Dec 10, 2015
ELW

Statement on the Enactment of the Every Student Succeeds Act

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The following statement was released by Dr. Karen Effrem, president of Education Liberty Watch and the executive director of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, and Randy Osborne, director of education for Heartland Research and Florida Eagle Forum, on the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act:
The president and Congress have chosen to give the parents of Florida and America a huge lump of educational coal this Christmas by enacting the Every Student Succeeds Act.  Despite this lopsided vote against the Constitution and parental rights, we are deeply grateful to the Republican members of Congress that voted to protect children from the tyrannical government intrusions in this bill. The wisdom of those twelve senators and sixty-four House members,  as with those who had the foresight to vote against No Child Left Behind in 2001, will be prescient. We are incredibly disappointed in the wholesale sellout of our children to Big Government, Big Corporations, and Big Data by the legislators of both parties.
We also thank presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Rand Paul for their steadfast opposition to the ESSA. Support of this disastrous bill by presidential candidates Jeb Bush, Linsdsey Graham, Bernie Sanders, and the failure of Marco Rubio to be involved in final deliberations for this incredibly important federal legislation will certainly not help their cause among this very active and engaged grassroots voting block. Parents, who are desperately seeking to protect their children from the terrible Common Core system of inferior and manipulative standards, psychologically profiling assessments and invasive data mining, want a candidate that will fight to slay the federal leviathan, not feed it or ignore it.
Sadly, on the day before the Senate vote, the Obama administration was already giving more than 200 parent and citizen groups in 46 states plenty of ammunition to say, “We told you so.”  According to state legislators meeting with US DOE chief of staff Emma Vadehra, the law now embeds “College and Career Ready Standards (the other name for Common Core) and because of the way the law is written, US DOE “does not expect any states to get away from the standards.” Vadehra also admitted the bill “solidifies the Department’s plans for full pre-K expansion.”
Any bill longer than No Child Left Behind that this president was giddy to sign, that received 100% support from the big government party of Congress, and that was endorsed by the owners of Common Core’s copyright and other proponents, does not “end the Common Core mandate” or protect parental rights. Our allegedly conservative Republican leadership has chained our children to expanded federal government control of education.  This is a day that will not be forgotten by the parents of this nation.

 

Dec 9, 2015
ELW

Final Senate ESEA Vote Today as Obama Ed Officials Gloat Over Cementing of Common Core in the Bill

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Hat tip to Jane Robbins of the American Principles Project for sending this information verifying the contention of us in more than 200 parent and citizen anti-Common Core groups across the nation, that ESEA absolutely continues and cements  Common Core under the name “College and Career Ready Standards” making the Secretary’s action or inaction allegedly prohibited by the bill completely irrelevant.  They also bragged about the big government preschool program about which we have repeatedly warned.  You have about an hour to make one last phone call to 202-224-3121.

 

A state legislator from another state is visiting DC this week for meetings of state legislators who chair education committees. Yesterday they had a meeting at the US Department of Education, and obviously the topic of the No Child Left Behind reauthorization bill (ESSA) came up. This is what the USED official said:

According to Emma Vadehra, Chief of Staff, US Dept of Education, this bill will embed “college and career ready standards” or as we know, Common Core©. They do not expect any states to get away from the standards. It also solidifies the Department’s plans for full preK expansion.  It was also stated that the preK grants were significant in moving the ball and that states are on the hook financially as well.  The DoE is giddy with excitement at the impending passage of ESSA.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is  the bill our “conservative” senators are going to vote for this morning.

 

As with No Child Left Behind, the wise minority that vote against this bill will turn out to be prescient and our children and teachers sold out to Big government, Big Corporations, and Big Data will suffer even more than under No Child Left Behind.

