Think Common Core State Standards are State led? Get the facts:

(Click here to get a 2 page flier you can print or email to share with others)

• 1988: Marc Tucker became the president of the National Center for Education and the Economy (NCEE) where he joined up with Hillary Clinton, Mario Cuomo, and Ira Magaziner to get states to move away from local control of their schools and migrate to national standards. (link)

• 1990: George H. W. Bush signed an international agreement entitled, “World Education for All (EFA), the result of a United Nations “World Conference on Education for All” summit. (link)

• 1991: Tucker and Lauren Resnick created New Standards that pushed standards-based reform. (link)

• 1992: Tucker writes “Dear Hillary Letter.” This letter, written to Hillary Clinton, addressed Tucker’s ideas for radical education reform after Bill Clinton’s presidential win. The goal is “to remold the entire American system” into “a seamless web that literally extends from cradle to grave and is the same systems for everyone,” coordinated by “a system of labor market boards at the local, state and federal levels” where curriculum and “job matching” will be handled by counselors “accessing the integrated computer-based program.” (link)

• 1994: Tucker’s ambitious plan was implemented in three laws passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton: the Goals 2000 Act, the School-to-Work Act Opportunities Act, and the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) called “Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994.” (link)

• 1996: An organization called ACHIEVE, Inc. was formed by the nation’s governors and corporate leaders. (Many of them tied to Marc Tucker and the NCEE). The goals from an Education Summit in Palisades, NY were to ACHIEVE the goals of the 1994 school reform bills. (link)

• 1998: Tucker and Judy Codding created America’s Choice, a comprehensive school reform program, that made sure the national standards were further implemented into schools. (link)

• 2001: George W. Bush renames ESEA “The No Child Left Behind Act” and signed it into law. (link)

• 2004: Microsoft (Bill Gates) contracts with UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to fulfill part of UNESCO’S Millennium Campaign Goals—universal education and educating for a global economy. A “master curriculum” for teacher training in information technologies based standards, guidelines, benchmarks, and assessment techniques is to be developed. (link)

(UNESCO / Gates Foundation Agreement)

• 2005: Bill Gates funds the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce—created by Tucker. States begin adopting its education reform initiative, “Tough Choices or Tough Times.” In 2008, Utah’s Governor Huntsman touts it (see video in link below) and joins with 5 others states (Massachusetts, Delaware, Arizona, New Mexico, and New Hampshire) who adopt it in order to “reinvent their educational systems.” (link)

• 2008: Gates Foundation, along with two other foundations, created Strong American Schools (a successor to the STAND UP campaign launched in 2006, which was an outgrowth of UNESCO’s Millennium Campaign Goals for Universal Education). It calls for American education standards. (link 1) (link 2)

• 2008: Gates Foundation funds the International Benchmarking Advisory Group report for Common Core Standards on behalf of the National Governors Association, Council of Chief State School Officers, and ACHIEVE, Inc. titled, “Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class Education.” This report shows the United Nations is a member of the International Benchmarking Advisory Group for Common Core Standards. The member of mention is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which developed UNESCO’s Millennium Declaration—partnering with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. (link)

The report states: While states must take the lead, the federal government can help. And the federal government can do that best by playing an enabling role grounded in a new vision for the historic state-federal partnership in education. (link)

• 2009:  Marc Tucker writes a chapter in the book “Change Wars: The Inspiring Future for Educational Change.” One chapter is called International Benchmarking as a Lever for Policy Reform. The book says the UN’s OECD launched Programme for International Student Assessment in 2000 to monitor the outcomes of education. Linda Darling-Hammond also contributes a chapter. Darling-Hammond heads the SBAC (see 2009, December below) (link)

• April, 2009: Gates Foundation members, along with a few dozen others, participate in a Washington conference and produce “Smart Options: Investing the Recovery Funds for Student Success.” These ideas were funded by the 2008 Stimulus (ARRA-American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) and supported Race to the Top. Priority 1: Develop Common American Standards—also called Career-Ready Standards—in most states by January 2012. (link)

