What Is Behind Common Core and Why We Must Get Rid Of It

Hear interview with Christina Michas who shares what's behind Common Core.  Also hear the heart-wrenching story of a mother who has seen a child's confidence and happiness destroyed by the one-size fits all mentality.  God created each of us as unique individuals. 

Interview link

May God help us fight this cookie-cutter education called common core standards.  Visit these websites for more information:

America's Choice-Michael Chapman (This Video Will Start To Help You Piece The Puzzle Together)

Americanpolicycenter.org

Lightonthedesert.org

The True Price of Common Core--Share, Cry, Get Mad, Pray And Then Act

I hope when you read this mother's story--you will let Sen Del Marsh (334) 242-7800 know that the true price of him setting aside SB403 will be paid for by our children.  That's a price I hope you tell him and all legislators you are not willing pay and Common Core must go!

"I took my twins (3rd grade) back to school today after the test was over and had to witness the most heartbreaking thing any mother facing this common core can endure..my son 8 yrs old with a learning dissability and who cannot keep up with this crap of ONE SIZE FITS ALL EDUCATION,just had an emotional breakdown in the lobby of his school...he HATES it there,he begs my everyday to not go,and I am forced to make his little head take in work that doesnt make sense to him,or to any child for that matter,my once HAPPY child,is now angry...he kicked his sneakers off threw them accross the lobby threw his lunch box,ripped off his sweatshirt,and headed for the front door of the building to RUN,to run away from a place he use to LOVE,the school psycologist had to grab him,walk him away from me down the hall with no shoes on,as he looked at me and cried hysterical...my heart cant take anymore of what these pieces of shit (pearson) are doing to my kid,and to all the kids that choose to hold it in,as my son has decided to get it out of his little system,and I feel so helpless,as I sit here and wait for a call from the school,to see how he is..I called 2x's and I get the psycologist voice mail."

When Alabama's Senator Del Marsh says "I have not had time to get my hands around it" and "it's not one of those bills that I had focused on this session"-- as justification to not allow a bill be voted on--parents should be wondering why not?   A bill that can prevent the horrific story above (coming out of a state that has been under Common Core longer than ours) can't be passed? 

One of the people Del Marsh is focused enough to listen to is Sup. of Ed. Tommy Bice who is misleading him and our state.  Tommy Bice is not telling the whole truth to the Legislature and citizens that the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards  that he says are "ours"-- are in fact the copyrighted Common Core State Standards with only the "allowable" Alabama specific Standards (max up to 15%).  Bottom line--Alabama parents Constitutional right over their children's education is being removed.

Another Tommy Bice wrong doing (and here we see the legislature reign him in) is when he reached in to disperse millions that were ear-marked for Alabama's Reading and Math Initiatives.  That tells you Tommy Bice can be wrong to the point of going past what he is "constitutionally" allowed to do. 

Common Core is wreaking havoc in states such as NY and Ga etc.  It would do our legislature good to heed the studious RNC and their Resolution to repeal Common Core. 1,539 NY Principals are outraged about its effects upon children and teachers (eval tied to tests).  Ga is trying to get out as they found it is a dumbing down.  Their Seniors reading requirements are at today's 7th grade level.  Math so confusing even accountant can't help child do elementay math. 

The biggest under-statement however was from Sen. Del Marsh when he said "I want to help on this common core issue", as he chose not to listen to Heritage Foundation sharing information that would have shed truth on it.  He failed to wrap his hands around the fact that this is not just any other issue.  

This is all about the most important issue to voters--their children and children should come first!  Michigan and Indiana have already realized that and their movement to stop it is succeeding and more states are putting their children first as they are realizing their mistake. Even though it cost Ga. an enormous amount of $$ they know their children and getting things done right are worth it.

Contrast the mother's story at the top with hearing that  Sen. Del Marsh walked out on hearing the truth about Common Core which implies a disregard for truth on what is affecting children. Please pray for the family above and others suffering.  Please continue to call Alabama Governor Bentley for us (334) 242-7100... and Senators Del Marsh and Jabo Waggoner to repeal Common Core (334) 242-7800.  Please also call House of Representatives at (334) 242-7600.  SB403 and HB565 needs your support.  Also please ask your US Rep. such as Martha Roby to defund Common Core!  Please share this and we request your prayers to our Almighty God that He would have mercy and grace upon us.

