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Obama Education Dept. Takes Aim at Texas

These are the kind of things you can find out when you start asking questions and say,,,,, #CanISee 

Did you know The U.S. Dept. of Education now has “Communications Regions”

Thanks to the work of Moms in Utah we now know that Texas has been under attack from Education Secretary Arne Duncan for rejecting the Common Core.   

People are easier to control en masse than in smaller localities which is described as  regionalism and “Regional Equality”.

Utah Mom Cristel Swasey asked Texas Education Service Center Region 9 Public Information Officer, Debbie Cummings, to explain this concept of “Communication Regions”. This is what Cristel wrote. 

I asked her how the U.S. Constitution works with the notion of regions, of U.S. states’ boundaries being less relevant, with the federal departments working with regions instead.

And Debbie Cummings dodged the actual question but answered a related issue that’s also important:  ”…in regard to your concern regarding “federal and state powers having checks and balances”  It is through the Governor’s Office and the Texas Education Agency that the state’s rights are reviewed for compatibility with federal priorities prior to the state making application for any federal funds.  It is then through the Texas Education Agency that the use of these funds are tracked to ensure adherence to both the federal and state priorities and requirements.  However, if the priorities do not reflect a state’s priorities, then the State is not obligated to apply for the federal funds. 

[So, states won’t be funded, even though they paid taxes federally. 

They may not have access to their own tax money for their own schools,

if their priorities don’t match federal priorities?]

“Cummings taught me something I didn’t know:  “Many times they carry a different title from state to state, i.e., in New York they are called BOCES (Boards of Cooperative Educational Services); whereas in Texas, they have been named by the legislature as Regional Education Service Centers.”  Ok.  Harder to see the federal uniformity when states name their federal, regional education headquarters differently, I suppose.

So, I asked a Texas friend, Donna Garner, what she thought of all of this.

Donna Garner said, “The lawyers who set up the TESCCC (who own CSCOPE) knew full well what the laws are regarding the Education Service Centers (ESC), and they deliberately set up this corporation to get around the laws. They think they have figured out a way to make CSCOPE untouchable, but we are working with Texas Legislators to figure out some bills that will counteract the TESCCC. ”

“The ESC’s were not set up to become marketing mouthpieces for CSCOPE curriculum. It was never the intent of the Texas Legislature that set up the ESC’s to make them into money-making organizations that suck money from local taxpayers. We already pay school taxes to our local districts; we do not need to be paying extra dollars far-and-above those local taxes to help ESC’s make huge profits!  Notice the ESC buildings around the state. The one locally has turned into a state-of-the-art, huge complex; and within those walls is where the CSCOPE marketing and training is being conducted locally.  What a huge waste of our tax dollars!”

“Just yesterday on the Jason Moore talk show in Odessa, a current classroom teacher called in and said what a total waste of time the CSCOPE training is at the ESC.  She said that the ESC staffers have little subject content knowledge and that the teachers who attend know so much more than the ESC staffers do.”

“Because the new TEKS curriculum standards (adopted since May 2008) are grade-level-specific for every grade level and for every core course (ELAR, Science, Social Studies, and Math), there is no need for the ESC’s to hire numerous staffers to train teachers. The teachers now know what is to be taught, and it is their purview to decide how to teach it. Even teachers in small school districts can get together with the teachers in the districts around them and share great teaching ideas of how to teach the TEKS.  Why should those teachers go to the ESC’s when once they get there, they hardly ever come back with any practical ideas that can be used in their classrooms?”  

“Next, the Race to the Top grants now coming from the USDOE go directly to the school districts and the ESC entities; those grants are not dispersed through the TEA.  The funds go directly to the school districts/ESC’s if they are chosen in the final round of federal RTTT grants.” 

How do I interpret these things?  I think corporations and federal entitites should stay out of education, just the way the U.S. Constitution set it up.” 

 

Education Commissioner Arne Duncan

Education Commissioner Arne Duncan

Interesting to note U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke out publicly back when Texas rejected Common Core.  He belittled Texas’ education system and said that he felt so sorry for the children who would not be getting to learn the Common Core.  

 

And Texas’ former Commissioner of Education Robert Scott called Secretary Duncan out for it:

Robert Scott calls out Arne Duncan (with good reason)

“The supposedly non-federal program, the supposedly state-led initiative of Common Core, when rejected by Texas, angered the U.S. Secretary of Education.  Hmmm.  So he decided that if the state (that is, Governor Rick Perry and Superintendent Robert Scott) were to reject Common Core, he would push it another way– he then started offering Race To The Top funds directly to school districts, bypassing the state completely.  And of course, you can’t have Race to the Top funding unless you agree to Common Core.  That’s how it works.

The elite D.C. educrats and corporations want their way, and they push and push and push.  We must keep pushing back.”