• 2009 (summer): Council of Chief State School Officers, National Governors Association, and ACHIEVE, Inc. agree to partner on a common core standards project. (link)

• 2009 (fall): The U.S. Dept. of Ed signals it will fund $360M for summative assessments aligned to Common Core Standards and begins planning meetings. Two consortia begin competing for this funding: Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. States begin adopting Common Core Standards and join one of the consortia in order to receive No Child Left Behind waivers from the U.S. Department of Education Secretary, Arne Duncan. (link)

• 2009 (December): Utah becomes a governing member state of Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and is obligated to use the assessments created by the SBAC which is led by Bill Ayers’ friend, Linda Darling-Hammond. Judy Park, Associate Superintendent, Utah State Office of Ed, eventually co-chairs the Consortia. (link 1)

• 2009 (December): Gates Foundation gives the National PTA a $1 million grant to mobilize parents for Common Core Standards. (link 1)(link 2)

• June, 2010: National Governors Association and State Education Chiefs launch Common State Academic Standards. (link)

• April 2011: The SBAC Overview Curriculum and Assessment Conference issues a report stating that governing member states must adopt Common Core by Dec. 31, 2011. (link 1)

• 2011: The American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) education task force calls for the demise of the Common Core Standards, but puts it on hold after receiving a $376,635 grant from the Gates Foundation. (link)

• 2011: Bill Gates speaks at the November G20 Summit in Cannes and issues his report, “Innovation With Impact: Financing 21^st Century Development” stating, “My report will address the financing needed to achieve maximum progress on the Millennium Development Goals, and to make faster progress on development over the next decade.” (link)

• 2011: Obama Education Secretary Arne Duncan announces “Today, I promise you that [the Department of Education] will be a committed partner in the national effort to build a more environmentally literate and responsible society… We must advance the sustainability movement through education… Education and sustainability are the keys to our economic future-and our ecological future.” (link)

• 2012: States begin to recognize the loss of local control and enormous cost of implementation of the Common Core Standards. Many states begin pushing back. The Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute call the standards unconstitutional per federal education law.

• 2012: States not on Common Core and not meeting the Annual Yearly Progress requirements of NCLB petition congress for relief. Lawmakers working on options are undercut when the Obama White House circumvents congress to grant waivers from NCLB if states adopt Common Core. (link)

Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott stated that the common standards movement amounted to a “desire for a federal takeover of public education.” Now, additional states (who originally signed on), including Massachusetts, Iowa, Kansas, and Virginia, are expressing concerns about the common standards initiative. (link)

Gov. Nikki Haley just signed a letter supporting legislation in South Carolina to block CCSS implementation stating, “South Carolina shouldn’t relinquish control to a consensus of states any more than the federal government.” (link)

Larry Shumway, Utah state superintendent, a member of the CCSSO Board of Directors, a member of the Board of Directors at West Ed which is the project management partner for SBAC assessments, recommends Utah retain its relationship as a governing member of the SBAC (thus forcing Utah to use their tests).

“I am personally opposed to any changes in Utah’s public education governance, either by constitutional amendment or by statutory revision, that would have the effect of centralizing power and decreasing representation.  I oppose changes that would decrease the ability of local boards of education, elected by the citizens of that district, to guide their own schools to meet the needs of their communities as they see it, or that would diminish the ability of 104 elected legislators and 15 elected State Board members to fulfill their responsibilities to lead Utah public education as they represent their constituencies.” -Larry Shumway–State of Education Address October 11, 2011

This seems to me a clear conflict of interest for Mr. Shumway to testify to the Utah legislature on anything related to Common Core or the SBAC.

Gates’ Foundation other contributions during the time frame of consideration and development of the Common Core initiative.

