contrast, Common Core is a generic brand created largely by unknown individuals outside of Texas. Some of the main writers, whose names were finally released publicly, had never even been classroom teachers.  For many reasons, not the least of which is cost, numerous states are now struggling to back out of their federal Common Core contracts.

 

Even though Texas was one of the few states that said “NO” to the Common Core, one of the Texas Education Agency staffers tried to urge our Math TEKS writing team to use the Common Core Math Standards to craft our Math TEKS.  As a member of the Grade 3 – 5 team, I made it clear that we should not be looking at the Common Core Standards for guidance since Texas had refused to adopt Common Core Standards from their inception.

 

The same TEA staff member resisted efforts to have the required use of the “standard algorithms” specified in the TEKS. (This is the procedure used in multiplication and division that our parents and grandparents learned and which is used internationally.)  The staffer said standard algorithms are considered a “traditional math” approach and were thus considered inferior by many math reformers. 

 

I also wanted a restriction against the use of calculators for daily problem solving in elementary grades. Reformers on the writing team supported the push for technology in K-12 rather than the traditional methods (paper and pencil) of student learning.

 

Even though I vociferously advocated for standard algorithms and the restriction against calculator use among elementary students in Grades K-5, I was losing the debate. Therefore, I contacted Dr. James Milgram, one of the panel experts hired by TEA, and asked for his help.  He stepped forward, and a higher-up official at the TEA also got involved.  References to the Common Core by the TEA staff ceased.  The required teaching of standard algorithms and the restricted use of calculators in Grades K-5 were adopted in the final Math TEKS document.   

 

Despite some philosophical differences on what we should include in the Math TEKS, our group did agree that the standards had to be explicit, direct, and clear. They had to be understandable not only for elementary teachers (many of whom fear mathematics and need clarity and brevity in instructions) but also for parents as well.

 

Our TEKS writing team agreed that the new TEKS standards had to be measurable with objective criteria and that each element had to be testable through objective measurements.  Our team knew that the new TEKS would not be perfect but that they needed to be traditionally oriented standards (a.k.a., Type #1) as compared with the 1997 TEKS which were “fuzzy” standards (a.k.a., Type #2).

 

The chart that ESC 11 has created attempts to show that Common Core’s “process standards” match our new TEKS “process standards” and that makes Common Core and TEKS similar in scope. That is ridiculous!  The new Math TEKS standards that our writing team finally produced in 2012 has strong and specific expectations listed in the “Introduction” before each grade level.  No such clear, explicit, competency-based language is found in the Common Core.

 

Next, the public needs to look at our final TEKS Math Standards and compare those definitive and clear statements with Common Core’s wordy, complex explanations, many of which are not understandable because of the confusing and complicated wording. (Federal or state curriculum standards are also not supposed to mandate pedagogy [how to teach]; that is to be left up to the local educators.)  

 

Below is a comparison example from the Math TEKS and from the Common Core:

 

TEKS, Grade 5, Number and Operations 3.H:

 

“Represent and solve addition and subtraction of fractions with unequal denominators, referring to the same whole using objects and pictorial models and properties of operation.”

 

Common Core, (same standard but labeled NF1 and NF2):

 

“Add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators (including mixed numbers) by replacing given fractions with equivalent fractions in such a way as to produce an equivalent sum or difference of fractions with like denominators. For example, 2/3 + 5/4 = 8/12 + 15/12 = 23/12. (In general, a/b + c/d = (ad + bc/bd). Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole including cases of unlike denominators, e.g., by using visual fraction models or equations to represent the problem. Use benchmark fractions and number sense of fractions to estimate mentally and assess the reasonableness of answers. For example, recognize an incorrect result 2/5 + 1/2 = 3/7 by observing that 3/7 < 1/2.”

 

In numerous cases, there are additional Common Core standards that, if utilized, would add to the already packed TEKS.  This would not help educators prepare their students for the STAAR-End-of-Course tests. Why risk wasting time, energy, and money on unproven and generic materials (Common Core) when the traditional approach to math has been proven successful for generations, in spite of those educators who say it hasn’t?

 

Speaking of time, it is time for many of these education “leaders” to have to teach for one year in a classroom and use the directives and requirements they have put on classroom teachers. These leaders should also be required to receive the credit or the blame for any poor student achievement.

 

More to the point, why are Texas education service centers, administrators, and political leaders allowing ESC 11’s false narrative and chart to be presented to teachers and parents as truth, especially when it is against state law to use Common Core materials and standards in Texas as stated by the Texas Attorney General (TAG). (Re: Use of the Common Core Standards Initiative by Texas school districts to teach state standards. RQ-1175-GA —https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/opinions/50abbott/op/2014/pdf/ga1067.pdf)

 

Why are Texas leaders ignoring the TAG’s ruling and flaunting the law by using public tax dollars for illegal purchases by school districts and ESC’s?

 

I believe if Texas leaders had led their classroom teachers to teach the new Math TEKS when adopted in 2012, rather than waiting until they were required to do so in 2014, students’ scores on this year’s STAAR and End-of-Course math tests would have shown considerable improvement.