Then he replied to me, "This is this message from the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by valor nor by strength, but only by my Spirit,' says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.  Zechariah 4:6

Links: 

Robert Scott testimony that Common Core is untested.

Clarificationo of What Tommy Bice says are Alabama Standards

Tommy Bice on Reading and Math Initiatives Over reach

Ga. sees Common Core as dumbing down

Del Marsh walks out on Heritage Foundation

Data Mining through Common Core

Contact Numbers For Legislators

Kermit Gosnell and His House of Horrors--Planned Parenthood's Abortion Mill

“House of Horrors: Obama and Planned Parenthood Ignore It”

by Donna Garner

4.28.13

Most of the major media have refused to cover Kermit Gosnell’s trial in which his abortion “House of Horrors” has been revealed.  

Even though Planned Parenthood admitted at the trial that they knew about the atrocities, they refused to report them to elected officials and to the police.  

How can we expect the United States to be a blessed nation when we pretend such atrocities are not occurring?  

Obama has just become the first sitting President to speak to the Planned Parenthood convention; and he had the unmitigated gall to ignore the Gosnell abortion trial and also to proclaim publicly, “Thank you, Planned Parenthood.  God bless you.”   

Because the mainstream media will not cover the Kermit Gosnell events, here are excerpts taken from various Internet sites.  These should shock and dismay even the most hardened pro-abortion supporters. 

At the bottom of this e-mail, I have posted a link to the video of a woman who goes undercover to report on her experiences at a late-term abortion facility.

1.20.11 – “At Filthy Clinic, Babies Met an Inhumane End, Grand Jury Says” – by Dana Difilippo – Philly.com – http://articles.philly.com/2011-01-20/news/27038788_1_grand-jury-abortion-clinic-patient-areas

In his squalid West Philadelphia abortion clinic, Kermit Gosnell had a surefire way of dealing with the unwelcome complication of a live birth: He'd allegedly plunge scissors into the squirming newborn's neck, killing it by severing the spinal cord.

…One premature infant wiggled around on a counter for 20 minutes before an untrained worker slit his neck - after first playing with him.

Those allegations were among countless bombshells in a 261-page grand-jury report that District Attorney Seth Williams released yesterday.

Gosnell killed "hundreds" of babies and at least two women during abortions from 1979 to last year at his Women's Medical Society at 38th Street and Lancaster Avenue, according to the grand jury. Further, he and his unlicensed, unskilled staff overdosed patients with drugs, perforated their wombs and bowels, and spread venereal disease by using unsterilized equipment, the report said.

Semiconscious, moaning women sat in dirty recliners and on bloodstained blankets. The air reeked of urine from the flea-infested cats permitted to roam the clinic. There was blood on the floor and cat feces on the stairs. One investigator likened the scene to “a bad gas-station restroom."

In the patient areas, equipment was rusty, dirty and broken. Paramedics who were called to remove the patients during the police raid had trouble getting them out because clutter blocked the hallways and the emergency exit was padlocked shut.

But even worse horrors were hidden in the basement and staff-only areas.

Detectives found a row of jars containing just the severed feet of fetuses. Fetal remains filled bags, milk jugs, orange-juice cartons and even cat-food containers; some were stored in a refrigerator where staffers chilled their lunches. In all, authorities found the remains of 45 fetuses in this "baby charnel house" and gave them to the medical examiner, who determined that at least two of them had been born alive, according to the grand-jury report.

The scene was so filthy that grand jurors, visiting the clinic months later, wore hazardous-materials suits, Williams said.

The bigger the baby, the more he charged; his fees ranged from $325 to $3,000 per abortion, Williams said. Anesthesia was additional, although he and his staffers would "sedate to stupor" patients who screamed or moaned too loudly, according to the report. Investigators estimated that Gosnell's salary for one year was $1.8 million.

Because late-term abortions are complicated, Gosnell and his staffers induced labor, which resulted in "scores" of live births that led to the gruesome "snippings" of their spinal cords, the grand jury found.

Although this allegedly occurred routinely, investigators could document the cases of only seven viable newborns killed in Gosnell's clinic. That's because Gosnell routinely destroyed his files, according to the grand-jury report.

In one case, a staffer told grand jurors, Gosnell joked that the aborted baby was so big he could "walk me to the bus stop."

…And although red flags mounted about wrongdoing at the clinic, those with the capacity to stop the carnage, such as the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Department of State [and Planned Parenthood], looked the other way, Williams charged.