Counsel of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO): 2009–$9,961,842, 2009–$3,185,750, 2010–$743,331, 2011–$9,388,911
National Governor’s Association (NGA): 2008–$2,259,780
Mark Tucker’s NCEE: 2009–$1,500,000
Total: $27,000,000

To any who still harbor the illusion that Common Core State Standards were the product of the states simply coming together, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you.

Special thanks to the many people involved in digging this information up. Much work has been done by people all around the country to put this information together and help follow the money trail. Please do your part now in passing this information on to everyone you know so they can be educated about what the Common Core Initiative is really all about.

To see where Common Core fits into the scheme of related programs that make up the globalization of education, check out this visual diagram and then other links below.

This chart came from a document prepared by an organization in Oklahoma. You can obtain their full document here which is a comprehensive document entitled “Common Core State Standards and Race To the Top, an Introduction to Marxism 101.“

Here’s a few items that ought to concern everyone.

Canada invades the home and tells families they can’t teach their children anything that would be disrespectful of someone else’s differences such as the homosexual lifestyle. So much for homeschooling to avoid the tolerance indoctrination in the public education system. Government intolerance just weighed in.

https://www.wnd.com/2012/02/homeschoolers-cant-be-taught-gay-sex-sinful/

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A North Carolina elementary school forced a preschool student to eat cafeteria chicken nuggets for lunch on Jan. 30 after officials reportedly determined that her homemade meal wasn’t up to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s standards for healthfulness, according to a report from the Carolina Journal.

The newspaper reported that the four-year-old girl brought a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, potato chips and apple juice in her packed lunch from home. That meal didn’t meet with approval from the government agent who was on site inspecting kids’ lunches that day.

[From Susie Schnell]

If you are a Progressive Educator or leader on the National/Federal Level and want to get your education agenda through quickly to as many states as possible, you need the support of conservative Republicans. So…

1. You push this agenda through individual “states” instead of “federal” because we like state’s rights.

2. You appeal to their desire for “higher standards” because we believe in an educated populace.

3. You talk about modernizing schools with the latest technology and equipment

4. You partner with private institutions since it appeals to our sense of capitalism and free enterprise

5. You talk about college and jobs because this is foremost on our minds in a failing economy

6. You hold national conferences to teach these ideas to state and local school boards and get them to buy into it.

7. You write the national standards, assessments and curriculum through gov’t partnered organizations so it doesn’t seem like the govt is writing them directly.

8. You help each state board of education write their own bills for implementing this plan, either directly or by using a “model” so all states are coming up with the same laws throughout the land, but think they are being independent. (Do you really think that our state board wrote these bills independently or maybe they got help?)

9. You advertise this as a Governor’s and State’s thing to the general public so no one looks behind the curtain.

10. You get as many Republicans and conservatives to accept your plan because of the nice sounding ideas, and they don’t realize they are setting up the foundation for a federal takeover of education. Families and conservatives don’t question these conservative legislators, but trust they are only after state’s rights and what is good for the children. Without realizing it, these good legislators have enacted laws to usher in this progressive agenda.

11. Get everyone to sign off on the standards as if there’s a crisis and this must be done right now.

12. Progressives never give up. When they don’t get their way, they just go back into their caves, re-strategize, change phraseology and try again. We ALWAYS have to be on guard for new tricks.

Problems:

1. This whole idea was set up by the Federal Gov’t, USOE and dangerous national interests who are working together, like Bill Gates, Linda Darling-Hammond, Pearson, and large corporations set on making billions by partnering with the federal govt, states and local districts for a guaranteed income for years. These Public Private Partnerships threaten not only local control, but also real free enterprise for smaller businesses that have not been chosen by the govt for these contracts. What the Federal Gov’t cannot legally do, and visa versa, the other partner can accomplish. We have been tricked into thinking this is a locally grown program in Utah.

