On January 30, 2018, Jane Robbins, a lawyer with the American Principles Project, testified to Congress’s House Education and Workforce Committee.  She strongly opposed the recommendations of the Commission on Evidence-based Policy (CEP) that there should be an expansion of federal agencies’ access to data collected on U.S. citizens, or that there should be permission […]

Dear Superintendent Dickson, State School Board, Diana Suddreth, Rich Nye, Governor Herbert, Tami Pyfer, and Legislators, To what degree does Utah maintain constitutional control over science education? I’m writing to clarify whether Utah has or has not adopted controversial, common science standards (NGSS) and whether we are using those non-approved standards in current or future […]

  Dear President Trump,  There’s danger in the “Evidence Based Policy” bill that the majority of Congress just passed— oddly without any hearing or any debate— which you now will either sign into law or veto. I’m praying you’ll veto; praying you’ll remember your campaign promise in New Hampshire to protect privacy rights. You said, […]

  The purpose of this post is to ask you to testify this week to the newly created White House Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking (CEP)– either online or in person— against CEP’s idea of studying to remove protective barriers on unit-level data for federal access and policymaking. Here’s why.   Apparently chafing against constitutional and tech barriers […]

At the #AboutTheChild conference in Houston last week, B&L Network speakers said that even in the middle of a struggle we might seem to be losing, we have great power and great hope. Although America is seeing dangerous shifts in who can and who cannot amend tests, in who controls (and does not protect) children’s data;  in who gets to redefine even babies’ “educations” as a collective-economy-purposed thing; while we […]

I know this might be boring. I know there are five hundred things you could be doing.  But this will take awhile. SETRA, or “Strengthening Education Through Research Act,” a federal bill that passed the U.S. Senate on December 17th has not yet passed the House of Representatives, and must not. (Call 202-224-3121 to speak to […]

ESEA, a huge bill about data and federal roles in local education, is being rammed through in the dark.  The vote is in a week and there’s no access to the final bill yet.  Senator Lee is right.  This process is wrong. Don’t let a handful of people decide for the entire elected Congress and the entire population […]

People throw around the word “Orwellian”. What does “Orwellian” mean, and how does it relate to education –and to our current president’s latest softening commentary about high stakes testing? George Orwell showed, in his books 1984 and Animal Farm, how tyranny looks, works, stomps on the individual and suffocates freedom.  He could have been describing Obama’s CEDS/SLDS/EdFacts data exchange in […]

    1.  THE TESTS HAVE NEVER BEEN VALIDATED.  It is out of the norm for tests to be given to children that never have been validated in a formal, scientific, peer-reviewed way.  Professor Tienken of Seton Hall University calls this “dataless decision making“.  What does it mean to a mom or dad to hear […]

Senator “Let’s-Don’t-Talk-About-Common-Core” LaMar Alexander  has proposed a bill to amend  ESEA (No Child Left Behind Act) in order “to restore freedom”. The bill is called the “Every Child Ready for College or Career Act of 2015“. I read the 387-pager after I learned that education experts, slated to testify against the bill, had abruptly been dismissed and were told […]

I  love to watch my favorite thinkers from the left and the right wing agree that “college- and career- ready standards” or Common Core– aka ObamaCore –along with its CEDS  data-grabbing plot in cahoots with the CCSSO — is utterly unacceptable and has got to go.   Today I read Stanley Kurtz (conservative writer) who praised Diane Ravitch (liberal writer) for her public call for Congressional hearings […]

This week, a group of Florida parents, supported by parents and educators nationwide, released an executive order, demanding an end to Common Core and the parentally unauthorized student data mining that’s taking place in every state. As parents, we claim the privilege of directing our childrens’ educations, free from SLDS (state longitudinal database tracking systems), […]

On Wednesday, I gave this talk at the Governor Hill Mansion in Augusta, Maine. I spoke alongside Erin Tuttle, Indiana mother against Common Core; Jamie Gass, of Pioneer Institute; Heidi Sampson, board member of the Maine State School Board, and Erika Russell, Maine mother against Common Core. I hope to publish the other speakers’ speeches […]

In today’s Deseret News opinion piece, Matt Sanders makes the observation that similar, disturbing trends make the National Security Administration’s actions and the Department of Education’s actions snooping mirror images of each other. These trends are First Amendment violations, government overreach, and cradle to grave data tracking. The article also makes the point that on […]

On August 9, 2012, two groups sent a mass mailer to all legislators in Utah. The two groups are  Prosperity 2020,   a business group led by our Governor, and a politcal action group Education First, who say they are a business-led movement concered with accountability.   They do explain that their vision is to “champion educational investment,” but they […]

My brother called the other day to ask me what I thought of the radio ads for “Prosperity 2020.” In my gut I knew there was something bad about it, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.  But thanks to Professor Steven Yates’ white paper on the subject of public-private partnerships, now I get it. It […]

