Your Child's Test Answers...Invasion of Your Privacy?

Do you know the extent and usage of information being gathered on your family and your child when your child answers certain tests? It's not just information learned from a textbook, it's also about your student's and your family life. From the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP):

Specifically, under the No Child Left Behind Act, NAEP is required to collect information on and report achievement results disaggregated by the following variables, when possible: gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), disability status, and English language learner (ELL) status.

Sound benevolent? Maybe, maybe not. Read on:

One new approach NCES is currently investigating is the creation of a new and improved measure of socioeconomic status (SES). NCES commissioned a literature review of how SES has been defined and operationalized in other education studies and other fields such as health and marketing. This led to the idea of adopting a two-pronged approach to measuring SES. This approach involves (1) creating an enhanced student background questionnaire with items that probe resources in the home, parents’ education level, and parents’ employment status, among other variables; and (2) using geocoding software to link students’ home addresses to aggregate SES data available from the United States Bureau of the Census. Development of the new SES measure commenced in 2005, with the goal of piloting it in 2009 and possibly implementing it in 2011.

We know the Longitudinal Data System is to be linked to the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services. The NAEP is already connected to the Census Bureau, so we'll see if the Census Bureau will be a repository for LDS data as well. Does that make you uneasy your child's address is geocoded to gather more information? Is anyone concerned about privacy issues?

We'll be highlighting what is in the data sets in different longitudinal data systems and tests the next few days. We know the government is asking personal questions in the NAEP. Here are two questions an 8th grader was asked on the test this week in Missouri:

VB330870
11. How far in school did your mother go?
She did not finish high school.
She graduated from high school.
She had some education after high
school.
She graduated from college.
I don’t know.
VB330871
12. How far in school did your father go?
He did not finish high school.
He graduated from high school.
He had some education after high
school.
He graduated from college.
I don’t know.

MO State Board of Ed Reduces, Recycles & Reuses?

Peter Herschend has been named President of the Missouri State Board of Education, again. He has been on the State Board since 1991 and been President two previous times in 1994-96 and 2005-2007. Mr. Herschend is the founder of Herschend Family Entertainment which owns Silver Dollar City. They also own Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede, Talking Rocks Cavern, and Showboat Branson Belle in Missouri. Their entertainment empire extends to Stone Mountain Park (GA), Adventure Aquarium (NJ), Dollywood (TN), Newport Aquarium (KY), and Classic Cable Car Sightseeing (CA), as well as Ride The Ducks operations in MO, KY, PA, GA, CA.

Mr. Herschend is well recognized as a leader and has served on numerous boards: Missouri Attractions Association, the Ozark Marketing Council, and the Missouri Tourism Commission, Board of Directors of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, the Advisory Board for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Board of Directors for Camp Barnabas, among others. He has been a loyal republican supporter of candidates such as Kit Bond, Roy Blunt and Jim Talent.

His talent for business cannot be denied and his twenty year tenure on the board, appointed by both republican and democratic governors, testifies to the fact that he is well thought of and connected. But the fact that the board has caved to the wishes of the governor many times in the past makes us wonder if his reappointment is really news at all.

Musings on Mr. Rogers, Achieving the Purpose of Your Being, and Human Capital

We are following up on our post from Sunday night, examining what's happened to the definition of education from 1939 to today. Seventy years ago it focused on the individual and "achieving the purpose of your being"; now it is focusing on preparing students to compete in a global society.

Continuing from Dr. John S. Brubacher's book "Modern Philosophies of Education", page 93:

This does not mean that individuality is to be unconfined in education. Basically, the pupil becomes in time what he eternally is. The child is not to be educated for self-expression, to express the self he now is. That self may be a weak, narrow, unlovely self. Rather is he to be educated to become the self which he was meant to be. To realize such a selfhoood will require much denial and restraint of the present self. Yet the discipline so imposed is not an end or measure of education, but only a means or a result. Only if the child's nature were in the order which obtained before the fall from grace and the exit from Eden would self-expression be a satisfactory aim of education. If the child is an immortal spirit, it is his eternally progressive soul-life that is to be cultivated. The soul instinctively strives for perfection and rejoices in its attainment. Moreover, it is as a soul and not as a citizen or worker that he is to be permanently known. He is to be educated for himself, just because he is educable. In Kantian fashion he is to be treated always as an end in himself and never as a means merely. His powers are to be developed because that is their destiny. Of course, there will be political, economic, religious, and social consequences of his education, but these will be effects and not objectives.

