Who Will Defend The Children Against CCSS or Nationalizing Education

Alert:   Nationalizing Education--Vote Set Nov 18th--As one mother has said, "our kids are not for sale".  

Last year, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers agreed to sponsor the Common Core State Standards Initiative with help from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Department of Education (USDE).  Goal were to develop common mathematics and English, Language, Arts (ELA) standards that states could supposedly voluntarily adopt.  USDE then included adoption of the standards as part of the application for states to qualify for “Race to the Top” education grants.

• Most states agreed to it even before the standards were published in June.

Here are warnings from Professor Jim Milgram and Professor Sandra who were in the national validation committee forming the standards.  

• In spite of what is being said by others these two were the experts in Math and ELA and here is what they say:

"How can the State Boards of Education make decisions when they haven't even read the standards? Many state's Board Member had never been initiated into what was in these documents.  What were the policy issues coming out of these documents and whether these analyses were truly were in a sense legitimate academic analysis...These are very serious issues about what self- government means at the state and local government level."--Sandra Stotsky,  professor in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, and holds the 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality.

"...the requirement to automaticity on their own self- invented algorithms, was one of the political issues that came in at the last moment and it's  absolutely crazy.  And then there was an entire list of similar ones, that equally made no sense whatsoever in terms of the long term development of children's mathematical capacity." --  Dr. R. James Milgram, professor of Mathematics at Stanford University, member of NASA advisory council.

• Bottom line is that CCSS is going to open the door wide to more indoctrination as the English is now going to be more about information and with Kevin Jennings in the USDE that is very troubling.   More dumbing down as in the math, children will learn their own way which could be wrong, and then- maybe a couple of years later the right way.  What input parents had by going to their school boards will no longer be there.  You have 'til Nov 18th to contact Gov Riley (334) 242-7100 and State Board Chairman Dr. Morton (334) 242-9700 and tell them whether or not you want the Common Core States Standards.

The first regional meeting was in Mobile and only two parents went (most don't know).

Obama's Sec. of  Ed Arne Duncan's speech at  2009 Governors Education Symposium  June 14, 2009 Cary, North Carolina

He states the following:

 Perfect Storm for Reform

• The Recovery Act -- $100B

 "But if all we do is save jobs, we will miss this opportunity – which is why we are also using this recovery money to drive reform"

"There has never been this much money on the table and there may never be again"

"Once new standards are set and adopted you need to create new tests that measure whether students are meeting those standards. Tonight -- I am announcing that the Obama administration will help pay for the costs of developing those tests."*

"Today, perhaps for the first time, we have enough money to really make a difference."

Money indeed-- from the American people to implement the plan.

Mr. Lou Gerstner's suggestions (President of Achieve which was commissioned to write standards):

Wall Street Journal article Nov 23, 2008-- See Mr. Lou Gerstner suggestion to the president elect Obama:

..."I’m going to suggest is that he convene the 50 governors, and the first thing they do is they abolish the 16,000 school districts we have in the United States. Sixteen thousand school districts are what we’re trying to cram this reform through...

These organizations stand in the way of what we want to do.

Now, the governors could decide, we’ll keep them as advisory, we can keep them as community support, but they will not be involved in the fundamental direction of public education in America. Second, this group of governors will then select 50 school districts, plus I’d say 20 major cities, so we got 70 school districts. Seventy instead of 16,000.

They will within one year develop a national set of standards for math, science, reading and social studies. Twelve months after that they will develop a national testing regime, so that there’ll be one day in America where every third, sixth, ninth and twelfth grader will take a national test against a national curriculum."

And as Chairman of Achieve--his plans are being carried out thanks to Bill Gates money and the administration of O'bama.

 America has monied and powerful people that think they know best for your children and you are not a part of the equation (just in the payment).   I hope you will no longer be ignorant to this precious foundation of the future of America--but be wary and share your thoughts with your governors (governors can be the key--hear interview).