2. The next phase in this process is to develop Century 21 Community Schools which will invite more Public Private Partnerships (PPP). Big corporations contract with federal, state and local school entities to go into these community schools full time, 6-7 days a week, and provide services of free healthcare and dental, PreK-12 education, job placement programs, recreation, daycare, 3 meals a day and every service you can think of for the entire family. This has already started in Ogden School District and Ogden’s plan is to make every school in it’s district a full service community school. Arne Duncan speaks a lot about this plan and thousands of these schools are popping up all over the nation. All of this data (healthcare, psychiatry records, academic scores, meals, recreation, etc) will be a part of the state and national data base because these families go to a one-stop community center with every amenity they need. No need to go home or church or extended family.

3. Right now, we’re just talking about school records from Pre-K to college to work. That’s bad enough. But by setting up extensive data collecting technology, we are easily setting ourselves up for the next step of education when full-service 21st Century Schools will be the growing phenomenon.

https://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1999361/utah_state_office_of_education_partners_with_pearson_for_new/

Please look beyond just Common Core, compare it with Obama’s National Education Goals, and look to see what these bills in Utah are setting up in the bigger scheme of things for the future.

Simple, local and parent-centered are the answers.

Thanks,

Susie Schnell

Wendy Hart on the Alpine School Board has been doing a terrific job this week of posting relevant information on the Common Core. I strongly encourage you to read her posts which you can find at this link. (Common Core State Standards)

Everything is coming together for a total takeover of education by the Feds. This past week a bill at the Utah legislature was thankfully amended to drop a recognition of Common Core from the language, thus leaving things open without codifying Common Core into Utah law. Anyone who looks into Common Core can easily verify the power grab in education by the feds. And yes, homeschoolers are potentially at risk as the Homeschool Legal Defense Association pointed out last November.

Here’s the Borg cube of connections which shows all the various organizations coming together to assimilate the education system. Even though the image above shows federal curriculum as unverified, the reality is that common standards and assessments will drive a perceived need for federal curriculum that matches the rest of the system. Pearson, the Gates Foundation, and others will be more than happy to provide new textbooks everyone is required to switch to.

The Borg was an alien species that threatened the existence of the Federation in the TV show Star Trek. Their race assimilated other races into their collective through hardwired neurological attachments that would reach deep into the mind. Their belief was that central control would raise efficiency. The result was a total loss of individuality and independent thought. What is happening in the education system in this country is very much a parallel to this threat.

Lt. Governor Bell recently praised the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), but there are several important things he and others need to realize.

While the math standards themselves are pretty good (addendum: read better than most states, but not top state standards), the notion that these are not national standards is inaccurate. When you have national organizations (National Governor’s Association and Chief State School Officers) collaborating to create one set of standards, you have de facto national standards.

The claim that the federal government isn’t involved in these standards is laughable. They bribed states to adopt the standards with Race to the Top grants (which would only be available for a handful of states) IF they adopted CCSS. Now, several states have sought waivers on No Child Left Behind’s annual yearly progress and the federal DOE is telling them, “we’ll grant you a waiver, IF you adopt ‘career and college ready standards’ (hint: Common Core).” Why were the Feds so interested in bribing states to get on CCSS even before a final draft was ready? They aren’t involved in this, right?

Why would Lt. Governor Bell say that Utah can adapt the standards to meet our needs and values when we aren’t allowed to modify the standards at all, except to add 15% more to them? How can he say these aren’t national standards?

If the federal government really isn’t taking over education, why have they put millions of dollars into creating assessments with organizations like SBAC, PARRC, and Achieve?

If the federal government isn’t nationalizing education, why have they mandated that states create a database to federally mandated standards to track children on 40 vital factors such as a child’s blood type, what time they get on the bus in the morning, the number of cavities in their mouths, what their religious affiliation is, family voting status, etc…? This is a total invasion of privacy. Is anyone concerned about this?

If the federal government isn’t taking over education, why have they been rewriting the laws at the federal level to strip away state and local control of education and make it look like they’ve always had legal control of education?