I think about tributes to Fred Rogers when he died in 2003. NPR replayed a conversation previously recorded with him in which a woman called and talked about the difference he had made in her autistic son's life. She indicated Mr. Rogers was the first conduit to the "real" world in her son's life. Mr. Rogers had the wonderful capacity to turn compliments from himself onto the other person, and he complimented the caller for the wonderful work she had done as a parent.

He then said something so profound that I remember it as if was yesterday, sitting in my car, listening to the radio. He said, "Children need to be allowed to be the people they are meant to be in the time they need to become that person". As Dr. Brubacher wrote in 1939: "Rather is he to be educated to become the self which he was meant to be".

I wasn't able to find the transcript of that interview, but I did find a link to a couple of others which expresses the 1939 idea of education and the emphasis on the person. Tom Juneau, a writer at Esquire Magazine told NPR after his death:

"He figured out quickly what people needed. He had a radar into people's hearts and souls and with his death, a light had gone out of the world. He was a power of goodness and personified grace....he tried to humanize each person."

In this additional interview Mr. Rogers said:

"So much what is spontaneous is what is truly inspired and all that I've done that is truly good has been inspired".

Reading about common core standards and reducing children to "human capital" and data sets is completely antithetical to what was written in 1939 and what Mr. Rogers lived. Can a computer that spits out the same assessments to multiple students nationwide capture the joy and caring of a teacher like Mr. Rogers....or a beloved teacher from your past? Nothing spontaneous can come from teachers in that framework. Inspiration and innovation can't exist in such a contained system and set of expectations and mandates. However, if the state and federal educational goal is to supply the workforce, rather than to "be the person you were meant to be in the time you were meant to be that person", I suppose the evolution of the spirit is a moot issue.

President's Day Questions...and a Bonus Quiz on Facebook

Here's a President's Day Quiz from the Washington Post. See how much knowledge you have about the presidents. Have fun! (For an alternative version of Presidents' words, check out our additional posting on Facebook at Missouri Education Watchdog. Our presidents are not always well spoken or politically correct!)

A Presidents' Day quiz

By Valerie Strauss

Here are a dozen questions to test your presidential knowledge on this Presidents' Day, with answers and explanations below.

1. How many presidents have served the United States?
a) 42
b) 44
c) 45
d) 49

2. Who was the oldest President?
a) George Herbert Walker Bush
b) John Adams
c) Harry Truman
d) Ronald Reagan

3) Who was the youngest President?
a) Theodore Roosevelt
b) George W. Bush
c) John F. Kennedy
d) Bill Clinton

4) What is the president’s annual salary?
a) $200,000
b) $250,000
c) $400,000
d) $500,000

5) What was the salary of the first president, George Washington?
a) $10,000
b) $18,000
c) $22,000
d) $25,000

6) What is the birth state of the most presidents?
a) Virginia
b) Massachusetts
c) New York
d) Illinois

7) How many presidents died in office (by assassination or natural causes)?
a) 4
b) 6
c) 8
d) 9

8) How many former presidents are still living?
a) 2
b) 3
c) 4
d) 5

9) Who was the first President to live in the current White House?
a) George Washington
b) John Adams
c) Thomas Jefferson
d) James Madison

10) Which president had a pet cow named Pauline Wayne who lived on the White House lawn?
a) Thomas Jefferson
b) Abraham Lincoln
c) William Taft
d) Theodore Roosevelt


11) Who was the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms?
a) John Quincy Adams
b) Theodore Roosevelt
c) Grover Cleveland
d) Abraham Lincoln


12) Who was the first president born in a hospital?
a) George Washington
b) Jimmy Carter
d) John Quincy Adams
c) Theodore Roosevelt

To see the answers go here.

How Did Education Change from "Achieving the Purpose of Your Being" to "Being Able to Successfully Compete in a Global Society"?

Our researchers here at Missouri Education Watchdog are rather disheartened at what we've discovered over the weekend about the connections and proponents of common core standards and the delivery systems for those standards. It's no wonder we and others in different states are running into brick walls when we talk to our conservative legislators about common core standards and their lack of interest in how they will affect public education. The reasons go back as much as 10 years and involve significant financial involvement by many players on both sides of the aisle.

