Prevent Federal Take-Over Of Education Through Common Core Standards-Contact Congressman John Kline

“Our Hope Rests with Congressman John Kline”

by Donna Garner

3.19.11

When I originally mailed this letter on Nov. 14, 2010 to U. S. Representative John Kline, he was not yet the chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce; and I also did not have the e-mail addresses of his staffers.  Therefore, I had to send this as a "snail mail" version. 

Today, 3.19.11, I have turned this letter into a digitized version that contains many links to the various documents referenced and to updates which have occurred since November 2010.

Please feel free to share this e-mail widely because it clearly explains how the Obama administration working with U. S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have managed to take control of the public schools in our country. 

This is the bottomline: We must convince the Congressmen to cut the funding for Common Core Standards and Race to the Top right now before the national standards, national curriculum, national assessments, and intrusive national database are institutionalized and are considered “too big to fail.”  

[Note -- The arrows mean “lead to.”]

National standards  →  national assessments  →  national curriculum → 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 all students and educators

 Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

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March 18, 2011

Congressman John Kline U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce 2181 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Tel: 202-225-4527 Fax: 202-225-9571

Dear Congressman Kline:

I am a retired teacher who taught for 33+ years.  I have written prolifically on the federal takeover of the public schools by the Obama administration through Common Core Standards/Race to the Top (CCS/RTTT). 

I have researched and tracked this takeover from well before Obama was even elected.  For the first year, it was a pretty lonely experience as most people thought I was in error.  Now that the agenda is inundating the public schools in our nation, parents and the public are growing terribly concerned.

Thankfully, you have given me encouragement.  I have read some of your comments on education, and you seem to understand the federal intrusion into the public schools and favor returning that control back to the states and local school districts.  I am thrilled to know that you have not been fooled by the Obama rhetoric.

I receive no remuneration for what I write but feel compelled to warn people of the dangers of the Obama administration’s plan for our  school students. 

Please go to the following link to read my 3.18.11 article entitled “Taxpayers, Grab Your Wallets” --

http://www.navigator-news.com/component/content/article/3-local/251-taxpayers-grab-your-wallets

This explains how terribly expensive the implementation of CCS/RTTT will be for the states. 

Not only has the federal government spent $100 Billion (Stimulus), $350 Million for development of assessment tests, $4.35 Billion for RTTT (2010), and $1.35 Billion for RTTT (2011); but the states are going to be left with huge expenditures as they try to implement the online assessments, teacher training, national curriculum, and the national database. 

I have asked myself a million times, “Why have the fiscally conservative Congressmen and conservative news media not been vocal about trying to defeat CCS/RTTT even though I and other people have done everything possible to reach them with fact-based articles?”  I believe I have the answer.

The Obama administration thought up a scheme to silence the Republicans who normally would have been the ones to oppose this massive takeover of the public schools by the federal government.  

The White House/USDOE decided to “divide and conquer” the conservative Republicans.  If the Administration could get the Republicans to think CCS/RTTT was going to help raise academic achievement among students, then who would speak out against that?  Nobody.

(1)  The first thing the Administration did was to glorify charter schools, and I believe they used Davis Guggenheim (director of Waiting for Superman) to do it.  The theme of his very popular movie is to glorify charters as only Hollywood can do.  National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants helped to publicize this movie at the Los Angeles Film Festival and across the country.

Please consider Congressman Darrell Issa’s report on 8.26.10 to the U. S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, “Public Relations and Propaganda Initiatives.” [http://www.gop.gov/blog/10/08/16/issas-report-on-obamas-first ]

In this report on pp. 9-12, we learn that the Obama administration is accused of doing the following: 

 Analysis: The use of taxpayer dollars and federal employees to create an alliance whereby the NEA becomes the de facto strategic communications firm of the White House is unlawful. Using a government email account and government personnel and resources to host a call urging artists and arts groups to support the President’s agenda is a clear violation of federal law and the Hatch Act. Furthermore, it is inappropriate for representatives of the White House, NEA and CNCS to formally ask artists and entertainers to use their talents to support the President’s agenda because many of these people rely on NEA grants to subsidize their livelihoods.

It is my contention that film director Davis Guggenheim (director of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth) and recently Waiting for Superman may have been present during the conference call that took place on 8.10.09.  In this call, U. S. Government and White House staffers pressured the 75 members of the art and entertainment community to promote Obama’s agenda “by creating art consistent with the goals of United We Serve.” 

