Senate Passes ESSA

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)):

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:

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!

House Passes ESEA 359-64

FINAL #FEDED VOTE ON ESSA TODAY! PLEASE CALL 202-224-3121 & DEMAND A NO VOTE!

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!.

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:

RED ALERT! NANNY STATE NCLB REWRITE MOVING FORWARD!

THIS IS AN ALL HANDS ON DECK RED ALERT! Congressional education leaders have reached a behind closed doors framework agreement on the rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently called No Child Left Behind (NCLB).  According to Education Week, Congress is poised to ram this through quickly at the end of the year while people are distracted by the holidays and the presidential primaries:

Expect the conference to kick off next Tuesday night [TOMORROW 11/17] and conclude by Thursday. And expect the bill to be on the floor of both chambers after Thanksgiving recess. That will give enough time for rank-and-file lawmakers to read it and make sure they understand what’s in it before they have to vote on it.

Here is a short note that you can copy and paste or adapt into an email or message your members on Facebook.

This conference report is completely unacceptable.  While much of the Common Core system with its associated tentacles was implemented via regulatory fiat without Congressional vote or oversight, a vote for this bill will be seen by me as your affirmation of all that is wrong with federal interference in education.  This system is harming students, teachers, school boards, states, and local districts. We need a bill signed by a president that understands and will follow the rule of law and will not participate in the destruction of public education, not a lame duck with an abysmal record of overreach and harm to teachers.

In addition to your own representative and senators, it is very important to contact the full congressional leadership and the education leadership.  Here are some tweets that you can send yourself or go to the links and retweet or substitute the names of your own members:

Thank you for all you are doing to protect the hearts and minds of our children!