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"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." - Nelson Mandela

Globalist Billionaire Betsy DeVos Thinks Adopting European Education Policies Can ‘Help Catch Us Up’

By Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D. December 20, 2018

U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos toured European countries earlier in 2018 and expressed great admiration for their centralized education system and workforce development, particularly those in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the U.K. She believes adoption of their policies will “help catch us up” to students in other countries.

DeVos laments that U.S. students have been trailing other nations on international standardized tests.  Although the U.S. has never done well on international tests, American students are being dumbed down by our own federal education policies.

In 2012 on the Programme for International Student Assessment, the U.S. ranked 26th in math, 17th in reading, and 20th in science. Since the implementation of Common Core and Common Core math, the U.S. on the 2015 PISA dropped to 40th in math, outranked by Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the U.K.

Although DeVos claims that Common Core is dead, it is alive and well. It is quite firmly codified in the Every Student Succeeds Act, thanks to the support of Republican lawmakers who boasted they had returned control of education to the states.

However, this is refuted by Peter Cunningham, former assistant Secretary for Communications to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who wrote that ESSA mandates the very thing condemned by Senator Lamar Alexander. “Under the new law, every state must adopt “college-and-career-ready” standards. Thus, the new law all but guarantees that Common Core State Standards—or a reasonable imitation under a different name—will likely remain in place in most states.”

President Trump’s campaign pledge was to get rid of Common Core and the USDE. Yet he appointed globalist billionaire Betsy DeVos who was a known Common Core and big government advocate. DeVos actively enforces compliance with ESSA and bullies states that allow parents to opt out of the PARCC (Common Core) tests. She has placed a number of Jeb Bush Common Core advocates in key USDE staff positions.

If DeVos really is serious about improving our math scores, she must assure states they can replace the deficient Common Core math standards without being penalized by the feds. She needs to terminate her Bush staffers, stop enforcing compliance with ESSA, and stop pushing for a merger of the Education and Labor Departments which will result in greater government control. And last, she needs to work with President Trump to begin defunding the numerous duplicative agencies of the USDE.

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