Two Moms Against Common Core video
March 23rd, 2012
This is a great video outlining the sticky situation Utah’s leaders have gotten us into. If they were aware of what they were doing, it’s unconscionable and they should be fired for giving up our control of education. If they didn’t know, they need fired for incompetence.
19 Responses to “Two Moms Against Common Core video”
Thank you for sharing. This is the best summary of everything I have been trying to understand about common core.
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.
Governor Herbert is toast! I sent him a letter begging him not to sign this to get the extra money. He ignored us.
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!
The information presented here should be of vital concern to everyone NOT wanting communistic practices to become rooted in our educational system. The enemies of freedom and liberty have conspired to deceive the uneducated in a most grand way. They accomplish a number of goals with programs like “Common Core”: (1) Breaking the wealth of the American people through the implementation of costly programs; (2) gradually and “on-the-sly” taking control of education at the local levels; (3) implementing and brainwashing young people’s minds with communistic thinking; (4) through a form of cronyism, they have deceived and led away those elected officials who should be guardians of our schools against the infiltration of socialist and communistic values; (5) deliberately set in motion a process to “dumb-down” America’s children as they come through programs such as Common Core – where students in a classroom move forward at the rate of the slowest learners; and (6) raise up an entire generation that will further lead America into either tyranny or anarchy, or in the very least, leave America as a third-world, communistic country. All it takes for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing! If people don’t make the effort to learn what is happening, and become knowledgeable enough to recognize it, and then act accordingly, then they deserve what shall surely come to pass. Not only will it affect them, but their children and grandchildren as well.
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!!
Great Presentation! So informative and easy to understand why we should have concerns about the Common Core.
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.
I hope you’re kidding with the “show me the law” comment. The Internal Revenue Code is law, passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president.
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.
I suggest you do what these mom’s do…study up on it instead of go along with the party line!
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.
Scott, I’m not kidding. The Supreme Court ruled in 1894 that income taxes on individual wages is unconstitutional. You cannot find a law. Nobody can show the law, including the IRS. They just believe it is there. If you can find it, let me know. Perhaps you should watch this film where tax attorneys, politicians, and even IRS Agents say there is no law. Even court cases have exonerated “tax evaders” on the grounds that nobody can find the law that gives the IRS their powers. Anyone that challenges the IRS on this matter will get no proof of the law and will trigger an audit.
https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173&q=freedom+to+fascism&pr=goog-sl
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.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China
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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. :)
Renee, you are right in that local provinces and business leaders run education, but in middle and senior schools only. Also, don’t forget that local governments and business leaders are members of the Communist Party and have associations with the Central Committee and Ministry of Education. You make it sound as if the common Chinese person can decide what goes on in schools through some kind of democratic elections. I know that China likes to refer to themselves as a “Republic” but that is hardly the case. I also researched this topic much further on more reputable websites. China’s Ministry of Education is very much in control of Chinese standards; in fact, the Ministry of Education solidified Chinese education under one government agency in the 1990’s. Chinese students must also pass “Ministry of Education” exams that focus on rote memorization rather than the ability to think. In fact, the Chinese government is obsessed with examinations, something Susie Schnell abhors. It is hard to fathom how one would desire to pattern our education system after China, especially when the Chinese Ministry of Education demands all students take political indoctrination courses and discourages the questioning of authority. Perhaps you want that for America? Political indoctrination courses to make every student a good “conservative” without question? The way the extreme right and left in this country is going, I wouldn’t be surprised.
On a side note: China has been making massive investments into their public education structure, something we have neglected here. They also have a national Teacher Day holiday and don’t require teachers to pay taxes on their incomes. I guess the one good thing about China’s system is that they make an effort to fund education and to respect their teachers rather than castigate them as enemies like our Utah politicians do, but that is about it.
You have to wonder why so many Chinese high school and college students come to America to participate in our so-called broken educational system.
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.
Thank you for your presentation and the many hours of research you have put into this. Few actually go beyond the initial concern to really look into what is behind a new state educational standard. It is usually after the fact that we (the majority) realize we should have asked more questions and looked at the source. Thank you for bring this issue to my attention.