Share this:

 

 

 

 

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 bill sounds friendly, but it is not friendly. Any initiative that shifts the center of a child’s universe away from home, church and family to snatch family authority and personal privacy while it strengthens government’s authority over almost every aspect of a life, is communism.  History and religion have repeatedly warned us against communism. But here it is, posing as “social justice” and “community schools”.

 

 

S1787 will grant the wish that  US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan dreamed would come true.  Years ago, Duncan wished to see schools as the center of a child’s life and society, with 14 hour school days and 7 day per week schedules.   Watch this 44 second clip.

 

So what’s the tyrrany of  S1787?  It creates micromanagement of students and intrudes into families.  Powerfully fueled by data mining, including many government agencies outside school agencies,  it will dangle grant money carrots in front of communities in exchange for greater federal power over the local community.  It seeks to take over the local community agenda (not just the school community– the entire community’s agenda) and to absorb family time.

How?  Community schools can control (“assist”) individuals because they are astronomically empowered to know everything about a child, by nonconsensual data collecting and by the wide open data-mashing that has been happening –between state and federal lines (Study the State Longitudinal Database Systems, the Common Core of Data, the SIF interoperability frameworks) –and across state and private lines (Study the private CCSSO’s partnership with the US Department of Education and with State Higher Ed in promoting Common Educational Data Standards and the Data Quality Campaign).

 

 

With a society  increasingly forgetting the protections of the Constitution and increasingly buying into the nanny-knows-best philosophy of government, few people are standing against the nonconsensual collection of personally identifiable data. Ignorance or tolerance by the people is making individuals’ data-life-takeover possible.

Recall that this communistic, centrally-managed direction is the one in which our US Secretary of Education has been pushing us, unconstitutionally, for years.

In a December 2012 speech Duncan clearly stated:

“…We have pursued a cradle-to-career agenda, from early childhood programs through postsecondary graduation… [the] final core element in our strategy is promoting a career-to-cradle agenda.” 

He also said: “we have to learn to think very, very differently about time. I think our school day is too short.  I think our school week is too short.  I think our school year is too short.”

Years ago, Duncan wrecked privacy regulations (FERPA) and punched out parental rights by reducing the requirement that agencies get parental consent prior to sharing student data.  He also altered the definition of the term “education program”.  It now “includes, but is not limited to” a long, long list of programs that are to be called education programs “regardless of whether the program is administered by an educational authority.”

Community schools are “social justice” (and communism) in action.  There is no representation of individuals.  There is no privacy. Nobody gets to opt out.  Personal data of a medical, academic, mental, familial, or any other type, belongs to the nanny government. In fact, individuals owe themselves as human capital to the government.  It’s in the language of the bill. In community schools, HIPPA (medical privacy rights) protections do not exist because FERPA (school privacy nonrights) usurps them.  Your child has fewer privacy rights than ever in a community school.

Please don’t think it’s only academic scores that are being collected.  Remember that Comrade Duncan also altered the term “personally identifiable information,” which now includes biometric data —meaning psychological and biological data:  “a record of one or more measurable biological or behavioral characteristics that can be used for automated recognition of an individual. Examples include fingerprints; retina and iris patterns; voiceprints; DNA sequence; facial characteristics; and handwriting.”

So how could a student retain private records of a medical, mental health, academic, or family nature, under S1787?  The whole purpose of the community school is to mesh and mash records and services.

Lest there be any confusion or name calling (“conspiracy wacko!”) remember that neither the data grab nor the push toward communism is theoretical or hidden.  It is promoted by notable congressmen and the US Secretary of Education.  Just study the words of Secretary Duncan and Congressman Fattah (PA) and Congressman Honda (CA) who were were the architects  of the education redistribution program known as The Equity and Excellence Commission. Congressman Fattah explained: “The Equity and Excellence Commission…that has been established by Secretary Arne Duncan will begin to close the gap in resource distribution between rich and poor…”

Duncan prefers the term “social justice” over the term “communism.”  But he fights for it!  At a University of Virginia speech, Duncan said:  “Great teaching is about so much more than education; it is a daily fight for social justice.”  At an IES research conference, he said: “The fight for quality education is about so much more than education. It’s a fight for social justice.” 

The truth is that social justice is the opposite of justice.  It is forced financial equality; it means wealth and property theft and redistribution, Animal Farm style. It is communism. And there’s only one way to enforce it: top down, heavy-handed government force.