 

School leaders should make sure all students in Texas public schools have instructional materials that teach the fact-based, clearly stated, explicit, grade-level specific, measurable requirements as outlined in our state’s Math TEKS.

 

Texas children, teachers, and parents deserve clarity, not confusion, from their leaders on education issues. That includes their not being victimized by curriculum materials such as Common Core that use “tortured language” and make material unnecessarily difficult to understand. 

 

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CORRECTION TO PODCAST: In 2012 the Math TEKS (Texas’ curriculum standards) were adopted in K-12 by the elected members of the Texas State Board of Education; however, the K-8 Math TEKS were not required to be implemented fully into the schools until 2014 when the textbooks (e.g., instructional materials – IM’s) were available for purchase. The high-school Math TEKS are not required to be implemented fully until 2015-16 when the new Math IM’s will be available for districts to purchase.

 

12.3.14 — PODCAST – Alice Linahan of Women on the Wall — conference call with Nakonia (Niki) Hayes, the author of The Story of John Saxon   

nikihayes@att.net

Calling Patriots Across the Country

Texas World History Standards

Photo courtesy of the Texas Tribune

Texas Needs Help with Social Studies Curriculum Materials 

By Donna Garner

10.15.14

The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) is in the process of adopting new instructional materials – IM’s (e.g., textbooks).  Students all over the United States use the instructional materials that go through the very careful adoption process in Texas because other states rely upon Texas to catch many of the factual errors and/or biased statements.

 

Therefore, it is important for caring Americans to get involved right now to help make sure that these new Social Studies materials are aligned with Texas’ fact-based, patriotic curriculum standards. Please go to this link to read through Texas’ Social Studies curriculum standards – the TEKS —http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter113/index.html .  

 

At the September SBOE meeting, the public submitted their comments about the Social Studies IM’s.  Now the publishers have submitted their responses. 

 

This coming Monday,  Oct. 20, the SBOE is going to meet in a work session to determine what it is that publishers need to change in their IM’s before they submit them to the Board for final adoption.   

 

The SBOE members are busily trying to go through the various publishers’ comments, but they cannot possibly go through every single comment to decide whether it is credible or not.  That is where the caring public comes in. 

 

Here is the link to the publishers’ comments: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=25769818138

 

No matter where you live in the U. S., could you please choose one publisher, go through that publisher’s responses, write down any objections you have to the rationale used by the publisher, and send your critique to the Texas State Board of Education member(s) of your choice. 

 

Please pay particular attention to the way that the publishers approach our religious heritage, Islam, Christianity, Judaism and other religions, patriotism, free enterprise, American Exceptionalism, terrorism, the U. S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Founding Fathers, etc.

 

The SBOE members will then go through your critiques and formulate a list of changes that the Social Studies publishers must make in their IM’s or else suffer a financial penalty.

 

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR SBOE MEMBERS: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147506719

 Texas State Board of Educaiton

I recommend that you e-mail your critiques to these SBOE members as soon as possible: 

 

Ken Mercer

Donna Bahorich

David Bradley

Barbara Cargill

Marty Rowley

Pat Hardy

Geraldine Miller

Tom Maynard

 

Your efforts can change the way that America’s school children look upon America.

 

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

 

 

AP U.S. HISTORY UNDER ATTACK

AP U.S. HISTORY UNDER ATTACK

Join us from State to State as we Take a Stand!

VICTORY in TEXAS BATTLE AGAINST THE “NEW” AP U.S. HISTORY FRAMEWORK AND EXAM.  

On Wednesday, September 17, the State Board of Education (SBOE) voted 12-3 to pass an amendment that is a major step in shoring up Texas sovereignty over the Social Studies standards. 

On Friday, Sept. 19, the Texas SBOE (State Board of Education) vote 8-4 with Thomas Ratliff abstaining, Ken Mercer’s Resolution, which admonishes the College Board for their “NEW” AP U.S. History Framework and Exam. 

A video of his testimony is linked below. Listen, Learn and Pass it on and Join the Movement to stop the “New” AP U.S. History Framework and Exam! 

APUSH Provides Contempt for America in Texas High Schools

College Board Partners with Leftist Academia

bill-amesBy Bill Ames

AUSTIN, Texas (Texas Insider Report) — The recent implementation of a totally reworked Advanced Placement U. S. History (APUSH) framework has given rise to contentious debate. Mainstream American critics challenge APUSH as being anti-American. The private, APUSHLogo7unaccountable College Board APUSH creators retaliate by claiming that the new framework provides more flexibility to teachers, while addressing an alleged “whitewashing” of U. S. history.  

The debate has raged on, and does not need to be repeated here. Suffice to say that the APUSH framework, compared with most state and local standards, is like mixing oil and water.

It is time to end this debate charade, and reveal the bottom-line truth. Time to call a spade a spade. Time to cut to the chase. 

For the rest of the story go here.  

