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FrankRep
01-26-2010, 02:55 PM
As with the nationalization of the banking industry, auto industry, government health care, et al, the policies that could be a giant step toward nationalizing education are found in the program “Race to the Top,” (RTTT) a comprehensive education reform plan currently being pushed by the president. By Ann Shibler


Next Obama Push: Nationalization of Education (http://www.jbs.org/education-blog/5895-next-obama-push-nationalization-of-education)


Ann Shibler | John Birch Society (http://www.jbs.org/)
26 January 2010


As with the nationalization of the banking industry, auto industry, government health care, et al, the policies that could be a giant step toward nationalizing education are found in the program “Race to the Top” (RTTT), a comprehensive education reform plan currently being pushed by the president.

President Obama recently announced (see video below) his desire to extend the RTTT stimulus grant program and wants congress to approve $1.35 billion more for use in 2011, to be awarded to school districts and states that apply for, are approved, and sign on to the government’s requirements. Applicants for the money are supposed to be pursuing new reforms, higher test scores, and more teacher accountability in innovative ways.

In reality, the Race to the Top is a program that would centralize education further than it already is, taking control away from local elected school boards and the state, and place it squarely under the dictates of the federal government via a national curricula and a host of other federal requirements. This would be more than a little shift in the balance of federal involvement in education.

Easily recognized as No Child Left Behind on steroids, the expansion of RTTT even seeks to circumvent states’ authority by, in future, allowing individual districts to apply for grant money -- not an option in round one of the giveaway -- even though the state has opted out, as in the case of Texas (http://biggovernment.com/2010/01/15/texas-is-right-to-quit-the-race-for-the-top-education-program/).

YouTube - Race to the Top for Education Reform (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VQYAkMD7HE)

But even teachers’ unions in Michigan and Florida have recommended that districts not get involved with RTTT because of the possible ramifications teachers will face -- to quote one blogger Ken Mondschein, on thefastertimes.com (http://thefastertimes.com/academicpolitics/2010/01/23/race-to-the-top-a-bush-doctrine-in-obama-clothing-or-whats-wrong-with-public-education-part-2/):



The NCLB [No Child Left Behind] philosophy is even worse for teachers, who are expected to pull up test scores without looking at why they’re so low.... This gives not just an incentive for teachers to rig the test, but basically mandates that they cheat so that they can keep their jobs.


Mondschein also stated, “Teachers are forced to ‘teach to the test,’ making kids into bubble-filling machines rather than thinkers.”

In California the school districts are so concerned about the strings attached to the money that is being waved from the White House Oval Office window that they have refused to sign their state’s RTTT applications. If they can figure this out in California, surely it must be obvious to officials in other states as well.

The Department of Education agents and secretary, Arne Duncan, will literally become the High Lords of Education if this nationalization takes place, as will Education Czar Kevin Jennings. The personal agenda of these appointed non-accountable bureaucrats could easily be promoted through such a scheme.

And this is why: The new programs and reforms will be subject to the approval and meddling of these bureaucrats. The requirements, currently marketed as good ideas, will increase learning time as a prerequisite for receiving the money (a longer day, away from the influence of family and church?). And new programs that engage the family with the community, either through the creation of community-oriented schools, or a partnering with a community-based organization are encouraged. The community-based organization that instantly leaps into minds is ACORN, but there are others that could also have deleterious effects on impressionable students. There is also the call to create all-day pre-kindergarten (just have to get little minds and bodies into the hands of the federal change agents as quickly as possible).

Another call to partnering with “health clinics, other State or local agencies, and others to create safe school environments that meet students’ social, emotional, and health needs,” really raises a red flag. Imagine the possibilities! Under the social, emotional and health needs umbrella, the use of comprehensive indoctrination that ignores basic morals and hygiene and the destruction of parental values and morals can usher the students, at all ages, into the world of sex obsession, gender confusion, and all sorts of unhealthy sexual activity much quicker and on a more massive scale than is being accomplished up to the present. Enormous increases would result in all forms of promiscuous and perverted behaviors, and a rise in pre-teen and teen pregnancies, abortions, sexually transmitted diseases, and cancer -- a Planned Parenthood clinic owners’ dream, but the moral downfall of this nation’s youth.

