Obama’s ‘Race to the Top’ will Destroy California Public Education We can’t let them federalize our schools!

The federalizing of our public educational system in California will mean that we will lose local control of our schools.

Recently, I had the privilege of hearing Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (MN) talk about this very issue. I did some research and discovered a hornet’s nest. We are headed towards some very serious consequences if Race to the Top (RTTT) is adopted in California. RTTT consists of egregiously abusive tenets that, if implemented, would strip away parental control of children with regard to state sovereignty, parental rights, and determining a child’s mental stability. Take a look:

1. Education Reform that Requires National Standards – RTTT mandates the adoption of national standards. This will create the groundwork for the United Nations Economic Social Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to step in with their international benchmark.

The UN’s definition of human rights would take precedence over the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

2. Promoting Preschool – RTTT promotes the funding of Head Start programs for the improvement of school readiness including social, emotional (mental health), and cognitive.

3. Longitudinal Data System – Every child will be tracked from preschool to college in every aspect of programs taken. It is Big Brother oversight.

4. Cradle to College Control -This ties together all of what has been mentioned, giving the federal government total control of every aspect of a child’s life to adulthood.

Here is a brief outline of the history of how we arrived at this point.

When President Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education on October 17, 1979 through Public Law 96-88, this created a “Big Brother” agency overseeing public education.

After Ronald Reagan became President, he presented a prominent 1983 report on American education from the National Commission on Excellence in Education entitled “A Nation at Risk”. (1) This redirected federal funds that once went directly to local districts to state government instead, thus creating a layer of middle management that weakened the power of local school district control. (2)

From there, the federalizing of our schools started off very innocently when President George H.W. Bush in 1990 presented the "America 2000 Excellence in Education Act." Although never passed, it influenced goals and policies of future “education reform proposals” including centralizing the control of education funding and to some degree, curriculum by means of national testing. (3)

President Bill Clinton followed that up by signing into law H.R. 1804 on July 14, 1993. (4) This bill set the precedent of reliance on federal funding to support public schools, and it also created increased federal regulation of public schools, which naturally stifled the innovation that had already been taking place. According to the Heritage Foundation: “Though Goals 2000 calls the national opportunity to learn standards ‘voluntary’, in practice the federal regulation of ‘inputs’ will be mandatory since acceptance of the rules will determine a state's eligibility for federal funding. Federal funds will be withheld from states failing to adopt the federal government's ‘voluntary’ standards. Specifically, Goals 2000 would condition $393 million in federal grants in fiscal 1994 on the development of state opportunity-to-learn standards, which the NESIC could then approve or reject.” (5)

In 1997, President Clinton put forth his “Call to Action for American Education in the 21st Century.” This was a ten-point call to action for American education enlisting parents, teachers, students, business leaders, and local and state officials. (6)

In response, Congressman Pete Hoekstra (MI) published a report called “Education at a Crossroads” through his education subcommittee that detailed the level of federal involvement in public education along with the waste, fraud, and abuse generated in federal programs. The report argued that state and local governments could use the resources more efficiently and effectively and that Washington should stop making education policy. (7)

In 2001, President George W. Bush created his own initiative, No Child Left Behind, which created additional testing beyond the state level and gave the federal government more control over public education. For example, additional days have to be used just to teach the federal curriculum to take the tests. (8)

Now to the present. President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, who has never taught a day in a public school, created the gimmick of using buzz words like merit pay, more parental involvement, etc. to entice those who would normally reject any kind of government mandate. (9)

We are now living at a time in California where there is optimism that parents can have more control over where their children go to school and how the money will be used to educate their children, such as through charter schools. That may all come to a close if “Race to the Top” is successful in pushing out local control, which I believe will further damage public education.

My name is Lydia Gutierrez and I am a candidate running for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction 2010. I ask for you to read the articles listed below and start asking your school board members and legislators where do they stand on “Race to the Top.” We will be electing a new governor and it is vital that you know where this person stands on this one very important issue.

*Obama to Seek Sweeping Change in ‘No Child’ Law February 1, 2010 (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/education/01child.html)

*‘Race to the Top’ school-reform program stirs fears: Some say local control could be diminished (http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2010/01/31/20100131racetothetop0131.html)

*Race To The Top: Federal Control of Education on Steroids by Karen R. Effrem, MD February 5, 2010 (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lydia-Gutierrez-for-CA-State-Superintendent-of-Public-Instruction/226850210497?v=app_2347471856)

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1. (http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/index.html)
2. (http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/finn200406090839.asp)
3. (http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/Prog95/pt3fed.html)
4. (http://www2.ed.gov/legislation/GOALS2000/TheAct/index.html)
5. (http://www.heritage.org/research/education/ib182.cfm)
6. (http://www2.ed.gov/updates/PresEDPlan/index.html)
7. (http://republicans.edlabor.house.gov/archive/publications/xroads/crreport.pdf)
8. (http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html)
9. (http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html)

Written by Lydia Gutierrez, M.A.

Educator and Candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 2010

Join Lydia’s team and together we can put CHILDREN FIRST!

http://www.Lydiaforkids2010.com/

Messages: 310-630-3736

If Abortion is Murder then why don't we act like it?

Lately, I have been perplexed with a Particular question. If abortion is murder why don't we act like it? This question is not really to people that are pro abortion, but more to people that are claiming to believe that abortion is murder.

I have met many of these good people who say they are pro life and, even say that abortion is murder and genocide and yet do nothing.

I often ask myself what would have happened had the Quakers, Fredrick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln William Wilberforce all had the same reaction to slavery. Think what would have happened had Deitrich Boenhoffer and Sophie Scholl had the same reaction during the Jewish Holocaust. What would have happened had Vernon Johns, Megar Evers, Rosa Parks and Dr Martin Luther King Jr all had the same reaction to to police brutality, white bathrooms, whites-only in the front of the bus and lynchings based on the color of somebody skin?

I would not want to know the results had they not acted! There is old quote that says "All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." Most of us love to say "rah rah" to that quote and claim that is where we stand. But our words are not backed by our actions.

So because of this, abortion has become a political election time football instead of the human rights issue that it is.

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends," MLK, Jr.
Posted by Rolland Beireis from Sacramento Rock For Life Facebook Group