Declaration of Independence from Common Core –inspired by the 1776 Declaration of Independence February 5, 2013. When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary…[for parents and teachers] to dissolve the [educational policy] bands which have connected them with [Common Core Governance] and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which […]

The Wasatch County Republican Party has invited citizens to write essays answering the question: “How do conservative principles impact the happiness and prosperity of all Americans?” The winning essay will be presented at next week’s Lincoln Day breakfast, where Utah’s Governor Herbert, Senator Van Tassel, Senator Chaffetz, Representative Powell and many others will be in […]

    What Thomas Jefferson wrote matters:  government gets its power “from the consent of the governed.” Without the consent of the people who are being told what to do, there is not a good or free government, but a system of subtle (or not-so-subtle) oppression. Common Core is a system of oppression, by this definition.  How? […]

This site is written by  Christel Lane Swasey.  In the photo above, I’m the one on the left.   I met Renee Braddy (middle) and Alisa Ellis (right) after I saw their school board presentation on educational freedom, which is the fight against Common core.  It is on YouTube:  Two Moms Against Common Core.  http://youtu.be/Mk0D16mNbp4 .  A mutual friend sent […]

My husband often says, “Truth is truth, whether people believe it or not.” Here’s the truth that even the Common Core’s lead architect, David Coleman, and its main funder, Bill Gates openly admitted in the videos below:  The Common Core was never state led.  If it had been, it would have been constitutionally legitimate.  It […]

        An anti-family bill, a communist’s dream bill, is sitting in the U.S. Senate right now.  It’s called S1787, The Full Service Community Schools Act (bill’s  full text is here; promoters’ talking points, here.) To take action to prevent it from becoming law, contact the U.S. Senate: contact information is here. This […]

  You can’t blame people– even Congressmen themselves–  for not wanting to get involved in the current rewrite of ESEA/NCLB.  The hundreds of pages of bill language and amendments are intimidating –and boring. But boring and intimidating or not, if we believe in “consent by the governed” then, as the governed, we must pay attention. […]

The Utah Attorney General (AG) recently issued a report about Common Core.  I’m grateful that Common Core concerns are receiving much-needed attention, rather than being dismissed as unfounded. I thank the Attorney General for his time spent on this issue.  But the report is egregiously errant. I’m just a full-time mom, not a lawyer.  Though […]

Paul Ryan did not mention Common Core at last month’s Independence Day address at Hillsdale college.  But the Wisconsin Congressman’s speech, called “Renewing the American Idea,”   had everything to do with what this blog stands for.  When Ryan spoke about discerning between” measures that conform to the American Idea and those that weaken or conflict […]

I wrote this essay for the Libertas Institute essay contest. If you like it, please click on “like” at the Libertas link before August 22nd 2014, and share it so that I have a shot at the prize for the most “like”s. Thank you. Also, thanks to Libertas for asking Utah citizens to think and […]

What Is Common Core?  This post aims to be as unmistakably direct and documented as possible.    Feel free to use it without asking permission. DOES  COMMON CORE PREPARE STUDENTS FOR COLLEGE? Not for a 4-year university.  It minimally prepares students for the non-collegiate workforce or for non-selective community colleges. A key Common Core creator, Jason Zimba, said […]

The story of Common Core and data mining begins as most stories do, with a huge, unmet need. Self-appointed “stakeholder” know-it-alls at the federal level (also at state, corporate, and even university levels) determined that they had the right, and the need, for open access to personal student data– more so than they already had. […]

In January 1986 I was a high school student in Orlando, watching out the window as the Challenger Space Shuttle launched about fifty miles away. Christa MacAuliffe, the first teacher in space, was being launched with a seven member crew. Then we all saw the explosion in the sky. The plumes represented total failure and […]

Common Core Concerns Please click on the links to get to the original source documents that verify Common Core does far more damage than good. The Race to the Top Grant Application – In this, Utah got points toward possibly winning grant money. Points were awarded in this application for the state’s having a student-tracker, […]

Here’s an update for everyone here in the Heber Valley who didn’t attend tonight’s Wasatch School District presentation.  It was given by State Assistant Superintendent Judy Park  on the new Common Core SAGE (American Institues for Research) tests. If you live in Utah, please check the schedule and make sure you and everyone on your block attends when […]

  Rod Arquette hosts national education experts: James Gass of Pioneer Institute, Emmett McGroarty of American Principals Project, Bill Evers of Hoover Institute at Stanford, and Kent Talbert, D.C. lawyer and former counsel to Department of Education. Photo taken the day before the public forum in Salt Lake City. On July 10th, 2012, a public forum was […]

https://sites.google.com/site/wasatchlive2/  You can listen to archives from the Impact Show with Bob Wren and Paul Royall on KTMP 1340 AM by clicking and making an account (free) and downloading (free). I’ve been listening to Thursday’s show, where half of the Wasatch School Board made a guest appearance with Bob and Paul.  I’ve also been listening to Monday and […]