Conservatives have been betrayed by those who espouse the Constitution as their guiding principles in politics and business, and progressives have been betrayed by those who espouse protection for the masses. The educational reform currently offered to the American people is nothing but a smoke screen for the dot com billionaires (who lean progressive) to make even more money and the conservative billionaires to move the money away from the unions and public education structure to line their pockets. As we have stated in previous posts, this is not about reform, it's about the restructuring of public education into "edubusinesses" complete with standards and assessments that can be neatly packaged into a national box of learning...and perhaps in the future can be aligned to a global standard.

It's not as difficult as you may think. Dangle money in front of cash strapped states and tell them they won't get Title 1 money unless they sign onto standards. Pretend it's voluntary and just close your eyes to the fact that the Federal Government is designing curriculum. Presto. The Federal Government has now taken over education. And what is the goal of the Federal Government's grab of education?

One stated goal would be to profile children and share information with not only the Department of Education, but also the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services. Why in the world would your human capital be important to the Department of Labor? Here's a report entitled "Linking Data Across Missouri's P-20 Data System" from Jason A. Grissom at the University of Missouri and this information is contained on slide 7:

These data also can be linked to external data sets on employment, labor needs across sectors, economic development, community assets, and so forth.

This plan has been in the works for a long time and we will spend the next several days writing about the history of common core standards and systems, and what is in the future for American public educated school children. The education sector is being overtaken by billionaires and those who know nothing about educating children. They know how to make money and are manipulating the system with children and taxpayer funds. The Constitution is being circumvented and the legislators are silent.

It's up to the people to start asking questions. What has happened to education's purpose in 70 years? It has been stated one of the reasons of education today is to supply the work force. Let's examine the purpose of education as written in the book "Modern Philosophies of Education" by John S. Burbacher, Associate Professor of History and Philosophy of Education, Yale University in 1939:

Now what is the attribute or function of the human learner which sets him off from all else? Is it not his rational nature, his capacity to reason? If this abbreviated analysis be accepted, then the cultivation of the intellect becomes the supreme good. The hierarchy of value is graded according to the opportunity afforded for the development of man's rational nature. Social studies and chemistry will be more valuable than stenography or shopwork, because they involve more opportunity for reasoning. Not only selecting the best curricula, but conditioning the child and positing the preferred social system in which education is to operate, will be evaluated according to whether they help or hinder the child in achieving the purpose of his being.

Some draw different educational conclusions from an argue which, in the main, resembles this perfectionist doctrine. Instead of selecting reason as the cardinal value of distinction, they make all values relative to individual self-realization, which is to be gained through the only eternal values, truth, goodness, and beauty. As he is, the child is immature, imperfect. His lifelong purpose will be a quest for maturity, perfectability. But each self is different from every other self. Therefore the curriculum that will help one realize the eternal verities may prevent another. No subject or type of study, then, can be picked and assigned absolute value, and all the rest arranged in some order of precedence with reference to it.

We will write more about the goals of education as put forth by Dr. Brubacher on Tuesday. You might want to reread those two paragraphs about the meaning of education again and contrast them with the stated goals of common core standards that most states are finding themselves under:

The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.

Is education facilitating the "achieving the purpose of his being" (1939) the same as being able to "compete successfully in the global economy" (2011)?

From the Taxpayers to the Legislators: Common Concerns Regarding Common Core Standards.

We have been encouraging Missouri citizens and other taxpayers to contact your state legislators regarding common core standards, wanting to know their stance on states relinquishing educational sovereignty and signing onto to unfunded debt.

I have been corresponding with a friend from another state who has contacted her state legislator and here is a chronicle of events:

******************************

Friend Writing Day 1:

Today I got my 1st email response from a state legislator re: the Common Core. He said he wasn't aware of any strings and if there were any, they were federal strings. Talk about demoralizing.

My response:

And did you ask him, why in the world would he accept ANY money and/or strings from the federal government as educating children is a sovereign right afforded to the state?

Friend’s response, Day 2:

That will be my next missive. Here's what my last note said as an example of an unproductive way to contact a state legislator:

Dear Representative ******,

I am again writing to you regarding the sale of local control of education to the federal government. Today I received an email from the *** Parent Council which included the following:

"For fiscal year 2011, the year we are in, the Governor proposes holding K-12 education harmless from new cuts by using one-time available federal funds of $150 million. In other words, the Governor is proposing that there be no mid-year cuts for our public schools; that is good news! We will be encouraging the Legislature to follow the Governor's lead."