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4.24.13 – “Kermit Gosnell Doesn’t Testify, Defense Rests with No Witnesses” – by Steven

Ertelt, LifeNews.com -- http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/24/kermit-gosnell-doesnt-testify-defense-rests-with-no-witnesses/

Abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell will not testify in his murder trial and his defense attorney decided to not call a single witness on his behalf to defend him from the murder and other charges he faces.

The defense has argued that there were no live births at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Center abortion clinic and contends the babies died during abortions and their necks were snipped afterwards. But former Gosnell staffers testified they saw signs of life even after the abortion had been completed — saying the babies “jumped” and “screamed” and tried to escape…

Sullenger said testimony from the medical examiner and toxicologist has indicated that there was no evidence the babies were injected with Digoxin to ensure the babies were dead prior to the abortion, as the defense has claimed.

The medical examiner testified that tests were inconclusive as proof that the babies were born alive. However, the tests also did not prove the babies were dead prior to birth. Those inconclusive test results were overshadowed by the weight of testimony from witness after witness, who detailed how the babies were in fact living prior to being murdered through what one witness described as a “virtual beheading.”

…Previously, Gosnell’s wife Pearl pleaded guilty to assisting her husband at his Philadelphia abortion center where he killed a woman in a botched abortion and has killed hundreds of babies in abortion-infanticides.

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4.24.13  --

“Gosnell Judge Reinstates Charge for Baby Tossed in Shoe Box, Still Breathing” – by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com -- http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/24/gosnell-judge-reinstates-charge-for-baby-tossed-in-shoe-box-still-breathing/

The judge in the Kermit Gosnell murder trial admitted today he made an error when dropping one of the charges against the abortion practitioner.

Common pleas court Judge Jeffrey Minehart admitted he “erred” when dropping the murder charge for Baby C, who was killed in an abortion-infanticide when he was a victim of an attempted abortion but was born alive and tossed in a shoe box, with Gosnell staffers confirming they saw him breathing for 20 minutes.

Gosnell faces eight total murder counts — one for killing a woman in a botched abortion and seven for killing babies in abortion-infanticides that involved live-birth abortions and snipping their necks after birth….

The reinstated charge involves Baby C — about whom a Gosnell staffer testified was a newborn child who survived a failed abortion and was still breathing into a shoe box.

…Kareema Cross told the jury she saw at least 10 children who were breathing after botched abortions but killed afterwards. What happened shocked her so badly she took photographs to document what happened. Cross took pictures to document filth in the abortion clinic and a picture of a huge baby boy tossed in shoe box breathing, moving, and too big for the box. Cross testified of large babies birthed, moving, and moaning some for 20 min before their necks were snipped.

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4.26.13  -- “ Gosnell’s House of Horrors the Logical Result of Legalized Abortion” – by Kristen Hatten, LifeNews.com -- http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/26/gosnells-house-of-horrors-the-logical-result-of-legalized-abortion/

Forty-seven fetuses stored in cat food. Venereal diseases spread with dirty instruments among patients. Fifteen-year-olds administering anesthesia. Live babies struggling in toilets, jumping as their spinal cords are snipped with scissors. Women dying with their organs perforated.

The filth, the disease, the hopelessness.

Tell me again why we’re surprised…

Many Germans were shocked when they were shown the massive pits full of emaciated corpses, the gold long since pulled from their mouths and melted down for the war effort. Women cried when they saw the gas chambers, the ovens, the skeletons of babies and children.

Today, Americans gape at their computer screens as they read about the snipped spinal cords, the babies struggling to escape from toilets, the fetuses stored in cat food, the butchered women, the racism, the filthiness, and the absurd and somehow disturbing image of a dirty cat strolling through the carnage, watching with its lazy cat eyes as women writhed in blood-stained recliners…

Gosnell’s so-called “house of horrors” is the logical end result of declaring a class of humans inhuman. It is what happens when naive women are told, without a trace of irony, that death leads to freedom: that killing their unborn children will rescue them, help them, free them.

***************

4.26.13 – “Meet Semika Shaw: The Other Woman Kermit Gosnell Killed in an Abortion” – by Dave Andursko, LifeNews.com -

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/26/meet-semika-shaw-the-other-woman-kermit-gosnell-killed-in-an-abortion/

If you hadn’t read the Grand Jury report (and kept up with the coverage in NRL News Today), you wouldn’t know that the Grand Jury that excoriated Gosnell and the Health Bureaucracy in Pennsylvania wrote extensively about another woman who died at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society.

