Republicans Usher In Progressive Education Reform in Texas

As Diann Woodward stated in her Huffington Post article…..
“I’m reminded of a friend who used to say, “There’s money in poor people.” When I first heard it, I didn’t quite understand what she meant. But as the number of the profit-driven schemes proliferate – always promoted in the name of helping guarantee that every child receive a quality education – her meaning is getting clearer all the time.” 

“Public schools are in crisis, not because they are failing but because they are being set up to fail.”

After listening to Lt. Governor Dan Patrick’s Press Conference on Education, I sent a note to a friend and said…. “Hey were Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Sen. Larry Taylor channelling Progressive Education Reformer Ted Sizer? “

As Breitbart’s Bob Price noted– “Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick opened a press conference on education by saying that nearly 150,000 students were trapped in over two hundred schools that were failing their students and parents.

  Patrick then introduced Senator Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood), chairman of the Senate Committee on Education.

Senator Taylor said some of schools are “not getting the job done.” He said he agrees with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who says “we can do a lot better.” The Senator expressed that education should not be a partisan issue and that, as chairman, he was prepared to listen to all sides on these critical issues.

“It is vital for lawmakers to bring all Texas students into the 21st Century by removing roadblocks and encouraging innovative and transformative learning tools,” the Senator explained. “Embracing change is not a choice. Texas students and parents demand it.”

Workforce development was another area that will receive priority focus. The Senator pledged that all seventh and eighth graders would receive college and career-readiness courses. This courses would be tailored to meet the needs of specific regions around the state where program requirements would differ.

When Conservative Republicans start sounding more like Radical Progressive Educats, it is time to start asking questions.

Why are Texas Schools failing? Because of the Legislation passed by Texas elected officials, along with the Professional development and curriculum management products (CSCOPE) produced by the 20 Education Service Centers that service our districts and because of TASA’s Visioning Institute’s New Vision for Texas Public Education. 

HB 5 set up the School To Work/Workforce Development model of education in full force in Texas!

Your children are now Human Capital for the State. 

Texas Legislators also passed SB 6, which changed what the “Permanent Education Fund (PEF) could be used for and the funding mechanisms to purchase   “Instructional Materials”. The Instructional Materials Allotment (IMA) is given to each local school district, open-enrollment charter school, and Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program (JJAEP). Now school districts can use their IMAs to purchase instructional materials as well as technological equipment, such as laptops and tablets, to included curriculum management systems such as CSCOPE now renamed TEKS Resource Services. They can now also use their allotment to pay for professional development and training in the use of this technology. It is not a coincidence that Thomas Ratliff an illegal SBOE (State Board of Education) member and paid lobbyist actually testified in favor of SB6. 

[The SB 6 Conference Committee Report was passed on 6.27.11 with 143 Yeas, 1 present not voting.  Gov. Perry signed SB 6 into law on 7.19.11 —]

When you couple SB6, HB5 and HB2103 you have a data collection currency for the state which sets up cooperating agencies including the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), and the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) that will have access to our children and their teachers personal data without consent because Obama changed the regulations on  (FERPA) making it legal for personal data to be collected without consent in the name of “education research”. 

Three centers for education research (CER’s) will be set up to conduct research using the data from the TEA, THECB, and TWC that goes back at least 20 years.

The data will be known as the P-20/Workforce Data Repository and will be operated by the Higher Education Coordinating Board.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will establish three centers for education research (CER’s) to conduct studies and share education data, including college admission tests and data from the National Student Clearinghouse.

[HB 2103 was authored by Reps. Villarreal and Branch, sponsored by Sen. Seliger, passed in the Senate with a voice vote of 31 – 0 on 5.15.13 and in the House on 4.15.13 with 130 Yeas, 1 Nays, 1 present not voting.  

HB 2103 was passed into law by Gov. Perry on 6.14.13 –

Just as the Texas Legislature was passing HB462 that said “NO” to the mandate of Common Core National Standards for Texas public school districts, the Legislature was also passing HB5 which in fact brought in the same result of the Common core National Standards. Maybe it is not such a coincidence that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s first big endorsement in his campaign for Lt. Gov. was Common Core “Rebrander” Mike Huckabee. We definitely have a “REBRAND” of Common Core in Texas. 

[HB 5 was authored by Reps. Jimmy Don Aycock, Deshotel, John Davis, Villarreal, Callegari and was passed with 147 Yeas, 0 Nays, 1 absent excused and 1 absent. It was sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Dan Patrick, co-sponsored by Schwertner, and was passed with 31 Yeas and 0 Nays. Gov. Perry signed HB 5 into law on.

Now, if you asked any teachers or moms involved with TAMSA (Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment) what HB5 was about they will say… It is about getting rid of teaching to the test and those big bad High-Stakes STAAR tests.

