Part One: HR 899’s background:
HR 899.(Termination of the U.S. Dept. of Education).
Warriors, according to the government records, this simple one sentence bill, which seems to hold SO much promise has a mile of agenda behind it.
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This summary (above) is from a government point of view, not a Warrior’s!
What is a Warrior’s viewpoint? Ultimately, it is to end ALL federal overreaches in education.
However, if we seek to accomplish this in the WRONG way, we’ll be doing more harm than good.
Warriors, remember, EVERY federal Cabinet level Agency has a Plan which includes THEIR overreach in education.
The overreach? Workforce based education via CTE (Career Tech Education and STEM; Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).
Our students/children do not need more complacency, they need protection. Warriors, we’ve been lied to enough!!
So “Whaddya Want?” One federal department shut down OR 100% removal of federally led education?! We cannot have both, at the same time, Warriors.
The Proof Against Fed Ed Bills:
Warrior and long-time education researcher/activist, Anita Hoge (March 2017) gave a brutally honest account of EXACTLY what HR 899 would do, if enacted. Anita’s article also gave you a reality check on some bills which are related.
(*Note: I took a researched look at some of the same related bills, due to their BS factor about ‘choice’ and published that in Feb. 2017).
In early March 2017, this article of mine showed how ‘stuck’ on education as the tool to boost the economy, Congress was and continues to be. This plays right into the massive data mining conducted on your students.
In May 2017, I showed you some federal legislative bills which want to use education as the excuse for MORE workforce alignment and training. These all play right into ESSA’s mandates.
In Sept. 2017, I gave you some more fed ed related bills where the U.S. Dept. of Ed’s authority is included. It also ties to ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act).
These Bills, including HR 899 are no REAL solutions, they help federal education overreaches stay in place.
Part Two: HR 1510
“Whaddya Want”, HR 1510?
THIS Bill’s name: ‘‘States’ Education Reclamation Act of 2017’’. That SOUNDS like music to a Warrior’s ears, right? Not so fast, let’s look at what’s contained in the 16 pages.
The ‘good’ stuff:
a) Admits that a federal Dept. of Education doesn’t reflect the U.S. Constitution’s intent.
b) Admits education is best carried out in the hands of parents, teachers, and their communities.
c) Admits our students are suffering. That the U.S. Dept. of Ed has weakened parent’s decision making, as well as undermine communities. Test scores are way down, too.
d) “The Department of Education has fostered over-regulation, standardization, bureaucratization, and litigation in United States education.” Then precedes to tell us some of the worst ways in which this has been done.
The ‘not-so-good’ stuff:
Woven in the ‘good’ stuff and just before the section where abolishing the U.S. Dept. of Education begins, is a double speak phrase which we shouldn’t overlook.
“The current system of top-down education uniformity is detrimental to local businesses and communities, the economic needs of the States, and the Nation’s ability to compete globally for jobs.”
Warriors, what happened to the student’s suffering? The parents being excluded?
The stuff which spells ‘trouble’:
a) Near the beginning of the Bill it is a bit unclear exactly WHAT part of the U.S. Dept. of Ed is being abolished. There is a tremendous amount of transferring FROM Ed to other Cabinet agencies.
b) Grants to the States for education at any level would come from the U.S. Treasury. This would invoke an ‘intergovermental financing’ requirements. (This includes the Pell Grants Programs and all Federal Student Loans). Cornell University explains how a intergovernmental financing situation would work. This increases fed-to-state strings.
c) The familiar ‘supply, not supplant’ federal government phrase. Warriors, how many times, especially in education, have we seen that work out in favor of ‘local control’? Also, the use of ‘non federal’ funds in every level of education???
d) States would have to enter into contracts for audits for compliance. Failure to comply means a 100% repayment to the Treasury Dept., no exceptions.
e) The U.S. Attorney General’s authority will be used to oversee the States in the use of their money.
f) The U.S. Dept. of Labor, by a transfer of power, would receive EVERY job training program currently housed in the U.S. Dept. of Education, under the CTE (Carl Perkins funded) programs. This would include STEM/STEAM, apprenticeships, CTE High Schools, and much more.
g) All IDEA programs, would by transfer, go to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (which under ESSA, HHS received a HUGE increase of overreach into education).
h) All U.S. Tribal education activities would, by transfer, go to the U.S. Dept. of the Interior.
i) All IES (Institute for Education Sciences) programs and activities would transfer to the U.S. Dept. of HHS. (Warriors, in other words, the massive data mining portions of ‘research’ on your students would go to HHS.)
j) The Government Accounting Office (within 90 days of HR 1510’s passage) would have to present a feasibility study report to BOTH the U.S. House of Representative’s Ed/Workforce Committee and the U.S. Senate’s HELP Committee. The Report would reveal the States’s ability to handle funding education from a local level (by reducing the federal tax burden) and how able are the U.S. agencies receiving all the transferred programs from U.S. Dept. of Education to maintain them.