Some of us don't agree that relinquishing local control of curriculum is a nifty way to raise cash. What are the strings attached to these dollars? Most of the public is in the dark. PLEASE represent our students, teachers and parents by raising the issue that most are not brave enough to acknowledge: Our state’s adoption of the Common Core Standards removes parents from the process of curriculum choices in our state. Some things should not be for sale. At least the public needs to know what Arne Duncan is getting for the money. Does a possibility exist for public comment on this issue at the State Capitol?

Sincerely,

*******

Follow up note from the friend:

I've asked the governor's office where the federal $150 million came from. Surely that info will be in my inbox momentarily. Some unfortunate bonuses of the common core were the gratis spine-ectomies performed on state leaders.

The more I discover about CCSSI, the more I realize I have much to learn. Just wish I could communicate to my fellow citizens:

· what it involves,

· how control of our own students' education and privacy matters more than dollars,

· the federal dollars are woefully inadequate to pay for implementation and

· the whole program will be counterproductive as parents, the very individuals with immediate, sincere and irrefutable interests in student outcomes, are removed from the equation. In my opinion, the state does not want the public to know, as evidenced in part by the summertime adoption of CCSSI when it first reared its ugly head in the state. As a conservative I am dismayed by the lack of leadership and seeming hypocrisy of state officials.

****************************************

This was not written by a Missourian, but the issues are the same, even as it relates to the State Board adopting common core standards in the summertime when there was no legislative oversight, and our overwhelmingly conservative state legislature which refuses to address the issue.

Apparently common core standards create common questions about state sovereignty, privacy issues, unfunded mandates and the lack of state officials apparently not being concerned about those issues. My friend and I suggest to these otherwise conservative legislators to read the Constitution for their "spine-ectomie" condition and grow a spine when it comes to protecting and asserting states' rights.

We’ll keep you apprised if the taxpayer receives an answer to her questions. Will she receive similar information (which we refuted) DESE sent out (not to the taxpayers but to the legislators) in response to these same type of questions?

A Little Bit of Wisdom For The Weekend

Wisconsin's streets are filling with union protesters. Ohio is joining in, and is likely to be followed soon by New York and California. The middle east seems to be on the precipice of a meltdown. The seemingly slow devaluation of the US dollar is causing dramatic rises in prices elsewhere in the world adding fuel to the fire. It's easy enough to find bad news out there, so instead I thought I'd give you a break and share a little humor with you all from an e-mail about paraprosdokians making the rounds. Since this blog is about education and education is the passing on of life's wisdom from one generation to the next, here are some pieces of wisdom to brighten your weekend.

• Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
• We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
• War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
• Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
• Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening', and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.
• To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; To steal from many is research.
• A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.
• Dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish.
• What most of us want is not a career, but rather pay checks.
• Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says "In an emergency, notify:" I put "DOCTOR"..
• I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
• Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
• A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
• The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!
• Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won't expect it back.
  
• A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip.
  
• Money can't buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.
• I discovered I scream the same way whether I'm about to be devoured by a great white shark or if a piece of seaweed touches my foot.
• You're never too old to learn something stupid.
• To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.

Civics Lesson for the Day in Wisconsin: Teachers Call in Sick (but feel well enough to protest) and Democratic Legislators Run Away.

If you need a reason to want to reform education and to reduce the power of the unions over public education, just read the following articles here and here. They report on the 25,000 public education teachers who have not reported to work and brought students to protest the Wisconsin governor's budget proposals. Schools have had to close because of this "sickout".

Is this action "for the kids" or is it for the preservation of a system that is no longer financially sustainable? From "Have Teacher Unions Nuked the Fridge":

Furthermore, taking the kids out of classes to march with them underscores another significant concern of the public regarding education. Most of the students marching with their teachers had no idea of the finer points of Governor Scott Walker’s proposal to bring teacher pension contributions in line with the private sector, a position the union called “slavery” just a couple of months before conceding the point. Nor do they understand the budget gap that Walker faces, or the nuances of economic policy, tax burdens, and growth policies. All they know is what their teachers told them — and that speaks to political indoctrination conducted in public schools by activist teachers, and the inability of parents and communities to weed out inappropriate politicking in classrooms.

Thirty years ago, the public saw teachers as underpaid and overworked professionals trying to prepare the next generation for leadership. These days, the teachers unions are doing their best to present an image of arrogant entitlement combined with an inability to withstand scrutiny and accountability. When that $40 million failed to rescue Democrats from their midterm debacle, it may well have been a nuke-the-fridge moment that brought a dawning realization of the political albatross that teachers unions have become.

