Pull quotes:

“Consider the recent history of high stakes testing in the state of Washington. We spent more than a decade and a billion dollars on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) only to find that the test was deeply flawed…..”

“The truth is that as long as we try to force every kid through a one size fits all system we will never see improvement. No other country in the world is running an education system on the pretense that all students are the same and as long as we pursue that folly we will continue to waste precious resources and fall further behind our competitors.”

Read the commentary by Bob Dean

The Department of Education’s Race to the Top initiative, along with it’s components, including the Common Core State Standards, are questionable on so many levels. They are the Executive Branch’s attempt to do the Congress’s job and make education law. Furthermore, education isn’t even a federal enumerated power.

Race to the Top funding was placed in the 2009 Stimulus Bill.

We are glad that some lawmakers are now taking notice and taking action. Senator Grassley has written a letter and has invited his fellow senators to sign on. Read the letter.

We urge all the Senators to sign on to restore sovereignty to the states, and to restore respect for the separation of powers.

One of the functions of education is to pass the history, culture, and values from one generation to the next. In this regard, the Common Core State Standards’ chopping off many of the classic samples of traditional literature will effectively insure that the next generation will NOT know America’s classic literature, nor the values it embodied.

Read the analysis by Sandra Stotsky.

“Very few U.S. citizens want to see their government even slightly imitate that of China, which keeps dossiers on all citizens’ performance and attitudes. These records influence work, political, and school opportunities. Because “everything they do will be recorded for the rest of their life …” read more

And in another article: “Over the past 18 months, a massive $100 million public-school database spearheaded by the $36.4 billion-strong Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been in the making that freely shares student information with private companies…” “…..Yet the company which will manage this information says in its company documentation, “cannot guarantee the security of the information stored … or that the information will not be intercepted when it is being transmitted…..” read more…

“Anytime you’ve got a one size fits all attitude regarding education, it’s never good for the students, the parents, or education in general,..”

Have you been hearing about the “Common Core State Standards”? Here is a video which explains the frightening concept and which explains that this is just one component of a larger agenda. The speaker, Jane Robbins of the American Principles Project, begins the explanation with the Race to the Top program, but the roots of transformation of education began decades ago. A significant year was 1965 when federal moneys were first given to states bringing federal mandates to local districts, and another critical year was 1994 when Goals 2000 and the School-to-Work Opportunities Act were passed. President Obama’s Race to the Top program is the most recent step in the destruction of American education. Local control has been systematically destroyed. Please watch all five parts of this video.

All Charter schools must follow the same learning standards as each other and as the public schools, according to the initiative. Read more about this….

Bar-coding and data-archiving information on your children in a free country? In the USA? Don’t say it couldn’t happen. It already is happening. Read J.R. Wilson’s article from Education News .

The political caucuses for 2012 are coming up. Here are some resolutions to submit at your respective caucus meetings.

The disturbing education issue that is not being mentioned in the media or by policy makers is the massive amount of personal information that will be collected on every child, all in the name of “education.” Ultimately, the government will have archived massive amounts of personal information about every person from birth.