Here is a good video of Former Tx. Commissioner Scott as he explains the costs involved in excepting the Federal Race To the Top grant money. In listening you will understand why who we elect in the Primary is so important. It is likely there will be litigation around the issue of Education and therefore the Attorney General elected must be clear on how the left using Education to Turn Texas Blue especially with respect to CSCOPE now renamed TEKS Resource Services which is currently under a full State Audit. 

 

Question- why are Texas School Districts going directly to the Federal Government for Race To The Top grant money?

Answer – They have been trained to do so through marketing and professional development……. They have been trained not to be critical thinkers but academic professionals.  If we do not stop it we are allowing them to train our children not to be critical thinkers as well. 

 

Education writer Donna Garner

Education writer Donna Garner

Below are excerpts from an article by Donna Garner and Henry Burke-  The Race to the Top Scheme 

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 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 states to handle the extra expense of  CCS / RTTT?”

The U.S. Department of Education created the Race to the Top program under the Stimulus Bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA) in early 2009.  With a federal grant of $4.35 billion, Arne Duncan had a very large “carrot” to lure the states to enter the competition. 

Have you ever been in a game where the game organizer made up the rules while the game was being played?  That is what the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) did in Race to the Top.  The Department issued numerous rules, corrections, and modifications while the competition was underway. 

Duncan waited until the state contracts were signed before he made the rest of the plan clear:  States would have to adopt the Common Core Standards (national standards) in order to qualify for Race to the Top funds.  Other “surprises” included national assessments, national curriculum, and an elaborate national tracking system to link student assessment scores to individual teachers.

The games go on and now the contestants are your local public school districts in states that would not join the game in the first round.

Specifically Texas! 

There are some who have questioned Donna Garner for her lack of support for Conservative Sen. Ken Paxton for Attorney General and instead she is supporting Conservative Barry Smitherman. 

MY SUPPORT FOR BARRY SMITHERMAN AS TEX. ATTORNEY GENERAL — BY DONNA GARNER – 11.26.13 

In doing research and looking at the big picture of what is happening in Texas and the fact that Common Core is everywhere I take Donna Garner’s endorsement of Barry Smitherman very serious. She is someone who has been key in understanding the infiltration of #FedLedED in our Nation. She does understand the big picture and for that my family and I will be forever grateful. 

Did you know this week there is a conference in Dallas which has a session on Common Core in Texas. 

 

 

It is not about a set of standards. It is about HOW teachers are being taught to teach in the classroom along with curriculum products and textbooks. 

I find the comments by DR. ELEANOR SMALLEY (Executive VP and COO for the JASON Project)  a contributor to the NGSS Next Generation Science Standards and former superintendent of a nationally recognized Virginia school district very interesting.

“Although Texas is not one of the early states involved in this we have 26 states that have been early adopters and many of the writers of this actually come from Texas. 

So what I would tell you is that the Next Generation Science Standards are going to influence the way we teach science whether or not we actively adopt the standards or not.”

I’m actually from Virginia and Virginia is not an early adopter either. 
But what I will tell you is that this is becoming so important to the nation
that it is already being embedded in the way we think about how we will teach science.” 

 

When you read the description written by Next Generation Science about the video audio was taken from do you really think we can solve the  issue of Common Core/21st Century Learning seeping into Texas schools as they go through a SBOE (State Board of Education), who because of the strategies and tactics of people like the Ratliff’ family  in Texas have been completely compromised and when needed marginalized. 

“In a world fueled by innovations in science and technology, our nation is counting on the students of today to solve the global dilemmas of tomorrow. Yet the content and practice found in most science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) classrooms remain woefully out-of-step with 21st century careers, and U.S. student performance on international STEM benchmarks is lagging.

For these reasons, science-related K-12 education is being re-envisioned by a national collective of STEM educators, business leaders and policy experts. But in Texas, where science curriculum scored a “C” average in a 2012 Fordham Foundation study, the state board of education chair has said there’s a “zero percent chance” that Texas will adopt the new national standards. 

Can the movement’s vision for the next generation science classroom catch fire in Texas, nonetheless? What do Texas students need to know and be able to do, to be well-positioned and prepared for the STEM careers of tomorrow?

DR. ELEANOR SMALLEY (Executive VP and COO for the JASON Project) is a contributor to the NGSS and former superintendent of a nationally recognized Virginia school district.” 

Believe me this is a Federal Take Over of Education by Big Government folks who would like nothing better than to use our children to make profit and progressives who would like to use our children as their activists of the future. 

 

Join the movement Give the “Gift of American Exceptionalism” to your child or grandchild. 
 
Understand the Challenge and take Action! 

Go into your child or grandchild’s classroom and say…..#CanISee WHAT and HOW you are teaching my child in the classroom and WHO is benefiting financially from the curriculum products my child’s teacher is being evaluated on.. 

Barry Smitherman

Now is the time to go into your child’s classroom and say……..

#CanISee Backpack and Boots on the Ground

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