When Governor Walker attempts to do the job he was hired to do (reduce the budget so his state can pay its bills) and presents it to the Wisconsin legislature, what do the Democratic legislators do? They act as petulant as the union members and....disappear so a vote can't be taken (from "Dems on the Run: Wisconsin Senators to Leave Illinois for an Undisclosed Location"):

In a telephone interview, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D-Monona) said he was upholding the rights of workers and the democratic process. He declined to give his location but acknowledged that at least one other Democrat was with him. He said that law enforcement would be able to compel him and his members to the Senate floor if they are located in Wisconsin.

“I can tell you this – we’re not all in one place,” Miller said. “This is a watershed moment unlike any that we have experienced in our political lifetimes. The people have shown that the government has gone too far . . .  We are prepared to do what is necessary to make sure that this bill gets the consideration it needs.”

The fleeing Democrats have been located in Illinois. Is this the type of behavior the state of Wisconsin deserves from its Democratic politicians in making important budget decisions? Senator Miller states "he was upholding the rights of workers" by fleeing the state capitol so discussion and a vote could not take place.

What happened to the rights of the taxpayers who are paying these public sector workers? These public sector employees are shirking their professional duties as teachers. When you hear unions saying "it's all for the children", think back on this display of pushback from the teachers union. How is this reforming education and providing a good educational foundation for public school children?

These teachers need to go back to school and study accounting: when a state is operating in a deficit, it needs to cut costs and job benefits need to be adjusted and some jobs may be eliminated. Welcome to the real world. When a private company doesn't make a profit, changes must be made or the company may cease its business operations. This is the hard lesson public sector employees are learning that private sector employees have known and keep in mind as they make business plans and budgets.

The Democratic legislators need to understand they must make decisions to benefit the state as a whole, not to protect public sector employees at the expense of the private sector. Running away so the debate and vote can't occur? Oh, please. Elected officials are supposed to be statesmen/women, not mouthpieces for special interests.

Voucher Program Giving Control Back to Parents

Today the Washington Examiner reported on HJR 10, a bill co-sponsored by Rep. Barnes, Dieckhaus and Jones that would repeal Section 8 of Article IX of the Missouri Constitution which currently prohibits the state or any local government from making “an appropriation or payment from any public fund … to help to support or sustain any private or public school… college, university, or other institution of learning controlled by any religious creed, church or sectarian denomination whatever.”

The bill seeks to return the control of education to parents by tethering education funding to the student rather than the school. This is a voucher program with a special emphasis on including religious run private schools in the pool of schools eligible to receive state tuition. The actual language that would be added to Section 8 is as follows:

“The parents or guardians of children in this state shall have the freedom to choose any school for their minor children to attend and, should they choose a school outside that assigned to them by geographical location, then shall be provided with a stipend to pay for education at any accredited school of elementary or secondary education in an amount equal to the amount that would otherwise be paid by local and state government for the child to attend the public school in his or her school district.”

The bill is likely to shake the unions for the usual reasons. They will claim that the entire public education system will suffer if tax dollars go to private schools. Those who have watched Waiting for Superman or The Cartel know this is a weak argument with plenty of evidence against it, but it will be dragged out for another parade around Jefferson City. Students currently attending private schools already save the state millions of dollars per year. Since the average private school tuition is less than the per child state tuition, this bill might actually save the state some money. The specifics have not yet been written, but it is understood that the state funding would only be available to low income students in unaccredited districts.

It would also add fuel to the discussions on the state funding formula currently taking place. Those districts who opted to accept “hold-harmless” funding from the state are currently sitting pretty while districts operating under the Foundation Formula are facing a crisis due to the downturn in the economy and the drop in real estate valuations (more on this later this week.) The state’s goal of fair funding to each of its approximately 525 school districts faces another layer of complexity if funding is tied to the student. The exodus from poor performing districts to better performing ones is inevitable under this plan. What is not yet clear is how those districts will be able to effectively budget to handle the influx of new students. In many cases, it is not even clear how those districts might physically be capable of handling the additional student enrollment.

Voucher bills have been introduced for many years now, but perhaps with the Republican majority in both the House and Senate, this one might actually stand a chance of passing. If this bill gains any traction, watch for its opponents to push for requirements for private schools to adopt the Missouri Curriculum to ensure that your tax payer dollars are being spent wisely. And if Missouri is on track to adopt the consortia developed standards (CCS) the better private education parents are seeking with this bill might disappear.

