Veteran Christian Educators Fall in Line

By Alice Linahan 09/02/2024

In Texas we continue to allow those who want to fundamentally restructure our education system access to our children, using the same strategies and tactics over and over again.

WHEN WILL THEY LEARN?

This week veteran educators Donna Garner and Carole Haynes followed suit with other Christian conservatives sending out emails giving fellow Christian conservatives the call to action to contact the State Board of Education (SBOE) to support previously passed HB 1605. This new law passed in the last legislative session sets up and funds a 2.44 Billion (Yes BILLION) state owned curriculum formerly called Amplify, then OER, then Texas Amplify now Gateway. They have a history of rebranding when they are exposed. The current rendition of the curriculum is said to align 100% with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). These Christian conservatives want the curriculum to be approved by the SBOE without any amendments.

As a Christian Conservative Texas Mom I am vehemently opposed to HB 1605. This law that funds a state owned curriculum needs to be unfunded and repealed.

It is important to understand and know how we got to this point of State controlled education STANDARDS which align to the National Common Core Standards which align to the UNESCO Global Standards. Who helped developed the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and who benefits from the state controlling standards, curriculum, and assessments? Keep reading to learn more.

In 1989 under President George H.W. Bush, (Bush Senior) the Governor’s of all 50 states came together to develop NATIONAL GOALS. Dr. Peg Luksik explained that in November 1989 in Wichita Kansas they had a conference talking about the national goals. They met experts from across the country, one of them Dr. Shirley McCune who was the senior director of the Mid Continent Educational research lab. McCune stated “they were really talking about society and so we have to be honest about that. We’re just not talking about changing a little of what’s happening in the classrooms we’re talking about a fundamental restructuring of society with schools really being the wedge.”

Question, where did they get the authority to do that?

That question was asked in this important interview 17 years ago.

“There is nothing in the United States Constitution which authorizes the federal government to be in education. The Tenth Amendment states that the power not explicitly delegated to the federal government is reserved to the States. What claim has the federal government moved into these areas? Well, they just did, then they said it was in the common good, it was in the common interest and we’re gonna make money available. So they said the programs are really voluntary because you don’t have to apply for the money, but all the states become you know, pigs at the trough so that was their excuse for getting around the constitution.”

Sound familiar? Districts don’t have to use the State approved curriculum, Districts don’t have to use the curriculum online, they can just print copies of the PDF? BUT, if they do…..

Pigs at the trough– Follow the money!!

As I wrote here: Here be Dragons”… 21st Century Education Reform…” Hic Sunt Dracones”

I am forever grateful to ALL those women and men who have been fighting the battle to protect American children from the evils of Education Reform known as Outcome/Mastery/Competency/Personalized/College and Career Readiness, Common Core-aligned government-regulated STANDARDS. Your work and research have been invaluable to me over the years. So, I say thank you!!

What has been very hard to come to grips with is when one of the very people I respected, who I thought was leading me down the right pathway, turned and went completely off track.

I was confused, “It’s Not Easy”; when the conflict emerged between education researchers I respected.

But, it is important to understand Donna Garner’s place in this battle. I went back and listened to podcasts I did with her and read emails and articles she has written over the years. She clearly has been in the battle to get as she calls them “Type 1” explicit instruction academic based TEKS standards in place. While that may sound like a noble cause; she should have learned how the game is played. She was burned in the past and she is being set up once again. In this email dated May 3rd, 2015 Donna documents her many years of trying get Texas to adapt her Type 1 standards. In her role as a team member for the (TEKS) English Language Arts (ELAR) writing teams she was always hitting roadblocks from political pressure from one side or the other. You can read her email here: https://www.voicesempower.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Donna-Garner-Email-May-3-2015.pdf

Here is the reality on the ground in Texas

Legislators deceived Texans into thinking they had stopped the Common Core from coming into Texas. Donna Garner in her email stated she got the SBOE to implement her team’s English Success Standards — Type #1 parameters and much of the content from our ESS.

But the fact is Texas Did Not Need Common Core Standards- We Are Ahead of the Curve We were apart of the creation of the first College and Career Ready Standards and a part of the American Diploma Project. We have been implementing the global template from the beginning. 

It is important to understand what the purpose is/was behind the Common Core/Collage and Career Readiness STANDARDS that the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) is aligned to.