Most insightful Mom Comment: 

“Completely flaborgasted at the arrogance displayed by the College Board and their stance. This is an intolerable indoctrination of our American youth. I have a Junior that attends a private school in Dallas that is completely frustrated by the text — American Pageant — used for instruction in his APUSH class. Additionally, the required reader by Howard ZINN was even worse. He is equally saddened by classroom discussion and comments that are made by the instructor and friends aligned with liberalism, not liberty. After trying to debate the issue among friends, he is regarded as “not being as smart and not having his facts straight”. He returned from a summer credit course in history through the Hillsdale College, Hilllsdale, MI, in which the facts are taught as well as an appreciation for our exceptional country in which we are blessed to live. Are we fast headed down the road to destroy our country and the freedoms we have long enjoyed by subjecting ourselves to establishments and leaders that desire to debate the principles on which we were founded and have thrived for so many years?” ~  

 

Help WomenOnTheWall.org carry out our mission. We are the grandmothers, mothers, daughters, sisters of American women of all political persuasions, age and race and are the stewards of the home and hearth. We will stop at nothing to defend and protect our families. Your financial support is critical to ensuring that we can carry out our mission of protecting our nation for future generations and to fight for the safety and security of our children and grandchildren. Help us in our efforts by making a contribution of $25, $50, or $100 so we can keep fighting for future generations.

#CanISee Backpack and Boots on the Ground

“What Does a Quality Textbook Look Like?”

Nakonia (Niki) Hayes

Nakonia (Niki) Hayes; Author, “The Story of John Saxon”

9.9.14 – Truth in American Education

“What Does a Quality Textbook Look Like?”

By Nakonia (Niki) Hayes

There’s an interesting new concern being voiced by Common Core leaders: “What does a quality textbook look like?”

Here’s a non-nuanced, concrete answer, especially for mathematics textbooks: “It gets results and doesn’t chase kids out of math.” And, yes, such textbooks do exist.

It’s not surprising that the issue of quality textbooks has come up with Common Core. After all, textbook publishing is a multi-billion dollar industry. The federally-supported mathematics and English Core standards will drive 85% of a school’s curricula and 100% of the related assessments in about 40 states.

The creation of new Core-aligned materials that prepare students for the Core-aligned assessments is already making a rich impact on publishing businesses, vendors, and peripheral activities (teacher training, consultants, etc.). So much has to be rewritten or at least republished with the words “Common Core Aligned” on the cover. Old materials must be thrown away. New materials have to be bought. Lots of profit is on the horizon.

The major problem for publishers, however, is actually in mathematics education. They must figure out how to get good, reliable, and verifiable results from American children who have become math phobic over the past 50 years. That means publishers need to listen to authors who have a proven success record and not to ideologically-driven math education leaders who have for years promoted fads with political correctness as the purpose of math education. It will be hard—and expensive—to cut the cord between publishers and embedded education “leaders” if quality textbooks are to be created. Profits may suffer at the beginning.

But here is a checklist for publishers, administrators, teachers, and parents to consider about math textbooks:

(1) Look for results, not ideology. It is about student success, not affirming adult beliefs.

·         Results are reflected in GPAs, End-of-Course exams, state tests, national tests, and/or college board exams.

·         Local comments from students, teachers, and parents give anecdotal but often powerful insight. (Surveys are especially interesting when high school students are asked about their elementary and middle school classes.)

·         Specific studies commissioned by the author(s) or publishers show results.

·         School districts or schools with similar demographics that have used the textbook should be contacted. This information can be supplied by the publisher.

 

(2) The author (not “consultants” or “advisors”) who actually wrote the textbook is named, preferably on the cover. This also helps provide accountability.

·         If no authors are listed, the book has been created by workers in publishing “development houses.” This can and probably does provide lack of continuity, different writing styles throughout the book (and supplemental materials), and thus incoherency which decrease clarity of the lessons and affect student responses. This also erases responsibility for the publisher.

 

(3) Actual examples of internationally-based problems (not simply referenced in “studies” by education researchers) are offered for review by the publisher if the textbook is listed as Common Core-aligned, since it is touted that Core standards are internationally based.

(4) The teacher’s manual does not consist of 1,000 pages for 180 days of instruction.

·         One afternoon of teacher training with a user-friendly textbook should be sufficient .

·         If it is claimed that a detailed and extensive teacher’s manual (for teaching the teacher) is needed because of weak teacher preparation or skills, then it is the school administration’s problem. They need to work with the teacher training sites to produce better candidates, not buy a truckload of supplemental materials.

 

(5) The textbook does not waste space with expensive, colored photos even if they may have a relationship to the topic. One color used for highlighting words or graphs is sufficient.

·         The textbook uses appropriate space for examples and creative repetition of exercises through every lesson of the book for practice and mastery.

·         The textbook’s focus is on mathematics. Use of social justice themes, for example, in math problem-solving detracts from the math concepts which should be the focus of students.

 

(6) The use of calculators is limited to a few “investigative exercises” to help familiarize students with calculators for later use; they are not to be used in regular problem-solving activities in grades K-6.

·         Mental math and memorization of math facts are required.

 

(7) Few supplemental materials are necessary for students, especially in basic, foundational learning.

·         A test manual and a solutions manual are sufficient as supplements for teachers.

·         A manual for specific populations (special needs or gifted) may be useful.

 

(8) No protest has ever been waged against the textbook by any organized parent group.

·         An Internet search will show if such protests have taken place.