Yesterday and today we ran excerpts from the Grand Jury’s report that deal with the death of 22-year-old Semika Shaw. “On October 9, 2002, the Professional Underwriters Liability Insurance Company reported to the State Board of Medicine that it had paid a $400,000 settlement to the family of Semika Shaw, the 22-year-old mother of two who died following an abortion procedure at Gosnell’s clinic in March 2000.” More specifically, she “died from infection and sepsis two days after Gosnell perforated her uterus and cervix during an abortion procedure,” according to the report. “

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4.26.13 – “Six Degrees of Kermit Gosnell: Links to Planned Parenthood, Obama” – by Dave Ardursko, LifeNews.com -- http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/26/six-degrees-of-kermit-gosnell-links-to-planned-parenthood-obama/

“The physical layout of the clinic, a confusing maze of narrow hallways and multiple twisting stairways, should have been an obvious bar to its use for surgical procedures. The three-story structure, created by joining two buildings, had no elevator. Access from procedure rooms to the outside by wheelchair or stretcher was impossible, as was evident the night Karnamaya Mongar died.  According to former staff members, the facility had been substantially cleaned up by the time the Grand Jury visited it. Between late February 2010, when the practice was closed, and our tour of the clinic in August, significant efforts had been made to make the facility look and smell cleaner.”

“Despite such efforts, it remained a wretched, filthy space. The walls appeared to be urine-splattered. The procedure tables were old and one had a ripped plastic cover. Suction tubing, which was used for abortion procedures – and doubled as the only available suction source for resuscitation – was corroded. A large, dirty fish tank stood in the waiting room, filled with turtles and fish. The dirt-floored basement was stuffed with patient files, plants, junk, and boxes of un-disposed-of medical waste. The entire facility smelled foul.

***********

4.26.13  -- “The Truth About Kermit Gosnell the Media Won’t Tell You” – by Chuck Donovan, LifeNews.com -- http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/26/the-truth-about-kermit-gosnell-the-media-wont-tell-you/

Moreover, lawlessness – and not a set of pro-life laws – is what gave birth to Gosnell’s crimes, and that spirit of lawlessness, of no limits and no scruples, dates back to the period before Roe. v. Wade.

Tim Carney of the Washington Examiner has laid out in detail how Gosnell vaulted into public view in 1972 through his involvement in another gruesome episode, the “Mother’s Day Massacre.”

In full view of public television cameras, Gosnell brought 15 poor Chicago women to Philadelphia to undergo second-trimester abortions induced by inserting a mass of razor-sharp plastic coils into their wombs.

The so-called “super coil” method was the invention of Harvey Karman, an ex-con with a diploma-mill Ph.D., who was a darling of International Planned Parenthood.

That Gosnell was able to participate in a highly publicized event that left nine of its 15 “subjects” with major medical complications and suffer no penalty was a harbinger of the path he would take over four decades.

…The Gosnell trial is a stark reminder of another fact. The women who entered the infernal portal of 3801 Lancaster Ave. suffered from an array of debilities, chief among them the absence of hope.

In a sex-saturated society availed of an arsenal of pregnancy-preventing and –destroying drugs, devices and, yes, abortion clinics, they turned to a facility that should have shocked and repelled them from the moment they saw its battered and blood-stained

1.20.11 – Obama Opposed Bill To Ban Grisly, Philadelphia-Style Abortions” – The Right’s Writer -- http://therightswriter.com/2011/01/obama-opposed-bill-to-ban-grisly-philadelphia-style-abortions/

“Police arrested Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell earlier this week and charged him with eight counts of murder. Seven are for practicing illegal abortions in which he allowed viable babies to be born, then cut them open with scissors outside the womb — an action a clinic worker stated Gosnell performed “hundreds” of times.

The last was for the death of a 41-year-old refugee from Nepal, Karnamaya Mongar, who received an overdose of Demerol during an abortion in Gosnell’s unsanitary clinic, the ironically named Women’s Medical Society. Although abortion is legal, Gosnell stands accused of violating the federal Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, which forbids children to be murdered after they have been extracted from the birth canal.

…Gosnell joked, “that’s what you call a chicken with its head cut off.” He enjoyed cutting off babies’ feet and keeping them in jars on the premises. Other aborted body parts, or whole babies, could be found in jars and cat food containers.