Some Warnings:
1) The Bill started out with two co-sponsors, only one remains.
2) Rep. Rouzer’s committee and sub-committee assignments ? Funny thing is, not ONE of them is on an education committee or sub-committee. In fact, on his website’s “Issues” tab, education is absent. The closest thing to education are ‘economy and jobs’.
2a) One of my biggest questions is why is a Representative who is NOT involved directly in education, sponsoring such a Bill as ‘big’ as HR 1510? *Note: Rep. Rouzer’s office would not address this question in an email I sent.
2b) The Center for Responsive Politics (Open Secret website), shows Rep. Rouzer’s top campaign contributors include Lowe’s Home Improvement Company.
3) Lowe’s Home Improvement Company. Directly from their website comes this excerpt, “We believe education is the cornerstone to building bright futures and stronger communities. Our long-established commitment to improving educational opportunities is best exemplified by our signature education grant program, Lowe’s Toolbox for Education®. Since its inception in 2006, Lowe’s Toolbox for Education has contributed nearly $25 million to more than 5,400 schools in the United States.”
The website goes on to reveal that they belong to Skills USA (which is a huge CCSS Machine member group). In fact Lowe’s recently stated, “five-year, $1.5 million annual commitment” to Skills USA for one distinct reason, “support of trades education”.
4) My research on Skills USA created a two-part set of articles. In Part One, you’ll be able to learn how Skills USA has a say in curriculum used in education. In Part Two, you’ll see how the group supports ‘trades education’ or CTE (Career Tech Education) as the CCSS Machine calls it, as a sort of “Camelot” for America.
5) HR 1510’s process of closing the Dept. involves a Presidential issued plan given to Congress. I reached out several times to the Bill’s sponsor for clarification on this point, but have not received any word from the Representative or his Communications Director.
6) Of all the ‘trouble’ spots listed above, Warriors, did you notice ‘maintain’ Ed’s programs?
Part Three:
“Whaddya Want?” Let’s Review:
HR 1510 doesn’t Repeal ESSA OR Restore FERPA. It doesn’t rescind the EO (Executive Order) by Pres. Obama which gutted FERPA. As long as FERPA remains ‘as is’, massive data mining on your students will be maintained!
****As long as ESSA is ‘maintained’, the Social Emotional mind-warping education will be ‘maintained’; the career assessments and pigeon-holing of your student’s courses will remain ‘as is’; the wrap around, community wide family overreaches will be ‘maintained’; the low-performing schools being transformed into charter schools will continue to march on; the fallacies behind the ‘school choice’ via education savings accounts will also be ‘maintained’, and on and on.***
Warriors, as long as we seek to abolish the U.S. Dept. of Ed without FIRST repealing or restoring the laws connected to the Department, we are going to help play into the hands of the CCSS Machine!
Seasoned Education Warriors have been quoted at some point and time over the past 20+ years which echo this truth!
Yes, end U.S. Dept. of Ed, but do if CAREFULLY. Neither HR 899 or HR 1510 do this. Both THESE Bills transfer the problems.
Closing:
Warriors, I know we’re impatient. We want a solution NOW. But, consider the students. Do you think they’re rather have the problems in their classroom solved and done away with or do you think they’d like to see the problems passed down a pipeline of deceit?
As long as you and your colleagues continue to bash the good work of other activists with the same goals, you are hurting the movement. And, if you repeal ESSA, that only gives you NCLB. You have the wrong target.
While I appreciate your viewpoint, I would like to remind you that I did not, in any of my articles recently, ‘bash’ any certain group. I have not named names, nor do I plan to. Our battle shouldn’t be against each other, this is a War Against the CCSS Machine.
When I took up my education activist hat it was to serve in honesty with truthful evidence. I was not seeking fame or glory. I was AND am still committed to this course. If you choose to not like the demise in education we are seeing, that is your choice. It is NOT my fault. If you choose to ignore the evidence, again, your choice; NOT my lie.
In-fighting is exactly what I’ve been warning against, Mrs. Few. Working together is something I’ve suggested in each article, but no responses with the exception of accusations have been the result.
My focus is doing what’s right because it is the right thing to do, not because it’s popular.