S1787 means to reassign authority (from families to governments) to crush independent businesses and churches (in favor of government-partnered ones) and to redistribute money and resources –without the consent of the people who owned and earned them.

I’m sure by now you want to see if this is really true.  Time to look at the language of the bill.  I’ll pose questions before each bill citation to help clarify.

 

• Does the bill turn students into government resources rather than free agents?  Yes.

“engage students as resources to their communities”  -Section 5701, Purposes.

“Students are contributing to their communities.” – Section 5703

• Does the bill dramatically increase the role of the government school in society?  Yes.

“provides access to such services to students, families, and the community, such as access during the school year (including before- and after-school hours and weekends), as well as during the summer.” – Section 5702

• Does the bill mesh and other socialist programs, such as ObamaCare, into schools?  Yes.

” …to coordinate and integrate educational, developmental, family, health, and other comprehensive services”-Section 5702

“Access to health care and treatment of illnesses demonstrated to impact academic achievement.”

• Does the bill integrate families into its programs without their informed consent?  Yes.

” …to coordinate and integrate educational, developmental, family, health, and other comprehensive services”-Section 5702

“Participation rates by parents and family members in school-sanctioned activities” – Section 5703

• Does the  bill aim to influence or control children’s psychological or behavioral development under government authority?

” …to coordinate and integrate educational, developmental, family, health, and other comprehensive services”-Section 5702

• Is the federal government to bribe schools to give away data about the students, families, and other residents of the community?  Yes.

To get a financial grant, communities must hand over “A needs assessment that identifies the academic, physical, social, emotional, health, mental health, and other needs of students, families, and community residents.”  -Section 5703

Also, to get and keep federal money, communities must show that “Families are supportive and engaged in their children’s education.” (Section 5703) How does a community measure that metric?  And, if I am an opponent (nonsupporter) of Common Core or other school-adopted programs, am I to be labeled “not supportive and engaged in my child’s education”?  What’s the consequence to me?

• Does the bill discourage data collection opt-outs by families, by requiring multiple test measure, including inviting stealth (hidden) assessment of students?  Yes.

“Multiple objective measures of student achievement, including assessments, classroom grades, and other means of assessing student performance.” – 5703

• Does the bill encourage state workers to inspect families in their homes?  Yes.

“Nurse home visitation services” and  “Teacher home visiting” and “Programs that promote parental involvement” are “qualified services” under this bill.

Remember, a “service” is not necessarily optional in the world of big government (think: compulsory education, nonconsensual data collection).

• What non-academic or after-academic programs are included?

“expanded learning time,” “summer” learning experiences, “after school” experiences, “early childhood education,” “remedial education activities,”  “expanded learning time,” “programs under the Head Start Act,” “Programs that promote parental involvement,” “mentoring and other youth development programs,” “conflict mediation,” “Parent leadership development activities,” “Parenting education activities,” “Child care services” “Community service and service-learning opportunities,” “nurse home visitation services” and  “teacher home visiting” and “programs that promote parental involvement” “physical education,” “Programs that provide assistance to students who have been truant, suspended, or expelled” (so you can’t get kicked out/freed no matter what you do), “Job training, internship opportunities, and career counseling services,” “Nutrition services,” “Primary health and dental care,” “Mental health counseling services,” “Adult education,” “Juvenile crime prevention and rehabilitation programs,” “Specialized instructional support services,” “Homeless prevention services,” “Other services.”

(Does this sound like a gigantic community prison to anyone?  If American schools become these community schools, and all communities become sucked into this web of “services,” there will be nowhere to run.  If parents aren’t “supportive and engaged” in this paradigm, they will be reeducated in “parenting education activities” or “parent leadership development activities”.  A person can’t even escape by expulsion from school, because rehab and community service hours take place on campus, too.  Nor can anyone escape by running away because they have “homeless prevention services.”)

•  Is there any local control in these schools?  No.

There is no representation by those governed under the community schools act.  The rulers are to be a five member,  unelected, un-repealable advisory committee, federally appointed, that will call the shots for community schools.  It will include:  “The Secretary of Education (or the Secretary’s delegate) The Attorney General of the United States (or the Attorney General’s delegate) The Secretary of Agriculture (or the Secretary’s delegate) The Secretary of Health and Human Services (or the Secretary’s delegate)  The Secretary of Labor”. – Section 5705

We are living in an upside down, black-is-white, bad-is-good, liars’ world of ed reform.