This method of abortion was legal until 2002, when President George W. Bush signed the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act (BAIPA). Barack Obama’s opposition to a similar bill in the Illinois State Senate is perhaps the most shameful mark in his career.

…When given the opportunity to vote for a measure that would ban this grisly practice in the state of Illinois, then-State Senator Barack Obama voted no…

As a state senator in Springfield, Barack Obama opposed the Illinois version of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act in 2001, 2002, and 2003...

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4.26.13 – “Did Obama ‘Endorse’ Kermit Gosnell in Planned Parenthood Speech?” – by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com -- http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/26/did-obama-endorse-kermit-gosnell-in-planned-parenthood-speech/

“President Obama touts Planned Parenthood as a trusted friend and health care provider to women and girls, but this could not be further from the truth.  Planned Parenthood last week admitted to knowing about the conditions inside Kermit Gosnell’s Philadelphia clinic yet chose not to act to help end the killing of newborn babies and butchering of women...

“It seems that nothing – not even eyewitness accounts of Gosnell-style conditions in their own clinics – is enough to make President Obama reconsider his unyielding support for Planned Parenthood, which in a single year performed more than 333,000 abortions and received half a billion dollars in taxpayer money. It is no wonder that in introducing him, the first thing Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards did was to lavish praise on President Obama for supporting the abortion giant to the point of willingness to shut down the entire government during the continuing resolutions battle.”

…On April 18, the Philadelphia Daily News reported that Planned Parenthood knew about the conditions in Gosnell’s clinic, yet did not contact the police or elected officials.

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4.26.13 – “Sarah Palin: Women Don’t Need Abortion, Obama or Planned Parenthood” – by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com -- http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/26/sarah-palin-women-dont-need-abortion-obama-or-planned-parenthood/

He’s the first sitting president to speak to them, but then again he’s also the first president who is so radically pro-abortion that as a state senator he refused three times to vote in favor of legislation that would simply provide medical attention to babies born alive from botched abortions.

Considering the role Planned Parenthood has played in looking the other way while the mass murdering abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell butchered babies born alive from his horrific infanticide procedures and abused his women patients, it’s perhaps not surprising that this same president sees nothing wrong with allowing his name to be so openly associated with this organization.

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4.26.13 – “Obama Ignores Kermit Gosnell Murder Trial in Planned Parenthood Speech” --

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/26/obama-ignores-kermit-gosnell-murder-trial-in-planned-parenthood-speech/

President Barack Obama gave a speech to the Planned Parenthood abortion business today in which he ignored the national attention-getting murder trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell.

…The president never mentioned the word abortion in the speech despite the fact that planned Parenthood is the number one abortion business in the country.

The most recent report released by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) shows the abortion giant did a record 333,964 abortions on unborn children during the 2011-2012 fiscal year. Those abortions were estimated to have generated $150 million dollars for the “nonprofit” organization.

Obama mentioned a woman from Chicago who received services at Planned Parenthood but made no mention of Tonya Reaves, a Chicago woman Planned Parenthood killed in a botched abortion.

Marjorie Dannenfeiser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List, commented on Obama’s forthcoming speech…“Planned Parenthood last week admitted to knowing about the horrors going on inside Kermit Gosnell’s squalid Philadelphia clinic, but chose not to exercise its position as the leader in the abortion industry to put an end to the butchering of women and children,”

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4.26.13 – “Obama to Planned Parenthood Abortion Bizz: ‘God Bless you’” – by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.org -- http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/26/obama-to-planned-parenthood-abortion-biz-god-bless-you/

“As long as we’ve got to fight to make sure women have access to quality, affordable health care, and as long as we’ve got to fight to protect a woman’s right to make her own choices about her own health, I want you to know that you’ve also got a president who’s going to be right there with you, fighting every step of the way,” said Obama. “Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you.”

4.28.13 –   Abortion clinic suggests flushing baby down the toilet if born alive  -- A woman who is 23 weeks along in her pregnancy goes to Dr. Emily’s Women’s Health Center in Bronx, New York.  Here is what happened:

“Inhuman: Undercover in America’s Late Term Abortion Industry”

http://www.liveaction.org/inhuman/first-investigative-video/

Other undercover abortion videos are also posted at:  http://www.liveaction.org/inhuman/first-investigative-video/

Donna Garner

wgarner1@hot.rr.com

Response To State school board member speaks out on common core repeal vote

Mary Scott Hunter one of the newest addition to the Alabama State School Board has taken on the role of Tommy Bice spokesman and sadly she also does the same thing he does--misrepresents.