At the end of the call, the participants were reminded of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) federal grants ($155 million for FY 2009) and the fact that “each grant dollar typically generates up to seven times more in matching funds.”  Three days after the conference call, 21 people from the arts community who had been recipients of the NEA grants endorsed the Obama agenda.

I believe that the Obama administration used Waiting for Superman to push its charter school initiative on the American people, partly to tamp down any concerns by the Republicans over CCS/RTTT. 

Republicans  basically love charter schools; but what they do not understand is that the Obama model of charters is completely different from the charters that most of us conservatives support.  We want charter schools that offer deep academic curriculum and set high standards for students.  The Obama Administration envisions charters that are themed charter schools (e.g., gay, environmental, Muslim, social justice) that can be used to indoctrinate students into the Obama agenda. 

(2)  The second ploy the Administration decided to use in order to “divide and conquer” the Republicans was to vilify the teachers’ unions. Of course, nearly all of us Republicans are opposed to teachers’ unions; and we all want to get rid of poor teachers and reward good teachers.  At least that sounds good, doesn’t it? 

What the Obama Administration did, however, is to use this wedge issue to force their agenda into the schools.  If teachers’ pay, evaluations, and contracts are tied to how well their students do on the national assessments, then every teacher will be forced to teach the national curriculum each and every day in his classroom.  Voila!  You have the] national indoctrination of America’s public school children.

Following are various articles that contain very important information to guide you when considering the dangerous ramifications of the takeover of the public schools by the Obama administration. 

Please do not hesitate to contact me if there is anything that I can do to help you in your efforts to bring the authority over our public schools back to the state and local level.

Donna Garner

wgarner1@hot.rr.com

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NORTH TEXAS NAVIGATOR NEWS  

 

2.14.11 -- “Let’s Get Off the National Standards Train”  -- by Henry Burke & Donna Garner

 

http://www.navigator-news.com/component/content/article/4-national/206-lets-get-off-the-national-standards-train

 

Let’s pose a question.  If you wanted to “sell” something that a number of people did not need, how would you do it?  You might try setting up a contest where everyone competes for a significant financial prize.  After all, Americans love to compete, especially when money goes to the winner. 

Here are the contest details:  The competitors are strapped for cash; the competitors must give up some of their prized possessions in order to qualify; and the game organizers do not announce all of the rules until the game is well underway. How fair does this sound?

This is exactly what Barack Obama and U. S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have done with Common Core Standards (CCS) and Race to the Top (RTTT). 

Under Obama and Duncan, the federal takeover of our schools is rapidly spreading across our nation.  

It is not too late for the "contestants" to quit playing this game.  States that have taken no federal Common Core Standards (CCS) money can drop out of the game.  Even states that have received some of their Race to the Top (RTTT) funds could make a plea to Congress to pass a "hold harmless" clause that would allow these states some relief.

The questions that states must answer are, "Do we really want the federal government taking control of our public schools?  How much will it cost the cash-strapped taxpayers of our state to make up for the lost CCS/RTTT federal funding?”

(CONTINUED AT:  http://www.navigator-news.com/component/content/article/4-national/206-lets-get-off-the-national-standards-train )

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EDUCATIONNEWS.ORG 

http://www.educationnews.org/index.php?news=100137

9.16.10 -- “Am I a Wacko Now?” by Donna Garner

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http://www.educationnews.org/index.php?news=105680

9.1.11 -- “The Obama Administration’s Bullying Agenda” -- by Henry W. Burke and Donna Garner

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http://blogs.usdoj.gov/blog/archives/1243

3.18.11 -- “Schools Are Failing To Keep Students Safe” -- by Tracy Russo -- U. S. Department of Justice

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11.6.10 -- Link to New York Times article, “In Efforts to End Bullying, Some See Agenda”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/us/07bully.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=education

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http://www.educationnews.org/ednews_today/108436.html

2.24.11 -- “The Race to the Top Scheme” by Henry W. Burke and Donna Garner

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http://www.educationnews.org/commentaries/107827.html

2.16.11 -- “Making Texas the Laughing Stock of the Nation”  -- by Donna Garner

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http://www.navigator-news.com/component/content/article/32-editorials/207-obama-trying-to-do-an-end-run-around-texas-citizens

2.15.11 -- “Obama Trying To Do an End Run Around Texas Citizens” -- by Donna Garner

====================

http://www.educationnews.org/index.php?news=104319

12.10.10 -- “Obama’s National Data Base Is Upon Us” by Donna Garner

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http://www.educationnews.org/index.php?news=103613

11.29.10 -- “Time To Resurrect My Article on Marc Tucker” by Donna Garner

====================

http://www.educationnews.org/headlines/151603.html

3.18.11 -- “The Further Dumbing Down of America: Marc Tucker, GED”  by Donna Garner

Donna Garner

wgarner1@hot.rr.com



Common Core States Standards--Who is the Sucker when the Feds pay 10 per cent of the cost to experiment on our kids?

