Federal Education
Dec 2, 2015
ELW
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FINAL #FEDED VOTE ON ESSA TODAY! PLEASE CALL 202-224-3121 & DEMAND A NO VOTE!

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Not wanting to give the public any time to review or call their legislators about the horrific 1062 page monstrosity that was released 48 hours ago after the Thanksgiving holiday as the final compromise bill to replace No Child Left Behind, House leadership has scheduled the final vote for TODAY starting at about 6 PM.  The bill is now called the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), S 1177. PLEASE call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask your US House member to vote NO on ESSA!.

Here are four of the MANY reasons your member of Congress should vote NO:

1) The language of the bill itself will require standards that comply with 11 different federal statutes that will be very much like Common Core regardless of the the Secretary of Education does or does not do, so the prohibitions on his power are irrelevant.

2) The bill requires assessments that are very heavy on non-academic psychological profiling in an environment of deteriorating student data privacy.

3) This bill creates a new $250 million preschool program that research shows to be invasive, ineffective, and harmful whose national standards are aligned to the K-12 Common Core creating “Baby Common Core.”

4) ESSA resurrects a terrible program called 21st Century Schools loved by both Arne Duncan and Lamar Alexander that gives womb to tomb health, mental health and social services creating “Parent Replacement Center.”  

For more details, here is a summary of the problems with the final bill regarding standards and assessments from the American Principles Project:

And here is a link to a one page summary by Dr. Effrem on Preschool:
Here is a rebuttal of the US House Education and Workforce Committee talking points:
1)      CLAIM: Places new and unprecedented restrictions on the sec. of education
TRUTH:  There is no enforcement mechanism for any of these restrictions and the sec. of education still has veto power over the state plans that still mandate standards and assessments similar to Common Core. (Details HERE)

2)      CLAIM:  Prohibits the sec. of education from forcing, coercing, or incentivizing states into adopting Common Core
TRUTH: ESSA heavily influences standards within the bill itself. This requirement to have the standards comply with 11 different unconstitutional federal statutes setting up standards similar to Common Core will be statutory a state must comply with it regardless of what the Secretary does or doesn’t do. (Details HERE)

3)      CLAIM:  Ends the era of federally mandated high-stakes tests
TRUTH: Tests are still federally mandated along with 95% participation with no opt-out clause as was present in the House bill.  There are new mandates for the tests to be psychologically profiling “higher order thinking skills” and “strategies to improve students’ skills outside the academic subject areas.” This is combined with new evidence of lax student data protection.

4)      CLAIM: Eliminates the federally mandated one-size-fits-all accountability system
TRUTH: While it is an improvement that AYP is gone, the mandates for what states must include in their accountability systems are still very concerning, especially in non-academic areas.

5)      CLAIM: Repeals 49 ineffective and duplicative federal programs
TRUTH: The appropriations language will have to be examined to make sure these programs are actually eliminated, not merely consolidated as was mentioned by several groups during discussion of HR 5. The ineffective, invasive 21st Century Community Schools with increased mental health interference are funded.

6)      CLAIM:  Provides states and schools with new funding flexibility
TRUTH: With all of the myriad legalistic and detailed requirements in a 1061 page bill, flexibility is in the eye of the federal bureaucrats that will be beholding this mess for interpretation and implementation. 

7)      CLAIM: Holds the line on no new pre-K programs
TRUTH: How this can be said with a straight face when there is $250 million in new grant spending with required alignment to Head Start that requires controversial psychosocial “Baby Common Core” national standards and there is so much research showing lack of effectiveness or harm of these programs is beyond comprehension.  (See HERE for more details) 

8)      CLAIM: Prohibits the use of federal education dollars to fund abortions.
TRUTH: That there needs to be any discussion of the use of federal education dollars for any health issues, especially one as controversial as abortion, speaks to the scope of the appallingly unconstitutional interference in both education and health.

9)      CLAIM: Offers parents more school choice.
TRUTH: While it is good that private and home schools seem to have escaped coming under the federal strings and regulations, such as requirement for public school standards like Common Core  and tests in this bill, proclaiming charter schools as a great alternative to public schools is not exactly accurate.  These are still public schools, have unelected boards, must give the public school tests based on the Common Core standards in the vast majority of states, and are a boon to unaccountable corporations.

10)   CLAIM: Provides a four year authorization of the law
TRUTH: This is an improvement over the previous seven year period that went for fourteen, but any amount of time that carries the requirements for federally mandated standards and testing that psychologically profiles our children and results in essentially the same type of standards as Common Core along with many other invasive programs is still too long.

 

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