The Purposes Behind 21st Century Learning/College and Career Ready/Common Core/ ESSA

• Shifts Education Philosophy- from an education of Opportunity (Equal Opportunity) based on academics; reading, writing, math and history to an education of equity (Equal Outcomes) based on attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviors
• Broadened Impact – The College and Career Ready National Standards expand the target from PreK-12 to a P-20W (Pre-school through College, Trade or Graduate School) system.
• Competency Based Outcomes- The Next Generation of Assessments and Accountability shifts from the “Mental” (Academics and Knowledge Based Assessments) to “Behaviors” (Performance Standards and Competency for the workforce).
• Adjustments to Ideology– Change American’s worldview from nationalism into globalism and allows for a government controlled economy known as ”Dirigisme” or the more common use–a dirigiste economy. It means essentially a state directed economy.
• Dismantle traditional public schools in favor of charter like structures (public/private partnerships) that will be forced to generate student data for corporate profit and state control.

Fast forward to today. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) led by Abbott appointed commissioner of Education Mike Morath is taking the next steps to fully implement the plan. We have been warning about Morath since he was first appointed in 2016. We have been ignored by both Republicans and Democrats.

In the past, the battle was against the liberal “WOKE” indoctrination and ineptness that we found in C-Scope. You had Conservative/Republicans joining forces to expose and stop it. Laws were passed by Republicans who touted how they would stop C-Scope and stop the Common Core. It got in anyway.

In the last legislative session HB 1605 passed into law. It was championed by Abbott appointed TEA Commissioner Morath, and legislators on both sides of the aisle. HB 1605 funds and sets up the latest and supposed greatest online digital curriculum management product and it is owned by the TEA. Much like the failed and corrupt C-SCOPE, the pilot for the current system was called Amplify, it also proved to be full of inept and harmful instructional materials, as well as a huge financial note to the state. As you can see in the linked article and in the graphic below, there is a network of profiteers surrounding Amplify/OER/Texas OER/Gateway. Education Profiteering Accelerates in Texas Some of whom fund Conservative non-profits and think tanks.

As far as Carole Haynes, I am not sure why she has allowed Mike Morath to tickle her ears and give her talking points and a list of highly important reasons to support HB 1605 but it does not change the facts and the reality on the ground. They say the Texas Curriculum now known as Gateway is not designed for digital learning, yet this was the pilot for the HB 1605 curriculum. HHMMM??????

They say the Texas Curriculum now known as Gateway is not connected to the National Open Education Resources OER. HHHMMM?????

The Obama administration created the curriculum curation system, the Learning Registry—and helped their tech giant partners create similar curriculum ratings/curation systems—in order that teachers’ and students’ choices could be manipulated and controlled by state assessment scores. The Obama administration’s Deputy Director of Ed Tech, Steve Midgley, speaking about how OER works. They state outright that they were starting to curate curriculum to ensure that teachers choose the “most relevant resource.” Midgley says, “[Through the Registry] we can actually find out this teacher assigned this material; this teacher emailed this to someone else; this teacher dragged it onto a smart board for 18 minutes. . . .” The Registry will also use “the math that I don’t understand which [will] let me know something about who you are and then let me do some mathematical operations against a very large data set and see if I can pair you with the appropriate relevant resource.”

The federal tripod of standards, assessments, and accountability is strangling local curriculum and assessment control. The tripod is being used to access and control what your children learn in the classroom.

Frankly I was dumbfounded by Donna’s support of Gov. Abbott’s School Safety- Mental Health legislation and her support of Commissioner of Education Mike Morath, I could not understand why she has taken such an about-face and is supporting Morath and even Jeb Bush’s A-F accountability rating system. AND NOW Morath’s $2.44 Billion dollar state owned curriculum.

It is crazy, WHY is she completely disregarding facts and connections? That is NOT like her. WHY does she not understand what is happening is completely unethical and a complete violation of privacy and UNCONSTITUTIONAL?

I can not understand HOW she and other so-called Conservative Republicans can set aside the documented evidence showing Commissioner Morath was completely unqualified to be head of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and frankly, unethical in his restructuring of the TEA and the No-Bid public-private contracts Morath is signing off on. In the video below it is clear he wants online, real time continuous online learning. NOT PEN AND PAPER. It is so obvious what he was put in his position to do.

Donna’s latest push to support what Morath is doing is by saying it is “Progress”. Her willingness to push out talking points that those of us questioning Morath and Abbott are just “Misinformed and Confused about Education Terminology”. WHAT? 

It is clear to me now why Dr. Peg Luksik and Robin Eubanks were not fans of Donna Garner. Some believe Donna and Carole are dangerous because they are so blinded by their seat at the table that they can’t even see they are being “Delphied”