 

(9) The textbook can be completed in one school year without skipping pages or topics.

·         Textbooks of 600-800 pages that can weigh up to seven pounds are subject to teachers’ having to eliminate topics. This creates holes in the fabric of linear mathematics education.

 

(10) Schools using the textbook can show the following:

·         a steady, significant decrease in low-level math courses and the need for remedial programs,

·         an increase in enrollment in advanced math and science courses,

·         an increase in those passing state-required exit tests, and

·         an increase in passing rates and scores on college board exams.

 

(11) In summary, does the textbook show accuracy, brevity, and clarity in its lessons so both parents and teachers can help children learn mathematics?

There are those who insist that textbooks aren’t “the curriculum.” They say it’s all about the teachers. (Common Core now says it’s about standards.) If that’s the case, let’s just give all students a copy of the Yellow Pages. Let’s save all that money spent on books and materials and finally train teachers in their content areas so they can use anything handed to them to teach—including the Yellow Pages. (And if the textbooks are so unimportant, why do progressives fight so hard to get “their” chosen textbooks adopted?)

Maybe teachers can do without a book, but many of us know that students need a quality textbook. Parents and teachers come and go in the lives of children these days, but a user-friendly textbook should always be within reach for children. It can set up a satisfying relationship with positive results for them to show the world.

More than a million homeschooled students, plus many charter, private, and small public schools use a textbook that meets these listed criteria. The math education leadership hates the series because they say it is too traditional. Reams of documentation exist, however, to prove its success with students.

For more information, go to http://saxonmathwarrior.com. (Disclaimer: The author is NOT affiliated with any publisher.)

 

[Niki Hayes was one of the wonderful speakers at the #CANiSEE Solutions Conference in Austin, Texas, on June 20 – 21, 2014. To purchase a CD or DVD of her engaging presentation, please go to: http://shop.canisee.org/The-Story-Behind-Saxon-Math-5-Hayes.htm )

 

 

Now is the time to give #APUSH~ Fight back for our children!

#STANDwithMercer.001

If ever there was a time to show up in Austin-

Now is that time.

Show up ~ SPEAK UP ~ and Protect the next Generation!

APUSH-Ad-Artwork-bg (1)

From the creators of Common Core, David Coleman and the College Board, the new AP US History course is an assault on our country’s heritage.

The new AP US History (APUSH) framework presents a relentlessly negative view of American history, emphasizing every problem and failing of our ancestors while ignoring or minimizing their achievements.

The College Board’s reinterpretation of US history, as presented in the new APUSH course, is a biased and inaccurate view of many important facets of American history, including the motivations and actions of 17th -19th-century settlers, American involvement in World War II, and the conduct of, and victory in, the Cold War.

The period of the American Revolution up to the 1787 Constitutional Convention

Almost every Founding Father is omitted – no Jefferson, Adams, Madison, or Franklin. The AP US History Framework excludes Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, Saratoga, and Yorktown. The commanders and heroes of these pivotal battles are all omitted.

Civil War

Omits the Lincoln-Douglas debates, the Gettysburg Address, and the assassination of President Lincoln. Once again omits crucial battles, key commanders, and the valor of common soldiers.

World War II

Omits “The Greatest Generation,” Truman, Hitler, D-Day, Midway, the Battle of the Bulge, and every military commander including Dwight Eisenhower. Inexplicably, Nazi atrocities against Jews and other groups are not required. APUSH concludes its treatment of WWII with this blunt statement: “The decision to drop the atomic bomb raised questions about American values.”

Civil Rights Movement

Does not mention America’s first African-American President. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, the Navajo Code Talkers, Tuskegee Airmen, 442nd Infantry Regiment, and Barbara Jordan’s famous speech on the Constitution are all omitted.

United States Military

A word search of the entire 98-page document will not find one military commander or one Medal of Honor recipient. Our best and brightest students will thus learn nothing of the heroism and sacrifices of Americans in uniform.

Usurping Local Education Control

“The redesigned Framework is best described as a curricular coup that sets a number of dangerous precedents. By providing a detailed course of study that defines, discusses, and interprets ‘the required knowledge of each period,’ the College Board has in effect supplanted local and state curriculum by unilaterally assuming the authority to prioritize historic topics.” – Jane Robbins, American Principles Project

“Combat New AP U. S. History Course by Taking Action”

by Donna Garner 9.7.14

ACTION STEP – Sign this Petition to stand with SBOE Ken Mercer! 

[gravityform id=”9″ name=”Petition to #STANDwithMercer to REJECT the new AP Anti- U.S. Framework and Exam”]

Members of the public (e.g., moms, pops, grandparents, concerned citizens, AP U. S. History teachers) who object to the redesigned AP U. S. History course (APUSH) are needed to testify before the Texas State Board of Education either on Wednesday, Sept. 17, or on Friday, Sept.19.

 

IMPORTANCE OF ALL TEXAS STUDENTS BEING TAUGHT THE SOCIAL STUDIES TEKS

 

Nothing in  the Texas Education Code (TEC) gives AP U. S. History teachers permission to ignore the teaching of the fact-based, patriotic, state-mandated Social Studies TEKS (Texas’ curriculum standards) adopted by the elected members of the Texas State Board of Education. 