Lynne, you may not have bashed any group, but you did bash our goals and linked an article by Anita that bashed our group of activists. I certainly don’t “choose to not like the demise in education we are seeing in education,” nor do I “choose to ignore the evidence”. Those statements are simply preposterous and to my point. I have reached out to Alice and so has Melanie Kurdys in an effort to request collaboration. Can you point out to me where in each article you have suggested working together. Doing what’s right is working together and seeing the value in each others goals, not looking for the bad, which is what I see in your public denouncements and the ones you link in your articles.
I did not read any bashing of any person or group in this article. The only thing presented in this article are the facts about HR1510 (which shuts down the department and moves all functions to other departments) and HR899 (a one sentence bill to shut down the department). Should have also included HR610(repeal ESEA and create a federal voucher system). HR899 if passed will end up being a conglomeration of HR1510 and HR610. Nothing happens in DC for the benefit of our children even when a good man like Rep. Massie and the good intentions of patriots is behind it. They will chew him up and spit him out. Do we really think the movers and shakers that are making billions from education are really going to sit still for closing the department? The only way they would do that is with a guarantee that the money and control continues to roll from DC to them. I wish anyone that is fighting against the system all the best of luck. But having a differing opinion is not bashing. It is just that, a differing opinion. This attack on Ms. Taylor is the typical reaction of someone that feels threatened and has no better defense than to attack. What is taking place in education today is not an American driven agenda it is global. It is the agenda to change the culture of Americans and citizens all around the world to a Communist world view. Ms. Taylor did not say to roll back ESSA she said it should be repealed. Rolling back ESSA will not revert us back to NCLB. There is plan to do this without rolling back the hands of time. In the meantime I think it would behoove us all to do whatever we can to get our children off the battlefield why we all work to do whatever we can to one day bring about change. But this battle will be a long one. Most of us have already spent many years fighting the destruction of education and the indoctrination of our children. The more people working this issue the better. We may not succeed but we are by hell going to fight and try. In the meantime, I highly recommend any parent than can please get your kids out of the public school system. It is time to STARVE THE BEAST. I believe a lot more parents could make this happen if they just re-prioritized what is important. A new cell phone, $100 sneakers, new car, big house, vacations or making temporary sacrifices for your child’s future freedom and liberty.
Karen, I am sorry that you saw my comment as an attack. I am certainly not threatened by Lynne or Anita, or any other members of your group. That insult was not necessary. My comments come from frustration over Lynne and Anita’s continued attacks on our efforts especially when they have not taken into account our overall strategy, which encompasses your goals. When someone publicly asserts their opinion, they should be open to critique. Lynne linked Anita’s attack article, which specifically attacked USPIE and our efforts. Furthermore, rolling back and repealing are two different strategies. None of us want NCLB back, we all want to repeal ESEA and since we have common goals, we should be working together rather than bashing strategies or groups of activists. USPIE leaders spent an entire week at our own expense in D.C. meeting with Education and Workforce Committee members and major think tanks a few weeks ago sharing our Blueprint for ending ALL federal education mandates (found at uspie.org) and calling for hearings on 899. We, and most we met with don’t expect 899 to pass, but we believe hearings on the bill is a good first step and will illuminate the national conversation for our shared goals. Repealing ESSA is one of our steps outlined in the Blueprint and we spoke highly of your efforts with everyone for which we met in D.C. It was in sharing our strategy that major think tanks pointed out that we may want to reword our step to repealing ESEA as repealing ESSA would only result in a return to NCLB. I first shared this privately with Alice Linahan by phone and asked her to share it with you and your colleagues. We are sharing this with your group because we want you to be successful in your efforts. I am asking that we support one another and see the positive aspects of collaboration where we share goals. As you know, it is not the first time Anita has bashed USPIE and she made accusations that were untrue when you were involved with our efforts. We have to stop killing our own for the sake of the nation’s children. This is what I said to Lynne: these actions hurt our movement.
Read Vicki Alger’s book: Failure: The Misedukation of America’s Children (mis-spelling intentional), especially the Chapter on Abolishing the Federal Department Brick-by-Brick and then let’s have a discussion. I agree that the programs overseen by FED ED should NOT be moved to other departments except for the 4 mentioned by Dr. Alger. However, ESSA has no teach when there is no FED ED. FED ED supports about 9% of education costs, but controls 100%. Get rid of FED ED and you get rid of their meddling in IDEA which can be handled much more effectively, efficiently, and morally by states. Get rid of FED ED and every state can get rid of CCSS if they wish. Once you get rid of FED ED you can take the fight to state Depts of Ed and actual legislators that YOU do have control over. GOAL: Return control of education to parents and local communities. FIRST STEP to acheive goal: Abolish the Federal Department of Education and return the money to the taxpayers! Thank you for your consideration.