“Foolish -- States That ‘Won’ the Race to the Top"

by Donna Garner

8.25.10

How do I say this nicely? Maybe there is no way.  Therefore, I will tell it like it is.

The educational leaders of the following states are foolish and the parents who sat there and did nothing to counter their leaders’ decisions will be very sorry when they see how this will impact their public school children. 

The following states will receive Race to the Top (RTTT) federal funding and all the mandates that go with it:

District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Tennessee 

These states have just turned over their public school children to the Obama administration to indoctrinate them.  Because these states applied and were chosen by the U. S. Department of Education to receive the Race to the Top funds, local and state administrators and educators will have no control over their schools because everything will be orchestrated from Washington, D. C.

Here is how it works:

National standards  →  national tests  →  national curriculum → teachers’ salaries tied to students’ test scores  →  teachers teaching to the test each and every day  →  federal indoctrination of our public school children  

As Jim Stergios (Boston Globe) said yesterday when he found out thatMassachusetts had won the Race to the Top funding, “We spend through state and local expenditures $9 billion every year on K-12 education. This grant totals $250 million in one-time money. It will come over four years. That works out to about 33 cents a student per day.”

For states even to be considered to receive the RTTT federal funds, they had to adopt the Common Core Standards (CCS) -- 36 states and D. C. have done so.  Taxpayers need to understand that the CCS standards will require huge expenditures to implement new curriculum and alignment documents, new benchmark assessments, new textbooks and instructional materials, new teacher-in-service training sessions, new teacher evaluations, and large outlays of money to hire consultants and to purchase new technology and software.  Setting up the national database will cost a fortune.

The 33 cents per student/per day will pay a very insignificant part of the added expense for the eleven states (and D. C.) that won the federal RTTT grant.  

Worse than the paulty sum is the fact that the educational leaders of these eleven states and the District of Columbia have locked their public school students and educators into a federally controlled system that has no guarantee of academic success.  

Please read Joe Stergios’ article published today where he has posted the disclaimer from the CCS website.  Its commcercial license indicates that the people behind the CCS do not want to be held liable when their highly orchestrated plan comes crashing down upon our nation.

Remember that the Science and Social Studies Common Core Standards have not even been written yet, but these eleven states and the District of Columbia in particular are already locked into them sight unseen. They are going to take the Race to the Top federal funds and, therefore, must “pay the piper.”

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

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http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/

The National Standards Come with No Guarantee

by Jim Stergios August 25, 2010 11:07 AM

Excerpts from this article:

Massachusetts' state standards and our reforms have been tested. And that's one of the major points to be made about our rush to adopt the national standards. They are not proven. Their proponents don't even have a clue yet what the national tests will look like. Will they be high-stakes? Will they be more subjective and project- or skills-based? Will they institutionalize career tracking of students? I'll post up some of the early summaries of the proposals out there in the coming weeks.

But the major point is that they are untested, unproven. And the proponents of national standards admit this openly.

Just look at the Common Core State Standards website, where its commercial license language just screams out:

You use these standards at your own risk!

Representations, Warranties and Disclaimer: THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS ARE PROVIDED AS-IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS, AND NGA CENTER/CCSSO MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTIBILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, OR THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF ERRORS, WHETHER OR NOT DISCOVERABLE.

Limitation on Liability:
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL NGA CENTER OR CCSSO, INDIVIDUALLY OR JOINTLY, BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY LEGAL THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER FOR CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR A COMBINATION THEREOF (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH RISK AND POTENTIAL DAMAGE. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, LICENSEE WAIVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK LEGAL REDRESS AGAINST, AND RELEASES FROM ALL LIABILITY AND COVENANTS NOT TO SUE, NGA CENTERAND CCSSO.

Thanks for saying honestly what we've known all along: These standards and the upcoming assessments are a huge and long-shot gamble. That may be okay for a state and localities to do, when they are picking up 90 percent of the tab for K-12 education. It's another thing when the feds pay a mere 10 percent of the cost of educating our kids and then insist that we be their guinea pig.