 

Nothing in the TEC states that the AP U. S. History (APUSH) Framework should displace the teaching of the Social Studies TEKS. 

 

The public testimony on the importance of all Texas public school students being taught the K-12 Social Studies TEKS will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 17. Here is the link to the SBOE agenda for that day: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=25769815951

 

SBOE MEMBER KEN MERCER’S RESOLUTION

 September 2014 Meeting

Texas State Board of Education

Regarding:  College Board’s new 2014 Framework

Advanced Placement United States History

WHEREAS, the purpose of College and Career Readiness Standards(CCRS) and advanced high school courses is to prepare students to understand a variety of views and opinions from across the political spectrum, and to be able to discuss and debate those ideas free from bias and outside influence; and

 WHEREAS, the systematic or deliberate discouragement of certain points of view within the scope of any curriculum framework undermines the basic tenets of our society and education system; and,

 WHEREAS, the Texas Education Code (TEC) Section 28.002(h) states:

 The State Board of Education and each school district shall foster the continuation of the tradition of teaching United States and Texas history and the free enterprise system in regular subject matter and in reading courses and in the adoption of textbooks.

      A primary purpose of the public school curriculum is to prepare thoughtful, active citizens who understand the importance of patriotism and can function productively in a free enterprise society with appreciation for the basic democratic values of our state and national heritage;and,

WHEREAS, almost 500,000 U. S. students, approximately 46,000 of whom are from Texas, take the College Board’s Advanced Placement U. S. History (APUSH) course each year; and

WHEREAS, the APUSH course may be the final U.S. History class for what many believe are the brightest and best of our high school students; and,

WHEREAS, the APUSH course has traditionally been designed to present a balanced view of American history and to prepare students for college-level history courses; and

WHEREAS, the College Board, a private, non-elected organization unaccountable to the public has recently released a new 98-page Framework that mandates a highly politicized approach to teaching the APUSH course; and

WHEREAS, the new APUSH Framework reflects a radically revisionist view of American history that is critical of American exceptionalism and emphasizes negative aspects of our nation’s history while omitting or minimizing positive aspects; and

WHEREAS, the anti-American, revisionist history of Howard Zinn and his textbook “The People’s Guide to U.S. History” is a recommended textbook in each of the four syllabi originally presented at the Summer 2014 training of APUSH educators; and

WHEREAS, the APUSH Framework includes little or no discussion of the Founding Fathers, the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the religious influences on our nation’s history, and many other critical topics that have always been part of the APUSH course; and

WHEREAS, the Framework excludes discussion of the U. S. military (no battles, commanders, or heroes) and omits many significant individuals and events that greatly shaped our nation’s history (for example, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Jonas Salk, George Washington Carver, Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, Dr. Martin Luther King, Tuskegee Airmen, Navajo Code Talkers, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Holocaust, D-Day, liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, and the election of our first African-American President); and

WHEREAS, the Framework presents a clearly biased and inaccurate view of many important events in American history, including the motivations and actions of 17th- through 19th-century settlers, American involvement in World War II, the free-enterprise economic explosion in the 1940s through 1960s, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the development of Cold War tensions and ultimate fall of the Iron Curtain, and the successful landing of a man on the moon; and

WHEREAS, the Framework describes its detailed outline as the “required knowledge” for APUSH students, and admits that the APUSH examination will not test information outside this “required knowledge”; and

WHEREAS, because the Framework differs radically from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)  so that APUSH teachers will have to ignore the TEKS standards to prepare students for the AP examination; and

WHEREAS, the released APUSH sample examination questions continue, via behavioral testing techniques, to promote a negative, anti-American bias toward U.S. History; therefore be it

RESOLVED, the elected Texas State Board of Education strongly admonishes the College Board for failing to listen to the numerous complaints of parents, educators and concerned citizens; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, the Texas State Board of Education recommends that a committee be convened to draft an APUSH Framework that is consistent both with the APUSH course’s traditional mission and with the shared purpose of the CCRS, the TEKS and the Texas Education Code, and with the desires of Texas parents and other citizens for students to learn the true history of their country; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, the Texas State Board of Education requests that Members of the Texas Legislature and the U. S. Congress investigate this matter; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Texas State Board of Education requests that the College Board rewrite the APUSH course and examination in a transparent manner to accurately reflect U. S. history without a political bias and to respect the sovereignty of Texas over its education curriculum; and be it

FINALLY RESOLVED, that upon approval of this resolution the Texas State Board of Education shall promptly deliver a copy of this resolution to every Member of the Texas State Legislature and to every Texas Member of the United States Congress.

Respectfully submitted by:

Ken Mercer Member: Texas State Board of Education, District 5

 

On Friday, Sept. 19, SBOE Member Ken Mercer will present his Resolution against the redesigned AP U. S. History course (APUSH). A vote on the Resolution by all the SBOE members will be taken.  

 

Registration to testify for either the Wednesday, Sept. 17 session or the Friday, Sept. 19 session starts at8:00 A. M. on Friday, Sept. 12 until 5:00 P. M. on Sept. 15. Those who call the Texas Education Agency early get to testify earlier – it’s first come first served.

