U.S. Department of Education’s Major Accomplishment: Staggering Illiteracy

Zero Hedge recently published an article titled Department of Education – Our Work Here is Done.  A few items from that article include:

The Department of Education was created in 1979 and now has an annual budget of $73 billion, with 5,000 government bureaucrats roaming its hallways.  See U.S. Department of Education Budget Fact Sheet. 

After 37 years and trillions of dollars "invested" in our children, here is a short list of some "achievements":   1) There are six million students in the California school system, and 25% of those students are unable to perform basic reading skills.  2) 50% of adults cannot read a book written at an eighth grade level.  3) 45 million adults are functionally illiterate and read below a 5th grade level.  4) 3 out of 4 people on welfare can’t read.  5) 20% of Americans read below the level needed to earn a living wage.  6) School dropouts cost our nation $240 billion in social service expenditures and lost tax revenues.  7) 3 out of 5 people in American prisons can’t read.  8) Approximately 50% of Americans read so poorly that they are unable to perform simple tasks such as reading prescription drug labels.

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Michele Reagan’s Kindergarten Sex Education Bill

by Overwatch1776

Patriots,

Lately, many of you have been forwarding video of Obama advocating sex education for Kindergartners. The video was even posted on Drudge earlier this week. (Go to Obama Agreed with mandating Sex Ed classes for Kindergartners.)  

Without a doubt, I am sure all of you found this disturbing, yet unsurprising, considering what we know about Obama.

However, what I found even more disturbing is that in 2009 there was a bill introduced in the Arizona State Legislature that would have started sex education in Arizona schools in Kindergarten- exactly what Obama was advocating. Worse still, there was one Republican sponsor of this bill – Michele Reagan (See HB2544). 

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Kindergarten Teacher Speaks Against Common Core: Braves Intimidation by School District and Governing Board

At a state Senate education hearing, a kindergarten teacher from Sikeston, Missouri, described that she has been intimidated by both her school district and the local school board for speaking out against the Common Core Learning Standards.

As reported by Missouri Torch, Susan Kimball testified Wednesday in support of Missouri SB 514 and SB 798. SB 514 “prohibits the State Board of Education, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and school districts from implementing the Common Core State Standards.” SB 798 “modifies provisions relating to elementary and secondary education standards and assessments.”

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Common Core’s Final Legacy: Educational Malpractice and Child Abuse

Would you try to teach a newborn to walk?  Of course not.  You wouldn’t do it, because it isn’t developmentally appropriate.  It would be considered child abuse to force newborns to “persevere” day in and day out to do something their brains and bodies aren’t biologically ready to do.  It would also be child abuse to test, test, test them on their “progress.”  Then, if they fail  arbitrary “benchmarks,” identify them for “progress monitoring.” 

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Common Core Insider Reveals Info About LA Bid Rigging Scandal

The fourth video  of the Project Veritas series on Common Core shows Gilbert Garcia, a former executive who worked for Houghton Mifflin for 31 years, caught on camera claiming that the textbook industry is not based on merit and that politics often impact contractual procedures. “I’m going to share this, but it never came from me, the reality was that the evaluations that were done on all the supposed competitors, Pearson was not the real winner, yet Pearson got the contract,” said Garcia.  Click HERE to see first video; HERE to see the second; HERE to see the third.

The contract Garcia is referring to is a 1.3 billion dollar deal to put Apple iPads loaded with curriculum into the Los Angeles public school system, a deal that was made in 2013. All of the top textbook publishers wanted to bid for that contract, but according to Garcia, the bidding was rigged, and Pearson, the country’s largest textbook publisher, received the contract.

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Common Core Exec Reveals Anti-American, Anti-Christian Agenda

The third video of the Project Veritas series on Common Core shows Kimberly Koerber, a former executive for Pearson who now works for National Geographic, caught on camera justifying the Common Core curriculum on the grounds of anti-American and unconstitutional values.  She admits that elements of Common Core intentionally push elitist indoctrination upon students.  (Click HERE to view the first video.  Click HERE to view the second video.)

In this most recent video, National Geographic sales executive Koerber admits some of the political ideology behind Common Core with statements like these:

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A Failing Grade for Common Core: Professor Kenneth Calvert

According to Professor Kenneth Calvert, Common Core, well-intentioned from the beginning, will utterly fail its students. Rather than raising the educational standard in the United States, it codifies and federally enforces mediocrity.

What I especially like about Prof. Calvert’s comments are his statements about teachers.  Unfortunately, 99% of teachers won’t speak out publicly against Common Core for fear of losing their jobs.  Thus, they need people like Prof. Calvert and others to speak for them.  This is what he said: 

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Political Correctness Fits the Leftist Narrative in Arizona’s Schools

When many Arizona-educated children finally learn that they have been lied to by those in charge of their Schools, who will they blame?  It is imperative that parents find out what is being taught to their children.  Parents should be exremely careful about turning their children over to the schools at earlier and earlier ages. Unless your child is being taught by a teacher who knows how to, on his or her own, ignore and replace the "suggested" texts that are embedded in Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards (aka Common Core State Standards), your child is learning the Leftist narrative described by Bill Whittle in the following video. Many of America’s schools have become institutions of educational malpractice.
Shouldn’t Arizona’s children be getting an education that builds strong character, which comes from studying the ideals and values of the great men and women of history, including those who founded the American nation?  Shouldn’t they be learning about the lives, beliefs and accomplishments of the heroes of America – Our founding fathers and mothers – and to better understand the values and principles which governed their lives and upon which they built the American nation, thus preserving our free nation in return?
"I am working really hard to be an optimist in this situation, but I am having a hard time seeing how these suggested texts benefit, protect, and preserve our country. Are these texts going to be the required texts? Do I have to use these exact excerpts? Every document that I viewed pulls down America’s foundation."  Cara Palmer, American History Teacher in How the Two Align:  Common Core State Standards and Heritage Academy’s American History Curriculum.  

 
"What are the messages that emerge from the two different objectives of the Common Core State Standards and Heritage Academy? Do these objectives align themselves? The answer, after looking at all the details, is no. They do not align. Is it not ironic that a school that teaches principles of liberty, meant to sustain and preserve our nation, is now being forced to accept and implement standards with an opposing objective and purpose? Does this seem right? Why is focusing on the founding fathers and principles of America not the focus of the Common Core Standards"?   Cara Palmer, American History Teacher in How the Two Align:  Common Core State Standards and Heritage Academy’s American History Curriculum

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