Can anyone not imagine the Feds soon telling the states they’ll get no federal funds for education (or perhaps ANY funds) unless they adopt this entire package? Everything is coming together for total federal control and we are embracing the Borg collective! It’s the end of individualism.

The solution isn’t found in joining the collective. It’s found in a return to true local control and giving parents MORE responsibility and authority for their children’s education. Each time we remove authority and responsibility from parents over their God-given mandate to teach their children, their interest and involvement lessens because they know, “the schools are going to educate my child.” Until we put the burden back on parents for their child’s success, education will continue to decline.

Links to the above points can be found here: https://www.utahsrepublic.org/dropping-the-common-core-state-standards/

Someone sent me a link to this amazing set of predictions Ron Paul made in 2002 in a speech on the floor of the House. Check it out and then listen to Judge Napolitano tell it like only the Judge can. :)

Now I realize there’s a lot of Mitt fans on this site and in our state. Mitt has a ton of great qualities that I admire (including his success as a capitalist, Newt :)). However, the more I understand Ron Paul’s positions from his perspective, and not just what others say about him, the more I’ve come to agree that he is the right candidate to be president. Mitt Romney has said he would do nothing with the Federal Reserve and just let them be. The Federal Reserve is right at the top of the list for who to blame for the economic woes we’re having. Mitt doesn’t get that and that’s a major strike in my book. Mitt might know how to run a business but I have to question his commitment to sound economic policy. Mitt also chastised Rick Perry when he called social security a Ponzi scheme and I have to ask myself if I want a president who has been in business all his life that doesn’t understand what a Ponzi scheme is (or says this for political expediency)? It’s frustrating to want to feel like Mitt’s the man for the job, but can’t bring myself over the hurdles to do so.

Ron Paul isn’t perfect and there are a few issues I disagree with him on, but they are pretty minor when I contrast them with the positives and I remind myself that as president, he gets the bully-pulpit and veto power, but he doesn’t make the law or create executive orders to bypass congress (at least in Ron’s case). What some people call wacky ideas will probably never be initiated in the congress and so what we’d be left with in Ron Paul is a president who  lives 100% by the Constitution. When something isn’t authorized in the Constitution, he wouldn’t allow it a straight passage and would defer it to the states where it belongs. Wouldn’t that be refreshing? Yet sadly, some people think that’s as destructive as Obama.

All that said, Mitt’s got a better chance of getting the nomination than Ron Paul and if he wanted to pull a few RP supporters over, he should announce that if he’s elected, he would make Ron Paul the Secretary of the Treasury.

If you missed my first post which helped me get over Ron Paul’s foreign policy by understanding it, here’s a link (Is Ron Paul the answer?). If you’ve heard Ron Paul wants to legalize drugs, this video debate on the Larry King show explains his position on it and I find myself completely agreeing with him especially on growing hemp (which isn’t the drug marijuana).

I have also posted a very important quote from J. Reuben Clark below the videos. He served in the highest positions of the LDS church as a member of the First Presidency, a counselor to the Prophet during WW2.

Someone posted this quote on my Facebook page and it’s simply a matter of principle. Do we believe the Founding Fathers were inspired and had lasting insights, or has the world changed so much that some of these beliefs are obsolete. Personally, I think these are timeless principles and J. Reuben Clark was an individual who knew first hand about the military industrial complex getting us into war. If you don’t know his history in business and how he was hired by the people who wanted to own war factory production, you can read something about it here (J. Reuben Clark talk by Cleon Skousen). Here is his quote.

“I am a political isolationist because:

I full believe in the wisdom of the course defined by Washington, Jefferson, and other ancient statesmen. The whole history of America before and since the Revolution proves the truthfulness of their assertions. All during our pre-Revolutionary history we were at war, we were robbed, plundered, and massacred because of European wars, in the issues and causes of which we had no concern. History is repeating itself.

I believe American manhood is too valuable to be sacrificed on foreign soil for foreign issues and causes.