"Students in Alabama are showing some remarkable progress in mathematics," she said of the common core math standards that took effect this school year. "This has been long in coming, and is so needed for them, for us and for our future."

She neglected to say that Alabama has been gaining because of their Math Initiative --read this:

"MONTGOMERY—Governor Robert Bentley today announced that Alabama leads the nation in reading gains and meets the national average in reading for the first time, according to data released from the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). The report indicates that, since the last national assessment in 2009, Alabama is one of only four states in the nation to show significant gains in 4th grade reading scores.  

NAEP also measures math achievement in grades 4 and 8. Alabama is one of only nine states in the country to show significant improvement since 2009 in 4th grade math. Of the nine states, Alabama shows the second highest gain behind Arizona." more..

Mary Scott Hunter also says-the state is not a recipient of any federal grants that would tie it to the common core.  But she neglects to state that we are tied to Common Core in our No Child Left Behind Waiver.

And in the closing words of the article on Mary Scott Hunter's stance--"Alabama was not awarded such a grant, despite its application."--the reporter also neglected to report that we are tied to Common Core due to the No Child Left Behind waiver.  Sad that truth is omitted too many times--wonder why?

 Helpful links to study on NCLB waiver and common core

 Listen to why Georgia is now considering getting out of common core:

Parents Wake Up For Chance To Repeal Common Core --Alabama's SB403 Will Be Voted Wednesday 4-17-13 By Senate Education Committee--Contact Info Here

SURVIVE OR DIE?
A VOTE BY A SENATE COMMITTEE WILL DECIDE THE FATE OF COMMON CORE THIS WEDNESDAY!

A NEW Common Core bill, SB 403, has been introduced by Scott Beason (very similar to the one what was killed in committee).  SB 403 WILL BE VOTED ON by the Senate Education Policy Committee on Wednesday, April 17th, in Room 727 at 8:30 a.m at the State House.  This is the same room the other hearing was held.  It's important for as many people as possible to attend this meeting.

IMPORTANT:  The vote on Wednesday will determine if our bill SB 403 dies or survives.

UPDATE ON COMMON CORE BILLS:  Two bills will be voted on by the Education Policy Committee on Wednesday.

I was most surprised to learn yesterday that Senator Dick Brewbaker has filed a new bill on data only.  As you know, Senator Brewbaker carried the first repeal bill that died in his committee.  SB 190 was an outstanding bill and included both privacy protections for students and the repeal of Common Core.   These two issues should be linked in ONE BILL, not separated.  However, Senator Brewbaker has separated these issues and has submitted only a data bill.   A comparison of Senator Brewbaker's original bill SB 190 and his new bill on data only, SB 424, shows that the data provisions have been badly weakened in his new bill.   Primarily, our concern is the collection of personal, non-academic information on students and their families and the sharing of this information with third parties -- in and outside of Alabama -- as well as with the federal government.  SB 424 DOES NOT ADDRESS THIS!

Please contact Senator Brewbaker and other Republican members of the Education Policy Committee and ask them to (1) not vote for SB 424 since it does not include repeal of Common Core and it falls short of what is needed for privacy protection, and (2) vote for SB 403 which repeals Common Core AND protects the privacy of students.  Their names and contact information follow: 

Dick Brewbaker:  dick.brewbaker@alsenate.gov; (334) 242-7895
Gerald Allen:   ghallen62@yahoo.com; (334) 242-7889
Slade Blackwell:  slade@inkana.net; (334) 242-7851
Bill Holzclaw:  holzclaw@knology.net; (334) 242-7854
Shad McGill:   jclegislativedelegation@gmail.com; (334) 242-7858
Trip Pittman:  trip.pittman@alsenate.gov; (334) 242-7897

Ask legislators why they are going against the combined national and state Republican leadership and their Republican base?  The RNC just adopted a Resolution supporting repeal of Common Core.  Our two U.S. Senators and four Republican Congressmembers are on record as opposing Common Core.  The GOP State Executive Committee passed a Resolution to repeal Common Core.   NFRW passed a Resolution to repeal Common Core.  AFRW supports repeal.

Grassroots groups in 40 states are working to repeal of Common Core.  This movement is growing and it will not go away -- nor will we!

If you have any questions, please let me know. 

