House Passes ESEA 359-64
| Amash Babin Bishop (UT) Blackburn Brat Bridenstine Brooks (AL) Buck Chabot Chaffetz Clawson (FL) Culberson DeSantis DesJarlais Duncan (SC) Farenthold Fleming Franks (AZ) Gohmert Gosar Gowdy Graves (LA) |
Guinta Harper Harris Hice, Jody B. Holding Huelskamp Johnson, Sam Jones Jordan Kelly (MS) King (IA) Labrador Lamborn Loudermilk Love Lummis Marchant Massie Meadows Miller (FL) Mooney (WV) Mulvaney |
Palazzo Palmer Perry Poe (TX) Ratcliffe Rogers (AL) Rohrabacher Rothfus Salmon Sanford Schweikert Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Stewart Stutzman Walker Weber (TX) Wenstrup Yoder Yoho |
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- The secretary of education has veto power over the state plans that are still required to have statewide standards and assessments.
- The language of the bill itself puts forth many requirements for the types of standards that must be in the state plans, so it is essentially irrelevant what the secretary does or does not do.
- The language of the bill itself requires that standards align with ELEVEN different federal statutes that will make it likely that states have to keep the Common Core standards or those like them, even if they call them something else
- .The language prohibiting federal interference is essentially the same in statutes that Secretary Duncan ignored to give us Common Core and waivers. Then and now, there is no enforcement mechanism.
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:
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.
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.
SENATE: http://patriotjournalist.com/usSenate.php?src=Home
Here is a short note that you can copy and paste or adapt into an email or message your members on Facebook.
No parental opt-out provision The one excellent piece of parental rights language in the House bill has been removed and the 95% test participation mandate remains. This is unacceptable to me as a parent and will also continue forcing our teachers to teach to the test instead of meeting the individual needs of students.
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:
@repjohnkline Listen to 200+ parent groups in 46 states! http://bit.ly/1Lj6uz5 Slay the beast! #StopESEA #EndFedEd
@SenAlexander Listen to 200+ parent groups in 46 states! http://bit.ly/1Lj6uz5 Slay the beast! #StopESEA #EndFedEd
@PattyMurray ESEA keeps fed testing mandates. Teachers have to teach to invalid standards/test or leave students #StopESEA #LetTeachersTeach
Thank you for all you are doing to protect the hearts and minds of our children!
Compilation & Analysis of Early Childhood Research Regarding Effect, Fade Out, Academic & Emotional Harm
Karen. R. Effrem, MD – President
The following compilation of early childhood studies paints a very different picture than the rosy portrait of significant and long lasting benefit put forth by proponents, especially of the new unconstitutional program being put forth in the conference proposal for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This list contains studies dating back to 1985 and is broken into four categories, with pertinent quotes from different studies being placed into multiple appropriate categories:
1) No or Small Effect – There are several studies that tout longer -term success compared to the usual fading out after the preschool year and even statistical significance over control groups of poor children. However, when more closely examined, their benefits are not practically significant, they may be explained by other factors like parent involvement, and these programs are too small, too specialized, and or too expensive to be brought to scale.
2) Fade Out – Many studies on this list, including the most recent one from Tennessee, show some improvement in the ephemeral concept of kindergarten readiness, but those benefits are gone by the time the program participant reaches kindergarten to third grade with problematic deterioration in academics an or behavior lasting longer than any perceived benefits.
3) Academic Harm – The quotes listed in this section depict evidence that children participating in these programs actually suffer academic deterioration in later grades, compared to their peers not participating in these programs.
4) Emotional Harm – The studies in this section show evidence that participation in these programs results in deterioration in the very behaviors that big government preschool proponents seek to impose on our youngest children. The emotional distress suffered by children in these programs is likely a prime reason for the epidemic of psychiatric diagnosis and drugging with extremely dangerous and ineffective psychotropic drugs in these children.