Dec 9, 2015
ELW

Senate Passes ESSA

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Using rhetoric eerily similar that for the failed No Child Left Behind Act, the US Senate voted to pass the 1061 page behemoth, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The complete language of this disastrous bill was only available for days before the final vote. The vote was 85-12.  We are grateful to the following senators, who had the wise foresight to vote against this bill that, despite much propaganda about the “end of the Common Core mandate,” actually enshrines standards like Common Core. (full roll call)):

Blount (MO), Crapo (ID), Daines (MT), Flake (AZ), Lee (UT), Moran (KS), Paul (KY), Risch (ID), Sasse (NE), Scott (SC), Shelby (AL), Vitter (LA)

Presidential candidate Rand Paul voted against the bill, while Senator Graham voted for it and Senators Cruz, Rubio, and Sanders did not vote on final passage, but Cruz voted yesterday against advancing the bill to final passage and issued a statement today affirming his opposition to it.  Sanders’ statement from 12/7 indicates he would have supported the bill if present.  Although Rubio should be thanked for voting against the Senate bill in July, his lack of involvement in final deliberations for this very important bill may need to be viewed in light of significant pro-Common Core contributions by Bill Gates and Paul Singer.

We also appreciate the one floor speech in opposition in all of Congress that was offered or allowed in debate for the final bill by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT):

That this bill cements Common Core and that the prohibitions against overreach by the secretary of education are false and irrelevant, as well as the expansion of horrific preschool programs, was not just the opinion of more than 200 parent groups and experts in 46 states. This was confirmed yesterday by an Obama administration education official as reported by a state legislator attending a meeting where this bill was discussed:

According to Emma Vadehra, Chief of Staff, US Dept of Education, this bill will embed “college and career ready standards” or as we know, Common Core©. They do not expect any states to get away from the standards. It also solidifies the Department’s plans for full preK expansion.  It was also stated that the preK grants were significant in moving the ball and that states are on the hook financially as well.  The DoE is giddy with excitement at the impending passage of ESSA.

The president plans to sign the bill into law tomorrow. Here is a news flash for the allegedly “conservative” members of Congress who voted for this bill.  Any bill longer than No Child Left Behind that this presdient is giddy to sign, that received 100% support from the big government party of Congress, that was endorsed by the owners of Common Core’s copyright and other proponents, probably does not “end the Common Core mandate” or protect parental rights!

Dec 9, 2015
ELW

Effrem Article on ESEA Preschool Program Published on The Pulse 2016

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Many thanks to The Pulse 2016 for publishing Jane Robbins of the American Principles Project for co-authoring  Dr. Effrem’s article titled: Nanny State Preschool Expansion — Another Reason the ESEA Rewrite Should Be Voted Down.  Here is an excerpt:

host of other large studies using data on thousands of children shows the same pattern of ineffectiveness, fadeout, and/or harm. The most recent is a multi-year controlled study from Tennessee, Senator Alexander’s home state, about which Education Week reported the following conclusions:
“. . .  Children started off school strong, but by kindergarten were generally indistinguishable academically from comparable peers who did not enroll in the program” and “by 3rd grade the children who attended pre-K were performing worse on some academic and behavioral measures than similar classmates who were never in the program.”

Even results from the one study that purports to show long-term benefit are still described as “dismal” in the mainstream press. There is simply no persuasive research to countervail this massive evidence.

But politicians and the education establishment cling to the concept of preschool. Advocates of Common Core and other progressive-education philosophies want to extend government tentacles to ensnare ever younger children. The managed economy and managed society can be achieved more quickly if toddlers are removed from their homes and herded into government preschool, where the uncontrolled influences of parents, families, and religion can be replaced with others more likely to advance government goals.

What should be done instead? Perhaps listen to researchers such as Dr. William Jeynes of UC-Santa Barbara, who identified three of several important factors that significantly improve the performance of minority students relative to white students (closing the “achievement gap”): intact families and religious faith, phonics instruction, and real parental involvement. Having government go even further to replace parents doesn’t work and will never work.

If politicians — including presidential candidates — are serious about improving education, they’ll reject the empty promises of invasive, ineffective, harmful, federal preschool programs. Instead they’ll listen to parents who innately understand that their children will develop better in the care of people who love them than with the government. The candidate who leads this fight against relentless government “solutions” in education will reap the political benefits.

 

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