Elois Zeanah

Press Release: Alabama Education Budget Prevents Future Misappropriation of Funds from Reading/Math Initiatives to Common Core--SB403 and SB404

PRESS RELEASE
April 11, 2013

Alabama Education Budget Prevents Future
Misappropriation of Funds from Reading/Math Initiatives to Common Core
===============================================================

For Immediate Release
Contact:  Elois Zeanah (205/247-5389; eloisz@hotmail.com)

Tuscaloosa, AL:  The Alabama House amended the education budget Wednesday to prevent the Superintendent of Education from diverting millions of additional dollars from the Alabama Reading and Math Initiatives to implement Common Core.  This was in response to investigations by conservative grassroots groups that revealed Alabama State Superintendent Dr. Tommy Bice had diverted over fifty million dollars from these two initiatives to pay for Common Core.

Elois Zeanah, president of the Alabama Federation of Republican Women, stated, “If Dr. Bice had been in private industry, he would have been fired for diverting millions of dollars to his pet project!   These are tax dollars of hard-working Alabamians and should be treated no differently by legislators than how CEO’s treat dollars from private investors or for-profit companies.” 

Zeanah continued, “We are excited about the amendment that was passed to prevent future misappropriations.  Our children have lost at least one year of the reading instruction that had made Alabama number one in reading gains in the nation and decreased the reading gap between black and white students by four points since 2003.  This unauthorized diversion should anger everyone.”

Sharon Sewell, a retired teacher and director of Alabamians for Excellence in Education stated:  “The state board of education seems to think they can do whatever they want without transparency and accountability to parents, teachers, taxpayers, the legislature, or even the governor.  That is my view.  It is very important that parents understand what Common Core is, where it came from, where it is going, and how it will impact their children’s lives.”

Conservative advocates say Common Core is “one-size-fits-all” national standards and if legislators don’t repeal Common Core, they will voluntarily give away Alabama’s education freedom under the Tenth Amendment to bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. who care more about power and money than about children and education. 

Sewell who taught school for 32 years added, “Common Core is not a reform as we have known in the past.  It is a total transformation of schools.  The federal government has our healthcare.  They're trying to get our guns.  Now they want our children, too!”

Bills to repeal Common Core (SB 403/404 and HB 565) are expected to be voted on by the Education Policy Committees next week.      

Basic Flyer For All States On Common Core 101 for Parents, Grandparents, Educators

Print handout for all who care about children.  Danger! Danger!

Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

Race To The Top Applications for Federal Dollars were issued on Nov '09 and states Dept. of Ed signed on Jan '10 to Common Core State Standards aka CCSS (what is to be taught your children) before final draft came out in March '10  (and without approval from legislatures.) The CCSS are copyrighted and can't be changed by states (only allowed to add up to 15%).

Copyright:  This website and all content on this website, including in particular the Common Core State Standards, are the property of NGA Center and CCSSO, and NGA Center and CCSSO retain all right, title, and interest in and to the same.  Read more on their site

The NGA Center for Best Practices is the only policy research and development firm that directly serves the nation’s governors by developing innovative solutions to today’s most pressing public policy challenges.  See Page 6 on their site.

Please hand-out and send emails to awaken parents and all concerned for the children!!!

See Wording of NCLB Waiver Request (See the term Common Core State Standards.  Some Sup says these are their state's standards but here you see they are Common Core):  E S E A F L E X I B I L I T Y–R E Q U E S T F O R W  I N D O W 3 U . S . D E P A R T M E N T O F  ED U C A T I O N iii  June 7, 2012  INTRODUCTION

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is offering each State educational agency (SEA) the opportunity to request flexibility on behalf of itself, ... This voluntary opportunity will provide educators and State and local leaders with flexibility regarding specific requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB)...Prior to submitting this request, Alabama teachers, leaders, college and university faculty, and lay citizens reviewed the Alabama standards and the Common Core State Standards and compiled the best of both into the Alabama College-and Career-Ready Standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts,

 Remember:  Common Core State Standards are copyrighted-not owned by the state . "Compiled the best of both" means the copyrighted Common Core State Standards plus the state's specific standards(up to 15% and which will not be tested).No changes can by made by the states. There will no longer be the recourse for parents to help effect change through their school board.  Please study and learn of the loss of parental input; the emphasis on testing, data gathering and psycho-analysis.  Repeal Common Core while you can!  It is worse than you think as the developers of Tx CSCOPE helped develop Common Core!!!  This is so bad RNC just passed an Anti-Common Core Resolution!