There is one more facet whose unintended consequences should be pondered. Currently, any school receiving federal educational grant money is required to participate in the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) Program. This database contains what some consider intrusive personal data on each student and is expensive to implement. Private schools, therefore, may not wish to participate and may refuse to accept state tuition, thus diminishing the benefit of HJR 10.

If passed, this measure will be on the November 2012 ballot.

Why Aren't Public School Parents and Taxpayers Descending on State Capitols Protesting the More Restrictive and Expensive Education Regulations?

From the online version of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, hundreds of homeschoolers and their parents descended on Springfield Tuesday to protest the state's pending legislation in homeschooling:

The bill would make home-school kids register with the state Board of Education. Currently there are no regulations.

The sponsor, Sen. Ed Maloney, D-Chicago, originally presented the bill as merely a way for the state to know how many kids there are who are homeschooled, as they are currently completely off the radar.


This explanation didn't sit well with many homeschooling parents:

In the crowd was Larry Wright of Harvard, Ill., who said his reasons for homeschooling his kids were both religious and philosophocal. "I want to raise them the way I think they should go," he said. "I'm responsible for my kids, not the state."

He said he understands the bill would require just registration, not restrictions, but that it's still "intrusive and unnecessary.''

"They're trying to fix something that's not broken," he said.

There are reports that Maloney has pulled the legislation (SB 136), though it's still currently in the system. In any case, the expectation around here is that lawmakers will quickly drop this thing once they get a look at all these angry moms, and get back to not balancing the budget.

Apparently that is what happened as subject matter testimony was heard meaning no vote would be taken.

Let's look at what's occurring in the public educational realm and the reaction of parents to the new controls the federal government is instituting on the schools. More money is needed for more regulations resulting in less state and local control. At this point, the state and local levels of education control (DESE and local districts) are largely impotent as standards and assessments are driven by consortiums funded by the federal government.

There has even been speculation and some evidence the federal government is designing curriculum models and framework for the consortium which possibly could be used for state and local curricula. Federally written curricula is currently illegal, but hey, why not? The federal government dangled money in front of the states' noses to get them to sign onto common core standards and give up their sovereign right to educate their children, so what's the problem with the federal government dabbling in curriculum development?

Local districts at this time can set enrollment requirements for their residents, but may not be able to much longer once open enrollment becomes the law. Ineffective teachers and administrators may be assigned to your school to ensure the fair and equal redistribution of teachers, so even staffing issues will be taken out of your local school board's jurisdiction.

When the longitudinal data system becomes operable, questions and information needed by the consortium will be asked of your child that won't seem to have anything do with educational issues. Instead, they may have more to do with profiling your child to steer him/her toward suitable employment based on his/her emotional make up and intellectual accomplishments. Your child's data will be shared with the Departments of Health and Human Services, and Labor and Education. Your child will be tracked from birth to age 20 and into the workforce.

Why are there no parents and taxpayers descending on every state capitol demanding an end to the wasteful and unfunded spending, bureaucracy, invasion of privacy and a direct slap in the face of state sovereignty in the adoption of common core standards? Why are public school parents and taxpayers allowing their children, grandchildren and the youngest members of society to become the current cash cows for the alleged privatization czars of education?

If educational reform consisted of true privatization of education as we wrote about yesterday, this would be a glorious moment for parents and taxpayers. Authentic competition would exist. But when you just place children in a different school with the same standards and assessments as traditional public school and stick a label on it promoting "school choice", it is a direct insult to taxpayers and students. This is no choice. This is a shell game.

Real choice requires different options. These current "choice" options don't change the educational foundation of what children are learning, they just change the teachers, administrators and physical surroundings.

The homeschooling parents may be the most radical group in America right now. They are saying "NO" to the government and its notion of educational delivery. Good for them. They understand what's at stake here: FREEDOM TO EDUCATE THEIR CHILDREN IN THE MANNER THEY AS PARENTS DEEM VALID.

What is it going to take for the parents and taxpayers to stand up to Bill Gates and Arne Duncan and all the other players who are shoving illegitimate choices down the our throats and say "NO" as well? Do we need to suffer through another four decades of increasing(180%) federal spending on education with no improvement in test scores to finally understand the federal government doesn't/can't deliver its educational promises? Why are taxpayers and parents so willing to give up the educational freedom for children and hand it over to unknown players in a consortium that view children as "human capital"?