Common Core Now Law of the Land!

December 16, 2015

Common Core Now Law Of the Land

December 15, 2015   National Center for Policy Analysis 

Congress has repealed the No Child Left Behind Act only to replace it with a far worse centralized control of education -- Every Student Succeeds Act. 

Congress has admitted that Common Core now will be federal law and that it is not about academic learning but rather changing the beliefs, values, behavior, and worldviews of students.  In a nutshell, the government is conducting psychological profiling of our children. 

During the House proceedings prior to the vote, Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, made the stunning statement that Common Core is being redefined as social-emotional learning, which must come first in the learning hierarchy -- with academics ranking second! 

Like ObamaCare, the ESSA is unconstitutional and is a government takeover of education – now we get ObamaCore! 

The government is requiring states to “demonstrate” that they have adopted standards aligned to “college and career standards.”  This term is code for Common Core. 

The government requires that “same standards shall apply to all public schools and public school students in the state.…and include the same knowledge, skills, and levels of achievement expected of all public school students in the State.”  Further, those standards are to align with higher-education requirements and “career and technical education standards,”  which are federally approved under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.  

Since the bill does not define whether higher education means community college or four-year university, the states will be forced to accommodate all students, which means aiming for the lowest level of higher learning -- the community college.  This leaves higher achieving students unprepared for a four-year institution! 

The federal government has taken control over test content which includes both academic and psychosocial questions. During testing, computers will collect personal information including student attitudes, behavior, and mindset. 

ESSA ignores the unlawful change by the USDOE to FERPA, which allows third parties to access personally identifiable student data.  Nothing prevents private international corporations from collecting PII. 

Data mining for PII is highly dangerous to the freedom of Americans, because it is this Soviet-style government cradle-to-grave data collection which allows the government to conduct surveillance of American citizens. 

Ignoring parental rights to opt their children out of these invasive assessments, the government requires that 95% of students in each state participate in testing and penalizes states for non-compliance.  This places parents and students in direct conflict with school officials who will be forced to use heavy handed tactics to meet federal requirements. 

Head Start now is expanded to include childcare through a $250 million Child Care Development Block Grant.  Since there is no work requirement for parents, likely this will mean free daycare for many children, paid for by parents who have to pay for their own child’s daycare. Because early childhood programs must be aligned with Head Start and Child Development Block Grants, young children will be subjected to federal preschool standards which also include psychosocial factors. 

In spite of mountains of evidence that pre-K is ineffective and can create academic or emotional harm, Congress has decided to throw more children in harm’s way and send a $250 million bill to taxpayers. 

In fact, an additional 2% per year will be appropriated for fiscal years 2017-2020 to pay for the wish list of Congress and their lobbyists. 

Included in the ESSA wish list is the fulfillment of Arne Duncan’s dream for 21^st Century Community Learning Centers.  This is a Soviet model for cradle-to-grave education with children spending most of their waking hours there. In the spirit of “it takes a village to raise a child,” the government is usurping the authority of parents and churches to rear our young – echoes of Hitler-style government interference. 

In these centers, the government will be collecting mental health data and determining if children should be sent to counseling. 

For months the public has protested the passage of ESSA with Congress ignoring them.   It is inevitable that this bill will trigger the same deep public anger stoked by the Affordable Care Act as Americans experience the damage wreaked by these hypocritical Beltway politicians who send their kids to Common Core-free elite private schools.            

 Thanks GOP: House Passes ObamaCORE 

 December 7, 2015   World Net Daily 

The horse is out of the barn! Congress has admitted that Common Core now will be federal law and that it is not about academic learning but rather changing the beliefs, values, behavior, and worldviews of students.  In a nutshell, the government is conducting psychological profiling of our children.

Like ObamaCare, the ESSA is unconstitutional and is a government takeover of education – now we get ObamaCore! 

On December 2, the conference report for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act -- the Every Student Succeeds Act -- passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. As with ObamaCare, one hundred percent of Democrats voted for the bill.  Republicans were split ….179 to 64. 

During the House proceedings prior to the vote, Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, made the stunning statement that Common Core is being redefined as social-emotional learning, which must come first in the learning hierarchy -- with academics ranking second! 

I believe this bill helps us get back to redefining what the Common Core is. In my estimation the  Common Core is – are we teaching kids mental discipline? The ability to be aware, the ability to be  focused, the ability to cultivate one of the key components to a successful life and that is the ability  to regulate your own emotional state. This comes well before science, technology, engineering and  math. Teaching these key fundamental characteristics: mental discipline, physical discipline, focus, concentration, self-regulation – key components before you even get to the academic side. I believe  there is a new way of educating our kids emerging here, there is a new Common Core developing  and that is the mental discipline and the physical health of our young people. 

Establishment Republicans have bought into the radical left’s focus on Common Core social-emotional learning, to which they are an accessory in its being embedding into the ESSA. 

Witness Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin who, in a prepared statement after he voted in favor of the bill, said he was proud that the legislation includes language to help expand and make the teaching of social and emotional learning more effective! 

Rep. John Kline, R-Minnesota, chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, boasted that Republicans compromised on the details but not on their principles. 

And therein lies the crux of the stalemate in the U.S. Congress…establishment Republicans no longer reflect the principles of conservatives but rather those of liberals. 

To understand the philosophy of the new Common Core/ESSA, history provides a clue.  For many decades liberals have endeavored to shift the focus of public education from academic knowledge to that of changing student values, beliefs, behavior, and attitudes.  This is linked to the U.N. Agenda 21 “education reform” movement to instill radical new values in children to turn them into global citizens with anti-Christian and anti-American views. 

Because the tyrants of the world have always understood that controlling education and the minds of hildren is the key to power, UNESCO was established in 1945 as the educational arm of the U.N. NESCO believes the family infects the child with extreme nationalism; therefore, schools must find ways to counter family attitudes and values. 

In public schools, the monitoring of student progress in non-cognitive attitudes, behavior, and mindset is accomplished through project-based cooperative learning – collectivist group think-- and frequent testing.  Non-academic data of student and family information is collected and stored in statewide longitudinal data systems, which are required by the federal government in all 50 states. 

The ESSA places the collection of non-academic data on steroids with the incorporation of factors beyond standardized test scores into state accountability systems.  Ignoring nationwide opposition to mandated assessments, Congress is forcing – unconstitutionally -- states to annually measure 95 percent of their students and every subgroup of students and penalizing those that fail to comply. 

The bill requires that accountability systems include various measurement indicators including “….any other indicator the state chooses that meets the requirements of this clause.” 

It is this clause that opens the door for student abuse and has the potential for bias that can result in damage to the student’s future. 

It should be a red flag that the U.S. government is forcing students to take tests with psychological profiling.  With the passage of ESSA, the government can conduct surveillance through its cradle-to-grave data on American citizens.  As history bears out, governments that control massive amounts of information on citizens will abuse its power. 

Ah, President Putin must be quite envious of how quickly our Marxist administration has progressed in its mission to “transform” America.