CONTACTING SBOE MEMBERS

It is not necessary for you to be a Texan to submit your support for the Resolution since the new and objectionable APUSH course is being driven by the College Board into schools throughout this nation.  

 

Calls, letters, and e-mails are effective and should encourage the SBOE members to vote for SBOE Member Ken Mercer’s Resolution.  

 

If you support this Resolution, please send an e-mail to each of the elected members of the SBOE by using this common SBOE e-mail address:  sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us

 

Here is a link to each of the SBOE members, their bios, and contact information:  http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147506719

 

INFORMATION FOR TESTIFIERS

 

It is important for testifiers to give specific examples from the APUSH Framework that indicate bias and that do not follow the Texas Education Code (Chapter 28)  

Link to Texas Education Code – Chapter 28: http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/?link=ED

 

Link to Public Testimony Registrations and Procedures as posted on the Texas Education Agency website — http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=25769804082

For those who testify, it is important for them to give specific examples from the new APUSH Framework that contradict what is in the Social Studies TEKS

 

Link to Social Studies TEKS:  http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter113/index.html

 

DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE NEW APUSH

9.6.14 – “SBOE’s Mercer Resolution Seeks To Stop Radical APUSH Redesign in Texas”

by Merrill Hope – Breitbart Texas — http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/09/6/SBOE-s-Mercer-Resolution-Seeks-To-Stop-Radical-APUSH-Redesign-in-Texas

Here is what USED to be in the 5-page APUSH – Course Description – Effective Fall 2010 — Please go to pp. 7 – 12 to see the Themes in AP U. S. History.

http://womenonthewall.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/ap-us-history-course-description.pdf

 

Here is the link to the new 98-page, anti-American, 2014 APUSH – Course and Exam Description Including Curriculum Framework – Effective Fall 2014:  http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-course-exam-descriptions/ap-us-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf

 

9.3.14 — RESOURCE LIST – ANTI-REDESIGNED ADVANCED PLACEMENT U. S. HISTORY COURSE (APUSH)

 

8.22.14 – Short Video Clip – College Board Under Fire for New AP U. S. History Framework – by James Rosen — FoxNews.com — http://video.foxnews.com/v/3744498137001/college-board-under-fire-for-new-ap-history-framework/#sp=show-clips

 

9.3.14 – “Why Does the College Board Hate George Washington and MLK?” – by Larry Krieger — Heartland–

http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2014/09/03/why-does-college-board-hate-george-washington-and-mlk

 

9.2.14 – “Imperiling the Republic: The Fate of U. S. History Instruction Under Common Core” – by  — Ketcham, Stotsky, Lewis – Pioneer Institute —  http://pioneerinstitute.org/download/imperiling-the-republic-the-fate-of-u-s-history-instruction-under-common-core/

 

9.2.14 – “U. S. History Instruction Damaged by Common Core Literacy Standards” — Truth in American Education –

http://truthinamericaneducation.com/common-core-state-standards/u-s-history-instruction-damaged-by-common-core-literacy-standards/

 

9.2.14 – “Madison Scholar Condemns AP U. S. History Redesign” – by Stanley Kurtz — National Review

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/386849/madison-scholar-condemns-ap-us-history-redesign-stanley-kurtz?utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Corner&utm_source=twitterfeed

 

8.30.14 – “The Left’s Attempt To Institutionalize the Rewriting of U. S. History” – by Ron Radosh – PJ Media  

http://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2014/08/30/the-lefts-attempt-to-institutionalize-the-re-writing-of-us-history-a-new-step-forward-through-their-long-march-through-the-existing-institutions/

 

8.25.14 – “Common Core Architect’s History ‘Deeply Biased’ Against U. S. – by Leo Hohmann — Mobile World Net Daily

http://mobile.wnd.com/2014/08/common-core-history-deeply-biased-against-u-s/

 

8.25.14 – “How the College Board Politicized U.S. History” – by Stanley Kurtz – National Review —

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/386202/how-college-board-politicized-us-history-stanley-kurtz

 

8.22.14 – “Pushing American History As a Long Tale of Oppression” – by Peter Wood – Nat. Asso. of Scholars — http://www.nas.org/articles/pushing_american_history_as_a_long_tale_of_oppression

 

8.19.14 – “29 Biased Statements in the AP U. S. History Redesign” – by Larry Krieger — Heartland.org –http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2014/08/19/29-biased-statements-ap-us-history-redesign

 

8.15.14 — “Why Won’t the College Board Reveal its AP U.S. History Authors?” — by Larry Krieger and Jane Robbins — http://www.educationviews.org/wont-college-board-reveal-ap-u-s-history-authors/

 

8.13.14 — PODCAST – Alice Linahan Conference Call – Discussion of the new AP U. S. History Course (including the Framework and the new AP U. S. History test itself) and dual credit courses —https://soundcloud.com/alice-linahan/women-on-the-wall-conference-call-ap-advanced-placement-and-dual-credit-is-it-a-good-thing

 