I believe that permanent peace will never come into the world from the muzzle of a gun. Guns and bayonets will, in the future as in the past, bring truces, long or short, but never peace that endures.

I believe President Wilson had the true principle when he spoke of the strength and power of the moral force of the world. Moral force in a nation fructifies industry, thrift, good will, neighborliness, the friendly intercourse of nations, the peace that all men seek; whereas force is barren.

I believe America’s role in the world is not one of force, but is of that same peaceful intent and act that has characterized the history of the country from its birth till the last third of a century.

I believe that moral force is far more potent than physical force in international relations.

I believe that America should again turn to the promotion of the peaceful adjustment of international disputes, which will help us regain the measureless moral force we once possessed, to the regeneration and salvation of the world. We now speak with the strong arm of physical force only; we have no moral force left.

I believe we should once more turn our brains and our resources to the problem, not of killing men, women, and children, combatant and noncombatant, but of bringing to them more of good living and high thinking.

I believe political isolation will bring to us the greatest happiness and prosperity, the greatest temporal achievement not only, but the highest intellectual and spiritual achievement also, the greatest power for good, the strongest force for peace, the greatest blessing to the world. ”

President J. Reuben Clark — Church News 11/22/1947

Last, if you want to see a sad clip about the media completely dismissing Ron Paul, watch the first few minutes of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show here from the episode after the New Hampshire Primary. Stewart roasts Laurence O’Donnell for trying to say John Huntsman was the real 2nd place winner “if we remove Ron Paul from the equation.” Stunning bias against Ron Paul. The media does not want him in the White House.

Someone just sent me a link to Lt. Governor Bell’s blog post on the Common Core standards. Here is a link to it with my letter to the Lt. Governor which I sent off.

Dear Lt. Governor Bell,

Having read your blog post on Common Core (https://blog.lg.utah.gov/2012/01/common-sense-on-common-core/), I have a few questions for you.

1) If states joined this initiative without any strings attached, why are some states being forced by the federal government onto the standards if they want a waiver for NCLB and AYP requirements? Why did the federal government offer RTTT incentives to states that signed on? That doesn’t make any sense if you’re right. (see https://www.utahsrepublic.org/jumping-off-the-federal-education-train/)

2) How can you say Utah can adapt the standards to fit our needs and values? We are not allowed to change any of the standards except to add up to 15% more to them. They are not to be changed so they are not Utah standards. By virtue of being mostly nationwide, they are de facto national standards. (https://www.achieve.org/files/15PercentGuideline.pdf)

3) You’re correct the federal government didn’t develop the CCSS, but why are we not worried about the assessments and curriculum efforts they are funding to go along with the CCSS? Why are we not worried about the national database they have developed to track over 40 factors on children in such important ways as tooth decay, blood type, religious consideration, and what time they get on the bus in the mornings?

https://www.utahsrepublic.org/dropping-the-common-core-state-standards/

4) Were you aware that the federal government is rewriting federal education laws to remove state and local education rights and to put the federal government over education? Do you not see this directly related to their effort to get all states on the Common Core standards?

https://www.utahsrepublic.org/education-reform/doe-transition-to-tyranny/

Sincerely,

Oak Norton

Nobody wants to contemplate jumping off a moving train, but the federal government’s takeover of education is driving state and local control right off a cliff.  In several past articles on this site I’ve tried to detail the grab of power the federal government is making. This article (https://www.utahsrepublic.org/dropping-the-common-core-state-standards/) is perhaps the best summary article I can refer to which links to the components of this takeover involving standards, assessments, curriculum, database tracking, and changing of national laws on control of education.

In the past few days, I’ve received articles and insight from a few people that show the feds have become brazenly open in preparing to force states onto its plan.

From an article in the Orange County Register newspaper:

https://www.ocregister.com/articles/schools-318629-states-obama.html

President Barrack Obama on Friday announced that states can opt out of the much-maligned federal accountability system if they agree to implement reforms that include tying teacher and principal eva