Utah's Republic

These Moms have delivered a pristine and correct message that clarifies the truth.  I am grateful to them for working and studying to bring light to this mess.

This is excellent!  Thanks so much for your work to encourage all of us to be involved or at least a little curious about the red flags that are raised here!

Thanks for doing so much research on top of your heavy load as moms so we can understand what our state has gotten us into and what the Feds are up to. Excellent presentation!!

What a bunch of garbage.  What these mothers don’t understand is that we are not bound to follow NCLB or the Common Core.  There is no law mandating that Utah, or any state must do what the federal government tells them to do.  The federal government has been using Utah’s (and other states’) addiction to federal dollars to do what the federal government wants. The root of the problem is federal subsidies of state budgets, not a law that we must follow NCLB.   The solution is quite simple–opt out of these things and forgo the federal funding.  There is no law that says we must take federal funding, and there is no law saying that we must do NCLB or the Common Core.   In fact, I challenge anyone to show me the law that we must follow NCLB or the Common Core no matter what. In 2008, we had a chance to get out of NCLB and all federal control of education for about $300 million dollars (federal education dollars to Utah). Instead, the state decided to give that money to highest wage earners in the form of a so-called flat tax (it isn’t really a flat tax). That money could have been applied to fill the gap of lost federal education funding. My interpretation is that local politicians and the top wage earners that control the politicians aren’t really willing to do what it takes to get the feds out of education.    

For extra credit,  I challenge anyone to show me the law that says we must pay federal income tax.

When the state lawmakers started to move toward exiting NCLB and told the feds to keep their money and strings, the Feds said, “no problem, we’ll keep that money, and the money we’d normally pass back to you for other things like transportation and so on.” The writing was on the wall. We need off of federal money. If you look at the post before this one that shows we’re on the hook, it’s not by law, but by contract. Our Governor signed on the line to obligate Utah to adopt Common Core and SBAC assessments when we applied for Race to the Top money.

 Sheryl, thanks for the advice, however, I have studied up on the Common Core.  I’m not sure whose “party line” you think I follow, because I belong neither to the current far right Republican (fascist) party or the far left Democrat (communist) party.  Unfortunately, other than your weak, rhetorical vagueness and insult, you have not answered my questions because you probably don’t know the answers.  Perhaps you should do your own research. 

Oak, we are certainly not in disagreement over our distaste of federal involvement in local matters.  Education is not the first time that the states have been blackmailed over federal edicts.  My grandmother (before the internet age) was fighting this battle against these federal practices in various newspaper op-eds, trying to wake up the public over federal control of seat-belt and speed limit laws.  Many states (including Utah) tried to resist these laws being forced on Utah or else lose federal highway funding.  Regardless to say, every single U.S. state eventually gave in, including Nevada, the last hold out.  This federal tactic is nothing new. 

The activist moms in the video are correct “in principle” that the federal government is violating the 10th amendment, but incorrect “in technical” terms when it concerns the 10th amendment. Like I said before, the federal government gets around the 10th amendment by addicting states to federal money.  The states still have a choice in whether to participate in NCLB, the Common Core,  or seat belt/speed limit laws, however making the wrong choice leads to a moratorium of federal funds.  Like I said earlier, I have found no law that compels Utah to participate in NCLB or the Common Core, but like you pointed out (and I already knew) any state that doesn’t choose a certain option loses all federal funding, thus preserving adherence to the 10th amendment in a legal standpoint. 

Of course, individual state governments engage in this practice as well.  The Utah State Legislature has strings attached to their funding mechanisms, so I’m not sure why everyone is surprised when the federal government does its own (accountability) measures when it comes to federal funding. 

The other thing that raised an eyebrow in the “moms” presentation was an incorrect assumption that we have a choice to give control of Utah Schools to the federal government by implementing the Common Core or to keep control over our schools by not implementing the Common Core.  In reality, we are already under the control of the federal government through NCLB.  We don’t get out from federal control by choosing the Common Core.  In fact, one reason many states banded together to write the common core was in resistance to NCLB.  As part of the impending re-authorization of NCLB, both Democrats and Republicans (at the federal level) were pushing for the federal government to write education standards.  In reaction to that possibility, many states combined resources to write their own standards in an effort to get out from NCLB.  This tactic worked but without realizing that the federal government was going to use the state initiative to continue their stranglehold over schools. 

I asked you in a previous post as to whether you prefer NCLB or the Common Core initiative.  You stated that you preferred to remain under NCLB rather than the Common Core.  I disagree.  While I would prefer neither, NCLB was 100% unrealistic in its expectations and its end goal was to fail every school by 2014.  It also fails the students by not tracking individual student progress over a school career, but compare one grade to the next and mete out illogical punitive sanctions if one single subgroup failed to achieve perpetual year over year gains. It was purely federal and it was about to get worse if the Federal government wrote the standards and the testing mechanisms.   The Common Core initiative at least takes into account the progress of individual students and doesn’t expect an immigrant student to master the English language in a single school year.  Since 48 states have already joined the Common Core initiative, I expect that NCLB will be de-authorized and any remaining holdout states will be forced to join join.   Federal control isn’t going away, and the “ONLY” way to get around federal control of education is to forgo any federal money or to secede from the union.  Yes, we signed a contract, but what is the result of breaking the contract? A loss of federal money.  Regardless of signing a contract or not, we will lose federal money if we don’t wish to adhere to NCLB or the Common Core.  The real problem is federal coercion, not our participation in state initiatives. 

We really have brought this on ourselves.  We complain about how other countries such as China are making such great progress in their education systems without realizing that the countries we all envy have strong central control over their education systems.  If we are going to complain about education and compare ourselves to these other countries, what do you think will happen? The federal government will step in and try to emulate some of these other countries.  Perhaps we should be careful of what we wish for because we just might get it and apparently we are.

Looks like maybe we should pattern our education after the Chinese.  According to my research, “In 1985, the national government ceded responsibility for basic education to local governments through the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party’s “Decision on the Reform of the Educational Structure.”  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China

 I agree with you TheKingsCourt. Both NCLB and CC need to go away and the only way to do that is fore-go federal money. Your question on the other post was an A or B choice, not C-neither. :)

Oak, I’m glad that we have found a point of agreement.  I am concerned about our own state government replacing the federal government with its own unfunded mandates that take away local control. I do not care for Rick Santorum, but he said one thing that resonated with me.  Both the Federal and State governments need to get out of education.  It is an entirely local matter. 

I’m not sure how we would fore-go billions in federal dollars for a variety of state programs.  Over half of our state budget is federally funded and we would need to find some additional revenues.   We could start by raising the taxes for mineral extraction in Utah–at least to parity with the next lowest state (Colorado).  Utah is giving away our natural resources for almost free.  

The Nuclear Power plant scheme also bothers me.  California has been trying to figure out how to get more upper basin Colorado River water since the 1970′s.  It looks like they’ve figured it out.  The nuclear power plant being proposed will generate electricity exclusively for California.  The 40,000 acre feet of water required to operate the plant will therefore also exclusively benefit California, rather than Utah residents.  That is another example of Utah’s resources being given away for free and to our detriment.  This nonsense has got to stop.