8.9.14 – “Ken Mercer: The Texas Voice in the Uphill Battle To Push APUSH Back” – by Merrill Hope —Breitbart Texas — http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/08/09/Ken-Mercer-The-Texas-Voice-In-The-Uphill-Battle-To-Push-APUSH-Back/

 

8.9.14 — “Child Abuse – Destroying Children’s Love for America” – Donna Garner

http://www.educationviews.org/child-abuse-destroying-childrens-love-america/

 

 

8.7.14 – “New AP U. S. History:  Greatest Americans missing from proposed curriculum” – by Rhett Miller — FoxNews.com — http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/07/historic-fail-greatest-americans-missing-from-proposed-curriculum/

 

 

8.6.14 — “Anti-American AP U. S. History Course & Links to APUSH Documents” –by Donna Garner —http://www.educationviews.org/anti-american-ap-u-s-history-links-apush-documents/

 

 

8.1.14 — “Chock-Full of Info – Saving America’s Youth” — by Donna Garner

http://www.educationviews.org/chock-full-info-saving-americas-youth/

 

7.13.14 – “The New AP U. S. History Exam – Deal or No Deal?” – by Jane Robbins, Larry Krieger – Breitbart— http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/07/13/The-New-AP-US-History-Exam-Deal-or-No-Deal

 

7.10.14 – “Update on AP U. S. History” – by Peter Wood – Nat. Asso. Of Scholarshttp://www.nas.org/articles/update_on_ap_us_history

 

 

7.7.14 – “Look What the College Board Has Done to U. S. History” – by Peter Wood – Nat. Asso of Scholars — http://www.nas.org/articles/look_what_the_college_board_has_done_to_u.s._history

 

 

7.1.14 – “The New AP History: A Preliminary Report” – by Peter Wood – Nat. Asso. of Scholars —http://www.nas.org/articles/the_new_ap_history_a_preliminary_report

 

 

Here is what USED to be in the 5-page APUSH – Course Description – Effective Fall 2010 — Please go to pp. 7 – 12 to see the Themes in AP U. S. History.

http://womenonthewall.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/ap-us-history-course-description.pdf

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Here is the link to the new 98-page, anti-American, 2014 APUSH – Course and Exam Description Including Curriculum Framework – Effective Fall 2014:  http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-course-exam-descriptions/ap-us-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf

Please view The Concept Outline in the new 2014 APUSH on pp. 28 – 37:http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-course-exam-descriptions/ap-us-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf

Here are the Related Articles in the 2014 APUSH Course Content:

 

Common Core’s Control over Curriculum, Teachers, Students, America

students_teacher_AP

By Donna Garner

9.2.14

[The Obama administration, Arne Duncan, and the U. S. Dept. of Ed. are beginning to run scared because the public, including a number of our nation’s governors, are realizing that Common Core Standards do indeed control curriculum (among other education functions that have been ripped away by the federal government from state and/or local control).

Because the USDOE is “banned by law from directing, supervising, or controlling elementary and secondary school curriculum, programs of instruction, and instructional materials,” governors and other citizens are realizing they have grounds to sue the federal government for breaking the law.

Below are helpful resources that prove Common Core Standards are controlling curriculum. These resources could be used to help strengthen people’s legal challenges to reject the entire Common Core Standards Initiative and the USDOE’s conditional NCLB waiver system.

— Donna Garner]

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[The arrows mean “lead(s) to.”]

National standards →  National assessments →  National curriculum → National teacher evaluations with teachers’ salaries tied to students’ test scores → Teachers teaching to the test each and every day → National indoctrination of our public school children →  National database of students and teachers containing personally intrusive information

*I began sharing this graphic way back in 1.1.09 in an attempt to warn the public against the Obama administration’s move toward the Common Core Standards Initiative. – Donna Garner

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4.16.14 – “Common Core Is a Curriculum” – by Donna Garner —http://www.educationviews.org/common-core-curriculum/

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Laura Slover, CEO of PARCC admitted in a press release on 8.22.14 that Common Core drives the curriculum: 

 

“High quality assessments go hand-in-hand with high quality instruction based, on high quality standardsYou cannot have one without the other. The PARCC states see quality assessments as a part of instruction, not a break from instruction.”http://www.parcconline.org/parcc-states-reduce-no-items-elaliteracy-portion-test

 

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Gov. Bobby Jindal’s press release – 8.25.14:

 

The proponents of Common Core and PARCC continue to insist that tests and standards are not about curriculum, but that’s a ruse. Teachers already know that what is tested at the end of the year is what is taught in classrooms throughout the year. PARCC may not mandate one textbook or one pacing guide, but the CEO of the federally funded PARCC has admitted one thing: PARCC controls instruction and instruction is curriculum. (8.25.14 – “PARCC CEO Admits Goal of Test To Control Curriculum” – Office of Gov. Bobby Jindal – Press Release — http://gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&articleID=4655 )

 

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2.12 — “The Road to a National Curriculum: The Legal Aspects of the Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, and Conditional Waivers” – a Pioneer Institute White Paper — http://www.scribd.com/doc/81315338/The-Road-to-a-National-Curriculum

 

[Summary statements about this report]

 

With only minor exceptions, the General Education Provisions Act, the Department of Education Organization Act, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), ban the Department from directing, supervising, or controlling elementary and secondary school curriculum, programs of instruction, and instructional materials.