The reality is, that is not what HB5 was really ALL about. According to Houston ISD– “This year’s eighth-graders —the Class of 2018 —will be the first to experience a whole new path to graduation under a new law designed to personalize learning. Students will identify career fields that interest them, and will take courses that will prepare them for success in college and the job market.” 

The Workforce Development (HB5) just like the Common Core National Standards, expands the target from K-12 (Kindergarten through 12th grade) to a P-20 (Pre-school through College, Trade or Graduate School) system in order to control the economy and control our children by funneling them into certain career pathways.

Parents are you really Okay with that? Your children are now “HUMAN CAPITAL” FOR THE STATE OF TEXAS!

What the real question parents need to start asking is…. What is going to replace those Big BAD STAAR EOC (End of Course) tests?

The Common Core/Workforce Development Assessments shift from the “Mental” (Academics and Knowledge Based Tests) to “Behaviors” (Performance Standards and Competency for the workforce).

 

 

How will parents know what their children are being taught in class? Will they actually have a solid “Education of Opportunity” (Equal Opportunity) because they can read well, write well, do math and know history, or will they have a progressive “Education of Equity” (Equal Outcomes) based on attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviors? 

In Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s Press Conference the words “School Choice” were not mentioned, but “Opportunity Districts” and the push for Radical Education Reform was most definitely the take away. It was said “School Choice” will be addressed later.

Did you know that going back into the 70s it turns out many of the major Radical Ed Reform advocates have seen school choice and the money following the child in the form of vouchers as the means to force the Radical Ed vision on everyone?

The books are quite explicit. Ted Sizer wrote a book in 2004 and laid out the vision with cites. 

School Choice is NO CHOICE and PARENTS HAVE NO VOICE if Republicans get their way!! Time to start calling your Texas State Senator and State Representative and say……. I CAN SEE what you are doing I am NOT GOING TO STAND FOR IT!!

MY CHILDREN AND THEIR DATA ARE NOT YOURS!!! 

Texas Education Agency – Texas Student Data System – 2015 – 2016

Early Childhood Data System for Pre-Kindergarten
http://tea.texas.gov/interiorpage_wide.aspx?id=25769820453

Student Category —Description of Data Elements http://castro.tea.state.tx.us/tsds/teds/2016F/v1.0/teds-ds3.4.pdf

Assessment Category – Description of Data Elements
http://castro.tea.state.tx.us/tsds/teds/2016P/v1.0/teds-ds3.6.pdf

Here is a post written by my good friend Michael Bohr a Dad who gets it. 

Guerrilla Warfare in Education: the Sabotage of the Common Core through the Exercise of Parental Rights
By Michael Bohr, CI
———————-
The Common Core/Workforce Agenda is a system that takes.

It takes our education dollars and feeds it to investors. Those investors included multi-national corporations, Wall St hedge funds, (allegedly)non profit Foundations, politicians (via campaign donations from Investors) and Teacher Unions (through Professional Development programs run by union leadership and their bureaucratic cronies).

It takes our children’s privacy, personal data, health and familial information, their educational opportunities for future excellence and, more importantly, their childhood happiness.

It takes parent and teacher time, patience and peace of mind.
Take, take, take!
And the sad part? We give it to them. Willingly.

The entire Common Core Agenda/System is dependent upon one thing: Data.
Without the data collected from students, the system would crumble. Fast.
So why are we even allowing them to have the data?

Not surprisingly, we do this because of peer pressure from other parents, pressure from the school systems, pressure from our children, ignorance and apathy.

At the beginning of every school year, we as parents are handed mounds of papers from the school that we faithfully sign off on and return. And then we spend the rest of the school year watching our children suffer, as we ourselves approach Xanax level anxiety attacks trying to fight back against these inane “reforms” and abuses… The ones we enabled by blindly signing all those “permission” slips.

We are at war against an enemy who has dedicated every waking moment if it’s existence to getting what it wants and is equipped with a vast treasury to fund itself and an army of dedicated, sycophantic lawyers, psychologists and “education professionals” hellbent on achieving victory at any cost.

On the other hand, we are a ragtag militia of insurgent parents who are poorly funded, ill-equipped and understaffed who are currently being lined up against a wall and nearby a large hole in the ground, topped with a headstone that reads: “Freedom 1776-2016”!
Why 2016? Because if we don’t do something NOW, by 2016 there won’t be anything left that we can do.

Education as we know it… ALL education, including preK, Public, Parochial, Homeschool/Unschool, Private K-12, as well as all trade, college and university… Will be under the control of the people we are fighting today.

But what of that first date? The “born” date: 1776.

