On Monday Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed into law House
Bill 1490, which repealed and replaced key sections of Missouri law relating to
elementary and secondary education standards, including the Common Core. On a
day when Nixon nearly set a record for vetoing bills, one of the few that he
signed was a tremendous victory for parental rights: HB 1490 calls for the
adoption of new state academic standards, rejecting the Common Core that Nixon
brought to Missouri in the first place.
[http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/political-fix/gov-jay-nixon-vetoes-record-number-of-bills/article_b4ef2fc1-d45c-5114-8700-17d556fd652b.html]
According to the Common Core website,
[http://www.corestandards.org/standards-in-your-state/] the Missouri Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education ("the Department") adopted the standards on June
15, 2010, to be fully implemented throughout the state in the coming 2014-15
school year. As governor, Nixon exercised authority over the Department at the
time. But the public outcry against the standards has been great, and the
legislature has responded.
The Common Core State Standards Initiative, or Common Core,
is a national set of academic standards established by private corporations and
state executive trade unions and backed by federal dollars, in violation of the
Constitution's separation of powers. Significantly, very few professional educators
were part of developing the standards, and the ones who were involved refused
to sign off on the final product.
HB 1490, which ParentalRights.org supported, does more than
simply reverse the decision to adopt this program, however. It also outlines a whole
new procedure for adopting academic standards in the future, including many new
safeguards to prevent another federal takeover.
The Common Core was adopted by the Department during the
summer break between school years, without any legislative oversight, review,
or public input. Education, which is traditionally and constitutionally a role
of the states and not the federal government, was handed over to the latter
without any say from the people.
That will not happen again under HB 1490, which requires
that any academic standards revision must go through work groups assigned by
the legislature. These work groups, to be comprised of education professionals
and parents of children in the grade levels to which the standards will apply,
will be selected by a wide range of persons. The governor, lieutenant governor,
commissioner for higher education, president pro tempore of the senate, speaker
of the Missouri House, statewide association of Missouri school boards, and the
state board of education are among those tapped by the bill to each name
members to the groups. (Read the whole list in section A(3) here: http://legiscan.com/MO/text/HB1490/2014)
In addition, the law states that whenever standards are
developed or modified a minimum of three public hearings will be held, giving
parents and other concerned citizens a voice before any changes are made. And
it prohibits the Department "from mandating the curriculum, textbooks, or
other instructional materials to be used in public schools." Such
decisions are left to the local school boards, though they will of course be
chosen to meet the academic standards set by the state.
Common Core, with its requirement that material taught in
addition to the guidelines must not exceed 15% of all material studied, greatly
restricted any discretion on the part of state or local officials in correcting
or supplementing the standards, regardless of what would prove best for
students. The new law includes a provision that "local school districts
and charter schools may adopt their own education standards, in addition to
those already adopted by the state," as long as they don't create a direct
conflict with the state standards. There is no limit by percentage, which
allows for more local control.
Each of these safeguards will prevent the kind of
heavy-handed power grabbing that led to the Common Core being adopted by 43
states and the District of Columbia in the first place. (For more on how Common
Core sprang up so quickly, click here: http://www.parentalrights.org/index.asp?SEC=%7bDD1E4039-3547-4CCE-B0FD-4B46B866FF76%7d) Instead, HB 1490 protects the role of parents, through
local educators and state lawmakers, in directing the education of their
children.
We are grateful for the support of those of you in Missouri
who called, emailed, or otherwise spoke out to champion this bill. And we are
proud of Missouri for returning education to the purview of parents and state
lawmakers, and not to deep-pocketed special interest groups and the federal
educrats.
*** Action Items ***
The CRPD is still an impending threat in the U.S. Senate.
For more on the dangers, click here: http://www.parentalrights.org/index.asp?SEC=%7b20D0981D-7D74-43AD-B748-776EA0867E21%7d. If you have not
already taken action, or if you haven't lately, please call your senators and
urge them to oppose ratification of this dangerous treaty that will sacrifice
American sovereignty and your parental rights for a (alleged) public relations
boost. You can find your senators' office numbers by clicking on your state at
parentalrights.org/states.
In addition, the Parental Rights Amendment is still
collecting cosponsors in the House (Rep. Mark Meadows' HJRes. 50) and in the
Senate (Sen. Lindsey Graham's SJRes. 37). Contact your lawmakers (access their
contact info at parentalrights.org/states) and urge them to sign on as a
cosponsor. Or you can set up an appointment to see them while they are home on
recess in August. Click here for more on setting up an appointment: http://www.parentalrights.org/index.asp?SEC=%7b0C4D445F-8A81-4715-A1F6-BEF83E6B4274%7d.
Thank you for standing with us to defend parental rights.
This victory in Missouri proves that success can be reached if we stand
together and make the will of the people known!
Sincerely, Michael Ramey, Director of Communications &
Research, Parentalrights.org
Comments
Georgia purposely avoided dumping Common Core and Obamacare
when they had a chance during the 2014 session, but it will come up again in
2015. If anti-common-core Richard Woods
is elected State School Superintendent, it will send a message to the Gold Dome
to expect a return to this issue with more than just the Tea Parties insisting
that Georgia dump Common Core. If the
Chamber of Communists abandon their support of Common Core, we will have a
chance to kill this beast. After all, the Gold Dome is almost exclusively
populated by Chamber of Communist Republicans.
The problem is that we have nothing to trade with the
Chamber; we oppose most issues the Chamber supports. They are too embedded in our Obama-driven
Fascist economy and our elected officials are addicted to Obama
squander-grants. With the global warming
hoax fully exposed and the ghastly cost of federal compliance discovered, one
would think that the Chamber would begin to relax its grip.
It may well be that we will have to reform campaign finance
to restrict campaign contributions to only allow registered voters to make
these contributions, and only for those who will be on their ballot.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
No comments:
Post a Comment