The U. S. Dept. of Education has designed a system of discretionary grants and conditional waivers that effectively herds states into accepting specific standards and assessments favored by the Departmentthe NCLB conditional waiver programis driving the states toward a national K-12 curriculum and course content.  

 

The waiver authority granted by Congress in No Child Left Behind does not permit the Secretary to gut NCLB wholesale and impose these conditions…

 

In the view of the authors, these efforts will necessarily result in ade facto national curriculum and instructional materials effectively supervised, directed, or controlled by the Department through the NCLB waiver process.

Secretary Arne Duncan has said that the work of the two consortia includes “developing curriculum frameworks” and ‘instructional modules.’

But the legal concern is that these federally funded assessments will ultimately direct the course of elementary and secondary course content across the nationThis raises a fundamental question of whether the Department is exceeding its statutory boundaries…

 

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8.22.14 – “Federalizing Education by Waiver?” by Derek W. Black, University of South Carolina, School of Law, Vanderbilt Law Review, Forthcoming —http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2485407

Abstract:

In the fall of 2012, the United States Secretary of Education told states he would use his statutory power to waive violations of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), but only on the condition that they adopt his new education policies — policies that had already failed in Congress. Most states had no real choice but to agree because eighty percent of their schools were faced with statutory sanctions and fund termination.

 

As a result, the Secretary was able to federalize two core aspects of public education over the next year. For the first time, school curriculum and the terms of teacher evaluation and retention came under the control of the federal government. 

This Article demonstrates that this particular exercise of conditional waiver power was both unconstitutional and beyond the scope of the Secretary’s statutory authority.

 

First, NCLB contained no notice that states might face waiver conditions when they first agreed to participate in NCLB, much less notice of the substance of those conditions. Spending clause doctrine requires both.

 

Second, states’ inability to say no to these conditions raises serious questions of unconstitutional coercion.

 

Third, the Secretary lacked explicit statutory authority to impose these conditions. At best, NCLB implies authority to condition waivers, but implied conditions would be limited to the scope of NCLB itself. The waiver conditions the Secretary imposed go well beyond the scope of NCLB.

 

Fourth, to treat these particular waiver conditions as falling within the scope of the Secretary’s authority would be to extend the Secretary the equivalent of law-making power, which separation of powers doctrines prohibit. The power to unilaterally impose open-ended policy through waiver conditions would be remarkable not just for its transformation of key aspects of education, but for the entire federal administrative state. It would open the door to the spread of a more expansive administrative power than ever seen before.

 

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2.11.12 – “Common Core Standards: Is the U. S. Dept. of Ed. Violating Federal Law by Directing Standards, Tests, Curricula?” – Truth in American Education —

http://truthinamericaneducation.com/common-core-state-standards/is-the-u-s-dept-of-education-violating-federal-law-by-directing-standards-tests-curricula/

 

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8.25.14 — “Common Core PARCC CEO Acknowledges Goal of Assessments To Drive Curriculum” — by Dr. Susan Berry – Breitbart http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/08/25/Common-Core-PARCC-CEO-Acknowledges-Goal-of-Assessments-To-Drive-Curriculum

 

 

Do schools control the curriculum?

I believe I will stick with the team at Truth in Texas Textbooks and demand that my local school district does the same.

 

By Donna Garner 


Sent by one of the anti-Common Core people in Missouri:

This was in Politico’s morning Education report:

A ‘CONSUMER REPORTS’ FOR THE COMMON CORE: A new nonprofit funded with $3 million from the Gates Foundation and the Helmsley Charitable Trust launches today with plans to review textbooks and other instructional material for fidelity to the Common Core.

 

EdReports.org will start by bringing in teams of classroom teachers to evaluate K-8 math materials. The curricula will be judged by how well it matches the Common Core and assesses student learning and by whether it offers teachers guidance in reaching children at all levels.

  

The group will post its ratings online and invite response from the publishers. Up first: Pearson’s enVision Math, McGraw-Hill’s Everyday Math, Houghton Mifflin’s Go Math and more than a dozen other widely used curricula.

  

EdReports will turn to high-school math and language arts in future years.– The project is led by Eric Hirsch, formerly of the New Teacher Center, and Maria Klawe, the president of Harvey Mudd College. They say they hope districts will turn to their ratings to guide purchases. “Hopefully with great materials, great teachers and great standards, we will be able to move the needle on student achievement,” Hirsch said. Incoming NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia supports the effort; she says curriculum ratings could improve Common Core implementation “by shining a light” on quality materials.

So, once they have this rating system down, schools will know which curriculums to pick because they will be rated the highest. They will “shine a light” on quality materials and conversly throw mud on materials that may be very good but are not aligned to CC by either rating them poorly or not even rating them.

 

Notice that they plan to start reviewing Pearson and McGraw Hill first. Show me the school district that is going to pick a curriculum not highly rated? 

 

This first attempt to regulate the use of “common core aligned” will create the de facto national curriculum. And what a surprise Gates is funding it!