NO OR SMALL EFFECT:
Georgia (2015) – The completion of one only one year of baseline data by the Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) called, Bright from the Start caused them to enthusiastically proclaim that participants “progressed at an even greater rate during the time they participated in Georgia’s Pre-K Program than would be expected for normal development growth.” However, the next sentence clearly raises significant doubt: “However, without a comparison group, it is not possible to establish a clear causal link between outcomes and program participation.” (Emphasis added)
Chicago Parent–Child Centers (2011) – The study abstract claims, “Findings demonstrate support for the enduring effects of sustained school-based early education to the end of the third decade of life.” The study results were summarized by the Associated Press as follows:
“To be sure, the challenges facing the children in both groups were still insurmountable for many. As adults, the average annual income for those who went to preschool is less than $12,000 and almost half of them had been arrested as adults. As dismal as those outcomes [are], the numbers were still better than for the group that didn’t attend preschool.”
Our analysis reveals statistically significant, but not practically important differences that really need to be examined as to whether they are practically significant and worth the cost and government expansion of preschool programs (The first number is for the preschool CPC kids and the second number is for the comparison group):
Highest grade completed (12.15 vs. 11.88) – This is less than a third of one year difference or less than a semester.
Attendance in a 4-year college (14.7% vs. 11.2%) – This is only a 3.5% difference.
Average annual income in 2007 dollars ($11,582 vs. $10,796) – As noted in the AP story above, both groups, were earning less than $12,000 per year with the preschool group earning only $786 more.
The study admits, “No differences were detected for degree completion, employment, or a combined measure.”
Any arrest (47.9% vs. 54.3%) – Also pointed out in the AP story above, around half of both groups were arrested, though the preschool group was 6% lower.
The study also admits, “No differences were detected for the number of arrests, arrests for violence, or convictions. School-age and extended intervention were unrelated to justice involvement. For public aid and family outcomes, no meaningful differences were found.”
Head Start (2003) – “Head Start is not fully achieving its stated purpose of promoting school readiness … Indeed, these low-income children continue to perform significantly below their more advantaged peers in reading and mathematics once they enter school.” – “Strengthening Head Start: What the Evidence Shows” – US Dept. of HHS, June 2003
Chicago Parent-Child Centers (2001) – “It is possible that parental involvement explains more of the variance in outcome among inner-city children than do structured programs. . . . If policy makers mistakenly accept the conclusion that preschool intervention results in less criminal activity later, they may mistakenly invest in these programs when the money might be better invested in parenting skill programs and other interventions to increase parental involvement.” – Mathew D. Thompson, “Early Childhood Educational Intervention and Long-Term Developmental Outcomes,” Letters, The Journal of American Medical Association, Vol. 286, No. 15,
Abecedarian Project (1999 Review) – “For these children, a 4.6–point improvement was approximately a 5 percent increase in measured intelligence, an increase hardly noticeable in the classroom or on the job….In the Abecedarian Project, children in the preschool program had IQs 4 to 5 points higher than the children in the control group at ages 12 to 15. Nonetheless, the early enrichment did not result in these children reaching IQ levels comparable to middle-class children in the community, nor did they reach the national average IQ of 100.” – John Bruer, president, James S. McDonnell Neurosciences Institute, The Myth of the First Three Years, The Free Press, New York
Head Start (1997) – “The body of research on current Head Start is insufficient to draw conclusions about the impact of the national program.”– GAO review of over 600 citations, manuscripts, and studies
Issues
- Assessments + Testing (25)
- Bullying/Sex Education (6)
- Child Protection League (2)
- Common Core Standards (78)
- Curriculum + Standards (65)
- Data Collection and Data Privacy (64)
- Early Education/Nanny State (75)
- Federal Education (128)
- International Education (6)
- LGBT Issues in Education (9)
- Media Appearances (4)
- PL/CBE (2)
- Planned Economy (11)
- Politics of Education (26)
- School Violence (9)
- Social Emotional Learning/Mental Health (52)
- State Education (89)
- Testimony/Presentations (17)
- Uncategorized (13)
- Unions (10)
Education Liberty Watch Projects
ELW Allies
- American Principles Project
- Cato Institute
- Conservative Teachers of America
- Constitutional Coalition
- Eagle Forum
- Minnesota Advocates and Champions for Children
- Missouri Education Watchdog
- Restore Oklahoma Parent Empowerment
- Stop Common Core
- The Pioneer Institute
- Truth in American Education
- What is Common Core – Education Without Representation