As Stanley Kurtz wrote, “you’ve got to understand the Orwellian world of Common Core advocacy, where day is night, war is peace…” and realize that “the whole trick of Common Core is to make an end-run around the legal and constitutional barriers… even as you deny that you’re doing it.”  Just as Common Core proponents “concocted a fiction” pretending that “Common Core was state led using the fig leaf of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA)”, and just as the “Student Success Act” and “Every Child Achieves Act” talking points say one thing, but the actual, buried legal language create the opposite: less and less and less and less freedom for the individual student, teacher, or family– so, too, S1787 wears a false mask.

Unlike true benevolence or community care, these ed reform initiatives carry the weight of compliance and are not based in free will or personal agency.  Forcing, even out of care, is still forcing.  And robbing, even if the purpose is to share, is still robbing.

In S1787, proponents have again concocted a fiction that their Full Services Community Schools Act will empower parents, bless children, and benefit communities. Few things could be further from the truth.

 

 

Share this:

Recognizing an American Hero: John Saxon

by Nakonia (Niki) Hayes

This article, found at Education Views, introduces John Saxon, whose math materials are used by one million home schooled students today.  Saxon’s textbooks are found in Arizona’s BASIS schools, as well as in private schools and some public schools across the country.  

Both this article and the book about John Saxon are written by Niki Hayes, who has given permission to repost the article here. 

Seeking recognition for a hero in mathematics education may be a waste of time since so many Americans’ eyes glaze over at the mere mention of the word “math.” Too many claim they don’t like math, can’t do math, or don’t want even to think about math. (This phenomenon is found only in America. Interestingly, such attitudes are not heard in Third World countries that produce strong math students.)

So what’s the point in looking at an American math hero now? Maybe recognizing a math teacher-turned-millionaire-author-and-publisher who took a beating for 15 years from the powerful math education establishment will help refuel the parents and citizens—those special “Davids”—who are stepping up to fight the unified Goliaths of Common Core.

His enemies, who are among today’s Goliaths, will sneer upon hearing his name: John Saxon. They still refuse to accept the results of his “common sense genius” in teaching K-12 mathematics.

Saxon literally popped onto the national math education scene unexpectedly and uninvited in 1981 after self-publishing his first algebra textbook. Reformist authors, who quickly became his opponents, were claiming that making math more fun and “relevant” to girls and minorities was the answer to getting higher scores on international tests. He said his proven book was user-friendly and historically-based and was the answer for all students. They said his ideas worked only for white males and Asians because American girls and minorities couldn’t think analytically or with deductive reasoning. He called them racist and sexist. War was declared on Saxon with all the might of federal, state, and local resources of the math education leadership.

He had no idea that he, in turn, would ultimately choose to be a catalyst for the “math wars” that erupted among parents, school districts, and state textbook committees in the 1990s, and that the results of his promoting parent empowerment for a decade might help set up the battles by parents against Common Core.

Saxon was simply a retired U.S. Air Force officer who had begun teaching algebra to students in night classes at Oscar Rose Junior College in Oklahoma in 1970. Having taught engineering at the U.S. Air Force Academy, he discovered woeful deficiencies in his community college students’ basic math skills. Determining they were capable of learning but that they had not been taught those basic skills, he began creating specially-designed worksheets of problems for his students over the next five years, with step-by-step procedures and a use of creative repetition for continuous practice. By 1975, he had a manuscript that the junior college print shop mimeographed and collated for the students.

Then in 1980, after a year-long pilot study in 20 Oklahoma public schools with amazing results (monitored by the Oklahoma chapter of the American Federation of Teachers), Saxon was ready to publish his book in hardback for any school that taught a first year algebra course. He was rebuffed by six publishers in New York City because he wasn’t “a member of a math education committee.” One other publisher did suggest, however, that he publish the book himself. Borrowing $80,000, Saxon did just that. When he died in 1996, Saxon Publishers in Norman, Oklahoma, had sales of $27 million. When his company was sold in 2004, the reported selling price was $100 million.

For those 15 years as a teacher, author, and publisher, Saxon found himself on the defensive against not only government bureaucrats, but the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), a powerful special interest group with political ties to the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The followers of NCTM were receiving large federal grants to write reform math materials that promoted equity over excellence as the new American goal in mathematics. They did not want to share their bounty and prestige with an outsider who wasn’t even “trained” as a teacher. Worse, he disagreed with their equity ideology as the new function of math education.