As with so many federal handout programs, RTTT started out being billed as a one-time shot-in-the-arm for cooperative states, about which one senior official now says (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/0119/Obama-pushes-to-add-1.35-billion-to-Race-to-the-Top-grants), “you could envision this going on until we felt like we’ve made significant progress across the country.” Russ Whitehurst, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution commented, “I generally applaud this administration’s policies, but I worry about it in terms of that degree of authority being given to a secretary of education. Now we see a shift to a strategy where the US Education Secretary will be able to control a pot of $1 billion a year.... a remarkable shift in terms of the number of carrots in the basket that the federal government has to hand out.”

We really must relate to our obviously cash-strapped school districts and state governors that we are not interested in receiving bribes in exchange for the loss of local control and a massive increase in federal control of our children’s education, and to resist the temptation to apply for any federal money. We must insist that bribes be rejected, along with the standardized testing, national curricula, outcome based techniques, and any other stealthy-engineered changes in our children’s social and emotional development that could easily be wrought. And when it comes to health care, we must see to our children’s ourselves, totally rejecting any federal involvement, meddling, or decision-making.

Contact your congressmen today and insist that they refrain from further funding for RTTT. Then you can contact your local school board members to educate them on the issue, alerting them to the dangers of the unbreakable chains that come with federal money. It would behoove everyone to also contact their state legislators and their state governors, letting them know that withdrawal from federal money and control is the only solution for retaining any local determination in educational matters.


SOURCE:
http://www.jbs.org/education-blog/5895-next-obama-push-nationalization-of-education

FrankRep
02-01-2010, 05:44 PM
Email Congress:
http://www.votervoice.net/Core.aspx?AID=972&APP=GAC&IssueID=20433&SiteID=-1


Oppose Obama's Race to the Top Education Program


The Race to the Top (RTTT) is a competitive grant program (http://www.jbs.org/education-blog/5895-next-obama-push-nationalization-of-education) that pushes Obama’s comprehensive education reform package and its dictates onto school districts that volunteer to be grant recipients. For many school districts that have already suffered financial cutbacks, the temptation to sign up and forego local oversight in exchange for a subsidy and mandates is great indeed.

President Obama is set to ask Congress for an additional $1.35 billion to expand the program, with one senior official saying, “you could envision this going on until we felt like we’ve made significant progress across the country.”

The Race to the Top is, in reality, a program that would centralize education further than it already is, taking control away from local elected school boards and the state, placing it squarely under the dictates of the federal government via a national curricula, standardized testing, longer school days, a closer partnering with community-based organizations for expanded influence, expanded database systems, and added emphasis on students’ emotional and social development along with their personal health care.

Meaningful reform will happen only after we abandon the assembly line, one-size-fits-none pedagogy and return to the true basics of education controlled by elected school boards with parental input at the local level.

Contact your representative and senators in Congress today (http://www.votervoice.net/link/clickthrough/ext/87654.aspx) and insist that they refrain from further funding RTTT. Also contact your state legislators and your state governor (http://www.votervoice.net/link/clickthrough/ext/87655.aspx), letting them know that withdrawal from federal money and control is the only solution to retaining any amount of local determination in educational matters. Then you can engage your local school board members in a discussion to help educate them on the issue, alerting them to the dangers of the unbreakable chains that come with federal money.

Thank you,

John Birch Society
http://www.jbs.org/


Email Congress:
http://www.votervoice.net/Core.aspx?AID=972&APP=GAC&IssueID=20433&SiteID=-1

heavenlyboy34
02-07-2010, 09:25 PM
wow, I feel bad for the kids stuck in the system. :(

FrankRep
03-10-2010, 08:17 PM
Obama takes states to new low in Race to the Top (http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2010/03/10/obama-takes-states-to-new-low-in-race-to-the-top/)

Tenth Amendment Center (http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/)
10. Mar, 2010

Read:
http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2010/03/10/obama-takes-states-to-new-low-in-race-to-the-top/