The very war that was waged back then, that was supposed to insure our freedom for all time, holds the key to our success and survival today.
Against the most powerful military force on the planet, a ragtag militia of parent insurgents waged a war of guerrilla tactics…

Knowing that they could not win by simply engaging the enemy on the enemies battle field, using the enemies tactics, the parents of early America harassed and harangued the British (yes, the irony of Pearson, a British company, being today’s enemy is not lost on me) to fight on unconventional battlefields and denying them what should have been an easy victory.

This is what we must do today!

There are many ways in which we can, and must, wage this guerrilla war.

First off, attack the supply lines. It’s all about the data, so easy access to our children’s data must be denied the enemy.

Our battlefield? Parental Rights.

Refuse the tests! This is already a battle front that is gaining success for us, but alone it will not be enough. While this is vital information for the enemy to have, it only compliments the data collected throughout the year. It is that data that must be denied as well!
Remember those permission forms? Don’t sign them!

Do not allow the schools easy access to the data by collecting it on computers. Force the school to either print out or purchase good, old fashion text books.

By denying permission for your child to access and use the computers at school, the enemy’s supply lines of data is severely damaged while your family’s and child’s privacy is bolstered.

No, this will not completely secure all of it, but it will make it too costly and labor intensive to collect. This is akin to forcing our enemy to travel through a swamp on foot, thereby slowing them down, instead of allowing them easy travel and comfort on dry roads.

Parents can also wage this guerrilla warfare against the reformers by severely restricting what schools are taking for granted under the legal doctrine of “En Loco Parentis”. “En Loco Parentis” is the concept that, when you leave your child under the care of someone else, that they can act as the parental authority. This used to mean such things as authorizing medical treatment for injuries and medical emergencies, minor disciplinary corrections for a misbehaving child and other day-to-day matters involved in their care and well being.

However, in today’s world of education, schools have expanded this to mean such things as conducting psychological examinations, medical decision making that far exceeds emergency medical care and delves into so-called preventative medicine.

Minor behavioral infractions that would normally prompt a call home to the parents are now being used to engage the legal system and police interventions first… And a call to mom and dad secondary and only as a notification instead of seeking permission for corrective actions.
Under the umbrella of “Zero Tolerance” policies, schools are denying parents and children of their rights, much as the British did in the 1700’s, and convicting them to legal sanctions. These otherwise minor infractions are then recorded on their (now truly) “permanent records” and transmitted to government and corporate databases that will follow them throughout their lives.

The reformers, aka the enemy, are literally making up the rules as they go along, then charging, questioning, indicting, judging and convicting our children of made up crimes without any due process or legal representation. When you hear people talk about a “school to prison pipeline”, this is it.
Parents must be proactive in fighting this by issuing legal notifications to school administrators that any potential disciplinary investigations or corrections that could result in negative notations on a child’s school records, or lead to possible police interventions and legal ramifications must first be preceded by parental notification that allows our children to be represented legally by a parent and/or guardian.

Guerrilla warfare isn’t easy but In today’s world where schools are acting like the monarchal tyrants of this nation’s past, it is our only recourse. When the chewing of pastries can lead to the arrest of a 7 to child on weapons charges, parents must stand in between their children and the “legal” system and fight.

The machine of education reform which denies ourselves and our children of their natural and constitutional rights to be free from state sanctioned harm and oppression it’s be opposed at every level and we as parents, the legal guardians of our children’s rights, must fight back using guerrilla warfare to do so.

At every turn, we must use what ever resources are at our disposal to sabotage the education system stolen from us and being used against us and our children, until such time as the enemy has been defeated and driven from our schools.

Whether sitting upon a throne in a far off land, in a corporate board room, a Dept of Education Office building, a Board of Education council or a door marked “Principal”, a tyrant is a tyrant is a tyrant and those who bring tyranny down upon the heads and hearts of children are the worst of the worst.

We may not be able to defeat them “head on” on their battlefields of courts and legislature but we can, and must, draw them out into the open and force them to defend themselves on a battlefield of our choosing… Where we are strong and they are weak.

So let the lamps be lit, one if by land, two if by sea and three if by the classroom door.

To arms, to arms and fight from behind the brush if you must… But fight you must!

-Michael Bohr, Contemporary (and parent) Insurgent
IT’S THE DATA PEOPLE!!!

WHO are the GREEN, YELLOW and RED people!!

Redefining words by progressive educators has been going on for years. The question to ask is… What is the political purpose behind the teaching strategies, assessments and redefined words? In Texas do the High Performance Standards being pushed by TASA and the SAT and New AP frameworks and assessments aligned with progressive teaching strategies have a political purpose? 

Is that political purpose about equalizing America in the World? 
I just put this video out. Jenny White I think made a huge point at the#CANiSEE the Solution Conference about “WHO IS WRITING LEGISLATION?” 

Our goal is to figure out who the GREEN, YELLOW and RED people are in education and in capitols across our nation.