They attacked his traditional content with no pictures as boring and “drill and kill.” He had refused to put color photos in his books, saying that such space and costs should be used for showing examples on how to work the problems rather than promoting social justice. He insisted on incremental development with one lesson per day, his unique creative repetition, and no separate chapters which he called “hunk learning”—i.e., students trying to consume a major concept and moving on to the next hunk even if they hadn’t digested the previous one. He required a test after every five lessons so reteaching, if needed, could be planned immediately. And, unbelievably, students were not allowed to use calculators for daily work or tests until the eighth grade. (That’s still true today with Saxon Math.)

Saxon scoffed when reformists insisted that historically-proven mathematics, which had been developed over 2,000 years by diverse cultures from around the world, was effective only with “white males” in America—and “Asians.” Then, he would explode with anger over what he called disastrous teaching materials and methods being purchased without proof of their results.

The biggest surprise to the leaders was when Saxon bought full-page advertisements in mathematics journals, magazines and major newspapers to respond to the charges laid against him and his work. As a World War II veteran, West Point graduate, Korean War combat pilot awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and a Vietnam veteran, Saxon was a fully trained and experienced warrior who was now fighting “a good war” for children in American mathematics education. Later described as the “George Patton of math education,” Saxon saw no purpose in losing any battle and was not averse to launching a frontal assault. He often got bloodied, but so did they.

As a man with three degrees in engineering, he also knew about the use of mathematics in the real world, including flying airplanes in life and death situations. He ridiculed the elitists’ feigned “real world” problems in textbooks. Saxon wasn’t about to back down from those he thought were promoting their ideology in textbooks and not proving their programs’ results before launching them into schools. “Results matter,” he kept saying, and he had reams of results to show that his textbooks were working.

He constantly called on parents to step forward and fight the new “fuzzy math” programs. Some parents finally did come out swinging in California and in 1994 led a major change in that state’s curriculum standards. That parental action is being repeated now across America regarding Common Core.

Some of his opponents literally cheered when he died. They still hate him today, 18 years after his death. Schools of education that train teachers dismiss his work even though many of his warnings about their programs have come true:

• Use of calculators too early ruins students’ acquisition of basic skills, many of which must be learned by memorization, such as multiplication facts and mental math.
• Not understanding the importance of algebra—true algebra—at the eighth grade level as the gateway subject for later entry into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) would prevent many students from entering those fields and leave America short-handed for individuals who could help provide growth and development of the country.
• Turning teacher-facilitated, rather than teacher-led, classrooms into discovery fun fests with lots of conversation, written explanations of problem-solving, and a focus on non-competitive, differentiated learning found math classrooms that included the weakest to the gifted student. “White males,” gifted children, and Asians were effectively ignored. Process, not the results, was to be enjoyed. Saxon warned this would cause both girls and boys of all races to be in remedial math classes in college, which would negate many of their career choices. Seventy to ninety percent of community college students are indeed enrolled in remedial math today. Up to forty percent must take it in four-year colleges. Common Core proponents claim they will change that statistic—with their weakened math program that even their leaders admit won’t prepare students for STEM careers.

John Saxon’s Story, a genius of common sense in math education, is the biography of a man who fought for his country in three wars and then, in an unexpected second career, for American children in mathematics education. He became, and still is, a real hero to millions of children:

A class of eighth graders in a Spokane, WA, Catholic school put his algebra book on the church’s altar at Thanksgiving in 1985 because of their appreciation for its impact on their learning. The Window Rock High School Navajo students in Fort Defiance, AZ, chose him as their graduation speaker over the state’s governor in 1992. His materials are used by one million home schooled students today and his textbooks are found in Arizona’s successful BASIS charter schools, as well as in private schools and smaller public schools across the country.

The biography is filled with facts and stories of his successes, as well as an honest portrayal of a colorful, eccentric man “cursed with clarity” who proved to be a born teacher as well as a born warrior. All proceeds from the biography go to West Point’s Department of Mathematical Sciences in honor of LTC (Ret.) John Harold Saxon, Jr. More can be learned about John Saxon and the book at http://saxonmathwarrior.com. (A free 16-page booklet can also be downloaded.)